An Inventory of Strategic Moves for Resilient Organisations

Every resilient organisation needs a good strategy.

Richard Rumelt in his excellent book 'Good Strategy/Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters', describes strategy as consisting of a diagnosis, a guiding policy and a set of coherent actions. This article is an exploration of that last element. What are the generic possibilities for the set of coherent actions, i.e. 'strategic moves'?

The obvious strategic moves include things like entering a new market or developing a new product.

But what is the full range of generic possibilities? Maybe it would be helpful to have a list.

Thinking about this, and not having seen an inventory elsewhere, I undertook an informal but fairly comprehensive review of our experience spanning four decades and numerous organisations.

The results, listed here, are not what I expected. Some of the less splashy and less expensive types of moves can be disproportionately effective (and are easy to overlook).

This inventory may serve as a checklist when developing an organisation's strategy.

• Alliances
• Certifications
• Community Outreach
• Doctrine and Working Methods
• Infrastructure
• Internal Organisation
• IP Development
• Markets
• Products
• Service Capabilities
• Suppliers
• Technology Capabilities
• Territories

A few notes:

Alliances - if you can find, and team up with, a complementary organisation with similar values serving customers you want to do business with the results can be spectacular. The general pattern here is outsourcing: either you outsource to your ally or your ally outsources to you. Our experience with alliances has been transformational on several occasions. And you can/will learn a lot in the process. The caveat about similar values is critical.

Certifications - the right certifications can be effective moats to protect your business from competitors. Cybersecurity is probably the hottest certification at the moment for software agencies. It's hard to get but valuable for clients. Certifications also include rosters e.g. rosters for government procurement.

Not all certifications need to be strictly formal. An advanced and well documented practice in an important area, e.g. accessibility or user experience, can also be effective.

Community Outreach - this can either be a way to get to know new customers or to engage with your local community. Ideally (but rarely) both at once. As well as the direct benefits from networking you can get marketing and staff development benefits as well.

Doctrine and Working Methods - usually cheap and can be highly effective. Moves here include evaluation frameworks, mission statements, terms of business, pricing policies, internal meeting and reporting arrangements, project management methods (Agile vs. Prince 2 for example), etc...

Markets - new markets may be cheaper to develop than new products. However, it's easy to persuade yourself that you have a great offer for an adjacent market only to discover that the incumbents know far more about it than you do or that potential customers are surprisingly resistant to your offer. Proceed with caution and do your homework.

Products - everyone loves to develop a new product but they can be extremely expensive. A new product for an existing market that you know well can be an excellent move. A new product for a new market will usually be a highly effective way to lose a lot of money.

Territories - there has to be a good enough fit. UK companies expanding to the US can do well. The language, legal framework, business culture and time zones all align well enough. Other territory moves may be harder.

Finally, two things to bear in mind.

Not all strategic moves are additive. Some of the best moves may be subtractive. Stopping a practice, oursourcing a service, withdrawing a product or withdrawing from a market may be just as (or more) effective (and much cheaper) than adding new ones.

Strategy is not the compilation of a shopping list. The set of strategic moves must be coherent. And as a set they need to amplify competitive advantage and synergy while managing focus and risk. For more on coherent strategy see our article here.