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In a competitive landscape, growth is oftentimes difficult to achieve. Many companies are vying to keep their share of the market as new entrants aggressively enter and big players push for market domination. There are numerous structural elements to the design of strategy execution. Within strategy execution, a critical element is shaping the annual strategy planning and budgeting process. Strategy planning and budgeting projects can involve such as examples as growth scenario planning workshops, growth strategy design, and innovation management. Under the category of strategic initiatives, we should evaluate the organization’s portfolio and priorities, ownership and management, and maneuvering tactics. Strategy execution initiatives need to be clearly managed. organizational context includes activities such as governance, org structure, performance tracking, rewards and incentives, in addition to manager capabilities and cognitive frames. You should design the organizational context under which the business operates.

For traditional growth strategy thinking, many people rely on the time-tested business framework Porter’s Five Forces, developed by Michael Porter. In the Five Forces framework, we analyze 5 forces that affect any industry, which include internal rivalry, threat of new entrants, buyer power, supplier negotiation power, and threat of substitution products. Through this framework-based business evaluation, a business can decide on its competitive strategy, which falls into either one of four categories: cost leadership, differentiation strategy, cost focus, or differentiation focus.

Growth can be achieved several ways, which can be bucketized the two areas of expanding existing business scope and increasing value from current revenue streams. To expand the business operations, an organization can expand into emerging segments, expand into new categories, create new product offerings, cultivate new brands, create new formats and distribution channels, and expand geographically. To maximize the value from current business, a business can improve upon its value proposition, strengthen customer relationships, optimize pricing, break into new markets with their existing products, and improve its mix of products.

A pervasive business problem many business frameworks try to solve is the challenge of creating sustainable sales growth. Furthermore, real top line growth fluctuates more than ROIC going from 1% to 11%. Enterprise organizations struggle to grow. Only about a quarter of the Fortune 500 businesses are able to sustain top-line growth above the national GDP and sustain returns above the Standard & Poors 500. It can’t be argued that most organizations have difficulty gaining noteworthy growth, year over year. Companies that have greater than 20-25% top line growth typically dwindle down to 5% within 10 years. For those businesses that do see high growth rates, these growth rates also erode quickly. Additionally, 90% of these companies are focused across the primary sectors of Financial Services, Healthcare, High-Tech, and CPRD. Between the 1960s and 2010, Fortune 500 businesses typically see a median growth rate of in less than 6% in real terms (and under 10% in nominal terms).

The Consolidation Endgame Curve is actually a framework in line with the principle that every one market sectors consolidate as well as have a same course because of the 4 stages of: Opening, Scale, Focus, and Balance & Alliance. The time period of the curve is different from market to industry. This unique framework will depend on a research of 25,000 corporations internationally, that represents 98% of the global market cap. With having said that, it normally continues 20-25 years. By way of example, the auto industry has been around for 100+ years and only at the end of stage 2 (Scale). Each and every big strategic and also functional move must be assessed intended for the industry’s stage in the Endgame Curve. The Endgame Curve demonstrates that merging decisions and consolidation trends might be predicted. Additionally, endgames positioning also provides a guide for portfolio optimization. Making use of the Consolidation Curve as direction, a business can enhance its consolidation practices and facilitate merger integrations. A niche player can also establish the appropriate niche strategy to use and when is best time to be purchased.

The basics of company analysis and valuation includes financial ratios and financial comparables analysis.

Comparable companies analysis has application in M&A advisory, fairness opinions, restructuring, IPOs and follow-on offerings, and share repurchases. Consider an IPO of a private company that does not have a public market valuation. To determine how public markets might value the company, an investment banker will establish the comparables universe, which may consist or one or more peer groups. He or she will use the operating metrics and valuation multiples of the public comparables to determine an appropriate valuation multiple for the private company.

Creating intuitive, pleasant looking PowerPoints is becoming a useful core competency for anyone working in business to possess.  One popular diagram is the marketing and sales funnel.  The video below shows many of these in action.

You can download these PowerPoint templates from LearnPPT at this link:  Marketing and Sales Funnel PowerPoint Templates.

SWOT analysis is a strategic planning method used to evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats involved in a project or in a business venture. It involves specifying the objective of the business venture or project and identifying the internal and external factors that are favorable and unfavorable to achieve that objective. The technique is credited to Albert Humphrey, who led a convention at Stanford University in the 1960s and 1970s using data from Fortune 500 companies.

