Management and Business Strategy: Company Strategy

Showing posts with label Company Strategy. Show all posts

Strategy As Invention(2)

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Strategy is not a set of options

Imagine you are in your car again. This time, it's Sunday, and you and the family are going for a drive. Where are you headed? "We'll let's see", you say to yourself, "How much gas do we have, and which roads have the least traffic?" Many companies think strategy is about evaluating a set of options, often in terms of available resources, or a competitive response. They say things like -- "We have only 12 development resources available to us, which means we can bring two key program feature sets to market, and XYZ Co. has just announced compatibility with our databases. What are we going to do?"

Strategy is not incrementalism or inertia

Or they consider strategy in terms of increments. Last year you increased profits by 20%; does that mean this year you should shoot for increasing profits by 20%. Or 25%? Or, since you added three new modules last year, and reduced customer response time by 33%, should you plan to do the same, or something a bit better, this year?

These would be worthy goals, and this approach is valid. But accomplishing these kinds of targets will not fundamentally alter your company's relationship to the marketplace. Nothing will really be changed -- not you, not your people, not your company -- and not the world.

It's been said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results. When you do the same things, only better, only harder, only more, only smarter, what you'll get is more of what you've already got. That's fine, as long as you've determined that more of what you've got is appropriate for this stage of your company's life cycle.

Strategy is an invention

Strategy is something you make up. Your strategy is a statement of what you will do as a company to realize your corporate vision: what specifically will you accomplish, what meaning will your company have, and how will you create value and profits. Don't ignore your past results. Just don't allow your strategy to be constrained by them. Don't ignore the marketplace. Just don't fall into the trap of letting your competitors' actions define what yours will be. And certainly don't ignore your customers -- just don't think that your customers' wants and desires are the only measure of what you should seek to accomplish. These references -- past results, markets, competitors, customers - must be taken into account.

And then, what it boils down to is this: your strategy is the direction your company will take, because you said so. An invented strategy inspires you

An invented strategy inspires you. Because it fulfills your vision for your company, and because you see how the realization of your strategy makes an important difference in the world, it inspires your team, your customers, your prospects. An invented strategy energizes all your constituents, where incrementalism just seems like more work. An invented strategy can propel your enterprise to greatness. An invented strategy can call forth achievements beyond what you currently consider possible. Breakthroughs and blockbusters are never founded on incremental improvement. Like Athena, they spring from the heads of their inventors. And invented strategies can change your company's relationship to the marketplace and to the world.

Inventing strategy

The route to creating strategy is simple -- asking the right questions.

What direction can the company take *now* to realize your vision? What value proposition will you offer customers? What meaningful difference will you make in your marketplace? What meaningful difference will you make in your world? How do you want to affect the lives of your people, your customers, your clients? Your family? Answer these questions and you are on road to inventing your strategy.

Are you building something totally new, or are you improving an existing idea? What are the dimensions of the impact you want to have? Will it be faster? Better? Cheaper? Easier? Safer? More luxurious? More convenient? More portable? More entertaining? More universal?

Next, from a high-level perspective, how will you marshal your resources and time your maneuvers to offer that value and make that difference? For instance, Microsoft's desktop applications strategy is to let other companies originate product categories, wait to see which ones catch on, then bring out a lower cost Microsoft alternative, and market the heck out of it. This strategy defines a what, not a how. It doesn't describe which products, how to develop them, or when they will be rolled-out.

There are no rules in strategy

Strategy is not evolutionary; it is revolutionary. Don't assume the old rules apply or let them guide your thinking. Breaking rules may actually be a way to conceive of strategy. Ask yourself, "What rules can we break?" Consider which obsolete beliefs restrain growth in your company or in your market. Make up your own assumptions. Test them -- first in your mind. Einstein conceived of the Theory of Relativity using what he called a gedanken experiment -- a experiment in the mind.

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Strategy As Invention(1)

The following article looks at some distinctions between Strategy and Strategic Planning, and offers useful suggestions for thinking about strategy in your organization.

Rather than view strategy as a selection of options, here is another approach: creation or invention.

