Connected Strategy

Business Models for Transforming Customer Relationships What if there were a way to turn occasional, sporadic transactions with customers into long-term, continuous relationships--while simultaneously driving dramatic improvements in operational efficiency? What if you could break your existing trade-offs between superior customer experience and low cost? This is the promise of a connected strategy. New forms of connectivity--involving frequent, low-friction, customized interactions--mean that companies can now anticipate customer needs as they arise, or even before. Simultaneously, enabled by these technologies, companies can create new business models that deliver more value to customers. Connected strategies are win-win: Customers get a dramatically improved experience, while companies boost operational efficiency. In this book, strategy and operations experts Nicolaj Siggelkow and Christian Terwiesch reveal the emergence of connected strategies as a new source of competitive advantage. With in-depth examples from companies operating in industries such as healthcare, financial services, mobility, retail, entertainment, nonprofit, and education, Connected Strategy identifies the four pathways--respond-to-desire, curated offering, coach behavior, and automatic execution--for turning episodic interactions into continuous relationships. The authors show how each pathway creates a competitive advantage, then guide you through the critical decisions for creating and implementing your own connected strategies. Whether you're trying to revitalize strategy in an established company or disrupt an industry as a startup, this book will help you: Reshape your connections with your customers Find new ways to connect with existing suppliers while also activating new sources of capacity Create the right revenue model Make the best technology choices to support your strategy Integrating rich examples, how-to advice, and practical tools in the form of "workshop chapters" throughout, this book is the ultimate resource for creating competitive advantage through connected relationships with your customers and redefined connections in your industry.

The Internet of Things, robo investment advisers, wearable fitness devices, remote health care operations . . . business executives in many industries are currently being inundated with a confusingly and exhaustingly broad range of technological developments that enable new business models. There is, however, a common thread among all of these developments: firms are fundamentally changing how they connect with their customers. Rather than having occasional, episodic interactions--where customers realize they have an unmet need and then look for ways to fill it--firms are striving to be continuously connected to their customers, providing services and products as the needs arise, even before customers become aware of them. Firms such as Nike, Disney, Progressive Insurance, McGraw-Hill Higher Education, Medtronic, Hewlett-Packard, and Tesco are developing and competing on connected strategies: creating superior customer experiences through connectivity while simultaneously driving dramatic improvements in operational efficiencies and reshaping their industries. Strategy and operations experts Nicolaj Siggelkow and Christian Terwiesch reveal the emergence of connected strategies across a broad array of industries and show how these strategies work, how they eliminate the trade-off between superior customer experience and low cost, and how companies can formulate, design, and implement them. In showing how to create a connected strategy, the authors reveal the four pathways--respond-to-desire, curated offerings, coaching, and automatic execution--for turning occasional, episodic interactions into continuous relationships. Siggelkow and Terwiesch show you how to:

Global Strategy: Competing in the Connected Economy details how firms enter, compete and grow in foreign markets. Jain moves away from the traditional focus on developed countries and their multinational enterprises, instead focusing on both developed and emerging economies, as well as their interaction in an increasingly connected world. As the current global business environment is increasingly shaped—and connected—by faster technological developments, geopolitical forces, emerging economies, and new multinationals from those economies, this highly charged dynamic provides rich opportunity to revisit mainstream paradigms in globalization, innovation, and global strategy. The book rises to the challenge, exploring new competitive phenomena, new business models, and new strategies. Rich illustrations, real-world examples, and case data, provide students and executives with the insights necessary to connect, compete, and grow in a globalized business environment. This bold book succinctly covers strategy models and implementation for a range of global players, providing students of strategy and international business with a rich understanding of the contemporary business environment. For access to additional materials, including Powerpoint slides, a list of suggested cases, and sample syllabus, please contact Vinod Jain ([email protected]).

Reputation management techniques that work amidst the unceasing flow of information Reputation Strategy and Analytics in a Hyper-Connected World is a complete guide to corporate communications and reputation management. Covering a range of scenarios from ideal to catastrophic, this book provides a clear blueprint for preparation, execution, and beyond. The discussion focuses on data-driven, evidence-based strategies for the modern digital economy, providing actionable frameworks, practical roadmaps, and step-by-step blueprints for deploying advance analytics, predictive modeling, and big data techniques to successfully manage communications and reputation. You'll learn how the right tools and people get the job done quickly, effectively, and cost-effectively, and how to identify and acquire the ones you need. Coverage includes the latest technology and cutting-edge applications, bringing you up to speed on what excellence in communications can realistically be. We live in an age of interconnectedness and transparency, and information travels at the speed of light to reach nearly every corner of the globe. This book shows you the key strategies and operational tactics required to respond successfully to financially damaging assaults on your company's reputation. Execute world-class corporate communications Prepare for best- and worst-possible case scenarios Manage organizational reputation in the digital economy Pick the right team and the right tools to get the job done Stories, rumors, lies — there is no safe haven. Big data, cloud, and mobile technologies are fueling a perfect storm of immense proportions, overwhelming the capabilities of organizations and individuals attempting to manage their brands and reputations when hit with damaging information or harmful stories. Reputation Strategy and Analytics in a Hyper-Connected World shows you navigate the never-ending information stream to keep your company out of the undertow.

