A general focuses on the battlefield and where the enemy is coming from, while the soldier in the foxhole keeps his sight within a 10-yard perimeter. In a similar vein, business leaders must understand the lay of a more expansive external environment while others define and execute day-to-day tactics. Leaders supply fresh strategic insights by connecting the dots between things they observe, read or hear about to identify patterns and themes. It’s called conceptual thinking. Let’s see how it works. Three articles caught my eye in one day’s news. In the first article, The Council of Public Relations Firms was reported to be reinventing itself and the PR profession as traditional PR strategies of media relations and placement backfire in an era of consumer-generated social media. The profession made sense when NBC could reach 1/3 of US TV viewers. Now there are thousands…
The right way for a company to be audacious
The word audacity comes to mind when I think of the fine line brand leaders must walk. Audacious actions can mean bold and courageous, which will build brand awareness and positive feelings. Audacious can also refer to impudent or cheeky, detracting from the brand’s image. Financial considerations create the fine line for brands. Strong brands generate price premiums, leading managers to ask, “How do we grow this brand?” But you do not want your growth strategies to muddle your brand’s image, hence the challenge for moving forward. Showing us the right way to be audacious in its brand strategy is Dove Soap’s advertising, using “real” women in its commercials. They are a sharp contrast to the picture-perfect models most often used in the health & beauty industry marketing. Dove broke ranks by showing women of all sizes and complexions. It also offered a…
Business model success demands strategic leadership, societal consciousness and civil cultures
I wonder if the editors of the January-February, 2013 issue of Harvard Business Review connected the dots among their articles. As a reader I did. “The 100 Best CEOs in the World” is the cover story for an issue that also includes the article “Strategic Leadership: The Essential Skills.” Too many CEOs and their C-Suite teams invest too much of their time in operational management. They fail in the role only they can perform: designing a winning portfolio of business models and the hard-to-copy company capabilities, processes, culture, and ecosystems that they leverage. Strategic leadership is all about this work. I am not saying that operational work is unimportant. Indeed, it is vital. No customer will pay your business for inefficiency or quality issues, and competitors will likely use them to seize advantage. But the leadership team’s role is to establish the measurements,…
Trader Joe’s Business Model Wins in a World With Excessive Choices
All too often the rationally best alternative comes with subtle trade-offs that reduce the emotional benefits of your purchase. Take the Accura I purchased owing to the high service costs I had experienced with my Audi. Within hours of driving out of the Accura dealership, I grieved the Audi’s zippier feel and realized that I had just paid a huge price premium for a Honda with fancy wrapping. The emotional loss need not always be the case. Take Trader Joe’s, in a class by itself when it comes to grocery stores. Fortune magazine captures the Trader Joe’s experience perfectly in saying, “Trader Joe’s is not an ordinary grocery chain. It’s an offbeat, fun discovery zone that elevates its shelves with a winning combination of low-cost, yuppie-friendly staples (cage free eggs and organic blue agave sweetener) and exotic, affordable luxuries – Belgian butter waffle…