Laura Blackmore

Director, Product Experience

Lisbon, Portugal
Quick Introduction

Let's warm
up a bit!
Saxon Deck
Senior Director, Strategy Services
Austin, Texas USA

THE WORLD NO.1 STRATEGY EXECUTION PLATFORM

 FOR MOST COMPANIES

Strategy execution is a horrifying gamble

$180m left
on the table
For every 1,000 employees

THE WORLD NO.1 STRATEGY EXECUTION PLATFORM

 STRATEGY EXECUTION IS A HORRIFYING GAMBLE

$180m per 1,000

employees?

85% 7-10 35%

of strategic months is the of resources go into
projects exceed typical delay of initiatives that don't
their budget major investments align to strategy

THE WORLD NO.1 STRATEGY EXECUTION PLATFORM

THE DILEMMA

Do you tolerate Do you

35% wastage deliver 7-10
of resources? or
months late?
But deliver your But maintain current
investments on time? FTE resources?

THE WORLD NO.1 STRATEGY EXECUTION PLATFORM

 Misalignment &
Duplication
Priorities,
Output Tasks & BAU DISCONNECT IS KILLING YOU
Focussed Activities

Misalignment, Project &

Portfolio

silos & lack of

Management

Individual Disconnected

context.
Goals & Limited

PowerPoint
Slides
These are just some of the issues
faced with strategy execution today.
Financial
Budgets & Top Down
Forecasts Operational & Static
Metrics
Disconnected Lack of
& Limited Context

THE WORLD NO.1 STRATEGY EXECUTION PLATFORM

Here's what we all know
Raising interest rates will continue to burn working capital for business
across all sectors

Consumers with less purchasing power will push down profits

Data and process automation, AI, and analytics will continue to create
both opportunities and challenges for businesses

Supply chain issues still remain & Inflation is starting to ease modestly,
but still remains high

THE WORLD NO.1 STRATEGY EXECUTION PLATFORM

 01 Delivering Initiatives Faster

Agenda

About today's 02
Increasing Operational
Efficiency

session
03 Networking

THE WORLD NO.1 STRATEGY EXECUTION PLATFORM

1
Part One

Delivering
Initiatives
Faster

THE WORLD NO.1 STRATEGY EXECUTION PLATFORM

What We've Heard

Strategy feels disconnected from day to day

Economic uncertainty has CFOs and managers

concerned about how to preserve cash flow and
still deliver faster than before

Organizations are struggling to do more with less

Employees feel disconnected from their company

strategy

THE WORLD NO.1 STRATEGY EXECUTION PLATFORM

Fast Adaptability...

“We've got this great strategy, a very strategic approach.

But then, all of a sudden, overnight, the world changes.

So you've got to have a plan B, you've got to be able to pivot

quickly. You've got to be able to think on your feet and move
Read the
in a different direction.” report!

- Ken Miller, General Manager,

Azure Intelligent Cloud at Microsoft

THE WORLD NO.1 STRATEGY EXECUTION PLATFORM

Fast Adaptability...

“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face"

- Mike Tyson

THE WORLD NO.1 STRATEGY EXECUTION PLATFORM

SOLUTION: Socialize Your Strategy

Communicate the strategy clearly to ALL staff

When your employees understand your strategy clearly, they can

focus on the projects that will make the biggest impact

Ask yourself, what goals do you need to report on?

Can you identify them quickly? Scan Me!
Do your teams know what they are?
How can you tell if a team is misaligned?

THE WORLD NO.1 STRATEGY EXECUTION PLATFORM

SOLUTION: Align Strategy to Daily Operations
Be flexible with your strategy - practice agility

Forget about the perfect plan. Stay in execution mode - this

helps you stay ahead of competitors

Encourage teams to communicate openly, so you get an early

warning when KPIs aren’t being met
Scan Me!
Leverage technology to provide a more robust view

THE WORLD NO.1 STRATEGY EXECUTION PLATFORM

SOLUTION: Create a Culture of
Continuous Improvement
Engage with stakeholders at all levels, and
listen to their concerns and ideas PRO-TIP

Incorporating your KPIs into

Provide regular updates to teams about plans meetings is a good, organic
and progress way to do this - when KPIs
aren't being met, what's going
on? Assess friction, gaps and
Regularly monitor and measure progress pivot early.
against the company's strategy and goals

Use this information to make adjustments as

needed and to communicate progress

THE WORLD NO.1 STRATEGY EXECUTION PLATFORM

Part One: Delivering Initiatives Faster

Recap on Part One!

Strategy is not static - it’s ongoing problem
solving

Everyone should understand the strategy and

know their part - not just leaders

Review initiatives regularly and pivot as needed

Be ruthless with resources! If a project isn't

aligned to a strategic goal, ask yourself why it's
still being worked on

THE WORLD NO.1 STRATEGY EXECUTION PLATFORM

Q&A
It's your time to shine!

