Top 10 Business Strategy Best

Practices for 2024

Welcome to this comprehensive resource for future-focused leaders, entrepreneurs, and strategy managers,
who are looking to update, review, or refresh their strategy. ClearPoint's strategy experts will delve into the
Top 10 Business Strategy Best Practices for 2024.

Why Should You Consider a Strategy Refresh?

In today's fast-paced and dynamic business landscape, for every $1 billion invested in projects by companies
in the United States, $122 million is wasted due to lack of efficient strategic performance. A strategy refresh
can serve as a catalyst for transformation, help organizations stay ahead of the curve, and turn strategy
tangible results.

What's Included?

Not only will this eBook uncover the top 10 strategy trends for you to consider in your strategy refresh, but it
will also include interactive learning resources, checklists, framework examples, and more! Read through
each of the strategy best practice recommendations or use the Table of Contents to navigate to the sections
that interest you!

Let's Get Started…

Table of contents
1. Corporate Social Responsibility
2. Data-Driven Strategy
3. Agility & Flexibility
4. Digital Transformation
5. Employee Development
6. Customer-Centricity
7. Culture of Innovation
8. Partnership and Collaboration
9. Risk Management
10. Sustainable Growth
Conclusion
1) Corporate Social Responsibility
2024 is a great time to integrate Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practices into your
strategy, in order to meet the demands of increasing sustainability trends in business. Including
these initiatives in an organization's strategic approach helps to enhance their reputation,
rendering them more attractive to customers, potential employees, and investors. Here are a
few CSR categories:

1 Ethical Practices

Understand the significance of aligning your strategy with ethical and

sustainable business practices.

2 Environmental Impact

Explore strategies to minimize your organization's carbon footprint and

contribute to a greener future.

3 Social Impact

Learn how to integrate social responsibility into your corporate strategy and
make a positive difference.
 CSR Example Scorecards

Example 1: Environmental Responsibility Scorecard

Objective Measure Initiative

Increase investment in Rate of investment in green Build a business case to

environmentally friendly technologies. demonstrate the ROI of green
technologies by 25% over the investments.
next two years.

Reduce carbon emissions per Carbon footprint per product Review product design to
product unit by 30% over the unit. identify opportunities for
next year to enhance customer reducing energy use in
experience and appeal to manufacturing
environmentally conscious
customers.

Implement a comprehensive Waste production rate. Launch a "Waste Reduction

waste management system to Program" aimed at
reduce waste production by strengthening the recycling
15% over the next year. process.

Train all employees on Number of employees trained. Host monthly workshops on

sustainable practices and environmental consciousness.
environmental awareness by
the end of the year.

Example 2: Social Responsibility Scorecard

Objective Measure Initiative

Support local community The proportion of profits Establish a "Community Care

development projects. donated. Fund" for supporting local
community projects.

Increase product safety Product recall incidents. Strengthen the quality check
standards to exceed industry process before products hit
norms. the market.

Promote diversity and Diversity and Inclusion Index Implement diversity hiring
inclusion in the workplace. reflecting the representation practices and inclusion training
of diverse groups. for all employees.

Implement regular awareness Employee participation rate in Conduct quarterly training on

and training sessions, focusing CSR training. CSR.
on employee welfare, human
rights, and community
involvement.

Keep in mind, these examples are meant to serve as a helpful starting point for how to integrate CSR into your
strategy. Use these examples as a guide to build out your measure and initiatives that would support your
organization's goals.
2) Data-Driven Strategy
Did you know… companies that base their decisions on data and analytics are 23x more likely to acquire
customers, 6x more likely to retain customers, and 19x more likely to be profitable. (McKinsey Global
Institute)

A data-driven strategy ensures decisions are based on concrete evidence rather than guesswork. By gaining
valuable insights on customer behavior, market trends, operational efficiency, or any other critical factors,
you can then identify potential opportunities, minimize risk, and shape business growth.

