Dizer não! (parte II)

Parte I. E, também "A disciplina da focalização" (parte I e parte II)
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Como referimos muitas vezes aqui no blogue é muito difícil a um líder cortar, dizer não, dizer que não vai oferecer o mesmo que outros.
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Por isso, quero salientar este exemplo:

"Em expansão acelerada está a Fitness Hut, rede de ginásios Iow cost que em dois anos abriu oito clubes, e em 2015 prevê abrir em média um novo por mês. A marca foi criada por Nick Coutts, que trouxe o Holmes Place para Portugal. em 1998 e presidiu à rede a nível ibérico até 2010, altura em que saiu para fundar a Fitness Hut, com um conceito diferente. "Procurei tirar coisas do tradicional modelo de health club que não traziam lucro e obrigavam a grandes investimentos e custos de manutenção, como piscina (que só 5% dos sócios utilizam), sauna e banho turco, restaurante ou creche", explica Coutts. "Quis um conceito de fitness puro, sem piscina e restaurante, mas corri balneários amplos, e assim ter preços acessíveis"."

Conheço empresários que são incapazes de fazer este tipo de corte, a falha deve ser em parte minha, de não ter a arte suficiente para os convencer das vantagens de cortar. Ficam logo a pensar nos 5% do texto, clientes que vão deixar de servir e, por isso, vão alimentar a concorrência.

Trecho retirado de "Ginásios de nova geração em Portugal a €20 por mês", publicado no semanário Expresso de 24 de Janeiro último.

Números que metem medo. Não, não são de Portugal

Quem segue as minhas reflexões neste blogue sabe o quanto aprecio uma boa estratégia para uma empresa.
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É fácil dizer que os empresários portugueses são os piores do mundo. Pois... além desta amostra que a Air France nos dá reparem nestes números simplesmente aterradores:

• "A great majority of executives (64% of the survey respondents) say that their biggest frustration factor is “having too many conflicting priorities.”
• Executives report that their biggest challenges are (a) ensuring that day-to-day decisions are in line with the strategy (56%) and (b) allocating resources in a way that really supports the strategy (56%).
• Half of the executives (50%) consider setting a clear and differentiating strategy a significant challenge.
• In fact, most executives (52%) do not feel their company’s strategy will lead to success. Only 21% say their company has a right to win in all the markets in which it competes.
• Most executives (81%) say growth initiatives lead to waste, at least some of the time.

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• "A significant number of executives (43%) say their company’s strategy does not fundamentally differentiate the company in the market.
• Nearly half of executives (49%) say their company has no list of strategic priorities.
• While most executives say their company has a clear way to create value, most (53%) say that this “way” is not understood by employees and customers.
• Similarly, most executives say their company has a clearly stated set of capabilities, but only a third of executives (33%) say those capabilities support the company’s strategy and the way it creates value in the market.
• Very few executives (21%) say all of the company’s businesses leverage the same set of capabilities.
  In fact, most executives (54%) say their company’ capabilities do not reinforce each other."

Números retirados daqui.

A essência deste blogue

"Once you've defined who your primary customer is, you must ensure that you and everyone in your business understand what that customer values. Some customers value low price, others value customized service, while others value world-class technology. Everyone in your company should be aware of, and dedicated to, those preferences.
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Figuring out what your customer values has become more important as business are expanding around the globe.
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Choosing a primary customer and understanding what that customer values is important not only for consumer companies, but also for industrial firms.
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Sometimes, managers go as far as creating a cardboard cutout of a fictional customer and putting it at the head of the table as they discuss product attributtes. (Moi ici: Como no caso da Electrolux)
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Now for the main point of this chapter. Once you have chosen your primary customer and understood their needs, you must ensure that the bulk of your company's resources is dedicated to one thing and one thing only: providing what your primary customer values. (Moi ici: Isto é a essência deste blogue: concentrar, alinhar, sintonizar) If your business is not deploying resources in a way that maximizes the benefits your customer seeks, someone else will.
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You should wake up every morning (Moi ici: Por isso usei a imagem do desfazer a barba.) terrified with your sheets drenched in sweat, but not because you're afraid of your competitors. Be afraid of your customers because those are the folks who have the money.
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This prompts another - and vitally important - follow-up question: How have you organized to deliver maximum value to your customer?
Your answer will depend, of course, on the needs of your primary customer. Different customers require different organizations designs.
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Different firms make different choices about how to organize resources to best serve their specific customer needs."
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Trechos retirados do livro "Seven Strategy Questions - A Simple Approach For Better Execution" de Robert Simons.

