Strategy Paradigm of the New Millennium.

1. STRATEGIC THOUGHT LEADERSHIP
IN THE NEW MILLENNIUM
Strategic Management is a dynamic loop that adapts to a constantly changing marketplace in pursuit of
business survival and higher profits. After being hugely popular in the 1960’s and 1970’s, strategy became some-
what unpopular in the 1980’s, and then again saw a resurgence in the 1990’s with its own popular jargon. Let us
explore reasons for this decline and re-emergence of Strategic Thinking, and then in the Post-Y2K world, see if
there are new themes emerging that could cause paradigm shifts in how businesses adapt themselves in the
global marketplace.
In the 60’s and 70’s, strategy consulting was about market share gain, low cost vs. premium positioning,
quadrants, and top-down planning committees. These worked very well when the manufacturing bases of
Germany, Japan, Korea and China were still developing, but when the 80’s hit, US corporations were left
scrambling to restructure and improve quality to face more nimble, global competitors and smaller
entrepreneurs. Obviously, those consultants and their clients who hadn’t anticipated globalization and
innovation; were arrogant to take their top status for granted; and didn’t develop appropriate responses were
blamed, and the whole strategy field became unpopular due to its collective ineffectiveness at the time.
But the companies that survived to see U.S. economy recover in the 90’s, by hiking productivity and
efficiency soon realized that profits could be squeezed out only so much by streamlining operations. So in search
of higher revenues and profits, they brought back strategy consultants, who aided by the technology revolution;
democratization of thought process; and globalization of marketplace, adopted new jargon to help navigate the
ever rising hurdle of profit maximization. Some of their new themes were flat organizations, strategic intent,
game theory, and these three below:
White- Space Opportunity: Potential growth opportunities that don’t match existing business units’
expertise, but maybe tapped by cross-merging talents and synergies. E.g. a toy maker and a furniture maker
could pursue white-space opportunities by making a toy/furniture combo product.
Value Migration: Transfer of wealth and market share from existing competitors to new, more competitive
ones that are able to satisfy end consumers more effectively. E.g. Honda, Toyota and Hyundai gaining market
share at the expense of the Big Three automakers.
Business Eco-system: By forming a network of relationships with various stakeholders such as customers,
suppliers and rivals, a Company can learn, act and react to the demands of the marketplace. E.g. Google,
Apple, AT&T, Verizon, Motorola, Adobe have sometimes co-developed products & apps and sometimes
competed with each other in a collective eco-system.
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2. The New Millennium Strategy Model below illustrates new factors shaping Strategic Management Thought
Leadership in the 21st century:
Social /Viral
Networking
Media
Sustainability
Convergence
Strategic
Management
Everything Mobile
Customization Advertising
Social/Viral Networking: Employees and clients all over the world connect on social media sites to
share experiences, ask questions and learn from each other. They and their families want to use latest
interactive technology tools, video files to try products & services, especially those that their own
professional and social networks recommend. Utilizing familiar tools, Chatter a new collaboration
product from Salesforce.com looks like a great social media format for internal project and deal updates.
Rather than asking “What’s on your mind?” it asks “What are you working on today?”
Media Convergence: Seamless message integration and on-line and off-line professional resources are
needed for clients and employees to stay cutting edge in terms of their skills and information sharing.
Leading companies from around the world are increasingly collaborating to become portals of
information equipped by various technology tools with appropriate metadata. For e.g. Accenture has
partnered with Microsoft and Avanade to provide complete technology and media solutions using cloud
servers, apps, as well as traditional media tools such as brochures and Pdf’s.
Advertising Opportunities: As disruptive technologies emerge and new apps get developed, exploring
incremental revenues through advertising or revenue sharing opportunities become possible.
Everything Customization: Because of the increasing use of social media tools, technology has
paradoxically made everything collective and individual at the same time. Customers gravitate towards
mass media sites such as FB and YouTube that appeal to a wider audience, but at the same time, they
want to customize those experiences with services such as Flickr, FourSquare, VoD and VoIP to suit their
interests and schedules.
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3. Sustainability: Sustainability is a very broad theme and means different things to different people, but
within the technology and communications space, it means waste reduction, cost containment, wider
engagement and equal access for all to information. For organizations to have a sustainable future and
thought leadership, its knowledge processes need to be streamlined, information sharing improved, and
employees well trained.
CONCLUSION: With the ebb and flow of business cycles, new theories come into vogue at different times
amongst business elites either to lead or to play catch-up. Due to “Always-On Global Connectivity”, corporations
now need to monetize both individualistic behaviors and collective influences to create sustainable business
models.
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