Strategic Planning Playbook

We recently published a blog on Virtual Strategic Planning and have received many inquiries from readers for more information.  We believe that getting your strategic plan right for 2021 and beyond is the most important thing a company can do.  Because of that we have decided to offer our strategic planning playbook free to anyone who requests it.  If you want a copy, send us a request to info@group50.com or request it here. (more…)

The majority of our consulting work has been virtual and like everyone else we have adapted by developing a virtual strategic planning and strategic execution process. To us and our clients, this remote workforce thing has not been as bad as people feared. Many leaders believe that employees are more productive when working from home and several companies are reducing office space and headcount because of it – one part of their strategic plan. They all agree that executing strategy has presented more challenges because (more…)

We recently worked on a project that required the integration of two $30M companies. Both had grown to this size in a short period of time and had systems that supported their individual sizes relatively well. When the two were combined, they pushed across an inflection point. An inflections point is when a company’s systems, business processes and organization structure are struggling to support the size of the company and are incapable of supporting future growth to the next inflection point. (more…)

It has been a wild ride the last 6 months and most companies have completed the first of three phases:  Stabilize, Reconfigure, Recover. Strategic and tactical planning for the next 12-18 months will be critical for companies.  Senior leadership teams need to focus on the Reconfigure stage and define how they will redefine their business models in preparation for the Recover phase. In the video below, Jim Gitney, the CEO of Group50 Consulting, discusses the key (more…)

It’s not how much money you make; it’s how much you get to keep. Unfortunately, as the cost of labor, materials and shipping goes up your profit margins go down and you get to keep less and less of your revenue. The natural response to this dilemma for many organizations is to raise prices, reduce services, cut overhead or just accept lower margins and hope to make up for it in volume. Any one of these options has risks that must be weighed very carefully. If only there was a way (more…)

It is reported that 70-90% of mergers & integrations don’t deliver the value that justified the acquisition. There are many reasons, but the primary ones that tank ROI are a lack of focus related to Strategy, Culture, Project Management, Customers and Sales. Post merger integration failures typically fall into what we call the 5th stage of M&A: Alignment and Optimization which completes the integration.   In order to help companies understand the depth of this challenge, Group50 has developed a post merger integration ( PMI ) playbook (more…)

The development of a global world class supply chain is a challenge in good times, but is really tested when a supply chain is significantly disrupted. During periods of supply and demand disruptions, like we are currently experiencing, the concept of world class is severely tested. As companies are attempting to understand the resiliency of their supply chain, (more…)

Over the last few months, none of us have been operating as usual. Swift action has taken place in all parts of every business.  Actions that typically would take months of reviews and decision making have been done in weeks, days and hours.  In trying times, we bypass the strict regimen of decision making and discard many of the minor concerns that get in the way of quick decision making. That is possible because business teams have (more…)

Supply Chain Risk and Supply Chain Resiliency are very real threats to companies as they try to recover from the pandemic, or any other disruption. It’s a topic that most companies don’t spend a lot of time on. They expect their Tier 1 suppliers to manage this reliably deliver just in time with high quality and low cost.  Over the last 50 years, supply chains have evolved into complex global networks that few companies understand beyond (more…)

This article is the first in a series of articles on Re-opening your business. They will be written by Jim Gitney, CEO of Group50 Consulting, manufacturing, distribution and supply chain experts, and Cindy Flynn, Partner at Hackler Flynn,  a labor law firm . In this series, we will talk about best practices and tips and techniques that we are learning from our clients who have opened their businesses.  A lot of great work is being done and you, as a business owner, should not be faced with re-opening your business in (more…)