Website design By BotEap.comThere are strategic planning tools for just about any goal a business executive can conceive of. However, for managers and entrepreneurs who want to innovate their business model, it can be challenging to make the leap from conventional thinking to the kind of creative yet realistic thinking from which the next generation of sustainable profits can be developed.
Website design By BotEap.comBy knowing the types of tools you can use for various types of trading strategy tasks, you can get much more innovative results from your strategy development sessions while reducing the time it takes to come up with good trading models.
Website design By BotEap.comTools to map and dominate uncontested market spaces
Website design By BotEap.com1. Strategy Canvas
Website design By BotEap.comThe Strategy Canvas is a tool first introduced in the book “Blue Ocean Strategy” by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne. It is a chart that plots the positions of business competitors relative to factors important to the customer market. The horizontal axis plots the factors of competition (hopefully established through customer knowledge), and the vertical axis plots the degree of supply or level of service.
Website design By BotEap.comWith this chart, the differences between current and potential business competitors can be graphically represented. The main point of the strategy canvas is to illustrate the divergence between trading and market strategies in relation to client needs. By using a strategy canvas, you can create a new value innovation that breaks the conflict between low cost and differentiation—the heart of blue ocean strategy.
Website design By BotEap.comThe Strategy Canvas is also a great tool for USP development.
Website design By BotEap.com2. Index of strategic control points
Website design By BotEap.comThis is a tool used to assess the level of strategic control a company has in its industry relative to competing companies and organizations. It was best articulated by management consultant Adrian Slywotzky in “The Profit Zone” (a book I highly recommend). The Strategic Control Points Index ranks these control points according to the level of “profit protection power” they confer on a company.
Website design By BotEap.comIn a nutshell, it’s a simple description of the path to monopoly (or at least near-monopoly) power in any business design. The gain protection power of these strategic control points ranges from “None”, “low”, “medium” to “high”. Some examples of strategic control points given by Slywotzky include:
- 10 to 20 percent cost advantage in basic products (low)
- One-year product development lead (slightly higher, but still low)
- Product development leader for two years (medium)
- Brand, copyright (slightly higher, but still medium)
- Customer Relationship Ownership (High)
- Chain of Superdominant Market Positions (Superior)
- Value Chain Management (Even higher)
- Standard property (highest)
Website design By BotEap.com3.6 Route framework
Website design By BotEap.comThis analytical tool is another of the “blue ocean strategy” and gives strategists a masterful way of thinking through the “conventional six limits of competition” to systematically build new assumptions and stimulate breakthroughs in product or business design. . The idea is that one of these unconventional ways of looking at the competitive landscape can open up a strategic breakthrough.
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Look across industries – Compete with alternatives and substitutes for your product/service instead of those you think are your competition.
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Look through strategic groups – Discuss how your new strategy can be developed within the naturally assumed strategic boundaries in your industry.
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Look through the chain of buyers – Consider how you can change the game by changing the defined “primary buyers”.
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Find complementary products and services – Think of the complete system of your typical customer solution (where your current offering might only be a small part).
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Looking through functional or emotional appeal – Examine how you can create a new value curve by adding excitement to a functionally oriented industry, or by removing the excitement and stripping a product or service down to its functional core.
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look through time – Adjust your time horizon to a different point or cycle than is typical in the rest of your industry.
Website design By BotEap.com4. Business Design Matrix
Website design By BotEap.comThe Business Design Matrix is a great analytical tool that you can use to help understand and analyze your competitors’ business models “at a glance.” It is derived largely from the work of Dr. Adrian Slywotzky. The criteria by which he analyzes his competitors, as well as his own organization, include:
- Customer Selection
- Benefit capture system(s)
- Differentiation / Strategic Control
- Scope of offers and presence
Website design By BotEap.comThese four critical considerations provide a foundation for deciding marketing strategy, a foundation on which a broader business strategy can comfortably rest.
