Step facilitated a new strategy for the Marltons team and all their stakeholders in confronting their new reality and designing a new future.
In 2021 Marltons found itself in a surprisingly unique position having benefited from the investment South Africans made in their pets over the lockdowns resulting from Covid. This enabled the leadership team to invest in infrastructure, restructure and maximise the use of management reporting information. But both the leadership and their shareholders wanted to develop a new ambition for what they now realised the business could be. This also needed to be practical with both long term objectives and short term projects to drive the chosen strategy. Step Advisory was asked to assist with a strategy formulation that took into account their new reality and all the perspectives of their various stakeholders.
The Step team used their unique strategy facilitation process to first understand the market Marltons plays in and the unique perspective of each of the individuals involved in the process. Following this, a series of workshops were held to imagine and design the future that the team wanted to create. This was then presented and further workshopped with the shareholders to ensure their buy-in.
Step Advisory produced a well-articulated and collaboratively produced strategy deck for the management team, with clear objectives and desired key results. The strategy was produced and articulated in such a way to drive practical implementation of the strategy. While the ultimate result of the strategy will only be known in a few years there were encouraging results from this process. The team agreed on an overall purpose for the business that the shareholders see long term value in and that resonates with the leadership of the business. They are excited about the clear direction they now have in their chosen market with themes and objectives allocated to the senior leadership and a deep sense of what needs to be done both in the long term and in the next financial year.
