STRATEGY
THE THREE ‘I’s | WHOSE STRATEGY? | CONNECTIVITY | BREAKOUT | TECHNOLOGY
THANK YOU FOR DOWNLOADING OUR SECOND BUSINESS PERSPECTIVES SUMMARY. THIS QUARTERLY ISSUE FOCUSES ON STRATEGY, A LARGE, BROAD AND HIGHLY DIVERSE TOPIC THAT IS FUNDAMENTAL TO THE FUTURE SUCCESS OF ALL ORGANISATIONS, ACROSS ALL SECTORS.
OUR PREVIOUS ISSUE THAT FOCUSED ON THE HOT TOPIC OF INNOVATION IS AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD. AND OVER THE NEXT FEW MONTHS, WE’LL ADD TO THIS SERIES, AS WE EXPLORE LEADERSHIP AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP. CLICK HERE TO DISCOVER HOW YOU CAN GET INVOLVED.
THE MODERN WORLD IS A VERY COMPLEX PLACE. SOME AREAS ARE TACKLING THE ENORMOUS CHALLENGES OF RECESSION. OTHERS ARE ADJUSTING TO EXPLOSIVE GROWTH. THERE’S DISRUPTION AND CHANGE EVERYWHERE YOU LOOK. SO, WE HAVE TO RE-EVALUATE WHETHER WE NEED A STRATEGY TO BUILD AND SUSTAIN A WINNING BUSINESS.
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CONTENTS The three ‘I’s
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Whose strategy is it anyway?
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Connectivity 10 Breakout 14 Technology 18
WE NEED TO CONSIDER WHAT IT TAKES TO BE A SUCCESSFUL STRATEGIC MANAGER TODAY. AND WE MUST ASSESS HOW STRATEGY PROCESS AND PRACTICE NEED TO EVOLVE TO MEET FUTURE CHALLENGES.
FOR CENTURIES MANKIND HAS LOOKED TO THE STARS TO PREDICT THE FUTURE. BUT SCIENTISTS ARE STILL SCRATCHING THE SURFACE WHEN IT COMES TO UNDERSTANDING MATTER, ANTIMATTER AND DARK MATTER. THE WORLD OF STRATEGY CAN SEEM JUST AS COMPLEX. AND DEMANDS THE SAME DEEP INTROSPECTION. As we explored strategy around the world, three key questions emerged. The very same questions that were at the heart of our Strategy Masterclass in Manchester: •
How is strategy designed and developed, particularly in market-leading companies?
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What are the best, and worst, processes and practices for formulating competitive strategy?
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Where is strategy situated, and who is it owned by in winning enterprises?
Some pretty big questions! And a variety of experts and practitioners tackled them by providing insight across a wide range of topics on the day. Since then, their thoughts have been continually supplemented by contributions from around the world at our online home www. openbusinessperspectives.com The debate has been diverse, stimulating, entertaining and insightful. All the best bits are summarised here in these pages along with a wider world perspective of the fascinating and vital subject of strategy.
Ultimately this publication, and all content relating to Business Perspectives aims to inspire, educate, inform, enlighten and enable you to use the knowledge in your own context immediately and effectively. We’ve drawn upon our own experiences, as well as taking a nimble, global look at the latest strategy trends and themes. So, you’ll find TripAdvisor’s ‘speed wins’ philosophy alongside disruptive innovation, Trader Joe’s shoulder to shoulder with Lego and British Cycling sharing space with fighter jets. We hope you find our journey into strategy valuable. Through our academic research, work with organisations and individuals, focusing on strategy for many years, in many different contexts, we know that having the right strategy can mean the difference between £multi-billion success and going out of business. In this day and age, businesses and public sector organisations can no longer stand still and do the same old thing, they need to innovate, explore and refine the way they devise their strategies.
A GLOBAL PROVIDER OF MBAs, WE’VE A TRULY INSPIRING NETWORK. WE’VE ALUMNI IN OVER 100 COUNTRIES AND A POSTGRADUATE BUSINESS COMMUNITY OF OVER 85,000 PROFESSIONALS. THAT’S A VAST AMOUNT OF EXPERIENCE AND KNOWLEDGE. AND WE’D LIKE TO TAP INTO IT FOR THE BENEFIT OF ALL. THROUGH A COMBINATION OF ONLINE EVENTS AND FORUMS AND LIVE EVENTS WHERE WE CAN MEET FACE-TO-FACE, WE HOPE TO CONNECT PEOPLE, HARNESS DIVERSE EXPERTISE, SHARE LEARNING, ENHANCE KNOWLEDGE AND GENERATE NEW BUSINESS IDEAS AND INSIGHT. GET INVOLVED HERE.
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PROFESSOR THOMAS LAWTON
Professor of Strategy and International Management Open University Business School Visiting Professor of Business Administration at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth,USA
ANTOINE BOATWRIGHT Global Services Marketing Operations Director, Dell MBA – Reading University
MIKE BARNARD
Executive Director of Customer Management and International, Capita
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OUBS PERSPECTIVE IT DOESN’T MATTER WHETHER YOUR BUSINESS IS BRAND NEW OR DECADES OLD, THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SUCCESS AND FAILURE IN THE FUTURE DEPENDS ON YOUR ABILITY TO CREATE AND IMPLEMENT THE RIGHT STRATEGIES. FROM MULTINATIONALS AND SMES TO GOVERNMENTS AND THE WIDER PUBLIC SECTOR, ORGANISATIONS NEED TO PREPARE FOR THE CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES OF TOMORROW TO AVOID BEING THE NEXT COMET, WOOLWORTHS OR HMV. INNOVATE, INTERNATIONALISE & INTEGRATE We live in volatile times. So, if you want to grow, and grow your business in a sustainable way, you should have a clear and certain strategy that works for you and your organisation. What’s more, it has to be shared and communicated clearly and comprehensively. Your strategy must be lived, breathed and continually reinforced and supported. At our Masterclass, Professor Thomas Lawton highlighted that people often confuse true strategy and day-to-day tactics. And different companies react differently to big challenges: Some hesitate and fail like Woolworths and Comet. HMV seemed determined to be ‘the last man standing’ on the high street, as online innovators provided customers with film and music the way they wanted it, at prices they were willing to pay. Read more in this interesting article by Damien Reece at the Telegraph. Some entrench and protect such as Honda UK. They’ve reluctantly announced major job cuts in the UK despite a recruitment drive last year. Some cloak urgent structural change. This is exemplified by Sony who are refocusing and reducing headcount by 10,000 to turnaround a $6.4 billion loss in 2011.