Uma pergunta que gera muitas outras perguntas (parte V)

Continuado da parte I, parte II, parte III e parte IV.

Sou um visual, uma imagem, um esquema, um gráfico, são uma boa maneira de atrair a minha atenção.

Daí apreciar o conceito de mapa da estratégia.

Acompanho há anos Alex Osterwalder e a evolução do seu trabalho sobre o conceito de modelo de negócio. Alex é também um visual que ilustra muito bem a ideia de modelo de negócio recorrendo a um conjunto de 9 componentes reunidos num quadro que dão uma panorâmica global interessante e reveladora.

A partir de uma das suas últimas apresentações vou seleccionar alguns acetatos para rapidamente mostrar quais são os componentes de um modelo de negócio e facilitar a ligação ao mapa da estratégia e às perguntas da parte II.

O resultado pode ser encontrado aqui. Seguem-se as duas últimas figuras que ilustram a conclusão final.

Depois disto… fiquei a pensar na relação com os ciclos de JC Larreche.

Uma pergunta que gera muitas outras perguntas (parte III)

Continuado de: parte I e parte II.
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Afinal, vou remeter a ponte para o mapa da estratégia para amanhã. Hoje durante o meu jogging resolvi ligar os temas: clientes-alvo; proposta de valor; disciplina de valor; mapa da estratégia e modelo de negócio.
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Entretanto, após a leitura de um artigo publicado na Harvard Business Review de Setembro de 2009, “How Strategy Shapes Structure” de W. Chan Kim e de Renée Mauborgne resolvi relacionar alguns pontos do conteúdo com as questões da parte II.

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Os autores escrevem “a strategy’s success hinges on the development and alignment of three propositions: (1) a value proposition that attracts buyers; (2) a profit proposition that enables the company to make money out of the value proposition; and (3) a people proposition that motivates those working for or with the company to execute the strategy.”

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Ainda “Each proposition may need to address more than one group of stakeholders, as when successful strategy execution rests on the buy-in of not only an organization’s employees but also groups outside it, such as supply chain partners. Similarly, a company in a business-to-business industry may have to formulate two value propositions: one for the customer and another for the customer’s customers.” (por exemplo, clientes-alvo a grande distribuição e as suas prateleiras, e consumidores-alvo, os clients dos clients-alvo).

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Relacionemos isto com as 20 questões de ontem e com as 3 proposições através de um código de cores:

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1.Quem são os clientes-alvo da sua empresa?"

2.Por que é que esses são os clientes-alvo e não outros?
3.Como é que consegue reconhecer os seus clientes-alvo se chocar contra eles?
4.O que querem, o que procuram, os seus clientes-alvo?
5.Qual é a proposta de valor da sua empresa?
6.Quais são as consequências de assumir essa proposta de valor?
7.Quais as vantagens competitivas em que se baseia a proposta de valor oferecida?
8.Quais são as contradições que vão suportar a vantagem competitiva de servir esses clientes-alvo?
9.Como é que vai ser defendida, mantida, e desenvolvida essa vantagem competitiva?
10.Quais são os processos críticos que suportam essa proposta de valor e essa vantagem competitiva?
11.Qual é a disciplina de valor?
12.Que recursos, que infra-estruturas, que competências necessárias para desenvolver e manter a vantagem competitiva?
13.Quem não são os seus clientes-alvo?
14.Por que não são os seus cliente-alvo?
15.Quem está entre a sua empresa e os clientes-alvo?
16.Por que é que os distribuidores aceitarão distribuir os seus produtos?
17.Quais são os distribuidores que servem os seus clientes-alvo?
18.Quem são os seus distribuidores-alvo?
19. Qual a proposta de valor que a sua empresa lhes oferece?

Os autores chamam a atenção para um ponto importante que muitas vezes parece ser desprezado:

“Even when an industry is attractive, if existing players are well-entrenched and an organization does not have the resources and capabilities to go up against them, the structuralist approach is not going to produce high performance. In this scenario, the organization needs to build a strategy that creates a new market space for itself.”

A nossa agricultura e muita da nossa indústria estão nesta situação, precisam de desenhar estratégias que criem novos mercados, novas oportunidades, não têm vantagens competitivas sustentáveis se forem, como dizem os americanos “me to run” ou “also run”. E pedir a ajuda do papá Estado não vai resolver nada de fundo... pois, mais "fixes that fail".

