Introduction to Strategy

Development and Strategy Execution

Contributed by David Tang on October 21, 2014 in Operations & Supply Chain , Organization, Change, & HR , Strategy, Marketing, &

Sales

Note from the Editor: This article is an excerpt from the presentation, Introduction To

Strategy Development and Strategy Execution , which is available as a complimentary

download . This is a 54-slide PowerPoint presentation introducing 12 business

frameworks on Strategy Development and Strategy Execution. The full presentation is

also available for preview below in this article. For each framework, within the

presentation, there is an overview, explanation of proper usage, and delineation

of analyses involved. The presentation also provides references to more detailed

documentation, guides, and methodologies if you would like more information.

A successful business requires both a well developed strategy and the ability to execute on

that strategy. Strategy without execution is merely theory. Many companies develop robust

strategies, but fail at operationalizing their strategies into implementable steps.

In this article, we will provide overviews for 12 business frameworks related to various

aspects of Strategy Development and Strategy Execution. At the bottom, we include

references for further information on these business concepts.

Below, we have provided summaries of the 12 strategy frameworks covered in the

presentation. Please note the original PowerPoint is much more comprehensive. It includes

additional content, data, and associated framework diagrams.

CONSOLIDATION-ENDGAME CURVE

The Consolidation-Endgame Curve framework (also known as Consolidation Curve or

Endgame Curve) is not a well known framework, but is one that offers incredibly insights

into market dynamics and competitive strategies.

This framework was developed by the management consulting firm AT Kearney after they

performed a study on 25,000 firms, representing 98% of the global market cap. The firm

realizes that all industries go through the same 4-stage lifecycle—Opening, Scale, Focus,

Balance & Alliance. Across all industries, the same characteristics are exhibited at each

stage of the Curve.

By appropriately identifying our stage and understanding the defining traits and behavior of

our stage, we can better understand and predict market and competitive behavior and

trends. Every major strategic and operational move should be evaluated with regard to the

industry’s stage in the Consolidation Curve.

On a more subtle note, the industry stage also governs what type of management and

leadership works best for the company. In other words, the management team in the Scale

phase may not possess the right skills to run the company at the Balance & Alliance stage.

PORTER’S FIVE FORCES

Developed by Michael Porter, recognized as the father of modern business strategy, Porter’s

Five Forces is one of the most well known classic strategy frameworks. Porter’s Five Forces

is a framework used for industry analysis and understand the various dynamics amongst

industry players and external “forces.”

It is based on the theory that competition in any industry is dependent on 5 basic forces—

Potential Entrants, Internal Rivalry, Suppliers, Buyers, and Substitutes (or Complements).

The collective strength of these forces determines the ultimate profit potential and

allocation in the industry.

Using this framework, we can determine how attract it is to compete in any industry, as well

as what the overarching strategy should be to compete successfully in the industry—success

is determined by the ability to develop a sustainable competitive advantage. It can also be

used to assess which industry trends may pose as opportunities or threats.

BCG GROWTH-SHARE MATRIX

The BCG Growth-Share Matrix (also called Product Portfolio and Boston Matrix) is a classic

competitive positioning strategy framework developed by the management consulting firm

Boston Consulting Group (BCG). The growth-share matrix displays graphically in a 2-by-2

matrix one of two scenarios:

The position of each business of a company’s portfolio; or

Compares the position of various players in one industry.

The two axes of the matrix are 1) market/industry growth and 2) relative market share

(RMS). We then plot our products onto the matrix and quadrant associated with the

product drives its strategy.

The quadrants are defined as follows:

Star – high RMS, high market growth;

Cash cow – High RMS, low market growth;

Dog – Low RMS, low market growth; and

Question mark – Low RMS, high market growth.

The key premise to this framework is that products located in each of the quadrants will be

in fundamentally different cash flow positions and should be managed differently. This

framework is used to assess trends in the evolution of a company’s portfolio of business

(when matrix is drawn for both the current year and past years). It can also be used to

understand the competitive position of each business, possible cash requirements, and focus

attention on key issues.