Data Analysis Visualizing Data Machine Learning

Harness the power of data Learn techniques for effectively Explore the potential of machine
analytics helps to drive insights visualizing complex data helps to learning can enhance your data-
and inform strategic decision- communicate results and gain driven strategy and provide
making. actionable insights. predictive analytics.
 Data-Driven Strategy Checklist

Objectives and Goals: Clearly define what you aim to achieve from your data. Do you want to increase
sales? Improve customer service? Decrease expenses?
Data Collection: Implement systems to collect data from different relevant sources, whether it is sales,
customer behavior, marketing campaign results, or other operations.
Data Accuracy: Ensure the data collected is accurate and reliable to aid with effective decision-making.
Data Analysis: Use tools and software to analyze and interpret your data, transforming it into meaningful
insights.
Leverage AI/Predictive Analytics: Use predictive analytics to identify future trends and make proactive
decisions.
Skills and Resources: Ensure your team is equipped with the necessary skills to handle and interpret data.
Data Visualization: Make use of visuals such as graphs and dashboards to simplify understanding of data
and its insights.
Data Protection: Put measures in place to secure and protect your data from breaches and cyber threats.
Development of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): Use data to develop measurable outcomes that link
to your business goals.
Real-Time Data Usage: Consider a strategy that uses real-time data to respond quickly to business trends
and make effective decisions.
Review and Adjust: Regularly review your strategy and make necessary adjustments.
3) Agility & Flexibility
In an ever-changing business environment, organizations will need to embrace the practice of adaptability
and continuous learning in their strategies.

For instance, the mainstream adoption of AI in 2023 was incredibly influential. For many, this technology
advancement has completely changed regular business processes and has caused customer experiences and
expectations to evolve. Are you prepared for a market change like this in 2024?

Key Components of Agility & Flexibility

1 Adaptability 2 Innovation in Strategy

Embrace adaptability as a core competency Explore methodologies to foster a culture of

for responding and adapting to market shifts innovation that enables flexibility in your
and changing customer demands. organization.

3 Iterative Approach 4 Rapid Decision-Making

Learn the iterative process of strategy Discover strategies for making quick,
development to ensure continuous informed decisions to seize opportunities
improvement and adaptability. and mitigate risks.

If you have a 3-5 year strategy, you should be refreshing it every year, and maybe even every 3-6 months.
Making adjustments should be encouraged as strategy is an iterative process, where you evaluate
performance, explore your findings, and continuously improve.
 Steps to Becoming More Agile

Step 1 Step 2 Step 3

Create an agile Develop agile Adapt the organizational

mindset. leadership. structure.

Foster a culture of agility and Train and empower leaders to Evaluate the current structure
adaptability throughout the embrace adaptable principles. and identify areas that hinder
organization. Encourage Encourage them to facilitate agility such as silos,
employees to embrace change, and support agile initiatives, bureaucracy, or excessive
take risks, and learn from promote transparency, and hierarchy. Consider
failures. break down barriers that implementing a flatter, cross-
hinder progress. functional structure that
enables faster decision-making
and collaboration.

Step 4 Step 5 Step 6

Implement agile Encourage cross- Embrace iterative and

methodologies. functional teams. incremental delivery.

Select and implement Form self-organizing, cross- Break down projects or

appropriate agile functional teams that bring initiatives into smaller,
methodologies such as Scrum, together individuals with manageable chunks. Focus on
Kanban, or Lean. diverse skill sets. By breaking delivering value incrementally
down departmental barriers and iteratively, enabling faster
and promoting collaboration, feedback loops and the ability
teams can deliver results faster to adapt based on real-world
and adapt to changing insights.
requirements more effectively.

Step 7 Step 8 Step 9

Implement agile tools Encourage transparency Foster continuous

and practices. and communication. learning &
improvement.
Invest in tools and Foster open and transparent
technologies that support communication channels Establish a culture of
agility, such as project within the organization. continuous learning and
management software, Encourage frequent and clear improvement. Encourage
collaboration platforms, and communication among team teams to reflect on their work,
agile project tracking tools. members, stakeholders, and identify areas for
Automate processes where leadership to ensure improvement, and experiment
possible to streamline alignment, share progress, and with new ideas.
workflows and reduce waste. address any challenges or
issues.
4) Digital Transformation
While your grandparents may still be struggling with mobile boarding passes, or ordering from a QR code, the
rest of your customers are expecting to work with you in a quick and easy way.

