Fiche Strategy

...

- Identify key resources and capabilities (core competencies)

- Functional analysis: analysis of each functional area of the firm (corporate functions, management information, R&D, operations, product design, marketing, sales and distribution)

- Value chain analysis (Porter): analysis of two types of activities

- Primary activities (sequential): inbound logistic, operations, outbound logistic, marketing and sales, service

- Support activities (across firm): infrastructure, HR, technological development, procurement

- Appraise resources and capabilities

- Strategic analysis: compare to industry drivers

- Strength points analysis: compare to competitors (give a mark for each resource as of its importance and if it is a key strength for your company)

- Cross compare results of the two analysis in a matrix

- Superfluous strengths: relative strength & low strategic importance

- Key strengths: relative strength & strategic importance

- Zone of irrelevance: relative weakness & low strategic importance

- Key weaknesses: relative weakness & strategic importance

- Develop strategy implications

- Exploiting key strengths (leveraging)

- Managing key weaknesses (outsourcing?)

- Turn superfluous strengths into valuable resources and capabilities

Develop resources and capabilities by investing into your own resources:

- Concentration on a few clearly targeted and defined goals

- Accumulation

- Complementing resources: blending product design with marketing…

- Conserving resources: recycle resources, collaborative arrangement with other companies…

Session 5 – Identifying core challenges and setting strategic objectives

There are 3 choices that you have to make when you design a strategy:

- Core challenges

- Solutions

- How do you reduce the risk?

Group results of previous analysis in a SWOT.

A core challenge is a problem worth solving. It is a question.

Identify a core challenge:

- The 3 why’s (test the robustness of candidates to core challenges)

- Effect – cause – effect: take any challenge as your first effect, find its cause, then identify all other potential effects of this cause and compare it to the real situation. This will help you identify the main cause to address.

- TOWS framework: cross different parts pf the SWOT to get relevant SO, WO, ST and WT challenges. To reduce the number of questions, identify those that cluster. Then use the evaporating cloud technique (some questions may be the cause for other questions, only keep the “cause” questions) or find one that solves everything and had not be written yet. That will give you 3 to 5 questions that are your core challenges.

Then set the strategic objectives. A strategic objective is one or more objectives that shows the progress towards overcoming a core challenge. It is:

- Clearly linked to the core challenge

- Has a clear timeframe

- Easy to understand and communicate

- Challenging but achievable

- Guarantees impact on competitive advantage

Strategic guidelines are built by using the From… To… statement.

- “From” is the current situation related to the set of core challenges

- Then show core challenges

- “To” is the desired outcome that will result from overcoming them

- Add a KPI to measure outcome and make sure you are on the right track

Session 6 – Working out the core challenge(s)

We will try to identify a number of initiatives that tackle the core challenges. You have to define the initiative, the person responsible for that, and the sponsor (typically a member of the board).

Business re-invention is triggered by innovation (incremental or radical)

Break down the identified core challenges. There are 2 ways to do it:

- By drivers if the problem is not really known to you (increase of sales, or do it by region, or segment… and combine those which gives a logic tree)

- If you know the problem really well, you could directly come up with solutions. You do not go through the problem structuring. For instance, launch a new product, build a brand around a new issue (sustainability for instance) … Then you need to find 3 good reasons why each solution would be a good one. As you go further, you should bring real evidence. Here, you structure your assumptions.

The two methods are not exclusive of course.

7 degrees of freedom (typically for sales increase):

1 – Sell existing products to existing customers (look at the customers that do not buy all of your products, although they buy your products).

2 – Sell to new customers (create a market, not steal market share)

3 – Sell new products and services

4 – New delivery approaches

5 – New geographies

6 – New industry structure

7 – New competitive arenas (outside existing industry boundaries)