Strategy Magazine published by the Strategic Planning Society featured an article in June that serves as a coda on recession-based business strategies. In it author Sam Bodley-Scott, global strategy director for consultants Kepner-Tregoe, Inc., presents the findings of a recent survey his firm conducted with 375 respondents from across a wide representation of industries regarding how strategy was changed by the recession. In short, all respondents indicated that in some way strategy needed to change. The changes were grouped into four major categories:
1.Organizations need to improve their ability to respond to external environmental changes. Strategy is based upon a set of assumptions and organizations need to consistently monitor those assumptions and be prepared to change when the assumptions change.
2.Markets and products need to change. Some sectors were hit harder than others but instability in markets has called into question the robustness of product and market strategies.
3.Organizations need to do a better job at differentiating their products. As markets, technology, expectations and competition change so too must the ability to strengthen positioning that is based upon differentiation.
4.Implementation still needs to be improved. Despite the ever growing focus on strategy implementation, 76% of respondents indicated that there is still work to be done in these key areas:
◦Identification of those initiatives that deliver a strategy;
◦Prioritization of key initiatives; and
◦Implementation of key initiatives.
