Strategy & Planning
What is success? The most important step in building a successful strategy is a clearly articulated objective with measurable outcomes.
This sounds simple, but moving from concept to defining success is often one of the most challenging aspects of building strategies and plans, particularly with all the uncertainties of doing something new. Two examples of past clients illustrate the difficulty:
Client #1: This company realized they must address the consumer traffic no longer accessible through their traditional agency channel. With the goal of “testing and learning,” the client decided to enter the direct channel. Funds were allocated, and the operations were initiated.
After launch, however, it became clear that the goal was neither specific nor measurable. As a consequence, the team did not have a clear, shared vision and testing tended to be random, with no accountability. The company quickly reached the point of investing over $70 million, but still had no clarity on the ultimate direction of the program, the definition of success, or when a profit would be achieved.
Client #2: A large life insurance agency, this client saw the opportunity to cross-sell personal lines products. In this case, the company’s strategic goal was simply to “increase revenue by cross-selling auto and home.” Again, there was no specific, measurable definition of success; the company established carrier appointments and relied on the existing infrastructure, and expertise to start cross-selling. Without an understanding of the definition of success and required processes, data collection, or reporting, there was no form of accountability and the cross-sell efforts were ultimately abandoned.
Even companies with a clear definition of success can lack a shared internal vision and plan to reach ‘success,’
OutPerform can help your Company:
- Define the mission
- Identify specific measurable definitions of success
- Identify strategic alternatives
- Help prioritize and select the strategic approach
- Build the strategy to meet your objectives
- Model the financial needs associated with your strategy
- Ensure that your Company’s vision is shared throughout the team
Operational and Distribution Planning
OutPerform focuses exclusively on the insurance space and we will lend our expertise to assist the Company’s team in:
- Assessing your current plan, situation, and capabilities
- Does this match your vision?
- Identifying operational drivers
- Setting goals and milestones
- Defining plan elements and scalability of elements
- Define process requirements
- Establishing data collection and reporting requirements
- Define infrastructure requirements
- Identify resource, skill, and staffing needs and gaps
- Identifying required external resources
- Aligning Company goals and individual interests
- Define process for adapting as the situation changes