Embracing digital tools and technology should be a key part of a company's strategy to increase efficiency
and improve customer experience. We have some high-level ways to think through this in the list below, and a
matrix on the following page to help visualize the impact it can have on your market position.

1 Automation

Understand the importance of

automating the repetitive, time-
Artificial Intelligence 2 consuming, and mundane tasks. Free up
By leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI), more of your time to be creative, drive
you can track and analyze vast volumes action, and execute on strategy.
of data, make predictions, and optimize
processes in real-time. This is an
incredibly valuable resource for refining, 3 Operational Efficiency
executing, and adapting your strategies
Learn how new technologies can
more effectively.
streamline processes and optimize
operational performance. By improving
accuracy, data analysis, and timeliness, a
digital transformation not only improves
efficiency, but also helps you become
more cost-effective.
 Digital Transformation Matrix Diagram

A digital transformation has the power to revolutionize businesses, redefine industries, and reposition
organizations as market leaders.

Y-axis (Customer Experience)

|
|
| Q3: Innovative Disruption | Q4: Digital Leaders
| |
| |
|--------------------------------------|------------------------------------->
| |
| Q1: Legacy Systems | Q2: Operational Excellence
| |
X-axis (Operational Efficiency)

1 Legacy Systems 2 Operational Excellence

This is the starting point for most In this quadrant, organizations have
organizations before they undergo digital improved their internal processes through
transformation. Here, processes are manual, automation, data analytics, and other digital
and customer interactions may not be tools. However, the customer experience
optimized for the digital age. might still be lacking.

3 Innovative Disruption 4 Digital Leaders

Here, organizations have prioritized Organizations in this quadrant have fully
customer experience innovations, possibly embraced digital transformation, both in
introducing groundbreaking customer-facing terms of internal processes and customer
solutions. However, their internal operations interactions. They have a strong strategic
may still have room for optimization. advantage, leading the market in innovation
and efficiency.
5) Employee Development and Retention
2023 represents a time for shifting attitudes towards the workplace and workforce. Without a doubt, the
COVID-19 pandemic has been the most significant shift in individual workplaces and the workforce at large in
a generation. Some organizations are still thriving in a remote environment, some are seeing it as a necessary
evil or striving to return to the in-office world.

These changes have put more power in the hands of employees, to some extent, but has also led to changes
in structure (via outsourcing, short-term contracts, etc.). This means finding the right people, retaining hard-
working and productive hires, and building the culture your organization needs are essential for successful
strategy execution.

Team Building Skills Development Recognition & Feedback

Discover strategies for fostering Invest in your employees' Promote a healthy work-life
teamwork and collaboration to professional growth to drive balance to attract and retain top
maximize employee potential. innovation and ensure long-term talent and enhance employee
success. well-being.
 Employee Development & Retention Example OKRs

Here are some OKRs for your HR department to leverage to make sure that your organization is supporting
employee development and promoting a positive culture at your organization. Choose a few of these that
apply best to your organization (depending on your strategy, you may choose 4-6 of these Key Results).

Objective: Enhance Employee Development Programs

Key Result 1 Key Result 2 Key Result 3 Key Result 4

Increase the Achieve a 90% Implement a Launch 2 new e-

number of internal employee mentorship learning modules
training sessions satisfaction rate program pairing on leadership and
offered by 15% by with development 70% of new hires communication
Q2. opportunities as with experienced skills by Q4.
measured by end- staff by Q3.
of-year surveys.

Objective: Improve Employee Retention Rates

Key Result 1 Key Result 2 Key Result 3 Key Result 4

Reduce overall Implement Achieve a 95% Increase the

employee turnover quarterly feedback completion rate for number of team-
by 10% by end of sessions for 100% annual building events
the year. of teams to address performance from 4 to 6
concerns and reviews and annually.
gather input. development plans.

