{"id":3192,"date":"2017-11-07T07:39:33","date_gmt":"2017-11-07T12:39:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/?p=3192"},"modified":"2017-08-09T14:54:48","modified_gmt":"2017-08-09T19:54:48","slug":"the-natural-evolution-of-things-part-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/the-natural-evolution-of-things-part-4\/","title":{"rendered":"The Natural Evolution of Things (Part 4)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor\u2019s Note: The Natural Evolution of Things is an in-depth is a 5-part series that describes 13 the catalysts of Organizational Change and Competitiveness, based on the theme of Michael Porter\u2019s Five\u00a0Forces. To read the full series, take a look at the\u00a0author\u2019s profile page found here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

* * * *<\/p>\n

Continued from part 3…<\/a><\/p>\n

Value Creation and Delivery to all Key Stakeholders Resulting in \u2018Secure\u2019 Relationships<\/h2>\n

Often we find \u2018value\u2019 being defined in a somewhat commoditized way, namely, \u2018what you get for what you pay\u2019. Or, even worse because it simply gives the illusion of true value creation, namely what is called \u2018shareholder value\u2019 \u2013 really nothing more than a code phrase for profiteering by taking advantage of all the loop holes or other possible approaches to make a \u2018buck\u2019 \u2013 to look good to the financial analysts and keep those dividends coming to stockholders stimulating investments being made in your organization.<\/p>\n

The fact is that \u2018value\u2019 is one of the most significant strategic concepts developed in the past 20 years. However, the way Insights Paradigm believes \u2018value\u2019 should be defined is different \u2013 and we think correct. We believe \u2018value is any tangible or intangible benefit which customers or other stakeholders believe the competition or other providers are either unwilling or unable to provide<\/em><\/strong>\u2019. As such, \u2018value\u2019 is an immediate source of differentiation and competitive advantage for your organization<\/em><\/strong>. There are at least 9 sources of value<\/em><\/strong> an organization can provide to key stakeholders, yet the vast majority of organizations only focus on 2-3 of them and don\u2019t do a particularly good job on those. In our minds, this is a tremendous underutilized capability which could lead to not only significantly greater competitiveness but also greater profitable growth if properly developed.<\/p>\n

Those that succeed in creating and delivering value in a broader range of areas are able to build \u2018secure<\/em><\/strong>\u2019 relationships<\/em><\/strong> with their key stakeholders. Having \u2018secure\u2019 relationships with key stakeholders also provides greater stability<\/em><\/strong> in times of changes as well as greater profitability. By \u2018secure\u2019 we mean that these stakeholders would not terminate their relationship with you even if a gun was held to their head. Unfortunately, in many organizations less than 10% of the customer base is \u2018secure\u2019<\/em><\/strong>. The other implication is that to be \u2018secure\u2019 you must also be viewed by the stakeholder as one or more of the following: solutions provider; trusted advisor; business partner; or valuable resource<\/em><\/strong>. How many of your stakeholder relationships are secure?<\/p>\n

Core and Organizational Competencies<\/h2>\n

Discussions of core competencies was all the rage back in the 80\u2019s and 90\u2019s and rightfully so. Core competencies are those critical capabilities which enable you to produce the products and services you offer in the market. For example, with Honda, it is their capability to build highly efficient small engines. For Sony as mentioned above it is miniturisation. From time to time, organizations must make the decision to invest in developing their existing core competencies to a higher level to make their organization more competitive long-term or to acquire or merge with other organizations that either also have that core competencies or new ones they see will be needed in the future for success and greater competitiveness. For one of the best discussions on core competencies see Hamel and Prahalad, \u2018Competing for the Future\u2019, 1996.<\/p>\n

But what are organizational competencies<\/em><\/strong>? They are softer competencies \u2013 not hard technical competencies as is often the case, but not always, with core competencies. These organizational competencies are what you might almost refer to a cultural competencies<\/em><\/strong> such as innovation, agility, customer & market focus<\/em><\/strong> and so. Again using our research base, during interviews with CEO\u2019s and Managing Directors Insights Paradigm has was told that these types of organizational competencies are absolutely essential to success<\/em><\/strong>. These are competencies \u2013 capabilities which are literally woven into the fabric of your organization\u2019s culture and strengthen it<\/em><\/strong>. They can make all the difference in terms of making your organization more competitive or not. Do you know your organizational competencies? How strong are they? If you wanted to create a culture of innovation, for example, how would you do it?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Disruptive Entrants with Blue Ocean Strategies<\/h2>\n

The fact of the matter today is that if an organization decides to enter your industry, they are more and more likely to do so by following a totally nontraditional path \u2013 a disruptive path based on a blue ocean strategy which could well end up redefining your industry and the way you will have to do business in the future if you want to survive. Or, they will introduce a totally new product as Apple is famous for with their \u2018iPad\u2019 and create a new market\/industry niche.<\/p>\n

Here is where \u2018agility<\/em><\/strong>\u2019 is a critical success factor for you along with those issues discussed earlier in this document such as a world-class \u2018sensing\u2019 system<\/em><\/strong>. Here too is where you will have to unlock the creativity <\/em><\/strong>of your organization as never before as through such innovations as Creativity Labs<\/em><\/strong> which Insights Paradigm has developed and received testimonials on as to how we have easily and in a very short period of time been able to transform even low performers into superstars!<\/p>\n

The clock is ticking. You have to at least get ahead of your standard competition in getting to new solutions, new ways of doing business as well as new products and services as appropriate. Otherwise, your competitiveness will decline significantly \u2013 something you can\u2019t afford to let happen.<\/p>\n

Possibly you may even consider establishing a \u2018skunk works\u2019 to develop your own counter blue ocean strategy. See \u2018Blue Ocean Strategy\u2019 by Kim and Mauborgne from INSEAD Business School for more details.<\/p>\n

Level of Volatility (rapid or unexpected) in you Operating Environment versus Organizational Resiliency<\/h2>\n

Take a quick look at the following diagramme. This is a simplified perspective, but it makes the key point we wish to leave you with:<\/p>\n

\"bos\"<\/p>\n

Here we look only at technology and market conditions. The questions are shown on the chart. Where is your organization today? How fast is your operating environment changing? Where will you be 18 month to 3 years from now? The fact of the matter is, like it or not, every organization on the planet is gradually \u2013 some more suddenly \u2013 moving toward the most uncomfortable box in this matrix where everything is changing at a rapid pace.<\/p>\n

When Insights Paradigm talks about resiliency<\/em><\/strong>, we mean how well and how fast is your organization able to absorb shocks or stresses which impact performance and competitiveness and then get back to what you consider a normal level of performance.<\/em><\/strong> That recovery capability<\/em><\/strong> is critical. How good is yours?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editor\u2019s Note: The Natural Evolution of Things is an in-depth is a 5-part series that describes 13 the catalysts of Organizational Change and Competitiveness, based on the theme of Michael Porter\u2019s Five\u00a0Forces. To read the full series, take a look at the\u00a0author\u2019s profile page found here. * * * * Continued from part 3… Value… The Natural Evolution of Things (Part 4)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":100,"featured_media":3193,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[85,81],"tags":[54,603],"class_list":["post-3192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-organization","category-strategy","tag-blue-ocean-strategy","tag-organizational-change"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/100"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3192"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3192\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3197,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3192\/revisions\/3197"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}