In my earlier post we discussed the first 3 out of 10 critical questions that have to be answered by business executives in formulating strategy. Let us consider the next five out of the set of questions;

What are my competitors doing?
At the heart of strategizing is the quest to find a path towards business success and sustainability. For businesses to be sustainable however, they have to attempt to be different. A business cannot be different without knowing what other businesses are doing. Suppose a company seeks to operate a super market in an area that has other supermarkets. One of the first things the new company must do is to conduct a survey of existing supermarkets in order to fashion out ways to operate a bit differently. If most of the existing supermarkets have little parking, the new entrant can offer bigger parking space.
If one or two of the existing supermarkets are dominant, the new entrant can study their operations and talk to some of their customers to establish the reasons for dominance. Only then can the new entrant take meaningful decisions based on the key drivers of success in that industry.

What are the trends in my industry and in the economy generally?
A trend is a shift in behavior based on social, political, economic, regulatory or technological disruptions. Although trends can occur at the national level, industry trends also exist and can be informed by customer purchasing behavior, price, manufacturing, marketing etc. Customer behavior is the ultimate driver of the trends that affect businesses because customers respond to all manner of shifts both locally and nationally. For example,
The shift from VCR tapes to DVD was a response to customer desire for new media
A shift towards higher safety standards in vehicles has been driven largely by government regulation
A trend towards the use of recycled material by manufacturers has been driven largely by public demand
The customer trend of enjoying communication and entertainment on the go has been at the heart of the cell phone mega trend
When business executives strategize, they have to analyze emerging trends and either amend their business models or shift their focus to areas they have not considered in the past. When companies ignore major trends, they lose out on market-share as their competitors that monitor and respond to trends rapidly take-up market share and expand in influence and profits.

What is my unique offering?
If there was one thing and one thing only to do in strategizing, it is to determine a unique offering that attracts a large number of customers. The quest for uniqueness is what drives strategy but being meaningfully unique is not very simple. Broadly speaking, uniqueness can exist in almost all the dimensions of the 7P’s in marketing;
Uniqueness in a product or service type or design
Uniqueness in the price
Uniqueness in distribution
Uniqueness in the service delivery of the product or service (which covers people, physical evidence and process)
Choosing which of these dimensions to pursue will largely be determined by competition and customer preference.
Remember, whatever is chosen as a unique offering today, can be commonplace tomorrow. This means the quest for uniqueness is a never-ending quest in business.

How can I capture my offering in a compelling manner?
A local bank in Ghana at the turn of the new century adopted a compelling tagline that revolutionized the banking industry. UT Bank had operated as a Savings and Loans company for several years and had discovered that the main dissatisfaction of the bank customer was the time it took to process loans. The tagline “a loan in 48 hours” is one of the most-effective taglines I have seen in the market.
Whatever the uniqueness, capturing it in a compelling manner will attract customers.

How will I communicate the strategy to all employees?
The job of the business executive is to communicate. Whatever strategy is adopted, if it cannot be communicated in a few sentences, it cannot be potent. Employees are the implementers of strategy and it behooves on business executives to crystalize and communicate the strategic intent of the company to all employees in a few paragraphs.