Strategy for the People
When a strategy is articulated from the customers perspective
- The customers understand what they are buying and why
- The employees understand what the business must deliver
There are only five dimensions in any customer’s worldview:
Customers recognise and trust a business which is focused on
- one primary dimension – where they always excel
- one secondary dimension – where they typically outperform their competitors
They expect at least average performance on the other dimensions.
An attempt to excel in multiple dimensions will confuse both customers and employees.
Examples of companies who have a clear SHAPE their customers understand are:
Ritz-Carlton, Walmart, Amazon, Apple, and Disney. Their SHAPES are clear
Once the strategic SHAPE is determined, deploy other strategic frameworks as required to achieve it. Using other frameworks to develop the strategy ─ like Porter’s Five Forces, McKinsey’s Seven S’s, or the BCG Matrix ─ does make sense. But SHAPE provides context and makes the strategy understandable to employees and customers.