Not having a good value proposition If we ask companies with a weak strategy for their value proposition, we are likely going to receive ambiguous answers like: “we are a customer centric firm”, “we have a global presence”, and so on. So,…
Strategic Focus: Core Business Types
Infrastructure management and customer relationship management are based on volume (economies of scale and economies of scope). So consolidation of a few big players would be a consequence to create the necessary volume to compete in those core businesses. It is…
From Value Chain and Processes to Strategy Execution
Primary processes (CRM and SCM) must be managed with a holistic approach: Those processes involve: different activities, value deployment, people management, and so on. Many initiatives are going to be launched from these processes involving other areas. This does not mean…
When Should We Outsource Activities?
The big disadvantage of outsourcing that used to be mentioned is the “loss of control”. Although with the information systems that today are in place, and managing properly the relationship with the outsourced firm by having regular meeting and conference calls,…
What Are Our Core Competencies? Improving Business Focus
If any of these questions has a negative answer, we must consider outsourcing that activity. Any activity that is not a core competency should be analyzed the convenience to outsource. Some activities of the supply chain are core competencies and source…
Are We Misunderstanding the Three Strategic Levels?
Common mistakes defining strategies Corporate Strategy: There are some firms that create the corporate strategy but they do not drill down to the other strategic levels. If we do not cover the three levels, most likely execution will fail. We can…
From Strategy to Execution: Strategic Themes and Initiatives
We have to stress two concepts from the turnaround point of view. Strategic themes is an important concept because means identified the key process, I mean the leverage process that are going to produce the expected turnaround results. The second concept…
Mission: Business Strategy Focus On Turnaround Processes
Mission: If we ask the Managing Committee the six basic questions for Mission Definition (and the answers match with the reality), we would probably discover any of the following problems: Market: Selling to companies of many different industries, sizes, and so…
Strategic Focus: The Value Disciplines
From the supply chain point of view is very important to have a clear strategy definition because each value discipline means a different and almost incompatible supply chain. For example, customer intimacy strategy would likely push a company to create “important”…