Rethinking Your Competitive Strategy

Ideas for packaging and deploying your strategy tools

Strategy has been around for as the art of thinking about how to win in war, politics, and business.  In business, researchers and business leaders have developed many different strategic planning tools to help themselves think about how organizations can compete effectively. 

One of such strategy models is Dr. Ohmae’s 3 C’s Model. Dr. Omae is considered to be one of the top five management gurus in the world having worked with Mckinsey & Company and written many books on the subject. In his landmark book, the The Mind of the Strategist: the Art of Japanese Business”, he talks about a three-pronged strategy. The model is based on integrating the three most critical elements on which, he argues, business strategists need to focus:

·         The customer…defining the rewarders

·         The corporation …defining yourself

·         The competitors …defining others 

 He went on to explain that each of the three Cs is important in itself, but each C impacts the others.  A company might launched a product that perfectly satisfies its clients but if a competitor launches a similar product that is, much cheaper, , the first company would have to rethink its strategy. He argues that the customer stands at the centre of the business and must inform all strategy decisions. This underscore the significance of continues strategy development and deployment as an organization that is keen on achieving competitive advantage in the market place.

WHAT IS IN A STRATEGY?

The Art of War is an ancient Chinese military treatise that is attributed to Sun Tzu, a high ranking military general and strategist during the late Spring and Autumn period.. It is said to be the definitive work on military strategies and tactics of its time, and is still read for its military insight.

The Art of War is one of the oldest and most successful books on military strategy in the world. It has been the most famous and influential of China's Seven Military Classics: "for the last two thousand years it remained the most important military treatise in Asia, where even the common people knew it by name. It has had an influence on Eastern military thinking, business tactics, and beyond.

Sun Tzu emphasized the importance of positioning in military strategy. The decision to position an army must be based on both objective conditions in the physical environment and the subjective beliefs of other, competitive actors in that environment. He thought that strategy was not planning in the sense of working through an established list, but rather that it requires quick and appropriate responses to changing conditions. Planning works in a controlled environment; but in a changing environment, competing plans collide, creating unexpected situations.

The word strategy comes from two Greek words, “stratus” which means an “army” and “agein” which is “to lead”. A strategist is therefore a person who acts as like he is leading an army. Corporate strategy refers to the long term plans of organizations by which its team members seek to achieve a set of objectives. 

THE ESSENCE OF STRATEGIC THINKING 

In one of the famous books of ancient mythology, the Odyssey, the great ancient battle between the Greek and the Trojans had been fought for many years over the most  beautiful  woman in the world, Helen. 

The Greeks were perceived to be stronger  but  were fighting  from outside the heavily built walls  of the Troy people  as they made all efforts to  seize to back the wife of Agamemnon , who and  been stolen  from the Prince of Troy.

After many years of deadlock and much loss of life including the great Achilles and some of the finest Greek warriors. One of the Greek warriors, a strategic thinker for that matter brought out an apparently silly but wonderful idea of building what has come to be known as Wooden House of Troy.

The Greek warriors went ahead to apply the strategy. They built a large wooden horse and hid the best of their soldiers in it at night.  The rest of the soldiers sailed away to hid as if they had given given up the fight.

Unfortunately, the unsuspecting Trojans ran out of their fortified city and went into jubilation over the defeat and surrender of the Greeks.  After a long celebration, they all slept.  The Greek soldiers who hidden themselves in the wooden horse then came out and set fire on the whole city and destroyed it.  That was how a battle that had gone on for years was finally ended, thanks to the idea of a strategic thinker! Today, the same kind of battle rages on with organizations battling to outwit each other, and the role of strategic thinkers cannot be overlooked. 

THE TWO STRATEGY MENTALITIES 

The Hedgehog and the Fox is an essay by the liberal philosopher Sir Isaiah Berlin. The title is a reference to a fragment attributed to the ancient Greek poet Archilochus ,”the fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing". He described the fox as a cunning creature that is always devising complex strategy to spring surpsirse attack on the hedgehog. On the contrary, the hedgehog threads trepidaciously minding its main business but is always awaked on its strategy for defense. 

In a similar vein, the international bestseller, James Collins, in his book, Built to Last also alluded to this phenomenon. He describes fox mentality organizations as those that have diffused, scattered, inconsistent and are unable to integrate their concepts into one unifying vision that the entire team can successfully pursue at a time. They instead stretch themselves on trying to pursue so many things at the same time and never get to achive any meaningful result.

The solution to the fox mentality is in companies making the effort to identify what they can do best and focusing on that. What drives the success of every business is the strategy engine and the leadership of the organization must strive to gear all its efforts to maximizing that advantage. 

