T H E C E O s G U I D E T O S T R A T E G I C T H I N K I N G V O L . 2 5 , N O . 1T H E C E O s G U I D E T O S T R A T E G I C T H I N K I N G V O L . 2 5 , N O . 1

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Ten DeadlySins that Lead to

CorporateExtinction

What isStrategyAnyway?

Secrets ofe-Marketing

I N T E R V I E W

SteveBonner

CancerTreatmentCenters ofAmerica

I N T E R V I E W

SteveBonner

CancerTreatmentCenters ofAmerica

Supremacy, not adequacy, is the goal of a successful strategy.Does your current business strategy put you so far ahead of your competitors that you look over your

shoulder to measure the widening distance between you and them? Or do you find yourself looking from side to side in a day-to-day battle to get ahead today, only to fall behind abetween many opportunities to enhancegrowth, profits, and shareholder value, or are you simply struggling to find them? Do your managers, board,and shareholders understand, agree with, and support your strategy? Or do you find yourself having toexplain it over and over again?

At DPI, we believe that a clearly stated, distinctive strategy will create a steady stream of unique opportunities, enabling you to continuously build value while you force competitors to play your game byyour rules. In other words, the goal of any company’s strategy should be competitive supremacy— not adequacy!

Strategic Thinking –The key to supremacy.DPI’s Strategic Thinking Process can be the catalyst to position you for supremacy in your industry,

as it has for hundreds of winning companies around the world. Strategic Thinking will help you tounlock the hidden potential in your business as you discover your company’s unique “Driving Force”— the one component of the business that is the “heartbeat” of your enterprise. Understanding that“Driving Force” will help you identify the crucial strategic capabilities that must be nurtured togain insurmountable competitive advantage. Strategic Thinking will also enable you to uncoverpotential “stealth competitors” that could enter your markets, causing unforeseen and possiblydisastrous disruption.

DPI’s Strategic Thinking Process differs dramatically from other management consulting concepts. At DPI we believe that the answers to your company’s strategic questions reside in the heads of you, as theCEO, and your key management group. We bring a focused and disciplined approach—a formal process —that will enable you to develop your own, not a consultant’s, strategy. Your management team brings the busi-ness knowledge and industry expertise. We bring you the right questions, providing the framework to debatethe issues and make the critical strategic decisions yourselves. The results? Agreement and focus on a game-changing strategic direction and total commitment to effective deployment. Discover the power of having one common vision for the future of your business.

Discover the Power of Strategic Thinking.We invite you to read this issue of The Strategist and consider beginning a relationship with DPI in

the same way that most of our clients have. Read one of our books or, better still, arrange for a DPI partner to provide a ninety-minute executive overview of our process. Let’s explore together how we mayhelp your organization define a strategy that will bring lasting supremacy over your competitors.

The Strategist is a publication by Decision Processes International,

a worldwide consulting firm and originators of the

Strategic Thinking Process

Dear Executive:

Welcome to The Strategist, a

publication which offers you articles by

some of today’s leading thinkers on the

subject of corporate strategy.

DPI’s core technology is our

Strategic Thinking Process which enables

corporate management to create and

implement strategy. A common sense

approach to strategy, Strategic Thinking

is making traditional strategic planning

obsolete. This process enables a compa-

ny’s management team to reason out a

strategy as a group, assuring thorough

understanding, consensus, buy-in, and

effective implementation. In the “war

rooms” of more than 800 companies

throughout the world, global companies

such as 3M, FexEx Custom Critical,

Caterpillar, Prudential, Lubrizol and

Motorola Solutions as well as regional

companies such as Rand Merchant Bank,

Abacus, SATS, Teckwah, Cancer Treatment

Centers of America, as well as over

100 small to medium sized emerging

companies—this methodology has been

refined and validated by DPI for more

than 30 years.

We hope you enjoy this issue of

The Strategist.

Good reading,

The Strategist is published by Decision ProcessesInternational, 4 Cranbrook Road, Shrewsbury, MA 01545 (508) 842-9291. Subscription information appears elsewhere in this issue. Submissions, subscriptions,address changes, and other correspondence should be sentto the above address. All reprints are published with permission, as noted. All other material is copyrightDecision Processes International © 2011, all rightsreserved. No material in The Strategist may be reprintedor reproduced in any form without written permission.

Visit DPI on the Internet at

www.dpi-asia.comDec i s i o n P ro c e s s e s I n t e r n a t i o n a l

The Strategist

3

TheStrategistTM

4Interview: Steve BonnerPresident & CEO, Cancer Treatment Centers of America

9 The Ten DeadlySins that Leadto CorporateExtinctionby Michel (Mike) Robert

13What is StrategyAnyway?by Richard W. Oliver

16How to Get Morefrom Your OnlineMarketing. 4 Strategiesby Colleen Backstrom

The Strategist

4Dec i s i o n P ro c e s s e s I n t e r n a t i o n a l www. d p i - a s i a . c om

This simple mantra has led CancerTreatment Centers of America, in a little over a decade, to become one ofthe world’s most successful healthcareproviders in terms of patient outcomeand financial success. In an industrybeset by changing regulations, intensecompetition, rapidly rising costs andincreasingly complex technology,CTCA has consistently defied the odds,and altered many of the traditionalrules of cancer treatment and health-care in general, in a quest to shift thefocus from the providers and payers tothe patient. With a unique strategydeveloped using DPI’s StrategicThinking Process, CTCA has kept asharp focus on this concept as it hasgrown in both size and its influence onthe direction of cancer care.“The business, for us, is patient

empowered medicine,” says CTCAfounder Dick Stephenson. “It’s allabout the patient. It is not about theproviders to the patient of any goods orservices. It is only about the patient.”CTCA believes in treating the whole

patient through a much more holisticapproach than most other providers ofcancer treatment. In addition to thelatest, technologically sophisticatedmethods in traditional oncology care,CTCA also integrates principles ofChinese and Ayurvedic medicine aswell as psychological care, physicaltherapy, pain management, dietarysupplements and an emphasis on heal-ing nutrition. A comfortable, nurturingexperience emphasizes soothing sur-

roundings, organic food, and a philoso-phy of removing as much stress anddiscomfort as possible for the patient.Says CTCA CEO Steve Bonner, “We

are committed to holistic and integra-tive oncology care, which starts withthe view that a tumor is a symptom ofthe disease and is not the disease. Webelieve that the disease is a deficiencyin the patient’s immune system. Ahealthy immune system normally willkill strange cells.“So we start with the very best tra-

ditional therapy, such as chemothera-py, radiation and surgery, to treat thetumor. We surround that with a robustarray of complementary therapies thatsupport the immune system and manage side effects. When we startedat this, there were a lot of people looking down their noses at us andpooh-poohing that kind of thing, saying ‘There’s no proof, no scientific

evidence.’ We’ve done many studies,and published over sixty peer-reviewed abstracts now on the effectiveness of our approach. And thishas led others to move in this directionof treating the whole patient. If youlook and see what others are doing,every significant cancer treatmentcenter is now offering some compo-nent of these additional therapies.”Indeed, measured against data pro-

duced by the National Cancer Institute,CTCA’s outcomes in terms of survival,quality of life, patient experience andspeed of care are often significantlyahead of the norm. Unlike most otherhospitals, CTCA publishes these find-ings both internally for performancemeasurement, and on its website toallow patients to make more informeddecisions about their treatment options.CTCA also advocates for transparencythroughout the treatment process,allowing the patient to make the mostinformed decisions.“We want an efficient and effective

delivery to the consumer,” saysBonner, “but the healthcare industryhas pushed away the consumer fromdeciding what to buy, who to buy itfrom, what to pay for it and where toget it. They’ve left insurance compa-nies, the government and employersto figure that out. There’s no waythat will work. Well-intending claimsadministrators cannot make highquality, reasonable cost decisionsthat match with each patient’s valuesand needs.