Good Strategy/Bad Strategy clarifies the muddled thinking underlying too many strategies and provides a clear way to create and implement a powerful action-oriented strategy for the real world. Developing and implementing a strategy is the central task of a leader. A good strategy is a specific and coherent response to—and approach for—overcoming the obstacles to progress. A good strategy works by harnessing and applying power where it will have the greatest effect. Yet, Rumelt shows that there has been a growing and unfortunate tendency to equate Mom-and-apple-pie values, fluffy packages of buzzwords, motivational slogans, and financial goals with “strategy.” In Good Strategy/Bad Strategy, he debunks these elements of “bad strategy” and awakens an understanding of the power of a “good strategy.” He introduces nine sources of power—ranging from using leverage to effectively focusing on growth—that are eye-opening yet pragmatic tools that can easily be put to work on Monday morning, and uses fascinating examples from business, nonprofit, and military affairs to bring its original and pragmatic ideas to life. The detailed examples range from Apple to General Motors, from the two Iraq wars to Afghanistan, from a small local market to Wal-Mart, from Nvidia to Silicon Graphics, from the Getty Trust to the Los Angeles Unified School District, from Cisco Systems to Paccar, and from Global Crossing to the 2007–08 financial crisis. Reflecting an astonishing grasp and integration of economics, finance, technology, history, and the brilliance and foibles of the human character, Good Strategy/Bad Strategy stems from Rumelt’s decades of digging beyond the superficial to address hard questions with honesty and integrity.

If you've been asked to get funding for a content strategy initiative and need to build a compelling business case, if you've been approached by your staff to implement a content strategy and want to know the business benefits, or if you've been asked to sponsor a content strategy project and don't know what one is, this book is for you. Rahel Anne Bailie and Noz Urbina come from distinctly different backgrounds, but they share a deep understanding of how to help your organization build a content strategy. Content Strategy: Connecting the dots between business, brand, and benefits is the first content strategy book that focuses on project managers, department heads, and other decision makers who need to know about content strategy. It provides practical advice on how to sell, create, implement, and maintain a content strategy, including case studies that show both successful and not so successful efforts. Inside the Book Introduction to Content Strategy Why Content Strategy and Why Now The Value and ROI of Content Content Under the Hood Developing a Content Strategy Glossary, Bibliography, and Index

Shelving Guide: Business and Management / Strategic Planning / Leadership / Operations Culture, Strategy, Execution. These three components forge the path to realized potential. The Blendification® System breaks down and rebuilds these core concepts within your company's DNA, setting the foundation for an energizing, engaging, and impactful organization. It is based on the belief that many organizations fail to maximize their potential because they simply do not comprehend the magnitude of their personal and collective untapped capabilities. Many workplaces are stuck in "second gear," not quite embracing and pursuing their full potential. Corporate missions are based on market dominance and incremental profit growth, leaving a massive blind spot in terms of the connection between employees, customers, and communities. This short-sightedness may provide a clear focal point, but it leaves the company, its leadership, and its employees with limited sustained motivation to realize potential. The Blendification® System embraces the connection between culture, strategy, and execution using the Strategy Whiteboard and integrating emotional and system intelligence into the following three-step model: Strategic Analysis including Culture Strategic Focus, Strategic Outcomes, and Strategic Actions Strategic Execution The Blendification® System connects culture, strategy, and execution in a meaningful way that fosters an inspired, exceptional workforce. By focusing on the unifying purpose within each organization, the platform promotes alignment between leadership and employees setting a clear, strong foundation in which every individual can thrive. With this foundation in place, organizations activate their employee's potential who then take care of their customers. By fully engaging those with whom organizations directly interact, these individuals then become the spark that ignites community-wide advancement. This is not a theory-based, philosophical book. This is an in-depth operating system by which organizations reshape their infrastructure to realize potential. The methodology outlined in The Blendification® System creates agile and efficient action, maximizing success in periods of economic expansion and times of uncertainty such as the COVID-19 outbreak, the Great Recession, and 9/11. By following the structure outlined in The Blendification® System and using the Strategy Whiteboard, organizations will move beyond financial success to uplifting employees, customers, and entire communities.

How to close the gap between strategy and execution Two-thirds of executives say their organizations don’t have the capabilities to support their strategy. In Strategy That Works, Paul Leinwand and Cesare Mainardi explain why. They identify conventional business practices that unintentionally create a gap between strategy and execution. And they show how some of the best companies in the world consistently leap ahead of their competitors. Based on new research, the authors reveal five practices for connecting strategy and execution used by highly successful enterprises such as IKEA, Natura, Danaher, Haier, and Lego. These companies: • Commit to what they do best instead of chasing multiple opportunities • Build their own unique winning capabilities instead of copying others • Put their culture to work instead of struggling to change it • Invest where it matters instead of going lean across the board • Shape the future instead of reacting to it Packed with tools you can use for building these five practices into your organization and supported by in-depth profiles of companies that are known for making their strategy work, this is your guide for reconnecting strategy to execution.