Our strategy delivery framework – SmElevate®

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Our proprietary strategy delivery framework SmElevate® enables value measurement of an organisation as a flow:
Assess maturity → Benchmark → Prioritize → Transform → Measure.
 

SmElevate® model deployment can be finetuned at multiple layers, depending on client needs.
 

a) Executive Diagnostic — rapid assessment of current strategy execution maturity
b) Full Assessment — detailed maturity assessment – deep dive to get more refined insights
c) Transformation Roadmap — prioritized/ enhanced improvement portfolio to achieve strategic objectives, alongwith KPIs for progress tracking
d) Assurance Review — periodic independent assessment of maturity
 

We combine proven global frameworks with practical experience to create solutions tailored to each client's industry, scale, maturity and transformation readiness. This solution roadmap will also depend on our identification of capabilities constraining strategy execution and the gap to attain the target maturity level.
 

SmElevate® Strategy Execution Maturity Model- Narrative

Many organizations have strong strategies but inconsistent execution. The challenge is often not the strategy itself. It is the organizational system required to translate strategic intent into coordinated action.

SmElevate® has been developed by Acumen Plus to assess this capability systematically.

SmElevate® considers nine interconnected dimensions(perspectives)  of strategy execution:

1.Strategy Formulation — Is strategy clear, evidence based, measurable and executable?
How well the Organisational strategy (including vision, mission and strategic objectives) is formulated? Does it address changing external environment? How well it gets communicated to Senior, Middle and Line Management?

2. Leadership Commitment — Do leaders provide visible sponsorship, accountability and direction?
How well top and senior leaders are committed to achieving the organizational goals? Do these goals are at the top of strategy review meetings? Are the senior Management aware that achievement of strategic goals depends on interaction of multifarious factors – spanning people, process, technology and culture factors and accountable for its delivery? Are the value systems consistently communicated and followed? How the deviations from the value systems are actioned upon? Is the Leadership open to adopt change from current AI and technology advancements? 

3. Organizational Culture — Does the culture support collaboration, accountability, innovation and change?
Which is a key organizational metaphor driving the culture of the organization? Are middle and line management able to provide feedbacks if strategy is not working? How well these feedbacks are taken and actioned upon? Are the staff are empowered to take decisions within their delegated limits? Does the organization foster knowledge Management, Innovation and action on feedback? What is the level of trust and transparency? How are the feedback loops strengthened and actioned upon? How effective is the workforce planning and competency enhancement undertaken to achieve strategic goals? 

4. Project & Portfolio Management — Are investments and initiatives selected, governed and delivered effectively?
How strong is the project portfolio management (PPM) support for Strategy execution? Is the Project Portfolio strongly aligned with the priorities of Business portfolio – in its definition and execution? How strong are the processes, tool support and information support exists for PPM? How well the PPM capacity and capability are nurtured? How strong is the linkage of strategy formulation and its implementation to benefits realized and budgets spent for change? And how well the Project Portfolio gets adapted with change in strategy?
(For this critical perspective, we could link up with Assessment of PPM maturity through P3M3® framework, if required).

5. Financial, Supply Chain Management, HR & Information Management support — Are resources aligned effectively with strategic priorities? How robust is the IT support for business?
How well the Financial and supply chain systems support the strategic objectives? Are these systems set to highlight what is working and what is not working, with specific data/ KPIs?
How well the capability and capacity of Human resources is developed and utilised to achieve strategic goals? How deeply skill enhancement/ Knowledge Management/ talent nurturing embedded in HR processes?
 

6. Governance, Risk & Compliance — Are decisions, risks and accountabilities managed appropriately?
How strong are the organizational Governance systems? Do they detect abnormal performance deviations, frauds and similar issues early? How strong is the organizational risk management systems? Are the organizational systems compliant with applicable regulatory and industry frameworks and good practices?
 

7. Products & Services design and delivery— Is the organization continuously creating and improving value?
How innovative is the organization in offering new products/ services to the market? Are these being adapted to emerging market, technology trends (Including adoption of AI)? Is the organization nimble enough to restructure itself to offer the newer products/ services?
 