Strategic planning is not strategy

Strategic Planning, often synonymous with Annual Planning, details how you are going to get where you have decided to go. It is a description of how you will achieve your goals -- those milestones you established in structuring your business plan. Strategic Planning is operational in nature, it examines the particular actions you intend to take over the coming period. Strategic Planning can be critical -- and after you have a Strategy, it is often a good idea to develop a Strategic Plan.

But Strategic Planning is not Strategy. Strategy is the "what" you and your organization are going to be, and the broad approach to how you are going to do that. For instance, your company will become the number one vendor of internet-hosted medical records applications, achieved through freeware distribution to HMOs and clinics, paid for with a back-end, per-patient royalty. Strategic Planning looks at the details of how you will get there -- which associations you will joint-venture with, how many sales people you will add this year, what type of advertising you will use, whether to pay for page-views or click-throughs, etc. The strategic plan will itemize the specific actions you will take in a given time frame, and the specific results those actions will produce.

But imagine filling your new car with gas, turning the ignition key, putting the car in gear, getting on the freeway, and putting the pedal-to-the-metal. Full speed ahead. Imagine that for a moment. Wait a minute -- where are you going? Many organizations jump headlong into the strategic planning process, without becoming clear about where they are going. Sure they have a direction - North, perhaps; into the Internet Applications space, perhaps. If you execute the plan, your company will surely wind up somewhere. But is it where you wanted to go? Strategy defines the destination, and whether you will take a scenic way or a fast way, and if you want rest stops. Strategic planning identifies the specific highways and the specific streets.

Have you bothered to think about where you want to go recently? Most entrepreneurs, most companies, started with an idea of what they were trying to create. But that may have been a long time ago. Perhaps it's time to consider this question again.

Continued in part 2

A Marketing Strategy for Winners

A marketing strategy can either make or break your business. As you know, there are many different aspects to a good marketing strategy. You may be wondering which marketing strategy is right for you. Also, how do you know which marketing strategy really works? The best marketing strategy is the one that gains profits. In this article, we will discuss the various aspects of a great market strategy.

The first marketing strategy you should look into is your website. Make sure your web design is eye catching and easy to maneuver. A marketing strategy you can add to this is to have attractive pictures or illustrations that get your customers attention. This is always an important marketing strategy.

A second marketing strategy is to promote you product. Any marketing strategy will tell you to get yourself noticed. Different aspects of this marketing strategy are to send out flyers, business cards, post cards, etc.

A third marketing strategy is to use an autoresponder. This automated form of a marketing strategy is commonly used. Using an autoresponder to send out advertisements of your product is fast and convenient. Everything is done by email.

Another marketing strategy is to use a slogan or logo. This is a great marketing strategy because it is a way for people to easily remember your business. If they remember or recognize you, they are likely to use your website.

Another powerful marketing strategy is to use an SEO (search engine optimization). Using this will attract more people to your sight. This is because when they do a search for a particular service or product, the SEO will make sure your site is listed at the top of the search results.

A very important marketing strategy is to have a great price for your products or services. This marketing strategy is an absolute must. If your prices are not great, you will never have any business. Try to show people why your prices are so great to entice them to make a purchase.

Finally, the last marketing strategy is to have good public relations. With good public relations, your business will prosper through word of mouth. Allow customers to submit feedback of your business. Place positive feedback and testimonials on your website. It makes your business look good and customers tend to prefer to use businesses that have positive feedback.

As you know you what a marketing strategy that will not leave you with empty pockets. In reality, any marketing strategy is going to cost you a little bit of money. But if you look in the right places and follow some good advice, your marketing strategy should leave you coming out on top.

Source: Free Articles from ArticlesFactory.com

Brand Strategy Implementation

A new way to maximize your company's revenues - regard and treat all of your customer and prospect interfacing functions as media, and organize to ensure that they are maximized as media.

Let us assume you have already got your business a great brand strategy. That's terrific. After all, a great many businesses don't have one. And you can't really expect to grow your business organically without one.

Consider your business for a moment. And your own job in it. You are there primarily to keep increasing the value of your business' stock. This is done in just two ways: increasing your revenues in a sustainable way, and reducing your costs, likewise in a sustainable way.

