Who We Are
Strategic Focus Associates (SFA) is a woman owned business that was formed in 1995. We are a network of experienced consultants who all believe in the same principles of organization engagement and change, balanced with a shared collaborative approach.
Owner and Principal
Kathy Church is the Owner and Principal Consultant with Strategic Focus Associates. Based in Seattle, Washington, she has more than 40 years of experience leading strategic planning, organizational design and change efforts in large, complex systems. Her participatory approach creates high performance work systems that align with business strategy and drive employee retention and engagement.
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What Our Clients Say
“Strategic Focus Associates has been a very productive partnership in the development of our clinical service lines. They are highly flexible and yet very effective in managing the change process. They are particularly effective in getting large working groups to focus on the key issue at hand. I am very pleased with their work and our outcomes.”
“In my roles as Dean of the College of Health Professions and now Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost at the Medical University of South Carolina I have used Kathy as a consultant in implementing organizational restructuring, leadership development, and strategic planning. Kathy has provided exceptional insight and she has a style of engagement that draws together multiple constituencies to work for a common goal.”
“The greatest challenge is not in the development of (a strategy effort) but in the implementation. Strategic Focus Associates’ process infuses a large cross-section of the organization with excitement and commitment (buy-in) over a short period of time. This energy in turn greatly increases the probability of a successful implementation of the plan. It gets the flywheel turning earlier in the process which delivers results faster and keeps the commitment level elevated, promoting long term success.”
“It was a pleasure working with Strategic Focus Associates during my tenure as the Senior Vice President and Executive Dean. This letter represents my enthusiastic endorsement of your work after working with you and your associates for seven months.
It is important to point out that you and your firm were chosen after a competitive process that involved receiving applications from eight firms and interviewing three finalists. Your firm was chosen because of your significant depth of experience with other academic institutions in addition to the private sector. Our objectives in framing the strategic planning process was to develop a process that was highly engaged, used strategic inquiry as a vehicle for interacting with stakeholders, and ultimately crafting a balanced scorecard to measure our progress. Your firm had experience with all three of these requirements and brought in-depth knowledge of the whole-scale approach that you helped developed.
You and your team worked effectively with the leadership team, planning group, and goal teams, assisting all of us in remaining focused and on schedule to meet important deadlines. The success of the three large group meetings changed the opinions of those few doubters who could not envision creating a mission statement using a whole scale approach. The process was an effective way to transform the culture in a short period of time and allowed us to create alignment across several entities within the Health Sciences Enterprise.”
