PART V: Turning Strategy Into Action

PART V: Turning Strategy Into Action

"A great strategy is only valuable if the organisation can make it happen."

A case competition solution is not finished when you have selected the best alternative. It is finished when you can explain:

• What should the organisation do?
• How will they do it?
• Who will make it happen?
• When will it happen?
• What will it cost?
• What could go wrong?
• How will we know it is working?

These are not implementation questions that come after the strategy. They are part of the strategy.

One of the most important lessons from case-solving competitions is that a theoretically attractive recommendation is not necessarily a winning recommendation. Judges want to know whether your solution is:

• realistic;
• feasible;
• financially sensible;
• aligned with the organisation;
• implementable;
• measurable;
• resilient to risk.

Winning solutions are not simply logical; they are specific, realistic, feasible, and implementable. This is where your solution moves from: "This is what we should do." to: "Here is exactly how we are going to make it happen."

Chapter 25: Risk and Mitigation - Making the Recommendation Resilient

Video: Risks & Mitigations That Actually Strengthen Your Recommendation: Don't Hide Them - Integrate Them

Learning Objectives

By the end of this chapter, you should be able to:

• identify strategic risks
• distinguish risk from impact
• prioritise risks
• develop practical mitigations
• integrate mitigation into implementation
• communicate risk honestly without undermining the recommendation

Why This Matters

Many teams treat risk as a final slide: "Here are some risks." Then they move on. That isn't risk management. A key Masterclass principle about risk is: Risk should never be an afterthought. Risks should appear in the analysis, and mitigations become part of the implementation steps.

Discover Your Mad Skills Principle

Don’t pretend your strategy has no risks. Show that you know how to manage them.

A recommendation becomes more credible when the team acknowledges what could go wrong.

What Is a Strategic Risk?

A strategic risk is something that could materially prevent your strategy from achieving its objectives. Examples might include:

• customer adoption;
• regulatory change;
• technology failure;
• implementation delays;
• cost overruns;
• talent shortages;
• competitor response;
• supply disruption.

Risk ≠ Impact

One important distinction in your existing material is that teams often confuse probability and impact. Think about two dimensions:

• Probability: How likely is the risk?
• Impact: How damaging would it be if it happened?

A low-probability, catastrophic risk may deserve more attention than a high-probability, minor risk.

Prioritise 

Focus on the risks that matter most. A simple approach:

Risk	Probability	Impact	Priority
Customer adoption	High	High	1
Cost overrun	Medium	High	2
Competitor response	Medium	Medium	3

Don't create a list of 15 risks. Identify the few that could actually derail the strategy.

Mitigation

A mitigation should be an action.

• Not: "Monitor customer adoption."
• Better: "Launch a six-week pilot with a 15% adoption threshold before full rollout."

Now the mitigation becomes part of the implementation. Each major risk should have a concrete mitigation that appears as an actual step in the timeline, with owners and, where appropriate, budgets.

Coach's Lens

The strongest risk mitigation often comes from the implementation plan itself.

For example:

• Risk: Customers reject the new product.
• Mitigation: Pilot with a defined customer segment before national launch.
• Risk: Technology isn't ready.
• Mitigation: Complete technical validation before committing to full deployment.
• Risk: Costs exceed budget.
• Mitigation: Stage investment based on milestone achievement.

Risk becomes part of strategy.

Common Mistakes

• Listing Every Possible Risk
• Focus on strategic risks.
• Confusing Probability and Impact
• They are different.
• Generic Mitigation
• "Monitor the situation" isn't enough.
• Separate Risk Slide
• Risk should be integrated into the solution.
• Hiding Risk
• Acknowledging risk can increase credibility.

Mad Skills Drill

Identify the top three risks to your recommendation. For each:

1. What could happen?
2. How likely is it?
3. What would the impact be?
4. What can we do to reduce the probability?
5. Where does that mitigation appear in the implementation plan?

If the answer to #5 is nowhere, fix the implementation plan.

Chapter Summary

Strong teams don't eliminate uncertainty. They demonstrate that they have thought through it.

