The Stellar® business frame is used by both individuals and organisations, from the smallest start-ups to multi-nationals. It is an instrument and process that invites accurate definition of the twelve unique value-creation capabilities that comprise and identify the uniqueness of a business. The frame of these twelve domains of value-creation capability enables the identification, evaluation and alignment of all strategies, decisions, actions, behaviours and processes towards peak performance. It clarifies what value-creation capability within an organisation can grow, and where and how that can be best managed.

·        Stellar enables an individual to clearly define his or her uniqueness at peak, and therefore to also identify one’s potential for meaningful growth. The consequence is that every personal decision can be evaluated and refined within the context of the individual’s growth towards peak performance, whether one is self-employed or working for a multi-national.

 

·        Stellar enables a company to identify the coherent synergy of its unique value-stream. That coherence defines the optimal parameters for mapping, navigating and engaging the company’s whole value-stream, framing all of a company’s value-creation activities within their own unique synergy in reference to all stakeholders. The consequence of this is that every process and action within a company can be designed, aligned, managed and evaluated in terms of its optimal contribution to the total unique value-stream. This offers what might be called ‘rich’ strategy, a whole-organisation leadership for both managers and workforce that facilitates peak performance and optimally sustainable stakeholder profit.

 

 

The Stellar frame works by categorising all of a company’s or individual’s value-creation capabilities within twelve archetypal MECE domains – they are all mutually exclusive of one another, and therefore individually distinct, and collectively exhaustive, there are no others. These twelve capabilities exclusively and exhaustively create every company’s whole value-stream, embracing all other capabilities.

 

 

There are two principal tasks in compiling a Stellar –

·        distinguishing between domains, each a conventional management concept, understanding their subtle but profound differentiation from each other, and

·        identifying one’s unique value-creation capability at peak performance within each domain.

The process of defining the domains accurately usually requires the guidance of either a coach or consultant experienced in the use of Stellar.  A company’s Stellar is usually identified by an organisation’s Board, and it is almost always necessary to go through an internal process whereby those definitions are defined and crafted by Board members themselves. It is a challenging and soul-searching task, creating strategic clarity in usually unprecedented depth, and the outcome needs to have been both experienced and worked on for it to be fully known, appreciated and owned.

A Stellar is always beautiful, and always brings great clarity to all decision-making. Any strategy or action, existing or proposed, can be evaluated within a compiled Stellar by scoring (within a spider’s-web radar) how well that strategy or action currently aligns or performs within each domain capability as it is defined at best. The gaps between current and peak offer opportunities for deep-level strategy and process design to enhance performance.

 

When a compiled Stellar frame is experienced throughout a workforce, the shared understanding of strategic purpose and capability becomes embedded, and decision-making becomes self-aligning, self-motivating and more meaningful. At the same time the frame also accommodates, aligns and refines the application of all of those other more conventional instruments and processes that are involved in the design and execution of most typical leadership decisions, leading to optimal synergy of performance. The frame’s clarity, precision and depth of penetration enables the identification and execution of minimal actions that will lead to maximal outcomes, leveraging the value-stream for optimal returns for all stakeholders.

 

The Stellar frame embraces and accommodates all other conventional management tools, instruments and processes, including Lean, Balanced Scorecard and Blue Ocean. What it adds to all of these is management of –

 

 

People are becoming ever more individualistic, determined to bring their own unique value and meaning into the world. Similarly, companies can only survive if they occupy a uniquely differentiated niche in the market. The new dilemma is how to reconcile the ‘me’ of the individual with the ‘we’ of the group or organisation, and this is a major issue within many aspects of modern life, from the most local to the global. Stellar articulates the company’s uniqueness in a way that is easily and accessibly communicable to all stakeholders, providing a framework which can facilitate that reconciliation of ‘me’ and ‘we’, engaging highly professional and uniquely motivated individuals enthusiastically and loyally within the common unique purpose of the employing organisation. To optimally create and celebrate its uniqueness, the sustainably successful organisation will necessarily build its ‘we’ out of the pro-actively engaged ‘me’s’.

 

Whether of an individual or an organisation, a Stellar clarifies who we are, what we do, and how we might do that better.

 

 

Stellar was first developed in early 2002 by Richard Leachman and Angus Jenkinson, and they were joined in 2004 by Kathelijne Drenth. Stellar® is a trademark registered in nineteen European countries, and is held by Stellar Ltd in order to protect the use of the name Stellar on behalf of all practitioners (see www.stellar.eu). Stellar is an instrument and process that is open source and free to all, and it is in successful use in many companies across the world. The Stellar frame has been translated into twelve different languages so far.

 

 

Stellar Strategy: the creation of unique value (2011), Kathelijne Drenth & Richard Leachman, The Twelve, Bath, UK.

 

Beautiful Unique: the Stellar workbook (2010), Katheliljne Drenth & Richard Leachman, The Twelve, Bath, UK

 

Both books are available from www.beautifulunique.co.uk

 

Pdf download: Stellar Deep Drivers