The true test of a business strategy is how it performsover time. In this interview with Steve Bonner, CEOof Cancer Treatment Centers of America, we explorethe strategy of a company that has thrived in anindustry where many are struggling, based on a strat-egy developed more than a decade ago. Using DPI’sStrategic Thinking Process the CTCA managementteam created a unique, differentiating strategy that hasyielded increasingly excellent results for patients andthe company, without any major changes of direction.Copyright © 2011 Decision Processes International

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I N T E R V I E W

“It is always and only about the patient.”

Steve BonnerPresident & CEO | CANCER TREATMENT CENTERS OF AMERICA

Steve Bonner

5Dec i s i o n P ro c e s s e s I n t e r n a t i o n a l S t r a t e g i c T h i n k i n g Con s u l t a n t s

“So CTCA committed to supportinga much more empowered consumer.That translates, first, into giving con-sumers information that allows them toshop competitively and comparatively.”This approach has been so successful

that CTCA has grown ten-fold since1998, doubling its number of hospitals.It has also achieved exceptional finan-cial performance which allows it to con-tinually research and implement innov-ative and effective cancer care.

How It All BeganYet the company’s success did not

come easily or immediately. CTCAbegan in the early 1980s when entre-preneur Dick Stephenson’s mothersuccumbed after a long battle with can-cer. So dissatisfied was he with hercare, which he considered to be harsh,impersonal and often ineffective, thathe became determined to find a newapproach to more humanely treat complex and advanced stage cancer,dramatically improving the patientexperience and outcomes. For six yearshe researched cancer treatment meth-ods with a focus on what patients them-selves said—what they valued, themost effective treatments, and whatthey were prepared to pay for.His dream became a reality with the

opening of the Cancer TreatmentCenters of America’s two hospitals, or“Centers of Excellence,” in Zion,Illinois and Tulsa, Oklahoma. CTCAwent on to continually break newground in providing new hope, a uniquearray of healing options, and greatlyimproved results for many cancerpatients whose providers have said thatnothing else could be done for them.The CTCA approach became so suc-

cessful as the company grew that theyfelt the need to deliver their uniquebrand of cancer treatment closer topatients’ homes than the original facili-ties in Illinois and Oklahoma werepractically capable of reaching. Oneway to extend that care and to gainreferrals from physicians, theythought, would be to acquire oncology

practices in various locations aroundthe country. The approach ultimatelyproved to be flawed however, as they were unable to adequately convert these traditional providers totheir unique methodologies. Expected referrals never materialized, and thecompany’s financial situation was erod-ing as a result.

The Turning PointWhen Steve Bonner joined CTCA

as CEO in 1999, the company wasstruggling.“When I came in, it was clear that we

were strategically out of focus and Ithought DPI’s Strategic ThinkingProcess would be the best way to get usback on track,” Steve Bonner said. “Ihad used the process at two other com-panies and what I like about it is that it’ssimple. It forces you back to the soul ofyour business, to the things that trulyset you apart from your competition.“As I think back on my first exposure

to Strategic Thinking,” he says, “thefinancial services company where Iworked had hired an army of consul-tants from one of the Big Five firmswho sweep through an organizationand come back and tell you what yourstrategy should be. It was veryprovocative, but not relevant. It neverconverted to action.“When I first saw Michel Robert’s

book, Strategy Pure and Simple, Ithought it was an oxymoron. I thoughtthe words that went together werestrategy, complex, and expensive!DPI’s concept really resonated withme, that all the knowledge you need tocreate a strategy resides in the headsof your own people, and that you needa process to extract that and look at itdifferently, and then translate that intoan actionable set of tools. It justseemed so logical and simple that itwas clearly worth a try.“I think that it is so aligning, it has

the capacity to get all the heads nod-ding about who you are and whatyou’re trying to do. And especiallytoday, where information comes at

people from innumerable directionsand at a speed that nobody can reallykeep up with, to have everybodygrounded in clarity about, ‘Why are wehere? What are we doing? What’s goodto do? What are the things that are sus-pect?’, I think that it’s indispensable tohaving an organization with the abilityto move nimbly forward. I also think itis critical to have skilled facilitators,such as in our case, Mike Robert andCraig Bowers to lead the process, sur-rounded with your very best people,because the real data and the answersreside in their heads, not in the headsof the consultants. It’s hard work and Iremember it took us three days in thefall of 1999 to get clarity about each ofthese elements. We had a really rigor-ous debate under a lot of stress withthe struggle the company was having.But we held our collective feet to thefire, got it right and we’re one testa-ment to the fact that it works.“I think it’s a powerful concept and

the right concept for every organiza-tion. I’ve used it in three different orga-nizations, including CTCA, and in eachcase the results have been spectacular!”Taking a cross-section of key man-

agers through the DPI StrategicThinking Process enabled the group tototally reassess CTCA’s direction, and pointed them back to the enter-prise’s original concept—focus on thepatient—in a hospital-based setting,and sourcing patients directly.The most important revelation to

emerge as CTCA’s management teamprogressed through the process wasthat the company, particularly as aresult of acquisitions, had wanderedaway from its founding principle—thecomplete focus of all the company’sresources on providing their uniquetype of care to its patients.Says Bonner, “We realized that we

have to live by a Customer ClassDriving Force, with that CustomerClass being cancer patients withadvanced stage and complex cancers.As Dick Stephenson says, ‘It is alwaysand only about the patient.’ During the

6Dec i s i o n P ro c e s s e s I n t e r n a t i o n a l www. d p i - a s i a . c om

The Strategist

DPI process there was some healthydiscussion about that. Some thoughtwe could be Technology-Driven. Afterall, don’t we really need to be on top ofthe latest technology? But we alreadyare. We’re famous for that. We have themost modern of everything that’sneeded. But the process helped us tosee that we don’t want to be in the busi-ness of developing the latest medicaltechnology. That’s somebody else’sbusiness. For us, technology is a sub-set of our Driving Force, which is thepatient. We also looked at a couple ofother Driving Forces, but none of themfit like our Customer Class.”

Implementing The StrategyA set of essential actions, or Critical

Issues, were agreed upon by CTCA’sstrategy team, with ownership for eachassigned to an executive to shepherd tocompletion. The first major action wasthe divestiture of the oncology prac-tices CTCA had acquired.“The process really allowed us to re-

examine this issue of a hospital-baseddelivery system as opposed to an oncol-ogy practice-based system. It becameclear how important it is to do this in ahospital setting. We have inpatientsand outpatients, but we need a criticalmass and a nucleus of patients to beable to have all these integrative thera-pies and practices available on a highlyconvenient basis to the patient. Thatbecame very clear. That made theseoncology practices non-strategic assets.“We immediately did a number of

things,” Bonner says. “We startedeither selling or shutting down thesepractices. We also completely resizedthe corporate office because it had beensized to handle this big network ofphysician practices. And that thenallowed us to take a deeper look at whatwe really meant by patient empower-ment. We pulled back to the top of thelist the importance of being close to thepatient, of really gathering marketresearch, to find out what they value.“We also were able to clearly see

how to redirect the resources that

had been going into these other facil-ities and focus them on constantlyimproving our understanding of theneeds of our patients and the treat-ments that will benefit them themost. The result of that realizationwas that we became much more tight-ly focused, and the financial and therapeutic impact was amazing.”Since that time CTCA has kept a con-

sistent strategic focus on its DrivingForce, the patient with complex oradvanced-stage cancer, and developingthe Areas of Excellence that supportit—market research, patient loyalty,talent management, and service andinformation delivery—all geared tounderstanding the patient’s needs anddelivering on them better than anyoneelse. This combination has enabledCTCA to grow rapidly as its ground-breaking approach has become betterknown through direct-to-patient mar-keting and word-of-mouth.Says Bonner, “The company is, in

round numbers, ten times the size thatit was the day we did that first DPIstrategy session in 1999. We’re 3,300stakeholders now. We’re about to seeour 35,000th patient. We’re now seeingabout 4,000 new patients a year andgrowing at roughly 15% a year. We’vemore than doubled the number of cen-ters. That means we can provide thishigh level of care to that many morepeople in different parts of the country.”