Risk analysis makes the recommendation more honest. Mitigation makes it more resilient.

Key Takeaways

✓ Focus on strategic risks.

✓ Separate probability from impact.

✓ Prioritise.

✓ Create concrete mitigations.

✓ Build mitigations into implementation.

✓ Use risk to strengthen credibility.

Looking Ahead

A plan is not complete simply because it has actions. We also need to know: How will we know whether it is working?

Chapter 26: KPIs and Measuring Success - Knowing Whether the Strategy Worked

Learning Objectives

By the end of this chapter, you should be able to:

• distinguish objectives from KPIs
• identify leading and lagging indicators
• establish meaningful targets
• connect KPIs to strategic objectives
• use KPIs to create feedback loops
• avoid measuring activity instead of impact

Why This Matters

Your source material asks one of the most important questions in a case: How will the organisation know it actually happened? That question turns a recommendation into a management system.

Discover Your Mad Skills Principle

If you can’t measure progress, you can’t manage the strategy effectively.

Objective vs KPI

• An objective describes what you want to achieve.
• A KPI measures progress toward that objective.

For example:

• Objective: Increase customer adoption.
• KPI: Monthly active users.
• Target: 25,000 monthly active users within six months.

Leading vs Lagging Indicators

Leading Indicators: These show you whether the activities driving future performance are occurring. Examples:

• number of customers contacted;
• employee training completion;
• pilot participation;
• conversion funnel activity.

Lagging Indicators: These tell you what actually happened. Examples:

• revenue;
• profit;
• market share;
• retention;
• customer satisfaction.

Include both leading and lagging indicators, along with targets and ranges.

Don't Measure Activity

A team might report: "We trained 500 employees." That is an activity. The better question is: Did the training change employee behaviour or performance? Likewise: "We launched the campaign." doesn't mean: "The campaign worked." Measure outcomes.

Targets

A KPI without a target is difficult to interpret. Instead of: "Increase retention." Use: "Increase customer retention from 72% to 80% within 12 months." Where appropriate, establish ranges. For example:

• Green: ≥ 80%
• Yellow: 70–79%
• Red: < 70%

This makes the KPI actionable.

KPI Hierarchy

A useful structure is:

Strategic Objective à Outcome KPI à Leading Indicators à Actions

This creates a feedback loop. If the outcome is off track, the organisation can investigate the leading indicators and adjust implementation.

Coach's Lens

Don't give the judges 15 KPIs. Choose the few that matter. Ask: If the CEO could look at only three numbers every month, what should they be? Those are probably your most important KPIs.

Common Mistakes

• Too Many KPIs
• More isn't better.
• Vanity Metrics
• Large numbers that don't indicate meaningful progress.
• No Targets
• A KPI without a benchmark isn't very useful.
• Only Lagging Indicators
• By the time you see the problem, it may be too late.
• KPIs Unconnected to Strategy
• Every KPI should tell you something about whether the strategy is working.

Mad Skills Drill

Choose your recommendation. Identify:

• one strategic objective;
• two lagging KPIs;
• two leading indicators;
• a target for each.

Then answer: What would cause us to change the strategy? That question creates strategic discipline.

Chapter Summary

KPIs transform implementation from: "We hope it works." into: "We know what success looks like, and we know how we will monitor it."

Key Takeaways

✓ Start with objectives.

✓ Measure outcomes.

✓ Use leading and lagging indicators.

✓ Set targets.

✓ Keep the KPI set focused.

✓ Create feedback loops.

Looking Ahead

There is one final category of ideas that teams often struggle with: What about the other good ideas we discovered? That is where future considerations belong.

 Chapter 27: Future Considerations and Phase Two Thinking - What Comes Next Without Confusing the Recommendation

Video: Future Considerations & Out-of-the-Box Ideas: Don't Confuse the Judges – Present Them the Right Way

Learning Objectives

By the end of this chapter, you should be able to:

• distinguish the core recommendation from future opportunities
• identify ideas that should not be pursued immediately
• frame longer-term opportunities appropriately
• prevent additional ideas from weakening the recommendation
• use future considerations to demonstrate strategic thinking

Why This Matters

Sometimes your team identifies a genuinely interesting idea that is outside the scope or time horizon of the current recommendation. The temptation is to include it. This can create a problem. Judges can conflate future considerations with the actual recommendation, particularly due to the recency effect.

