Supporting Productivity of Australian Industry
Strategy & Business Planning
Background
Helping organisations design and deliver strategies that drive measurable results. Using frameworks such as Jim Collins’ Hedgehog Concept, SWOT, Asset Management Planning, and Baldrige-style diagnostics, we translate strategic intent into practical departmental business plans that align objectives, resources, and performance measures with long-term success.
Strategy is more than a document it is an actionable roadmap for transformation and sustainable performance. Guiding organisations through a structured process that starts with clarifying purpose and competitive positioning (Jim Collins’ concentric circles), assessing risks and opportunities (SWOT), and aligning assets and resources with long-term goals (Asset Management Planning) or Baldrige-style diagnostics to benchmark organisational maturity and identify gaps across leadership, operations, and results. From here, we help departments create actionable business plans that define context, objectives, current and future states, metrics, targets, and resource budgets.
Critically, we ensure strategy is not an end in itself but is connected to capital portfolio development and business improvement programs, embedding strategy into delivery. This ensures that organisations can measure progress, adapt to change, and realise value over the short, medium, and long term.
Our Approach
Problems
Strategy that exists only on paper, disconnected from operations
Lack of alignment between organisational goals and departmental actions
Poor visibility of current state vs. desired future state
Metrics that measure activity, not outcomes
Limited linkage between strategy, resource allocation, and capital portfolios
Inability to prioritise initiatives or balance short-term needs with long-term goals
Business improvement efforts that fail to sustain because of weak alignment with strategy
Solutions
Burns Consulting bridges the gap between high-level strategy and on-the-ground delivery. We partner with leadership teams to define clear objectives and value drivers, build departmental business plans that align with organisational strategy, and establish robust metrics and targets to track performance. By linking business plans directly to capital portfolio development and business improvement programs, we ensure resources are focused on the right priorities and improvements are both measurable and sustainable.
The result is a strategy that is practical, actionable, and enduring — driving continuous improvement while positioning the organisation for long-term success.