A SWOT analysis must first start with defining a desired end state or objective. A SWOT analysis may be incorporated into the strategic planning model. Strategic Planning has been the subject of much research.

• Strengths: characteristics of the business or team that give it an advantage over others in the industry.
• Weaknesses (or Limitations): are characteristics that place the firm at a disadvantage relative to others.
• Opportunities: external chances to make greater sales or profits in the environment.
• Threats: external elements in the environment that could cause trouble for the business.

Identification of SWOTs is essential because subsequent steps in the process of planning for achievement of the selected objective may be derived from the SWOTs.

A couple years ago, there was a great article in HBR around the stages of business growth that all small business more traverse as they grow into a larger organization.  There are 5 stages in total, each with distinct characteristics — in terms of owner responsibilities, organizational structure, financial situation, management structure, and functional focus.  A detailed business presentation has been constructed from this useful business framework.  A preview of this presentation is shown in the below Youtube video:

Familiarity with this small business strategy allows the business owner to attain invaluable insights at each stage of development. The full document also includes case examples.

Managing charge through proper governance and organizational management is critical  for any successful, impactful change to a business.  Monitor Group has conducted countless client engagements around Change Management.  The video below previews 6 key frameworks related to change management that are used by consulting firms.  These are:

• Dimensions of Change,
• Emotional Cycle of Change,
• Ingredients of Change,
• Level of Commitment,
• Phases of Team Building, and
• Trust Formula.

To implement change, you need to learn how to manage change.  The larger the organization, the tenser the political climate, the more difficult the challenge and resistance to change management.

In a recessionary climate, cost management and cost reduction are top priority for most Fortune 500 companies.  The easiest way for a large organization to manage its costs is through strategic sourcing, by consolidating similar category spending across the organizations (i.e. merging spend among business units).  The video below previews a framework pioneered by JP Morgan (in conjunction with strategy consulting firms) to conduct strategic sourcing.

Strategic sourcing will allow an organization to realize significant savings. This document details a 4-phase framework to Procurement Strategy, outlining time frames, activities, and outputs.

Booz & Co. is one of the leading global strategy consulting firms.  The video below is a preview to presentation on Strategy Development, covering strategy concepts from military strategists (e.g. Sun Tzu’s Art of War) to modern day strategy development thought leaders (Henry Mintzberg and Joseph Bower).  This framework breaks down a 3-phase approach to Strategy Development, including hierarchical challenges, activities, and deliverables.

The development of a strategic plan is important part of a company’s long-term success. This development process starts with analyzing the benefits, detractions, opportunities, and risks of the company, developing, and analyzing alternative financial strategies, formulating the purposes of strategic development, and designing methods of putting the chosen strategy into use. A company will assign a group of managers, business consultants, and experts to assist in the development.

Industry Supply Curve Analysis is a visual representation of the Law of Supply–and provides insight into competitive pricing and production dynamics. Also includes Cost Curve Analysis: long run cost curve, short run cost curve, marginal cost curve, average total cost curve, average fixed cost curve, average variable cost curve, breakeven point, and shutdown point.

More information on the supply curve concept can be found at Wikipedia, excepted below:

A supply schedule is a table that shows the relationship between the price of a good and the quantity supplied. A supply curve is a graph that shows the same relationship.  Under the assumption of perfect competition, supply is determined by marginal cost. Firms will produce additional output as long as the cost of producing an extra unit of output is less than the price they will receive.

By its very nature, conceptualizing a supply curve requires that the firm be a perfect competitor—that is, that the firm has no influence over the market price. This is because each point on the supply curve is the answer to the question “If this firm is faced with this potential price, how much output will it be able to and willing to sell?” If a firm has market power, so its decision of how much output to provide to the market influences the market price, then the firm is not “faced with” any price, and the question is meaningless.

Economists distinguish between the supply curve of an individual firm and the market supply curve. The market supply curve is obtained by summing the quantities supplied by all suppliers at each potential price. Thus in the graph of the supply curve, individual firms’ supply curves are added horizontally to obtain the market supply curve.

Here is a preview of a the Value Chain analysis framework.  Developed by Michael Porter, Value Chain Analysis is a business management framework used to analyze the processes and key activities performed by a business or industry. This Porter’s Value Chain model illustrates where value is created within an industry or company.