BLUE OCEAN STRATEGY

Blue Ocean Strategy is growth strategy framework focused on the idea of creating an

uncontested market space–i.e. a “blue ocean.” This framework is very innovative, as its

principles challenge the conventional business strategy principles of fighting competitors

head-on. The Blue Ocean Strategy framework evolved from a framework called Value

Innovation developed by Gemini Consulting (now Capgemini Consulting ) in the late 90s.

At the heart of Blue Ocean Strategy, we have concept of Value Innovation. Value without

innovation tends to focus on value creation on an incremental scale, i.e. something that

improves value but is not sufficient to make us really stand out in the marketplace.

Innovation without value tends to be technology-driven, market pioneering, or futuristic,

often shooting beyond what buyers are ready to accept and pay for.

Value Innovation occurs only if we align innovation with utility, price, and cost positions.

The focus here is not time-to-market, bleeding-edge technology or best practices. It is the

ambition to break one of the most commonly accepted dogmas of competition-based

strategy: the value-cost trade-off.

It is conventionally believed that companies can either create greater value to customers at a

higher cost, or create reasonable value at a lower cost. Here, strategy is seen as making a

choice between differentiation and cost. In contrast, to create blue oceans, we need to

pursue differentiation and low cost simultaneously, by looking within and beyond our

industry boundaries and redefining a market altogether.

For more information, download the full presentation on Strategy Development and Execution in original PowerPoint

format here .

SWOT ANALYSIS

The SWOT Analysis (also called SWOT Matrix) is one of the earliest strategy frameworks. It

was developed in the 1960s at Harvard Business School by Learned, Christensen, Andrews,

and Guth.

The name is an acronym for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. This

framework provides basic directions for structuring strategic analysis. The underlying

theory is that assessment of competitive position should combine both an external and an

internal analysis. The internal factors are Weaknesses and Strengths, whereas the external

factors are Opportunities and Threats.

We can conduct SWOT analyses for our own organization in addition to our competitors, so

that we gain added insight into our company’s competitive position. The output of this

analysis is often displayed in the form of a 2×2 matrix. SWOT Analysis is often conducted in

conjunction with PEST Analysis (see below).

PEST ANALYSIS

PEST Analysis is a framework evaluating macro-environmental factors used in the

environmental scanning component of strategic management. The PEST analysis

framework has become increasingly popular and relevant as the first decade of the 21st

century have given rise to green business and environmental concerns from the public.

PEST is an acronym for Political, Economic, Social, and Technological, which are the

macro-environmental factors to analysis in this analysis.

This analysis is often performed in conjunction with other popular frameworks, as a means

of enhancing the understanding and output of these other frameworks. Specifically, it is

often used to help explain the analysis in the following frameworks: Porter’s Five Forces;

SWOT Analysis; Value Chain Analysis; and Industry financials.

PEST Analysis is often performed in a 3-phase process: data collection, industry trend

analysis, and trend quantification.

MARKETING MIX

The 4 P’s of marketing, often just called Marketing Mix, is perhaps the commonly used

corporate marketing framework. The marketing mix refers to the 4 levers to adjust when

determining the essence of product’s marketing strategy. The 4 P’s refer to Price, Product,

Promotion, and Placement.

This framework has been extended to 7 P’s, to also include Physical Evidence, People, and

Process. The definitions for the additional 3 P’s should not be confused with the People-

Process-Technology framework, which is more operationally-focused (vs. consumer-

focused).

PRODUCT LIFECYCLE & CONSUMER ADOPTION CURVE

Product Lifecycle analysis is a tool to predict how sales will develop based on the age of the

product category. Marketers and strategists can use this analysis to predict sales growth,

associated customer and competitor behaviors, and, in turn, devise the appropriate product

marketing strategy. The Product Lifecycle itself it divided into 4 stages of development:

Introduction, Growth, Maturity (and Saturation), and Decline (and Termination). The

length of each period varies tremendously. Some products have very short cycles, whereas

others can take decades or even centuries to go through the cycle.

The lifecycle can be mapped against the Consumer Adoption Curve, where the peak of the

curve generally occurs in the maturity stage of the Product Lifecycle. In fact, the Product

Lifecycle is typically mapped against the Consumer Adoption Curve to draw out key

marketing and competitive insights. By understanding what stage of the Consumer

Adoption Curve we’re at, we can gain invaluable insights into the who our target customer

are, as well as their defining attributes.