Objective: Strengthen Employee Onboarding and Integration

Key Result 1 Key Result 2 Key Result 3 Key Result 4

Develop a Achieve a 30% Organize monthly Pair 80% of new

comprehensive reduction in time onboarding hires with a “buddy”
onboarding new hires need to sessions for new from their
program resulting in reach full hires, with a target department during
90% of new hires productivity. of 100% their first week.
stating they feel attendance for
well-integrated those onboarded
after their first that month.
month.
6) Customer-Centricity
Technology is a competitive weapon. However, with advances like AI, your competitors are able to move
quickly, respond to/replicate your new features, and what seems to be a never-ending foot race continues on.

For 2024, you need to really know your customers and engage with them at a deep level. Differentiate
yourself from your competition by understanding your customers needs and molding your strategies around
the customer experience, as customer loyalty and satisfaction are key to long-term success.

1 Customer Insights

Discover methods to gain deep customer insights and use them to inform and align your
strategy.

2 Customer Engagement

Explore strategies to build strong customer relationships and create exceptional

experiences at every touchpoint.

3 Feedback Loop

Implement mechanisms to capture and act upon customer feedback for continuous
improvement and loyalty.
 Customer-Centric Pyramid

Embracing customer centricity means placing the customer at the core of your business decisions, values, and
operations. This approach not only enhances the customer experience but also drives long-term profitability
and sustainability.

KPI
Monitoring
Measure & Continuous
& Improvement Improvement

Effective Communication Transparency, Segmentation,

& Personalization & Tailored Experiences

Customer Research & Analysis, Implemented

Understanding Feedback Systems

Operational Process Optimization,

Efficiency Technology Integration

Leadership commitment and employee training

Culture around customer focus.

Culture: The foundational layer emphasizes the core values and culture, as this is the bedrock of any
customer-centric approach.

Operational Efficiency: Recognize your customers needs and pain points, find ways to serve them more
efficiently.

Customer Understanding: Take steps to continuously understand your customers at a deeper level.
Conduct research, create surveys asking for their feedback.

Effective Communications & Personalization: Think about how Amazon includes a category of
"Recommended for You". Tailoring the experience on an individual level adds value and elevates the
customer experience.

Measure & Improvement: At the peak, the emphasis is on constant measurement and improvement,
which represents the ongoing nature of customer-centricity.
7) Culture of Innovation
As the digital transformation accelerates, new technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning, and
automation have reshaped industries. Adopting a culture of innovation helps organizations stay ahead of
these changes by continuously adapting and inventing new solutions.

Innovation fosters creativity, encourages dynamic thinking, and leads to the development of cutting-edge
products or services. Additionally, it helps to attract and retain top talent, since employees are more likely to
stay engaged and motivated in a workplace that values new ideas and supports innovative approaches.

Key Components for a Culture of Innovation

Encouraging Creativity Collaborative Disruptive Thinking

Networks
Create an environment that Embrace disruption as an
fosters creativity, encourages Stimulate collaboration and opportunity to challenge the
risk-taking, and rewards idea-sharing across teams status quo and drive
innovative thinking. and disciplines to drive breakthrough innovations.
innovation.
 Steps to Create a Culture of Innovation

Establishing a culture in the workplace is not a small task or a quick fix. It involves influencing the attitudes,
beliefs, and behaviors of a diverse group of individuals, and requires intentional effort and continuous
reinforcement to become embedded in an organization's fabric over time.

Nonetheless, it is important to take steps to promote innovation in the workplace as it encourages

employees to think creatively, take risks, and seek out new opportunities. We've provided some steps to help
you get started!

1 2 3 4

Leadership Open Diverse Teams Allocate Time and

Commitment Communication Resources
Diverse teams bring
Leader are open to Foster a culture a variety of Google's famous
new ideas, taking where ideas can be perspectives, "20% time" for
calculated risks, and freely shared experiences, and employees to spend
encouraging a without fear of problem-solving time on side
growth mindset. judgment. approaches. projects.

