I have a question for you.

What does a Formula 1 racing team, like Ferrari, have in common with a high-flying company, like Apple?

They’re both in highly competitive industries? They’re both focused on improving their performance? They’re both incredibly driven to succeed? They’re both intent on being the best in the world?

Yes, yes, yes, and yes.

In other words, they both strive, in everything they do, to achieve Operational Excellence (Op Ex). However, achieving Operational Excellence is far from easy, and (fortunately for Apple and Ferrari) only 36% of companies manage it.

So, buckle up and join this Process Street post, as we race through the following topics and learn, from the likes of Ferrari, Apple, Disney, and Google, how to become operationally excellent:

• What Operational Excellence is (& what it isn’t)
• The four key creators of Operational Excellence
• 10 ways to achieve Operational Excellence
• The real reasons organizations fail to achieve Operational Excellence
• How to overcome Operational Excellence challenges

Ready to zoom into pole position? 🏎️💨

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In the book The Balanced Scorecard, by David Norton and Robert Kaplan, it is noted that 90% of organizations fail to execute their pre-set strategy.

This is a concerning statistic when you consider that, for a majority of companies considered successful, an emphasis is placed on having formal and pre-established systems to inform, manage, and meet their strategic obligations.

In this sense, can we not infer executing business strategy = business success?

To bridge this gap between strategic ambition and business performance, Process Street has created a Strategic Planning Template, which you can use – for free – right away!

By executing the steps given in this template you will not only develop good strategy, but the delivery of this strategy will also prove successful.

Click here to access our free Strategic Planning Template!

But to accommodate this template, you need to have a solid understanding of strategic planning itself.

In this article, I’ll discuss what strategic planning is, the different strategic planning models – with an emphasis on the Cascade Strategic Planning Model -, why strategic planning is important, and more.

Click on the links below to read through:

• What is strategic planning?
• Strategic management vs strategic planning: What is the difference between these 2 terms?
• Why strategic planning is important
• What are strategic planning models?
• Use Process Street’s strategy planning template to document your strategic plan
• Strategic plan outline: Framework, structure, and governance
• Other strategic planning models and how you can implement them via Process Street

Let’s jump straight to it!
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This is a guest post from Dave Schneider, a serial entrepreneur & co-founder of shortlist.io, a marketing “un-agency” that serves as an outsourced dedicated marketing team. He has also co-founded Less.churn, a churn reduction app, prior to selling it in 2018. Dave loves to travel the world, and has visited over 65 countries. In his spare time, he writes about SaaS and business at DaveSchneider.me.

The vast majority of product launches fail.

According to a study done by the University of Toronto, the failure rate for new products in the retail grocery industry is 70-80%. And, the situation across all sectors is even more dia, Harvard professor Clayton Christensen estimates that the fail rate of new products across all boards is around 95%.

Evidently, coming up with an innovative and awe-inspiring product you think people will love is simply not enough. In order to mitigate failure, you will need to prioritize and optimize how you market your product.

Fortunately, this Process Street article is here to provide you with all the tools and digital hacks you will need to successfully market and launch your product.

Feel free to jump to a specific section of this post by clicking on the relevant subheader below. If not, just keep on scrolling.

• How to have a successful product launch
• Building a successful product launch strategy
• How and when to develop an MVP
• How to manage email lists for a successful product launch
• Using Process Street for all your business needs

Read on for a rundown of product launch basics.
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Who is Kanye West?

A musical genius? A passionate campaigner? Jesus? Or a spontaneous, unintelligible twitter ranter?

“I’m telling you, I am Warhol. I am the number one most impactful artist of our generation. I am Shakespeare, in the flesh. Walt Disney. Nike. Google…”

“A lot of people here felt like they lost. You know why? Because y’all been lied to. Google lied to you. Facebook lied to you. Radio lied to you”

“My greatest pain in life is that I will never be able to see myself perform live”

Kanye West is a brilliant example of how impulsive, unplanned communication can ruin a reputation.

But it’s not only famous celebrities that suffer the cost of off-the-cuff comms.

Unplanned communication is costing companies over $37 billion every year. This is no surprise when you consider that over 60% of companies don’t create or follow a communication plan.

It’s time to stop winging it and start planning it.

Read this Process Street post, grab our free communication plan template, and learn how to communicate properly, as we go through the following:

• The basics: What a communication plan is
• Three must-have communication plans
• Why having a communication plan is a no-brainer (with true stories)
• How to build a communication plan with Process Street

If you’re keen to start planning your communication right now, grab this free Communication Plan Template Checklist:

Click here to access the Communication Plan Template Checklist!

(Sign up for a free trial here, if you’re not yet a Process Street user)

Let’s start talking…
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After the Second World War, Japan was faced with tremendous infrastructural damage and needed to begin the long, difficult process of repairing pretty much everything. During this time, Allied forces occupied Japan and oversaw the process of reparation – many American experts were enlisted to aid in the efforts to rebuild Japan’s economy and infrastructure, while at the same time ensuring no military force was re-established.

Among those enlisted was W. Edwards Deming (of the Deming Cycle and PDCA fame). One of the early goals was to begin production of new radios; the problem was, new management was unskilled, production facilities and raw materials were in short supply, and quality management was a big issue.

Long story short, Deming helped to spearhead the establishment of quality control initiatives focusing on top-level management taking responsibility for clearly defining quality policy and procedures. This kind of quality control framework came to be known as Hoshin Kanri, and it eventually proliferated beyond Japan and over to America and the rest of the globe.

A 2020 report by the IPMA Organisational Competence Baseline (IPMA OCB) explained that to execute business vision, mission, and strategy, implementation of the Hoshin Kanri approach – also referred to as Hoshin planning – is vital for lean and strategic management, and for future-proofing a business.

In this Process Street article, you will learn: What Hoshin Kanri is and its history, why you need to implement Hoshin Kanri in your business or line of work, and how you can do this using our free Hoshin Planning: Hoshin Kanri Policy Deployment Process Checklist.

You can navigate to the most relevant section for you using our quick links below. Alternatively, read on for a gentle introduction to the fundamentals of Hoshin Kanri.

• What is Hoshin Kanri and where did it come from?
• Hoshin planning and key concepts
• Main benefits of Hoshin Kanri planning
• Hoshin planning: Using Process Street to implement the Hoshin Kanri process

Let’s go explore the concept of Hoshin Kanri!
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Product roadmaps are an essential part of understanding how to align your product to a long-term vision for product-market fit. They are also one of the key deliverables for product managers and are useful to almost all teams and stakeholders.

What the product roadmap should provide:

• Clear overview of key launch dates and milestones
• Clearly communicate which teams are responsible for what
• Clearly communicate important deadlines and time allocation
• A beacon to align different teams to core company goals and objectives

What the roadmap shouldn’t include:

• Goals and objectives unrelated to the product
• Overload of information about specific product features and specifications for development
• Big Surprises
• Too much data without clear association with company goals or objectives

In this Process Street article, we’ll be looking at:

• What is a product roadmap?
• Planning the product roadmap
• Key elements of a product roadmap
• How to build a product roadmap
• Free product roadmap template
• Best practices for creating a product roadmap template
• Mistakes to avoid when building your roadmap
• More tools for product success

First off, here’s a template you can use to get started building your own product roadmap.

Product roadmap process

For those of you who came just for the template, here it is:

If you’re interested in the why behind this template design, and more insight into an effective product roadmap approach, read on!

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