Business Strategy Framework From ‘Management Revolution Textbook’【Excel Template】
Once a good business strategy is in place, other right strategies can be set up. This article introduces a practical, but simple business strategy framework and its Excel template.
(Duration: 8:30)
DOWNLOAD ← Click this to download the “Business Strategy Framework” template file.
Have a Business Strategy before a Marketing Strategy
Hi, this is Mike Negami, Lean Sigma Black Belt.
I made a video and template of a marketing strategy framework earlier. Marketing is the activity of creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings of your products and services. ⇒”Can we use Lean Six Sigma for marketing strategy?【Excel Template】”
But before that, you need to have answers to the question “What is my company’s philosophy and existence value?” That’s a Business Strategy. Once a good business strategy is in place, the right marketing strategy can be set up.
When you think about your company’s business strategy, there are many analysis methods such as the SWOT analysis, and there are also many business strategy frameworks. ⇒”How to Make a SWOT Analysis and the Project Selection Matrix【Excel Template】”
Let’s learn one of the business strategy frameworks from the book, ‘Management Revolution Textbook’. The reason I thought that this book’s framework is good is because it’s very simple and covers the essence of business strategy. ⇒‘Management Revolution Textbook’ co-authored by Mitsuhiko Watanabe
This book’s co-author is Mr. Mitsuhiko Watanabe and he is an expert in the ‘Management-Quality Improvement Program’. This book is written mainly for the medical and social welfare industries, but any industry readers can learn a lot from this book.
Business Strategy Framework
The bottom line is that this figure is the framework of the business strategy mentioned in this book. (Translated from ‘Management Revolution Textbook’ Pg 40, Adjusted from Original Image, Japan Quality Award’s Assessment Standard Book)
It’s very simple, but very important. This book says that it’s important to clarify ‘Philosophy and Vision’, which is the purpose and goal of what kind of company your company wants to be, then create a ‘Strategy’ to achieve the ‘Vision’, and carry out ‘Operational Planning and Execution Management’.
This book talks about Japanese situations, but we can still learn from it. The part of the book I thought was interesting is that there are some industries still protected by regulations in Japan after WW2.
Companies in those industries have a lockstep mentality, without having ‘Philosophy and Vision’ and ‘Strategy’, but they have managed well on ‘Operational Planning and Execution Management’, in short ‘Management’.
Because of that situation, there are many companies in Japan whose strategies are ambiguous and just do ‘Management’, so the famous American Professor, Dr. Michael Porter pointed out that “Japanese companies rarely have a strategy”.
You cannot raise the quality of your ‘Management’ without pursuing your ‘Philosophy and Vision’ and ‘Strategy’, and when the waves of liberalization and global competition come, you’ll have to utilize this Business Strategy even more.
Establish your ‘Philosophy and Vision’ and have it embedded in your company.
Let’s look at the explanation of the first ‘Philosophy and Vision’ in this book. It’s especially the starting point to clarify the ‘Philosophy’ of the company.
‘Philosophy’ is a straightforward expression of the meaning of existence and mission of your organization. It’s the values you nurture and the responsibility to your society. It’s necessary to ‘Reinterpret’ the meaning of your philosophy according to the times.
On the other hand, ‘Vision’ represents what kind of organization you’re aiming for as your ‘Arrival goal after three to five years’ as based on the ‘Philosophy’.
While ‘Philosophy’ will continue to be pursued, ‘Vision’ should be achieved.
[Translated from ‘Management Revolution Textbook’, Pg 42, Co-authored by Mitsuhiko Watanabe]
Of course, your company’s resources are limited. You can decide how to allocate your limited resources effectively according to your ‘Philosophy and Vision’.
In addition, all human beings have their own beliefs and values, and that must be respected. But what happens if all the employees work with their own values alone?
It’s self-evident that company power will be improved significantly if all employees see in one direction.
That will not happen unless you have a ‘Philosophy’ as a company, and it must be shared and picked up by all employees.
Actually, many companies have a philosophy, but their philosophies aren’t picked up by employees. According to the study done by the authors, those companies had the following common issues.
① Often staff were not involved when establishing the company philosophy. The background and intention of the philosophy were not shared.
② Expression of company philosophies are too abstract to understand. Therefore, the employees do not know what they should do.
③ The original purpose of the efforts to promote the company philosophy has been lost, and those efforts are losing substance.
[Translated from ‘Management Revolution Textbook’, Pg 100-101, Co-authored by Mitsuhiko Watanabe]
The ‘Business Strategy Framework’ Excel template
I would like to suggest that you try writing your company’s ‘Philosophy and Vision’ and ‘Strategy’. In this book, it explains ‘Strategy’ as follows:
‘Strategy’ is, in short, ‘Setting the path for achieving the goal’.
Since there are various routes to the goal, it’s a strategy to choose the best one and dedicate resources to it.
[Translated from ‘Management Revolution Textbook’, Pg 75, Co-authored by Mitsuhiko Watanabe]
I got permission from Mr. Watanabe, the book’s co-author, and made an Excel template for this Business Strategy Framework. ⇒’Business Strategy Framework’ Excel Template Download
This image above is that template. I put the instructions on the right side. Follow the instructions and write your ‘Philosophy and Vision’ in the light-blue cells. At this time, please discuss this with your team.
Write ‘Strategies’ in the light-yellow cells to realize the ‘Vision’ you stated. You can write up to 10 strategies.
Then, write ‘Sub-Strategies’ to achieve each ‘Strategy’. Double click on the place where you want to add a ‘Sub-Strategy’ and enter ‘2’ in the next screen. (See the image below.)
Next, write ‘Actions’ to achieve each ‘Sub-Strategy’. Double click the place you want to add an ‘Action’ and enter ‘3’. You can add a ‘Strategy’ by entering ‘1’ on the same screen. Also, you can delete those entries by entering ‘4’ on the same screen.
The concept of this process is the same as a WBS (Work Breakdown Structure). The ‘Milestone’ of a WBS is the ‘Strategy’ here, the ‘Deliverable’ is a ‘Sub-Strategy’, and ‘Task’ is ‘Action’. Please click on the next link to see the WBS video for details. ⇒”How to write a WBS (Work Breakdown Structure) 【Excel Practice】”
Unfortunately, this book, ‘Management Revolution Textbook’, has not been translated into English. Just in case however, I put a link to the book in Japanese.
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