This document provides an overview of key concepts for developing a business strategy and plan, including outlines for strategic management, business models, positioning strategies, and ensuring fit between strategy and operations. It discusses evaluating the external environment and internal strengths/weaknesses, choosing between growth, stability, and retrenchment strategies. Frameworks are presented for assessing value propositions, vision, strategic positioning, and mapping strategies to opportunities and threats. The document also covers developing business models that define revenue sources, cost drivers, investment needs, and critical success factors to operationalize strategies and capture wealth.

1. Strategy, Business Model &
Business Plan
IEI Business Plan Workshops
February 11, 2010
Presented by:
Bernard Rudnick, CEO, CapGenic Advisors
Presentation Updated by Carl Lupke

2. Business Plan Outline
www.sbm.temple.edu/IEI/word/planigenttemplateoutline_003.doc
• Executive Summary
• Company Description
– Including product/service &
technology/core knowledge
• Industry Analysis & Trends
• Target Market
• Competition
• Strategy/Business Model
• Marketing and Sales Plan
• Production/Operations Plan
• Technology Plan
• Management &
Organization
• Social Responsibility
• Development & Milestones
• Financials
– Including Capital
Requirements & Financial
Statements
• Appendix

3. Strategy Funnel
Customer &
Benefits
Competitive
Dynamics
Competitive
Space
Segment,Size
Channels
Strategic
Positioning
Value
Proposition
Industry
Structure
Environmental Trends
IndustryMarket
Perceptual
Space
Goal: Articulate and execute long-term, defensible
offer of unique value to customers

4. What is Strategy?
• Plan
• Process
• Position
• Pattern
• Perspective
• Procedure
• Play
• Ploy
• Strategic Management
• Strategic Position
• Strategic Navigation
• Strategic Tactics

5. Strategic Management
Environmental Scanning
Evaluation &
Control
Strategy
Implementation
Strategy
FormulationMission
Vision
• Disciplined, iterative process of driving towards vision, by
finding or making and maintaining a defensible space or
trajectory in a given business environment.

6. Strategy Checklist
• Value proposition
• Vision
• Position or direction
– Structure or resource base
• Revenue & business model
• Timeline or guidelines
• Fit

7. Value Proposition
• Specific, concrete offer of benefits
– Price, quality, convenience, choice, cost-savings,
reliability, etc
• To precisely defined customers
– Who recognize that the offer solves a problem for the
– EG: Our clients grow their business, large or small,
typically by a minimum of 30-50% over the previous
year. They accomplish this without working 80 hour
weeks and sacrificing their personal lives.

8. Vision
• Stable core
– Mission: Central audience + core product/service
– Ideology: Values, principles, culture
• Focused ambition
– Concrete picture of successful impact
– Serious, scary stretch goals
– Disciplined experimentation

9. Vision Exercise
• Stable core
– Mission:
– Ideology:
• Focused ambition
– What success will look like – in the marketplace:
– One audacious goal:

10. Position or Navigation?
• Position Strategies
– Unique, valuable, defensible position in a market
or industry
– Supported by a tightly integrated value chain /
activity system
– Good for relatively stable industries/markets
• Navigation Strategies
– Vision-driven nurturing and leveraging of core
resources
– Supported by tight culture and explicit learning
– Good for dynamic industries/markets

11. External
Opportunities
& Threats
Niche
Internal
Strengths &
Weaknesses
Strategic Positions Require Niches
• A niche includes the
market the firm is
uniquely qualified to
serve

12. Strategic Situation
External
Factors
Internal
Factors
Strategic Situation
Resources
(know-how,
people,
money, etc)
Vision,
values
&
culture
Social,
political,
regulatory,
technological
& community
Industry
Attractive-
ness,
dynamics, &
competition
Unmet
customer
needs &
desires
Competitive
position
(through
customers
eyes & in
industry)

13. Match SW to OT
Strengths
(S)
Internal
Factors
External
Factors
Opportunities
(O)
SO Strategies
-------------------------
WO Strategies
------------------------
Threats
(T)
ST Strategies
--------------------------
WT Strategies
-------------------------
Use strengths to
avoid threats
Min. weaknesses
to avoid threats
Use strengths to
take advantage of
opportunities
Offset weaknesses
to take advantage
of opportunities
Weaknesses
(W)

14. SWOT Exercise
External
Factors
Internal
Factors
Strategic Situation
Resources Competitive
Position
Culture
Environment Industry Customer
• Map SW to OT..

