Chief Strategy Officer, Issue 24

T H E

L E A D I N G

V O I C E

O F

S T R AT E G Y

CHIEF STRATEGY OFFICER

MAY 2017 | #11

What Can Be Done To Get More Women In Senior Positions? /10

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WHY HILTON DIDN’T SEE AIRBNB COMING

UBER: DOES CORPORATE CULTURE MATTER?

Airbnb’s rise has bee meteoric over the last few years, and traditional hotel giants were caught asleep at the wheel. We look at what other incumbents can learn so they can succeed in the face of disruptive forces /18

Corporate culture has gained new importance in recent years. Uber’s is so negatively viewed that some human resource managers actually see the company as a bad mark against a candidates name. But why? And does it really matter? /26

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Chief Strategy Officer Summit 19th & 20th October, 2017 London

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CONTACT

+44 203 868 4215 sblunsdon@theiegroup.com /2

www.theinnovationenterprise.com

ISSUE 11

EDITOR’S LETTER Welcome to the 11th Edition of the Chief Strategy Officer Magazine The last year has seen strategic planning become increasingly difficult, with new risks coming thick and fast.

From Trump’s bombastic approach to governing a country, to the uncertainties of Brexit, it is now harder than ever to set a concrete direction for the company.

This means strategy leaders have to be flexible and put in place agile plans that can adapt quickly to changing circumstances.

In light of the political polarization that caused Trump and Brexit - that has worsened since - it is often difficult for brands to know whether or not to involve themselves in discussions. Toyota, for one, lost $1.2 billion in value as a result of a single tweet from Donald Trump.

Equally Pepsi’s recent cringeworthy campaign using Kendall Jenner to exploit the protest movement has been widely condemned.

Some, however, have succeeded.

Nordstrom, for one, faced considerable pressure from campaign groups including Grab Your Wallet to drop Ivanka Trump’s clothing line, which they eventually did, citing poor sales. Even if this were the case, given the backlash against the Trump family following the election, it has been interpreted as deeply political.

However, unlike the huge Toyota share price drop, Nordstrom had an initial drop of 1% for 4 minutes after the tweet, before the share price ended 4.1% up at close. Given that Nordstrom’s motives remain unclear, it is hard to gauge the success of this, although if share price is anything to go by, if it was a political move, it seems like it has been a success.

One thing that helps in ensuring that a company can survive a changing global climate is a consistent brand. In a recent interview with us, Erin Ilgen, Manager of Brand Experience at Lexus, defined a successful brand strategy as one that aligns with the values and beliefs of your company’s culture. ‘It needs to authentically represent and affirm the characteristics and strengths of your business,’ she said. ‘In addition, the brand strategy needs to speak to your consumers. It needs to emotionally connect with them in a way that they believe that your brand is aligned with their needs, wants, and individual tastes.’ Essentially, if your brand is consistent then you can respond to events in a way that will not catch your audience by surprise and potentially cause a PR nightmare.

This is not an easy thing to achieve and requires a careful balance between authenticity and agility. You have to stay true to yourself - your company’s history and values - or you will seem fake to your audience. You also have to understand the demands of your demographic. A youthful demographic will likely be more against Trump than an older age group, at least if voting data is to be believed, but this is no guarantee. It is also important to commit to a movement. Pepsi likely would have identified the protest movement, Black Lives Matter and so forth, as of significance to the youthful audience they were chasing and image they were trying to portray to do so. Unfortunately, they got it horribly wrong with an entirely misjudged advert that ended up satisfying nobody on either side of the political spectrum. This is a valuable lesson. If you are going to try and score political points as a brand, don’t half arse it. Go all in, or don’t even try.

James Ovenden

managing editor

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contents

6 | STRATEGIC PLANNING IN TIMES OF UNCERTAINTY

We are currently living in uncertain times, with political upheaval across the world making strategy’s exceptionally difficult to formulate. We look at how you can execute growth opportunities in times of global uncertainty?

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10 | WHAT CAN BE DONE TO GET MORE WOMEN IN SENIOR POSITIONS?

14 | HOW DIVERSIFICATION HELPED GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS SURVIVE

The lack of women in senior positions is still an exceptionally pronounced issue. We look at what is behind the problem and what can be done to correct it.

The publishing industry has been in decline for a number of years and has been one of the major victims of digital.

