1. Executive Strategy
Breakfast: The Future of
Strategy
Meeting 10: 26th September 2015
Location: Eindhoven, NL
Executive Summary
At the first executive meeting hosted in Eindhoven,
Netherlands, BMGI was delighted to bring together local
executives to explore their concerns and ideas around the
future of strategy. Set in a region known more for industrial
businesses, start-ups and tech companies, the meeting
naturally turned to innovation. Attendees discussed the most
essential elements of a successful strategy. The following
summarizes several takeaways from the discussion and also
identifies starting points for future discussions.
Section1: What Is Good Strategy?
Defining the Fundamental Elements for Successful Strategy
Much of the meeting was spent on sharing ideas and experiences around the bedrock of a successful
strategy. Recognizing that what suits one business would not be right for another, the discussions sought
to find commonalities. What are the key elements needed in order to bring about the desired results?
#1: Have a clear vision statement
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Breakfast Meeting Hosted by:
Tom Jones, MD Europe
Michel Rooyen, Business Development
Ted Lemmers, Senior Client Partner
All successful strategies “start with the end in mind.” What is the desired
outcome for the business? What does the organization want to be? What
does the customer want? What is the Job To Be Done? Creating this clear
vision provides a guiding compass that is essential to success and growth. A
well-crafted vision also provides consistency in both strategy and
management. How you achieve a vision may change, but the direction needs
to be constant. This does not mean that strategy goes in a straight line. In
fact, non-linear successes and failures are a natural part of the learning and
growth process. Organizations need to know where they are going, but they
must be flexible in how they get there. As discussed in previous meetings,
organizations must balance agility with strategic direction.

2. #2: Be clear on your company positioning
Positioning is another key element to shaping strategy.
Positioning stems from the vision statement and helps
organizations to define and make decisions more clearly around
exactly what they want to be as well as what they do not want
to be relative to the market. The strategy should then be aligned
to deliver on that. The mistake that many strategies make is
assuming that being the market leader is the best position. This
can be a successful strategy, but it is not the only strategy. An
equally good strategy, for example, could be that of “fast follower” or “leader follower.” This point was
demonstrated using the real-world example of tablet technology. Apple invested millions in developing,
launching and marketing the first widely successful tablet. Samsung, in comparison, acted as a fast
follower, copying the Apple technology and launching its own version. Their strategy was to leverage their
experience in technology development to replicate at a lower cost and then fight for market share. Both
companies are now equally successful in the space. Based on deliberate choices in strategy, they each were
able to align their positioning to the most successful outcome.
#3: Match your strategy to your company culture
When we look to examples of successful strategy, we see both top-down and
bottom-up approaches. A certain element of strategy will always be the role of
the top-level executives but how this is managed, expanded and implemented
can change radically depending on the company culture. Neither is right or
wrong; however, attendees agreed that the approach taken needs to be aligned
with the core culture of the organization to be sustainable. Amazon, for
instance, is well-known for its bottom-up entrepreneurial approach in which
everyone has the ability to contribute to the strategy at their level. In
comparison, Toyota operates in a top-down environment, with strategy disseminated more as instructions.
The success of each business shows that both approaches work, but logic points to the fact that if you
swapped the two approaches in each company then the effects could be disastrous. In order to be
successful in achieving a strategy, businesses need to manage strategy based on their cultural and
organizational frameworks.
#4: Leadership makes all the difference
Without leadership commitment and alignment, strategy—even
good strategy—is just words on paper. Leadership must remain
consistent in its message and approach rather than changing
every couple years based on a new fad or change in leadership. A
number of meeting participants recollected changes in
management that resulted in changes in strategy because new
leaders wanted to make their mark. Such changes are more
disruptive than helpful in driving strategic results.
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#5: Strategy should be breakthrough
Strategy is not business as usual; it is about challenging the business to
move forward. A strategy of “we are going to keep doing what we are
doing” is not a strategy; it is an operational management plan. Attendees
agreed this is a mistake many businesses make. When forming a strategy,
executives need to ask themselves: Where does this strategy take us? Is it a
game changer? If the answer is no, then it is likely that a competitor will
disrupt your business or that the business will not be able to sustain itself.
#6: Strategy needs to be self-made
Strategy is not something you can take out of a box and implement.
Nor is it something that someone else can create for your business.
Strategy needs to be unique to the business and this can only be
created by those who work in the business day-in and day-out. This
sounds obvious but attendees noted that many companies
outsource too much of their strategy or simply seek to emulate
their competitor’s strategy rather than drive a unique
breakthrough strategy from within. Instead, organizations must
invest in its leadership and skill sets for strategy creation,
development and execution. Building this capability takes time, but it is fundamental to the sustained
growth of a business.
#7: Build muscle for sustainable transformation
Another essential element of successful strategy is building the systems,
processes and operations that allow an organization to deliver effectively over
time. An analogy is to liken strategy to a muscle in the body. Like successful
athletes who need to build muscle to become stronger, organizations must build
the framework that will enable it to sustain its strategy and withstand
unforeseen challenges.
