Transformation: Ambition and objectives

Ben: Starting your net zero journey involves first measuring your impact. Understanding what options are available to you for reducing your footprint, and then setting some targets both long term and short term. You need to break your ambition down into objectives for each part of the organisation. Something that means something to them. You need to understand what's in your control, what you need to develop, and what things you're relying on being in the world in future. You really need to bring everyone with you and help them understand the part they play in your journey. Delivering those big ticket items is important, but it's actually the small things that everyone can see that really make them believe.

Ryan: A good strategy can push ambition on the edges of achievability. But that often means that people need to be brought along the journey to believe that it can be done. Benchmarking is an important part of building confidence in the strategy. It gives the sense of whether something like this has been achieved before, and therefore whether it feels realistic. for decision makers. We often find that scenario modelling or red teaming as a great way to stress test the strategy. It allows people to express their reservations and the risks they perceive, then collaboratively, share them with the group and work through them in a constructive way. We regularly find that this leads to much better additions to the strategy that hadn't been included before whilst also building buy in.

Sandy: Your strategic goals should be inspiring, purposeful, but achievable. These goals should act as the North Star for your organisation to guide decision-making. It's important to keep it simple. Be authentic to the purpose of your business so that everyone can relate to it and understand the role in which they play. Your goal should speak to the position that your business is in today and set up the context for the overarching strategy. Then you'll be in a position to identify the tangible and measurable changes that need to happen, whether in capability, skills or technology, in order to equip your organisation with the ingredients it needs to achieve success. 

Ian: Good strategy starts with a set of crisp problems that need to be solved. It defines what we need to do to solve those problems and it sets out how we should solve them, what we will need to be successful and when things need to happen. To some people, strategy can end there, just a description of things set out in a neat document. But good strategy has to go a lot further than that. It has to be persuasive, to shareholders, to directors, to staff. It must be social. And in being social, it should be exciting. Reflect the organisation's ambitions and help to motivate everyone to embark on a journey. It has to reflect reality on the ground too and allow for nuance and quirks particular to the business. It has to be deliverable and recognise the level of effort that's needed to achieve it. It has to be adaptable to issues that will inevitably arise as time progresses, and it has to be measurable so that progress can be tracked and celebrated. Above all, it has to be owned by the business, not just by the CEO or the leadership team, but by everyone. Good strategy done properly feels like everyone pulling together in the same direction to solve problems of today, to help build the organisation of tomorrow.