your strategy audit_08302013
TRANSCRIPT
Preparing Yourself: Audit Your Strategy and Clarify Your Process
Your Strategy AuditRita Gunther McGrath and Ian C.
MacMillan.Market Busters (Boston, MA: Harvard Business
School Press, 2005)
BASELINE
This approach will give you a baseline. If you already have good processes in place, you should be able to zip through the audit in no time. If not, you may want to revisit your base strategy. After you’ve taken a good hard look at what you’re doing now, you’ll be ready to start building marketbusting moves into the way you “do strategy.”
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Your Strategy Audit
Your organization probably has some kind of strategy and is trying every day to outpace the competition and satisfy the customers. At the risk of asking you to repeat Strategy 101 but in the interest of being pragmatic and realistic, we suggest that you audit your company’s strategy before you start trying to implement a marketbusting move.
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Objectives What outcome represents success for you in this strategy?
How clear and well articulated is it? Is it clear which market arenas are desirable and undesirable?
Is the strategic logic for this choice clear and unambiguous? Has the strategy been translated to memorable, simple
phrases that have emotional resonance for employees? Do you have a systematic approach to communication that
ensures widespread understanding of the strategy? Does your company have a way of describing the strategy to
key financial stakeholders (such as stock analysts)?
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Customers Which customers does your company seek to serve, and in what
priority order? Why have you chosen these customers? Which customers do you not seek to serve? Why?
What does your business do that offers a winning proposition for customers, consisting of greater value than offered by competitors, in such a way that customers will pay for this greater value?
How does your offering add value, from the point of view of the customer? Describe this value in a few sentences.
How is the business capturing value for your company from the target customers?
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Competitors Who are they? Are you obtaining competitive intel about all three
categories of competition? Traditional competitors? Potential competitors? Oblique competitors who are in competition with you for something you need, like investment capital or disposable time? Is there a clear competitive strategy in place for each category?
What is the form of competitive insulation – how do you protect your chosen markets from the competition?
What moves are competitors most likely to make? How will you respond?
How do you currently conduct competitive intel? How will your leaders get decent info about what the competitors are doing?
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Complementors Which activities do you perform on your own? Would
partnering create future liabilities: losing touch with customers: weakening your technological or capability base?
Whom do you need in your network of stakeholders to stay effective? Has a solid stakeholder analysis been done? When was it last updated?
Do you have a continuously updated list of potential targets for acquisitions or potential partners for alliances? Do you have a clear strategy for post-alliance or acquisition management?
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Company and Capabilities What are the unique capabilities and competencies of your
business? How are they being leveraged? What business model is your company pursuing (what do you
get paid for, and how does it fit into the industry’s value chain)?
How does your strategy process ensure that you develop new capabilities and terminate those that are obsolete?
How will you build and maintain the key human capital your business requires?
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Context What are the environmental and contextual issues that will
affect the success of this strategy? How will outside forces (regulation, globalization, war)
affect the strategy?
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HEALTHY STRATEGY
As you think through the answers to these questions, note where you think your company’s strategy is healthy and which processes you want to keep in place, as well as places where you think changes are needed.Bear these in mind as you continue to develop the marketing strategy for your firm.
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The Authors
Rita Gunther McGrathAssociate Professor of Management at Columbia Business School.McKinsey Best Paper Award 2001Editorial Board of: Academy of Management Review; Strategic Management Journal; Journal of Business Venturing.Director of the Strategic Management Society
Ian C. MacMillanFred Sullivan Professor of Management at the university of Pennsylvania’s Wharton SchoolDirector of Entrepreneurial Research Programs at the Wharton SchoolArticles in: Harvard Business Review; Sloan Management Review; Academy of Management Review; Strategic Management Journal; etc.
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