by Jean Maurice Griffon
2020 is approaching to the end. Needless to say, it has been a very hectic year and the best wishes on January 1st, 2021 will have a specific meaning.
I do not remember any year in my career where so many aspects of the business have been impacted. First, it is a global crisis even if Asia has started to see the recovery in the second half of 2020 but they have been exposed to challenges earlier than the rest of the world.
Is COVID19 a threat or an opportunity?
New questions were asked:
- How to manage people working from home and having less face-to-face interactions with customers or suppliers?
- How to accelerate the digitalisation of all the processes?
- How to ensure continuous supply of critical ingredients?
- How to revitalize regional industry to be more reactive and less dependant?
Previous trends have seen tremendous acceleration such as the electrification in the automotive industry, E commerce, E processes.
On a macro levels, debts of most major countries have seen an explosion up to unthinkable levels prior to the crisis. The reimbursement is a significant open question potentially creating a huge uncertainty.
We can carry on but all of them can be perceived as major game changers. Usually, in any strategy review, few are identified and most of them have a medium to long term impact. In 2020, they are many and it is happening now.
Do you have a post COVID strategy?
For sure the landscape is changing dramatically. Market leaders will see their position challenged and could be replaced by emerging players coming from nowhere geographically or with totally new concepts or approaches. Therefore, it is critical to take time to review strengths and weaknesses in this new environment. Some previous strengths can become a weakness or vice versa.
It is time to review the strategy and how it should be transformed as it is quite unlikely the post COVID 2019 environment do not have a fundamental impact. Not doing it is creating a risk which is way too high. This is critical in transforming a threat into an opportunity.
It must be done fast and an external view can be very beneficial in such an environment to provide a new eye and to evaluate all aspects in a candid manner.
Arkaro is proposing to use the Emergent Approach to Strategy™ with tools such as the 5 Disqualifiers of Strategy™ and the Strategy Alternatives Matrix bringing much needed clarity on the definition of strategy.
Rather than seeing businesses as planned, and then executed on and controlled by using a linear prescribed strategy process, an iterative approach is used where the strategy emerges over time built up from an understanding of complex adaptive systems. Such an approach is of course particularly suitable to a VUCA (volatile – uncertain – complex – ambiguous) world.
By working with your team in Agile-like sprints, Arkaro can help your team create strategy alternatives, choose the best strategy and establish a dashboard of metrics and triggers to drive execution.
Doing so, we can help you to catch new growth opportunities in 2021, and help your execution with coaching and advice on:
- Salesforce capability building
- Marketing strategy development including segmentation
- Product Line Management to bridge market with assets.
- Innovation process & cross-functional collaboration
- Integrated Business Management to optimise customer – cash – cost
- Jean-Maurice Griffon has more than 33 years of business to business experience. Within DuPont, his roles included technical sales, product management, business development. He managed teams at a regional and global level. He also led major initiatives on innovation, top-line growth and pricing optimisation as well as major growth disruption programs.
- Most of his career has been in Engineering Plastics across automotive, consumer, industrial goods, oil and gas exploration and irrigation industries.
- Native french speaker and has worked in an English speaking environment for most of his career. Six Sigma Green Belt certified.
- As a trainer, Jean-Maurice is highly rated by participants, in part due to his vast knowledge of the sales and business development process and appreciation of different cultures around the world.
