The business response to the current COVID- 19 pandemic, will trigger around six broad areas. The first one would be in crisis management. This itself could be sub- categorised in to three different waves. In the immediate term, it has to be all about mobilizing to secure the position of those most vulnerable within the workforce. The next stage will be about stability. Now, companies will need to understand, how best to navigate the “new normal”. The final phase will focus on designing a fresh corporate strategy that takes in to account this changed scenario. The second key area to work on will be the supply chain. The third will be all about the talent management of the existing workforce. This will be followed by the conventions on tax and trade. Finance and liquidity will form the fifth broad area. The last one will be on the brand and its strategy.

Source:https://www.strategy-business.com/blog/How-to-respond-when-a-crisis-becomes-the-new-normal?gko=ff6a3

Uploaded Date:30 April 2020

Consumer- goods companies need to now prepare for what may inevitably become the new normal. The COVID- 19 pandemic may just about have brought on this crisis earlier than expected. To prepare for this, these companies must find a realistic view on where they stand right now. They need to keep a few options in mind, for different possible versions of the future. One needs to draft the corporate strategy document as a vision statement in that direction. There will be both regulatory measures as well as consumer shifts that these companies will need to work with. Non- essential retail will possibly need to be replaced with an increase in the e- commerce footprint. Such companies will now also need to invest significantly in to digital marketing in order to make the move. One can expect consumers to display greater levels of price sensitivity, higher digital engagement and an increased attention paid to hygiene and wellness.

Source:https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/consumer-packaged-goods/our-insights/how-consumer-goods-companies-can-prepare-for-the-next-normal

Uploaded Date:28 April 2020

Norway has stepped up its efforts towards the early implementation of electric aircrafts. The world plans to have them in place by 2040 at the latest, but Norway is confident of having them operational by as early as 2023. The fact that this country has sixteen airports within a fairly short distance of about three- hundred and fifty kilometres, means Norway is ideally poised to commence batter- based, short- haul flights. Business intelligence shared by the Norwegian civil aviation authority in collaboration with Avinor mentions that these battery operated crafts would be fully functional by the year 2030. Israeli Eviation is the company that has been put in charge of producing the bulk of the first batch of these.

Source:https://www.tourism-review.com/electric-aircrafts-to-fly-by-2040-news11448

Uploaded Date:31 March 2020

While the business world has periodically been hit by disruptions which render existing companies as nearly redundant, the pace of these coming to the fore has only accelerated in the recent years. Since such game- changing business innovations have become all the more common now, a mechanism needs to be applied that can spot these before they truly turn disruptive. Existing incumbents may then plan their future course of action, and present operations accordingly. The Founder of the Future Today Institute, Amu Webb has curated an article on the MIT SMR highlighting this. Titled The 11 Sources of Disruption Every Company must Monitor, she lists a framework on ways a legacy brand can remain well prepared.

Source:https://sloanreview.mit.edu/audio/how-to-spot-disruption-before-it-strikes/

Uploaded Date:31 March 2020

Blue Ocean Strategy is when a business innovation is launched that is a complete game- changer. Unlike a disruption, this is not about a new product, or even a new model, but a simple repackaging. An ideal example of the same is the Cirque du Soleil from the Quebec province of Canada. It used to be a circus, but when attendances to circuses dropped due to digital alternatives, the company reinvented itself. Most companies are trapped under Red Ocean strategies. A Red Ocean is a corporate strategy where the status quo is maintained for ever. The latter try to defeat the competition, while the former tries to differentiate itself completely. There are also several cases of incumbents creating blue oceans, within their core businesses. GM and Chrysler within the auto industry is one such case. Red oceans exploit an existing need, while blue oceans create and capture new ones. The former work on a value versus cost trade- off, while the latter beat the same. Undoubtedly, several barriers exist in the process.

