VALUES refer to the mission and scope of the organization; how this organization sees and defines itself. One way to analyse a firm’s values or its missions is to look at its mission statements. Most publicly traded companies have these displayed on their website or their corporate annual report. And here are a few that I’d like to share. 

The Walt Disney Company; the mission of the Walt Disney Company is to be one of the world’s leading producers and providers of entertainment and information. So first of all it defines the industry in which Disney operates; entertainment and information, that’s somewhat interesting. Second, they define their aspirations, they want to be one of the world’s leading producers. A global company and one of the leading producers within the entertainment and information segment. 

Google’s mission statement; To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. This is a very broad definition here, one in which they express very high aspirations in terms of what they’re looking to accomplish. 

Contrast that with Dell. Dell’s mission is to be the most successful computer company in the world at delivering the best customer experience in markets we serve. They define themselves as the computer company positioned to deliver better value by delivering the best customer experience.

Citigroup; Citigroup is to be the most respected global financial services company. Like any other public company, we’re obligated to deliver profits and growth to our shareholders, Of equal importance is to deliver these profits and generate growth responsibly. What I find interesting here is how they have incorporated values explicitly into the mission statement. Their objective is beyond just delivering profits, but also to deliver profits and generate growth in a responsible way. So you see these values starting to permeate their statement. 

OPPORTUNITIES are the external environment in which you operate in. What does the market value? What does the market demand? And are there others out in the space providing value in similar ways. The competitive effect of your company is the key consideration here. You cannot afford to assess the opportunity available to your company in isolation and purely considering your current capability.  

Consider the following example, Kodak. For nearly 100 years, Kodak was one of the leading companies in the world. Producers of film, pioneers in film, they had both capabilities and values and a mission statement that allowed them to be highly successful. But the world changed and as you might guess, with the advent of digital technology, Kodak declared bankruptcy a few years back. What happened? Well, the opportunity set changed for them ultimately. So while, organization, great capabilities, mission and values, are wonderful, at the end of the day opportunities were not available to them, at least in the way they had historically defined their business. 

CAPABILITIES BRING US TO A MORE INTERNAL FOCUS. What does the company do well? What are their capabilities? What assets might they leverage to meet market opportunities? There are a few things to think about here. We’re going to introduce the idea OF COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE. Now competitive advantage is a term you hear bantered about in the popular business press all the time. Competitive advantage is always relative to your competition. It’s not sufficient to just be good at something or even to be great at something If everyone else is great as well.  So, if you have a high quality product but everyone else in the market has a high quality product, that’s not a competitive advantage. You must centre on what you really do differently from your peers.

Taking together values, opportunities, and capabilities define the Strategist’s Challenge and the three main questions we need to ask. It’s at the intersection of those three questions that reveal VALUABLE COMPETITIVE POSITIONS. Those positions within a market that an organization can take that will allow them to survive and thrive and create the most value for its stakeholders. The responsibility of strategy is to ascertain the companies Valuable Competitive Position which answers – How do you create and sustain value?

For more brand growth insights like the one you just completed, book a FREE consultation call via info@damarconsults.com right away!

First, strategic analysis is done from a generalist perspective. By this I mean, we cross the functional boundaries of the business, which include marketing, finance, operations, and human resources. We bring those together in an integrative fashion when trying to understand a business strategy.

 Furthermore, strategic analysis in my opinion is foundational. And by that I mean we reference first principles primarily coming from economics, but from other disciplines as well. And that strategy ultimately serves as the base by which other activities of the organization flow out of. So if you are coming up with a capital budgeting plan for the organization or a marketing plan, those should be based on the overall strategic plan you have for the organization. 

Second, we’re going to do so by emphasizing this idea of strategic reasoning. We need to think about strategy in the context of the larger market and the larger competitive market that a firm operates in. Apple for example was able to introduce the iPod, but did so actually many years after the first introduction of a digital music player. Somewhat lost to history has been the idea that there were many rivals to Apple in this space long before Apple actually introduced their product. 

Third, our analysis needs to be grounded in analytics and data. Setting the conditions that permit you to gather data over the short and long run is crucial for decision making.

For more brand growth insights like the one you just completed, book a FREE consultation call via info@damarconsults.com right away!

• The Corporate Level
• The Business Unit Level
• The Functional Level

THE CORPORATE LEVEL

This is the highest and most broad level of strategy in business. This deals with high level concerns such as defining the vision, clarifying objects, and setting goals. Creating and understanding C- level strategy is especially important for organizations that have multiple lines of business. For example, if one arm of your business manufactures a product and another arm sells that product, you’ll have a separate business unit strategy for each—but one single corporate-level strategy that describes why those two arms are important, and how those businesses interact for the good of the organization.

There are a handful of things to do as you work on your C – Level strategy. 

1. Your Overall Vision and Mission. 

• Your mission statement describes what your company does and how it is different from other organizations in your competitive space.
• Your vision statement describes the desired future state of your organization at a certain point in time.

2. Corporate Objectives – 

Your objectives describe the high-level goals that will help you achieve your mission and vision. 

THE BUSINESS UNIT LEVEL 

Your business unit strategy is used for different areas of your business (like services and products, or multiple departments or divisions, for example). The complexity of this level will depend on how many businesses you are in, and how your company is structured. It’s important to create a strategy for each business unit so that you can see which units are excelling and which need improvement.

Having a strategy at the business unit level allows you to weigh the costs and benefits of each business unit and to decide where you should spend your resources. Depending on the progress towards your goals and your analysis of the market, you may even decide it’s time to divest or sell some of your business units so you can focus on the areas that are most important to achieving your company’s corporate strategy

1. Differentiate yourself from your competitors. One of the best ways to tell if you’ve done this adequately is through a SWOT analysis, which allows you to review your competitive environment and define a strategy based on what sets your organization—and specifically, the business unit—apart from the competition.
2. Create objectives and initiatives that support your business unit and the corporate level. Your goal while creating a business unit strategy is to create objectives and initiatives that support the unit while simultaneously contributing to the objectives and initiatives of the organization as a whole. For example, at the corporate level for the learning and growth perspective, one of the organizations main priorities is to “provide valuable skills training.” With this objective in mind, your business units will be able to determine what activities they’ll need to do to support this—like providing customer training services relevant to its specific function.

THE FUNCTIONAL LEVEL

The functional level of your strategy involves each department—and what those at the department level are doing day-to-day to support corporate initiatives. Whereas your business unit strategy would be defined and evaluated by senior leadership, your functional strategy is typically produced by department heads (e.g., leaders in marketing, operations, finance, IT, etc.). These individuals can help ensure that the departments execute the defined strategic elements and that the components laid out at the functional level help support both the department level and corporate level strategies.

1. Understand that this level has the most detailed measures and projects. 

Measures help you answer the question, “How are we doing toward meeting a particular objective?” Projects (or initiatives) help you answer, “What are the key actions we can take to support our objectives?” While you’ll have measures and projects at every level of your strategy, they should be extremely detailed at the functional level. 

2. Make sure the goals in your functional strategy align with the goals at the corporate level. Corporate goals are set by the most senior members of your organization, and those goals drive decision-making. You’ll gain support from the top level of executives if your projects and goals align with their goals. You’ll also be able to see how the work you are doing contributes to the overall success of the company

For more brand growth insights like the one you just completed, book a FREE consultation call via info@damarconsults.com right away!