What are the key steps to strategic thinking for identifying new business opportunities?

The best business opportunities don't take the world as it is. They start with a vision of how things could be and work backwards from there. What if customers could buy books without ever setting foot in a store? What if I could put a powerful computer in everyone's pocket? What if a car could run entirely on an electric battery? If you are starting with an assessment of the external environment, this is tactical thinking, not strategic and you've failed in step one. Instead, start with a question. Think like a scientist. Develop a hypothesis. Use the tools to test and refine your hypothesis.

I agree with Richard J. The best framework is an understanding what “job” the customer is “hiring“ your core products to do. The strategic planning process is launched from this and an an understanding of your core competencies. Don’t develop a plan that requires another core competency. I have seen what happens when a very successful company sees opportunity in adjacent “value-proposition” segments. Building cogent and compelling financials, they end up costing shareholders tens of billions of dollars in earnings and stock price. When adjacent market dynamics change, the BUs inside the company compete for budget. The core competencies get lost and under-funded for the sake of the new opportunity, leading to loss of market leadership.

The overall process is not as linear or as serial as these steps imply. There is a lot of parallel, iterative activity as you "learn-test-do-learn". As much as the tools described here can be helpful, there is a tendency in some organizations to focus on "filling out the templates" rather than actually talking to customers, seeing what competitors are doing and the like. The emphasis needs to be on learning, speed, and failing fast and early -- not necessarily 100% accuracy or completeness. Getting an 80% complete idea out to the market and learning from that in 2 months is much more valuable than having a detailed SWOT analysis that takes 6 months. The em

Environmental Analysis: Conduct a thorough analysis of the external environment to identify trends, opportunities, and potential threats. This includes economic, technological, social, political, and environmental factors. Examine industry trends and competitor activities to understand the competitive landscape. Market Research: Understand the needs and preferences of your target market. This involves conducting market research to gather data on customer behavior, preferences, and emerging trends. Identify gaps in the market or unmet customer needs that your business can address. Look for underserved or overlooked segments. Innovative Thinking and Creativity: Encourage a culture of innovation within your organization.

Identifying internal strengths, weaknesses and potential for improvement should be an ongoing process to serve your customers. Management must be willing to adjust the message, personnel, execution or whatever else needs improvement. It is also helpful to understand the ability of the current team, infrastructure and the companies willingness to make the changes required (if needed) to capitalize on a new business opportunity. The company should always stay focused however, should not let opportunities pass them by because some or significant change is necessary to take advantage of an opportunity.

Often the biggest waste in an organization is unused talent within the organization. Not many organizations have a proper inventory of talents of its employees. To identify the internal capabilities, one needs to go beyond the typical duties of the employees.

Yes, I agree. Assessing the external environment is crucial in strategic thinking as it provides the context in which your business operates. It’s not just about gathering data but interpreting how external trends, changes, and threats impact your business model and competitive position. This step allows you to anticipate challenges and uncover opportunities. It's also important that this assessment is ongoing, as the environment constantly evolves. Staying attuned to these changes helps you remain proactive, identifying opportunities and building resilience against disruptions.

In strategic thinking, the second step involves a focused evaluation of internal capabilities within your client's organization. By employing tools like VRIO or Value Chain, assess strengths, weaknesses, resources, competencies, culture, and values. This process unveils insights into how your client delivers value and identifies avenues for enhancing efficiency, effectiveness, and differentiation. The goal is clear: pinpoint gaps and opportunities to elevate your client's performance. Scrutinizing internal capabilities enables a deep understanding of unique strengths and areas for refinement. This strategic introspection lays the foundation for agile decision-making, positioning organizations for success in a competitive landscape.

As strategy consultants, our job isn't just to follow trends, but to set them. Look beyond the familiar for inspiration. Welcome the 'unrelated' and 'impossible' into your brainstorming. Remember, the Japanese bullet train's efficiency was inspired by a kingfisher's beak. In basketball, real-time analytics changed the game and mirrored in business strategies. Gamification in non-gaming contexts transforms routine tasks into engaging activities. Start innovating by listing things unrelated to your project.