The Hedgehog mentality companies on the other hand are able to define their core business and channel all other resources to retaining the full potential of thereof.  Hedgehog companies are focused and disciplined. They don’t jump on opportunities simply because they have seen others succeed in pursuing them. They don’t fire misguided missiles. They take calculated risks and move one step at a time. Their decisions are informed by their internal locus of control as well as happenings in their external environs. 

DEPLOYING AND DRIVING A COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE CAMPAIGN

Strategy is simply making definite choices about how to compete. Determine your competitive advantage. Your competing tool could be your price, packaging, distribution, pricing, and value –added services. Always remember that your wining strategy must apply to your situation. What is working for others may not necessarily work for you.

There are three basic elements that make strategy work. They are:

·         Painting the broad direction  of  the company to the entire team

·         Putting the right people behind it for effective execution

·         Executing the strategy with a conscientious monitoring and improvement

How then can organizations operating in competitive landscapes take the lead and maintain the success momentum? Here are five tips:  

1. FOCUS ON THE BIG PICTURE

For an organization to compete and excel, the entire team must be driven by the bigger picture. This is the long- term goal of the company. Every leadership minded company must be determined to avoid short- term decisions that has the capacity of crippling the potential of the organization like plaque. 

2. STRATEGICALLY POSITION THE ORGANIZATION TO LEAD

Preparation ahead of impending opportunities both within and outside ones industry is crucial; here. The essence of preparation ahead of impending opportunities in ones industry cannot be overemphasized.  Build the necessary capacities in terms of capital and human resources are key. Another crucial concern here is the realignment f the company’s structures and systems that empower people to deliver outstanding results.

3. APPLY STRATEGIC THINKLING

You can’t win without strategic thinking. In the story alluded to earlier, the Greeks won the battle against the Trojans because of the idea of a strategic thinker. Organizations that want to establish themselves as market leaders must build a team that is akin to strategic thinking.

Strategic thinking is the ability to think ahead, anticipate and envision the future, and be able to navigate one’s life, organization or country through the challenges of a fast-changing, globalizing world.

The ability to think strategically is a mark of strategic or visionary leaders – those able to envision a better future, develop strategies to match and align people behind to achieve the vision. Companies that lack strategic thinking will find it difficult on seizing emerging opportunities and may not be able to change the playing field in their favour.

What is strategic thinking? It is thinking the “Right Things” rather than just thinking “Things Right”. It is also about thinking “Out of the Box” Ghana’s business leadership coach, Prof. Pikay Richards of Manchester Business School in a presentation to business leaders in Accra recently on” Achieving Market Leadership: 

The Role of Strategic Thinking”  drew the relationship between strategic thinking and organizational leadership as “Strategic Thinking + Strategic Learning +Strategic Action

= Strategic Achievement.

Strategic thinkers are always asking vital questions such as: how will my industry look like in the next decade? Will my clientele base change in teams of taste, size and demands?   What are the major threats in this industry?  What are the innovations driving business success in this industry? What advertising strategies can work better for me? Which possible areas can I diversify? 

4. ALWAYS SEARCH FOR NEW WAYS TO COMPETE 

Pacesetters are not driven by the competition. They drive the competition.  A leader does not wait for others to introduce new products or services before they also do same.  Followers do that.  To excel in the current competition, you must operate with speed and accuracy.  You have to take the risk to tread unexploited territories before your competitors do.

It’s not funny. There are some companies who do not even know who their true competitors are. You need to develop criteria to help you define who your competitors are.  This is very vital in crafting the competitive strategy. 

Remember that you can learn from and apply strategy only based on your situation. Don’t just copy and do same even if you are in the same industry. Your strategy must be unique to your organization.  

5. MASTER AND DRIVE CHANGE ALL THROUGHOUT THE ORGANIZATION

Change is the only constant in the world.  Customer service is changing and customers are becoming more sophiscated. Technology is driving the pace and flow of business. Until you to learn to change and apply drastic changes in every aspect of your business operations, you will find the competition boring. 

Highly respected Business Consultant, Jim Collins talks about the “The Myth of Fear-Driven Change” which he explained as the fear of being left behind, the fear of watching others win, the fear of presiding over monumental failure which are all are drivers of change. Competitively viable companies all not threaten by competition; they see it as positive forces which aid them in achieving greater success.

CONCLUSION

Competition is good but how the organization positions itself determines its success at competing in the market place.  Every business has its own peculiar challenges that inform its competitive strategy, what may work for one company, may not work for another. You can enhance your competitive advantage by rethinking your competitive strategy.  

Enjoy the rest of the week!