Strategy

Today more than ever, strategic consulting is performed before a background of expanding digital networks, borderless global markets and a volatility intensified by various influencing factors. As such, strategy should be understood from the perspective of the following quote:

“The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do.“

Michael Porter

Having used this approach to derive a strategic focus, it’s important to define a strategy that increases the value of a company by creating sustainable competitive advantages. In this context, we understand strategy as a package of modular measures that are aligned to the culture and structure of the organisation in question and contribute systematically to the achievement of strategic objectives.

Figure 1: Strategy as a package of modular measures

Against this understanding of strategy, different challenges can arise depending on the characteristics of the product, market, customer, etc. In spite of these differences, however, the associated strategic questions are similar and can be answered systematically using the corresponding methodology. Based on our project experience, our clients’ strategic requirements generally span the following six fields:

• Corporate strategy: that is, establishment of a basic, company-level strategic direction that can serve as a strategic framework for the development of business strategies, country strategies and more.
• Business model development: that is, the development of tailor-made (digital) business models for business segments selected on the basis of their market attractiveness. These take the form of both add-ons to an existing businesses and separate ventures/start-ups.
• Growth strategy: that is, the identification of potential-based growth areas and the development of corresponding growth strategies, with concrete measures and responsibilities.
• Strategic Organisational Design & Governance: with a new digitalisation strategy and a targeted adaptation of the company to the changing framework conditions, the company will be positioned more flexibly and efficiently.
• Internationalisation strategy: here, the strategic focus lies on a combination of the twin growth dimensions of “internationalisation” and “distribution channels”, giving rise to a corresponding range of growth options.
• Pricing strategy: against a backdrop of almost complete price transparency in e-commerce, a systematic multi-channel performance pricing (MCPP) strategy with a market-driven, performance-oriented condition model has proven itself as an effective approach.
• M&A: that is, analysis, evaluation and advice pertaining to inorganic growth options e.g. the targeted development of know-how, improved market access or faster market share expansion.