This stage is the starting point of strategic transformation and is used when owners do not yet have a shared view of the company’s future, or when the existing vision needs to be reviewed.

Any change makes sense only when it is clear what result the company should reach. That is why we start by shaping a shared picture of the future: what the business should become in 3 to 5 years, what position it should take in the market, what will drive its development, and what principles will guide its further growth.

Without a shared vision, every important management decision is made situationally. Once the vision is formed, the company gains a common criterion for assessing any initiative or decision: does it move the company closer to its long-term goals or further away from them?

What this stage provides

• Creates a shared vision of the company’s future among owners and key leaders.
• Helps define long-term priorities and development directions.
• Creates the basis for strategic decisions and for evaluating any changes.
• Aligns different owner views of the business’s future.
• Gives the whole management team a clear reference point and reduces uncertainty in decision-making.

How the work runs

We help owners not only formulate the desired future of the company, but also agree on it with each other. The outcome is a shared understanding of where the company should go and what principles will guide its development.

In practice, once a clear vision appears, the next question almost always follows: can the current management system bring the company to these goals? This is where the next stage of strategic transformation begins.

After the owners have defined the desired direction of company development, it is important to understand what is currently preventing movement in that direction. This is the task organizational diagnostics solves.

Its goal is not simply to collect a list of problems, but to build an objective understanding of the company’s current state, identify system constraints, and define which changes are truly needed.

What this stage provides

• Creates an objective picture of the company’s current state.
• Helps see the connections between existing problems and understand their causes.
• Helps prioritize changes and focus effort on the most important tasks.
• Creates a shared understanding of the situation among owners and the management team.
• Improves trust and understanding between departments by helping people see not only their own function’s problems, but the company as a whole.
• Significantly increases leaders’ involvement in the change process. When people participate in analyzing the situation and understand the causes of existing problems, they are much more willing to become participants in change rather than observers.

How the work runs

Diagnostics is carried out through working sessions with owners, top managers, and key employees. Together, we analyze the company’s current state, identify existing problems, define how they are connected, and build a shared understanding of which changes are truly necessary.

The result is one picture of the company’s current state, a clear understanding of change priorities, and a management team ready for the next stage of transformation.

Once the development direction and key organizational constraints have been defined, the change program begins.

At this stage, together with the management team, we define which tasks should be addressed first, form working teams, choose the most effective tools, and support implementation. The program is not a static plan. As implementation progresses, it is regularly refined based on achieved results, new tasks, and changing priorities.

What this stage provides

• Helps focus effort on the changes that will have the greatest effect.
• Ensures all initiatives are aligned with the company’s overall development direction.
• Allows the change program to be adjusted in time as new results appear.
• Maintains a strong pace of change without overloading the organization.
• Creates a mechanism for continuous change management inside the company.

How the work runs

The main working tool is the Organizational Change Council, held regularly, usually once a month.

At Council meetings, we analyze the results of changes already underway, monitor previously made decisions, review proposals from working groups, approve prepared solutions, set new tasks, define priorities, participants, and the most effective ways to implement them.

Depending on the task, different work formats are used: synergistic teams, project and process groups, strategic and working sessions, leadership training, pilot projects, and other organizational development tools. We do not implement methodologies for the sake of methodology. For each task, we choose the tools that best remove the specific organizational constraint.

The result is not only the implementation of separate changes, but the creation of a permanent development management mechanism that can independently initiate, coordinate, and implement changes.

Strategy development is one of the key stages of strategic transformation. However, we move to it only when the company is ready not only to formulate ambitious goals, but also to implement them.

By this point, the business development direction has already been defined, key organizational constraints have been identified, changes have started to remove the most critical constraints, and a mechanism has been formed that can support future strategic initiatives.

In some companies, a strategy already exists. In that case, we do not start from scratch. We analyze its relevance, adapt it to new conditions, and update it if needed. In other cases, the strategy is missing or no longer fits the current stage of business development, so we develop it together with the owners and management team.

Strategy development is not one session. It is comprehensive work that includes analysis of the market, industry trends, competitive environment, the company’s internal capabilities, competencies, constraints, and organizational culture. This approach helps create a strategy that is not only ambitious, but realistic and tailored to the specific business.

In our work, we use proprietary strategy development methods described in the book “Strategy Labyrinths.” They help find solutions that open new growth opportunities while relying on the company’s strengths.

What this stage provides

• Creates a long-term development strategy for the company, taking market changes and internal business capabilities into account.
• Defines strategic priorities and focuses resources on areas that can create the strongest effect.
• Creates one logic for management decision-making at all company levels.
• Takes the real capabilities of the management system into account, which significantly increases the chance of successful strategy execution.
• Creates a basis for long-term business development, not only short-term results.

How the work runs

We move through all stages of strategy development: from analysis of the external and internal environment to choosing strategic alternatives, forming strategic initiatives, and aligning them with owners and the management team. Depending on the company’s starting point, individual stages may differ in depth and scope.

The result is a strategy that answers where and how the company will develop and has a much higher chance of successful implementation because it is based on a prepared management system and reflects the organization’s real capabilities.

