The International Association for Strategy Professionals (ASP) has awarded Sensei Project Solutions the 2022 Goodman Award for Excellence in Strategy in the Micro, Small or Mid-Sized For-Profit Organisation Category. The award has a three-year life span which we are proud to have achieved.
The Goodman Award recognizes distinction in the practice of strategy, building on the broader purpose of the ASP to help individuals and organisations succeed through strategic thinking, planning and action. The purpose of the award is to foster continued excellence in strategic planning and to stimulate innovation in the strategic planning process.
Sensei is honoured to be recognised as an organisation at the leading edge of strategic practice, a criterion set by the ASP as a winning standard.
What the Goodman Award reflects
This award represents Sensei’s commitment to running its own business using sound strategic planning and aligning internal processes and measures to achieve the goals set. This approach is reflected in Sensei’s client solutions focused on connecting projects to strategic outcomes, that is, solving the strategic execution gap.
Sensei CEO, Andy Neumann says of the win, “It’s a validation that we are on the right path, not only with how we are running our own business but how we are imparting that knowledge to others through our work with clients and what we are embedding into the Altus platform. It’s important that we have an objective perspective on our business and how it is going and that we use our learnings for the benefit of our clients.”
To earn this accolade, Sensei demonstrated strong performance across five dimensions of strategy:
- Formulation
- Transformation
- Execution
- Engagement
- Governance
Sensei was able to showcase examples of the benefits of integrating strategic thinking with technology to transform and grow.
“More than ever, there seems to be a lack of practical assistance and guidance for clients around actioning strategy in their organisations,” says Neumann. “There’s a lot of content out there, and a lot of people with opinions, however translating that talk to action seems to be missing. If we can demonstrate our ability to help solve this problem for clients and give them leadership in this area, I believe that’s invaluable.”
The strategic importance of the PMO
As the role of the PMO changes from an administrative and oversight function to a tool for the achievement of organisational goals, strategic alignment coupled with leading technology has never been more important. Organisations invest a lot of time, money and people in their projects, resources that often don’t achieve what they set out to do, even when the projects may come in on time, budget and scope. By aligning and measuring projects against organisational strategy and goals these outcomes can be changed to ensure this significant investment from the organisation contributes to overall business success.
Statistics show that the top 10% of PMOs are now measured against a range of metrics beyond the traditional iron triangle of time, cost and scope, using criteria that reflect contribution to organisational growth and business success. These success measures are also used to prioritise project importance when needing to adapt quickly to organisational change.
Over the past thirteen years, Sensei Project Solutions has been leading by example to show how strategy coupled with technology supports the achievement of organisational goals. And with people at the core of Sensei’s values, the solution-based company not only builds deep understanding of client needs to create solutions that elevate their work, but also combines technical passion and deep subject matter expertise to craft intuitive, high-value solutions for building and measuring their success. Neumann sums up Sensei’s success, saying “Not only through this award but by the learnings we derive from the association that has awarded it to us, can we build a stronger, smarter business and subsequently a better platform for clients to derive value from as well.”