Some lead the way with strategic innovation. Apple, Amazon, Google and P&G lead the way in the list of most innovative companies. Discover why. Some reinvent established models. Like Ryanair who have reinvented short haul air travel in Europe through an almost maniacal focus on having the lowest costs in the market. Here’s the SWOT analysis. Some ambitious organisations seize the opportunity to conquer. Intel for example has a very big vision – to connect and enrich the lives of everyone on the planet. Watch their video. They’re convinced they’re going to do it. And they’ve the strategy in place to pull it off. Professor Lawton’s three ‘I’s (Innovate, Internationalise & Integrate) that underpin the ability to grow through strategy, were a recurring theme throughout the day, featuring in: • Antoine Boatwright’s advice on executing strategy in a global context. • Mike Barnard’s interesting views on organisational ‘connective tissue’. Professor Lawton also made it abundantly clear that strategy (and great strategy) is not the exclusive property of big corporations or ‘the chosen few’ in an organisation. Strategy and its nimble execution should be for all kinds of people in all kinds of roles. So, who exactly does own strategy and what works best?
GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE A NEW STRATEGY DOESN’T HAVE TO BE DRAMATIC AND ALL-ENCOMPASSING. AND IT DOESN’T NEED MONTHS OF SOUL-SEARCHING AND CONTEMPLATION. JUST LOOK AT THE SIMPLICITY OF THE STRATEGY OF ‘MARGINAL GAINS’. OK, IT MIGHT NOT HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH BUSINESS. BUT IT HAS TURNED GREAT BRITAIN’S CYCLING TEAM INTO THE WORLD’S DOMINANT FORCE. AND IT’S SO SIMPLE RIVALS THINK IT’S A COVER FOR SOMETHING MORE SINISTER. THE FRENCH HAVE EVEN ALLEGED THE USE OF ‘MAGIC’ WHEELS THAT ARE ROUNDER THAN THEIR WHEELS. BUT THE WHEELS OF BOTH TEAMS ARE MADE BY THE SAME COMPANY IN FRANCE. THERE ARE THREE ‘I’s IN TEAM
SUMMARY
When British Cycling’s Performance Director Dave Brailsford went on BBC Breakfast after a brilliant Olympics, the sporting world held its breath. What was the secret of such success? A revolutionary new strategy? A brand new philosophy? Witchcraft? The answer seemed to lie in cleaning your hands properly and taking your own pillow with you. The world started to breathe again and was totally underwhelmed. But the strategy of ‘marginal gains’ underpinned everything the cycling team did.
Strategy isn’t something you sit down and have a meeting about once every year. It’s something that guides your business, galvanises your people and you need to work hard at 24/7 to make sure you’re heading in the right direction.
In Dave Brailsford’s words - “The whole principle came from the idea that if you broke down everything you could think of that goes into riding a bike, and then improved it by 1%, you will get a significant increase when you put them all together. They’re tiny things but if you clump them together it makes a big difference.” The difference being 7 out of 10 track cycling gold medals in two consecutive Olympics. Now think of it from a business perspective. Everybody in every role trying to improve everything they do by just 1%. And then all of these improvements being adopted as best practice. It’s a simple strategy – but it might just work.
USEFUL LINKS BBC The Art of Strategy
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ANYWAY? OUBS PERSPECTIVE WHO DEFINES STRATEGY? WHO OWNS STRATEGY? WHO SHARES STRATEGY? AND HOW DO WE ANSWER SUCH FUNDAMENTAL QUESTIONS? THERE ARE MANY DIFFERENT WAYS TO ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS FROM INSPIRATIONAL LEADERSHIP, DEFINED STRATEGY TEAMS AND EXTERNAL CONSULTANTS TO PRODUCT LED APPROACHES, PROCESS LED APPROACHES AND EVEN GROUP THERAPY. HOWEVER THERE’S ONE THING THAT ALL OF OUR MASTERCLASS CONTRIBUTORS AGREED ON – THAT EVEN THE VERY BEST STRATEGIES CAN FAIL IF THEY AREN’T SHARED, COMMUNICATED AND SUPPORTED ACROSS AN ORGANISATION. 8
Mike Barnard, Executive Director of Customer Management & International for Capita, drew upon his career experiences at Capita and Cable & Wireless to highlight four key ingredients for wider success: • Market led rigour and ambition • Acute situational awareness • The ability to adapt • A close and meaningful relationship between the boardroom and frontline He stressed that without the effective communication of strategy through what he termed ‘connective tissue’ then you couldn’t hope to succeed. Alex Wright builds on this theme on our blog. He puts forward the case that middle managers aren’t opposers, ‘foot-draggers’ or saboteurs when it comes to strategy. ‘Middle managers are strategists too, you know’.
‘Traditional views of strategy saw formulation and implementation as separated activities, yet we have known for some time that strategy is just as likely to emerge as it is to be planned and executed. Emergent strategy, I contend, is most likely to evolve through the acts of middle managers than of senior managers, for it is only middle managers who have the flexibility and willingness to change and adapt needed for emergent strategy to appear.’ David Mayle agreed, commenting – ‘Amazingly the portrayal of middle management as the NCOs of business and commerce still persists in so many organisations, with the unfortunate corollary that ‘senior’ management then retreat into the boardroom and become divorced from implementation and the feedback that it provides.’ Senior Business Consultant Michael Canning is well versed in how it should be done. And he shared his experiences of working with all kinds of companies and cultures to give a real insight into how the external, objective view can really help to define winning strategies. His example of the adoption of a new business strategy delivering substantial growth for a global credit card company brought this view strikingly to life. It’s clear that strategy has to be a living part of any organisation. And you have to share it properly, day in, day out.
ALEX WRIGHT
Lecturer in Strategic Management Open University Business School
DAVID MAYLE
Lecturer in Management and a member of The Open University’s Centre for Human Resource and Change Management
MICHAEL CANNING
Senior Business Consultant MBA
ALISON COPUS
Vice President, Marketing, TripAdvisor for Business
SPOTLIGHT ON TRIPADVISOR It’s a fascinating story. And one that we should all be aware of. Alison Copus Vice President, Marketing, TripAdvisor for Business brought it to life through her presentation TripAdvisor by Numbers at our Masterclass. In her own words, the main focus was based on the idea that “sometimes you may not have a strategy to point at – it may be more of a philosophy”. Similar to the GB Cycling Team’s marginal gains, TripAdvisor believe in incremental improvement through attention to the product, rather than months spent agonising over ‘the way forward’. And it really works in their high tempo, technology based environment. At TripAdvisor, the way forward is clear. The question is - how quickly can they get there? Alison opened a few eyes, and minds, by describing how in their fast paced world of constant challenge, flex and action - TripAdvisor really lived and breathed a properly shared approach to strategy. Here, strategy isn’t reactive. It’s driven by an institutional and collective energy to keep moving and keep advancing. There’s no room for ego, reputation or seniority – only a crucial desire to grow.