The organizational structure must match not only the company’s current state, but also the tasks it will need to solve in the future. That is why the sequence of this stage is always defined by the results of organizational diagnostics.

In most cases, we begin structure development after the strategy has been formed. However, if the existing organizational structure is the main constraint on company development, this stage can be completed earlier. The right sequence of changes is defined individually for each company.

What this stage provides

• Aligns the organizational structure with the strategy, business model, and company development stage.
• Creates clear distribution of responsibility, authority, and decision-making areas.
• Removes structural constraints that prevent effective interaction between departments.
• Creates the organizational foundation for strategy execution and sustainable business development.

How the work runs

The structure is developed together with the management team. This approach uses leaders’ knowledge and experience in designing the new management model and gradually builds acceptance during the process itself. Because organizational structure inevitably affects authority, responsibility, status, and resources, different views and conflicts of interest often appear at this stage. We help the team move through this process constructively, keeping the focus on the company’s interests rather than individual departments or leaders.

We design not the structure of today’s company, but the structure of the company it needs to become in several years. At the same time, we understand that the transition cannot happen overnight, so we also develop mechanisms for moving gradually to the new management model.

The work does not start with an org chart. First, we design the optimal system of functions the company needs to achieve its goals and define the principles for grouping them. This makes it possible to create a structure that supports effective cross-functional interaction, clear responsibility and authority, and decision-making at the level where the required competencies, authority, and accountability exist. Only after that do we move to forming departments, management roles, and the organizational structure.

Our goal is not to develop an ideal structure “on paper,” but to create a management model that works effectively in your company and supports its further development. We take the potential of the existing management team into account as much as possible and aim to design a structure in which it can work successfully. At the same time, if the company’s strategy requires new competencies or functions, the structure may include new management roles and additional vacancies.

The result is an organizational structure that matches the strategy, business model, and future development stage of the company, as well as a realistic phased implementation plan that preserves business manageability.

After the strategy and organizational structure have been formed and responsibility areas have been distributed, the company needs a system that enables daily management of strategy execution. This is the task of this stage.

We align strategic goals, department plans, financial resources, and the results assessment system so each leader understands what they are responsible for, which tasks are priorities, and what resources they have to achieve them.

What this stage provides

• Turns the strategy into specific tasks for each department.
• Aligns plans, resources, and timelines for implementing changes.
• Aligns budgeting and financial planning with the new management model.
• Creates a metrics system that reflects each leader’s responsibility for their area’s results.
• Makes strategy execution measurable, transparent, and manageable.

How the work runs

The work includes three connected directions.

The first is strategy decomposition. Together with the management team, we translate company strategic goals into a system of strategic and operational tasks for departments. Special attention is given to tasks that require cross-functional collaboration: priorities, timelines, implementation sequence, required resources, and participant responsibility are aligned. As a result, each department receives a balanced and prioritized set of strategic and operational tasks aligned with the company’s overall goals.

The second direction is adapting the financial planning and budgeting system. We review budget structure, budgeting principles, financial planning, and management reporting so they match the new organizational structure and responsibility distribution. Depending on the project tasks, we either train the finance function and management team to do this work independently or support the entire process through full implementation.

The third direction is developing the metrics system. For each department, leader, and key management role, we create a system of individual and team KPI that matches their areas of responsibility. Individual metrics create personal accountability for results, while team metrics encourage effective cross-functional interaction and joint work on company-wide goals. Each leader is responsible only for metrics they can truly influence.

The result is one planning, budgeting, and results assessment system that connects strategy with daily department work, gives leaders the information they need for management decisions, and makes strategy execution transparent, measurable, and manageable.

After goals have been defined, responsibility has been distributed, and the metrics system has been formed, it is important to create a reward system that supports the new management model. If employees are rewarded for one thing while the company expects another, any change will eventually start falling apart.

That is why the reward system is developed not as a standalone tool, but as a continuation of the strategy, organizational structure, responsibility distribution, and metrics system.

What this stage provides

• Aligns the reward system with the strategy, organizational structure, and metrics system.
• Motivates leaders not only to achieve personal results, but also to work toward the company’s shared result.
• Supports cross-functional collaboration and joint implementation of strategic initiatives.
• Creates long-term management team interest in business development.
• Reinforces new management principles through material and non-material incentives.

How the work runs

We design a reward system based on a combination of several principles.

Financial rewards are complemented by non-financial forms of recognition, professional development, expanded responsibility, and participation in decision-making. Individual results are combined with team results, and for tasks that require several departments to collaborate, shared metrics are used to encourage joint accountability for the final result.

When developing the system, we start from the idea that rewards should support exactly the behavior the company needs to implement the strategy. That is why the system is built not around isolated indicators, but around the principles of the new management model.

Stage outcome

The result is a reward system that strengthens the new management model, supports collaboration between departments, and helps embed changes into the daily work of leaders and employees.

Ultimately, people do not do what is written in the strategy. They do what the company actually rewards. That is why the reward system becomes one of the key tools for embedding organizational change.