ANTICIPATING STRATEGY DECAY

PHILOSOPHY
Institutions falter when they invest too much in WHAT IS and too little in WHAT COULD BE . Across the board the pace of strategy decay is accelerating. Quite honestly corporate leaders regularly miss or deny, the signs of strategy decay. They somehow over look the warning signals.

4 ways
Business strategy decay in 4 ways. A diligent, honest and above all a frequent review of these questions can provide a timely remedy to the upcoming situation. We will go through the 4 decaying processes one by one.

1 LOOSING DISTINCTIVENESS
Is our strategy loosing its distinctiveness ? Do we possess any competitive advantages that are still truly unique. Is our financial performance becoming less exceptional and more average . Does our strategy defy industry norms in a significant way.

2 BEING SUPERSEDED
Is our strategy in danger of being superseded ? Are there any SOCIAL , POLITICAL & TECHNICAL changes that could significantly reduce the economic power of our current business. Do we have an alternate strategy to cope or neutralize these forces of change.

3 REACHING EXHAUSTION

Is our strategy reaching the point of exhaustion ? Is the pace of improvement in key performance areas (cost per unit or marketing expense per new customer) slowing down. Are our markets getting saturated . Are our customers becoming more fickle. Is our company's growth rate decelerating or about to start doing so.

4 CUSTOMERS BARGAINING POWER

Is increasing customer power affecting our margins ? How quickly and in what ways are customers gaining additional bargaining power. To what extent do our margins depend on customer ignorance. Are we forced to offer lower prices. Are we forced to offer better services and products without increasing the price.

THE QUEST FOR RESILIENCE

A company must become entirely free of denial, nostalgia and arrogance in order to cope with a decay in strategy. It must be deeply conscious of what is changing and always willing to consider how those changes are likely to affect the current success. RESILIENCE requires alternatives as well as awareness along with the ability to create a plethora of new options as alternatives to dying strategies. RESILIENCE INFACT REFERS TO A CAPACITY FOR CONTINOUS RECONSTRUCTION.

THE CORE

Strategic resilience is not about responding to a one time crisis. It is not about rebounding from a setback. It is about continuously anticipating and adjusting to changing trends. It is about the capacity to change before the case for change becomes desperately obvious.

REVOLUTION, RENEWAL & RESILIENCE

What is the probability that your company will significantly continue to grow over the next few years? What is the probability that your company will deliver substantially better returns than the industry average? Confidence in the future of your business depends on the extent to which it has mastered the three essential forms of innovation.

REVOLUTION

In most of the industries it is the revolutionaries that have acquired the maximum revenue. Whether a new comer or an old timer , a company needs an unconventional strategy to produce unconventional returns.

RENEWAL
New comers have one important advantage over others A CLEAN SLATE. To reinvent its industry , an old timer must first of all reinvent itself. Strategic renewal is creative reconstruction. It requires innovation with respect to ones traditional business model.

RESILIENCE

Most companies go from success to failure and then after a long hard climb , they bounce back to success. Resilience refers to a capacity for continuous reconstruction.