The more cynical may question how such an approach can work in the dog-eat-dog world of business. But TripAdvisor recognised early on that the power of partnerships was immensely strong. And it now attracts six times as many users through partner sites as through direct visits. Having your frenemies work with you makes sense not only as an operational framework but also as a core strategy. So, instead of worrying about the competition or agonising over strategy, TripAdvisor are able to save a huge amount of time that they put into developing and polishing their product. Rest assured there is a strategy – you don’t become so successful without one. It’s just simplified, shared and consistently tested – all through the product and by everyone involved.
SUMMARY Strategy can come from the top. But it’s better if it’s everyone’s strategy, everyone can own it and it inspires and encourages rather than restricts and alienates.
It’s perfectly summed up with their ‘speed wins’ philosophy that has helped TripAdvisor to become a genuine gamechanger in the world of travel planning. And this ‘speed wins’, ‘constantly iterate’, ‘don’t fear mistakes’ attitude is indicative of the new breed of technology and content companies. Now, you’d have thought such an enviable approach would have gained them a few enemies. But they are far too nice for that. And they have a rather refreshing TripAdvisor attitude to competition. In a world where content is king, it’s very hard to ‘own’ opinion and input - you’d need an army of lawyers. So, instead they win wars through making peace. Alison pointed out the successes that can be had by embracing potential competitors (Google and Facebook in TripAdvisor’s case). Or as they put it – making ‘frenemies’!
USEFUL LINKS TripAdvisor Focus on Hotels, Social Media & Mobile are paying off The Open University Business School Collaboration
PROFESSOR THOMAS LAWTON
Professor of Strategy and International Management Open University Business School Visiting Professor of Business Administration at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth,USA
ANTOINE BOATWRIGHT Global Services Marketing Operations Director, Dell MBA – Reading University
ONN Y OUBS PERSPECTIVE IN TODAY’S WORLD EVERYTHING IS MORE TRANSPARENT. AND STRATEGY IS NO EXCEPTION. IT’S THERE FOR ALL TO SEE INTERNALLY AND EXTERNALLY. SOME BOARDROOMS SEE THIS TRANSPARENCY AS INTRUSIVE, UNWELCOME AND EVEN UNTENABLE. WHILE OTHERS RECOGNISE THAT STRATEGY HAS A SIGNIFICANT IMPACT ON BOTH COMMERCIAL OUTTURN AND PUBLIC PERCEPTION. STRATEGY CAN NO LONGER BE BOLTED ONTO A COMPANY’S WORKINGS – IT HAS TO BE BUILT IN.
INTERNAL CONNECTIVITY Antoine Boatwright, Global Services Marketing Operations Director, Dell believes that when it comes to strategy, it’s essential to bring your company and colleagues with you in the most positive way. And he used his own company Dell as an example. He told us how imperative it was to synchronise global operations, as the company shifted to a far more globally strategic objective alignment. Central control increased very sharply with strategy and planning both underpinned by an ongoing focus on values and competencies. It is well worth seeing highlights of his presentation on our website, especially when it comes to drawing comparisons between global and local behaviours/strengths.
THE THREE ‘C’s Thomas Lawton finished with another alliteration – the three ‘C’s this time. To get everybody on board with your strategy, you need to look at your organisation’s Context, Culture and Complexity. External and internal communications must be consistent, joined-up and have a multitude of input from all kinds of quarters.
GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT REALLY MATTERS, RIGHT NOW TO THE WORLD’S LEADING CEOs AND PUBLIC SECTOR LEADERS – THE IBM GLOBAL CEO STUDY 2012 IS A GREAT PLACE TO START. THE REPORT FOCUSES ON THE NEED FOR PARTNERSHIPS, FOR TRANSPARENCY AND FOR DEVELOPING AND COMMUNICATING STRATEGY THROUGH EMPLOYEES, CUSTOMERS, PARTNERS AND A MYRIAD OF CONNECTIONS. IT’S NEVER BEEN SO IMPORTANT TO CONNECT WITH YOUR CUSTOMERS, EMPLOYEES AND COMPETITORS. HERE’S WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE WORLD TODAY.
CONNECTING BEYOND THE BOARDROOM
CONNECTING WITH YOUR PEOPLE
No man is an island - Some CEOs can live life in splendid isolation. Not Ben Lewis, CEO of retail chain River Island. He visits stores every week. He reviews competitor websites. He looks at Facebook posts and anything he can get his hands on. “I’m hungry for information all the time. I review customer service comments, I talk to store managers, I talk to friends and the children of friends, I talk to staff that work in the fitting room, I talk to the buying team about the information they’re gathering.”
It’s obvious that strategies need the buy in of your employees. Your strategy will live and thrive with their support. Your strategy will die without it.
It would be great to see more and more CEOs living and breathing their industry in such a way. It’s a sentiment echoed by Vittorio Colaco, CEO of Vodafone – “One of the problems of CEOs is that we risk living in a bubble – only taking British Airways, living in airport lounges and corporate boardrooms and talking only to other CEOs. My challenge is to keep learning new things in both my personal life and my business life.” ‘Undercover Boss’ is a popular TV series in the UK and US. Business pages zoom in on it. CEOs get a lot from the experience. And the concept of CEOs going back to the shop floor to experience the reality is very much in fashion. Clearly there’s significant value for strategy leaders to see how it really is out there with frontline staff, customers and partners.
Rewards for all - The Tesco Clubcard is widely considered to be a true pioneer and a major success story in loyalty marketing. With the data the card collects, Tesco is able to evaluate all sorts of shopping behaviour and break it right down into postcode analysis and demographics. It’s certainly been a key driver behind much of Tesco’s strategy since 1995. However, the Clubcard strategy wouldn’t have been so successful if the 130,000 till staff hadn’t got fully behind the programme. To make sure this did happen Operation Checkout was launched to train, inform and get the support of employees. And it wasn’t just the training that helped. The till staff really tapped into one key facet of the programme - the rewards points. They were so keen to share these benefits with customers, nobody ever mentioned the mass data collection and analysis. The truth doesn’t hurt - Leading law firm Allen & Overy are connecting with their people on a whole new level through a principle called ‘advanced’. They promote behavioural change by constantly challenging employees to question everything. This has been introduced gradually at grassroots level, so it’s not seen as orders from the top.