Guinness World Records has survived, even flourish though, and diversification is to thank

18 | WHY HILTON DIDN’T SEE AIRBNB COMING

22 | UBER: DOES CORPORATE CULTURE MATTER?

Airbnb’s rise has been meteoric over the last few years, and traditional hotel giants were caught asleep at the wheel. We look at what other incumbents can learn so they can succeed in the face of disruptive forces

Corporate culture has gained new importance in recent years.

Uber’s is so negatively viewed that some human resource managers actually see the company as a bad mark against a candidates name. But why?

And does it really matter?

26 | THE KEY COMPONENTS OF A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS STRATEGY

We sat down with eight of the world’s leading strategists from some of the best known organizations to ask them what they believed were the central universal tenets to a successful strategy.

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Strategic Planning In Times Of Uncertainty Allie Laurent, Business Pundit

Let’s face it, many leaders need to learn how to run a business all over again, as today’s environment where disruption is essentially around every corner, is intimidating. For many years, a golden business rule has been an ability to draw a distinctive line between a business operation and politics, but in the light of recent global events, many can’t help it and are forced to adjust to the new political climate. Additionally, focusing on initiatives critical to a company’s health is becoming increasingly difficult, because a big chunk of time often goes to mastering risk management skills due to the hyper-competitive environment. In the end, there is often no room for thorough strategic planning, but a lot of space for panic.

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focusing on initiatives critical to a company’s health is becoming increasingly difficult, because a big chunk of time often goes to mastering risk management skills due to the hyper-competitive environment

A fear of losing it all due to one poorly planned decision is understandable, but it starts to prevail in an increasing number of cases, which is a warning sign. So can you execute growth opportunities whilst staying alert in times of global uncertainty?

Don’t fight a change, work with it A change in the business environment can be destructive or it can work to your advantage - it all depends on how you look at it and use it. For example, when Facebook appeared and became one of the pioneers of the social media revolution, some treated it as an opportunity, others tried to ignore innovation and didn’t believe in the long-lasting success of it. A handful of those who spotted the opportunity managed to deploy innovative ideas whilst the market was new, and as a result, they succeeded.

As any successful entry in the market is capable of reshaping the industry and consumers to some extent, you can ignore the success of the new /8

company, but you shouldn’t ignore the changes this company creates in the market. So, don’t fight it, instead, analyze and make the most of it.

Looking At Universal Trends Today, forecasting and market analysis may be difficult to perform thanks to so many emerging trends and policies that are often hard to predict with reliable levels of accuracy. In cases like this, the worst action is to stand still and wait for uncertain times to pass.

No one can ever guarantee a risk-free market, so if there are constant changes, learn as much as you can about them and their cause.

We can also look at specific trends that are at the foundation of why specific things are happening. For instance, we know that millennials now make up the largest proportion of the US working population. We also know that this group has unique characteristics, such as being tech-savvy and embracing the sharing economy boom.

We should also acknowledge that businesses are shifting towards digitization to increase productivity and minimize operational costs. Thanks to increased connectivity and advances in technology, there is a visible trend of launching digital and software services and products, which again, allow for minimal setup costs but maximum revenue.

Additionally, we know that investments are increasingly moving towards the IoT and AI sectors, with the automotive industry, in particular, becoming more sustainable and connected.

These are just a few examples of innovations that are likely to affect us in the near future.

Big innovations tend to create a chain of sub-opportunities around them, like gaps which can be filled. So as important as it is to look out for what’s new in the market, it is also critical to analyze what these opportunities create and how to benefit from them.

Uncertainty Can Be A Call For Action Whether it’s ground-breaking technological advancements, economic instability, or political reforms that disrupt the natural flow of the business operation, learn how to make the current market environment fit your business vision.

In many cases, once a company detects an incoming disruptive event (in whatever form it takes), they tend to choose a sensible approach where they can mitigate risk within their business strategy. However, these companies often end up in a situation where they are only just managing to

get through difficult times. These try to keep changes to the business model to a minimum and often resorting to cost cutting and redundancies to stay afloat without changing their model.

Many tend to ignore that the passive approach is more likely to see a company negatively impacted by external circumstances. When predicting future market trends gets tough, it may be the right time to unleash creativity.

Market uncertainty can be dangerous, but at the same time, there is nothing better than capitalizing on a company’s ability to spot hidden opportunities. These companies can use the uncertainty to differentiate themselves from competitors, grow fast, but most importantly, ease the fear of the unknown.

