MAY 2015 / NO. 1
TAGS: CONTRARIANS, CESARE MAINARDI, AMAZON, APPLE, IKEA, HAIER, NATURE, STARBUCKS, AGILE, WAR-MAPPING

Contrarians are some kind of fools

“Contrarians are some kind of fools, colorful people, both loved and feared, because of their message and their stand against the obvious trends”
The majority of leaders in our organizations and in politics do not like these contrarians. However, we desperately need such people in our organizations. It is interesting to see Cesare Mainardi’s research on ‘losers’ and ‘winners’ such as Amazon, Apple, IKEA, Haier, Natura and Starbucks.
One of their strengths is agility, another is being proactive. However, five ‘unconventional acts’ in particular make these companies both capable and successful.
The five unconventional acts are:
  1. They stay true to who they are: they commit to an identity and play the strategy long game
  2. They get out in front and shape what their customers want: without assiduous consumer research, but anticipating customer desires and creating demand
  3. They translate their strategic intent into the everyday: they build the capabilities that matter most and execute relentlessly and flawlessly
  4. They put their culture to work: they celebrate what is already great about their culture
  5. They cut costs to grow stronger: they treat expenses as investments, doubling down on the capabilities that matter most in bringing value to the market
So, if you stay true to your identity, are aware of your unique strengths and where your capabilities add the most value over time, you won’t only be agile, but ‘smart too’.

Strategic war-gaming

To find out your organization’s five unconventional acts you might consider running a strategic war game. This is a great management tool to challenge assumptions, trends and the biases of senior management. In May 2014, we ran such a strategic war game for a Dutch multinational. The objective was to gain maximum insight, foresight and vision from four different, multidisciplinary and competitive teams, to prepare for a new product launch in an unconventional segment of the market. It is always amazing to see how much can be accomplished in just one day by using structured analysis tools such as ‘five-corner analysis’ and ‘where-to-play’ and ‘how-to-win’ strategy formats. At the end of the day the project director stated “why didn’t we do this ten months ago?”
“Strategic intelligence is an inescapable part of every strategic decision we make in business today”
Dont miss out on our Intelligence Briefings. Subscribe to these free Intelligence Briefings by clicking HERE.
If you like to read our previously published Intelligence Briefings, please click here.