Competitive advantage is nearly impossible without tough strategic choices, and to make such choices, you need a reliable toolbox. This Business Strategies and Frameworks (Part 3) contains tools and models that will help you identify risks and opportunities, and lay out action plans in every aspect of your business: from Human Resources to Sales and Marketing and beyond.
A company can implement these tools and models in their operations by first understanding the purpose and functionality of each tool and model. Then, they should identify the areas in their operations where these tools and models can be applied. The next step is to train the relevant staff on how to use these tools and models effectively. After that, they should integrate these tools and models into their daily operations and monitor their effectiveness regularly. It's also important to continuously update and adapt these tools and models to meet the changing needs of the business.
A company that could benefit from these strategies is Amazon. Amazon operates in various sectors such as e-commerce, cloud computing, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. By using these strategic tools and models, Amazon can identify risks and opportunities in each of these sectors. For instance, in the e-commerce sector, Amazon can use these strategies to analyze market trends, customer behavior, and competition to maintain its competitive advantage. In the cloud computing sector, these strategies can help Amazon identify potential risks and develop action plans to mitigate them.
4.5% of strategy potential is lost to poor action planning, per Harvard Business Review. Implementing A Balanced Scorecard will help you keep track of the execution of activities and monitor the consequences arising from these actions.
This slide showcases the Strategy Maps framework, which is a business tactic that allows you to have everyone on the team in agreement about strategic direction and enable the teams to see where they fit in in the process of strategy implementation.
Overview
This deck includes the following frameworks: Open Innovation, Balanced Scorecard, Scenario Planning, Six Boxes, Core Competence Model, Internationalization Strategy, Strategy Maps with Balanced Scorecard, Bridges Transition Model, McKinsey 7S Framework, Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM), Just-In-Time/Lean Thinking, SWOT Analysis, Theory X and Theory Y, Real Options Theory, Managerial Grid, Business Model Canvas, Business Ecosystem, Socially Engineered Change, Crowdsourcing Process, Ansoff Growth Matrix, Stakeholder Analysis, Benchmarking, Learning Style Inventory, Flow Theory, People Capability Maturity Model, Evolutionary Growth of Organizations, STAR Method, Learning & Training with ADDIE, Scrum Process, Strategic Alignment Model, Net Present Value, Five Star Model, Overhead Value Analysis, KANO Model, SECI Model, Interpersonal Circumplex, Buy-Grid Model, Adaption Innovation Inventory, SHRM Competency Model, Crafting Strategy, Senge's Five Disciplines, Ulrich HR model and DELPHI.
Companies can implement the Core Competence Model in their operations by first identifying their core competencies. These are the unique strengths and abilities that differentiate the company from its competitors. Once identified, these competencies should be nurtured and developed. The company should focus its resources on these areas and integrate them into its business strategy. This will allow the company to leverage its strengths to gain a competitive advantage. It's also important to continually reassess and update these competencies as the business environment changes.
The Six Boxes framework is a performance management model that has been effectively applied in various organizations. However, specific case studies are not mentioned in the provided content. For detailed case studies, you may refer to the official Six Boxes website or academic resources. Some known applications include its use in sales performance improvement at a major telecommunications company and in enhancing the efficiency of healthcare services in a hospital setting.
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Application
In the article, The Case For Establishing A Winning Strategic Framework, Forbes looks at the top four reasons businesses need a winning strategic framework:
You don't have a strategy – having a vision statement and a mission statement isn't the same as having a strategy. To develop a solid strategy, you must first find the answers to the following questions: What is your winning aspiration? How will you win? What are your core capabilities? What management systems do you have in place? Otherwise, by not having a strategy in place you risk creating an environment of dysfunction, which may lead to even more threats and inefficiencies.
You have the wrong mindset – it may happen that you have a participation mindset which means that you are doing everything exactly the same as your competitors. This mindset results in a lack of commitment, excitement and passion within your venture. A winning mindset means that you have clearly spelled out your competitive position to your customers.
You try to be all things to all people – this approach almost unavoidably leads to an inefficient organization. "Strategic leadership is about doing some things and not others. [...] Focus on doing a few things well, and it will lead to higher growth," the article reads.
Your traditional strategic planning is weak – organizations spend too much time identifying goals and objectives, without acting on them. As an example, the article talks about an executive who wanted his organization to grow, but when asked the hard questions mentioned above, realized that the company didn't have an understanding that growth was actually an outcome or tactic. When a winning strategic framework was implemented, the company shut down three product lines that were taking the focus off the core business processes. This move led to improved efficiency and higher closing percentages, which, in turn, resulted in three times more growth than the previous year.
Statistics
Strategic planning solutions platform, Cascade, published some fascinating and somewhat disturbing, insights on business strategy implementation. Here are some key findings:
50% of leaders rate implementation as equal in importance to strategy
68% of executives believe their organization is good at developing a strategy
61% of leaders agree that their ventures often struggle to bridge the gap between strategy formulation and implementation
67% of leaders believe their organization is good at crafting strategy and only 47% believe their organization is successful at implementing a strategy
Only 2% of leaders say they feel confident that they will achieve 80-100% of their strategic objectives
33% of leaders rate their organization as poor or very poor at implementing a strategy
50% of leaders think the implementation is equal in importance to strategy
67% of well-formulated strategies failed due to poor execution
40% say their company is good or excellent at feeding lessons from successful strategy implementation back into strategy formulation
In 49% of organizations, leaders spend only one day a month reviewing their strategic implementation
