Competitive Value is the cornerstone of a company's revenues and profits. The identification and implementation of a company's Competitive Value Assets are the result of company management, individual contributors, and other stakeholders performing tasks prescribed by the following Seven Steps. These steps are defined in sequential order, which means that if a change is made to one or more steps in the process then it becomes necessary to assess for possible impact and change to any step that follows. For example, if a company hires new management it must assess how their experiences and knowledge will affect existing and new strategic initiatives. Will they bring with them new ways to manage customers? | |
Will that change affect process and tool development, as well as resource/time management initiatives? Hiring new management could result in dramatically changed Competitive Value Assets. These steps are also useful to assess your business' ability to create Competitive Value (see definition at end of paper). Assessment starts with any step in the sequence, understanding that sufficient compliance with preceding steps meets requirements. The work necessary to complete any step is challenging and requires openness, honesty, patience, communication, and time. In other words, involve everyone, don't hurry, and don't loose focus of what's important – getting the right competitive value and subsequent assets for a successful business. The Seven Steps are:
Each step builds on the previous one to meet the end goal of developing a robust collection of Competitive Value Assets needed for success. The following is a brief description of each step and a short list of questions to help determine whether there's a need to start the Competitive Value creation process with that step. Step 1 – Define Business' Vision, Mission, and High Level Strategic Objectives. Step 2 – Define the Core Competencies needed to implement Vision, Mission and anticipated Competitive Value. Are the defined Core Competencies unique to the industry? Are they hard to duplicate by competitors? Have the different skills, processes, tools, and technologies that make up each Competency been identified? Have essential non-core capabilities been identified? Are today's Core Competencies going to be sufficient for the target markets of tomorrow? Step 3 – Select the Business' management and supporting teams members. Do all team members understand and share a passion for achieving the business' Vision? Do the capabilities for successful core competencies exist? How about the non-core capabilities? Are the team members adaptable to a changing competitive landscape? Are the team members self-motivated? What could happen to de-motivate them? Step 4 – Define what Customer Centricity means to the Business' success. What's stopping your worst customer from being your best customer? What's the definition of a successful customer? What about a loyal customer? What characterizes the business' most valuable customer? What makes each customer segment satisfied with the business and keeps them that way? Think in terms of "at a minimum," optimally," and "beyond expectations." Step 5 – Identify the possible opportunities for Competitive Value Assets. What makes customers successful, aside from what the business provides? What's causing them to fail? What "actionable knowledge" exists that can be used to help the business improve its ability to create and deliver value? How does the business outperform competitors who have more resources? Does a Competitive Value Index baseline exist? Step 6 – "Brainstorm" for new value initiatives (or strategic initiatives). What does the business need to improve in order to better serve the customer? What does the business need to do in order to better compete? Does the business recognize that skills, process, tools, and resource/time management activities are, indeed, value assets? What initiatives will eliminate burdensome bureaucracies? Step 7 – Add details to the strategic initiatives. Why does the business need this initiative, to compete better, improve a weakness, or satisfy a customer requirement? What are the "features" of the initiative, costs to implement, and needed sales channels? How will the initiative be implemented, resources assigned, and funding procured? Who are the beneficiaries, business "champions," and who comprises potential markets? Where does the business need the initiative implemented? When can the initiative be implemented, from the business' and the customer's perspective? Definitions
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Published: Wednesday, October 8, 2003
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