Strategic Robustness

How to develop a winning strategy.

Strategy Formation is different from the annual budgeting process or a plan review or an offsite – given your "Vision" of what you want to achieve it should be a systematic process with four key activities:

1) a review of what is changing in the business environment as well as in your competitor's capabilities.

2) a review of "Where to Play" given those changes in the business and competitor environment.

3) the core of strategy building – updating your “How to Win” given your choice of “Where to Play”

4) a review of the success of actions taken and any course corrections needed to win

Strategy will fail if it is not set in the context of competitor capabilities so yours is distinct. Without that understanding the wrong strategy choices will be made. You will not know if you have the "right to win" in your "Where to Play" and "How to Win" decisions. Excellent competitor intelligence is critical in all stages of strategy formation and refinement - and to ensure any course corrections you make will be successful.

Our approach starts with the identification of what are the key drivers of success in your marketplace. Then an evaluation of your and the competition's strengths and weaknesses on those key determinants of success. We identify what it is your competition is focusing on and the resources they are placing behind that. With that knowledge we look at your proposed strategy – by category, by function, by channel and by geography: will your proposed strategy choices differentiate you and enable you to win in the marketplace given those competitor capabilities, positions and resources?

We help you adjust your strategy in the light of that – and re-check for robustness.