Discover Your Mad Skills Principle

Not every good idea belongs in today’s recommendation.

Strategic thinking includes knowing what not to do.

The "Not Now" Framework

Clearly separate:

• What We Recommend Now
  • The core strategy.
• What We Explore Later
  • Potential opportunities after the core strategy succeeds.

This distinction must be obvious.

Why Future Considerations Matter

A future consideration can demonstrate that your team has thought beyond the immediate decision. For example:

• Phase 1: Establish the domestic business model.
• Phase 2: Explore international expansion once the model is proven.

The second idea isn't part of today's recommendation. It is a potential future opportunity.

Coach's Lens

If your future idea is so important that the judges might think: "Why aren't they recommending this?" then you may have a problem. Either:

• it belongs in the current solution;
• it needs to be analysed more thoroughly;
• or it needs to be clearly framed as future.

Don't introduce a new strategic direction in the final minute.

Common Mistakes

• Too Many Future Ideas
• You weaken your focus
• Calling It "Phase Two" Without Logic
• Explain what must happen first.
• Introducing New Analysis
• Future considerations shouldn't require an entirely new case.
• Making It Sound Like Part of the Recommendation
• Label it clearly.

Mad Skills Drill

Take your case. List every good idea your team decided not to pursue. Choose one that might have future potential. Complete:

• Not now because…
• Later, if [condition], we could…

That is strategic sequencing.

Chapter Summary

Strong strategy includes knowing what to do. Great strategy also recognises: What should we not do yet? Future considerations should expand the strategic horizon without weakening the core recommendation.

Key Takeaways

✓ Separate now from later.

✓ Don't confuse judges.

✓ Use conditions to justify sequencing.

✓ Keep future ideas high-level.

✓ Protect the clarity of the core recommendation.

PART V CLOSING: From Choice to Execution

At the beginning of Part V, the team had a strategic choice. By the end, you should have a complete management story. You should be able to answer:

What are we recommending? à Why is it the best choice? à Does it create value? à How will we implement it? à Who owns it? à When will it happen? à What could go wrong? à  How will we mitigate those risks? à How will we measure success? à What happens next?

That is the difference between a recommendation and a solution.

The Discover Your Mad Skills Implementation Chain

Use this as your final implementation checklist:

1.        RECOMMEND: What are we choosing?

2.        JUSTIFY: Why does it win?

3.        VALUE: What does it deliver?

4.        EXECUTE: What must happen?

5.        OWN: Who is responsible?

6.        SEQUENCE: When does it happen?

7.        PROTECT: What could go wrong?

8.        MITIGATE: How will we respond?

9.        MEASURE: How will we know?

10.   ADAPT: What will we do if the results aren't what we expected?

Deciphering Case Characteristics

Not every case requires the same level of implementation detail.

A six-hour competition case may require:

• a few major initiatives;
• high-level timing;
• clear owners;
• key financials;
• three or four KPIs.

A 24-hour case may allow:

• more detailed financial modelling;
• more sophisticated timelines;
• stronger risk analysis;
• more detailed implementation dependencies.

The principle remains the same: Match the depth of implementation to the case, the decision, the time available, and the scorecard.

The Podium Test

Before your team considers the solution complete, ask:

• Can the judges see why we chose this?
• Can they see how it creates value?
• Can they see how the organisation will execute it?
• Can they see who is responsible?
• Can they see when it will happen?
• Can they see what could go wrong?
• Can they see how we will manage those risks?
• Can they see how we will measure success?

If the answer is yes, your solution is no longer just an idea. It is a plan.

Final Mad Skills Principle

Don't just recommend something.

Make the judges believe they can see it happening.

That is what makes a recommendation credible. That is what makes implementation persuasive. And that is what turns a good case solution into a podium-ready solution.