No one can ever guarantee a risk-free market, so if there are constant changes, learn as much as you can about them and their cause

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We should stop asking the question of how much value women bring to a company!

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Editorial credit: Christopher Penler / Shutterstock.com

What Can Be Done To Get More Women In Senior Positions?

James Ovenden, Managing Editor

According to a recent study by professional services firm Grant Thornton, women now hold one in four senior roles at companies around the world.

This is up 1% on 2016, although the percentage of companies that had no female participation at senior level globally also went up by a percentage point in 2017 to 34%, so whether or not we can say there has been any real progress is up for debate.

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To the extent that you can say this is progress, it is certainly not at any discernible pace. Many organizations now have programs in place to redress the imbalance, but they need to be doing more. The business case for increasing diversity in the workplace is strong, and from a purely business perspective, companies that do not do everything they can to get women in high positions are missing out a significant amount of value.

We asked five female business leaders what they think is behind the lack of women in senior positions, and what could be done about it.

Ilene Fischer, former CEO of WomenLEAD, Inc. I think there are certain positions and industries where you find more women in senior positions eg: HR positions, Chief Administration Officer, Chief Marketing Officer, and in the Healthcare and Education industries.

Technology seems to be the industry that is suffering most from a lack of women in senior positions and the lack of gender equality. The Harvard Business Review study: The Athena Report shines light on the issues for women in STEM careers - it points to 50% of women leaving their STEM careers mid-career because of a lack of role models, mentors, uncertain career paths, and non-supportive work environments. In all of my research I have found that women do not ask for what they want at work and in fact, in 2014 there was a McKinsey report that showed that all things being equal, women will ask for 30% less salary than a man. Given these two studies, I think companies, should offer mentoring for women to help them in their career, provide them role models and to help women to learn to ask and negotiate for what they need at work.

Olga V. Mack, Founder of WomenServeOnBoards.com We should stop asking the question of how much value women bring to a company! After all, numerous studies suggest that women as a group have numerous strengths and that their participation in a company’s leadership maximizes long-term shareholder value. At some point, we should re-frame and ask, ‘Why have women been excluded in the first place? And what should we do now to correct this problem soon?’ It may mean that we need to recruit women more aggressively or invest in women proactively and grow talent internally. We need to act now, not just talk about the benefits of including women!

There is also the issue of getting professionals to stand up and demand more women in senior positions. I’ve received several emails saying, ‘I support your movement, but I can’t publicly sign your petitions.’ Many men and women fear professional or social backlash for ‘rocking the boat’ by publicly criticizing companies’ lack of women. This collective silence is holding us back and keeping us from progressing into a future of gender equality! Consumers and professionals alike shouldn’t let fear keep them from speaking out. In turn, companies should listen to their customers and employees when they say it’s time for more women in senior positions. / 12

Belen Pamukoff, Brand Director at Heineken As a woman, we need to support each other, and stop competing. We need to mentor other women and create a constant communication with each other to build a network of support. We need to participate in events like the Women in Strategy Summit and other events that lift women up and nurture the feminine side of business. I often notice that we as women will try to mimic the masculine energy that is dominant in the workplace, but we need to resist that urge and just be ourselves. Corporations and the world in general needs more natural feminine energy.

Letizia Amadini-Lane, VP, Strategic Alliances at SBP There is a lot of discussion about the lack of women in senior positions and some good thinking on how to address it. My personal perspective is: ‘You are a woman, I am a woman. I know how hard it is to stand for women’s values in a highly patriarchal society. Let’s not betray our reality.’ What I mean is that women in senior positions need to bring other women along the journey. Women in more junior positions need to seek mentorship and guidance from senior women. It cannot be an individualistic approach; it must be a collective action even if at the very core it is still a personal journey. At different stages of my career, I had three incredible very senior women, who mentored me and ‘pulled me up’. They encouraged me to go where I might never have dared to go alone, and I would have not progressed and developed if it wasn’t for them. If a senior woman in your company doesn’t want to offer her support and mentorship… move to the next one.

Gina Helfrich, Co-founder of recruitHER Children as young as 3 begin adopting gender-stereotypical behaviors, so there’s no doubt that this is a far-reaching and systemic problem. The ‘leaky pipeline’ that pushes girls and young women out of science and math is 100% real but also 100% fixable. Important research by the AAUW has confirmed that most of our ‘pipeline problem’ for educating girls in STEM is simply related to stereotypes that are both inaccurate and harmful - it has nothing to do with intrinsic aptitude or inclination. For example, exposing STEM students to examples of prominent women who have been STEM pioneers increases the likelihood that girls will persist. (Can you name one famous woman in science, math, or engineering besides Marie Curie?)

