Why do strategic planning? Here are some use cases from our business strategy and strategic planning facilitation clients. Some of the key questions that we were able to answer for teams and the results that they received,

1. CASE STUDIES 2016
BUSINESS STRATEGY SOLUTIONS

2. ABOUT SME STRATEGY
Anthony C Taylor is the principal and lead strategic
planning facilitator at SME Strategy. He holds a degree
in business administration (BBA) as well as his
Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM)
from the Project Management Institute.
SME Strategy was founded in 2011 by Anthony C
Taylor, a Vancouver based entrepreneur, after a
business partner had embezzled money from a
previous venture. SME Strategy was originally founded
to help business owners of small and medium
enterprises (SME's) with things they didn't plan for, or
expect.
SME Strategy still fulfills its original purpose, but now
in 2016, it works with organizations to guide them
through their strategic planning process to help them
make better decisions, get better alignment, and
successfully execute on their strategic plans.

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CONTENTS
1 TO GROW OR NOT TO GROW? 1
2 WE ARE NOT MEETING MILESTONES
– LET’S REGROUP 3
3 WHAT IS THE FUTURE AND HOW DO
WE GET THERE? 5
4 A FORK IN THE ROAD 7
5 HOW DO WE SHARE BEST PRACTICES
AND IMPROVE WHAT WE DO WELL? 9
6 TAKING A WIDE LENS TO SMALL ISSUES 11

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1 To Grow or Not to Grow?

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THE SITUATION
An organization with 200 employees recently
separated from a strategic partner and was just
settling into their new organizational structure. The
company was profitable, and took on "the right
amount" of growth by bidding on projects each year.
Their industry showed many possible opportunities
over the next few years that they wanted to consider.
As an owner-run business, with a five-person
management team, they had questions about their
future:
SHOULD WE GROW? WHY OR WHY
NOT?
WHAT PROJECTS WILL BRING THE
MOST BENEFIT TO THE COMPANY IN
THE FUTURE?
WHICH AREAS SHOULD WE FOCUS
ON?
WHAT DO WE NEED TO CHANGE
FROM AN ORGANIZATIONAL
PERSPECTIVE IF WE WANT TO
GROW AND TAKE ON MORE
PROJECTS?
THE SESSION
Through two days of facilitated discussions, the
team was able to identify areas in the organization
that were acting as bottlenecks and slowing
efficiency. For example, one of the key people was
«silently» suffering because part of her job was
under-resourced. The lack of resources, although
minor, was having an effect on the whole supply
chain. Once identified, this challenge (among others)
could be addressed so that the team could determine
action plans to work towards their desired future.
THE RESULTS
At the end of the two and a half day session, the
team had decided that it was in their best interest to
grow; not because it would mean more money, but
because it would challenge the management team
and keep them engaged in their work. They were
also able to forecast their future projects both
existing and prospective so they could allocate
resources appropriately.
At the end of the session, the team had action steps
and priorities to increase their focus on. They
identified challenges, made plans to address them,
and most importantly created team alignment, which
would propel them in the direction, they wanted to
take over the next three years.

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2 We are Not Meeting Milestones –
Let’s Regroup

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THE SITUATION
An investor in a multi-million dollar international
resource extraction project had encountered a
financial pitfall. The organization’s investments,
while proven to be profitable, had become
encumbered by challenges from the previous
management team and staff to the point where the
company (that is not currently in a favourable
pricing market) was financially in trouble.
Another round of investment would potentially be a
viable option. However, they wanted to be sure that
the new management team, leading a bare-bones
staff, could make the necessary changes to ensure
that when the pricing environment rebounded, the
project would be prepared to produce results.
Why are we not meeting milestones?
What do we need to do to keep this
project going?
What changes do we have to make
internally to remove the toxic culture of
the past?
THE SESSION
SME Strategy met with the eight-person board of
directors and the new CEO to determine what the
future held for the company; what was needed of
the CEO and the team to keep the project alive; and
how to begin change management efforts. The
outcome of this effort would support management
and staff in their ability to meet milestones, which
ultimately would regain investor confidence in the
organization in a challenging financial market.
We worked with the directors to establish:
§ A unified vision of where the company
wanted to be in the next 12-24 months based
on different scenarios of the markets.
§ The roadblocks and risks inside the
organization that had to be overcome before
being able to achieve that future.
§ The reason milestones weren’t being met,
steps to address the values and culture, and
how to report progress more accurately.
§ The most valuable action steps for the CEO
to undertake so that the project continues to
make progress (despite being in a less than
ideal funding situation).
THE RESULTS
Taking the time to regain focus on strategic results
and a more supportive culture demonstrated that the
business was on track, which increased investor
satisfaction. They have also attracted additional
investment to continue with their value-added
projects.
The business continues to make progress on their
culture changes to remove negative behaviours that
were part of the old culture.

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3 What is the Future and How Do We
Get There?