Uma pergunta que gera muitas outras perguntas (parte II)

Continuado daqui.
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Se seguirmos o raciocínio de Peter Drucker "The purpose of your business is to create customers"
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Que clientes? Todos? E podemos satisfazer todos de igual forma?
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Como não acredito que seja possível a uma PME ser carne e peixe em simultâneo, não é possível ter sucesso a tentar servir de igual modo todos os tipos de clientes.
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Então, a pergunta que se segue é "1.Quem são os clientes-alvo da sua empresa?" reflectir a sério sobre esta pergunta levanta a tal cascata de outras questões de que falei ontem:
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2.Por que é que esses são os clientes-alvo e não outros?
3.Como é que consegue reconhecer os seus clientes-alvo se chocar contra eles?
4.O que querem, o que procuram, os seus clientes-alvo?
5.Qual é a proposta de valor da sua empresa?
6.Quais são as consequências de assumir essa proposta de valor?
7.Quais as vantagens competitivas em que se baseia a proposta de valor oferecida?
8.Quais são as contradições que vão suportar a vantagem competitiva de servir esses clientes-alvo?
9.Como é que vai ser defendida, mantida, e desenvolvida essa vantagem competitiva?
10.Quais são os processos críticos que suportam essa proposta de valor e essa vantagem competitiva?
11.Qual é a disciplina de valor?
12.Que recursos, que infra-estruturas, que competências necessárias para desenvolver e manter a vantagem competitiva?
13.Quem não são os seus clientes-alvo?
14.Por que não são os seus cliente-alvo?
15.Quem está entre a sua empresa e os clientes-alvo?
16.Por que é que os distribuidores aceitarão distribuir os seus produtos?
17.Quais são os distribuidores que servem os seus clientes-alvo?
18.Quem são os seus distribuidores-alvo?
19. Qual a proposta de valor que a sua empresa lhes oferece?
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Podemos continuar com a lista de perguntas... mas julgo que já deu para entender a mensagem. Num mundo em que não há acasos e em que a oferta é superior à procura, não basta produzir, não basta continuar a fazer o que sempre se fez, não basta aparecer, não basta jogar com o preço, é preciso ...... olhar olhos nos olhos dos clientes-alvo e começar pelo fim. Por que é que este tipo de clientes escolheria a minha empresa como fornecedora?
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Espero continuar amanhã com a ponte para o mapa da estratégia.

O segredo do sucesso

O caderno de Economia do semanário Expresso desta semana, na página 21, traz uma coluna intitulada "O segredo do sucesso reside no cliente".
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Um dos erros mais comuns "considerar que todos os clientes são iguais"
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"os consumidores estão cada vez mais diferentes e exigentes"
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"Na prática, ganha quem tornar a empresa diferente, isto porque "ser diferente é ser único"
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Em linguagem de gestor, o conceito de cliente-alvo (ver marcador) que implica o conceito de proposta de valor e de disciplina de valor, o que implica escolher, optar. O que implica rejeitar encomendas ou clientes.

O que se pode aprender com quem compete em mercados emergentes?

