Advice and Insights From A Practitioner

Tag: Strategy Execution

Building Robust Distribution to Support Strategy – Updated October 2012

Introduction During the past year and a half, I have been working with a variety of different client companies to develop and improve their distribution networks. Distribution really matters when you consider that, on average, half of the price of the product is absorbed by activities related to getting that product from producer to the… Read More ›

Harnessing Multichannel Marketing for Strategic Advantage

“Sustainable competitive advantage no longer arises exclusively from position, scale, and first-order capabilities in producing or delivering an offering. All those are essentially static. So where does it come from? Increasingly, managers are finding that it stems from the “second-order” organizational capabilities that foster rapid adaptation. Instead of being really good at doing some particular… Read More ›

Strategic Risks – Threats and Opportunities

Figure 1: This is the logo of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau of the US Department of Treasury. Introduction My last post entitled: “A Prescription for Change” was about tackling change, one of the many strategic risks an organization faces. As every practitioner of strategy knows, strategic planning is a risky business so it… Read More ›

Making a Good Customer Value Proposition Better

Introduction The creators of the Balanced Scorecard, Robert Norton and David Kaplan, view the customer value proposition (“CVP”) as the “heart of strategy”.  They very succinctly stated that: “Strategy is based on a differentiated customer value proposition.  Satisfying [your] customers is the source of sustainable value creation.”[1] A customer value proposition is an offering that… Read More ›

Making Critical Decisions the R.A.P.I.D. Way

I believe it is increasingly important, no matter what the size and complexity of your organization is, to have a defined decision-making process.  Having been a leader of extensive global and regional underwriting and marketing business units that require many fast and accurate decisions, my teams had no choice but to establish formal decision-making roles and responsibilities.  In retrospect,… Read More ›

Using the Balanced Scorecard Approach for Better Strategy Execution

Back in the early 1990s, when I worked at CIGNA International and just returned from an assignment in Hong Kong, I learned that a new strategic initiative was underway in the domestic Property and Casualty division.  In fact, this was the first time I had ever heard of the Balanced Scorecard approach and was about… Read More ›

Strategic Planning ~ Needs and Requirements

Once everyone on the strategic planning team agrees on what the definitions are (and the differences between) strategy, an objective, a goal and a tactic, then energy can be directed towards strategic plan development.  There is a fine line between success and failure in planning and like any business endeavor there are basic needs and… Read More ›