Maintaining Strategic FocusDuring Rapid GrowthRapid growth for a company in any

industry can be a double-edged sword.Growth in size and profitability arewelcomed of course. However, main-taining strategic focus with the addi-tion of hundreds of new employeescoming from traditional medical back-grounds, and geographic spread hasdepended on continuously communi-cating the strategy and reinforcing itsessential place in the enterprise.“Keeping our strategy alive and vital

has been a major focus for us as we havegrown, and it has several dimensions to

it. Coming out of the strategy sessionswe did a very rigorous and deep processfor creating a ‘mission, vision, valuesand brand promise,’” says Bonner.“When we decided to go to a third

center, we confronted that very issue—which is that this is such an intimate,unique style of care, that if we go to anew area and hire a large group of peo-ple from that area to open our center,it’s not going to look like what we do.So we said, we won’t open a centerunless at least 30% of the people whoare there on Day One have come fromour existing centers.“Still, I was concerned that with our

growth, and number of people at thetable, that the ability to understand ourstrategy and deploy it effectively wouldwane. So we created the Office ofStrategy Management to help us to keepfrom wandering off our direction. One ofthe things they have done is to convertthe strategy concept into what we havecalled a strategy primer, a booklet,which we could then use to educateevery stakeholder or any group of stake-holders we thought would benefit fromunderstanding the fundamentals.“CTCA also created a process we call

‘Hope, Pride, and Joy’ which enablesthe selection of all the 150 people ittakes to open a center. Weeks in advancea process is begun to integrate theminto the culture, to role-playing the styleof care, to working in simulated envi-ronments. Many are sent to existingcenters for anywhere from a week, tosix months for some of the more sophis-ticated physicians. The goal is to imbuethem with the CTCA strategy and style

“The company is, inround numbers, tentimes the size that it was the day we did

that first DPI strategysession in 1999.”

—Steve Bonner

7Dec i s i o n P ro c e s s e s I n t e r n a t i o n a l S t r a t e g i c T h i n k i n g Con s u l t a n t s

of care, to allow that to be in place onDay One. We have a very rigorous selec-tion and on-boarding process, thatinvolves a selection filter that we haveused for many years. We’re seeing somany applicants now, especially withour reputation and the economy, thatwe’re able to be very selective. We havealso created our own internal universitywith a commonly held organization, theCTCA Center for Learning.“We are also very rigorous in track-

ing the patient experience and feedingthat back to our people. We, for exam-ple, have a patient experience surveythat is fielded every day in every hos-pital. And we report patient loyaltyscores down to the individual physicianso that they have qualitative and quan-titative data in terms of how they arecreating the patient experience.”CTCA has also implemented a Lean

Six Sigma program, with many GreenBelts, Black Belts and Master BlackBelts, and constantly re-engineers theculture to keep their eye on deliveringwhat the patient values most.

The Strategic Filter: TheEssential Management ToolAs part of the Strategic Thinking

Process, CTCA management createdwhat is known as a Strategic Filter fordecision-making. Literally a checklist,it provides standards by which to judgewhether an opportunity or decisionsupports the Driving Force and Areasof Excellence. A lot of yeses mean theopportunity is worth serious considera-tion. More red flags, however, signalcaution in further pursuit or scuttlingthe idea outright.Says Bonner, “Without a filter for

decisions, it is easy to wander off in anybusiness. It would be easy to get dis-tracted and confused and the patientexperience would suffer. I think that’sbeen part of the learning. I remembersome people, in the early conversationswhen we were really struggling, wouldcome up with an idea, and say, ‘I thinkwe can make some money out of this.’We weren’t making much money at thetime, so that sounded resonant. But

then we would say, ‘You can makemoney drilling oil, but that’s not whatwe do. So let’s go back to the Filters,and let’s go back to the Driving Forceand run it through there,’ and a lot ofdistracting ideas fell by the wayside.Day after day, week after week, stay-ing true to these things and lettingthem contribute to your thinking andexecution drives the growth. It doesn’tinhibit it in any way.“We’ve really tried hard to teach the

Strategic Filter technique. It’s hadapplications in many places. We’vebuilt a very rigorous set of StrategicFilters that guide us when we’re mov-ing towards building a new hospital.We look at location and availability oftalent. We look at travel patterns. Anaverage patient travels 500 miles. Howdo people travel around a region? Welook at the regulatory environment. Welook at the competitive environment.And that’s helped us pinpoint theplaces where we put hospitals. That ledus to Philadelphia, suburban Phoenix,just outside Atlanta—places where, fora variety of reasons, we can deliver thebest experience for the patient.“We’ve also used our filters on the

negative side—what not to do—such aswhen we’ve looked at potential con-tracts with insurance companies tounderstand that their point of viewisn’t necessarily harmonious with, oraligned with, our strategic direction.In one case I am thinking of it causedus to say, ‘No, we’re just not going toget the strategic benefit out of this.’ ”

The Mother StandardBut the ultimate filter is what CTCA

calls “The Mother Standard,” whichenables those delivering care to staytrue to the CTCA purpose.“It’s really a very simple concept,”

Bonner explains. “It asks every one ofour caregivers, every time they areinteracting with a patient in what wecall a moment of truth, that they askthemselves, ‘If this were my mother ormy father or another loved one stand-ing in front of me, what would I wantthem to experience in that moment?’

and deliver that to them. Then you’vedone your job. It doesn’t require you torun off to a committee for approval, youdon’t have to call your boss, you don’thave to look at a manual. We surroundthis with a lot of training, but we allknow what we would want, from ourexpertise, for that person to experience.“It’s very empowering, and if you go

around to other hospitals generally, andyou watch people interact, they don’tmove with that type of empowerment.They’re worried about malpractice—‘Do I really have the authority to dothis? Who do I have to talk to and whoare the committees that are going tooversight this? Will this get paid for?’“So that Mother Standard is the core

and it’s right there in the middle of ourStrategic Driving Force. That’s a wayto make it human. The organizationloves it. The patients love it, and itmakes the business human. It’s anoth-er part of the perpetuation of the cul-ture that’s important.”CTCA’s strategic clarity and focus on

that Driving Force promise to help thecompany take its brand of cancer careto many more patients with increasing-ly effective treatment.Says Bonner, “I believe that, because

we have such a clear concept of ourstrategy and its implications, thisenables us to see the future withgreater clarity and see the path toallow us to sustain, regardless of whatthe government does, or what payersdo. It’s very powerful in that regardbecause it helps us be really clear aboutthe fact that healthcare, oncology andCTCA are about delivering the highestquality care, what our consumersvalue. That’s where we’ve always been.Now, because we’re successful, and wecan demonstrate this, it gives us a bea-con on where to go in the future.Because of our focus on that segment,we have talent, technology, knowledgeand expertise that allow us to open upother options for these people. As Dickwould say, ‘We’re there for them whenthey need us,’ and we need to makesure we never weaken our ability todeliver to those patients.”

Will your strategy put you miles ahead in your competitive arena—for years to come?

Or is a “me-too” strategy making you a permanent also-ran?

The Strategic Thinking Process described in this book

has put hundreds of companies on the road to sustained

competitive advantage, returning control of the strategy

to those who will implement it.

This common sense process has helpedhundreds of companies to:• Identify and build upon their Driving Force—the unique set of capabilities at the root of strategic advantage.

• Develop their own strategy—not a consultant’s—in a matter of days, not weeks or months

• Gain agreement on, and ownership of, the strategyamong key managers—and strong commitment toeffective implementation

• Develop distinctive, game-changing strategies thatput them far ahead of their competitors

• Create strategies that lead to sustained competitiveadvantage for decades

“DPI and its Strategic Thinking Process have been a key catalyst of our growth.”— THOMAS CHUA, CHAIRMAN,

TECKWAH INDUSTRIAL CORPORATION LTD

“With limited resources and so much to do, we must be strategic in our objectives, thorough in our assessments, and targeted in our programming.DPI's Strategic Thinking Process is absolutelypriceless. Tsao Foundation has benefited tremendously from it. I highly recommend it!” — MARY ANN TSAO, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR,

TSAO FOUNDATION

*Or a FREE copy when you invite aDPI Partner in for a complimentaryExecutive Overview Session of theStrategic Thinking Concepts.

