Strategic Planning and Management Insights

In this episode, we were joined by Johnathan Grzybowski, Co-founder & CMO of Penji. Offering a variety of on-demand graphic design services, Penji works with businesses to provide external design support for a monthly fee. The Penji team operates 24-hours a day, with both in their New Jersey office as well as around the world.

I am currently at Montreal Airport. This morning, my first flight of the day got canceled. Fortunately, I had made plans in case something like that happened, so I was able to get an earlier flight. If I hadn't, I would have pushed my entire trip a day back, which would not have worked. You may be wondering, "How does this relate to my strategic plan?"

A common misunderstanding we encounter when working with organizations is the difference between strategic planning and operational planning. While the two are closely connected, it’s important to understand how they are different and how your organization can use both types of plans to move the needle forward on your goals.

Have you already created a strategic plan? Were you able to execute it successfully? Let me share one of the great challenges you are going to face as you create and execute one.

Strategic Insights Gathering

On October 15th from 3:00-5:00 pm in Portland, Oregon, SME Strategy Managing Partner, Anthony Taylor, and Cascade Strategy North America CEO, Carl Cox, will be hosting a thoroughly interactive and thought provoking strategic planning event.

This May, I moved to Vancouver to join SME Strategy as co-op student. The role was described as a marketing role at a small and growing consulting company, so I was excited by the opportunity. Shortly after arriving, I realized my role would expand to be much more than originally expected. I was eventually tasked with a variety of tasks that fit into the marketing bucket, including one-to-one sales, content creation, email marketing and copywriting. 

As a student arriving straight of college, I had little knowledge of the consulting industry as a whole, let alone its size and scope. SME Strategy specializes in strategic planning, which fits under the management consulting umbrella. There was a lot to learn, and I started at the ground floor. Over the next several months, I would take courses, read about, receive mentorship, listen to coaching calls and sit in on strategic planning sessions to understand the processes involved in strategic planning. By receiving guidance and mentorship from our Managing Partner who’s facilitated strategic planning sessions around the world for businesses, schools, governments and nonprofits, I was able to learn a great deal. This is what I learned:

In this episode of our Strategy & Leadership Podcast, we were joined by Jeff Gothelf, author of Sense and Respond. Jeff was a software designer for over 10 years, before eventually shifting his focus to providing value to customers by redefining the way design is integrated into software. This helped Jeff to develop his understanding of both product and culture development within a workplace, serving to help organizations deliver great products.