Admitamos um cenário de depressão económica mundial continuada.
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Com o fim do crédito fácil e barato temos e teremos connosco por alguns anos a derrocada na procura, a queda na capacidade de consumir.
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Como enfrentar esta nova paisagem?
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Peter Williamson e Ming Zeng publicam na Harvard Business Review deste mês de Março um interessante artigo com algumas pistas que podem ser exploradas.
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Primeiro a situação actual:
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"No one needs convincing that the economic situation we’re facing today is almost unprecedented. Yet much of the advice that executives have received is remarkably similar to what they heard during the recession in 2000. Particularly in Western enterprises, the preferred antidotes seem to be standard ones: Evaluate your risks, develop contingency plans, focus on your core, reduce costs, expect the unexpected, and so on. The unspoken objective appears to be to survive or, at most, to maintain market share.
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Like many orthodoxies, however, this will not serve companies well today. The world has changed so much because of, among other reasons, deregulation, lowering of trade barriers, rapid technological advances, demographic shifts, and greater urbanization, that strategies that worked a decade ago are unlikely to do so anymore. Previously, downturns often favored incumbents, which possess economies of scale and customer relationships that allowed them to prevail over upstarts. What’s different now is that companies from several emerging markets are poised to wrest market share from, or even take over, Western firms."
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O que os autores propõem é que analisemos a forma como actuaram algumas empresas de sucesso em mercados emergentes (mercados caracterizados por um fraco poder de compra)
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"During the Depression, (...) companies developed value-for-money strategies: They grew by delivering products and services that enabled hard-hit consumers to do more with the same resources and become more effective; to do the same with fewer resources, thereby improving their efficiency; or to do less with far fewer resources, which helped them economize.
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Value for money has again become a strategic imperative—and not just because of the recession."
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"In both the developed and the developing world, therefore, delivering value for money has become critical. What capabilities must companies possess to thrive in this environment? Our research suggests that instead of refining cost-cutting techniques, companies should develop cost-innovation capabilities. They must learn to reengineer their cost structures in novel ways so they can offer customers dramatically more for less. That may not be good news for many U.S., European, and Japanese corporations, which have usually dealt with low-cost competitors by going upmarket and creating premium segments, both at home and abroad."
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Os autores propõem a inovação para reduzir os custos.
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"The idea of innovating to develop offerings that provide greater, or almost the same, functionality but at a lower price is unconventional. Some executives may regard it as silly: Why invest in research to sell products for less than the prevailing price? However, smart companies in emerging markets have done just that to appeal to the great mass of value-conscious customers at home."
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E depois, algo que faz recordar "The Blue Ocean Strategy" de Chan e Mauborgne:
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"Cost-innovation strategies are disruptive in that they result in products or services that look inferior in some ways to existing ones but are more affordable and easier to use than incumbents’ offerings."
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"Como não acredito em acasos fico a pensar nesta coincidência "No meio não está a virtude, ou seja, não vale guterrear"
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Os autores apresentam três avenidas de progresso e pesquisa:
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"Selling high-tech products at mass-market prices.
Companies often apply the latest technology only to the most complex applications or sell it to early adopters. By restricting a state-of-the-art technology to a few segments initially and transferring it to mainstream markets over time, they capture the maximum value throughout its life and enhance the return on their investment in research and development. However, some newcomers from developing countries have found ways to offer the latest technology to mass-market customers at low prices."
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Ou seja, serializar a produção de artigos que de outra forma não abandonariam a categoria de protótipo ou semi-protótipo.
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"Offering choice and customization to value customers.
Customers usually have to pay hefty premiums if they want a large selection of products or customized offerings. That’s because most companies in developed countries, which focus on gaining economies of scale, fear that if they offer a plethora of choices, their operations will spiral out of control. They will spend additional time making changeovers on manufacturing lines and lose money from write-offs on obsolete inventory. But companies in emerging markets have been able to transform the rules of variety and customization by learning to gain economies of scope."
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Ou seja, apostar na flexibilidade, reduzir os limites que tornam uma pequena série rentável, para poder apostar em séries mais pequenas, maior diversidade, maior rapidez.
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"Turning premium niches into mass markets.
Most companies define a niche market as one that consists of relatively few customers willing to pay premium prices for goods and services that meet their specialized requirements. They don’t check to see if there may be a wellspring of latent demand choked off by high prices and poor value-for-money offerings."
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Mais do que nunca a grande restrição vai continuar a ser, e ampliada, a conquista de clientes.

Are you sure you have a strategy? (parte III)

Continuado daqui.
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Segue-se a Lógica Económica, algo entre aquilo que considero proposta de valor, a disciplina de valor de Wiersema e modelo de negócio.

"At the heart of a business strategy must be a clear idea of how profits will be generated—not just some profits, but profits above the firm's cost of capital. It is not enough to vaguely count on hav­ing revenues that are above costs. Unless there's a compelling basis for it, customers and competitors won't let that happen. And it's not enough to gen­erate a long list of reasons why customers will be eager to pay high prices for your products, along with a long list of reasons why your costs will be lower than your competitors'. That's a sure-fire route to strategic schizophrenia and mediocrity.

Economic logic asks the specific questions of our ability to generate profit. How will we gain lowest costs: 1) through scale advantage? 2) through scope and replication advantage? And, how will we attract premium prices: 1) due to unmatchable service? 2) due to proprietary product features? The most successful strategies have a central economic logic that serves as the fulcrum for profit creation. In many cases, the economic key may be to obtain premium prices by offering customers a difficult-to-match product."
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Não basta receber encomendas, é preciso ganhar dinheiro com elas.
Não basta captar clientes, é preciso que eles sejam lucrativos.
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Continua.

