What are the key concepts and frameworks that you should learn from business strategy courses?

Don’t perceive Vision, Mission, and Values as soft elements of a company strategy! Yes, it’s true that they deal with ideals, aspirations, and culture rather than hard metrics. However, it is proven that there is a tangible link between Vision, Mission, and Values and the company’s financial performance. Companies with a clear and well-understood vision and mission have better financial performance than those that don’t. Most importantly, companies that actively live by their stated values (eg. there is no gap between their stated values and their actual behavior) are often found to have stronger financial results.

Vision is critical for any business. But it's not the first step in business strategy. In fact, your vision should be the product of your strategy and become the North Star for your company. Understanding your business moats and how you plan to create long term leverage in a market is the first step. Next, define key drivers from your moats for Product and GTM to build a qualitative basis for your strategy. Then, vision wraps an objective around these drivers with measurable goals. If you start with a vision, you've predetermined your direction. The key to business strategy is understanding you can't know the destination fully - only root your destiny in what's possible and build your vision around that. Values will follow.

Get everyone involved. Consider involving key stakeholders, including employees, customers, and partners, in the process of defining or refining the organization's vision, mission, and values. Their input can provide valuable insights and enhance buy-in.

Business strategy courses cover key concepts like SWOT analysis, Porter's Five Forces, value chain analysis, and the BCG Matrix. Understanding these frameworks equips you with valuable tools for strategic decision-making, competitive analysis, and sustainable growth in the business world

Agree about values. We define our core values right on our website, train on them annually, and identify them when recognizing employees both in weekly shoutouts and annual awards. When hiring, we seek consistency with our core values as much as we do the skills or experience needed for the position. Candidates who don’t share our core values can be right for other employers, but we find they don’t typically flourish at our company.

Swat SWOT If you want to have impact in your organisation don’t use SWOT analysis. It’s taught to school kids in the UK and no one will be impressed with the framework or the outputs which are typically a worthless laundry list of subjective issues that may or may not be relevant. The one time it might help is if you are working with a clueless team in an internally facing function and you want them to think about the outside world for a change… But even then, it’s of limited value as that audience, by definition, won’t have any good insight on the external environment.

To make the most of your SWOT analysis, consider involving a cross-functional team from your organization. Diverse perspectives can uncover insights you might miss when conducting the analysis alone.

When performing a SWOT, make sure you focus on the future and trends. #Foresight It is of course crucial to assess your organization's current strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, though it is equally (if not more) important to consider how these factors may evolve over time.

It's important to regularly reassess the five forces within your industry, as they can evolve over time due to changes in technology, market trends, or regulations.

As a tool for strategic industry analysis, Porter's Five Forces + Complements creates a figurative topographic map for businesses attempting to navigate complex industry landscapes. The Five Forces themselves represent the peaks, valleys, and essential terrain features that fundamentally define the industry landscape. Complements further enhance the picture by adding layers, like rivers and forests, showing interconnected and adjacent industry elements. By analyzing this full terrain, businesses can identify strengths and weaknesses, plot their strategic routes, and uncover hidden opportunities. This technique is a powerful and enduring tool to enable companies to visualize their competitive world and make informed business decisions.

In modernizing Porter's Five Forces for strategy planning, focus on: 1. Dynamic Market Mapping: Future trends mapping by analyzing evolving market forces. 2. Technology Impact: Evaluate how emerging technologies like impact customer behavior. 3. Sustainability Focus: Integrate environmental and social factors. 4. Cross-industry Insights: Look for threats / opportunities in adjacent industries. 5. Customer-Centric Approach: Prioritize changing customer preferences. 6. Strategic Partnerships: Use collaborations to address competitive challenges. 7. Digital Integration: Assess the influence of digital platforms on market dynamics. These steps ensure a comprehensive, contemporary strategy that aligns with today's dynamic business environment.

I would add that this is related to business process mapping, however it's performed at a higher level to better document and understand the main activities in designing, marketing, producing, delivering and servicing your product. If you research your competitor and understand conceptually their value chain, you could then see where they add value vs. where your firm adds value. Additionally, you can compare your analysis to what actually happens at your firm to understand deviations and potential impact to the end customer and to the sustainability of your operations.

To align your strategic objectives with KPIs you can follow these steps: - First and foremost - and I can't emphasize on this enough: understand your business strategy i.e what do you want to achieve in short and long term. - Identify key perspectives (e.g. financial, customer, internal processes, and learning & growth) - Develop strategic objectives for each of the perspectives. - Select relevant KPIs that can measure the progress. - Set targets and benchmarks for each KPI and chose who in the organization is responsible for each target. - Collect and analyze data and reporting system on the KPIs and monitor progress. - Review and adjust the Scorecard and the KPIs periodically and adjust as needed to stay aligned with the company's goals.

Don’t view your strategic tools and techniques as isolated in a vacuum, identify your scope and integrate them. Understand the inputs and outputs of each and link them together.

I find that SWOT and some of the other common strategy concepts that get taught in traditional strategy course settings like planning are outdated and harmful. Strategy needs to lead to action. Roger Martin's book, 'Playing to Win' has the choice cascade and that's a great place to start your strategic journey. I teach people about a bundle of choices that help set your strategic direction and push you to act. 1. What does success look like? 2. Who is our customer? 3. Why will they pick us? 4. What resources do we need to be successful? 5. What actions do we need to take? I'm always going to push for a simple formula and framework.

Six sigma principles and project management concepts are key strategies for any company to have in its arsenal. The more productive and efficient a company is the more money it can make because it's not wasting as much time and resources.

The above frameworks are well-known and will be covered during most business-related course. Other equally important models are the VRIO model, 7P's of Marketing, and McKinsey 7S.

I would recommend including following methods, models and framework in a Business Strategy course. 1. Porters 3 Generic Strategies a) You can be the cost leader via efficiency b) You can develop unique product offerings or services offerings c) You can focus on niche segments or markets. 2. 7 S Framework Structure, Strategy, Systems, Superordinate goals, Skills, Staff, Style 3. Ansoff Growth Grid Many firms uses this model to assess the global market expansion. This is used in combination with SWOT to be effective.

Recruitment is a key thread of any growth strategy, so recruiting for attitude is critical. We use Dr Cameron Sepah's no assholes matrix, balancing skills and behaviours (remember, a competent asshole is still an asshole!) We also use the Lencioni Ideal Team Player model both for recruitment and for people development, getting a team of people who are a balance of hungry, humble and adaptable.