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9Dec i s i o n P ro c e s s e s I n t e r n a t i o n a l S t r a t e g i c T h i n k i n g Con s u l t a n t s

“It’s easy to develop astrategy, it’s the imple-mentation that’s diffi-cult.” This is a statementwe have frequentlyheard over the years.Our own experienceproves that the exactopposite is true. If aCEO thinks that he orshe has a solid strategy,and yet it’s not beingimplemented, only oneof two things can be happening:1) The management

team doesn’t know orunderstand the strategy(it’s very difficult to implement asecret strategy).2) If the strategy is understood but

still not being implemented, it’sbecause some members of the man-agement team don’t agree with it andmay, in fact, be trying to sabotage it.In our view, there are ten deadly

sins that an organization can committhat will inevitably lead to one of thesetwo conditions, and eventually to cor-porate extinction.

Sin #1: Strategy by OsmosisIn too many organizations, the

strategy of the company is implicitand resides solely in the head of thechief executive. Most CEOs have

some kind of strategy. However, theyoften have great difficulty articulatingit to the people around them in wordsthat allow these people to make con-sistent and intelligent decisions onbehalf of the company.One senior executive of a Fortune

500 company once said to us, “Thereason I have difficulty implementingmy CEO’s strategy is that I don’tknow what it is!”Because many CEOs have difficulty

verbalizing their strategies, most peo-ple are placed in the position of havingto “guess” the strategy, and may guesswrong as often as they guess right. Orthey learn what the strategy is overtime by the nature of the decisions

they recommend,which are eitheraccepted or rejected.Gradually, a subordi-nate learns where theline of demarcation isbetween the thingsthat are permitted bythe strategy andthose that are not.This is called strategyby groping. Thisoccurs because thestrategy becomesclear or explicit onlyover a long period oftime. Meanwhile peo-ple may have spent

too much time pursuing and imple-menting activities that did not fit,while neglecting opportunities thatrepresented a better strategic fit.Even worse, the strategy may neverbecome clear, or may be badly misin-terpreted by people making anearnest effort to figure it out.As one of our CEO clients once told

us after our initial session: “I wasastonished that our senior manage-ment group had no concept of ourstrategy and disagreed with it oncethey learned of it.”

Lesson #1: People can’t implementa strategy they don’t know anything about.

Ten Deadly Sins That Lead to Corporate Extinctionby Michel (Mike) Robert —FOUNDER, DECISION PROCESSES INTERNATIONAL

Why do some companies who claim to have agood strategy fail anyway? According to thisauthor, there are ten basic reasons why strate-gies, even good ones, never get implementedand so, are doomed to failure.

For a more in-depth look into this subject,The Strategist suggests that you read MikeRobert’s compelling book, The New StrategicThinking. Copyright © Michel Robert, published by McGraw-Hill Books.All Rights Reserved.

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Sin #2: Strategic IsolationA second reason the strategy may

not be implemented properly is thatthe CEO developed it in isolation. Thisis a natural enough tendency, since aCEO’s job is strategy. Furthermore,most subordinates have no experiencethinking strategically, so there is noinclination or framework to involveothers. Many CEOs have developed astrategy, but their key people are notinvolved in the process and thereforehave no ownership. In such a case,subordinates usually do not under-stand the rationale behind the strate-gy and will spend more time question-ing it, or figuring out where they fit,than in implementing it. The CEObecomes more and more impatient assubordinates question his logic, yet hecan’t comprehend why his people arenot executing what, to him, is a simplestrategy.Some CEOs might involve one or

two people in the formulation of thestrategy. This is better than doing italone but is still not good enough. Theentire management team must beinvolved in order to achieve accurateunderstanding and proper execution.This cannot be accomplished simplyby “going offsite” with this group todiscuss the strategy. A methodology,or process, is needed to guide the discussion and keep it “strategic,” not operational. This is the basis ofDPI’s Strategic Thinking Process.Involvement by senior managers inthe basic strategic decisions is themost effective way to create a strate-gy that not only looks good on paper,but actually gets implemented.As John Davis, President of

American Saw and ManufacturingCompany, and a DPI client, put it: “Ithink that too often strategies aremade in a vacuum. The managementis given a copy of the plan and askedto implement it. I’m not sure they buyinto that kind of plan. But by goingthrough the Strategic ThinkingProcess, there’s a lot of debate andeveryone sees the reasons why certain

Critical Issues surface and things getdone much more quickly.”

Lesson #2: People don’t implementwhat they don’t understand.

Sin #3: Outsourcing YourStrategy to an OutsideConsultantThe worst of all strategic crimes

and the “kiss of death” for any strate-gy—even a good one—is to have anoutside consultant develop your strat-egy. No outside consultant has theright to set the direction of your orga-nization or knows as much as yourown people about the business and theenvironment it is facing. Most strate-gies developed by outside consultantsend up in the wastepaper basket fortwo reasons:1. Everyone can quickly tear the

conclusions apart because they are notbased on an intimate knowledge of thecompany, the business, or the industry.2. There is no commitment by

senior management because it is nottheir strategy.Experience has shown that almost

any strategy will work to somedegree, unless it is completely invali-dated by negative environmental fac-tors. Experience has also shown,however, that no strategy will workas well as it should if a couple or a fewmembers of senior management arenot committed to it. In effect, if totalcommitment is not present, thoseuncommitted to the strategy will, atbest, implement it half-heartedlyand, at worst, on a day-to-day basisdo everything in their power to proveit wrong.As another DPI client, Kurt

Wiedenhaupt, CEO of AmericanPrecision Industries, said: “I havebeen exposed to McKinsey, BostonConsulting Group, and Bain. They areall very capable and I’m sure theirapproach is very sound. The onlyproblem is that their product is not ofthe people, by the people, through thepeople. It’s not owned by the people

who later have to live with it. Whenthe strategy is developed by an out-side third party, it is an alien productno matter how well it relates to thecompany.”In order to obtain commitment, key

managers must be involved at eachstep of the process so that their views are heard and discussed.Participation, although it may seemtime-consuming, builds commitmentand, in our experience, saves exponen-tially more time on the deploymentend of the equation. Key managersbuy into the strategy because theyhelped construct it. It is as much theirstrategy as the CEO’s.Many CEOs have used our process

knowing the outcome in advance.They did so anyway, using it as a toolto tap the advice and knowledge oftheir people and to obtain commit-ment to the conclusions, so thatimplementation of the strategy couldthen proceed expeditiously. Still oth-ers, thinking they knew what the out-come would be, discovered new ideas,or flaws in their assumptions thatwould have caused difficulties downthe road. By gathering the collectiveknowledge of key people, such ideascan be evaluated and problems can beflushed out and dealt with beforethey happen.

Three other of our CEO clientsexpressed it this way:

“I think the process increases man-agement’s understanding. I couldprobably have relayed that kind ofthinking to the same group by othermeans, but not as successfully or inthat same condensed timeframe.”

“My belief is that the best strategyis the one that people believe in,because then they are driven toachieve it. You can have the best strat-egy on paper, but if nobody is drivento achieve it, you don’t succeed. Ibelieve that to be successful, your keypeople must be part of the process.”

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The Strategist

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“The DPI Strategic ThinkingProcess brings you to consensus onthe Critical Issues that need to beaddressed. In a very short timeframeyou can get the whole managementteam there.”

Lesson #3: Don’t outsource yourthinking to an outside consultant.

Sin #4: Operational ManagersAre Not Trained as StrategicThinkersBecause most people spend their

entire careers with an organizationdealing exclusively with operationalissues, they are not good strategicthinkers, as noted earlier. With fewexceptions, we have found that only theCEO or the General Manager sees the“big picture” and views the businessand its environment in strategic terms.There usually is only one strategist inany organization and that is the CEO.Most managers are so engrossed inoperational activity that they have notdeveloped the skill of thinking strategi-cally. Therefore, they have difficultycoping with strategic issues, especiallyif these are sprung on them out-of-the-blue at a company “retreat.”“The problem,” said Milton

Lauenstein in an article in theJournal of Business Strategy, “is thatmany executives have only the fuzzi-est notion of the functions of strategyformulation.” This is why a processthat guides the management teamthrough these strategic issues isessential. Expecting your operationalpeople to suddenly become strategistswithout such a tool will create moreproblems than it solves. On the flipside, given such a process, most seniormanagers will surprise you with theirability to think strategically and cre-atively once they have the framework,permission and opportunity to do so.”

