Versatile Amphibian

Yesterday’s news cycle brought with it the announcement that Debenhams, a staple of the UK high street, was now in the control of its lenders . This kind of news is sad for the employees of Debenhams and certainly for its shareholders, but it is also a good opportunity for reflection. A business that can trace its history back to 1778 may be about to cease trading forever. For leaders in the retail and associated consumer industries, now is a good time to consider what lessons can be learnt from Debenhams and what could be done to seize the opportunity presented by its passing. I’m thinking about the topic of strategic responses to emerging events at the moment because of the seeming inevitability of a recession this year or next, which will doubtless bring with it many similar situations. Before I get started, a disclaimer. I have no inside knowledge of Debenhams, I have never consulted for them, pitched to them or even met anyone in their management team. This post uses Debenham...

I'm on a bit of a journey right now, the objective of which is to systematise my process for devising strategic concepts to suit all of the situations my clients find them in. To that end, I'm going to share one of the ideas in the book : that we can classify concepts using a matrix of purpose/ intent against nature of response. Like so: Purpose (or intent) is the principal axis of this matrix because it articulates the sentiment behind the organisation’s goals Defensive purpose is most common in that it represents a defence of the oligarchy in order to continue to extract increasing profits from falling utility Offensive purpose is more attractive but also riskier because it represents the taking of value from other sources in the economy through acquisition or aggressive entry into other geographic markets In both purposes one can choose to be orthodox (as stated in the above examples) or unorthodox; for example: To defend by extending ubiquity and thus...

I recently made this graphic for a presentation and thought it was worth sharing as a reminder that for all of the talk of 'exponential technologies' and innovation, most 'digital' businesses are actually quite simple. Leaders are under pressure to do crazy digital things, particularly with respect to technology, and yet I would contend that getting to the best in class technology and operating (organisational etc...) infrastructure for the business model you are currently working with or striving for would be a better basis for lasting growth. Boring as it sounds, that means ERP, WMS systems if you're pre-digital; CRM, CMS at al if you're 1st Wave; event streaming and simulation if you're 2nd Wave... and if you're 3rd Wave you don't need my advice! The other observation I have about this picture is that every wave comes with a deeper, but also leaner and more productive operational stack that benefits it in competition with the previous wave. ...