Source:https://hbr.org/2004/10/blue-ocean-strategy?utm_campaign=hbr&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook

Uploaded Date:24 March 2020

The concept of Return on Experience (RoX) has gained substantial ground off late. It has now expanded to ROX3, which includes the three related experiences of leadership, employee and customers. The LX or Leadership Experience needs to focus on the corporate strategy. This entails earning employee commitment, and honing a company- wide work culture. Some key behaviours need to be linked between the brand, and the strategy followed. The EX or Employee Experience is all about earning loyalty by projecting a superior customer trajectory. While the LX is directed from the leaders to the employees, via a strategy for talent management, EX is flows from employees to customers. The third one is Customer Experience, also CX. This relation is transactional in nature, with rapid responses sought, that will power ad hoc tests and research. It is insight- driven and flows back from the customers to the formal leaders. It allows the company to think ahead vis-à-vis its competitors.

Source:https://www.strategy-business.com/article/ROX3-Boosting-returns-on-leadership-customer-and-employee-experience?gko=f3fff

Uploaded Date:11 March 2020

Dr. Clayton M Christensen has been among the foremost of management thinkers and trainers over the years. He spoke about how data gets trumped by theory. Conventional wisdom holds that one companies get big and successful, they shy away from business innovation, due to a certain risk- averse nature creeping in. Dr. Christensen does not fully agree with it, as elucidated through his Theory of Disruptive Innovation. There exist three distinct trajectories that shape how companies perform, even after attaining success. One is the customers’ utilizable performance improvement. It happens when the company understands the customers’ changing needs. Another includes the technology advances. The third is how new performance measures may be introduced on the back of the disruptive technology.

Source:https://www.strategy-business.com/article/14501?gko=787d8

Uploaded Date:27 February 2020

Some rules have been identified that will help lead companies or teams in the ongoing digital era. As these are times of unprecedented change, so it calls for a new leadership model. For years, the VUCA model has been in vogue, that stands for the volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. This works perfectly in an environment where the data available and its subsequent storage doubles every few years. Fears of change induced by business innovation, often lead to a sense of inertia developing among companies. The team leaders need to effectively communicate their leadership signature. This was understand post research conducted at the MIT Leadership Center.

Source:https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/five-rules-for-leading-in-a-digital-world/

Uploaded Date:27 February 2020

The Theory of Disruptive Innovation coined by Clayton Christensen first entered prominence about twenty- five years back. The profile of disrupters though has evolved dramatically. The original ones used to be those who would provide a cost advantage to the buyer, by coming out with cheap products. This ensured that the legacy companies remained strong in providing niche products. Now, it is being further challenged, as the startups are coming out with products, equal in quality to those from the stables of the incumbents. The theory has thus been challenged, so needs modification. Companies’ corporate strategy too needs to evolve accordingly. When newcomers are ignored, eventually the upstarts start dominating the older players, who are forced to cede space. The margins are lower for the newbies at the start, but keep improving with time.

Source:https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/the-new-disrupters/

Uploaded Date:27 February 2020

Two Wharton Professors have written a new book, that just got published. The writers are Christian Terwiesch and Nicolaj Siggelkow, while the book is titled Connected Strategy: Building Continuous Customer Relationships for Competitive Advantage. One of the concepts introduced via this book is of frictionless transactions. This is best explained through the evolution of experiences at Disney theme parks from merely a ticket to now a Magic Band, that allows for far deeper connectivity. There are two elements to connected strategies. One is the connected customer relationship, while the other is the connected delivery model. Nike offers another similar apt example of this connected corporate strategy. Once implemented, this helps in fostering a competitive and sustainable advantage over others. One also does not have to develop all technologies themselves, but can also use the same already developed by others. Google Maps and 5G technologies are key examples of those that may be broadly used up.

Source:https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/connected-strategy-book/

Uploaded Date:29 January 2020

Trade- offs have become a necessary part of the business process now, thanks to the constant churn in technology, workforce, and business modes. In order to derive optimum value out of such trade- offs, there are four modes of action that have been suggested. Firstly, one needs to know the trade- offs, before implementing them. It will also help understand beforehand who wins or loses in this particular round. Next, one needs to periodically review the trade- offs selected. The outcome of implementing them, must go beyond mere incremental transition. Business innovation has to be worked out around these trade- offs, in order to deliver maximum value. This will help the organization thrive within this trade- off space. Long- term goals now need to be pursued without compromising much on near- term targets.

Source:https://www.strategy-business.com/article/The-upside-of-trade-offs?gko=3468f

Uploaded Date:28 January 2020