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Areas of Applications
New Approaches to Strategy
Formulation
The currently dominant view of strategy is the
resource-based theory. Traditional strategy models, such as Michael Porter's
five forces model, focus on the company's external competitive environment.
Most of them do not attempt to look inside the company. In contrast, the
resource-based perspective highlights the need for a fit between the
external market context in which a company operates and its
internal
capabilities.
According to this view, a company's competitive advantage derives from its
ability to assemble and exploit an appropriate combination of resources.
Sustainable competitive advantage
is achieved by continuously developing existing and creating new resources
and capabilities in response to rapidly changing market conditions...
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New Goals for
Strategic Planning
In the
new
business environment of rapid changes, heightened risk and uncertainty,
developing
effective strategies
is critical. They prepare executives to face the strategic uncertainties
ahead and serve as the focal point for
creative thinking
about a
company's vision and direction.
Many companies get little value from their
annual strategic-planning process however. To meet the new challenges, this
process should be redesigned to support real-time strategy making and to
encourage 'creative accidents'1.
Innovation-driven Dynamic
Planning Process
If you
develop new products,
especially new-to-the-world
products, any
forecasts will
be wrong as new technologies and products unfold in ways that nobody can
imagine. For new product and technologies,
business strategies emerge during
experimentations as a
probe-and-learn process. It's really a "Ready – Fire – Aim", not a "Ready –
Aim – Fire" process. It's a
jazz
improvisation:
the
drive to capitalize on entrepreneurial opportunity need to be combined with
sound
strategic thinking.
Increasing the
Innovativeness of Your Company Strategies
No strategic-planning process can guarantee
brilliant flashes of creative insight,
but it can provide increase the odds that they occur and are pursued.
Case in Point
Google
"We run the company chaotically. We run it at
the edge," says Eric Schmidt, the CEO of
Google. "But the truth is the company is pretty thoroughly planned
financially. We have a three-year financial plan that we're submitting to
the board. We model our financials, cash flow. And it's possible for us to
predict reasonably accurate cases there. We have a one-year strategic plan,
about what we want to be next year. What are the markets we want to enter."
Preparing Minds
Dwight D.
Eisenhower said it best,
"Plans
are nothing; planning is everything."
A successful strategy process would help your
company to react quicker to emerging opportunities and make
faster decisions than your
competitors do. It would ensure that your
corporate leaders
have a strong grasp of the strategic context they operate in before the
unpredictable but inevitable twists and turns of your business push them to
make critical decisions in real time.1
Personal Strategic Planning
The first step is to clarify your values. If you want to discover your
strengths in the work world, first you would define your values as they apply to
employment. Often, both companies and individuals will choose values such as
integrity, quality, respect for others, service, profitability,
innovation,
entrepreneurship,
and
market leadership.
The second step is to use those values to define your position with regard
to your work. The values you choose, and the order of priority you place on
your choices, will determine your approach to your work.
Your next step in personal strategic planning is to create your personal
mission statement. This is a clear, written description of the person you intend
to be. This is often even more important than setting specific financial or
business goals.7...
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Learning SWOT Questions
SWOT analysis is an effective strategic
planning tool. “SWOT” stands for “Strengths”, “Weaknesses”, “Opportunities”
and “Threats”.
SWOT matrix can also be effectively used as a strategic learning tool for
analyzing feedback received from
experimentation,
beta testing,
test marketing of new products and
for making strategic decisions...
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Strategic Motivation System
It is obvious that in order for the development
of a strategic plan to be efficient,
motivation is required. But
without
strategic motivation, the
successful
implementation of this plan is impossible. The specifics of strategic
planning largely determine the details of the systems of motivation...
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12 Essential Elements of Strategic
Planning...
Increasing the
Innovativeness of Your Company Strategies...
The Importance of Values and Mission...
The Six Keys to Designing
Effective Strategy Conversation...
Analysis of the Business Environment...
Business Portfolio Analysis...
Milestone-based Thinking...
Strategic Innovation:
Road-Mapping...
Strategic Learning...
Dynamic Strategy as a Source of
Sustainable Competitive Advantage...
Working
On Your Business...
Strategy
Management...
Strategic Programming...
Launching a Crusade...
Strategy Innovation...
New Systemic Approach
to
Strategic Management...
Strategic Project Management...
FutureStep -
a New Strategic
Management Process...
Case in Point
Unilever...
Case in Point
Silicon Valley Firms...
Case in Point
Canon...
Case in Point
Microsoft...
Case in Point
Charles Schwab...
Case in Point
Canon...
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