It is important to choose the right approaches when making strategy, allowing it to be adjusted among the environments shift. Apart from the variety of classical analytical tools for strategic planning, we need to create strategies with an alternative approach, providing the ability to spot unseen opportunities in the market.
Creativity does matter
In literature, theories usually propose the use of inside of the box view to strengthen their positions in the market. This may risk making your business stay under the shadow in comparison to other competitors. No wonder new thinkers adopt creativity in strategy-making process as a tool to obtain a better distinctive market position. The questions many ask is “How do I add creativity in my strategic process?”
The 4C’s model of creativity
In his famous article “Strategy needs creativity” published in The Harvard Business Review issued in March-April 2019, Adam Brandenburger, a NYU Stern School of Business’s business strategy professor, proposed a framework comprising four sources of creativity at time of elaborating strategy. According to him, strategy needs creative thinking derived from intuition and the ability to connects dots thanks to an outside of the box approach. To find the unusual opportunities, Brandenburger’s four approaches to creating a breakthrough strategy are as follows:
1. Contrast
One tip to think outside the box is to approach the problems in a new opposite way of the competitors. The approach of “Contrast” is applied to challenge the assumptions underlying the industry structure. Elon Musk is a good example of developing a strategy built from this approach. Prior to his SpaceX business, the common assumptions of space travel experience are spending government sponsorship, traveling with fixed schedule and using one-time rockets. His Space X challenged this concept by being privately funded, launching on-demand schedule flights and using reused rocket.
2. Combination
Strategists can design a new strategy from combining two very different products or services in order to increase added value for customers. For instance, Nike and Apple have formed an alliance to launch some new products such as Nike+ iPod Sport Kit. The application connects Nike shoes to iPods or iPhones to monitor their steps and share motivation with runners across the world.
3. Constraint
This approach shows us how to convert limitations into strengths, and liabilities into opportunities. Thus, the classic tool such as SWOT analysis brings advantage from Strengths (S) and Opportunities (O) as well as reduces weaknesses (W) and Threats (T) to figure out strategy. On the contrary, this “constraint” approach aims to use weakness to identify the company’s advantage. A good example of this approach is Tesla business models. Since its start, Tesla has not had strong traditional dealership network, though this was traditionally regarded as a key element of automaker’s business models. Tesla decided to use theses weaknesses to elaborate a strategy of online showroom with direct sale model instead of building a new network.
4. Context
This approach is about switching contexts, changing frames or perspectives, which transfers a solution from one setting to another. It can solve a problem or bring up a new opportunity by finding another context which has already been solved in a similar case. To illustrate, before “Intel” microprocessing unit was marketized, no other computer processor makers thought of branding their commodity to consumer’s knowledge and CPU was considered merely another invisible computer component. Intel had an idea of making its product recognized by household by launching the “Intel Inside” marketing strategy in the early 1990s. This breakthrough led to customers’ adoption of ‘advanced chips’ to improve computer ability. Similarly, brands like Teflon, Dolby and Lycra have successfully established their brands from previously ingredient products.
Conclusion
In the current business environment, strategies cannot be elaborated by existing traditional analytic tools. To reach beyond understanding the competitive landscape and competencies evaluation, business consultants should attempt to apply creativity approach to their strategizing. It requires a powerful marketing tool that will break the conventional thinking and will propose an “element of surprise” in your strategy.