Business design e modelo de negócio

Aquilo a que chamamos modelo do negócio, algo que relaciona clientes-alvo, proposta de valor e disciplina de valor (processos-chave e infraestruturas-chave) entre outros parâmetros, Slywotzky chamou "Business Design" mas o essencial está lá... o que seria ter começado a aplicar isto em 1997 (ano da publicação do livro "The Profit zone"?
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"A company's business design is composed of four strategic elements: (1) customer selection, (2) value capture, (3) strategic control, and (4) scope."
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1. Customer selection
Key issue: Which customers do I want to serve?
Key questions: To which customers can I add real value? Which customers will allow me to profit? Which customers do I not want to serve?
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2. Value capture
Key issue: How do I make a profit?
Key questions: How do I capture, as profit, a portion of the value I created for customers? What is my profit model?
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3. Differentiation/Strategic control
Key issue: How do I protect my profit stream?
Key questions: Why do my chosen customers buy from me? What makes my value proposition unique/differentiated vs. other competitors'? What strategic control points can counterbalance customer or competitor power?
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4. Scope
Key issue: What activities do I perform?
Key questions: What products, services, and solutions do I want to sell? Which activities or functions do I want to perform in-house? Which ones do I want to subcontract, outsource, or work with a business partner to provide ?
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Ora aqui está um conjunto de questões que continuam válidas no dia de hoje.
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"which customers I choose depends in part on which customers will allow me to make a profit. How I make a profit depends in part on the scope of activities I perform. Decisions about differentiation and strategic control depend on who the customers are and the scope of activities the firm is capable of. Decisions about scope should support decisions about what customers to serve, how to create profit, and how to create strategic control.
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When these choices match customer priorities and are internally consistent and mutually reinforcing, they can produce an extraordinarily powerful business design for the company."
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Exactamente o retratado na figura 12 da apresentação sobre proposta de valor, sem coerência e reforço interno... tudo estragado.
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Qual é a principal restrição para um negócio?






Arranjar clientes!
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Por isso, tudo deve ser feito em função deles e para eles.
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Como os clientes não são todos iguais... há que seleccionar os clientes-alvo, aqueles que posso servir com vantagem, acrescentando valor e ganhando dinheiro.

Comparar as implicações de diferentes propostas de valor (parte II)

Neste postal de ontem, acabámos com a referência à importância do franchising.

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A imagem é preciosa:

"We can learn much about achieving excellence - not only for our customers, but for ourselves - by taking a lesson from franchises. The franchising concept has been wildly successful over the past 40 years.

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The appeal of a franchise is rooted in two promises. First, there's a very clear promise to the customer that's reflected in the brand.

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Second, there's a promise to the business owner (franchisee) of a well-considered and proven business model that delivers on the customer promise. The result is two-fold. It delivers something of excellence to the customer ...

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It also delivers something of excellence to the business owner - a predictable return on investment, established business procedures, employee training, staffing plans, marketing strategies and interested customers.

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The point isn't that all businesses should be franchised; the point is that all businesses would benefit from taking the same holistic approach to excellence that franchises take. Franchised businesses recognize that there are two products - the product or service which the customer buys, and the business which the investor buys."

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Trecho retirado de "Six Disciplines for Excellence" de Gary Harpst.

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Por vezes sinto que às empresas falta alguma capacidade de distanciamento e reflexão sobre si próprias e sobre o seu posicionamento, para começarem a pensar a nível de modelo para o negócio.Sem um modelo, nunca teremos uma abordagem coerente, que possa ser transmitida e explicada.

Rápido, em 35 palavras: Qual a estratégia da sua organização?

A revista Harvard Business Review deste mês inclui um artigo de acesso livre que parece que foi encomendado cá pelo "je". O artigo designa-se "Can You Say What Your Strategy Is?" e é da autoria de David Collis e Michael Rukstad.A figura esquematiza os conceitos apresentados no artigo e a sequência entre eles.

