Naturally, I am to ask a lot of questions as an Editor. The
following two questions, while only applicable in very specific situations, are
among my favourites. You will see why.
1 1) What is your strategy?
2 2) f I asked YOUR customers, what would they tell
me why they buy from you?
Recently, someone answered (unedited responses):
1 1) Growth and profitability
2) Quality
If I was a consultant for a company answering as above, I
would have some work to do. Here is my take, as also discussed in my submission
on strategy for my Msc in Project Management.
STRATEGY
Strategic vision is of utmost importance; it communicates directions (Amason,
2011, 46-53), defining core competencies (Collins and Porras, 2018). Sometimes
visons fail to do so, as e.g. Google’s previous secrecy about its strategy
(Rahman, n.d., 4) may make us blind men touching elephants (Schmaltz and
Schmaltz, 2003). Strategy must be clearly communicated internally, so that
everyone is aligned and pulls in the same direction.
As a company, one may chose different strategies: emergent
strategy, contrary to designed approach (Ansoff, 1991). One may make decisions
that are not based on a clear strategy and initially be lucky, however, one should
seek to be deliberate (Fiore et al., 2019). Operating in VUCA environments
(Stachowicz-Stanusch, 2019), we can see some companies using the notion of Napoleonic
warfare: subsidiaries keep moving rather than compete (Kornberger and
Engberg-Pedersen, 2021). Addressing trade-offs (Porter, 1996, 61–78), breaking
the business into entrepreneurial units filled with experts (Johnson et al.,
2017) allows agile implementation to fit emergent strategies (Anderson, 2013, 104-136),
thus exploiting opportunities. Disadvantages include increased resource
allocation for non-core activities (Nurton, 2013), risk of wrong decisions
(Gilbert-Saad et al., 2021) and hiring of misfit staff (Wright and Snell,
1998).
Cost leadership, differentiation and focus are generally accepted
strategies. Using these, communications, innovation strategy, hiring, procurement
decisions etc can be derived.
When getting the above, the strategy right, Growth and
Profitability will be the RESULT of it, not the strategy. I would posit that
there isn’t a for-profit company that does not aim for growth and
profitability. That however, is the goal, not the method to archiving success.
Once quantified and qualified, growth and profitability could become part of KPIs
or the companies’ vision, but what it is not is strategy.
QUALITY
“Quality”. EVERY product or service has quality. Some have
qualities: non-slippery and easy to hold. Quality is defined as the grade of
excellence. Hence, if you offer a product that will last half the time of that
of your competition, you have delivered quality. Unless clearly defined, just “Quality”
says nothing.
What “Quality” means to one person is and will
be subjectively different to the next unless there are industry standards that
can indicate the quality of the product to some extend. Think RON 95,
non-virgin olive oil. If I was asked to say why I work with certain suppliers,
I would answer that pro-active problem notification is one of the approaches is
one that I value in the relationship. I am sure that everyone will have something
that they value a supplier for. However, I wonder how many would simply say
that it is the quality.
