4 Simple steps to making your 2010 strategy more robust

Across most of Europe at the moment, people are preparing for the Year End and the Christmas holidays. Typically in the New Year the strategy sessions with everybody envigorated after the break the strategy sessions will kick-off. 

 

Let me lay my cards on the table, I do believe in Strategy. I believe that Strategy provides a clear “compass” for guiding actions and decisions. 

 

The issue I have is that Strategy is done internally and there’s a tendency to substitute Hallucinations for Visions, it tends not to be grounded.  To quote the great military strategist “Helmuth von Moltke the Elder”, No plan of operations extends with certainty beyond the first encounter with the enemy's main strength (no plan survives contact with the enemy).

So while strategies are formed and revisited the true test of the organization's strategy comes in keeping progress towards the original vision intact at the first sign of trouble. This is “live and die” for technology companies.  For example compare the iPhone and Android. The iPhone was an instant hit but Android didn’t deliver the instant splash everybody had expected and it certainly hasn’t dis-intermediated the operator as was forecast. However, the Android platform seems to be gathering real traction and there are questions surrounding how much more pervasive the iPhone will become. 

So if we step back to business school basis and begin by look at Mr Porter’s famous 5 forces:

For anybody in technology, trying to answer the question of what's the likelihood of a substitute product having an impact on your product? Pretty much you can take it that if you have a product or service somebody out there is trying to create a disruptive version, be it via an offshore low cost model, a hosted model, etc.

Similarly we see a feast of moving parts all across the telecoms and technology arenas, these include:
• Fixed Line issues like how much fibre will be in the ground in 5 years time?
• Will WiMAX carve out a niche somewhere beyond the reach of LTE?
• How much traction will Cloud computing get in the next 3 years?
• Will operator App stores rise to challenge Apple?
• How low will prices go?

 

Therefore it’s easy to see the danger in getting too wedded to any single strategy. So where can you begin? This all gets pretty head wrecking for me pretty quickly.

 

Hence talking as a very small niche telecoms software vendor in chaotic times where money is tight, our starting point has to be along the following lines:

 

Assumption: 95% of the solutions that we will deliver next year will look very similar to those delivered this year.

 

That gives a bit of solid ground. It's a pretty safe assumption that there’ll be very few “big bets” placed in 2010, unless you know somebody with lots of cash that hasn't been affect by the financial chaos of the past two years. The key point is, unless your back is to the wall, don’t ignore the bread and butter that got you where you are.

 

It’s from this foundation that I believe most successful strategies for 2010 will be formed. Next I would then take a 4 step look through some of the likely key movements within the business environment based upon Porter’s Model, see below for:

 

By looking at your specific environment e.g.: 

• Most likely Market Demands: Lower Prices, faster speeds, more functionality, who’s likely to spend money?
• Most likely Market Trends: Offshoring, Outsourcing, Consolidation, etc.?
• Most likely Technology Trends: LTE, Higher higher bandwidths, more Android based devices, what Google will do, what Microsoft might do, etc.

 

A clear more grounded picture tends to emerge from the fog.

 

And then if you look at the likely impact on your business at the end of these 4 questions and ask yourself:

• How can easily can you react and adapt?
• Are you over reliant on a small number of key customers?
• What happens if a number of things you forecast don’t happen, happen later, happen quicker, or are of a different scale?
• How can you change your business in an incremental fashion to reflect the above?

By forming a "plan B" approach based on those 4 simple questions you're not only looking at 2010 but you're positioning your business to be quick out of the traps in terms of chasing any upswing in your business. Importantly you're not exposing yourself to unnecessary timing or technology gambles.

 

I’m placing my bets that 2010 will see a clear trend of customers trying to squeeze more out of what they’ve got rather than embarking on large 5 year spends. But the key point will be to ensure that you can revisit this strategy constantly over and adjust for the changes in the

environment and ensure your chasing likely long term winners rather than over investing in shinking opportunites.

Comments

[software development Surrey]

Hey, that was interesting,

Thanks for sharing,

Keep up the good work