"It’s a dirty little secret: Most executives cannot articulate the objective, scope, and advantage of their business in a simple statement. If they can’t, neither can anyone else."
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1. “Can you summarize your company’s strategy in 35 words or less?”
2. “companies that don’t have a simple and clear statement of strategy are likely to fall into the sorry category of those that have failed to execute their strategy or, worse, those that never even had one.”
3. “Leaders of firms are mystified when what they thought was a beautifully crafted strategy is never implemented. They assume that the initiatives described in the voluminous documentation that emerges from an annual budget or a strategic-planning process will ensure competitive success. They fail to appreciate the necessity of having a simple, clear, succinct strategy statement that everyone can internalize and use as a guiding light for making difficult choices.”
4. “identified three critical components of a good strategy statement—objective, scope, and advantage”
5. “and rightly believed that executives should be forced to be crystal clear about them.”
6. “Any strategy statement must begin with a definition of the ends that the strategy is designed to achieve.”
7. “The definition of the objective should include not only an end point but also a time frame for reaching it.”
8. “Since most firms compete in a more or less unbounded landscape, it is also crucial to define the scope, or domain, of the business: the part of the landscape in which the firm will operate. What are the boundaries beyond which it will not venture? If you are planning to enter the restaurant business, will you provide sit-down or quick service?”
9. “how you are going to reach your objective? Your competitive advantage is the essence of your strategy: What your business will do differently from or better than others defines the all-important means by which you will achieve your stated objective. That advantage has complementary external and internal components: a value proposition that explains why the targeted customer should buy your product above all the alternatives, and a description of how internal activities must be aligned so that only your firm can deliver that value proposition.”
10. “Defining the objective, scope, and advantage requires trade-offs, which Porter identified as fundamental to strategy.”
11. “Such trade-offs are what distinguish individual companies strategically.”
12. "Many companies do have—and all firms should have—statements of their ultimate purpose and the ethical values under which they will operate, but neither of these is the strategic objective."
13. “The mission statement spells out the underlying motivation for being in business in the first place—the contribution to society that the firm aspires to make. (An insurance company, for example, might define its mission as providing financial security to consumers.) Such statements, however, are not useful as strategic goals to drive today’s business decisions. Similarly, it is good and proper that firms be clear with employees about ethical values. But principles such as respecting individual differences and sustaining the environment are not strategic. They govern how employees should behave (“doing things right”); they do not guide what the firm should do (“the right thing to do”).”
14. “The choice of objective has a profound impact on a firm. When Boeing shifted its primary goal from being the largest player in the aircraft industry to being the most profitable, it had to restructure the entire organization, from sales to manufacturing.”
15. “customer or offering, geographic location, and vertical integration. Clearly defined boundaries in those areas should make it obvious to managers which activities they should concentrate on and, more important, which they should not do.”
16. “does not define its archetypal customer by net worth or income. Nor does it use demographics, profession, or spending habits. Rather, the definition is psychographic: The company’s customers are long-term investors who have a conservative investment philosophy and are uncomfortable making serious financial decisions without the support of a trusted adviser
17. “ Given that a sustainable competitive advantage is the essence of strategy, it should be no surprise that advantage is the most critical aspect of a strategy statement. Clarity about what makes the firm distinctive is what most helps employees understand how they can contribute to successful execution of its strategy.”
18. “As mentioned above, the complete definition of a firm’s competitive advantage consists of two parts. The first is a statement of the customer value proposition. Any strategy statement that cannot explain why customers should buy your product or service is doomed to failure.
19. “ The second part of the statement of advantage captures the unique activities or the complex combination of activities allowing that firm alone to deliver the customer value proposition. This is where the strategy statement draws from Porter’s definition of strategy as making consistent choices about the configuration of the firm’s activities. It is also where the activity-system map that Porter describes in “What Is Strategy?” comes into play.”
20. “How, then, should a firm go about crafting its strategy statement? Obviously, the first step is to create a great strategy, which requires careful evaluation of the industry landscape. This includes developing a detailed understanding of customer needs, segmenting customers, and then identifying unique ways of creating value for the ones the firm chooses to serve. It also calls for an analysis of competitors’ current strategies and a prediction of how they might change in the future. The process must involve a rigorous, objective assessment of the firm’s capabilities and resources and those of competitors, as described in “Competing on Resources: Strategy in the 1990s,” by David J. Collis and Cynthia A. Montgomery (HBR July–August 1995)—not just a feel-good exercise of identifying core competencies.”
21. “The creative part of developing strategy is finding the sweet spot that aligns the firm’s capabilities with customer needs in a way that competitors cannot match given the changing external context—factors such as technology, industry demographics, and regulation.”
22. “When the strategy statement is circulated throughout the company, the value proposition chart and activity-system map should be attached. They serve as simple reminders of the twin aspects of competitive advantage that underpin the strategy. Cascading the statement throughout the organization, so that each level of management will be the teacher for the level below, becomes the starting point for incorporating strategy into everyone’s behavior.”