15. Two Levels of Strategy
• Corporate
– Growth
– Retrenchment
– Stability
• Business
– Cost (price) Leadership
– Differentiation
– Focus

16. Growth Strategies
• Concentration
– Vertical and Horizontal
• Diversification
– Concentric
– Conglomerate

17. Growth Through Concentration
• Concentrate resources on a single business
– Concentrate vertically, i.e., backward or forward
(supply or distribution)
– Concentrate horizontally by growing
geographically or by expanding product or service
offering

18. Means to Accomplish Growth
 Mergers
 Acquisitions
 Internal Growth
 Strategic Alliances
 International

19. Diversification
• Used if firm’s current product lines do not
have much growth potential
• Benefits
– Economies of Scope
– Increase market power
– Share infrastructure
– Maintain growth

20. Concentric (Related) Diversification
• Outperform unrelated diversification
• Best when
– low industry attractiveness
– strong business strengths
– strong competitive position
• Allows use of distinctive competence
• Seek synergy

21. Conglomerate (Unrelated) Diversification
• Best when
– Firm operates in unattractive industry
– Firm lacks abilities or skills easily transferable to
related industry
• Focus is financial & not core competence or
synergy
– Balance cash flows
– Reduce risk

22. Stability Strategies
• Pause and Proceed with Caution
• No Change
• Profit

23. Retrenchment Strategies
• Turnaround
• Captive Company
• Sell out or Divestment
– Spin-off
– Management buyout (MBO)
• Bankruptcy or Liquidation

24. Business Level Strategies
• Cost (price) leadership
– Efficiency and scale
• Differentiation
– Quality, design, support/service, image -- that
make a product or service special
• Focus
– Explicit tie to a broad or narrow
market segment

25. Examples
• Cost (price) leadership
– Dell Computers (logistics, volume)
– Motel 6 (location, services, salespeople).
– Southwest Airlines (corporate culture, service)
• Differentiation
– Quality (Mercedes)
– Design (Apple)
– Service (Nordstrom).
– Image (Nike).
– Special niches (Zitner’s candied apples; independent films)

26. Examples
• Focus
– Broad (Wal-Mart - rural)
– Narrow (NSP - activists, NRI - network administrators)
– Segmented (Computer security – spooks and commerce,
Financial services – rich, poor and in-between.)

27. Value Discipline Positioning
Product Leadership
•(Differentiation)
Customer Intimacy
•(Focus)
Operational Excellence
•(Cost Leadership)

28. Value Disciplines
Product Leadership - Compete on Speed
•Good design, great execution
•Educate & lead the market
•Ad hoc, risk oriented culture
•Organization designed for innovation
Operational Excellence - Compete on Scale
•Low price, limited options, ultimate convenience
•Managed customer expectations
•Measurement culture
•Processes & transactions continually redesigned
for efficiency

29. Value Disciplines
Customer Intimacy - Compete on Scope
•Offerings tailored to customers & segments
•Deep insight into customer needs
•Problem solving service culture
•Full range of services, so customers stay
•Breakthrough thinking, unique solutions

30. Position Strategy Exercise
Product Leadership
•(Differentiation)
Customer Intimacy
•(Focus)
Operational Excellence
•(Cost Leadership)
Choose a position strategy and explain how you
will achieve it.

31. Strategic Positions Require Fit
• Fit refers to the integration of every part of
firms’ internal structures to better serve a
niche.
• Well-positioned firms Craft themselves to
serve niches better than others.