On the other hand, companies are not off the hook. More than 50% of women leave tech by mid-career, largely due to unfriendly or downright hostile workplaces. It has nothing to do with having babies, although more generous paid parental leave would certainly help to retain more women in tech. Companies need to implement the types of benefits and workplace policies that are friendly to women and create productive teams, such as salary transparency and flexible work hours. Companies also need to make it standard that all hiring, promotion, and advancement processes are insulated against unconscious bias, which has a huge negative effect on women’s representation in the industry. / 13

How

Diver sif ication Helped Guiness World Records Survive

Editorial credit: Paolo Bona / Shutterstock.com, Editorial credit: Foto011 / Shutterstock.com, Editorial credit: Kaliva / Shutterstock.com, Editorial credit: lev radin / Shutterstock.com, Editorial credit: Michael Dorrington / Shutterstock.com, Editorial credit: Dan Moeller / Shutterstock.com, Editorial credit: Vincenzo De Bernardo / Shutterstock.com, Editorial credit: Igor Karasi / Shutterstock.com, Editorial credit: muzsy / Shutterstock. com, Editorial credit: Corepics VOF / Shutterstock.com, Editorial credit: Glynnis Jones / Shutterstock.com, Editorial credit: HainaultPhoto / Shutterstock.com, Editorial credit: Mitch Gunn / Shutterstock.com, Editorial credit: hurricanehank / Shutterstock.com, Editorial credit: thelefty / Shutterstock.com, Editorial credit: Maxisport / Shutterstock.com, Editorial credit: reddees / Shutterstock.com, Editorial credit: Lucian Milasan / Shutterstock.com

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The biggest advance from GWR has come in the growth of their digital presence. GWR is fortunate in that it has incredibly shareable content Afolabi Opedare, Head of Strategy In 1988, Blackie became the world’s wealthiest cat when its owner died and bequeathed it $12.5 million. In 1994, Daniel Bent completed the bog-snorkeling triathlon in 2 hours, 23 minutes, 24 seconds at the World Bog Snorkeling Championships. In 2015, 2,681 boy scouts came together at Denver Area Council’s Camporee to pop bubble wrap.

While these three events may have little in common on the surface, they all share a distinct honor - they all set Guinness World Records.

Such an achievement has been the focus of millions of hours of hard work since the first Guinness Book of Records was published on August 27th, 1955. Over the last fifty years, it has sold over a hundred million copies, reportedly making it the fourth biggest selling copyright book in history after the Bible, the Koran, and Chairman Mao. Over this time, the publishing industry has changed beyond recognition.

Many, many companies have failed to adapt to these changes and fallen by the wayside as a result. Guinness World Records (GWR) has survived,

indeed flourished, because it has managed to overcome the challenges faced by the publishing industry and stay ahead of new technologies and consumer trends. It has developed and implemented an incredibly agile strategy that has kept it at the front of the pack.

At the heart of this strategy has been diversification. While declining book sales have left many floundering, GWR realized that it needed to maximize the potential of new revenue streams and promote the business as ‘more than just a book’. It has subsequently evolved into an entertainment company, becoming a multi platform global brand, moving into digital, TV, and live events, from virtual reality to branded events. All of these are fast evolving fields besieged by disruption, and as such Guinness World Record’s strategy has had to be incredibly agile even as it diversifies. It now also works alongside the world’s top brands to create highly engaging marketing and PR campaigns.

Speaking at the recent Chief Strategy Officer Summit in New York, Samantha Fay, senior vice president, global brand strategy, Guinness World Records, / 15

noted: ‘All of the businesses we decided to enter are changing dramatically and, with businesses of all stripes looking for something to distinguish themselves, marketing and marketing services must adapt.’

Its biggest challenge remains in publishing. GWR books have expanded their range of titles from just Guinness Book of Records over the years, and they’ve taken core products from popular culture and done spin-offs i.e. one exclusively for video games, one for animals, thereby targeting specific audiences. These books still accounts for 70% of the business, selling 2.7 million editions across 100 countries every year.

