I am often asked about how we accomplished the rapid expansion of the Mariani Premier Group, which has grown from seven to nearly 30 companies since I joined in 2022.
There are many reasons for our success, notably the vision and industry leadership of our founder, Frank Mariani, and our focus on acquiring family companies who share our values. But one of the most significant reasons for this phenomenally rapid growth is how we think about strategy.
We are all familiar with the traditional SWOT framework of analyzing a company’s strategy through the lens of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. The traditional SWOT approach helps us gather a lot of data but doesn’t help us decide what to do with it.
While the SWOT analyses can be helpful, it’s most helpful to set a good foundation of insights to inform the questions we ask in SWOT 2.0, which helps move us into action.
As Mark Fuller, the former CEO of the strategy consultancy Monitor Group said, “Strategy is informed choice and timely action.” Similarly, the SWOT 2.0 approach helps map out the answers to key questions and deliver a tangible action plan to follow.
SWOT 2.0 focuses on strategy, workflows, organization and talent and asks the key questions you need to answer to build a strategy built on data. Let me show you how SWOT 2.0 works.
SWOT 2.0 structure
In this approach, SWOT 2.0 questions should be answered sequentially starting with strategy before moving on to building workflows that support the strategy, then building an organization that supports the workflows and finally putting people with the right talent in place to execute.
In reviewing your strategy, you first need to ask and answer the six important questions listed below. It’s worth noting that you can use the answers to the traditional SWOT analysis as a foundation to provide insights to inform your answers to these key questions.
1. What are our goals?
2. What are our aspirations?
3. In what markets will we play?
4. What will be our edge?
5. What skills do we need?
6. What systems do we need?
With those strategy questions answered, you move on to reviewing your workflows. Specifically, what workflows must be in place to achieve your goals and win in the market, and what operational improvements need to be made.
Once you’ve thought through the answers to these questions, you move on to the issue of organization and then talent. In this part of the framework, you are thinking about how you organize your teams and people to get that work done. Are you organized in a way that supports your workflows? If not, what type of organizational structure(s) should be implemented to become more effective?
Once you’ve created a plan that addresses these key organizational questions, you move on to looking at the issue of talent. What skills are needed for the organizational structure and, given those skills, who would sit in which seat?
This is the time to ask if you have the right people in your organization or who do you need to put in those boxes in the organization to make it happen.
A purpose-built landscape strategy
In the SWOT 2.0 framework, strategy is a choice, not a checklist. It is a conscious decision about what to do, what not to do and why it matters. It’s a commitment to prioritization and forward motion, all aligned with purpose.
The SWOT 2.0 approach has given us the discipline to forgo off-mission opportunities and to articulate the “why” behind every decision.
In the end, strategy is not what you write on a slide. It is what you do consistently and with conviction. It is the series of actions you take when the annual retreat is over, and the pressure is on. And when your strategy has been implemented with intention, those actions won’t just look like tactics; they will look like leadership and transformation.
