Business Strategies and Frameworks (Part 2)
Preview
Synopsis
To stay afloat and stay ahead, executives need a systematic way to apply their strategy to the ever-changing circumstances of the industry, market demands or customer needs. That is why having access to various frameworks and models is essential. Our Business Strategies and Frameworks (Part 2) provides proven strategy and operations tools you can use to perfect your planning, forecasting and implementation style.
Slide highlights
This slide showcases the 8D Process – a detailed, team-oriented way to solve the production process problems. The method focuses on finding the root cause of a problem, as well as developing and implementing an action plan.
One of the reasons to explore Blue Ocean Leadership is its effectiveness due to the fact that the people managers oversee and report to are actively involved in identifying what's effective and what isn't, per Harvard Business Review (HBR).
Overview
This deck includes the following business strategy frameworks: Offshoring Strategy Framework, Cradle to Cradle (C2C), Disruptive Innovation, Economic Value Added (EVA), Bass Diffusion Model, DuPont Analysis, Stage-Gate Model, CYNEFIN Framework, 8D Process, Innovative Cycle, Organizational Configuration, Focus-Energy Matrix, Schein's Three Levels of Culture, Architecture Development Method (ADM), Trompenaars' Dimensions, Risk-Reward Analysis, SMART Targets, Investment Stages, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Compensation Model, CAGE Distance Framework, Belbin's Team Roles, Competing Values Framework (CVF), ADL Matrix, Generic Strategies, Bottom of the Pyramid (BOP), Core Quality Quadrant, Seven Levels of Sustainability, BOP Framework, Two-Factor Theory, Balancing Transparency, DMIS Model, Total Perceived Service Quality, Identity and Image (Birkigt/Stadler), Kotter's 8 Step Change, MDA Framework, Business Process Management (BPM), Cialdini's Seven Principles, Model of Entrepreneurship, Gain Sharing, Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM), Blue Leadership, Aakker's Brand Equity, 3R Model, Service-Profit Chain, AMO Model, Situational Leadership, Boonstra's 8 Routes for Cultural Change, Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT) and Interpersonal Circumplex.
Expert advice
In his article for HBR, Martin Reeves, the chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute in San Francisco says the following prevents executives from avoiding the strategy traps:
- Misplaced confidence – in order to choose the right strategic style, one must first accurately evaluate the predictability and malleability of the environment. As a part of the study conducted under Reeves' leadership, executives' perceptions with objective measures of their actual environments were compared. A strong tendency to overestimate both factors was revealed as a result – over 80% of the executives said that "achieving goals depended on their own actions more than on things they could not control."
- Unexamined habits – although the majority of the executives surveyed agreed that building the adaptive capabilities required to address unpredictable environments was important, fewer than one in five felt sufficiently competent in them. Nearly 80% said that in practice they begin their strategic planning by articulating a goal and then analyzing how to get there. 70% said that they value accuracy over speed of decisions, even when they are well aware that their environment is fast-moving and unpredictable. As a result, a lot of time is being wasted making untenable predictions when a faster, more experimental approach would be more effective.
- Culture mismatches – the study found that many executives find adaptive capabilities important, but these capabilities can be highly countercultural to implement. "Classical strategies aimed at achieving economies of scale and scope often create company cultures that prize efficiency and the elimination of variation. These can of course undermine the opportunity to experiment and learn, which is essential for an adaptive strategy," Reeves concludes.
Case study
Netflix and offshoing strategy
According to The New York Times, Booz Allen Hamilton, a management consulting firm and Duke University studied 600 companies and found a continued increase in offshoring, in which call centers are moved overseas. Netflix happens to be one of these companies.
In 2007, Netflix did something quite uncommon for a web-based venture: the company completely eliminated email-based customer service inquiries. All questions, complaints and suggestions from the Netflix users go to the 24/7 call center abroad. This move, according to the experts, is as smart as it is innovative because it's customer-centric (and more financially efficient). Matt Mani, a senior associate at Booz Allen told The New York Times: "I don't think there's any trend to pull back. This is a unique strategy for Netflix. There's so much more competition. This is something they've done to get closer to the customer, because, without that, there's really no connection a customer has to Netflix."