The Consumer Adoption Curve is defined by 5 sequential stages: Innovators, Early

Adopters, Early Majority, Late Majority, and Laggards. Typically, there is a “chasm”

between the Early Adopters and Early Majority. Product Lifecycle Analysis also provides a

framework to understand the competitive environment. It makes an underlying assumption

that sales and profitability follow a predictable pattern for all industries and all products

within those industries.

BALANCED SCORECARD

The Balanced Scorecard (BSC) is a Strategy Performance Management tool. It is a semi-

standard structured report, supported by proven design methods and automation tools, that

can be used by managers to keep track of the execution of activities by the staff within their

control and to monitor the consequences arising from these actions. It was developed by

Robert Kaplan and David Norton.

The BSC approach is called “balanced,” because it supplements traditional financial

measures with 3 key non-financial areas:

A company’s relationship with its customers;

Its key internal business processes; and

Its learning and growth.

This approach enables companies to track financial results, while simultaneously

monitoring progress in building the capabilities and acquiring the intangible assets they

need for future growth.

BSC also provides a framework for company’s to translate their strategy into measurable

and actionable KPIs and objectives. Specifically, it ties 4 key management processes

(Translating the Vision, Communicating and Linking, Business Planning, and Feedback and

Learning) into both short-term and long-term strategic objectives.

ORGANIZATIONAL HURDLES

In Blue Ocean Strategy, the authors identify 4 main Organizational Hurdles that the

organization must overcome for successful business execution. These hurdles arise when a

company develops a new strategy to departs from the status quo. These hurdles are the

Cognitive Hurdle, Resource Hurdle, Motivational Hurdle, and Political Hurdle.

Although all companies face different degrees of these hurdles, many may only face a subset

of the 4 hurdles. To overcome these hurdles effectively, organizations must abandon

perceived wisdom on effecting organizational change.

HOSHIN KANRI

Hoshin Kanri (also known as Policy Deployment, Hoshin Planning, or just Hoshin) is a

Strategic Planning/Strategic Management Methodology. It is based on a concept

popularized in Japan in the late 1950s by Yoji Akao.

“Each person is the expert in his or her own job, and Japanese TQC ( Total Quality Control )

is designed to use the collective thinking power of all employees to make their organization

the best in its field,” Yoji Akao. This is the fundamental principle of Hoshin Kanri. In other

words, this framework ensures that the strategic goals of our company drive progress and

action at every level within the organization. This eliminates the waste that comes from

inconsistent direction and poor communication.

This framework is intended to help an organization:

Focus on a shared goal;

Communicate that goal to all leaders;

Involve all leaders in planning to achieve the goal; and

Hold participants accountable for achieving their part of the plan.

Hoshin Kanri falls under the umbrella of Lean Thinking (or called Lean Management, Lean

Methodologies). Lean frameworks strive for continuous improvement of the organization.

For more information, download the full presentation on Strategy Development and Execution in original PowerPoint

format here .

Reference Sources:

Complete Business Frameworks Reference Guide

Guide to Business Strategy Execution

Complete Guide to Business Strategy Design

Blue Ocean Strategy (The Peaceful Strategy)

Hoshin Kanri

Formulating a Breakthrough Strategy

Growth Strategy Toolkit

Blue Ocean Strategy Primer

Balanced Scorecard

Product Lifecycle

Porter’s Five Forces

Consolidation-Endgame Curve Framework

BCG Growth-Share Matrix

About David Tang

David Tang is an entrepreneur and management consultant. His current focus is Flevy , the marketplace

for premium business documents (e.g. business frameworks , presentation templates , financial models ).

Prior to Flevy, David worked as a management consultant for 8 years. His consulting experience spans

corporate strategy, marketing, operations, change management, and IT; both domestic and international

(EMEA + APAC). Industries served include Media & Entertainment, Telecommunications, Consumer

Products/Retail, High-Tech, Life Sciences, and Business Services. You can connect with David here on

LinkedIn .

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