Nine Key Strategies for Going Beyond Great

TO THRIVE in a new, more tumultuous era of social tension, economic nationalism, and technological revolution, you need to go beyond great. Great is no longer good enough.

In Beyond Great, three partners from the Boston Consulting Group—Arindam Bhattacharya, Nickolaus Lang, and Jim Hemerling—make the point hat being great is no longer good enough to succeed when the very notion of outstanding business performance is being reinvented.

There are three fundamental forces that are transforming the nature of global businesses. First is the interrelated tension created by the “worsening of the strain on our natural ecosystem and the rising discontent with capitalism and the resulting inequality.” Second is “rising economic nationalism and the ongoing erosion of U.S. hegemony.” And third is “a technological revolution fueled by the exponential growth of global data and digital technologies.”

With this in mind, they offer a new standard of performance defined by nine key strategies in three areas—growth, operation, and organization.

Growing Beyond: Redefine What Great Growth Looks Like

Strategy #1: Do Good, Grow Beyond

Reimagine core operations to deliver societal impact and hence long-term, sustained total shareholder returns rather than regarding social impact as an activity apart from the core. Firms that can thoughtfully integrate doing good into their strategies and operations will deliver sustained high shareholder returns while positively impacting all stakeholders.

Strategy #2: Stream It, Don’t Ship It

Offer compelling digital solutions and experiences, not just physical products or services. Today’s leading-edge companies are taking complete ownership of outcomes and experiences for customers. Leveraging digital technologies, they’re going deep into the usage life cycle to fulfill unmet needs, either grafting new solutions onto physical products and services or replacing physical products and services entirely.

Strategy #3: Refine Your Global Game

Grow selectively (that is, where they can claim profitable market share) and in ways suitable for the local environment, not everywhere all at once. Leading-edge firms are using asset-light, digital, or e-commerce-centric business models to enter into new markets and expand rapidly. They’re also becoming more selective about which markets to enter and paradoxically deepening their reengagement in their chosen markets.

Operating Beyond: Rethink How Their Companies Operate

Strategy #4: Engineer an Ecosystem

In addition to conventional supply chains, many global companies are forming digital ecosystems as new-age value networks to create and deliver solutions, outcomes, and experiences that customers crave. But as leading-edge companies are discovering, some ecosystems work better than others.

Strategy #5: Flex How You Make It

Invest in high-tech, multilocal factories and delivery centers that, combined with low-cost capabilities, can deliver customized offerings fast. Today’s delivery models must be high speed, responsive, and resilient in the face of disruption, in addition to low cost.

Strategy #6: Let the Data Run Through It

Build a global data architecture and analytical capabilities to underpin the other eight strategies. Leading-edge companies regard global data as the precious fuel that not only predicts future performance or consumer behavior but also drives winning value propositions.

Organizing Beyond: Constantly Reinvent How Their Company Is Organized

Strategy #7: Get Focused, Fast, and Flat

Move away from the traditional matrix organizational model in favor of agile customer-focused teams supported by platform capabilities. Bureaucracy and distance from the customer are death in an age of volatility—and today’s leading-edge firms know it.

Strategy #8: Thrive with Talent

Acquire, retrain, inspire, and empower a digitally savvy, engaged workforce. Companies today must attend more closely to what a new generation of employees wants and needs. They must fundamentally shift how they find, inspire, and develop a twenty-first-century workforce.

Strategy #9: Embrace Always-On Transformation

Embrace always-on transformation instead of traditional one-and-done change initiatives. This strategy is essential for succeeding with the other eight. To compete and win in volatile, rapidly evolving business environments, global companies must become adept at pursuing multiple transformations on an ongoing basis.

Each chapter concludes with advice for leaders and a helpful section on key insights. What all of this demands of a leader, aligns with what you’ll find elsewhere on this website: lead with conviction, be open-minded, elevate and embed a continuous learning mindset, embrace transformational leadership, and develop the ability to navigate through ambiguity, tension, and paradox.

* * *
Like us on Instagram and Facebook for additional leadership and personal development ideas.

* * *

 

Posted by Michael McKinney at 09:18 AM
Permalink | Comments (0) | This post is about General Business