Growth Strategy
Where should you be heading? Given your organization’s relative strengths and weaknesses against its competitors, what is the optimal path today? And when will it change?
"Marketing has a lot of competitive info and our sales people are on the road visiting customers and learn a great deal about competitors. Profitability varies a lot by product. Our cost structure is probably competitive, but one competitor is doing something funky lately, we are not sure how that will impact the industry. We believe we gained share this past year but not in all segments and regions…"
If this sounds remotely like your organization, you are not alone. Time after time, we discover that key strategic information is scattered around an organization and very difficult to synthesize for action. Some key facts are often missing, especially about competitors.
- See the Whole Picture. In our strategy work, we first assemble and synthesize the key strategic facts, which we call the "strategic factbase." We strongly believe that strategy is emergent and requires a decent serving of art—but only after it is grounded in facts! We synthesize the strategic factbase into actionable options using appropriate frameworks, competitive and financial analysis, structured dialogue, and other-industry parallels.
- Understand the Tradeoffs. We evaluate options with quantitative analysis, scenario planning, and internal capability assessment.
- Make Informed Decisions. We fill in the key missing facts about market trends, competitors, customers, and macro-factors.
Ripples principals quickly become valuable discussion partners to senior management. We bring a fresh and disciplined perspective grounded in facts and seasoned with years of experience in strategy work.
Situation: Company was losing market share to low-priced competitors.
Ripples Approach: Ripples conducted an analysis of key competition which concretely showed areas of relative strength and weakness. The study informed a new low cost strategy with specific cost/price targets.
Result: Reversing the trend, the company gained market share after implementing the strategy.
Situation: : The deep recession at the end of 2008 threw the paint industry into turmoil. The client was facing a weak strategic position which the market conditions had exasperated; the future looked bleak. Under a new CEO, the organization wanted to rethink its strategy and transform itself into a winning player.
Ripples Approach: Ripples facilitated a very productive strategy process with the leadership team. The process involved creating a strategic factbase, with deep focus on competitive dynamics, defining carefully targeted approaches to end-user segments, and collaborating with ad agencies to articulate new brand positioning and marketing campaigns.
Result: In a deeply recessionary environment, the client made very large investments, re-launching its core paint brand while dramatically cutting non-strategic expenses, improving product quality, and energizing its workforce. The strategy reversed the declines and gained significant market share over two years, leading to a total renewal of the business.
- In our consulting practice, we often meet with executives who are looking to grow their businesses in
new directions. The new direction may be a new market or product, further penetration of current customers, an acquisition or a collaboration, or any other way to grow the business - Read More
by Ram Charan & Noel Tichy
by Chris Zook & James Allen
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