Post-Covid strategic challenge: Stability, growth

𝐂𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐝-𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐮𝐦𝐚 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐞𝐝𝐞𝐬, 𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐟𝐨𝐜𝐮𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐞: What can secure their stability and growth in our perpetually growth in our perpetually volatile marketplace? It was my privilege to provide some answers in a 2023 keynote to several hundred members of the Portland Wholesale Lumber Association. It represents a particularly complex ecosystem of mills, fabricators, traders, truckers, small businesses, conglomerates; CEO’s, CFO’s; problem solvers, geniuses in logistics and innovation. The strategic planning playbooks for competitive advantage that I provide always start with emerging marketplace dynamics that must be considered when strategizing:

• Innovations, growth opportunities, competitors, threats, and new business models– all assumed to be years away – are arriving daily. This means the destiny of every organization is speeding up. (As Justin Trudeau pointed out: “The pace of change has never been this fast, but it will never be this slow again.”) One outcome of this revolutionary pace:

• Categories are morphing, broadening, fusing, and getting confusing. It’s the result of organizations’ efforts to accelerate growth by entering new geographies and adjacent market segments, adding new services, ramping up innovation, increasing M&A and partnering activities: Whole industries are being redefined as they converge with others into something new. With this comes new competitors, the need to compete with new strategies, new value propositions. Despite the above dynamics providing rich opportunities for growth and pre-emption, most executives don’t have a strategic playbook to achieve competitive advantage. Their earnest initiatives with talent, technology, and new products are so similar to those of competitors that, at best they remain at parity with them.

• It’s never occurred to them to gain foresight on their customers’ future issues and opportunities, and in anticipating customers’ needs, beat competitors to filling them with innovative products, services, solutions; a responsive business model built to delight.

• So many executives fumble with the concept of a value proposition: They don’t know how to arrive at one that can give them an edge for several years. Even if they do, they fail to sufficiently align their team behind it.

• Few executives truly brand and market their endeavor in ways that desensitize prospects to price; ensure consideration and preference.

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭’𝐬 in 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐜 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐭𝐨 help you 𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐯𝐢𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐯𝐚𝐥𝐮𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐮𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞? Pre-emptive moves vary by category, competitive set, and company circumstance. I regularly post research insights and news of winning strategies. Not only do these have potential to give your organization an advantage, knowing them can give you a career advantage as well.

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