1 2 3 4

Freedom to Fail Stay Updated on *Innovation External

Trends Metrics* Collaboration
The fear of failure
can stifle Awareness of Establish clear Collaborate with
innovation. Create a current industry metrics to gauge the external partners,
culture that views trends and success of academia, etc. to get
failures as learning emerging innovative projects. fresh perspectives.
opportunities. technologies. (More on next page)
 Sample Innovation Metrics

What gets measured gets managed. In order to effectively create a culture of innovation, you need to
establish KPIs that will allow you to track, evaluate, and analyze performance.

Do you have a goal around innovation? Use these example metrics to integrate it into your overall strategy.

1 Number of new products or services (released or in development).

2 Innovation Culture: regularly surveying and measuring employee perceptions.

3 Innovation ROI: Calculates the return on investment from innovation activities.

4 Time to market: This measures the amount of time it takes for a new idea to go
from the initial concept stage to the marketplace.

5 Customer feedback on new products: This metric measures the degree of

customer satisfaction and acceptance of the new products.

6 Number of patents: For more tech-oriented businesses, the number of patents

filed and granted can be a strong innovation indicator.
8) Partnerships and Collaboration
With a world that is flattening, it is easier than ever to build partnerships to create capabilities that you don't
have or to help with managing your costs. Your 2024 strategy should have partnerships in it to allow you to be
more nimble, reach more customers, and benefit from shared resources.

Key Components of Partnerships & Collaboration

Alliances Cross-Industry Ecosystem Building

Collaboration
Explore the benefits of Learn how to build a thriving
strategic alliances and Discover the value of cross- ecosystem of partners and
collaborations to leverage industry collaborations in stakeholders for shared
synergies and drive mutual discovering new success.
growth. opportunities and expanding
market reach.
 Example Strategy Map for Business Partnerships

Increase revenue Improve cost Expand market share

Financial streams through efficiency by via co-branding
Perspective partnerships. leveraging partner initiatives.
resources.

Enhance product or Improve customer Build brand trust by

Customer service offerings satisfaction by associating with
Perspective through partner broadening service reputable partners.
capabilities. delivery channels.

Streamline integration Establish a partnership Develop a joint

Internal
processes for management system innovation framework
Process
partnership for effective for co-developed
Perspective
implementation. collaboration. products/services.

Enhance team skills for Build a culture that Invest in systems that
Learning cross-company supports partnership enable knowledge
& Growth collaboration and and collective learning. sharing with partners.
communication.
9) Risk Management
Managing risks is an on-going battle, and risks change over time. In 2020-2023 you may have been tracking
pandemic related risks to your employees health and supply chain disruption. Now we are looking at major
economic risks, political risks coming into an election year (in the USA), global instability through wars and
trade disputes, disruption from AI, and so on. You can't expect risks to go away, but you need to consider the
risks of today and how they affect your strategy in 2024.

1 Risk Assessment

Develop a comprehensive risk

assessment framework to identify and
Risk Mitigation 2 mitigate potential threats.
Explore strategies for managing and
mitigating risks to protect your
organization's reputation and success. 3 Crisis Management

Learn how to effectively navigate crises

and emerge stronger through robust
crisis management strategies.
 Performing a Risk Assessment

The PESTLE analysis is a tool used to analyze the macro-environmental factors that may impact an
organization. It stands for Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal, and Environmental factors.

Political

Environment Economic

PESTLE
ANALYSIS
Legal Social

Technology

Using PESTLE Analysis for Risk Assessment:

1 Political Analysis 2 Economic Analysis 3 Social Analysis

Assess political stability Look at economic trends Assess demographic shifts

and regulation changes. and market dynamics. and cultural trends.

4 Technological Analysis 5 Legal Analysis 6 Environmental Analysis

Consider how emerging Ensure awareness and Look at how

technologies might compliance with current environmental concerns
disrupt your business laws and regulations. may impact your supply
model. Assess the risk of legal chain or product lifecycle.
challenges.
10) Sustainable Growth
Any strategy in 2024 should prioritize sustainable growth, taking into account not just the financial stability
and development, but also the environmental and societal impacts.