GWR employs a three-fold strategy - protect, follow, diversify. Fay says they tried ‘a bit of everything to see if we could stay in business’. They protect their main book by conducting market research among their target audience to ensure it’s still offering content they want. The book also has to look good, stay on shelves, and it has to be well promoted. They follow in terms of following the crowd into the / 16

digital space, expanding into e-books, apps, and whatever other platforms customers were moving towards. They diversified into live events and commercial products.

The biggest advance from GWR has come in the growth of their digital presence. GWR is fortunate in that it has incredibly shareable content.

It deals in extremes and that is what social media is all about. Its content is unique, often weird, and by its very nature, amazing. They now have more than 14.3 million unique visitors to their website annually, 12 million Facebook fans and more than 300m views of their videos on YouTube.

Guinness World Records has used this to its advantage by working with other brands. Companies can benefit from it by beating world records themselves, even if the product they are using is only used tangentially. GWR also benefits by having its name splashed everywhere whenever a record is publicized, and the media that publicizes it benefits because it’s something people want to hear about. For example, the Jaguar F-Pace was used to break the

world’s biggest loop-the-loop. The resulting publicity saw more than 750 broadcast pieces, combined readership of over 75 million, and more than a million views on YouTube. This digital success is opening up a new audience of 18-34 year-olds, the majority of whom are male, moving them outside the family demographic of mothers and younger children.

GWR is an institution, but so was Blockbusters. They’ve realized that being an institution is not enough to survive, they have no divine right to success, and have worked hard to adapt. As Fay says, they have realized that there are ‘certain parts of human nature that stay the same, and that’s something we have capitalized on.’

This is a lesson that every incumbent could learn. They realized what the core of their success was and didn’t just try and adopt new technology for the sake of it, they built around their raison d’etre, they didn’t try to redefine it.

Editorial credit: Ververidis Vasilis / Shutterstock.com

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Competing in this new landscape doesn’t require you to think ahead and predict the future

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Editorial credit: Sorbis / Shutterstock.com

Why Hilton Didn’t See Airbnb Coming Henrik Wedeln Business Commentator

Every business needs to know what the competition is planning. But sometimes we get so focused on others, we overlook opportunities for innovation from within — or worse, we fail to recognize when a new juggernaut of a startup could be coming from unexpected places.

Editorial credit: Kaspars Grinvalds / Shutterstock.com

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Don’t marry your company to the idea of growth for growth’s sake

A New Competitive Landscape Incremental innovation can come straight at you, but with all of the new avenues of expansion available today, you might never see it coming. Startups around the world continue to make their mark by breaking into big industries, all while using strategies the major players never thought possible.

Leaders at Hilton and Marriott were too worried about what the other was doing to predict the meteoric rise of Airbnb. Whole Foods was too busy opening new stores to notice the emergence of Blue Apron.

Gillette never expected Dollar Shave Club to eat into its business so quickly and so significantly. Even offerings as seemingly irreplaceable as phone services have found themselves threatened by Wi-Fi calling capabilities.

The point here is not to demonstrate how smart these startups are, but to notice that larger companies had the resources to control these potential revenue streams long before the startups were even a twinkle in a founder’s eye.

So, why did they fail to do so?

Because they did not innovate from within. They stopped being open to new ideas. They were so focused on winning the game in front of them, they never considered the possibility that a few small players might sweep in and change the rules. / 20

Shifting Your Perspective Competing in this new landscape doesn’t require you to think ahead and predict the future. Instead, successful companies must learn to think to the side, looking horizontally within their own businesses to explore opportunities that might be unusual or even contradictory to their current models for growth.

Getting to this point requires companies to ask the questions that got them started in the first place: What is the problem we want to solve for our customer? How has technology evolved to allow us to solve this problem in a new way? What are indirect competitors doing in our industry? Car dealerships might not compete against Uber directly today, but if ride-share costs drop to a level where owning a car is impractical for more people, they soon will.

Questions like these open up whole new conversations. What business is a car dealership really in — the business of transportation? Status symbols? Mobility? What is the real problem car dealers solve for the customer, and if customers suddenly find themselves with options they never had before, how will dealers be ready for that new playing field?

Preparing for Tomorrow Preparing for competition that doesn’t exist yet can be tricky, but these steps will help you initiate growth from within and stay flexible enough to adapt when unexpected players enter the arena.

1. Ask the right questions.

4. Get executive buy-in.

Stop thinking about the problems you have and start thinking about the problems your customers have.

