This article is the second in a series of features covering industry specific strategic frameworking applications. Over the next few months, we will cover diverse industry sectors and will demonstrate how businesses benefit in achieving superior performance results, and in exceeding their industry average growth rate.
What is strategic frameworking ?
A strategic framework is a comprehensive architecture, which enables the design and implementation of business strategies.
What is its purpose ?
Establishing how a business’s people (individuals and teams) are connected and what activities they should focus on to achieve desired strategic outcomes.
Why is is important ?
Currently the majority of strategies fail to achieve their desired result. This is due to 4 main reasons: ineffective/absent strategy management process, poor strategy design, execution and adaptation. A strategic framework is a “must have” to effectively overcome the propensity for failure in these areas.
What makes strategic frameworking so effective is its relentless focus on segmentation to create strategy that is relevant and deliverable. Instead of starting with the conventional grand vision and mission statement, it begins by asking what is our current position as a business (in a specific market segment, product category, geography,channel) and what the final objective should be. Frameworking then enables the business teams to define a solution, develop a strategy at the lowest common denominator and through a process of iteration and continuous challenge, improves and refines them through testing.
Creating multiple segmentation will lead individuals and teams to develop iteration (prototypes) and multiply the chance of success.
The framework applied to the Animal Pharma industry
When approaching an industry sector and set-up a strategic framework, the critical framework components are the strategic dimensions, defined as strategic drivers.
At the highest level, these drivers are the strategic enablement of the business. Once put together, they define by their intrinsic nature, the strategic framework of companies.
The diagram below displays graphically the strategic framework that will allow a business in the Animal Pharma industry to optimally deliver strategies
These 6 dimensions, and subsequent sub-levels, constitute the strategic framework. The various combinations of dimensions create and organize growth segments for people connect to and focus on, to identify and deliver actions to grow the business.
To activate the framework people tasked with delivering and executing strategy need to connect effectively and this means that specific roles are required to be created in alignment with the framework.
Animal Pharma sector is highly regulated; this is why Veterinary medicines for food-producing animals require extra investment into research and development to verify both consumer safety (i.e. ensure our food is safe to eat) and environmental safety (particularly for outdoor animals).
For example, addressing (through the strategic framework) a market segment such as the Anti Microbial therapeutic class, into a species such as Poultry in the region of North America, provide people (individuals and teams) the ability to develop strategic processes and tackle (optimally) issues such as:
- new regulations on the use of antibiotics due to concerns about antibiotic resistance
- new social responsibility statements from restaurant chains for their suppliers as well as their own operations
- significant effort in feed industry/meat industry being undertaken to find substitutes for antibiotics
- alternatives to pharmaceuticals alternative production practices, disease resistant animals and probiotics.
In this contest, the R&D function responsible for renovating/developing products will have to work with managers leading a specific ‘species’ market,(eg. Poultry ), a geography (North America), a channel (grocery retail), a therapeutic class (Anti Microbial) , ensuring that the addition to the product portfolio is in line with the strategic objective (including threats), relevant to the specific dimensions of the business; as well as a route to manufacturing and supply chain to coordinate production.
In summary
Effective strategies are neither yearlong studies nor 100 page plus documents. They are living, breathing and totally dynamic, requiring individuals and teams to collaborate on a continuous basis through a formal framework.
Enable growth has extensive experience in setting-up and activating strategic frameworks. If you need us to provide you with a specific industry sector framework for your business please reach out at contact@enablegrowth.com