Of these, the more important is the increase of your revenues, if only because you don't have a business at all without revenues, that is, money coming into your business. It's benefit is increasing market share. Our business is about enabling our clients to keep increasing market share at the expense of their competitors on a sustainable basis. So our business is not just about providing them with a brand strategy, name and graphics, because they may not steal a single sliver of market share from their competitors, if this brand strategy is not implemented effectively over time.

What use is even the best brand strategy if your business is not able to take advantage of it? You begin by understanding what a brand is, where it is located, and how it forms and grows.

A brand is the cluster of perceptions that determines the relative importance of, and relative preference for, your product or service offering over those of your competitors among existing and prospective customers, and therefore most influences the likelihood of their purchase, and consequently, your revenues.

As a cluster of perceptions associated with a specific product name or symbol/s, the brand is located exclusively in the emotional and conceptual space in the hearts and minds of both existing and prospective customers.

Accordingly, the brand is formed by the conceptual and emotional residue accumulated from all the experiences that these existing and prospective customers associate with the offering's signals, such as the product name or symbol/s.

Brand strategy therefore is therefore the management of three things:

a) The identification of the emotional and conceptual residual content that is most likely to maximize the importance and preference for your product or service offering/s over those of your competitors among existing and prospective customers.

b) The development and design of your offering's signals in the form of name, logotype, symbol/s, color/s, sounds, and texture/s.

c) The development and design of all communications and experiences that existing and prospective customers might attribute to your product or service offering via its name or other signals. These might include, but not be limited to:

Sales people's Demeanor

Sales people's Appearance

Sales people's Language

Sales people's Usefulness

Sales people's Consistency (Follow-up)

Sales literature

Product Names

Product Literature

Product Packaging Appearance

Product Packaging Functionality

Product Packaging Disposability

Product Appearance

Product Application

Product Performance vis a vis competition in all key parameters

Product Disposal

Customer Care Access

Customer Care Demeanor

Customer Care Language

Customer Care Usefulness

Customer Care Consistency (Follow-up)

Bills Appearance

Bills Comprehension,

Bills Accuracy

Collections Timing Disruptiveness

Collections Demeanor

Collections Language

Collections Consistency

Communications Tagline

Communications Rationale

Communications Character

Communications Tonality

Communications Core Message,

Communications Selling Idea (visual dramatization)

Stationery

Advertising (all media)

Promotions (all media)

Facilities

Vehicles

Brand Direct Marketing

Internet Marketing and Communications.

As you can see from this list, there are a great many different kinds of customer experiences that can influence your brand, and thus influence the quality of importance and preference of your product or service offering/s, and thus determine purchase, and of course, your revenues.

It must be clear by now that your brand positioning service, your brand design service, your advertising agency, and your promotions and merchandising support services, even together, don't have all the competences necessary to manage all these ways toward building your brand.

So you have to think of all these functions also as media for building your brand, and organize to manage these functions in a way that maximizes each one's potential for building your brand.

Even a cursory glance at the above list will show you that some of these functions are covered by your existing marketing communications agencies and design services. A closer look will show you that most of these agencies and services help you primarily with your interactions with prospective customers.

That's when you realize that there are many of your businesses functions, especially those that interact exclusively with existing customers, that you currently don't even consider as media that are influencing the quality of your brand.

So you have to do two things in a hurry. Firstly, make sure that these functions that are both not covered by existing agencies and services, and not managed as media for building your brand - are no longer neglected in this way. This means identifying someone who can make sure that all these functions fulfill their media function as well as this can be done.

Secondly, make sure that the residue of both the work done by your agencies and services, and those that are managed by your new internal media czar are both optimally contributing toward building your brand in the minds and hearts of your existing and prospective customers.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ravi_Arapurakal

Designing the Strategy to Optimize the Company Image

A company logo is not a complete success until the required factors have been decided. The strategy which is designed for the structuring of the logo is dependent on a number of factors. These factors are basically responsible for the structuring of the logo in the correct prescribed manner. A company logo is one of the most significant and mandatory constituents of the image of the organization. There fore it is very important that the image of the company fulfils all the requirements which are necessary in this case. A company logo requires many of the parameters which are responsible for giving it an exclusive image. Thus an exclusive image requires a lot of extra parameters and efforts. These efforts are needed to make the image of the company a professional one and stand out in the market competition.