8. Marketing and Sales — How strong are the marketing and sales support?
Does the marketing and sales strategy support the overall organizational strategy? Does the organization have a clear segmentation of customers and have ascertained their needs? Are solutions get co-designed to address specific requirements of key customers? 

9. Service Delivery Excellence — Can the organization consistently translate strategy into high-quality service delivery?
How feedbacks from customers are addressed? Are Product/ Service Delivery processes optimized to ensure value? Is there a corporate culture to minimize waste and enhance efficiency?

Five Levels of Service delivery Maturity

SmElevate® evaluates organizational capability across five progressive maturity levels.

Level 1 — Initial
Execution is largely reactive and dependent on individuals/ groups.

Level 2 — Developing
Basic processes exist but are applied inconsistently.

Level 3 — Defined
Organization-wide processes, governance and responsibilities are established.

Level 4 — Managed
Performance is measured systematically and decisions are increasingly data driven.

Level 5 — Optimizing
Strategy execution is adaptive, integrated and continuously improved.
Proprietary guidance enables us to assess the current maturity level an organisation is in – and where they should move to for higher levels of excellence.

The SmElevate® Assessment process
 

The SmElevate model consists of Six Broad steps, broadly sequential in nature, but with appropriate feedback loops, as under: 

1. Discern: Herein, we understand the Organizational strategy, its vision and mission and overall strategic goals. We also assess the Value systems of the organization, current performance levels, value gaps, issues and constraints faced and the expectations from Senior Management. AI facilitated assistance is leveraged where applicable. 

2. Decompose: In this step, we work with Senior Management in decomposing the overall Value gap, into mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive value streams, with discrete targets. These value streams can form the basis of strategic themes, if the organization is using Balanced Scorecard or similar approach. Involvement from Business Leaders is ensured so that their Buy-in for the set targets gets ensured. Stakeholder engagement and Facilitation are key techniques used during this step. (Again, if an organization has already determined its value streams, we work on from there to derive the project portfolio as in next step).

3. Design: In this step, we determine the strategic initiatives (projects and programs) to be taken up for each of the Value streams, across perspectives. These perspectives can cover work to be done across processes, business organization structure, technology interventions, Information needs, Knowledge Management and Culture change requirements. Existing initiatives are taken into account - to interface with the proposed change initiatives, as needed. The overall Project Portfolio (with Sub-portfolios if applicable) - gets created/updated during this critical step. It needs to be noted that the defining the portfolio will take into account the existing Project Portfolio Management maturity, extent of support provided by the Enterprise Project Management Office (EPMO), business imperatives and funding/ resource constraints - and its definition can involve multiple iterations.

4. Deploy: In this step, the actual change initiatives (projects and programs) get launched. Proprietary project management models, alongwith industry standard methodologies (like Agile) can be used to manage these initiatives, Extensive Business Involvement is a major differentiator, to enhance the business ownership of the developed solutions

5. Monitor: This step goes concurrently with Deploy step, as the projects and programs are monitored, issues and risks are managed, resources are assigned and deliverables accepted by the Business, transitioning into Operations. Governance, Quality, Testing and Organizational change Management are important aspects during this step. Outcomes and Benefits are realized and managed, transforming the concerned business unit operations.

6. Adapt: Based on Lessons learnt, mid-course corrections are considered due to change in strategic priorities, resource availability and other constraints. The overall value realized by the organization due the execution of the strategic portfolio initiatives is kept under review. Project Portfolio Management maturity gets enhanced. Knowledge databases are maintained for the organization to leverage on its past learnings.

Beyond the Maturity Score

The purpose of SmElevate® is not to achieve the highest maturity score everywhere. Different organizations may settle for different levels of maturity, based on criticality and so forth.

The objective is to determine the right level of capability required to execute the organization's strategy successfully and concentrate investment where it creates the greatest impact.