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CONNECTING WITH CUSTOMERS
CONNECTING WITH PARTNERS
Surviving by listening to clients - In 1992 IBM lost $8.1 billion. More than any American company ever! The personal computer had well and truly disrupted IBM. New CEO Lou Gerstner had no computing experience. He was the first CEO recruited from outside IBM since 1914. And it was his job to turn things round. In many ways he had to listen to clients to understand the key problem. He listened and he realised that clients were missing something that would help them integrate all of the new emerging technologies (many of which had disrupted IBM in the first place). Gerstner’s response was simply to halt the break up of IBM into different business units and to pull it all back together to offer the integrated support the market demanded.
Choose wisely – The recent revelation that Foxconn employed 14-year old interns in China followed numerous reports of poor working conditions, minute wages and suicides. As they make components for iPods and iPads, Apple has clearly been tainted with Foxconn’s wrongdoings. While they are no doubt exerting pressure to improve practices, you could argue that they failed to get a real grip on the problems that the partnership could cause.
Reacting differently to different global customers In some countries a doctor prescribes the pharmaceuticals a patient needs. The patient doesn’t get to choose the brand. But in other parts of the world they do. And this has a big impact on strategy. In these countries (especially in emerging markets), GSK’s strategy has to connect with both consumers and health professionals to make sure they are aware of the reputation and quality of the GSK brand. For example Horlicks, the health food drink is massive in India. And it’s used to help reassure people in the private payer pharmaceutical market that GSK drugs provide similar quality you can trust.
Blind spot - Connecting with direct partners to shape and promote strategy is understandable. But watch out for the blind spot - the other players in the market, the indirect partnerships and the whole market momentum. Philips pioneered HDTV in the mid 1980s. Yes the 80s! Customers loved the new technology and Philips kept spending fortunes. The overwhelming strategy was to drive and lead this exciting new technology. However, it all went wrong. HDTV is dependent on other innovations and at the time nobody had developed the cameras, the production and transmission standards crucial to its success. That took 20 years to really happen. Meanwhile Philips had a $2.5b write-down.
Click here to watch the video. CFO Simon Dingemans goes on to explain how ‘on track’ they are, providing a great example of clarity of strategy and transparency for investors, as well as the wider market and TV viewers.
CONNECTING WITH FUNDING Crowdsourcing start-ups - Start-ups may have a strategy in mind. But they often need kick starting. And now they can look beyond stock exchanges and venture capitalists to attract investment. The web is full of sites that allow entrepreneurs to post big ideas, and investors (including potential customers) to offer funding. Just take a look at how the Spira Stinger 2 running shoe (claimed to be on the feet of 150 recent marathon winners) has doubled its investment target and how a pie shop raised enough money to open in New York. True pie-oneers. Crowdfunding is one of the top trends loved by presumers and has led to the creation of a number of interestingly named platforms such as Lucky Ant and Kickstarter.
However don’t let this one experience put you off. There are many good examples of strong strategic partnerships being forged from the outset. When Tesla recently bought factory space from Toyota to make their high performance electric cars, Toyota then agreed to invest back $50m in Tesla to help it before it floats.
Building blocks - Lego’s failure to capitalise on the rise of electronic games is well documented. However, since then Lego have checked all the mirrors, listened to retailers and customers, and developed new strategies that embrace a multitude of partners and markets. Brick by brick Lego have embraced innovation and outside invention to build a new empire - expanding into theme parks, movies, robots, books and games. And to wrap it all up Lego is now on the cover of many of the biggest selling games for the PS3, Wii and Xbox.
CONNECTING WITH THE PLANET Greenwashing – Yes there are a few companies out there using the guise of social responsibility to deceive, cover up and profit from less scrupulous activities. However, there are many others who are genuine about their green contribution, and who recognise the ethical and commercial benefits. In fact, there’s a strong argument that ‘capitalist’ business models are fundamental if business is to benefit society. Michael Porter supports this idea of ‘shared value’ and his current business heroes are those who are connecting commercially successful strategy with pressing social problems to solve them. He picks out Novo Nordisk as a particularly shining example as they profitably provide affordable diabetes drugs in low income countries. Wearing your heart on your sleeve - For a good example of an organisation that makes socially responsible connections part of its own strategy and embeds responsibility throughout the organisation – look at Siemens. They are proud of their partnerships with United Nations Global Compact, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, the WEC and more. They have now also gone one step further. Energy efficiency is vital for the planet and Siemens have launched a brand new gas turbine (at 440 tonnes the biggest and most efficient in the world) - a key strategic move and a major indication to where the company wants to go. The real thing - Water is one of the key elements of CocaCola’s sustainability strategy. The world is concerned about water availability in the future. And at a global level their core goal is to achieve ‘water balance’, an issue China is particularly concerned about. So, since 2006 Coca-Cola have invested over $36m in Chinese water sustainability programmes to help ensure water resources remain equal to water consumed in production. The right thing – A partnership between the Grameen Bank and Danone, Grameen Danone provides affordable yoghurt to the poorest people in Bangladesh and India. It’s a good example of how strategy can connect with the more urgent problems facing our world. Grameen Danone doesn’t just help feed people - it creates value and opportunity across the whole supply chain, creating opportunities for farmers, sellers and entrepreneurs. By making this initiative a core part of its strategy, Danone secures brand equity and improved CSR - key on any board agenda. Sustainable consumption – Not only is there such a thing, it’s increasing everyday. More and more people are questioning the products they buy and the services they use, asking if they could be more responsible. In fact, a new study by BBMG, GlobeScan and SustainAbility found that the majority of consumers across six international markets are seeking to reconcile their desire for shopping and style with responsibility to the environment and society through their purchases.
And that was before the European horsemeat scandal that has seen consumers become more sceptical and discerning about the food they eat. All of this of course impacts on market trends and strategy. Social Responsibility becomes part of the connectivetissue. It changes the way people see, connect and empathise with your business. The real world – Unfortunately we don’t live in a perfect world, so doing the right thing doesn’t always get the right results. The consumer surveys combined with demand from around the world to reduce obesity should have meant PepsiCo’s ambitious strategy to double revenue from nutritional soft drinks and snacks would have been a sure-fire hit. BUT in some markets customers aren’t as ready as they may think they are. The CEO of PepsiCo has been accused by investors of taking her eye off core brands, spending too much time on the wrong things. And people aren’t buying the healthier stuff. Another example of this is McDonalds who have spent a lot of time and money over the years to introduce healthier options but their customers are still buying lots of Big Mac.
