22 COVER VERNE HARNISH STORY
SPRING 2018
" Articulating a clear and differentiated strategy, supported by a strong core culture that can deliver on the brand’ s promises, is the key for any company wanting to scale up."
STRATEGY
Can you state your firm’ s strategy simply— and is it driving sustainable growth in revenue and gross margins?
Pizza delivered, in 30 minutes or less, or it’ s free. That simply-stated strategy made Tom Monaghan, founder of Domino’ s Pizza, a billionaire.( He is now in the process of giving it all away). A half-century later, Domino’ s adjusted its strategy to focus more on quality and slowed service slightly – and growth returned, with the stock tripling in price in just 36 months since the change.
Articulating a clear and differentiated strategy, supported by a strong core culture that can deliver on the brand’ s promises, is the key for any company wanting to scale up.
So how do you know when you have an industry-dominating, competitorcrushing strategy? Sustainable topline revenue growth and increasing gross margin dollars( the true topline for many firms) are the two key financial indicators. Customers beating a path to your door and dragging along everyone they know is another! If you don’ t have a killer strategy, your company will face frustration as it executes its strategy the next few years, as the market commoditizes your products and services.
Deep strategy work is time consuming, as the marketplace constantly changes. To paraphrase the great Prussian General Carl von Clausewitz, strategy is only as good as your next encounter with the enemy( or decision of your competitor). Therefore, it’ s critical that the senior leadership team work on it each week, free from day-to-day firefighting. The tools and routines in the Scaling Up system for Execution will set you free to do this.
Top strategists are often compared to grandmaster chess players. However, there is a misconception that these players are thinking more moves ahead of mere masters or novices. They are not. Their advantage is in having 10 times the NEXT moves in their repertoire, depending on the latest gambit of their opponent. Therefore, get help from mentors, advisors and consultants who have developed strategies for hundreds of companies— they’ ll more“ next moves” in their bag of tricks.
Tip: In setting strategy, we recommend that you follow the definition from the great business strategist Gary Hamel. You don’ t have a real strategy if it doesn’ t pass two tests: First, what you’ re planning to do really matters enough to customers; and second, it