Whether your company is experiencing rapid growth or decline, it’s always a good idea to have a strategy and a plan. Everything is as usual, only approaches to strategizing are changing. Let’s discuss the main world trends in strategizing and not only.
1. THE END OF THE MONOPOLY OF FOUNDERS, OWNERS AND TOPS IN DETERMINING THE FUTURE OF THE COMPANY
It might sound upsetting or inspiring to someone, but the trend towards the shared leadership in the company development is gaining momentum. Prophets are ending and becoming less and less effective in a world that is becoming more and more sophisticated. Young men are already different – with interesting thoughts, ambitions and many alternatives for themselves in the globe. It is time to create an internal non-stop process of finding and implementing innovations.
2. WE ENCOUNTER BOUNDLESS UNCERTAINTY AND THE LACK OF A FAMILIAR FOOTHOLD IN THE DATA
There are two reasons. The first reason: changing market boundaries due to changing generations, people’s needs, and the influence of technology. On the example of telecom: over the past 15 years, the market has undergone 4 transformations, even hybridizations: Telecom — Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) — InfoTainmentCom — Creative Economy. Such changes cannot always be noticed quickly, or there is not enough competence to see a different landscape, the trends in it, and therefore the numbers, where the profit zone is migrating.
The second reason: the trend-breaking global COVID-19 crisis.
The consequence of both reasons is that we are less and less able to extrapolate historical data and patterns, and use old models.
3. GOODBYE TO MODERATORS, FACILITATORS AND BUSINESS COACHES — HELLO TO THE INNOVATIVE STRATEGIES
The number of companies the ideas and business models of which are stuck in the past has grown dramatically and will continue to grow. Respectively, reducing uncertainty and gaining clarity in the team will be much more relevant. However, the methods of achieving this clarity are changing significantly.
What was previously achieved by group discussion techniques, facilitation and moderation competencies will become ineffective. It is the same as moderating the creation of borshch without understanding the very technology of its preparation and simply asking questions: what will your start with, what do you want as a result, what do you not want? Expertise in innovation discovery and strategy design approaches is a must. It is what professional strategists have.
The value of the following will increase:
- Strategic analytics: the ability to see and predict changes in market boundaries, weak signals, changes in business models;
- Identification of people’s deep motivations is what will make their lives better and more effective. This is where product innovations and new ideas “live” at the level of the company’s vision;
- Design thinking, toolbox for finding innovations at the level of the company’s strategic idea, product, business model, adjusting the strategy process itself within companies;
- Systematic approach: multi-layering in the solution “idea + business model + people + communication + actions + society.” The creativity itself in ideas and brands will take off with the same probability as sports betting;
- Everything related to ML/AI. Especially for businesses playing big games on a big scale.
4. ACCURACY WILL BECOME IGNORANCE
Trying to determine exactly what the future will be, even for a year, becomes meaningless. The Idea is globally designed as a focus, as a big dream, and iterations are made to refine and develop it. The product, like the consumer’s needs, is also constantly changing. This means that the very search for any strategic solution will finally be established as an operational process, and not a one-time project. And this is the process where the implementation takes places concurrently with the development of the solution itself. Endless insights, hypotheses, testing, processing, fun and drive.
A great combination of technologies nearby: Agile Strategy + BizDev (Business Development). We are searching while acting!
5. DREAMERS FOR THE WIN, AND SHORT-TERMISM BECOMES A TRAP FOR MILLIONS OF ENTREPRENEURS
Media manipulation that “you cannot plan for a long time in a super dynamic world” codes people for short-term solutions and steps. We focus on the here and now, in fact, to whom and how to sell already available products, preferably in a bigger quantity and in a faster manner. You know what the results and consequences of this are.
Let’s look around: innovative companies with big and long-term ideas “lead the markets” and change their boundaries, launch new technologies and business models, attract talents, undermine “norms in multipliers” and certainly do not forget about the unit economy. They are actively implementing the following principle: the idea and methods of implementation evolve on combining solutions and actions in three perspectives: today, tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. Millions of others are dying…
6. SPECIAL ATTENTION TO MOVEMENT AND MAXIMUM INVOLVEMENT
Willingness to ask ourselves, within the team, uncomfortable questions about the future of the market, the company, and the current state of affairs will be the driving force. For example, why is the company not actively involved in innovation, or why are all decisions made by the board of directors, without involving employees? What is hidden from us in the most profound motives of the consumer, but can significantly improve the consumer’s life? Why is the company rapidly developing in Ukraine, but has not become international for years, and what could be done here? Why don’t we consider such a crazy idea at first glance?
I estimate that in fast-growing companies, 60% of the time of the core team will be consecrated to development projects, not operational activities.
7. DECARBONIZATION OF THE ECONOMY AND THINKING
Clean energy and clean technologies, as well as lofty goals, will become increasingly important for entrepreneurs and in the capital markets. As a response to the great value of the new generation of people, your consumers, partners, colleagues about the future of the world.
The market of freedom and self-fulfillment is growing.
8. PLATFORMS AND ECOSYSTEMS
The digital reality is gaining momentum and “taking away the profits” from players with traditional business models and processes. Technology companies and “traditional” companies will need to make serious and bold decisions not to trail far behind and stay up-to-date. Platform business models and the creation of network effects become the basic approach in scaling and exiting to competitive profitability of both the marketplace and the milk factory.
Transforming a business into a platform or ecosystem means enabling a multifaceted business model and competitiveness in both value creation and financial results.
Here is an example: Unit.City has put more than just “trendy commercial and residential real estate” into their model. At the heart of it is a platform for several types of residents: startups, accelerators/incubators, product and service companies, creators of the country of the future through creativity and technology. By stimulating interaction between “residents”, a special culture is created, which ultimately increases the value of the real estate and the sustainability of the business model many times over. It reduces risks, benefiting many people. The effect is enhanced by the focus on the niche: IT companies.
Companies that have not mastered the new rules of the platform strategy will lose in productivity and unit economy, and will struggle for survival. The community, the network and the experiments of its participants will become strategic assets of the new era for progressive teams.
It’s radical, but what happens is that the following rule of “seek to create a platform strategy or plan your exit…” becomes of key importance.
The year of 2022 could be defining for the future of companies. Why not to make it one of the most innovative and effective? It’s high time.
I invite you to:
The first version of the article is published here. Many thanks to partners Mind.ua and Reactor.ua for co-creation!
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AUTHOR: Oksana Shchehelska Managing Partner at Strategic |