CONNECTING WITH YOUR CULTURE It’s what defines you. And your culture could be your only really truly sustainable competitive advantage. Just think about it! Your talent can be bought. And no matter how much you patent, trademark and cloak, your competitors can peel back the layers and see what you actually do. Enough to copy and hurt you. But your culture? That’s unique to you. And culture change has been instrumental in supporting strategic change in many of the big turnarounds. IBM and HP are often quoted. There are many more. And there are numerous examples where culture has kick-started the strategy and even generated it. Where would Virgin be without its culture?
SUMMARY Connections have always been part of business. And today we live in a more connected world than ever. So, it makes perfect sense to have a strategy that connects with your people, customers, partners, investors, communities and wider world like never before. Just think of the opportunities, ideas and potential that lie beyond the boardroom.
USEFUL LINKS Thinkers50 How much time do and should business leaders spend on the front-line?
EVAN DAVIS
Presenter - BBC Radio 4 ‘Today’ Former Economics Editor BBC
PROFESSOR THOMAS LAWTON
Professor of Strategy and International Management Open University Business School
MICHAEL CANNING
Senior Business Consultant MBA
Visiting Professor of Business Administration at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth,USA
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OUBS PERSPECTIVE AT OUR STRATEGY MASTERCLASS HELD IN MANCHESTER IN FEBRUARY, PROFESSOR LAWTON LED A SESSION CALLED ‘BREAKOUT’ THAT EXPLORED HOW INNOVATIVE COMPANIES BROKE AWAY FROM THEIR COMPETITORS AND LED THE WAY IN THE MARKET. DURING HIS PRESENTATION, HE DEFINED FOUR VERY DIFFERENT ROUTES TO BREAKOUT – ‘TAKING BY STORM’, ‘LAGGARD TO LEADER’, ‘EXPANDING HORIZONS’ AND ‘SHIFTING SHAPE’. HE ALSO EMPHASISED THAT – “COMPANIES CAN BREAK OUT IN DIFFERENT WAYS AT VARIOUS POINTS IN THEIR HISTORY AND SOME COMPANIES MAY EVEN EXPERIENCE ALL FOUR FORMS OF BREAKOUT DURING THE COURSE OF THEIR CORPORATE LIFECYCLE.” HE SHOWED HOW VERY DIFFERENT COMPANIES HAD ADOPTED THESE BREAKOUT ROUTES. TAKING BY STORM
SHIFTING SHAPE
Truly original companies like Google are famous for this. While Irish gaming company Paddy Power have stayed ahead of their rivals by reinventing the way people gamble, revolutionising established markets around the world.
As for the intriguingly named Shape Shifters, IBM are a prime example. While the UK animation company HIT, famous for children’s programmes like Bob the Builder have gone beyond entertainment and became the largest independent owners of preschool intellectual property, until it was bought by Mattel for $680 million.
LAGGARD TO LEADER Chinese companies like Tencent have transformed their operational efficiencies and are now dominating sectors and experiencing explosive growth. The company claims its WeChat service has the largest user base in the world after Facebook - and is growing at a faster rate!
EXPANDING HORIZONS In Mexico, concrete manufacturer Cemex have achieved true global leadership through a strategy of acquisition, that has been closely and aggressively managed. “When one wants to globalize a company, especially when it is from a developing country like Mexico, you really need to apply more advanced management techniques to do things better.” – Lorenzo Zambrano, Chairman and CEO, CEMEX (Latin Finance, April 1, 2002). Still family owned, they’ve expanded by buying all over the world and instilling their values in local markets.
While all of the breakout routes are very different, they have all been driven by highly ambitious strategies that have left the competition scrambling to keep up. But before you can embark on any successful strategy, Mike Barnard points out that it’s imperative to have a deep situational awareness. Whatever your business does, you have to be honest when assessing where you are. Breakout can happen. You just have to know where you are to start with.
GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE LEAP OR BUST. SOMETIMES YOU JUST HAVE TO GO FOR IT! HERE’S A ROUND UP OF SOME OF THE BEST STORIES FROM AROUND THE WORLD OF COMPANIES LEADING MAJOR BREAKOUTS IN THEIR MARKETS. TAKE OFF STRATEGY When Tom Burbage and the 500 strong team at Lockheed Martin went after the biggest military deal in US history – they didn’t play it safe – they played to win. It’s a fascinating story with high stakes, internal battles and alliances with the enemy to win a $200 billion contract to build the Joint Strike Fighter (possibly the military’s last manned fighter jet).
IT’S ALL IN THE GAME As the McKinsey Quarterly highlighted in January 2013 ‘The success of Electronic Arts - known for games such as Battlefield, Madden, and The Sims - once hinged on managing relationships with retailers. Today, with online gaming on the rise, the company is learning how to use technology to get closer to the gamers themselves.’ When John Riccitiello became CEO in 2007, he borrowed from the now-infamous memo by Nokia chief Stephen Elop - ‘You’re in the middle of the ocean on an oil platform that is on fire; your options are to hold fast and ride it down or jump off and face the unknowns of the ocean.’ He anticipated the shift from the packaged-goods model that made EA successful towards the digital delivery of the game. It was a shift, that at the time, EA were fundamentally unprepared for - but they responded. And now they are going beyond the game.
LEAP OUT OF THE BOX Nike is a great example of a company that refuses to stay put. And refuses to hang on to a core competency and core set of skills. Nike is famous across the world for sports apparel. Now it wants to be famous for iPhone apps that track our everyday health. It wants to leap into a whole new world and be known for both shoes AND software. As Nike CEO Mark Parker puts it – “Business models are not meant to be static. In the world we live in today, you have to adapt and change. One of my fears is being this big, slow, constipated, bureaucratic company that’s happy with its success. That will wind up being your death in the end.”
STAY IN THE BOX Some CEOs may be keen to mention the likes of Nike, Netflix and Apple when encouraging their directors to think about how they can infiltrate new markets, extend differently or find a space where the grass might be greener. However, it’s worth pausing a moment before making such a leap – as not everyone should make it. Just look at the facts. According to Evan Hirsh and Kasturi Rangan in the Harvard Business Review in February 2013 the data fails to support the greener grass analogy. ‘In almost every case, a bigger opportunity lies in improving your performance in the industry you’re in, by fixing your strategy and strengthening the capabilities that create value for customers and separate you from your competitors. We reached this conclusion after analysing shareholder returns for 6,138 companies in 65 industries worldwide from 2001 to 2011. Firms in the top quartile had annual total shareholder returns of 17% or more. Every major industry had at least one company with a TSR that high. Some industries did a little better, some a little worse, but the top performers in all did incredibly well. Their CEOs didn’t have to seek deliverance elsewhere.’