Saxon Deck
Senior Director, Strategy Services

THE WORLD NO.1 STRATEGY EXECUTION PLATFORM

Follow-us
on Linkedin Scan Me!
and get your daily dose of strategy!

THE WORLD NO.1 STRATEGY EXECUTION PLATFORM

2
Part Two

Increasing
Operational
Efficiency

THE WORLD NO.1 STRATEGY EXECUTION PLATFORM

What We've Heard

Organizations struggle with resistance to change

initiatives

Strategy is disconnected from operations

Leadership sets lofty goals that aren't tied to time-

bound KPIs making it difficult to measure progress

Teams often feel siloed

THE WORLD NO.1 STRATEGY EXECUTION PLATFORM

SOLUTION: Assess often
Develop your Strategic Instinct & Fast Adaptability

More on Strategic
Instinct & Fast
Adaptability
Streamline processes, workloads, and
procedures

Assess how much money you are wasting each

year on unnecessary projects or initiatives

Ensure stakeholders align decision-making and

communication with the overall strategy

THE WORLD NO.1 STRATEGY EXECUTION PLATFORM

SOLUTION: Adapt FAST!
Adapt your strategy often

Strong relationships between team members Get Started

strengthen trust and collaboration Ensure you have a
place and time
established where
Encourage teams to have open communication your teams can
openly challenge the
to get early warnings when KPIs aren’t being met! strategy. Insights from
"the field" can be a
powerful way to
Ensure your teams feel equipped to pivot adapt!
strategies that no longer make sense

THE WORLD NO.1 STRATEGY EXECUTION PLATFORM

SOLUTION: Communicate with Clarity

Clarity creates focus and helps the bottom line!

Make sure everyone knows what the critical
projects are PRO-TIP
leverage technology with
Incorporate strategic objectives/KPIs in meetings automated tasks, reporting
and reminders as well as
to ensure everyone is continuously aligned connections to your core
systems to reduce manual
efforts
The strategy needs to be easily accessible, top of
mind, and central to their daily work

THE WORLD NO.1 STRATEGY EXECUTION PLATFORM

 Let's see how we can
leverage technology to
align at scale and execute
effectively

cascade.app 29
 How Mercedes
"
"Before Cascade, 'alignment' was more a concept than anything real.
Cascade isn't just software - it's changed how we work everyday so

delivered
that we waste less time and get more meaningful work done.

In turn, that has driven our KPIs such as revenue and customer

$64m of ROI satisfaction. The one-click reporting is the cherry-on-top."

CEO, Mercedes Benz South Africa

ROI
Level 1 Mercedes had a dedicated team of 4 people in their strategy team creating monthly reports. Additionally, each
1 Time saved in
reporting & operations
division reported roughly a 0.5 FTE requirement for updating goals, data and other information for strategy reviews. $3.2m
Cascade enabled reallocation of around 16 FTE across Mercedes' 24 divisions. FTE cost save

ROI
Level 2 3 months after implementation, Cascade's Explorer view became a central feature of the Executive team's
2 Elimination of
misaligned projects
monthly strategy review. The team identified 11 major projects which were still being worked on throughout the $18m
region which were no longer aligned to strategy, and eliminated them, resulting in a cost save of over $18m. Direct cost save

ROI
Level 3 Before Cascade, Mercedes managed strategic projects in PMO tool (Clarity), SAP & various excel files. The process for
3 Accelerated delivery
strategic initiatives
project owners to flag additional resource requirements was via a change request which was signed off by 6 people. $8.5m
In Cascade, a shifted to proactive budget allocation driven by risks saved an average of 3.5 months per project. Efficiency gain

ROI
Level 4 After 18 months of using Cascade, Mercedes were consistently seeing overall efficiency gains through direct cost
4 Operational cost
saves
saves resulting from less wasted resources on projects which were consistently failing to improve their bottom line. In $34m
subsequent planning cycles, they maintained budgets but added 20% additional load to their R&D project goals, Over 5 years
which has remained their new baseline to this day.
Part Two: Increasing Operational Efficiency

Recap on
Part Two!
Reduce the time that it takes everyone to get on the
same page - Keep your plans visible!

Work with team leads to link their individual plans to

objectives and measures that are happening in
other plans

Get visibility into all strategic projects happening

across teams, eliminate the projects that don’t
matter

Communicate with clarity. Ensure your teams

understand your vision, your priorities

Start a trial of Cascade and get two weeks on us!

cascade.app 31
Strategy is about choosing to stand
apart. It involves making conscious
decisions and compromises.

Conversely, operational Free Operational

effectiveness is about doing the

Plan Template

same activities more efficiently than

the competition.

THE WORLD NO.1 STRATEGY EXECUTION PLATFORM

Q&A
It's your time to shine!

Laura Blackmore
Director, Product Experience

THE WORLD NO.1 STRATEGY EXECUTION PLATFORM

3
Part Three

Networking

cascade.app 23