A Handbook for Managing Strategic Processes

How to Find Specific Guidance

To the Reader from the Author

My intent is that this guidebook helps you quickly reference bits of knowledge you need, when you need them, to do your job.

My hope is that the guide is pulled off the bookshelf often and is never far away, that you keep coming back to it, time and again.

Now for how to use the guide to get specifically what you need:

Need: You’ve been assigned to define the target market for a new product.

Go to Chapter 4: Defining the Market. There you will find a four step, multi-dimensional process for segmenting markets and selecting target markets. The approach yields meaningful and precise definitions of market segments, which in turn yields precisely defined target markets. The key trick is the market segmentation worksheet that I developed in the early 1990s when helping a client describe its target markets.

Need: You need to bone up on management processes and their importance in strategic management.

Go to Chapter 2: Management and Management processes and read the section Management Processes. There you gain an appreciation of what management processes are and what is important about them. You will also note that, for true effectiveness, management processes must themselves be managed. Hence the term process management. One of the benefits of having processes documented – as they are in this guide – is that it makes it easier to improve them and to tailor them to different situations.

Need: You want to understand better the industry in which you compete.

Go to Chapter 5: The External Business Environment and read the sections Industry Description and Outlook and Michael Porter’s Five Forces. The fundamental question you want answered about your industry is: Are we competing in an industry that offers the opportunity for long term profitability. In this material you learn why the state of competition in an industry depends on five basic forces:

• Industry competitiveness
• Threat of substitute products or services
• Bargaining power of suppliers
• Bargaining power of buyers
• Threat of new entrants

Need: You want to understand what strategic assumptions are and why they are so important to strategic management.

Go to Chapter 7: Strategic Assumptions and read the Introduction. Strategic assumptions – which translate your analysis of the business environments into terms that allow their use directly in devising strategies - document what the management team believes about the internal and external environments. Learn of their role in getting agreement on internal and external factors that become the basis, in fact an audit trail, for strategies that are formulated. Further, if future events and circumstances do deviate from what was assumed about them the strategic statements that depend on those assumptions can be quickly identified and corrective action can be taken.

Need: You want to learn how to conduct a SWOT analysis.

Go to Chapter 7: Strategic Assumptions and read the SWOT Analysis section. This is a great way to analyze and document strategic assumptions while addressing the question of how the business unit’s internal Strengths and Weaknesses fit with the external Opportunities and Threats. In general, a SWOT strategy should seek to apply strengths, exploit opportunities, shore up weaknesses and avert threats. Readers are shown, via the SWOT Analysis Diagram how to expose leverages, problems, constraints, and vulnerabilities. Later, in Chapter 8: Overview of Strategy Formulation, readers will find the section SWOT Based Strategies.

Need: You need guidance in documenting assumptions relative to the marketing strategy.

Go to Chapter 7: Strategic Assumptions and read the section Functional Level Strategic Assumptions. There you will find examples of questions to be addressed in each component of the marketing strategy.

Need: You need to get a general understanding of the steps in the strategy formulation process.

Go to Chapter 8: Overview of Strategy Formulation and read the section General Strategy Formulation Process. Figure 8-B will be helpful in understanding the steps and their role. You will find details for carrying out these steps in Chapter 9.

Need: You would like to know about the types of strategies that should be considered and the conditions for their use.

Go to Chapter 8: Overview of Strategy Formulation and read the section Types of Strategies. You will find guidance for several types:

• Integration strategies
• Intensive strategies
• Diversification strategies
• Defensive strategies
• Industry-maturity strategies
• Michael Porter’s generic strategies
• SWOT-based strategies

Need: You need specific guidance in formulating strategy at the business unit level.

Go to Chapter 9: Business Strategy Formulation. There you will find step-by-step instructions for documenting business unit strategies – guided by Figure 9-A: Steps in the SBU Strategic Management Process. The first 6 steps lead to the strategies for each of the functional areas – sales, marketing, production, etc. The other two steps deal with the implementation and evaluation of strategies. Step 5: Analysis of Strategy Alternatives suggests that you consider several types of strategies and then select based on strategic assumptions. Details are provided for formulating product marketing strategies.

Need: You want to know where in the strategic management process the issues of organizational structure, policies and management processes are addressed.

Go to Chapter 11: Strategy Implementation Overview and read the section on Arranging. You will find a healthy discussion of

• setting up the organization structure
• what processes should be considered and how to deal with them
• dealing with projects and their organization

Need: You need guidance in how to actually manage projects in the implementation phase.

Go to Chapter 11: Strategy Implementation Overview and read the section on Orchestrating. There you will find an 8-step process for developing project plans, techniques for actually directing the work effort and some effective tools for controlling projects.

Need: You could benefit from going through the details of implementing a component strategy.

Go to Chapter 12: Implementing a Product Marketing Strategy. Figure 12-A gives a good picture of the product marketing management process. Figure 12-B provides more detail in the components of a product marketing management process. You will find step-by-step guidance for developing sales and marketing plans and, also important, a listing of the management processes that are needed and where they fit. There are quite a few checklists to help in the planning.