Strategic Roadmap: An Intentional, Memorable Approach to Achieving Success

Strategic ROADMAP

An intentional, memorable approach to achieving success

Andrew L. Shafer

Copyright © 2020 Andy Shafer, Shafer's Innovation and Business Building Services (SIBBS)

Strategic ROADMAP© 2018 by Andy Shafer, Shafer’s Innvoation and Business Building Services (SIBBS)

All rights reserved. This book or any portion of it may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author except for brief quotations in a book, review, or scholarly journal with appropriate attribution to the author.

While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein

Published by SIBBS

4314 Lawn Ave, Western Springs, IL 60558

First edition. July 2020.

Written by Andrew L. Shafer

Edited by Edward E. Green and Monique Keeley

www.andyshafer.biz

www.strategicROADMAP.biz

ISBN 13: 978-1-7351872-0-4 (paperback)

ISBN 13: 978-1-7351872-1-1 (ebook)

Dedication

This book is dedicated to those who had the most to do with putting me on the right path and have made the adventure of life so rewarding:

Carol and Gary, Mary Lynne

and

Lauren, Rachel, Sean, and Kevin

Acknowledgements

Every book is a journey and every journey needs the right people to guide the trip to make it successful and help it arrive at the right destination.

This was especially true for the Strategic ROADMAP.

The journey started long before the ROADMAP framework emerged from my passion to help organizations successfully build and grow their business.

The strategies and experiences that shaped the insights that led to the ROADMAP were developed by working closely with executives and colleagues at Dow, NatureWorks, Cargill, Elevance, and SIBBS.

Especially significant in those experiences were Julie Fasone-Holder, Jim Stoppert, K’Lynne Johnson, Mel Luetkens, LaRae Lafrenz, John Salladay, John Stevens, and Pam Henderson. Their help and willingness to include me on their journeys made mine so much richer.

Tess Fennelly, Gayle Novak, and Ron Klingensmith helped polish the talk that resulted from the positive client response to the ROADMAP and has now been given in many different venues: company meetings, industry conferences, networking meetings.

Rob Spurling eventually (and probably unknowingly) provided the inspiration for the book in a conversation that pointed out how many organizations, especially non-profits he had worked with, could benefit from a simple, straightforward approach like ROADMAP. Honestly, the talk was an attempt to avoid the increasing requests for a book to document the approach that clients and audiences kept making. I didn’t want to write a book, but Rob’s suggestions convinced me that the talk wasn’t enough.

The initial draft flowed easily from the script of the talk, but a talk and a book are quite different destinations. It took the unfortunate change in conditions created by a pandemic to create the opportunity to revise, build upon and finish the draft.

Rob, John Salladay, David Hatfield, and Michael Huston all reviewed early drafts, providing helpful feedback. Finally, Eddie redline Greene and Monique Keeley significantly improved the final manuscript with their many suggestions and edits.

Each of you has my utmost gratitude for all you have done to shape the opportunities I have been afforded, the insights you have shared, and this book that emerged from them.

Thank you all.

Andy

May 2020

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Foreword

Getting Started

Why strategy matters

What is strategy?

ROADMAP’s Strategy Definition

The two parts: ROAD and MAP

Part 1: Selecting the ROAD

Chapter One: (R)esults

Define Success: Where do you want to go?

Define where you are now

What challenges do you need to overcome?

Why should we go with you?

Questions to answer about your RESULTS

Tools to help define your RESULTS

Chapter Two: (O)pportunities

There are many paths

The importance of landscape – and change

What's needed to navigate the landscape?

Finding OPPORTUNITY around the S-Curves

Limits and Discontinuities

Focus is critical

The power of 1

Explore and assess OPPORTUNITIES rigorously

Questions to answer about your OPPORTUNITIES

Tools to help define your OPPORTUNITIES

Chapter Three: (A)dvantage

Making ADVANTAGE Intentional

What type of customers do you serve?

What's your plan to win?

Questions to answer about your ADVANTAGE

Tools to help define your ADVANTAGE

Chapter Four: (D)esign

Everyone has limited resources

Integrating DESIGN choices builds ADVANTAGE

Internal Business Configuration

Offerings

Customer Interface

Leveraging Resources

Questions