"Strategic planning is dead. Strategy has never been more important."

"I was recently hired to turn around a public company-and speed was of the essence. But even I was surprised how fast the RED™ process gets everyone on board—solving the biggest problems and exploiting the biggest opportunities."

Joe Lahey,
Chief Executive Officer

Compress the strategy cycle
Gone are the days when a senior executive group could spend weeks or months to develop a strategy, design a product launch, or drive results from a merger. Today's great strategies are developed interactively—in real time—through a constant interplay of strategic insight and tactical action. Also gone is the day when breakthrough strategy is likely to be developed and fleshed out in the mind of a few genius executives. Today's hypercompetitive markets require a network of minds scanning, adapting, and constantly reshaping the model of the firm.

The centerpiece of the RED™ process is the 48-hour RED™ Summit, which squeezes weeks or months of strategic planning into an intensive 3-day process. It taps the knowledge and insights of a cross-section of team-members, outside experts, and (if appropriate) board members to surface the key strategic issues facing the firm-and to drive toward specific, measurable milestones for action. It keeps the team focused on the 20% of the activities that are going to produce 80% of the results. Because RED™ compresses the strategy cycle—companies can revisit and revise strategic assumptions on a quarterly basis through ½-day Strategy Resets. This puts companies in a position to manage their strategy as aggressively as they manage their numbers.

Get more people involved
Because of the time-efficiency of the RED™ process, you can involve a much broader cross-section of people in the strategy-making process. A RED™ Strategy Summit is frequently conducted for teams as large as 25 to 50 people. In fact, generally the broader the cross-section of people involved, the better the decisions. In addition to the senior executive team, RED™ involves product development people, sales professionals, financial analysts and customer service leaders—people with deep and unique insights into the real dynamics of the firm and its customers. These people become co-creators and owners of the strategy.

And involving a broader group of people in the struggle to identify and address the biggest issues facing a firm not only results in better ideas and solutions—it builds commitment to organizational goals and empowers front-line supervisors to more effectively align their departments with the overall vision. People go back to their jobs with a clear view of how all the pieces fit together—and how they, in their unique roles, can advance the strategy.

Preparation Is Key
What enables a company to compress two months of strategic planning into three days? A highly structured approach to strategy-making and a significant amount of advanced planning. More than a month prior to the RED™ Summit, the company's staff is carefully reviewed to identify those individuals who: (1) are in a position to significantly impact strategy either due to their role or the quality of their ideas and insights; (2) are informal "influence leaders" in the firm; or (3) would, after participating in a Summit, be equipped to significantly increase their level of contribution to strategic outcomes.

Four weeks prior to the Summit, each of the strategic team-members are asked to complete a Strategy Sketch™—which summarizes their views on vital areas of the firm such as market potential, customer dynamics, competitive analysis, internal issues, etc. Two weeks prior to the Summit, the RED™ consultant completes and reviews with the client a detailed schedule for the Summit to assure that the right issues are surfaced and addressed.

To read some of Keith's BusinessWeek columns on strategy, go to A Better Scheme for Strategic Planning (January 2005), Why Societies and Companies Collapse (April 2005), or Divide and Conquer Strategy (August 2005). To read Inc. magazine's feature story on RED™, go to Ready, Set, Strategize (October 2005).

In addition to accelerating strategic decision-making, RED™ also focuses on assessing the management team and aligning the egos, turfs, and perspectives in a way that allows for quick and coordinated action on the strategic imperatives that come out of the Summit. To learn more, click on Alignment.