Lesson #4: The CEO may be wiseto involve key subordinates in thestrategy creation process for strictly educational value.

Sin #5: Planning NumberosisPeople will implement a strategy

more effectively if they understandthe difference between a strategicprocess and either long-range or oper-ational planning. They also need to beable to distinguish between strategicand operational issues. Participationin a clearly strategic process is an eye-opener for most managers. Most havenever participated in a strategy ses-sion, or if they have, most find thatthey have primarily dealt with opera-tional issues, and so never learn thedifference.DPI has developed a bias against

the operational planning systems usedin many organizations, based on the“five-year business plan approach.”What is so special about five years?Shouldn’t our planning be more relat-ed to our strategic time frame? All thefive-year plan does anyway is toupdate the first year and guess at thelast four years. Strategy developmentand review do not lend themselves toan annual cycle because the environ-ment is not that predictable. Tyingstrategy formulation to annual budgetexercises ensures failure.

Lesson #5: Planning does not astrategy make.

Sin #6: Meaningless MissionStatementsLately we have noticed a substan-

tial increase in the number of corpora-tions attempting to construct missionor vision statements that articulatethe organization’s business concept.Unfortunately, their efforts are oftenfruitless because of the lack of a disci-plined process to help them. As aresult, they end up with statementsthat are so “motherhood” in tone thateveryone can agree with them, yetthey are useless as guides to makingdaily operational decisions. Over time,these statements are quietly ignored.

Lesson #6: A strategy statementmust serve as a filter for decisions.

Sin #7: No Crisis, No StrategyGood times are another obstacle

that impedes strategic thinking.When times are good, who needs tothink about where they are going?The need to think about direction usu-ally surfaces after a crisis. GeneralElectric, which is highly regarded forits strategic planning process, did notbecome concerned about this kind ofthinking until the disaster they had inthe computer business in the early1970s when they wrote off severalhundred million dollars.

Lesson #7: Strategizing shouldoccur during good times as well as bad.

Sin #8: The Critical Issues AreNot IdentifiedOne aspect of strategy is its formula-

tion. Another is thinking through itsimplications. Most strategic planningsystems we have seen used in organi-zations don’t encourage people to thinkthrough the implications of their strat-egy. As a result, they end up reacting toevents as they happen and people startlosing faith in the strategy.Every strategy, especially if it rep-

resents a change of direction, hasimplications. A good strategic processshould help management identify,anticipate, and effectively manage thestrategy’s implications on the compa-ny’s products, markets, customers,organization structure, systems,processes, personnel and culture.

Lesson #8: Thinking through astrategy’s implications is key to itssuccess.

Sin #9: Strategizing Without AProcessIn every strategy session that we

facilitate, there are always twodynamics at work, namely process andcontent. Content is information orknowledge that is company or indus-try specific. Telephone company exec-utives know a lot about cables, switch

The Strategist

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gears, cell towers, PBXs, analog ordigital devices, transmission, etc.They know all this content becausethey were “brought up” in the indus-try and that is the content that is spe-cific to that industry. It is part andparcel of their lexicon.Executives at Caterpillar, however,

know nothing about those things butdo know a lot about their own content.They can mesmerize you for hourstalking about metallurgy, welding,payloads, diesel horsepower, and theirability to “cut iron” better than any-one else. This is their content andtheir comfort zone.At 3M, all executives at the top have

degrees in chemistry or chemicalengineering and can talk for hoursabout polymer chemistry and its usein coating and abrasive applications.Such is their world.In order to climb up the ladder in

most companies one needs to be a“content expert.” This is necessary inorder to be able to manage your waythrough the day-to-day content-ladenoperational issues. Most executivesget to the top of their respective silosbecause of their content expertise,and rightly so.At the strategic level, which is

above the silos, content expertisealone is not sufficient. In fact, toomuch content knowledge may be amajor impediment to good strategicthinking. This is because strategicthinking is process-based rather thancontent-based. Operational manage-ment requires the skill of analysis,while strategic management requiresthe skill of synthesis.Analysis is the ability to study con-

tent and put it into logical quantita-tive pieces. Synthesis is the ability tomake rational decisions based onhighly subjective, sometimes ambigu-ous or incomplete, pieces of data.Synthesis is highly qualitative innature. Strategic thinking falls intothis category. It is the ability to takesubjective data and opinions and bringthem into an objective forum where

rational decisions about the future ofthe enterprise can be made. In orderto achieve this outcome, a CEO musthave a “process of strategic thinking”that enables the CEO and manage-ment team to assemble all availableinformation, put it into perspective,separate pertinent from non-perti-nent information, and draw out ratio-nal conclusions.Essentially, strategic thinking is

applied common sense and is easy foranyone to understand once themethodology is available.

Lesson #9: Good strategic thinkersseparate process from content.

Sin #10: Using A ContentConsultantA CEO who seeks outside assis-

tance to help decide the future direc-tion of the company faces a choicebetween two very different types ofconsultants.One is the content consultant. These

are the traditional firms such asMcKinsey, Bain, Boston ConsultingGroup, Monitor and many others.Their claim to fame is that they have“industry experts” who know theirindustry better than the client does.Their objective is to formulate a strat-egy for you since your people are notas knowledgeable as their “experts.”In other words, they do it for you, orto you.In our view, this form of consulting

may be appropriate in regards to operational issues, but it is notappropriate to strategy and strategic

direction. These firms are contentconsultants, and they are selling con-tent. Unfortunately, they sell the samecontent to all their clients in thatindustry. The best result is a me-toostrategy that does not set you apartfrom your competitors and will neverbring supremacy over them. You are,in our humble opinion, outsourcingyour thinking.A better service to a CEO and the

management team is to bring them acritical thinking process and guidethem through that process. In doingso, it is their content going into theprocess, and it is their content comingout. When the strategy has been con-structed by the people who have thebest content and a vital stake in theoutcome, implementation is muchfaster and more successful than whenstrategy is imposed by an outsidethird party.After using the DPI Strategic

Thinking Process, Laurie Dippenaar,CEO of FirstRand, South Africa’slargest financial services firm, agreed:“What’s affected us more than any-

thing else is the fact that it systemati-cally extracts the thinking and ideasfrom the executives’ heads, ratherthan imposing the consultant’s think-ing. I think it almost forces it out oftheir heads. That obviously leads tothe strategy being owned by the com-pany, rather than by the consultant.I’m not just repeating what DPI says;it actually works that way.”

Lesson #10: Process assistance speedsup strategy implementation.

“The DPI Strategic Thinking Processbrings you to consensus on the Critical Issues that need to be addressed. In a very short

timeframe you can get the whole management team there.”

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n the face of it, defining “busi-ness strategy” seems like ano-brainer. Yet when I wasconfronted with the challenge

recently in a faculty meeting, I foundmyself rather less than articulate.“Bad form!” you might say, for a pro-fessor of the subject and more impor-tantly, a columnist on strategy.Okay, so you got me. But before you

get too critical dear reader, how abouttaking a shot at it yourself?

… I’m waiting …

Ah, see what I mean? It’s not aseasy as it might at first appear. Thefact is, there are many definitions ofstrategy, some are highlighted here.

Defining StrategyWell, I finally got my act together

and will share with you now my hum-ble (and brief) contribution to thestrategy definition debate:

Strategy is understanding anindustry structure and dynamics,determining the organization’s rela-tive position in that industry, andtaking action to either change theindustry’s structure or the organiza-tion’s position to improve organiza-tional results.