32. Fit: Entrepreneurial Advantage
• Possibility of crafting a perfect fit between specific
opportunities and internal capabilities
• Firms that fit opportunities extremely well have an
advantage over bigger, stronger opponents…
• Examples:
– Dollar Express vs Dollar Tree
– Youthbuild vs School District
– Giovanni’s Room vs Borders

33. Value Chain
• A strong value chain is a cross-linked net of activities that affects the
cost or performance of the whole.
• Supporting a strategy by optimizing both individual functions and the
links between them to support a strategy yields a powerful, durable,
hard-to-duplicate advantage.
Margin
Technology
Inbound
Logistics
Operations Outbound
Logistics
Marketing/
Sales
After Sales
Service
Infrastructure
Procurement
Human Resources

34. Activity System
• A less linear way of thinking about the
internal fit that supports strategy.
• Map crucially interrelated features and
functions that define a firm’s unique skills
and strategy.
• Support competitive advantage with
reinforcing patterns or systems.

35. Ikea’s Activity System
Limited
Customer
Service
Modular
Designs
Low Mfg
Cost
Self-
service
Selection
Self-
transport
Limited
sales staff
Customer
loyalty
Self -
assembly
Suburban
Location
Most
items in
stock
Design
focused
on low
cost
Explanato
ry labeling
Easy
transport
Flat
packing
kits
Wide
variety
Long-term
suppliers
Year-
round
stocking
On-site
inventory
Impulse
buying
High-
traffic
store
layout
Easy to
make

36. Experience Curve
• For positional strategies, experience is the
ultimate source of advantage.
• Experience fuels the tacit knowledge that drives
productivity improvements, innovations,
elaborations of strategy, etc
• Successful firms are especially good at creating
the social and institutional structures that
support the shared development of such tacit
knowledge

37. Fit Exercise
• Draw the value chain for your firm
• Note reinforcing (and jarring) pieces
• Try to create more reinforcements
OR
• Jot down functions and features
• Look for patterns and connections
• Try to crystallize patterns

38. Business Model
• A business model describes what a firm will
do, and how, to build and capture wealth for
stakeholders
• Effective business models operationalize
good strategies -- turning position and fit into
wealth

39. Four Aspects of Business Models
• Revenue Sources
• Cost Drivers
• Investment Size
• Critical Success Factors

40. Revenue Sources
• Subscription/Membership
– Fixed amount at regular intervals prior to receiving
product/service
• Volume/Unit-based
– Fixed price in exchange for product/service
• Advertising-based
– Exempt from fee or pays fraction of the value
• Licensing & Syndication
– One time fee
• Transaction fee
– Fixed fee or percentage of total value of transaction

41. Cost Drivers
• Fixed: item costs do not vary with volume
• Semi-variable: variable & fixed costs
• Variable: item costs vary with volume
• Non-recurring: item of cost occurs infrequently

42. Investment Size
• Maximizing finance needs
• Positive cash flow
• Cash Breakeven

43. Critical Success Factors
• An operational function or competency that a
company must possess in order to be
sustainable & profitable
• Perform sensitive analysis

44. Effective Business Models Build & Capture
Wealth
• Build wealth:
– By efficiently (profitably) transforming inputs into
something that customers value enough to pay for – again
and again and again
– By supporting growth
• Capture wealth:
– By siphoning off some of the accumulated wealth for
stakeholders
– And by developing recognizable value – strategic positions,
know-how, customers, free cash flow, lifestyles, social
impact – that can be captured

45. Effective Business Models Require Hard
Choices
• About who matters
– Owners, investors, family, workers, community
• About what kind of wealth matters
– Financial capital, social capital, intellectual capital...i.e..,
cash, good life, rich family life, entrepreneurial impact, social
impact
• About the strategy that will deliver the wealth that
matters to the stakeholders that matter
• About the structure that supports strategy

46. Business Models Start with What the
World Gives
1.Describe the landscape:
– Porter
– Environment, industry, and relevant trends.
2. Paint in competitors:
– Competitor table. Perceptual maps.
– What do you need to play? How do competitors
compete? What opportunities exist?
3. Identify strengths & weaknesses
– Vision, skills, core technologies