BE DIFFERENT Being the same as everybody else won’t help you to stand out in a crowded market. Trader Joe’s in the US for example gained a competitive advantage, simply by being very different. They focused on large-scale food retailing from an immigrant perspective - and now have 344 stores in 25 states. Forbes recently described the retailer as ‘diversity on steroids’ with its ‘non-conventional, culturally-tailored approach and attitude’ embedded in absolutely everything.
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A SIMILAR STORY
DEALING WITH DISRUPTION
Wholefoods became one of the biggest retailers in the US by differentiating itself from its competitors. Its unique value proposition and commitment to natural foods made it stand out from the rest.
The 2013 PWC Annual CEO Survey cover reads: ‘Dealing with disruption. Adapting to survive and thrive.’ That’s the headline from 1330 CEOs in 68 countries.
Despite its size, Wholefoods has still to break out into the world of e-commerce and online delivery. According to business news reports it’s still at the ‘ideation’ phase. Which just goes to show that to be successful you don’t have to leap immediately, or at all, in the way people might expect.
ONE STEP BACK, ONE LEAP FORWARD 16
BP is in the midst of a ‘shrink to grow’ strategy to create a leaner and more profitable company. And as reported in The Times in February 2013, one of the largest disposal programmes in corporate history has taken its toll. A $65b asset sale resulted in a 20% slump in 4th quarter profits and a 7% drop in production. However, BP does need to improve in the long term and CEO Bob Dudley has made it clear that there are no short cuts in ‘making BP safer and stronger’ in the future.
THE SIDESTEP Nintendo Wii believed that the video game industry had focused so much on existing gamers, that it had completely neglected the untapped world of non-gamers who could well be the source of future growth. The result? Wii stormed the market capturing millions of new users that the PS3 and Xbox had continued to ignore. Now apps and Facebook games have targeted the same audience – so we’re all now gamers!
And they are right to be fearful when you think that many of the companies our grandparents admired have disappeared without a trace. According to Deloitte’s Shift Index, the average life expectancy of a Fortune 500 company was 75 years half a century ago and is now less than 15 years today. And it’s heading towards 5 years if nothing is done. So, what’s the secret? IBM is rightfully admired for being a company that adapts to survive, listens to its clients and then flicks the strategic switches to constantly reinvent itself. Once famous for office PCs, it’s now famous for its services and ‘smarter planet’.
SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST Evolution isn’t about being the biggest and strongest – just look at the dinosaurs. You have to adapt and be nimble if you want to survive. Just take a look at the stories of Smiths and Weir. They are the only two engineering firms in the FTSE 100 that were founded in Victorian Britain and are still independently managed. Both have adapted over the years. And both are remarkable survivors. Weir followed the major waves of the time, leaping just at the right time from shipbuilding to oil discovery. While Smiths began as a clockmaker and then made its name in automotive before its success in aircraft instruments, medical equipment and other niches. Both stories highlight how hard it can be to evolve strategy amidst the tension between globalisation and British heritage.
USEFUL LINKS McKinsey&Company The perils of best practice: Should you emulate Apple? Forbes Why Clayton Christensen worries about Apple
PARENT COMPANIES WITH A DIFFERENCE
MISSING THE LEAP
Amazon has the look of a great survivor. It’s all about the bigger game plan and thinking many moves ahead. In a world of tech companies that knee-jerk, leap and bounce around, Amazon has a more systematic and purposeful strategy. Forbes recently described Amazon as ‘dealing with its market is the corporate equivalent of a patient, low-reactor parent dealing with a child throwing a tantrum.’
If a big leap doesn’t work out – it can hurt! Caterpillar CEO Douglas Oberhelman made all the right noises – “We’re going to play offense, and we’re going to win. We will win in China.” However this big strategy statement soon backfired as the company unknowingly sank almost $900m into a fraud. What began as an attempt to invest in China, ended up as a $580m write-down only 7 months later. A hardhitting reminder that big leaps can spectacularly miss. And you need to understand local markets before you leap.
IF YOU CAN’T BEAT THEM – CANNIBALISE Major US book retailer Barnes & Noble has responded to the success of Amazon and the migration of customers from print to online through strategies focused on service, customer experience (coffee) and packaging (hard and soft copies together). They’ve even launched the Nook, their own version of the Kindle, as they recognise the need to cannibalise its traditional product to survive. It’s often argued that it was Kodak’s fear of cannibalising its core product that led to it missing the digital boat and the subsequent massive downturn in its size over the last 10 years (Kodak employed 47,000 people in 2003 and 17,000 in 2012). All of this despite a great reputation for innovation and employing the people who created the digital camera. And talking of cameras, Steve Jobs founded Apple on the Polaroid model with the latter’s fall being just as spectacular as Apple’s rise. Although Polaroid now have a shiny new strategy in place.
DON’T FORGET THE PAST In a great article in the Economist, Andrew Hill talked about the importance of considering the past in future strategy. He drew on the particularly interesting case of Handelsbanken who, ‘ in contrast to banking rivals that seem afflicted by chronic short-term memory loss’ kept 140 years of board minutes to help teach its young managers about periodic crisis. Whilst the bank has evolved its business models with the times it hasn’t forgotten its heritage.
SUMMARY Today supermarkets are taking on big banks. Small startups are toppling big names. And whole markets can be wiped out in the blink of an eye. Don’t be afraid to think differently. Don’t be afraid to cannibalise your own market. And never think you’re safe – that’s when you’re most vulnerable to disruption.
OUBS PERSPECTIVE TECHNOLOGY AND STRATEGY. IT CAN BE A POTENT COMBINATION. BUT A COMMON MISTAKE FOR MANY IS THINKING THAT TECHNOLOGY IS THE STRATEGY. SO THEY PUT FAITH INTO TECHNICAL TOOLS INSTEAD OF TRUE INNOVATION IN PRODUCT, PROCESS AND SERVICE. THE HUMAN ELEMENT IS STILL VALUABLE, ADDING LEARNING FROM PAST EXPERIENCES AND GENUINE INTUITION. MIKE BARNARD SHARED A GREAT EXAMPLE OF THIS WHEN HE TRIED TO IMPROVE THE EFFICIENCY OF A RECORD LABEL BY APPLYING SIMILAR PROCESSES TO MAJOR PHARMACEUTICAL OPERATIONS. IT LOOKED GOOD ON PAPER. BUT IT WAS A REAL NO GO. WITHOUT EMPATHY FOR THE RECORD BUSINESS, AN APPRECIATION OF THEIR WORKING METHODS AND THE ‘HUMAN’ ELEMENT - IT PROVED IMPOSSIBLE!