This definition encompasses all themajor activities undertaken in thestrategy process and should focuspractitioners and scholars alike onwhat’s important (i.e., what drives theamount and nature of corporate suc-

cess). Industry structure anddynamics determine the broad para-meters of growth and earnings poten-tial and delimit what is realisticallypossible to achieve. The firm’s rela-tive position in a given industrystructure sets its specific achieve-ment profile and the scope of itsstrategic options. Finally, industry ororganizational change defines thespecific organizational responses toits strategic (structural and positional)circumstance and aspirations.While no definition is perfect (and

granted, this one suffers from lack ofdetailed specifics when compared tosome of those offered in the list thatappears later), it does offer the practi-tioner a general place to start indetermining an approach that a par-ticular firm might use.

To help broaden your thinkingabout the definition of strategy, I offera brief review of the history of strate-gic thinking.

The Evolution of BusinessStrategy: Strategic MetaphorsOne time-honored way to come to

grips with a difficult concept such asstrategy is to think in terms ofmetaphors—something that is “lin-guistically transformed to ‘stand for’something else”. An early and persis-tent model was that of strategy as war,and later modified to strategy as sport.

Strategy As WarThe word strategy is derived from

the Greek word strategia, meaning“generalship.” For early commercialenterprise that moved beyond the

The Strategistt

One of the most frequent topics of discussion among C-level executives is “strategy.” Yet, there are many interpretations of what the word reallymeans. Before a strategy can be devel-oped and implemented, it is importantthat a company’s entire managementteam agrees on what a strategy is, so they know what they are trying tocreate. In this article, the author putsforth a number of possibilities as astarting point for discussion.Reprinted from The Journal of Business Strategy bypermission.

What is Strategy Anyway?by Richard W. Oliver

O

The Strategist

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family firm, business approachesoften mirrored those of the military.The command and control modelsarmy generals used moved easily intobusiness practice with little alteration.Company heads commanded thetroops while winning battles throughsheer force (superior resources),because they had an impenetrablefortress (a protected market ormonopoly), or via guerilla warfare(going after competitors when they’renot expecting it).Some of these thematic elements

still exist today. Many top executivesregard Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, writ-ten more than 2,000 years ago, asrequired reading. The command andcontrol model was pervasive until thedawn of antitrust legislation in the late1900s, and its lifecycle was extendedby the Great Depression. Keepingworkers happy or motivated wasrarely a consideration, and companieswere much more likely to dictate tocustomers what they could buy than tolisten to what buyers wanted. Strategywas primarily centered on winning thewar by eliminating competitors.

Strategy As MachineWorld War II demonstrated that

the winner was the one with the better“industrial machine.” Thus, the warmetaphor gave way to a view of strat-egy as essentially an industrialprocess that, just like a factory, waslargely mechanized. The prescribedapproaches to strategy seemed tosuggest (just as with a machine), “Ifyou press this button or pull this lever,then such and such would happen.”With its new emphasis on mechanis-

tic processes, the idea of strategicplanning drew more attention in acad-emic circles through the 1960s. Majorcorporations created strategic plan-ning staffs and began to implementsystematic planning processes. Forthe first time, strategy became a busi-ness process that was seen as man-ageable, in the same manner as otherelements of the business. Many of

today’s key terms and tools—as wellas a number of strategy consultingfirms—were developed during thisperiod. Courses on strategic planningbegan to enter the business schoolcurriculum in a limited fashion.However, just as enhanced commu-

nication and global planning perma-nently changed the nature of warfare,these factors also affected the natureof business. By the late 1960s, busi-ness had become more international,more complex, and more sophisticatedas firms rushed to reinvent them-selves and grab global market share.Firms realized that there was a “web”of interrelated stakeholders whodirectly affected success. What wasneeded, then, was a new metaphor.

Strategy As NetworkThe global shocks of the 1970s illus-

trated the importance of flexibility,non-linear thinking (i.e., strategy wasnot simply an extension of currenttrends), and rapid communication instrategic thinking.Many companies bur-dened with a rigidplanning process, orno planning processat all, suffered devas-tating consequencesat the hands of esca-lating oil prices, war,government instabili-ty and increasingglobal competition.The 1980s saw the rise of Japan and

its consequent effect on strategicplanning theory and practice. Therapid advances in technology also hada dramatic effect, with the humble barcode turning inventory managementupside down and the rise of ERP com-puter systems allowing managers totrack widespread geographic activityin real time.As the personal computer and

advanced robotics became more wide-spread, productivity increased, andmanagers gained a wider view ofoperations than ever before. The

1980s were a golden time in the history of strategy. The decade witnessed the start of global planningprocesses, corporate reengineering,the “information-based organization,”and recognition of the employee as akey resource.The 1990s were a boom time for the

United States. Strategic thinking wasaffected by the rise of the Internet,accelerating advances in technology ofall kinds, and a continuing striving forefficiency and low-cost production,putting the focus on a firm’s ability to“add and migrate value.” Strategicplanning and continual revisionbecame entrenched as a vital core ofthe corporation.

Strategy As BiologyPerhaps the most important change

in strategic thinking in this period wasthe recognition of the critical role customers played and their intimaterelationship with the “ecology” of the firm. With few exceptions (e.g.,

government-dictated monopolies) thecustomer has always been the finalarbitrator of corporate strategic suc-cess, particularly over the long term.However, as a result of the prolifer-

ation of information technologies dur-ing the late 1990s, the customer role instrategy formulation became moreimmediate and instantly powerful,influencing the life of the firm just asa living organism interacts with itsenvironment.This strong and continuous interac-

tion of a firm with its environment,particularly its customers, begs for a

Perhaps the most importantchange in strategic thinking inthis period was the recognition ofthe critical role customers playedand their intimate relationshipwith the “ecology” of the firm.

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new metaphor: Occasionally, one hearsa biological metaphor suggested for afirm and its strategy. I predict strategyas biology will be the dominant strate-gic metaphor for the future.

Strategy TodayWhat is strategy today if the CEO

is the DNA of a firm rather than theultimate manager pushing buttons orleading a platoon? If innovation andchange are being created as a naturaland intimate part of a constantlymutating organism?This is where many definitions of

strategy fail. Even mine. Most defini-tions are written by academics forother academics and their students or,at best, by consultants for theirCEO/CFO/Chairman clients, andmost fail to capture the currents ofchange in business.The dismal state of the world econ-

omy in the beginning of the new millennium made judgments aboutthe state of strategy today evenmore difficult.However, while admittedly not per-

fect, the definition I advance doesargue for a more organic view of strat-egy. To me, strategy is the process ofunderstanding the industry (its ecolo-gy) and the firm’s position in thatindustry (its genetic makeup). Itinvolves understanding whether thefirm can either improve the structureof its industry or improve its positionwithin the industry (either a revolu-tionary or evolutionary path).It asks the question: Can the firm

be better than average in its currentindustry (get beyond its DNA)? If not,it must change the structure of theindustry or place itself in anotherindustry where it can be dominant(mutate or die).While I’m not entirely happy with

my definition, it will have to do for themoment. Next faculty meeting I’ll tryto be more articulate in definingstrategy. In the meantime, practition-ers need to have a working definitionthat they and their colleagues agreeon and use.

Here in the Ivory Tower, it’s simplya matter of debate. For those of you inthe real world, it can spell the differ-ence between corporate life and death.