A strategy in this case can re revamped and redesigned but the process is quite complicated. A redesign process depends on a lot of circumstances and their suit abilities.
Now in this case there can be contradictions. Some companies are not at all in favor of designing their logo through a strategy formulation. There are various companies which use the requirement analysis for this purpose. There are various reasons for this selection. Some organization think that redesign of a logo should not be a selection under any circumstance. The reason being that this practice can cause harm to the already constructed company image in the corporate sector. Hence the effort should be made that such conditions do not rise in the first place in which the logo of a company has to be redesigned. The reason is that this carries a lot of factor. Hence the practice is only made by well reputed and well established organizations.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Nicole_A_Perkins

The Best Network Marketing Strategy For Any Company - Find Success in a Box of Crayons

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IT Strategy Development: Reasons to Find An Expert

Many companies exist, who can sell technology. Fewer of these can provide solutions to company IT needs - and answering the many questions posed by IT requirements, upgrades and systems development . Thus, before you buy, read on: the information you find here is based on many years of experience, and should inform your IT strategy as your company grows.

Many companies exist, who can sell technology. Fewer of these can provide solutions to company IT needs - and answering the many questions posed by IT requirements, upgrades and systems development . It is vital to achieve a holistic approach to technology; and depending on your size and needs, that can mean anything from complete outsourcing to being a friendly voice at the end of the phone line. Thus, before you buy, read on: the information you find here is based on many years of experience, and should inform your IT strategy as your company grows.

IT Strategy Development

It is important to work with IT companies who understand totally that IT exists to support the goals of your business- not the other way round! That's easy to state on the face of it, but keeping your business and it's supporting technology in line day-in, day-out can be a challenge.

In a nutshell, two major themes appear over an over again, when the subject of IT Strategy is raised. IT departments often complain that purchases are made on a cost, rather than value. Business owners complain of spiralling technology costs without visible benefit. These are common battles, and are symptomatic of a piecemeal approach to technology.

If you want to avoid that clash of wills, you need effective communication between the business and the IT functions. The reference point for that communication is some sort of IT strategy - a plan in which both business and IT stakeholders participate, and which can be referred to and amended as priorities change.The burning question: How Can This Be Done?

IT Strategy Development: A starting Point

Here are just some of the questions along the way to establishing an IT strategy.

Where are we going as a business? How do we want to be organised to get there? What information/applications do we need? What infrastructure will help deliver our core functions to our users and clients? What sort of support will keep the whole thing going? How often does all this need to be reviewed?

Obviously, these questions must be tailored to your business; but for the majority of enterprises, large and small, , however they're dressed up, they're the same questions.

Answering the Questions

Ideally, the process of answering these questions should include the support of an aribter: an independent facilitator to this discussion. Irrespective of the size of your organisation, a technically knowledgeable outsider, with experience enough to understand your IT needs, and focussed enough to understand your business requirements, is well worth serious consideration. Above all, such a person can add a vital layer of impartiality, so resourcing arguments need never boil over.

Implementation

If considering a holistic IT strategy made you ask yourself some hard questions, that's a good thing. But implementing that strategy can be even harder. Here again, an independent facilitator with knowledge of a range of software products and solutions, can support the straightest-line purchasing solution, and can also provide a contracted service level so that, whatever is provided by way of systems solutions, you will also benefit from a fully-supported implementation.

This would include getting solutions which are workable rather than merely elegant, recommending solutions which work day-to-day for your staff and clients, offering solutions which also take into account your existing IT: (very few IT projects exist in isolation from what was there before), operating to sound budgetary limits and demonstrating a clear return on investment, as well as keeping your business running whilst work is progressing

As you can imagine, in the real world there are tradeoffs to be made. Navigating those questions is what outside consultancy expertise is all about. From initial strategy development though to pragmatic, workable implementation plans, expert consultancy ensures a successful navigation through the purchasing maze and ensures you make an informed choice for your money.

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Company Shirt Strategy Through Lifestyle Segmentation

The company shirt strategy is one of the best branding campaigns, especially if you have developed a defined segmentation of your target market. By distributing company shirts to your target market, you have made them roaming testimonials that would influence their peers in supporting your brand. But in spite of the clear fit of a company shirt strategy in brand development, many still fail to maximize this marketing approach. One reason is the failure to match the company shirt giveaway to the psychographics of the segment they are targeting.