HNOLOGY
Having said that, you can’t underestimate the importance of technology. After all, it’s radically changed the way we formulate and apply strategy in the modern world. Technology is a vital tool helping organisations to: • Communicate across the globe (as Antoine Boatwright at Dell and Mike Barnard of Capita pointed out) • Constantly release and test products in a real-time environment (this is a key component of TripAdvisor’s technology strategy. And technology was a key driver in changing the company’s business model) • Globalise businesses as a whole (a particular theme of Evan Davis’s presentation and work here at OUBS).
EVAN DAVIS
Presenter - BBC Radio 4 ‘Today’ Former Economics Editor BBC
ALISON COPUS
Vice President, Marketing, TripAdvisor for Business
GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE TECHNOLOGY HAS CHANGED OUR WORLD. BUT HOW IS IT GOING TO CHANGE OUR FUTURE? AND WHAT NEW DEVELOPMENTS DO YOU NEED TO BE AWARE OF WHEN SHAPING, DEVELOPING OR REVISING YOUR STRATEGY?
TECHNOLOGY TRENDS If you want to delve into the impact technology has on strategy then take a look at Gartner’s Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2013. These trends can be found all over the internet with such phrases as ‘personal and hybrid clouds’, ‘mobile and applications’, the ‘internet of things’, ‘strategic big data’, ‘actionable analytics’ and, wait for it, ‘integrated ecosystems’. Well worth a read. And these aren’t just the latest buzzwords. They are serious business considerations. However, for some lighter reading try the Netflix debate, as told by the Harvard Business Review. ‘They know which movies sell well at 8:00 on a Friday night and which ones we like to watch on Sunday afternoon. They can surmise which directors, writers, and stars produce the most watchable entertainment. They have magnificent data.’ But can this data really influence the people who make the films? The movie directors themselves? It’s a neat, thought-provoking angle that may get you thinking about the whole business strategydata opportunity.
BIG DATA
DATA IS POWER Ginny Rometty, CEO of IBM, introduced the 2012 IBM Global CEO Study with this statement: ‘Every two years for the last decade, we’ve had the privilege of sitting down with CEOs and public sector leaders in every part of the world to gauge their perspective on emerging trends and issues. This year, they identified the overflow of data and information as one of the most important issues influencing their strategic business decisions. In conducting this study, it’s not hard to understand why. CEOs are looking beyond the benefits of connected supply chains and more integrated back-office systems. Their focus is shifting to the power and potential of recent advances in social media and analytics to reimagine connections among people - whether that’s customers, employees, partners, investors or the world at large.’ We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.
It’s the big issue of the day. And one that can’t be ignored. Jeff Henley, the CEO of Oracle, gives a great overview, as reported by Forbes late in 2012 - Big Data, business analytics, and new cloud, mobile, and social technology are driving “one of the most important inflection points in the history of technology” by dramatically “transforming how individuals work and companies compete”. Much of the talk is still about potential. About how the harnessing of huge amounts of data, often complex, can revolutionise how a company approaches strategy. Ever read ‘Moneyball’? Or seen the film? The Oakland A’s baseball team used data analytics to their advantage to storm the world of American sport. And Forbes recently highlighted how companies could harness this potential and optimism to achieve the same thing by utilising predictive business analytics. ‘Mining enterprise data effectively to extract actionable business insights can provide executives not only the means to make better strategic decisions, but to also improve the critical, day-to-day decisions made at the front lines of business.’
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NEXT STOP REVOLUTION Roger Roberts, a partner at McKinsey & Company compares the big data management revolution to water sitting behind a dam, waiting for release. “If you clear away the barriers of decision making in organisations — and regulations — you will see a tremendous amount of economic growth - we’re just starting to scratch the surface. The promise is still very much on the horizon.” A recent Fortune 500 survey emphasised ‘the promise of improved data-driven decision making’. And everybody seems to agree on the principle. Meanwhile Jody Markopoulos, CEO of GE Intelligent Platforms recently posted about how wired connections in manufacturing are changing the whole approach to strategy: ‘The Industrial Internet is enabling this change to be more productive by making the physical world of industry more intelligent. By connecting machines to the Internet via software, data is produced and insight into the manufacturing process is gained. These machines become part of an intelligent network that can automate information and action to optimise plant floor performance.’
CROWDSOURCING STRATEGY A recent social media survey of the Fortune 500 discovered that 66% of companies have a Facebook account and 73% have a company Twitter feed. This continues the significant upward curve and reflects patterns all over the world with percentages for the b2c group probably much higher. So, it shouldn’t come as a big surprise to learn that some large companies are tapping into consumers to help shape strategy. Coca-Cola for example leads the way with 60m Facebook followers. It makes for one big focus group. In fact, Coca-Cola are currently crowdsourcing ideas to make the world a happier place - all part of their brand strategy.
Social Media has been instrumental in informing strategy in many companies. It’s been particularly useful for marketers to understand how consumers think and behave. And we’re seeing more and more products co-created through social media channels, and more and more online platforms awash with ideas that companies can use to furnish their strategies. Threadless even invite their customers to design their T-shirts and vote for their favourites ones. Famously, Starbucks launched its idea generation platform ‘My Starbucks Idea’ back in 2009, generating 70,000 customer ideas in the first year. Many of these ideas, such as free wifi, new recipes, loyalty cards (tactics in their own right) have helped to shape the bigger strategic picture. Take a look at some of the successfully launched ideas. One great example of best practice is Dell with Michael Dell taking the lead to turn a social media nightmare on its head. In 2005 the emergent blogosphere was listening to the strains of ‘Dell Hell’ - an online rant about everything wrong with Dell. There was no response. No counter-argument. The vacuous silence in return was deafening. Today, they’re one of the most active companies using social media to help shape strategy. They are world-class listeners. They even have their own Social Media Listening Command Centre where over 70 people provide a Social Outreach Service, quickly responding to all Dell related Facebook posts and tweets while gathering a wealth of customer comment and feedback to help inform Dell’s strategies.