Strategy Definitions: ASampling Over TimeA strategy is the general direction

in which an objective is to be sought.(Strategic Planning and Policy,William R. King and David I. Cleland,1978, p.51)Strategy is a major organizational

plan for action to reach a major orga-nizational objective. (StrategicManagement, Text and Cases, JamesM. Higgins and Julian W. Vincze,1989, p. 166)Strategy is a coherent, unifying and

integrative pattern of decisions;determines and reveals the organiza-tional purpose in terms of long-termobjectives, action programs andresource allocation priorities; selectsthe businesses the organization is inor is to be in; attempts to achieve along-term sustainable advantage ineach of its businesses by respondingproperly to the opportunities andthreats in the firm’s environment, andthe strengths and weaknesses of theorganization; engages all the hierar-chical levels of the firm (corporate,business, functional); and defines thenature of the economic and non-eco-nomic contributions it intends to maketo its stakeholders. (The StrategyConcept & Process, A PragmaticApproach, Arnold C. Hax and NicolasS. Majluf, 1991, p. 6)Strategy is a plan, or something

equivalent—a direction, a guide orcourse of action into the future, a pathto get from here to there, etc.Strategy is also a pattern, that is, con-sistency in behavior over time. (TheRise and Fall of Strategic Planning,Henry Mintzberg, 1994, p.23)Strategy refers to either the plans

made, or the actions taken, in an effortto help an organization fulfill its intend-ed purposes. (Strategic Management,Second Edition, Alex Miller andGregory G. Dess, 1996, p.38)

Strategy is the creation of a uniqueand valuable position, involving a dif-ferent set of activities … The essenceof strategic positioning is to chooseactivities that are different fromrivals’. (“What Is Strategy?” MichaelE. Porter, Harvard Business Review,November/December 1996.)Every organization operates on a

Theory of the Business … Strategyconverts this Theory of the Businessinto performance. Its purpose is toenable an organization to achieve itsdesired results in an unpredictable environment. For strategy allows anorganization to be purposefully oppor-tunistic. (Management Challenges for the 21st Century, Peter Drucker,1999, p. 43)Strategy is a broad articulation of

the kinds of products the organizationwill produce, the basis on which itsproducts will compete with those of itscompetitors, and the types ofresources and capabilities the firmmust have or develop to implementthe strategy successfully. (StrategicManagement, Garth Saloner, AndreaShepard, Joel Podolny, 2000.)

Here is the definition ofStrategic Thinking coined by Decision ProcessesInternational, publisher of The Strategist magazine.

Strategic Thinking: Thatthinking process that goes onin the head of a CEO and keymanagement when theyattempt to articulate a visionand translate it into a profileof what they want the businessto become.

To learn more about StrategicThinking, we suggest readingthe ground breaking book,The New Strategic Thinking,Copyright © Michel Robert,published by McGraw-Hill.

The Strategist

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t

ay back in 2007 HarvardBusiness School put out apaper entitled “Fixing the Marketing — CEO

Disconnect”, which highlighted thegap between the marketing functionand the C-suite. It emphasised thattoo much delegation of responsibilityto the marketing department canresult in marketing activities, whichare not supportive of the company’sgreater strategic goals. In 2011 thefundamental nature of marketing hasshifted so rapidly that many CEOs,given the pressures of other priorities,have found it hard to keep pace.

Digital has become core to thefuture of marketing. The days when digital simply meant

a PR website are over. 2011 marketersrequire online to be more productive.They appreciate the extra reach thatthe internet offers and are making thedeep strategic shift to make onlinework; digital needs to accelerate rev-enue growth; and digital needs to findnew clients and generate real leads. This requires a mind shift from the

way we’ve done things before. And theCEO is the one that should be drivingthis mind shift to ensure that onlinemarketing activities are aligned withstrategic objectives. Unfortunately,

however, CEOs have often felt out oftheir depth when it comes to the inter-net and have left online marketing upto the marketing divisions completely.To make matters worse, the onlinemarketing function in some corpo-rates has now been taken over by theIT department, because “they’re theonly ones that understand the technol-ogy.” This gives us communications

that work technically, but the strategicmarketing objectives have been lostsomewhere down the line. How to fix the rift? Marketing is a strategic function

and should drive IT. IT is there to sup-port marketing. Not to create it. The2011 CEO and his executives can nolonger afford to stay out of the mar-keting department. They must stay

W

As online marketing becomes more pervasive, it is becoming increasingly important that CEOs understand what works best and how to assure thatthe significant investments in these technologies payoff. In this article, digital marketing guru ColleenBackstrom describes some emerging concepts thatmaximize online marketing effectiveness.Published with permission of the author. ColleenBackstrom is CEO of Kaleidoscope Advertising andMarketing, one of the leading online marketingcompanies in South Africa www.kscope.co.za. Copyright © 2011, Kaleidoscope Advertising andMarketing. All rights reserved.How to get more

from your online marketing.4 Strategies.by Colleen Backstrom

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abreast of new online trends, andassess each one on its possible meritsand strategic fit for the business. Here are four strategies that could

help you capitalise on the new growthopportunities offered by online mar-keting in 2011.

Strategy 1. Create a mini-site. Some years ago a Nielsen (USA)

report revealed that speed is the num-ber 1 criterion for a website. Viewerswant to “get on, find the info, and getoff again.” And quickly. This creatednew disciplines for web designers.The best beloved bells-and-whistlesflash sites had to go, and a fine bal-ance was needed between aestheticsand speed. A level up from a speedy site is the

mini-site that provides only the specif-ic niche information that the viewerrequires when searching for solutionsonline. The mini-site is a one-pagewebsite that gives the viewer in-depthbuying information on only one prod-uct or service offering. It serves thecustomer who is interested in thatvery thin slice of the market known asa micro-niche. This viewer is lessinterested in the fact that we’ve-been-around-since-1984; our-mission-state-ment-is. And more interested in theproduct or service that provides thespecific information needed. “Give meonly what I want. And nothing else.”

The rise of the mini-site.Millions of viewers use keywords to

search the web each day. And, as theybecome more impatient about the timeit takes to find the information theywant, mini-sites become highly effec-tive marketing tools. A single-pagewebsite provides information on a spe-cific product, event or service compo-nent of a business. A mini-site is lasertargeted, quick to design and quick tobuild. It can function as an auxiliary tothe primary website. Or it can standalone. And it can be enhanced by mul-timedia content, e.g., a 30 second video

can be either a talking-head or a pro-duction demonstration. (see Strategy 3)

Will a mini-site work for you?Where do in-depth mini-sites work

best? 1. If you’re a big corporate with a

diverse product range, isolate somespecific products and create mini-sitesfor each of them. Especially if theproduct or service solves a problem (apain point) and will relate to a specifickeyword search. 2. As editorial support towards an

event. Or support for a specific prod-uct, e.g. in describing new technology,“Hybrid Transmission Systems” for a new car. Or “How to Grow BulbsSuccessfully,” if you sell mail-orderbulbs. 3. When a different design style is

needed for a product that does not fitthe corporate style, e.g., a cell-phoneinsurance product where your targetgroup is 20-something. You wouldwant the design to be vibey and youngwith bright colours to attract the newtarget group. 4. For pay-per-click advertising or

PPC. A mini-site is an excellent vehi-cle for carrying topic specific, key-word rich content with the goal of hav-ing high search engine rankings. Anda mini-site focussing on specific key-words, gives you a better GoogleQuality Score. And a lower pay-per-click cost. 5. When launching a new product. We

notice that car manufacturers are at laststarting to use mini-sites. So instead ofhaving to wade through every singlemodel ever made on the parent site,only the information relating to onemodel is made available on the mini-site.See the new Chrysler mini-site for the“All-new 2011 Dodge Durango.”6. For online direct response mar-

keting; as a support to your emailmarketing. The growth of onlinedirect response marketing has meantthat mini-sites have become extreme-ly popular as the first stop link to buy-ing information.

Checklist: the components of amini site

Mini-sites are of course not new.They’ve been around since the 1990’s,variously named as one-pagers,squeeze pages, landing pages. But thenew mini-site has a specific eye-track-ing formula that makes it work betterthan ever before as a marketing com-munication. This page is focussed ononly the information and pictures thatlead the viewer to a decision to contactyou. The formula looks like this.

– A relevant picture to make itsticky. And, if it can be a picture of aperson, so much the better. – Address the problem. A strong,

what’s-in-it-for-me header. – Provide the solution.– Support information; guarantees,

testimonials and social proof. – A graphic strong call to action;

click here which leads straight to yoursales team for an immediate response. – Optional: A 30 sec video if your

product will benefit from a demon-stration.