There are many ways that have worked for me in the past, and some haven't. It is a personal preference if working solo or (if in a team) then agreeing a couple of approaches is a good idea. I would recommend: - Using a business model canvas - Openly discussing with stakeholders - Looking for low hanging fruit Above all, find ideas that get you moving. Never let perfection get in the way of progress.

Many successful new business opportunities solve a problem. To take the time in divergent thinking focused on problems (Problem Finding) within your business arena is a valuable method for surfacing potential new business opportunities that are close to your current business. Much easier to implement with your current experience. Converge on the low hanging fruit for quick wins and return on investment. Innovation can be through adaptive creative thinking. Everything does not have to be a paradigm shift to generate an innovation that drives a business.

Making tradeoff is part of running a business. Remember that the ideas are free but the differentiator is often in executing such ideas and making them profitable.

In strategic thinking's third step, the focus is on generating and prioritizing ideas for new business opportunities. Using tools like Brainstorming or Mind Mapping, create a list aligning with your client's vision and objectives. Then, employ Feasibility Analysis or Cost-Benefit Analysis to prioritize ideas based on viability and alignment with strategic goals. This process ensures the exploration of innovative solutions and sets the stage for business growth.

Three things: 1- be open to test new things BUT make sure to record results and improve based on data 2- try bew things BUT also give what you try the deserved time: for example run a sequence for at least 3 weeks to see results 3- ?? take data as data - don’t be discouraged if results are not great - learn from them and improve - don’t let results turn into feelings

You must validate & test assumptions. Assumptions often form the foundation of decisions. Without testing, they can lead to flawed strategies based on inaccurate beliefs. By rigorously validating assumptions, businesses can avoid costly mistakes, uncover hidden risks, and adjust their strategies in response to real-world conditions. Testing assumptions ensures that decisions are grounded in reality, fostering innovation and adaptability, which are essential for seizing new market opportunities and maintaining a competitive edge in dynamic business environments

Critical here is to avoid bias - is your idea/product really good enough to drive market penetration? Understand the 'path to purchase' here - not just what competitor products your potential customers are using but how they got there. Is there strong brand equity/affinity you'll have trouble fighting against? There is ALWAYS a competitor - even for supposed new market entrants in blue ocean environments. What differentiates you vs. your competitor products?

Tinker Now you get to procreate, prototype, and test your ideas. Get into the lab, into the studio, and build. Build alongside your future audience. See how your ideas survive and come alive..

Experimenting = starting with “you don’t know”. You don’t know what will work, nor the critical success factors or hidden fatal flaws. Keeping that mindset is critical to effective learning and adaptation and avoiding the “we tried it and it didn’t work” syndrome caused by rigid approaches to prototyping.

Coming up with a strategy is in many ways "the easy part". The hard part is execution. It's where most people fail and it's why the majority of Strategic plans sit "on a shelf" as a nice moment in time exercise. In the early days of a start up I co-founded, we finally closed our first deal and John Doerr sent me an email that said "Congratulations, now go execute". Executing is everything. Four things to consider to turn a strategic plan into a living document. 1) Create a set of "must dos" coming out of the plan and mobilize the company to support them 2) Have clear measurable goals tied to each one and ensure the team is compensated accordingly 3) Stop doing the things that are not must dos 4) Regular checkins to keep team on track

Great communication is foundational underpinning for business success. It starts with cohesive and aligned leadership teams. When launching strategic initiatives, silence in meetings should be interpreted as disagreement. Formal commitment should be obtained, along with very specific actions as it relates to communicating to teams as critical decisions are made. Without alignment, both at peer to peer, and up & down the organization, many critical initiatives fail to meet their objectives in addition to negatively impacting productivity.

Communicating a strategy is an art. Execution is far more likely to succeed if the strategy (and vision) have the buy in from stakeholders. - Tell a story when sharing this - Dont overwhelm with too many statistics and details. Giving a strong clear start is the aim here. - Ensure you allow room and time for the audience to question The temptation to provide every scrap of detail is strong. Avoid this and make sure you set the audience up for time to dig deep. Maybe suggest a workshop to get into the "nitty gritty" and instead use visual tools and key metrics to get the key stakeholders bought in.