If your business isn’t growing, that is your problem, but the real issue might be that your customers have a new concern you aren’t positioned to solve. Think less in terms of how to grow your company and more in terms of how to meet evolving customer needs.

To explore adjacent opportunities, your senior leadership needs to be on board. No one at Hilton proposed renting out people’s houses, because they were in the business of renting hotel rooms. Senior management must be cognizant of potential threats — even small ones — and open to allowing the business to explore tangential avenues.

2. Prioritize ideas over expansion.

Think about the problems you’re solving now and what problems your customers could have in the future.

Stay flexible within your structure.

If the tides start to shift quickly, you need your organization to be able to build something dramatically different from previous offerings without totally disrupting your processes.

Incremental innovation can come straight at you, but with all of the new avenues of expansion available today, you might never see it coming

3. Evaluate your internal structure.

Don’t marry your company to the idea of growth for growth’s sake.

The people within your company might be too biased toward your current direction to see opportunities elsewhere. Empower them to pursue avenues that might not be relevant to immediate growth, but that address customer concerns that could grow in the future. Create a methodology that allows your people to dabble in new areas without uprooting your entire organizational structure.

5. Test and evaluate.

You won’t be able to flesh out every new idea to the end. Instead, create a methodology that allows you to test the viability of new ideas without jeopardizing your current business — or spending endless amounts of money. You don’t even need to put test ideas under your primary brand — simply provide a space where exploration is possible, and then create a method to measure the potential merit of each idea.

It’s easy to operate by muscle memory, performing the same actions over and over. But the easy path is rarely the most lucrative one. Put a mirror up to your company, and ask yourself whether you are ready for potential changes on the horizon.

Become your own competition and create a space for internal innovation so that no matter what comes tomorrow, you will be prepared to respond.

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Uber: Does Corporate Culture Matter?

Sam Geapin - Marketing Strategist

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According to TechCrunch, Uber grew more in early 2017 than in early 2016 despite the plethora of issues that surfaced in that time

Uber’s meteoric eight-year rise has been a fascinating example of a revolutionary and exciting company quickly developing a negative public opinion through scandal. When Uber burst onto the scene, its generally lower fares and game-changing user experience meant that most had nothing but admiration for the app. Since then, though, a seemingly constant stream of negative stories around the company’s internal and external working practices have somewhat sullied its glistening reputation.

Editorial credit: Alexey Boldin / Shutterstock.com

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But issues with Uber’s treatment of staff are arguably dwarfed by its long-term reputation for having a reportedly misogynistic culture / 24

From dubiously timed dynamic pricing hikes during natural disasters, to alleged wide-scale disruption of competition services, to the issues that arise with treating drivers like contractors rather than employees, Uber has had a difficult time. The company’s corporate culture is so negatively viewed that some human resource managers actually see the company as a bad mark against a candidates name, with backstabbing and corporate opportunism reportedly rife. In fact, Leslie Miley, a veteran software engineer, told the Guardian: ‘If you did well in that environment upholding those values, I probably don’t want to work with you.’

The negative image arguably peaked in February, when a video of Travis Kalanick surfaced in which the Uber CEO appeared to argue with a driver, saying: ‘Some people don’t like to take responsibility for their own s**t. They blame everything in their life on somebody else.’ Kalanick later expressed regret over the incident in an email to Uber employees, as well as the fact he plans to seek ‘leadership help’. The email, which was clearly written with the intent for it to be shared far wider than the walls of Uber itself, will do little to repair the company’s ‘brilliant jerks’ reputation.

But issues with Uber’s treatment of staff are arguably dwarfed by its longterm reputation for having a reportedly misogynistic culture. Just this month, Uber lost two senior executives as a direct result of cultural disagreements within the company. The most high profile defector has been Jeff Jones, who joined Uber in September 2016 (from Target) with the express mis-

sion of cleaning up the company’s reputation. Since then, the company has been subject to a series of sexual harassment allegations, alongside lawsuits and arguments with regulators over Uber’s working practices.

The tumultuous situation at the company led to an emergency press call on Tuesday. Hosted by board member Arianna Huffington and three of the company’s highest-ranking female staff members. Kalanick’s absence was subject to questions, but the panel cited his search for a new COO as the reason. Whether you see the all-female press call as a cynical move or a positive one, it’s clear that Uber is looking to make itself fashionable again, after initial public excitement has given way to pockets of disdain and frequent calls for users to boycott the service.

