29/10/2008 by Stephen Coe.

So your core business is threatened and margins are being squeezed. You have ideas about entering new markets, but cash is tight and have decided now is not the time. Your efforts are focused on reducing costs, but progress is painfully slow.

STOP!

Take a step back and consider the high level processes that make up your business system. Ask yourself the question; if I was starting now would I do it this way? Consider successful companies who have faced similar challenges in parallel industries and learn from their approach to solving the problem.

Now look at how you face the customer. Is your value proposition differentiated and does it fully meet customer needs, or is it a me too play?

Challenging the way you do things both internally and externally can unlock great benefits, in terms of cost reduction and market capture.

At Balmoral Strategy Development we like to challenge the status quo, which is why we make the discovery of Orthodoxies a key part of every strategy process.

As always all comments are welcome

Stephen Coe - Director, Balmoral Strategy Development Ltd 

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27/10/2008 by Stephen Coe.

Strategy has always been about making choices. The choice of one product over another, of one geographic market over another ect. A good business strategy by its very nature limits a company activities and markets, however making the right choice of product and market segment is not enough to deliver sustainable competitive advantage. In fact the better the positioning strategy is, the more likely it is to draw the attention of would be imitators.

Sustainable competitive advantage is only achieved when the following occur

• A company recognises all of the necessary key success factors needed to deliver its value proposition
• A company develops business systems and people that can fully meet the key success factors.

It is the reinforcing nature of all elements of a such a strategy that make it so hard to imitate. This holistic approach raises the barriers and prevents entry by new upstarts and provides sustainability.

As always we at Balmoral Strategy Development welcome any comments and feedback on this or any other post.

Stephen Coe - director - Balmoral Strategy Development Ltd 

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22/10/2008 by Stephen Coe.

To established companies, the threat posed by new upstarts entering their markets is a recurring problem. However established players have something that no new upstart can ever have, that is Customer Knowledge.

So what do I mean by Customer Knowledge? It is the collection insights built up over the years, it is the understanding of the customer needs both articulated and unarticulated, and it is the ability to meets those needs in a way that is profitable to the company.

Customer Knowledge provides the opportunity to proactively develop value propositions, which meet as yet unknown or emerging needs and provides significant competitive advantage. The lack of this knowledge represents a serious barrier to entry and disadvantage for any new would be entrant. 

At Balmoral Strategy Development, we have developed tools specifically designed to convert Customer Data into Customer Knowledge and we make the development of Customer Knowledge a cornerstone of every strategy process that we are involved with.

If you are interested in discussing this further please post a comment or send an email to stevecoe@balmoralstrategy.com

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08/10/2008 by Stephen Coe.

You know the story, you have an idea for great new product that will completely redefine the market. You sell it hard to the board, but you are told it is not the right time and that it is too risky. Lets face it many of us have been there. So what can we do to lower the level of risk and get ‘the board’ on board?

Consider this, if our new product redefines the market, it will almost certainly redefine the value chain associated with the product. This poses both a threat and opportunity for the incumbent players as well as an opportunity for new players to break into the market. 

Through a market scoping exercise we can develop understanding of what drives these company’s, and through a selection process identify companies where there may be an opportunity to obtain buyin to our vision. In other words we seek to create a network of companies committed to deliver and support the product in advance of any significant investment. In doing so we have reduced risk and made the proposal much more palatable to the ‘board’ 

At Balmoral Strategy Development, we have developed a methodology and supporting tools, specifically aimed at getting game changing innovations to the market.

As usual all comments welcome

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06/10/2008 by Stephen Coe.

When was the last time that you reviewed the effectiveness and relevancy of your business strategy? That is a question that I often ask clients during our initial discussions. Quite often the answer falls somewhere between 3 and 5 years. There are of course exceptions, one Director once proudly boasted that they carried out a strategy review over 8 years ago. My response is that whilst the strategy may still be valid, it most surely is not as effective as it could be. The business environment is going through unprecedented change and the need for regular strategic reviews has never been more important. To this end we at Balmoral Strategy Development has created an annual strategic review toolkit. Consider it a strategy lite, which is designed not only to check the validity and relevancy of a company’s existing strategy, but also to update where necessary in line with changes in customer needs and market conditions.

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03/10/2008 by Stephen Coe.

Boon or bain, how do you feel about the use of new technologies within your business?

How do you decide, the technologies that are worth the investment in capital/manpower and which will deliver value and competitive advantage?

I am curently updating the Role of Technology module of the Balmoral Strategy Development Ltd toolkit and would be very interested in hearing your thoughts on the subject.

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01/10/2008 by Stephen Coe.

While listening to the news item on the likely loss of jobs in the banking sector, my mind turned to the subject of personal competence and specifically, trying to identify the key competencies required to work at a senior level within a bank.

 My motive was to develop an insight as to where the bank sector casualties might migrate their talents to. I began using a tool that we have developed at Balmoral Strategy Development as part of our Competency Development toolkit.

The tool I used was developed to create a roadmap, which marries career aspirations to competencies development and life experience. The thought was by working backwards I could identify alternative paths that might have been taken.

So far I must admit that I am struggling to really nail the key competencies, so if there is anyone out there with any thoughts on this issue, please post a comment.

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01/10/2008 by Stephen Coe.

I had the pleasure of attending the LBE at the Walkers Stadium this morning and I must say that I was pleasantly surprised by the number of people interested in strategy development. When the going gets tough, focus tends to be on trimming costs and the short term, thoughts of developing a 5 to 7 year strategic plan go out of the window.  Yet with every downturn comes opportunity, forward thinking companies find new markets for their existing products/services and new products/services for their existing markets. Balmoral Strategy Development are there to help such forward looking companies

I attended a number of seminars, but particularly enjoyed the presentations given by Alistair Campbell of the Ideal Marketing Company and Steve Hawkins of Caged Fish on the value of Blogging.

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