#8: Make sure it is measurable to be manageable
To say a strategy is good or successful, you need to be able to identify and measure
success. Success will mean different things to different organizations and people—and
this needs to be identified early and broken down into clear objectives (annual,
monthly, etc.) that can be measured and monitored. These objectives need to be
aligned and cascaded throughout the organization (Hoshin Planning is a good way of
doing this). Without this definition of success, and the translation into objectives, an
organization will end up doing and measuring the wrong things.
#9: Learn as you go
Balancing long-term objectives with short-term wins and results is another essential element. Big
objectives need to be broken down into shorter term priorities that can demonstrate progress and allow

4. the organization to make mistakes and refine as needed. Although
sometimes in business this can feel like two steps forward, one step
back, this process is fundamental to a learning organization. It is
these small steps that solidify the thinking and the growth for the
future. When it comes to strategy, organizations often have to learn
as they go and not be afraid to fail—just fail quickly and learn from
the mistakes.
These nine factors sound simple but are often hard to realize. They are contingent on people, skills and
external factors that cannot be fixed through some magic formula. However, clever organizations should
invest in ensuring these foundations are in place in order to make strategy sustainable.
Section 2: Innovation
What Role Does Innovation Play in Strategy?
Innovation is a topic that has been discussed at length in many previous breakfasts. Building on this, the
following section looks at how strategy and innovation are interconnected within organizations today.
Innovation is not strategy, nor is strategy innovation. However, since this meeting was focused on strategy,
the assumption for the following conversations was that innovation is core to strategy, or at least an
element that all attendees included within their approach to strategy. Within this context, innovation is not
just new product innovation but can also be taking existing products and marketing them differently or
innovating processes that will enable the business to deliver in a more competitive way. The following
discussions sought to explore this wider concept of innovation, its role within strategy and how it can be
successfully promoted in different organizations. This section will be discussed in more detail in the new
year as part of a dedicated meeting on Innovation and Strategy.
Innovation and company culture: Different approaches to innovation
As outlined in section one, positioning and company culture is a
fundamental part of strategy but it also holds implications more
specifically for the approach to innovation. A culture of a company will
influence the style of innovation that will work best for that business.
Company cultures are also reflected internationally with intercultural
preferences for style and approach to innovation, for instance preferences
for risk taking or automony. An understanding of cultural differences when
it comes to theorising innovation is important in order to decide the right
approach to take to sustain innovation within an organization.
Are creativity and innovation the same thing?
One ongoing argument surrounding innovation is about the boundaries of process structure and
improvement on one hand, and creativity and innovation on the other. The 3M decision to axe Lean Six
Sigma because of a perceived hindrance to innovation is well-known and well-debated. With many
participants experienced in structured product/process design and Lean Six Sigma, attendees discussed the
legitimacy of this claim.
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5. Attendees agreed that intially innovation and systematic improvement methods such as Lean Six Sigma
seemed in conflict, but that this was in fact not the case. The problem arises when companies view
innovation as just creativity. On the contrary, structure and rigorous quality and problem solving
methodologies can aid innovation, giving a support framework to turn ideas into functional reality. This is
especially true in the development and commercialisation stages of the R&D cycle. At the beginning of the
innovation process, creativity is paramount, but later on—in design to deployment—stringent tools need
to be used to aid in the success of an innovation. It is at this stage that concepts like value engineering,
Design for Six Sigma and customer requirement management become key to the success of an innovation.
A more detailed theory and analysis of different approaches to innovation can be found by referencing the
Kirton Adaption-Innovation Theory (KAI).
Innovation and speed of adoption
As noted in the section on strategy, being a fast follower or leader follower is a prime strategic position for
many businesses. This places a different emphasis on innovation and requires a different skill set. Instead
of favouring creativity, this innovation skill set is focused on the speed of adoption and how quickly new
product ideas can be brought to market. The competitive edge for businesses competing in this space is
not whose product is more innovative but who can bring an equally good product to market the fastest
and at the lowest cost. The gap between the first to market and the hundreds of replicates is very small—
the benefits of being second or third to market can be huge but they need to be timed right. Businesses
looking to compete in this market need to focus on efficiency of product development and production.
Meeting Conclusion
A good strategy for one business may not be a good strategy for another business. Organizations need to
find out what works best for them based on an understanding of the essential elements of what makes a
successful strategy. There is always more than one way to get to the end goal. Companies need to
experiment and learn from their mistakes. Strategy is evolutionary, but the key thing is to just get started
and not be afraid to learn as you go. The best strategic insights will come along the way.
For further information about the authors and future events, please contact:
Megan James, Marketing & Operations Europe, BMGI
Email: info.eu@bmgi.com | Tel: +44(0)7788292824
BMGI is a consulting firm focusing on Strategy, Innovation,
Operational Excellence and Change Management. Since 1999,
BMGI has been providing people-driven solutions to help
organizations build their problem solving capabilities, improve
operations and grow their business. With 16 offices worldwide,
BMGI delivers services in multiple languages and with a
mastery of many local cultures. BMGI’s clients, spread across more than 20 countries, include Consumers
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more information, please visit www.bmgi.com and www.bmgi.org.
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