In his book, Competitive Strategy, Michael Porter describes two generic strategies – differentiation and cost leadership. He shows diagrammatically that return on investment (under each of these strategies can be optimized). He explains that, under a differentiated strategy, the organization focuses on creating a point of difference in its service offering to an homogeneous [...]
Success breeds success. In a growing and buoyant market, business tends to come to you and profits tend to be solid and growing. Ultimately, success can breed failure. When organizations enjoy solid growth in vibrant markets, over time the company tends to become complacent. It stops listening to its customers and the market. It gets [...]
Organizations that have high levels of fixed costs , can capitalize on the concept called operating leverage. The higher the fixed cost, the greater the potential for operating leverage. Wikipedia defines Operating Leverage as a measure of how revenue growth translates into growth in operating income, a measure of leverage, and of how risky (volatile) [...]
One of the ways in which management can boost the profits of their business, is to ensure that their strategy leverages key elements of the business model. Identifying Profit Multipliers The first step is to undertake sensitivity analysis of the Income Statement to identify potential profit multipliers. There are cost-effective software packages that [...]
In this series of articles, we explore ten ways in which to boost your profits. The selection on which Profit Boosters[1] will most leverage your bottom line is a function of: Your business model; Where your business sits on the industry growth (evolution) curve; and The dynamics in your current operating environment The first [...]
Every business irrespective of size should have a business plan. Why, you may ask? Because a business plan is like a GPS (global positioning satellite). It shows: a. the current position on a map (current state), b. the ultimate destination (desired state), c. the route (how management intend getting there), d. the estimated time it [...]
Understanding When to Partner No organisation can achieve excellence in all areas. Attempting to do this will result in trying to be all things to all people and nothing to anybody. Therefore, to achieve sustainable competitive advantage, every organisation needs to choose a few (2 to 4) areas that are important to its customers that [...]
Strategic Fit is the difference that makes the difference. To achieve sustainable superior performance a business must attract more loyal customers than its competitors. Every business attempts to achieve this but not many succeed. Many organisations focus on attracting new customers whilst under-servicing their current customers. The result – customer defection. The cost of customer ‘churn’ [...]
This is a video featuring Ivan Nurick talking to ING on their ME program about Thinking Strategically. By consistently applying 3 universal principles, Ivan asserts that any organisation can leverage its results. Check out the Strategic FIT Program in the store for more information Ivan Nurick talks to ING on Thinking Strategically from Strategy Workshop [...]
Most industries in developed economies can be classified as mature. This means that market growth is slow, maybe even approaching that of the national GDP or population growth. Rivalry is intense, as many players compete for less and less business. Demand is led by customers, who are very discerning and knowledgeable. Trading conditions are more volatile than ever before, making it difficult to predict how the future will unfold. In this article, we explore 10 steps that you can easily implement to increase customer aquisition, retention and loyalty
Here is my analysis of the most common issues I have encountered with regards to STRATEGIC LEADERSHIP
Here is my analysis of the most common issues I have encountered with regards to DEVELOPING STRATEGY
Here are my thoughts on the issues I have encountered in leading ORGANISATIONAL CHANGE
We all believe that change is inevitable – or do we? Being creatures of habit, we covertly resist change. Any move outside our “comfort zone” induces stress and a feeling of discomfort. Resistance is the principal reason that change programs fail to deliver expected long-term results In this article we will first examine typical phases of transition. We will then present a framework for organisational change. Once the dynamics of change have been conceptualised, we will present a practical model for inducing change in organisations.
Environmental scanning is a method of surveying the broader macro environment so as to detect early warning signals or trends.
Most of the companies I have consulted to, exhibit little awareness of or sensitivity to events which are beyond the control of management. The extent to which these may impact the company is generally not considered. Those companies, who ritually prepare environmental scans as part of their strategy process, tend to create voluminous documents that either mean very little to anybody, or are never read. In this article, we provide a number of alternative approaches.