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THE SITUATION
A non-profit organization was formed to support
other non-profits to accomplish their missions. Six
years later the organization was successful on all
accounts, but needed to figure out next steps to keep
their organization moving forward.
An advisory board meeting was set to determine a
vision for the future and what needed to be done to
get there.
As a non-profit organization with limited funding
they needed to decide:
Is our original mission/purpose still the
same?
Should we grow and what does that
growth look like? What model to adopt?
What does success look like in the future
and how do we measure it?
Who are the core customers and
stakeholders and what do we do for
them?
THE SESSION
A half-day facilitated session with the board to
discuss possible business models and alternative
versions of the future, how they would create the
most impact, and which steps were required to grow,
scale and improve their financial sustainability.
Part of the process was to take their five-year vision
and brake it down into action steps for year one and
year two. Included in the first year was a five-month
plan to implement and achieve key milestones.
THE RESULTS
The board was able to agree upon the direction
forward with clear action steps. Six months into
their execution phase they had hit many of their key
milestones for the year, and were well positioned to
implement their plans for the following year.
SME Strategy will continue to work with them to
monitor their progress against the plan and provide
guidance towards next steps as they move into their
next stage in their planning and implementation
process.
Anthony facilitated
a strategy session with the
Project Management Volunteers
PAG (Program Advisory Group)
and did a great job. He was
conscientious in his research in advance
of the session, kept the discussion moving,
ensured all parties contributed, and
provided timely notes following the session.
We hope to engage him again next year.
S. Hawkins
Executive Director- PM-Volunteers

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4 A Fork in the Road

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THE SITUATION
A small graphic design company was facing
challenges in reaching alignment with their
leadership team.
They recruited SME Strategy to facilitate a
conversation that would help gain consensus about
the direction of the company and to remedy the
three divergent directions of leadership. This
divergence was significantly impacting morale and
the ability to finish projects in a timely and profitable
manner:
How do we grow the company in line
with our vision? What needs to change to
make this happen?
What are our priorities for the coming
year?
Are we ALL in agreement with our way
forward?
THE SESSION
During a half-day session, we worked with the team
to clearly communicate the expectations and desired
direction of the company from each of the
individual director’s perspective. The discussion
centered on pre-answered questions regarding
priorities, performance, and desired vision. Each
partner was able to share their thoughts in a safe
environment that supported effective
communication about the direction of the business,
rather than a personal attack on any of the parties.
THE RESULTS
While two of the directors were able to reach an
agreement in regards to direction, one was unwilling
to cede her way of doing things and ended up
leaving the company to pursue her own vision. This
allowed the two remaining partners to work on their
aligned vision.

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5 How Do We Share Best Practices and
Improve What We Do Well?

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Extremely professional, always
personable, I thoroughly enjoyed the
opportunity to work with the dynamic
team at SME Strategy Consulting. It
takes great talent to command the
attention of a room full of CEOs. With
flawless facilitation execution SME
Strategy Consulting led a group of 150
senior leaders through a World Café
exercise. Not only do I highly
recommend Anthony Taylor and
Andrew Reid, I am excited to find
opportunities to work with them again
J.Wilkinson
THE SITUATION
A professional association recruited SME Strategy to
help them create dialog between 120 CEOs on the
subject of safety in the workplace.
As part of one their major summits, we facilitated
two activities to take advantage of the collective
experience in the room in a way that was engaging
and educational; helping them take actionable steps
that they could implement immediately.
Our senior consultants worked with this
organization to create key questions that would
allow these individual CEOs to reflect and analyze
their respective businesses and share their best
practices as well as organizational challenges.
How do we take advantage of the
combined knowledge of our members?
What are the best practices occurring in
our members’ organizations?
THE SESSION
Our team facilitated a World Café exercise so that
these leaders could learn from their peers in small
groups as well as the ones that were in groups
around the room.
(The World Café is where a question is placed on
poster board and several of these questions are
placed around the room. Groups move from one
question to another simultaneously providing their
own responses while seeing those from the previous
groups. This methodology lets all attendees
participate – even the soft-spoken ones.)
After the World Café exercise, we asked each CEO
to pick one issue that their organization currently
faces, to imagine what their organization would look
like if that issue were solved, and to provide the
action steps to implement that change.
The organizing committee then designed an
accountability group so that these organizations
could support each other throughout this change.
THE RESULTS
In just over three hours our team was able to solicit
a 20-page report of best practices and shared
organizational challenges. This report was shared
with participating companies so that they could take
the best practices and the roadblocks (along with
their solutions) back to their respective teams and
safety managers.
Although the participants were from different
companies and organizations, they all appreciated
the approach to learn best practices from one
another and valued the open channels of
communication.

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6 Taking a Wide Lens to Small Issues

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THE SITUATION
The management team of a 15-person professional
services company hired SME Strategy to facilitate
their yearly meeting. Normally, their meeting spans
one day and focuses on individual issues with the
two owners and the office manager. This year, they
decided to approach the summit with more of a
strategic lens on their business to address issues that
would affect the company’s longer-term success:
How can we do things differently to
improve results?
Are we aware of key issues in the
company that are impacting our bottom
line?
THE SESSION
SME Strategy created the agenda for the two days
and adapted it to include items from the company’s
usual summit. We first surveyed their team to get
insights about where they thought the future
company was going. Initially, the management team
was unsure about using a survey because they had
“just” surveyed their employees during their annual
reviews and thought they had most of the data they
needed. However, our comprehensive survey ended
up identifying some of the main issues that were
affecting the company, giving them more insight
into the minds of their employees.
Over the course of the two days, the team shared
their visions for the company, discussed internal
issues (now and in the future) and created
operational goals that would help them achieve
greater success in the future. This time was also used
to identify current challenges and to work through
the steps they would need to take to address and
change them.
THE RESULTS
At the end of the session the team was surprised
with how effective they had been compared to other
summits, and how much important work they had
been able to accomplish. They had manageable
action steps and attainable strategic priorities,
despite having already “full workloads”.
A few short weeks after the session the organization
was able to see noticeable differences in workload,
efficiency and morale of the organization after
implementing the strategic priorities derived from
the: Aligned Strategy Development session.
SME Strategy looks forward to supporting them in
their growth and continued success.

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