47. Business Models are Based on Strategy
4. Identify stakeholders you must serve
– Owners, family, workers, community
5. Identify the wealth you will capture
– Capital, good life, family life, fame entrepreneurial
effectiveness, social value
6. Choose a position or approach
– And elaborate a strategy to realize this
– Especially a revenue model

48. Business Models Define Structure
7. Sketch a structure to
operationalize the strategy
– Value chain, activity system, culture, simple rules
8. Work out the implications
– Functional strategies
– Timeline and milestones
– Financial projections & capital needs
– Path to profitability, sale, or other realization
of value

49. Build a Business Model Exercise
• Opportunity
• Stakeholders
• Wealth
• Strategy
• Revenue Sources
• Cost Drivers
• Investment Size
• Critical Success
Factors
•Model
-Structural implications, timing, capital
needs, etc.

50. Good Execution is More Important than
Good Strategy!
• Seeing a position or approach is
fundamentally creative
– Immersion, scenarios, future search,
• Constructing a strategy involves careful
analysis and planning
• Executing a strategy requires
relentless discipline

51. Bibliography
• Verna Allee, “Reconfiguring the Value Network,” The Journal of Business Strategy, 21 (4), PP 36-39.
• R Boulton, B Libert, S Samek, “A Business Model for the New Economy,” The Journal of Business
Strategy, 21 (4), July-August 2000, pp 29-35.
• James Collins & Jerry Porras, Built to Last (HarperBusiness, 1994).
• Richard D’Aveni, Hypercompetition (Free Press: 1994).
• Kathleen Eisenhardt & Donald Sull, “Strategy as Simple Rules,” Harvard Business Review, January
2001.
• Mark Feldman & Michael Spratt, PWC, Five Frogs on a Log: A CEO’s Guide to Accelerating the
Transition in Mergers, Acquisitions and Gut Wrenching Change, (HarperBusiness 1999).
• Craig Fleisher & Babette Bensoussan, Strategic and Competitive Analysis (Prentice Hall, 2003).
• Pankaj Ghemawat, Strategy and the Business Landscape (Prentice Hall, 2001).
• G. Hamel & C. K. Prahalad, “Strategic Intent,” Harvard Business Review, May-June 1989.
• Robert Hamilton lecture notes, 1998.
• Robert Hamilton, E. Eskin, M. Michael, "Assessing Competitors: The Gap between Strategic Intent and
Core Capability", International Journal of Strategic Management-Long Range Planning, Vol. 31, No. 3,
pp. 406-417, 1998
(more…)

52. Bibliography (continued)
• TL Hill lecture notes, 1999, 2001, 2002
• J. D. Hunger & T.L. Wheelan, Essentials of Strategic Management (Prentice Hall, 2001).
• Ivan Lansberg, Succeeding Generations (Harvard Business School Press, 2000).
• B. Mahadevan, “Business Models for Internet-based E-Commerce,” California Management Review, 42
(4), Summer 2000, pp 55-69.
• Henry Mintzberg & James Brian Quinn, Readings in the Strategy Process, 3rd Edition (Prentice Hall,
1998).
• Henry Mintzberg & Joseph Lampel, “Reflecting on the Strategy Process,” Sloan Management Review,
Spring, 1999.
• Alex Moss, Praxis Consulting presentation on worker ownership, 1999
• Sharon Oster, Modern Competitive Analysis, 2nd Edition (Oxford University Press, 1994).
• Michael Porter, Competitive Advantage (Free Press, 1985).
• Michael Porter, “What is Strategy?”, Harvard Business Review, November-December 1996.
• Jim Portwood lecture notes, 1998.
• C.K, Prahalad & G. Hamel, “The Core Competence of Corporations,” Harvard Business Review, May-
June, 1990.
• Pamela Tudor, Notes on responsibility charting, 1999
• Hamermesh, Marshall & Piromohamed, “Note on Business Model Analysis for the Entrepreneur,”
Harvard Business School, 2002.