July 3, 2024
The
Advance
Dashboard
The leading global business execution platform. The Advance Dashboard is designed to optimize the business transformation journey – from strategic intent to delivered effect. Advance empowers executives to fully harness the execution process, with total visibility and real-time control of strategic delivery and outcomes.
A discussion with:
Will Casselton
Chief Executive Officer
Justin Weaver
Senior Product Manager
So, Will, Justin, first things first, can you tell us more about the Advance dashboard? What is the primary problem it solves for users?
I have seen countless times, even within senior-level teams, people lack real clarity in what their company is trying to achieve, and their role in executing the plan.
Advance helps teams overcome this, building confidence in decision-making, giving clarity, and, in turn, creating a disproportionate effect on the mission outcome.
From strategy to action and alignment to execution, Advance enables clarity and ownership within the cascade of the business strategy, all reinforced with in-app business performance reviews
Can you elaborate on the Mission Leadership philosophy and how it relates to Advance?
Mission Leadership aims to create a single narrative thread throughout the organization, ensuring everyone understands the strategic intent.
Advance was built to support the implementation of this philosophy and its core principles of disciplined initiative, trust, and shared understanding. It promotes the freedom to determine contribution while driving accountability for mission success.
This proven approach empowers individuals at all levels of an organization to make decisions and act based on an understanding of the CEO’s intent and mission objectives.
How long has McKinney Rogers been developing Advance? Why did you decide to invest in building a digital platform?
Advance’s development began 20 years ago, in spreadsheets and documents, and as a way for our clients to track the evolution of their mission planning and reinforce the mission-first mindset. Through multiple iterations, Advance has become a true mission execution companion.
Advance continues to reinvent itself!
How long has McKinney Rogers been developing Advance? Why did you decide to invest in building a digital platform?
Advance is most valuable for organizations undergoing major transformations or facing challenges to their core business. We build close personal relationships with clients and accelerate their transformation journeys. So, it is fair to say Advance is particularly useful for mid-sized enterprises, typically with revenues between $2-10 billion, where the top 100 to 250 leaders are driving change.
This is a leadership tool. It is typically targeted at an organization’s top one or two, maybe three, layers.
Advance tracks the business transformation journey, providing performance insights and accountability at every stage of the execution process.
BUILD
Build clear, accountable plans with direct links between initiatives and key performance indicators.
UNLOCK
Unlock horizontal and vertical alignment, giving your team the autonomy to drive results while maintaining a unified strategic approach.
PREVENT
fragmented, inconsistent effort
PREVENT
outcome misalignment
RAPIDLY
Rapidly course-correct your strategic plan – dynamically reallocate resources and adapt to emerging challenges with unprecedented speed and precision.
ELIMINATE
Eliminate blind spots and drive critical strategic thinking across your organization with advanced performance tracking.
PREVENT
failing, static strategy
PREVENT
disconnected execution
GAIN
Gain complete insight into organizational performance with a single, powerful dashboard.
How does Advance integrate with other tools and systems commonly used in businesses?
Our focal point has always been to build something lean and helpful. Advance complements the rest of your tech stack – simple and secure, with most implementations taking less than a day.
Post-implementation, the focus shifts to data. Mission-critical KPIs and operating metrics are incorporated from across the business. Through our API connectors, customized upload templates, or simple manual entry, these metrics provide a powerful lens into your performance and plan.
How does McKinney Rogers ensure users get the most out of the tool?
McKinney Rogers is a specialist and boutique firm. We can offer a hands-on, bespoke service throughout set-up and onboarding.
The service component is one of our competitive advantages. We believe the level of service and support we provide is really hard to beat.
Our platform adoption specialists are dedicated to your success at every stage. They are available for general functionality discussions (sourcing, allocating, and linking data for measures and tasks) or even helping with API or Single Sign-on (SSO) setup.
Can you briefly describe the user experience and interface for Advance?
Advance accompanies our mission processes for the build, brief back, and business review stages. It drives a targeted and consistent methodology, defining an outcome with KPIs and tasks, understanding strategic intent, and establishing boundaries that are then tracked.
We have focused on reducing complexity within Advance, and are dedicated to creating a very user-friendly, self-sufficient experience.
Users craft their part in the plan, accept requests for their support, track their progress and performance, and address notifications alerting them to changes in the plan.
Keeping the mission up-to-date only takes a few minutes, and our status reporting allows for in-depth situational analysis, with built-in presentation modes and export options.
Advance has a video library of tailored content, an in-app knowledge base for “how to” guidance, and a quick link to our support team for any questions or concerns.
What is the typical user lifecycle for Advance? Is it used for the implementation of a specific strategic plan or embedded permanently?
We recommend isolating mission activity to a fiscal year and preserving each year as a steppingstone toward delivering on the vision.
These missions are readily accessible without leaving the platform, providing historical insights for the next year’s build.
We have several clients that have been using the platform since inception.
How does Advance leverage AI?
Our integrated AI companion is called MAI (Mission AI). MAI assists with content generation and evaluates the user’s written mission.
MAI draws insights from current mission progress and performance, then provides tactical actions to maintain or course-correct the plan.
Future iterations will expand its capabilities beyond simple content generation to reporting and summary statistics, enhanced user interaction, and more.
In a recent alignment session, we had a small team of consultants on the ground for two weeks, working with the top 200 leaders in a prominent technology company.
This was the first time that we had fully utilized and employed MAI.
It was impressive, and I’m excited to see how MAI will evolve and support execution excellence.
What would you say to a potential client considering adopting Advance?
If you’re looking for a comprehensive execution tool to transform your organization, Advance offers a unique solution.
It goes beyond task management and focuses on aligning individual efforts with broader strategic goals, driving impactful results.
I agree. If you’re serious about strategic execution, implementing Mission Leadership and Advance can accelerate your ability to build organizational capability and achieve your ambitions.
Advance is a pure execution tool, it powers the operating drumbeat of your strategic plan, allowing you to adapt and win.
Strategy Execution Transformed
Advance Dashboard is a digital companion to our exclusive Mission Leadership methodology.
Our holistic approach creates a clear understanding of organizational intent that enables:
- Decentralized decision-making
- Consistent performance
- Exceptional organizational agility
With this strategic framework, leaders can confidently transform complexity into tactical triumphs, driving success at every level.
Experience the difference of a mission-first mindset.
About the author: Will Casselton
