“Strategic marketing”, “Strategic accounts”, “Strategic initiatives”. The business world is littered with the term “strategic”. What does “strategic” mean and are your value propositions strategic?
Applying the opposite test [1] may offer insight. Just how much time should your business spend on non-strategic marketing, non-strategic accounts, or non-strategic initiatives? May I suggest none? The nonsense now becomes clearer. The word “strategic” is so over-used that it has effectively lost its meaning.
“The central rule of a framework, designed to unify all actions and decisions around busting the bottleneck to achieving the foremost aspiration”
But what does this mean?
This is where asking “is your value proposition strategic?” and comparing the definition a value proposition with strategy might help understanding.
Value Proposition Definition
Customers aspire to get jobs done. Sending an email when travelling is an example of a customer job. Try to remember life before the iPhone! Whilst it was possible to send from a desktop PC, whilst travelling carrying a heavy laptop (together with a dial up modem, foreign adapters & cables) and working out the hotel phone codes was a painful experience. The solution addressed the customer jobs, but there were multiple bottlenecks to making it a painless experience. With the iPhone, and its partners, and an integrated product and service office, many of these bottlenecks to a painless experience were busted, creating a powerful value proposition.
Strategy Definition
Compo’s Emergent Approach to Strategy [5] uses a triad of
to help classify the basic components of a framework for strategy.
From a business perspective the aspiration is comparable to Christensen’s “outcomes that customers are seeking” when trying get a job done.
Likewise, the bottleneck is like the customer pains and unachievable desired outcomes (gains). The strategy definition focuses on busting bottlenecks, as a value proposition focuses on addressing pains and desired gains. Note a value proposition is not a long list of aspirations, and neither should be the strategy. Both terms solve the problems associated with achieving the aspiration.
it may now be clearer that “strategy” has parallels with the “value proposition”. Indeed the “value proposition” could be seen as a special case definition of “strategy”.
A question for you. Thinking about these definitions of value proposition and strategy
- How well defined are the value propositions in your business?
- How well understood is your business strategy?
- Might there be potential for improvement? And value creation?
Arkaro can support your team to work through these challenges to help secure your profitable growth.
“Mark and I worked together in DuPont. We share the ambition to help businesses with strategy methods that quickly engage the minds of the people. He wants strategy that drives organisations with straightforward and down-to-earth guidance that brings harmony and efficiency to the organization in meeting its aspirations. This is why Mark is a natural partner to deliver the Emergent Approach™.”
Dr Pete Compo
Author of the Emergent
Approach to Strategy
[1] The Opposite Test is one of the 5 Disqualifiers of Strategy from Pete Compo’s “Emergent Approach to Strategy” described in “Have you tested your strategy recently?”
[2] Clayton M Christensen, Michael E Raynor “The Innovator’s Solution”
[3] Ulwick, Anthony “Jobs to be done : From Theory to Practice”
[4] Osterwalder, Pigneur, Bernarda, Smith “Value Proposition Design”
[5] Compo, Pete “The Emergent to Strategy” www.emergentapproach.com
Mark Blackwell
Mark Blackwell founded Arkaro in 2016 following a career in both large and small organisations, covering a wide range of industries across agriculture, food and chemicals. As Global Sales and Marketing Director Mark led the growth of the animal health company Antec International to its acquisition by DuPont. Leadership positions in DuPont developed expertise in Business Development, Innovation, Product Line Management, Integrated Business Planning, Business Productivity and Six Sigma Black Belt Project Management. At DuPont Mark worked with Pete Compo as the ideas forming the Emergent Approach to Strategy™ were developed. In recent years Mark has been involved in the preparation of the Emergent Approach to Strategy and is the first affiliated partner to deliver to help product line and business teams design and implement adaptive strategies.