Too often, broadcasting what will be done is interpreted as communicating. Remember, commit to dialogue; it should be an embedded component of working practice from the start. It’s more work, but the results are worth it.

Initial communication is key however, creating a follow up loop through measurement of KPI‘s is essential. Everyone on the team needs to understand what their role is in achieving the goals of the strategic plan. In order for a company to correct it’s approach it needs to have measurable points by which to assess its progress.

Strategies are made to be tested in a series of tactical movements. So a few advices: 1-build your strategic Vision 2-share it with those around you 3-collect feedbacks and evaluate adjustments 4-test your hypotheses while engaging with prospective customers 5-build on the lessons learnt while evolving the way you communicate with the environment around you. Let’s talk it over. ????G.

In my view, this sixth step is vital for strategic thinking. Adapting strategies based on changing environments and performance indicators ensures relevance and competitiveness. Using tools like KPIs and dashboards provides valuable insights for informed decision-making. Celebrating successes boosts morale and fosters innovation. Identifying strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats allows for agile adjustments to the strategy. This iterative approach helps organizations navigate uncertainties and capitalize on emerging opportunities, fostering long-term success.

After all the steps above and having proven your MVP, I then delve into creating: 1) Implementation Plan: Develop a detailed plan for implementing the chosen opportunity. This plan includes timelines, resource allocation, and key performance indicators (KPIs) for monitoring success. It is critical to have metrics and to be measuring them continuously to evolve. It's easy to get busy with implementation and lose focus from the bigger goal. To create value! No value = no revenue!! 2) Continuous Monitoring and Adaptation: Regularly monitor the performance of the new initiative and be prepared to adapt your strategy based on market feedback and changing conditions. "Innovate or evaporate." "Stay ahead of the curve or get swept away by it"

Don't get wedded to an idea. If that golden idea you had that just couldn't fail, failed, then learn to accept that. It's tempting to think "maybe if I just tweaked this element, it'll come right", but most of us can tell when a particular opportunity is no longer viable. Unless there's an obvious mistake made when a new business angle fails, then be prepared to drop it and move onto the next one.

Embrace a continuous improvement mindset, adjusting strategies as needed based on data and insights. Foster a culture of adaptability and learning, encouraging teams to share observations and contribute to refining the execution process. Regularly revisit the strategy to ensure it remains aligned with evolving market conditions and organisation goals.

Sometimes it's better to walk away. You have identified a gap and a potential solution for your corporate clients. Your team built a MVP prototype to test. And while you found there was a need, it was discovered that the process to buy the solution offering required multiple departments within companies to collaborate. There was also no offering like it in the market, so there wasn't a proof of concept, nor was there an operating model point to. The companies approached, while interested, didn't want to invest the time to run a pilot nor were they able to galvanize different teams to do so. From a strategic standpoint it's important to have an objective process that determines whether it is better to fail (fast) or to continue to invest.

It begins with setting clear, long-term goals and creating a vision that aligns with the overarching mission of the business. Conducting thorough market research is vital. Identifying a Unique Value Proposition (UVP) is essential to differentiate from competitors. Assessing risks, both financial and operational. It's also important to analyze available versus required resources, including finances, human capital, and technology. Developing a strategic plan with detailed short-term and long-term strategies, complete with milestones and key performance indicators, is a key step. Financial projections should be prepared to understand the opportunity's economic viability. Engaging with key stakeholders, ensuring their interests are aligned.

Well, what about your ability to sell? Measuring and diagramming are fine unless such work fails to account for the risk-adjusted cost and identity of sales channel development. Is anyone in your organization capable of understanding your potential customers’ willingness to risk doing business with you, a key metric for allocation of resources.

It's almost a cliche but start with the end in mind. Where do you want to be in 5 years?, 10 years?, even more. What are your targets for revenue, share of market, geographical coverage, etc. If you don't know where you are going any path is the right or wrong one.

Firstly is to set up a standard of mutual transparency. Once that is established identify each parties individual objectives, then potential collaborative objectives. While going through this process each side will learn the ability to work together before aligning