And finally. A category defining domain name. Here’s what is really exciting. Each

day, millions of viewers use searchengines to find things they needonline. To do this they key-in specificwords. The site that can provide thebest match to these words, wins thecustomer. To keep yourself high on the search

engines you create a new domainname that relates strictly to thesearch words being used on Google tofind your type of product. Say yourcompany sells sheet music. And it iscalled Musicnotes.co.za. The domainname of your mini-site will be calledsheetmusic.com, because Google tellsus that that is what people aresearching for. Google likes this.Depending on your market andsearch terms, you can benefit from ahigher volume of traffic than you canexpect from your parent site.

18Dec i s i o n P ro c e s s e s I n t e r n a t i o n a l www. d p i - a s i a . c om

Note: the mini-site does not replace theparent corporate site which remainsthe authority site. And some corporateshave more than one mini-site.

Strategy 2. Blog? Yes, blog. If you’re of the opinion that a blog is

a daily list of personal trivia for peoplewho have nothing better to do, thenyou’re not alone. Not surprising real-ly. A quick scan of the average blogleaves one with the distinct perceptionthat the people who have the mosttime to write have the least to say.And the experts who have the most tosay, do not have the time to write.Certainly, writing articulately is a dif-ficult and time-consuming task. Andnot on the daily agenda of the stressedand over extended executive of the21st Century business.

So why is blogging a strategythat you should consider? This is an age where you can build

your professional reputation word byword.In its ability to educate and inform,

a well-written blog is a platform topromote business to a massive inter-net audience. It is simply great, costeffective PR. And extremely cost sav-ing when compared to a TV or news-paper branding campaign.

And there are other major advan-tages:1. Improve your search engine

rankings. Search engines love blogs.Google loves text [your blog]. AndGoogle loves links [your web link]. Soevery time you post a blog, Googleratchets up your website in its searchengine rankings. This fact aloneshould encourage you to blog.

2. Drive traffic and sales to yourwebsite. 80 percent of business blogtraffic comes from first-time visitorsvia viral referrals and key wordsearches. What a great way to findnew customers!

3. Build credibility as an industryexpert.We all love to do business withan expert. Be one. Blog your companyknowledge and expertise and positionyourself as an authority in your niche.

4. Improve your customer service.Blogging interaction from viewers,both good and bad, gives you a greatopportunity to interact with your cus-tomers. And a great opportunity to say-sorry-nicely when things go wrong.

So how do you start?A blog is at its finest when it is reg-

ularly filled with quality content. Nowhere’s the thing, I hear you say ... who,just who, in my busy business, has thetime to be the writer of this fine qual-ity? The answer is to unleash the realexpertise in your organisation by giv-ing each department the task of writ-ing one blog a month on a rotatingscale and to a set time schedule. Forcoherent consistency the topics can bedecided at the beginning of the year.And to create pride and ownership,and most importantly internal reader-ship, let your employees vote at theend of the year for the best blog. Another blog methodology is to set

up your customer service departmentwith a blog [see googleblogs] and letthem blog the resolutions to customerqueries. Not only will these FAQ’s bevaluable to blog viewers, but also tonew customer service employees.

Strategy 3. 30 Second Online video. Until recently, a video marketing

message was limited to television(interruption advertising) or the com-pany CD (which usually landed in theoffice drawer, unwatched). The inter-net and the rise of YouTube has made itcommonplace (and desirable) for us tolook-at-the-pictures. In Europe or theUSA it is not unusual to see a 30 secondvideo on a mini-site, a blog or corporatehome page. The video appearsonscreen as a small rectangle a fewcentimetres wide with a “start” arrow.

The video can be a simple productdemonstration, or testimonial inter-views with various customers. Explore an online video for your

site. It allows you to tap into the buy-ing emotions of your viewer and tocreate brand moments that are onlypossible with moving pictures.

Note: Although online video is a greatopportunity for communication mar-keting, it should be used in conjunc-tion with text. For viewers in a hurry,text is still better in that it allowsscan-reading and easy linking toquickly find the desired information.

Strategy 4. Get professional with emailmarketing. We suggest you finally put some

serious budget into your email cam-paigns and make it the job of the mar-keting department to ensure strategicalignment. It is no longer acceptableto be sending out PR and branding“newsletters.” Readers are not inter-ested in your news. They want toknow what you can do for them, howyou can fix their problems. A market-ing email should exist for one reasononly. To move you towards a sale. So how do managers, especially if

not schooled in emarketing, know thedifference between a good and a badcampaign? Here are some quickguidelines.

– Is your campaign focused on yourstrategic objectives, leading to a tar-geted result, set by you? – Are you using the science of eye-

tracking studies to guarantee thatyour emails get the responses yourequire? – Is your campaign response driven

with ROI measures in place?– Is the campaign fully measurable?

And can you track every cent of youradspend to a sale? – And most importantly, have you

budgeted for an ongoing campaign,minimum one year?

The Strategist

UNITED STATESWORLD HEADQUARTERS:Decision Processes International4 Cranbrook RoadShrewsbury, MA 01545Tel: 508-842-92911-800-336-7685 within the USA

ASIA (HQ)Decision Processes International(S) Pte Ltd, 1 Sophia Road#04-16 Peace CentreSingapore 228149Tel: +65 62351733E-Mail: enquiries@dpi-asia.comInternet: www.dpi-asia.com

AFRICADecision Processes InternationalP.O. Box 488Cramerview 2060South Africa Tel: +27 (11) 706 8118

+27 (11) 706 8119Fax: +27 (11) 706 0205

DPI staff and offices are located around the world:

Engaging Us

All of our Pure & Simple™ critical thinking processes are available via a variety of means. Likethe Chinese Medicine Man who blends different ingredients to develop a specific herbal remedy foreach client, DPI Partners are skilled practitioners in unbundling our processes and their underlyingconcepts. The result: a tailored solution that exactly meets your needs. Our only “must” criteria — we must be convinced that the approach will meet the mutually agreed objectives.

Typical engagement approaches include:

• Consulting Projects: Where DPI’s role is to leverage our processes to help you and your people develop solutions to the particular concerns you face

• Application-based Workshops

• Skill-Building Programs: A hands-on approach to transfer our processes to your people

• Train-The-Trainer

• Licensing

For more information, please contact us.

Other offices within Asia are located in Bangkok, Hong Kong, Vietnam and major cities in mainland China.

A Worldwide Consulting Organization Specializing in

Critical Thinking Processes

A Partial List ofDPI Clients

In Asia:SATS LIMITEDFRASERS CENTREPOINTLEE KUM KEEABACUS INTERNATIONALLUBRIZOL CORPORATIONSINGTELPRUDENTIAL INSURANCETECKWAH CORPORATIONSLS BEARINGSMOTOROLA SOLUTIONSOCBC BANKAVAGO TECHNOLOGIESNTUC INCOMEKURNIA INSURANSADVANCED INFO SERVICESIAM CEMENTBEIERSDORFKASIKORN BANKMITR PHOLMAXTHONGSK

Worldwide:CATERPILLARFEDEX (CUSTOM CRITICAL)VOLVOSOUTH AFRICAN BREWERIESHARMONYHOWDENCOLUMBUS STAINLESSALTECHAUTOPAGESEALYALEXANDER FORBESMARLEYOLD MUTUALRAND MERCHANT BANKMETROPOLITAN LIFEORGANTEXCANANDAIGUA BRANDSVISTEONGATXCASTROLFIRSTRANDFLEXCONFIATMESTEK INC.LANDAMERICAPHELPS DODGESILICON LABORATORIESCANCER TREATMENT CENTERS

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MDecision Processes International is a worldwide consulting organizationbuilt on the belief that rational, or critical, thinking is essential to the survival and growth of every enterprise.

Our critical thinking processes are applied common sense. They weredeveloped and proven in the real-world laboratory of organizations likeyours. And they work, transforming the way our clients do business. Inhundreds of companies around the world, DPI processes are producingexceptional, measurable results every day, simply by improving people’s ability to make better strategic and operational decisions.

DPI Critical Thinking Processes

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Strategic Thinking

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Strategic Product Innovation

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eStrategy (eBusiness)

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Strategic Information Management

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Strategy Deployment

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Situation Management

In Singapore call:

+65 62351733or

Email: enquiries@dpi-asia.com