Technology Oriented Positioning Strategy
- A unique Sage Service
- Cost Effective & Value Enhancing
- Standalone Healthcare Consultancy
Management's most critical function, in an ever-changing business environment, is to allocate company resources in order to achieve predetermined strategic and financial objectives. TOPS is a process to help management achieve these goals.
TOPS is an acronym for a strategic planning process developed and utilized by The Sage Group. TOPS stands for "Technology Oriented Positioning Strategy" and its principles are based upon a combination of the Boston Consulting Group's (BCG) concept of strategic business units (SBU's) and an approach developed by Dr. Richard Foster at Union Carbide. These principles have been further developed and refined by The Sage Group for specific use by companies in the health care field.
TOPS assists management in achieving clear plans while building consensus which will provide a basis for achieving the company's growth objectives at reduced risk. TOPS also helps management delineate more clearly those technological and marketplace trends which represent appropriate opportunities for them. The purpose of TOPS is to establish clear goals and to specify priorities for developmental, alliance, financing, management and operational programs to achieve them.
TOPS is a process of:
- Discovery
- Consensus Building
- Priority Establishment
The TOPS process can be viewed as having three phases. In the first phase, The Sage Group encourages and leads management to identify key opportunities and challenges facing its business. In phase two, The Sage Group and management assess the congruency of these opportunities with the capabilities and resources of the company. In phase three, The Sage Group and management integrate these opportunities and challenges into an implementable Strategic Brief.
The process has ten key steps. These are:
- Describe the company's scope
- Determine the company's target markets, segments and growth rates
- Determine technology trends impacting each segment (5 and 10 years out)
- Describe the company's capabilities and weaknesses
- Based on the above, brainstorm a list of opportunities
- Categorize these opportunities: survival, maintenance, growth
- Determine available company resources
- Establish a priority of opportunities
- Revisit the company's scope
- Prepare a Strategic Brief
Sage's role includes leading the discussions, challenging and probing where appropriate in order to gain maximum benefit of the input of all the participants, and providing insight, information, and perspective. Sage does not deliberately and consciously direct the discussion, but adds its information and knowledge of the marketplace to the process. At the end of each day, Sage prepares summary notes, which are distributed and reviewed by all participants.
These TOPS sessions are highly interactive. Participants are encouraged to prepare in advance, particularly with regard to information pertaining to the company's capabilities and expertise as well as markets, competition and technological developments. All comments should be aired during the sessions. A question or comment from one person often spurs the discussion of the group into a functional area.
The ultimate objective of this endeavor is to have management create the key components of a strategy in brief form, with this strategy directing and guiding the utilization of the company's resources in the future.
Management should plan to review the Strategic Brief at least annually, updating and expanding as appropriate.
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