In the face of this negativity, though, Uber has continued to grow. According to TechCrunch, Uber grew more in early 2017 than in early 2016 despite the plethora of issues that surfaced in that time. There is such a disconnect between the culture in the Uber headquarters and the average user hailing a ride that you have to question whether or not corporate culture actually makes a difference to profits. February saw over 200,000 people delete their Uber accounts following a #DeleteUber social media campaign but, with the service so ingrained in people’s lives, it seems that Uber’s problems are primarily internal.

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The Key Components Of A Successful Business Strategy

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We live in uncertain times, both in the wider sense of a tumultuous geopolitical climate and the narrower sense of technology constantly disrupting business

The rise of globalization and the speed of disruption has meant that getting strategy right the first time is now more important than ever. There is no longer any opportunity to correct and restart - the risk of being outflanked by a competitor is too great.

Despite this, many companies still get it wrong. We live in uncertain times, both in the wider sense of a tumultuous geopolitical climate and the narrower sense of technology constantly disrupting business.

Strategy is not an exact science and developing and implementing one successfully is often like trying to hit a moving target. Over 50% of new businesses fail in the first five years. Meanwhile, in a recent survey

by Strategy&, just 8% of the 700 business leaders who responded said they are effective at both planning and execution, with 63% admitting they are ‘neutral or worse.’

There is, unfortunately, no one-sizefits-all approach to strategy, no set of rules to guarantee success. Every industry and every organization within that industry faces a myriad of problems entirely unique to them.

There are, however, a number of ways of thinking applicable to every company that can form a foundation for an effective strategy.

We sat down with eight of the world’s leading strategists from some of the best known organizations to ask them what they believed these were.

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Mark Sheppard, Chief Commercial Officer, GE First and foremost, a successful business strategy must remain true to core company values, whilst still being adaptive and reactive to change. It is important not to stray too far from the pillars that are at the heart and the foundation of the company.

Consider the key value system of your organization. At GE, we play the global game locally and do it with unyielding integrity in all countries we operate in it’s paramount to the way we work.

Secondly, flexibility is key in a successful business strategy. There is a fine balance between staying true to a strategy and taking time to see it through, versus being rigid in a changing world.

Clive Tillotson, Director of Business Operations & Strategy at Fujitsu Your strategy has to be simple to execute (which is different from inherent simplicity) because that has to be done by overworked, practical people. It must also be seen as original (which is different to actually being original) otherwise, it will disappear into the heat and noise of the business.

Finally, it has to be mandated and communicated into the business to the point where ignorance of the strategy is no excuse.

James Lemon, VP Commercial Strategy at Travelport A view of what the industry and competitors are doing now and

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tomorrow; a clear vision that people know and believe in, driven by a set of choices, backed up with resources and investments, and last but not least, a plan to execute across all business units.

Ignaas Caryn, Director, Corporate Strategy at Air France-KLM A good strategy should combine internal and external views, short-term improvements, longterm opportunities, and tackle organizational dynamics and resource allocation. As ‘strategy without implementation is hallucination’, a good strategy should include a clear implementation agenda and follow-up processes.

Joff Sharpe, Head of Operations at British Land Strategies should explain the choices available, which particular choice appeals most and why. Too often business strategies give elaborate explanations of a particular course of action without acknowledging the alternatives.

David Cope, Director of Strategy & External Affairs at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew Clarity of vision and purpose, alongside a thorough understanding of your distinctive strengths (and weaknesses), in comparison to others. Great communication and an ability to engage staff and stakeholders so that everyone wants to come on your journey with you.

I believe the best strategy is a simple one in a complex world.

A good strategy should combine internal and external views, short-term improvements, long-term opportunities, and tackle organizational dynamics and resource allocation Jonathan Prosser, Group GM, Strategy & Business Development at Cronulla Sharks RLFC Firstly, a real point of difference. For instance, take the banking sector in the UK three years ago. Several banks hired the same organizations to help drive the development of their strategies, and the result was a lot of ‘man-marking’. Secondly, ensuring that the strategy is orientated around the customer, preferably with input from them is key. Take the guesswork out and ask for their views.

Erin Ilgen, Manager of Brand Experience at Lexus I believe that a successful brand strategy needs to align with the values and beliefs of your company’s culture.

It needs to authentically represent and affirm the characteristics and strengths of your business. In addition, the brand strategy needs to speak to your consumers. It needs to emotionally connect with them in a way that they believe that your brand is aligned with their needs, wants, and individual tastes.

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