Strategy
In the context of the business development cycle, strategy refers to a comprehensive plan designed to achieve long-term objectives and guide the business through various stages of growth, from generating and validating ideas to developing plans for exiting or floating the business.
Think of an Idea !
"Whoever said that there's no such thing as a bad idea, hasn't worked in the same places I have. I've heard some humdingers in my time, but, crucially, ideas are the lifeblood of any successful business, but it's strategy that turns ideas into income".​
Ideation.....
Who is ths for? :
Entrepreneurs, investors, business owners, corporate executives, and technical business professionals looking at developing successful strategies within the Business Development Process.
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Coaching, consultancy and training services focused on strategy development with clear organisational objectives.
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How is it delivered? :
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Online : Remotely
Hybrid : Remote & Onsite
On site: Seconded to client
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Engagement? :
Letter of engagement, TOR, Deliverable Milestones, Non Disclosure
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How much does it cost? :
Dependent on project costed hourly + expenses.
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Personal Experience and Observation: Drawing inspiration from personal challenges, needs, or frustrations can lead to the development of a business idea. Observing everyday problems and thinking about how to solve them uniquely can be a powerful source of innovation.
Industry Trends and Market Gaps: Analysing current industry trends and identifying gaps in the market that are not being addressed by existing products or services can provide opportunities for new business ideas. This involves staying updated with industry news, reports, and consumer behavior changes.
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Customer Feedback and Pain Points: Listening to customer feedback and understanding their pain points can lead to ideas for new products or services that better meet their needs. Engaging directly with customers through surveys, interviews, or social media can uncover unmet needs or areas for improvement.
Innovation and Technology Advancements: Technological advancements and innovation can open up new possibilities for businesses. Exploring how emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, or green energy can be leveraged to create new products, services, or business models can lead to original ideas.
Creative Thinking and Brainstorming Sessions: Engaging in brainstorming sessions with a diverse group of people can spark creative ideas. Techniques like mind mapping, "What if?" scenarios, and role-playing can encourage out-of-the-box thinking and lead to unique business concepts.​
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Our Coaching, Consulting, & Training courses cover each of these areas in detail, for organisations with embedded or contracted R & D we have a slightly different approach that focusses on Ideation and validation techniques.
In this section
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A Modern approach to market research for Valuation, Validation and Segmentation.
Market research is a critical step at all stages of business development.
Effective research helps businesses estimate the size, interest, and trends in the marketplace, ensuring that products meet (exceeds) the needs and preferences of the target audience. In today’s digital age, leveraging up-to-date internet resources is essential for comprehensive market analysis. Tools like Reddit, Google Trends, EXA, Facebook, GigaBrain, Meta and several others are invaluable for conducting market research and running A/B testing campaigns.
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In both our online and on site training courses we detail the specific tools and techniques that are used to obtain accurate quantitiative data and introduce new tools including the latest generative AI techniques and why Large Large Language Models are not ideally suited to this task. Our AI briefing covers existing and future systems and how each can be used for research.
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Gathering data is, of course, only part of the picture, assessing sensitivity and specificity is the next step so that the data you have collected maps accurately to the task in hand. The collection and analysis of demographic, psychographic and geographic data supports segmentation strategies and the development of highly targetted Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC's) campaigns (see marketing effectiveness in the 10 key determinants section)
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Summary
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Traditional Industry and Market Research has distict advantages in terms of providing global data and trends for specific markets, HOWEVER the data is subject to some scrutiny based on the terms of reference used for the study. They tend to provide good insight BUT are expensive and often do not hit the questions that need to be addressed in segments and sub-segments. Using the tools described in our training it is possible to define a workflow that precisely meets the needs of the business. "Scraping" data from published sources is the bain of a researchers life, gathering data using highly focused AI tools and prompts is quite simply a Sea Change in modern business. While it is still important to understand the sensitiviity and value of the data acquiring it is a whole lot easier.​​​​​
Developing Strategies
Strategies come in all shapes and sizes but the very best guide to strategy is "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu. This is a book that was kept secret for many years and is the "General's official guide to winning wars" If you think you are not in a war, youv'e already lost, if you think you are in a battle your'e not thinking strategy.
Off the Shelf Strategies
There are a number of well proven strategies that are in common use in the business world. Our training and consulting services offer detailed briefings on the use, merits and drawbacks of each.
Here's a synopsis:-
Blue Ocean Strategy - Addressing new and uncontested markets
Cost Leadership - Focussed on being the lowest cost producer in the industry
Differentiation - Offerring unique products that stand out from the crowd.
Focus Strategy - Highly targetted on micro-segments or customer groups
Innovation - New products to gain competitive edge
Growth - Grow market share or product line or geographic reach
Alliance - Partner up with synergistic players
Customer Centric - Focus on existing customer needs
Sustainability - Environmental and societal objectives
Digital Transformation - Leveraging the obvious.
Summary
Off the shelf strategies offer a fast and reliable methodology for developing a solid strategy PROVIDING the product and the research are fully validated. Its logical to think that delivering a product that doesn't come back, to customers that do is likely to work well. As always the devil is in the detail. Our training and consulting is designed to make the detail interesting and relevant
Build your own Strategy
Sometimes "made to measure" is better than "off the peg" in this part of our strategy training & consultancy we cover the basic principles of building business strategies. This not only allows you to better understand popular strategies it gives insight into competitive ones.
Understanding the basic building blocks makes it possible to adapt existing strategies or develop ones that focus on specific business needs.
We look in detail at the 4 components of strategy :
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Vision & Mission
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SWOT analysis
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Setting Objectives and Goals
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Execution and monitoring
All are guided by focused analytics to ensure the business complies with the 10 determinants of success.
Summary
Strategy is probably one of the core components of success. It should be informed by data rather than intuition but it should always be at the core of the business. Whether you use an existing one or develop your own it is important to use a business model to measure its effectiveness. It is not difficult it is basic discipline.