Psychographics is a market segment with a common descriptive characteristics based on personality traits, lifestyle, or values. Amongst all consumer segmentation, psychographics is the most exact and defined. Thus, this form of segmentation results to the best understanding and connection between the firm and their target segment. Though, the downside is that it is the hardest one to measure and cluster. One way of simplifying this approach is to have some models to build upon in developing your own market niche.

In developing a company shirt strategy, the simplest models to build upon for your psychographic cluster is lifestyle segmentation. The defining characteristics for a lifestyle segmentation are hobbies, interests and other aspects of the consumer's lifestyles. And for our model we will focus on the activity that your market is commonly engaged in. The rationale: different activities would, of course, require different company shirts and apparel. For our lifestyle segmentation, we will be focusing on five major categories, namely leisure, athletic, casual, business, and social.

Leisure = Garments for lounging around, relaxing at home and doing light to moderate work out. Jeans, shorts and sweat pants fall under this category. Mostly informal clothing, company tee shirt and sweatshirts can also be put in this segment.

Athletic = Vigorous activities that require more than the minimal movement require athletic clothing. Jerseys, sports shirts, swim wear are the main components of this lifestyle segment's wardrobe.

Casual = A notch higher than leisure clothing, but not as point-driven as athletics, the casual category is dressier but is still relaxed. Most activities involved in the casual lifestyle are the afternoon and morning events. Lunch with your friends, power breakfast with the boss, church bake sales and picnic in the park are some examples. Clothing could include sun dress for women and polo shirts for men. Most would describe the kind of clothing as business casual or smart casual.

Business = Members of the business lifestyle segment are what you'd call power dressers. Company dress shirts, suit jackets and ties are the usual outfit for men. Tailored skirts, button-down shirts, silk shirts and dresses are what business women wear most.

Social = Social affairs include weddings and dinner parties as well as auctions and charity events. Clothing appropriate for the social segment are cocktail dresses and ball gowns. For men, dress shirts with slacks are the most common outfit.

In today's cutthroat marketing world, there is little room for errors. Precision marketing via lifestyle segmentation can effectively cut back on your unsuccessful strategies. This is especially useful if you are in the development phase of your company shirt strategy. Knowing exactly who your target market is and what they want is the key to lifestyle segmentation. This will help you fine tune your choice of company shirt and give you optimum ROI.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Remy_Lebeau

Do Company's Strategy Differ in Network Marketing?

When investigating different company's strategy on plans to expand into a market there are many similarities amongst rival companies, but are they missing a key opportunity?

A company's strategy often looks something like this. The first step is to decide what kind of product will be produce to meet the needs of a particular group of people. In the beginning stages they figure out exactly what that product is and more importantly build a story around it. Whether it is the origins of the ingredients or the back ground of the inventor. Right from the very start the management team understands the importance of having a marketable product that people can easily relate to.

The reason why it is important to have a product that is easy to relate to in a company's strategy is based on the philosophy that "facts tell and stories sell". So once a product and story is made, they begin to build a network of distributors to move the products through.

This is an effective way to move a product to a market but there seems to be a flaw in the company's strategy. You see, most companies are still teaching people the traditional strategies of building their Network Marketing business even though much more advanced technologies are available. These traditional methods include but are not limited to; making your names list, approaching everyone you know and come in contact with, meeting with prospect over a coffee, presenting in hotel conference rooms... and the list goes on.

The interesting part is that if you are a part on a Network Marketing company that still employs these old methods, it is up to you to search for a better way. You have to be the boss of your own business and be proactive by getting connected to materials that will teach you new strategies. Just look at the growth of your business, isn't that enough proof that you need to do something else? I can say this with such certainty because for less 5% of the people in the industry are able to support themselves off their business.

So it's not that you don't have what it takes to build a home based business. It could be that your company's strategy is simply out of date. Using technologies such as the internet is an obvious way to start to integrate technologies. Here you can build an online presence and more importantly being to build relationships with people all over the world.

Integrating technologies into your traditional business can open new opportunities that far exceed your expectation.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Taigh_G._Smyth