Today, we’ll discuss the most important concept in company management, the Business
Strategy Framework.
[Intro Video]
Hi, this is Mike Negami, Lean Sigma Black Belt.
I made a video and templateof a marketing strategy framework earlier.
Marketing is the activity of creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings of your
products and services. But before that, you need to have answers to the question “What
is my company's philosophy and existence value?” That’s a Business Strategy. Once a good
business strategy is in place, the right marketing strategy can be set up.
When you think about your company’s business strategy, there are many analysis methods
such as the SWOT analysis, and there are also many business strategy frameworks. Let’s
learn one of the business strategy frameworks from this book, ‘Management Revolution Textbook’.
The reason I thought that this book’s framework is good is because it’s very simple and
covers the essence of business strategy. This book’s co-author is Mr. Mitsuhiko Watanabe
and he is an expert in the ‘Management-Quality Improvement Program’. This book is written
mainly for the medical and social welfare industries, but any industry readers can learn
a lot from this book. The bottom line is that this figure is the
framework of the business strategy mentioned in this book. It's very simple, but very important.
This book says that it's important to clarify 'Philosophy and Vision', which is the purpose
and goal of what kind of company your company wants to be, then create a 'Strategy' to achieve
the ‘Vision’, and carry out 'Operational Planning and Execution Management'. This book
talks about Japanese situations, but we can still learn from it. The part of the book
I thought was interesting is that there are some industries still protected by regulations
in Japan after WW2. Companies in those industries have a lockstep mentality, without having
'Philosophy and Vision' and 'Strategy’, but they have managed well on 'Operational
Planning and Execution Management', in short 'Management'.
Because of that situation, there are many companies in Japan whose strategies are ambiguous
and just do 'Management', so the famous American Professor, Dr. Michael Porter pointed out
that "Japanese companies rarely have a strategy". You cannot raise the quality of your 'Management'
without pursuing your 'Philosophy and Vision' and 'Strategy', and when the waves of liberalization
and global competition come, you’ll have to utilize this Business Strategy even more.
Let's look at the explanation of the first 'Philosophy and Vision' in this book. It's
especially the starting point to clarify the 'Philosophy' of the company.
'Philosophy' is a straightforward expression of the meaning of existence and mission of
your organization. It's the values you nurture and the responsibility to your society. It's
necessary to 'Reinterpret' the meaning of your philosophy according to the times.
On the other hand, 'Vision' represents what kind of organization you're aiming for as
your 'Arrival goal after three to five years' as based on the ‘Philosophy’.
While 'Philosophy' will continue to be pursued, 'Vision' should be achieved.
Of course, your company's resources are limited. You can decide how to allocate your limited
resources effectively according to your ‘Philosophy and Vision’.
In addition, all human beings have their own beliefs and values, and that must be respected.
But what happens if all the employees work with their own values alone?
It's self-evident that company power will be improved significantly if all employees
see in one direction. That will not happen unless you have a ‘Philosophy’ as a company,
and it must be shared and picked up by all employees.
Actually, many companies have a philosophy, but their philosophies aren’t picked up
by employees. According to the study done by the authors, those companies had the following
common issues. ① Often staff were not involved when establishing
the company philosophy. The background and intention of the philosophy were not shared.
② Expression of company philosophies are too abstract to understand. Therefore, the
employees do not know what they should do. ③ The original purpose of the efforts to
promote the company philosophy has been lost, and those efforts are losing substance.
I would like to suggest that you try writing your company's 'Philosophy and Vision' and
'Strategy'. In this book, it explains 'Strategy' as follows.
'Strategy' is, in short, 'Setting the path for achieving the goal’. Since there are
various routes to the goal, it's a strategy to choose the best one and dedicate resources
to it. I got permission from Mr. Watanabe, the book’s
co-author, and made an Excel template for this Business Strategy Framework.
This is that template. I put the instructions on the right side. Follow the instructions
and write your 'Philosophy and Vision'. At this time, please discuss this with your team.
Write 'Strategies' to realize the 'Vision' you stated. You can write up to 10 strategies.
Then, write 'Sub-Strategies' to achieve each 'Strategy'.
Double click on the place where you want to add a 'Sub-Strategy’ and enter '2' in the
next screen. Next, write 'Actions' to achieve each 'Sub-Strategy'.
Double click the place you want to add an ‘Action’ and enter '3'. You can add a
'Strategy' by entering '1' on the same screen. Also, you can delete those entries by entering
'4’ on the same screen. The concept of this process is the same as
a WBS (Work Breakdown Structure). The 'Milestone' of a WBS is the 'Strategy' here, the 'Deliverable'
is a 'Sub-Strategy', and 'Task' is 'Action'. Please click on the above link to see the
WBS video for details. Unfortunately, this book, ‘Management Revolution
Textbook’, has not been translated into English. Just in case however, I put a link
to the book in Japanese. Thank you very much for viewing. Please click
the ‘Subscribe’ button. Also click and watch my other related videos. Thanks.