Page 73 - DMGT547_INTERNATIONAL_MARKETING

International Marketing

Notes
At the beginning of the one-day session on Envisioning, the lights will be put out in the
conference-room for a minute to signify a disconnection with the past. Once the lights re-
appear, the designated coordinator from Transformation Consulting will announce that it
is 2003. Each manager will then be asked to imagine himself as part of Auto Components
in the 21st Century, and talk of what the company will be as he, or she, sees it. Although
the exercise will be structured, it will be informal and free flowing to break the ice and
loosen up people. Not used to looking beyond day-to-day operations, many managers are
likely to fumble. But, at the end of the day, everyone will be comfortable with looking
ahead into the future…
External Analysis, spread over the next 3 days, will be more focused. Managers will be
asked for their perceptions about the customer, the competitor, and the macro-environment
in 2003. They will be required to answer the following questions: who are Auto
Components’ customers? Are they local or global? What are the specific needs that they
expect these products to fulfil? Why do they prefer Auto Components to other
manufacturers? The competitor-analysis would seek to probe questions like: who are the
Auto Components’ competitors? What are their cost advantages? What are their strengths
and weaknesses vis-à-vis Auto Components? Why do customers buy these products?
What is their brand equity? The analysis will examine the impact of technology, government
policies, and cultural and demographic trends on the auto components industry. Mainly,
the objective of Phase II will be to arrive at a summary of opportunities and threats for
Auto Components in 2003.
Phase III, comprising Internal Analysis, will begin a month later, and will be spread over
4 days. Aimed at enabling managers to look inwards, the Internal Analysis will be split
into Performance Analysis and Strategic Options. The performance of the group will be
measured both on financial parameters, like profitability, sales and returns on assets, and
on non-financial parameters, like supplier relationships, product quality and customer
satisfaction. The participants will, then, determine the strategic options available to Auto
Components. This would involve reviewing past strategies to identify strategic problems,
organisational capabilities and constraints. Based on these findings, a summary of the
strengths and weaknesses of the group will be arrived at.
The final part of Phase III will involve defining the core competencies of Auto Components,
and updating a statement of vision. The last session will be used to determine the strategic
plan to move Auto Components from 1998 to 2003. It will address questions like the core
competencies the company should build, the product-market segments that it should
focus on, and the buyer-and-supplier linkages it should leverage within the industry…”

There is a difference between the two approaches. Strategic Consultants’ gameplan depends
solely on the CEO’s vision while Transformation Consulting’s approach seeks the
involvement of senior managers in obtaining a vision…

Transformation Consulting’s approach to strategy is different from the conventional time-
tested approach in many ways. I, for one, am wary of any approach that is untested.
Traditionally, corporate strategic planning has been based on the present position of the
company in the industry. There are a number of gray areas in this approach. Take the
capsule on Envisioning, for instance. Very few middle-level managers, caught up as they
are with routine operational issues, have the ability to look beyond the limited time-
horizon of a year. That’s my major apprehension…
More fundamentally, I am not sure if strategy formulation can be a bottom-up exercise.
A vision, for example, is always driven from the top. It is only when a vision needs to be
articulated that the involvement of middle management becomes imperative. But, as far
Contd...

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