When strategic recovery requires more than cost cutting
How turnaround strategies can rebuild competitive position by resetting the portfolio, operating priorities and sources of future growth.
Read articleRelated macro
Business strategy
Define business strategy through rigorous choices on growth, positioning, portfolios, resources and execution.
Discover the macroEditorial overview
Articles
Designing the next business model before the current one plateaus
How companies can identify new value pools and build business models that combine differentiated customer value with scalable economics.
Read articleFocus
Why does this business belong in the portfolio?
Ownership should have a strategic rationale beyond history, reported revenue or the cost and inconvenience of changing the portfolio.
Which customer problem deserves another year of investment?
Product resources are scarce, making the value and strategic importance of the problem more consequential than the length of the feature backlog.
Strategic challenges
Innovation portfolios rarely fail from a shortage of ideas
The harder problem is concentrating enough talent and capital behind a limited number of opportunities to generate meaningful evidence.
A franchise model has two customers
The consumer proposition must remain attractive while the economics and operating model also work for the franchisee.
POV
A network is not stronger because it is larger
Growth becomes destructive when new units cannibalise existing demand or require economics that operators cannot sustain.
A good business can still be the wrong asset to own
Corporate strategy should ask whether the parent is the best owner, not simply whether the underlying business is attractive.
Strategic impact
The strongest move may change the game
Competitive strategy can create more value by altering customer choice, economics or market structure than by outperforming rivals on established terms.
Structural change redistributes advantage
A shift in regulation, technology or bargaining power can move economic value between participants without changing total industry demand.
What we observe
Companies often confuse uniqueness with relevance
We frequently see businesses emphasise differences customers can recognise but have little reason to value or pay for.
Companies often benchmark peers instead of questioning the industry model
We frequently see strategy focused on outperforming incumbents while deeper changes are altering where future profit will be created.