Strategy with a wide-angle lens ...

In a world where uncertainty and disruption are norms, it is vital that companies and their strategic advisers widen their strategy lens and further refine their strategy development skills

When iTunes came into the music industry, it caused massive disruption overnight. It took an outsider to say: “There’s fat in the music industry and we can do this differently.”

Airbnb emerged from the dematerialisation movement, aided by new technology; two guys had space in their apartment and trouble paying their rent. They transformed the hospitality business, but also launched a growing industry of collaborative consumption ideas.

Similarly, 3D printing is reducing manufacturing waste, capital employed in inventory and just-in-time supply. And Google Earth threatens to make 20 years of research obsolete by the rise of electric cars, with sophisticated car cameras set to revolutionise landscape mapping, whilst Volkswagen and other manufacturers will soon be selling real-time information to transport ministries on the location of pot holes on our roads.

Strategy can be a leadership tool

So how can we avoid becoming someone else’s next opportunity?

Companies need to work harder to align strategy with market conditions. While Blockbuster failed to change with the market, Netflix transformed itself. The rise of streaming could have put Netflix out of the game, but it knew its customers and market, and adapted.

Is your data out of date?

Strategy planning can no longer be an annual thing. The shelf-life for information is getting increasingly shorter, so whilst some organisations operate without a strategy, still delivering on narrow, inward-looking plans, the industry moves on.

Henley’s Strategy Programme enables senior executives and board members to further develop their skills, identify obsolete business models and understand how to use strategy as an essential analytical and leadership tool.

 

Diana Richards
01491 418767
exec@henley.ac.uk
henley.ac.uk/strategy
@HenleyExecEd