A TRANSPARENT WORLD Technology has created a world of radical transparency. David Jones, Global CEO of Havas, one of the world’s largest marketing and communication companies offered a view from the recent Davos WEC. ‘Despite its inaccessible location, what is said at Davos no longer stays at Davos. Speeches, comments, and interviews are shared on social media as they happen, and attendees no longer have to wait long to learn how people around the world feel about what they are saying and doing. Operating in this much more open and transparent world is a huge challenge for the world of business, especially for leaders who are used to being able to conduct their affairs behind closed doors. But it is a hugely positive thing for the world in general because it will drive the behaviour of businesses and leaders to a new and better standard.’
REALITY CHECK Despite the rapid growth in social media use by companies, many are still finding their feet. And many have yet to properly align it with their overall strategy. A recent Harvard Business Review Analytics Services report stresses that the majority of social media investment has been futureoriented. So watch this space! There’s also some information out there that counters the big social media story. A recent survey of Fortune 500 companies about the importance of data in strategy decisions admits – ‘We were a bit surprised that only 3% said that they cared about social media information. It’s just not in the plans. Some planned to do some very minimal customer sentiment type of analysis, but it’s not top of mind with the large organisations.’ As with most things, the real answer to the impact of social media on strategy lies somewhere in the middle.
CEOs GET SOCIAL
LISTENING TO PEOPLE WHO DON’T TALK
In the same article David Jones recalls how at the One Young World Summit in November 2012, Barclays CEO Antony Jenkins told delegates about the screen in his office that carries a rolling Twitter feed of tweets about Barclays. On the day the Libor scandal broke, Jenkins said it became an angry torrent, too quick to follow.
Technology offers brand new opportunities to both shape and communicate strategy. Ever heard of Telemetry? Well Electronic Arts are finding it a crucial part of their strategy to deliver the games their customers want. Whilst EA have looked at customer blogs and posts for a long time, they have realised that the big trick is to really understand the experience of the lion’s share of their customers - the ones who are largely silent in the social media world. So they’ve introduced telemetry into their games.
Antony Jenkins understands the power of social media. And many other CEOs are joining him. According to the IBM Global CEO Study only 16% of them participated in social media in 2012. But their analysis shows that this is likely to increase to 57% within 5 years. The study’s big takeaway is that ‘using social technologies to engage with customers, suppliers and employees will enable an organisation to be more adaptive and agile.’ Another recent report highlights a passive/aggressive approach by CEOs to social media. Generally they like to listen to what’s out there. However, when it comes to Twitter, the report claims that CEOs prefer to lead than read. They tweet more than they follow and are careful to not get absorbed in the noise themselves. Clearly there are signs here of how ideas for strategy can be soaked up and communicated to the world. Of course, some business leaders are major celebrities in their own right. On Twitter Richard Branson has almost 3 million followers - and he’s been quiet for a year! He seems to have turned his attention to LinkedIn instead where he’s followed by nearly 1.5m people (nearly twice as many followers as the next most followed leader – Barack Obama). Discover how he did it! Such fame can have its problems however. There are so many charlatans pretending to be Richard Branson on Twitter, it’s not easy to find the real one! Finally it’s worth looking at a CEO who stands apart for grasping the enormous potential that technology and social platforms offer. And who has aligned her corporate strategy accordingly. Angela Ahrendts has overseen a remarkable rise in Burberry’s fortunes and is now actively connecting her internal sales and service people with their customers and communities through social media. Angela’s grand vision is of a social enterprise, living in ‘Burberry World’ where the pragmatism of a Salesforce platform reaches into social media, with all employees, customers and suppliers sharing the same Burberry experience. It makes for interesting reading.
This is where customers give permission for their devices to communicate information from actual game-play back to EA. This feedback enables EA to really understand the customer gameplay experience and make quick changes to new products. ‘It’s very important that gaming audiences around the world want to engage with us because tastes differ and a game has to be tailored to preferences in different markets: for example, the China version of a fight game would include more martial arts and less shooting than the US version.’
TECHNOLOGY THE DESTROYER Disruptive innovation is nothing new. But when new players move into your territory, you usually have the time to change your strategy to meet the challenge. Not any more! The ferocity of technological change can now create, or destroy, entire products and markets overnight. Disrupters can come out of nowhere and instantly be everywhere. And once launched, such disruption is hard to fight. The March 2013 Harvard Business Review calls this a ‘big-bang disrupter’ and highlights the rapid threat posed to Garmin and Tom Tom by free sat navs suddenly appearing on smartphones. The impact can be lightning-fast and potentially disastrous to some, while it can create overnight success for others.
SUMMARY Information is power – for both businesses and consumers. And technology is the big enabler. It’s speeded up the way we communicate, develop products, globalise and connect internally and externally. Technology has to be part of your strategy. But it shouldn’t be the strategy itself. Your strategy needs to be human.
USEFUL LINKS McKinsey&Company 10 trends to watch Forbes Why CIOs are prioritising analytics, cloud and mobile Toyota Toyota Ideas for Good: The Challenge
PROFESSOR REBECCA TAYLOR
Dean and Director of Studies Open University Business School and Law School
In this edition we’ve discovered that a strategy can be a philosophy and that whatever it is – it needs to be shared, communicated and lived and breathed in a way that everyone can connect with it and contribute to it. Over the next few months we’ll be releasing summaries covering the core business areas of leadership and entrepreneurship to add to this strategy edition and our previous spotlight on innovation. To help us provide an even better shared learning experience, we’d really welcome your feedback, input and contributions. You can do this by joining the conversation and regularly visiting our Business Perspectives portal. We’d also like to thank WIRED and Creative Commons for sharing many of the images we’ve used and to acknowledge invaluable sources such as the Harvard Business Review, Forbes, Thinkers50, the FT and many others. Finally we’d like to thank our OUBS bloggers, Strategy Masterclass speakers and all of the companies, organisations and individuals we’ve referenced and quoted. All of the content we refer to is in the public domain and available online. In most cases, we haven’t generated the articles. We’ve explored a sea of information and simply highlighted the stories we think you should know about, signposting you to the original pages so you can discover more. We apologise if a link or two no longer works, but the sea of information on the web ebbs and flows all the time.
THANK YOU FOR TAKING THE TIME TO READ OUR ‘STRATEGY’ EDITION OF BUSINESS PERSPECTIVES. WE HOPE YOU’VE FOUND IT THOUGHT PROVOKING AND YOU’LL BE ABLE TO TAKE SOME OF THE INSIGHT AND USE IT FOR YOUR OWN ORGANISATIONAL STRATEGY.
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