GDP and New Age Strategy

GDP and the Need of a Warp-Speed Strategy

Let’s avoid going into the obvious, so without further ado, Allegro 234 has adjusted its strategic development processes to respond to a new, staggeringly disruptive reality which changes without warning, erratically and chaotically.

This part subtitle starts with “GDP”, an acronym that commonly stands for Gross Domestic Product; however, this is not the case. We will use it as an aide-memoire which was actually coined by Fabrizio Ferraro and Bruno Cassiman in a brilliant article they wrote for IESE Insights (2014). For us GDP means Globalisation, Digitalisation and Politicisation, as it did for them.

In this context, GDP will be a trigger for changing and redefining strategic patterns at business and brand levels – which is what we are interested in:

  • Globalisation: Is to be aware that one can be the best kid on the block or the best around the world for one’s clients, depending on where they are. It is not an effort to conquer planet Earth, it is about knowing where the customers really are.
  • Digitisation: Is a new way of creating and capturing value that hugely affects products, business models and communities. It’s not just about CRM, VR, AR, IoT or another bunch of fancy letters, it’s about new processes, new ways of serving key audiences, being connected, and interacting. Digitisation is not dehumanisation. In fact, it should be quite the opposite!
  • Politicisation: Goes through striking a balance between demands of their target audiences in the private sphere, and the company social and environmental responsibilities, and its consciousness.

CB 42

The Five Elements

The five key elements that we have changed on strategy building could be summarised as follows:

  1. Minimise development time
  2. Consider all key audiences in their different roles
  3. Simultaneously seek short term results, long term value generation and positive impact
  4. Craft a seamless strategic structure
  5. Unify institutional and brand strategies

Minimise Development Time

Although this is another truism, it is important to note that the long term is becoming a shorter and shorter period of time. This means that planning periods also have to be substantially reduced.

Consider All Key Audiences in Their Different Roles

Within GDP, the P of politicisation implies that strategies must be responsive to the people who make up all key stakeholders in their role as citizens.

Seek Short Term Results, Long Term Value Generation and Positive Impact

If planning and execution times are shorter, the combination of results, value and impact means that it is necessary to establish milestones which ensure a balance between those different demands. There is no longer one strategy for everything, but chapters of a single strategy responding to the different tensions to which the company will be exposed.

Craft a Seamless Strategic Structure

It is increasingly important to maintain frequent strategic dialogues to collect environmental dynamism. That´s the place where insights are generated, enacting and enabling strategic decisions, and testing specific value levers. Crafting evokes experts, dedicated to what they do, achieving perfection through mastery of detail. That is why strategies must be crafted; because thinking and doing, formulating and implementing, go together, almost indistinguishably.

Unify Institutional and Brand Strategies

To put it simply, strategy is about what must be accomplished to be successful. And this is where one sees that corporate and brand strategy are the two faces of the same coin; one looks out for the success of the company and the other for the success of its customers.

CB 41

This is the point that strategists find most useful, specifically when they need to explain what they do to their mums and dads.

Some Naïve Questions…

  • Are you still planning to spend months, almost a year, developing your strategy?
  • Are you aware of the impact of the citizen’s role and demands on your business?
  • Is there a certain balance in your company between short and medium-term demands?
  • Can you live in the uncertainty of knowing where you want to get to while building the road as you go?
  • Have you already explained to mum and dad what you do for living?

 

Let’s talk about your business and your brand

Learn more about transforming and growing through your brand, people and experiences while raising its conscience. Read our other cases, visit our blog, subscribe to our newsletter… or join us for a good cup of coffee as we discuss the possibilities of helping you build your business towards sustainable growth in value, results and positive impact.

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<a href="https://allegro234.net/author/cristian/" target="_self">Cristian Saracco</a>

Cristian Saracco

About the author

Founding Partner | Allegro234 Founding Member | The Flow Collective Full Member | Medinge Group Member Editorial Committee | Branders Magazine
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Mar 30, 2022

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