This process requires maintaining a long-term view, investing in your team, your brand, and your customers.
Consider making concessions for long-term contracts, invest in technology and revamp processes, while you
may not have insight into this quarter or this year's targets due to uncertainty, you should be planning for 5-10
years out.

What will your organization look like then? How will you move towards that future?

1 Long-Term Perspective

Adopt a long-term view to ensure sustainable growth while balancing short-term demands.

2 Measuring Success

Identify KPIs to track progress towards sustainable growth objectives.

3 Triple Bottom Line

Prioritize the interconnectedness of economic, environmental, and social factors for

sustainable business practices.
 Example Sustainability KPIs

KPIs for developing a strategy for sustainable growth typically focus on measuring progress across various
dimensions of sustainability—economic, social, and environmental.

Economic Sustainability KPIs

Revenue Growth Rate Profit Margin

Tracks the percentage increase in revenue over Measures the efficiency of the company in
a specific period. generating profit.

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) Market Share

Estimates the total revenue a business can Evaluates the company's proportion of total
expect from a single customer account. sales in its industry.

Social Sustainability KPIs

Employee Turnover Rate Employee Satisfaction and Engagement

Monitors the rate at which employees leave the Assesses the level of employee contentment
organization. and involvement.

Community Engagement and Social Impact Training and Development

Evaluates the company's contributions to Tracks the investment in employee growth and
community development and social welfare. skill enhancement.

Environmental Sustainability KPIs

Carbon Footprint Energy Consumption

Measures the total greenhouse gas emissions Monitors the amount of energy used and
caused directly or indirectly by the company. efforts to reduce it.

Waste Reduction Rate Sustainable Sourcing

Tracks the efficiency of waste management and Assesses the percentage of materials sourced
reduction practices. through sustainable practices.

Cross-Dimensional Sustainability KPIs

Sustainability Reporting Sustainable Innovation Rate

The frequency and quality of reporting on Measures the number of new products or
sustainability practices. services that include sustainability
improvements.

Supply Chain Sustainability Stakeholder Engagement

Evaluates the environmental and social Assesses the extent to which stakeholders are
practices of suppliers. involved in sustainability initiatives.
Conducting a Strategy Evaluation
Congratulations, you've made it to the end of this learning resource! Let's check in, after reading through
these top 10 best practices, have you identified any sections where your organization excels? What about
areas of improvement?

Perhaps it's time to conduct a strategy evaluation to explore opportunities for updating, refreshing, or
adapting your strategy. Equip yourself with a partner who not only understands the intricacies of strategy but
knows how to mold it into success.

ClearPoint Strategy

ClearPoint Strategy is the world's leading strategy execution software. With decades of expert strategy
management experience, we have worked with hundreds of organizations to help them achieve their
organizational goals.

There's no one-size-fits-all when it comes to strategy, which is why we provide a tailored solution to meet
your unique needs. By joining forces as your strategy partner, we will start by performing a full analysis of your
current strategic approach.

Strategy Assessment

Eval. of Current Processes S T EP4

We perform an in-depth analysis
Strategy Review S T EP3 against these five key components:
1) Organize Strategy, 2) Align Organization,
Kick-Off & Goal Assessment S T EP2 Here we walk through your strategic
3) Manage Projects, 4) Communicate Results,
5) Simplify Execution.
information and processes.
Here we collect all your strategic
S T EP1 documentation, including your
This helps us toidentify any missing
key components.
Before we make any suggestions organizational structure, focus
toyour approach, we must gain areas by department, etc.
a clear understanding of your goals
and current methods.

Following this analysis, we will provide you with a report card and our recommendations to improve your
execution capabilities and help you to gain a competitive edge in our collaborative ClearPoint Success Portal.

This Strategy Evaluation serves as the perfect steppingstone for a successful set-up and implementation, so
that our platform will be built to support your specific needs in the now and will grow with you in the long
run. Learn more about our platform and strategy evaluation by visiting the link below and scheduling a demo.

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