Role: Strategist
Delegator |
Business Operations (Management) |
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Purpose
At VSHN, the Vision, Mission, and strategic objectives at the company level are driven and clarified by the board members, usually involving subject-matter experts or relevant roles within VSHN. Teams and roles within VSHN need to follow more concrete, more specific, and time-bound objectives, as well as company-wide strategies, to understand how to make this happen and be one aligned organization.
Therefore, we want a role that continuously understands the Vision and Mission of VSHN and those strategic, long-term objectives and provides clarity to our teams and other roles in VSHN through close collaboration and continuous review, creating the needed accountability to pull in the same direction.
Role Summary
This role is crucial in aligning the company’s strategic direction with actionable business objectives. This role is responsible for comprehending and conveying the company’s Vision and Mission, as established by the board, and translating these into specific, time-bound objectives for teams and roles within VSHN. By fostering close collaboration and providing continuous review, those who hold this role ensure that all parts of the organization are moving cohesively towards the strategic goals, enhancing overall business success and getting closer to our vision.
Key Responsibilities
What I take responsibility for, whether I do it myself and how I do it is up to me. Not a task list.
VSHN is internally aligned to common goals and a common direction as by our Mission and Vision, concretely:
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Continuous understanding of the business models within VSHN and how they contribute.
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Teams and Roles in VSHN understand and follow specific, time-bound, measurable goals,
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and get their strategic questions and uncertainties addressed, getting the needed clarity continuously.
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VSHN Shareholders / Board understand what happens in VSHN and how that aligns with their goals and our Mission.
Stakeholders
Who needs something or benefits directly from me in this role?
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Shareholders of VSHN: Need to understand how VSHN tries to reach the strategic objectives and the progress towards that.
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Teams and Roles at VSHN: Need concrete objectives and higher-level context, to understand how they contribute to the bigger picture.
Key Deliverables
The concrete things that stakeholders get from me.
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Up-to-date documented business areas ("Geschäftsfelder") within VSHN.
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Company OKRs
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Team and Role level OKRs strategic input and review collaboration
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Company-wide strategies and strategic initiatives
Skills and Mindsets
What Skills and Mindsets are needed, to fit this role?
- Mindset
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Do what is needed, get and produce missing insight and information - self-responsibility, we’re in the lead.
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This is the place where this level of strategy happens, if it doesn’t happen here, it doesn’t happen at all - which we don’t accept.
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Curious to learn how we do all of this, together with other role keepers.
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Leadership and communication skills to drive issues forward while being an example of our cultural principles.
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- Skills
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Flight level and strategic thinking, able to distance from operational work and keep things apart - Focus
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Business fundamentals understanding
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Basic knowledge of operational accounting
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Strategic Risks and Opportunities Management
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Business Model thinking and tooling (Business Model Canvas, Value Proposition Canvans and similar)
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Structured working and documenting
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Solid understanding of Objective and Key Results (OKRs)
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Dependencies
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Vision and Mission need to be clear enough and serve as a "north star" where we want to go and can provide motivation for VSHNeers.
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Strategic longer-term goals clear (3-10 years), qualitative and quantitative.
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Collaboration and insights from various teams and subject matter experts at VSHN (POs, Marketing, Sales, etc.)
Role Assignment
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We see this as a role for 3-5 VSHNeers, with the mindset mentioned above. Skills can be learned and shared among role keepers. Varying capacities of members is fine.
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The minimum term is 1 year - to have continuity and consistency in what we do and produce.
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We want a broad representation of VSHN: Board, (former) Management, Product Owners, Facilitators, Culture, Sales, Customers, and Finance - knowing that it’s about doing the work, not just representing.