Innovation & Strategy workshop

Thank you Innovation & Strategy - Special management program attendees -- it was another amazing event. For a quick review , We have compiled list of key insights from the program .Here you go

Begin with “Winning moves”: Kaihan showed three great examples , How Kola Real came up winning moves where coke choose not to respond , Outfitter vs GAP and Finally Grameen bank’s winning moves against traditional banks. Reflect back on these three examples, think and come up with some winning moves where your competitors might prefer not to respond. Plan your winning moves on three fronts “Who” “What” and “How”.

Ultimate question: Kaihan walked you through this exercise in the workbook page number 16. He shared a story about an old monk and a young monk going in the forest, they saw fox chasing rabbit –Young monk asks the old monk who is going to win? And the old monk replies Rabbit .The reason: Rabbit is fighting for life where as Fox is fighting for lunch.
Using the following 5 questions, come up with a challenging situation and nail down your ultimate question:

1. What is your current situation and how do you keep the score?
2. If I keep doing what I am doing, where will I be (near-term)?
3. Where do I want to be in the long term?
4. Where must I be in the near-term to realize my long-term goal?
5. What question arises in the gap between #2 and #4?

Once you have your ultimate question, brainstorm for ideas to achieve your ultimate business objective using top 10 Stratagems.


1) Await the exhausted enemy at your ease: This stratagem talks about your current battleground (Industry, marketplace) and what might be the future battleground. What actions you can take today to position yourself for this next battleground.

Examples: Frontline, Nokia, Mittal steel, Walmart.
To implement this strategy, ask the following question

Key Question: Where is the next battleground in your industry?


2) Befriend a distant enemy to attack on the enemy nearby: This Stratagem is about listing out all your direct and indirect competitors and analyzing with whom you can partner to achieve common objectives. Visualize how will it look if you achieve your vision and how this competitor might benefit?

Examples: EA’s alliance with Sony Playstation and Hero Honda’s alliance with Hero Cycles.
To implement this strategy, ask the following question

Key Question: Who else benefits if you win?

3) Remove the firewood from under the pot
This stratagem talks about sources of fuel that you and your competition depend upon. Spend sometime thinking about this. Some of the inputs could be- capabilities, resources, technology, people etc. Ask yourself what resources can you lock up for yourself ? Or what would be the impact of your move on your competitor, if it has no access to that resource. Which option is more attractive to you?

Examples: Softsoap, Apple, Gitanjali, Pepsi, Outback steakhouse

To implement this strategy, ask the following question

Key Question: What inputs can you control?

4) Besiege wei to rescue Zhao
This stratagem is about forcing your competitor to battle on multiple fronts. This flusters you opponent and multiplies your chances for victory.
What gives Kingfisher a meaningful advantage is the competitive dynamic Mallya has created. Just as Branson forces British Airways to compete on multiple battle-fronts (to compete not just with Virgin Atlantic but also with Virgin Radio, Virgin Railroads, Virgin Cola, etc.), Mallya flusters his key adversary, the former leading Indian business airline Jet Airways, with a multi-front attack. When Mallya sells Kingfisher beer, for example, he builds brand awareness with someone who may later buy a plane ticket. When he launches TV commercials for his planes, he simultaneously builds brand awareness for beer, something no other beer company can do since this is illegal in India.
This pattern of competition - forcing your adversary into a two-front battle - is a powerful one. Sixteen per cent of the world’s most competitive companies cite using it in some way to build an advantage. Starbucks, for example, forces local coffee shops into a two-front battle by sandwiching them between two Starbucks shops. Wal-Mart achieves greater scale economies by keeping its stores within close proximity to each other and thereby making it less expensive to ship goods. Microsoft famously did this by bundling Word, Excel, and Powerpoint into Office and thereby forcing pure-play software makers (e.g., Harvard Graphics) into a multi-front battle they could not win.

To apply this stratagem
Apply this stratagem to your business today by asking the question:
• Who could force your competitors into a multi-front battle?
• If you were Kingfisher Beer, what would be your Kingfisher Airline?
Examples: British Airways vs. Virgin, Jet Airways Vs Kingfisher
Key Question: With whom can you launch multi-front battle?

5) Create something out of nothing

This stratagem plays on the fact that you and your competitors get entranced with the current players in the game. We play business like we play chess, forgetting that unlike in chess we can add new players to the board. If you look at what players you wish were in the game because their presence could tilt the dynamics in your favor, you may find an interesting new opportunity to create this new player.

Examples: Coke, Reliance, etc

To implement this strategy, ask the following question

Key Question: Who do you wish you could add to the game or have in the game?

6) Deck the tree with bogus blossoms

This form of competition is emerging across industries. It has become one of Microsoft most critical threats. If you look for uncoordinated, individual agents in your environment and you coordinate them you can approximate the power of something much larger. This could mean coordinate customers, coordinating experts, or coordinating suppliers. But do not stop there, look further. Look for any agents that are uncoordinated.

Examples: Ohmynews, Linux, Wikipedia

To implement this strategy, ask the following question

Key Question: Who could you coordinate?

7) Borrow a corpse for the soul’s return

This stratagem talks about what has been abandoned in your industry or marketplace .What business models, ideas, technologies have been abandoned? What if you could adopt any of these to your advantage?

Example: Blackberry used abandoned text network. Southwest used the abandoned point to point model when all other airlines moved to Hub and spoke

To implement this strategy, ask the following question

Key Question: What has been abandoned in your industry?

8) Hide a Dagger #33 Behind a Smile

This stratagem plays on that your competition, customers, distributors, and markets and general will generate less resistance to your growth if you are, or at least appear to be, helpful

Example: Google’s initial alliance with Yahoo, Intel’s licensing of early microprocessors to convince IBM to build the first PC around Intel technology.

To implement this strategy, ask the following question

Key Question: How can you be helpful to your competition or to your industry?

9) Shed your skin like the golden Cicada

This stratagem talks about focusing your competition and/or market on a façade while moving the real action (profits) somewhere else.

Examples : Thomson Travel, Circuit city, U-Haul.

To implement this strategy, ask the following question

Key Question: If you had to loose money on your current business, where would you move the action to?

10) Exchange a brick for a jade

This stratagem talks about finding the bricks that exist in your company. It plays on the fact that value is relative: what your customers value may cost you little and what you value (e.g., loyalty) your customers may not value at all. Bricks are the things that you place low value but to your customer find valuable. Figure out where you can give these bricks away and in return lock your customer for the long term.

Examples: Xbox & Playstation consoles, Xerox machines.

Key Question:

What “bricks” can you give away in exchange for customer captivity?