Portfolio-Thread View (PTV©) in action within a 2020 strategic planning scenario

As we are well aware, within the last few weeks, we have been pitching a compelling case for our "PtC© collaboration driven PTV© View"– based on the lessons learned from the dominant strategy views (SPV, RBV, SEV, DTV etc.) of recent years- especially from the standpoint of how they have evolved within the last 50+ years. While our compelling pitches have definitely got the attention of few strategy practitioners - one of our fellow strategists encouraged us to expound on PTV© in detail- in terms of how it will actually come to life within a real world engagement with a “day in the life” strategic planning scenario. In other words, we are going to challenge ourselves and put PTV© in Practice using a real world strategic planning case study within today’s blog.

To meet this challenge, we have developed a metaphor driven “mini case study”- leveraging the learning’s from one of our recent strategic planning engagements of our client called CPGR-Co Inc. (our fictitious CPG/Retail Corporation pronounced as ZipGyarCo) - who had asked us to help them formulate their 2020 strategic plan - to unleash their growth and innovation opportunities. As a starting point, using our 10 box model, we framed up their strategic planning problem space with a set of 6W based hypothesis (or questions) to help solve their 2020 challenge. For the purposes of this case study (and to maintain their anonymity), we have provided only the hypothesis part of our case study (& not the final answers) – given the fact, hypothesis formulation (& its sub questions) is the single most important task within any strategic planning engagement/case study – and the subsequent answers are client specific – as it varies from client to client, industry to industry depending upon the internal/external environmental data points. With that said, let us first agree on few foundational definitions (with a help of a metaphor) to get grounded before plunging in to the case study in detail.

So, what is PTV© again?

First things first - under PTV©- strategy is a portfolio of aspiration structures that are knitted together by our 10 box model based strategic threads/themes - producing multiple strategy choices as outlined in one of our earlier blogs. Let us use a card game puzzle metaphor to better understand how PTV© is different from other dominant views. In most strategy views, strategy is viewed as a traditional card game puzzle – wherein each part of the puzzle (i.e. aspiration structure portfolio elements) is viewed as individual pieces of the strategy that are being assembled together to form the final big picture. On the other hand, within PTV©, strategy is viewed as an “Anchor Stone Tangram” puzzle with its 36+ design constructs - when assembled in various combinations producing variety of meaningful big pictures depending upon the sequence in which they are assembled - very much like how our PTV© helps us to develop multiple strategy choices depending upon the way we sequence/knit the aspiration structure portfolio elements and the strategy threads – that are further shaped by the competitive situation scenarios and the vision/ imagination of the strategists.


PT view is all about fishing for the Perfect choice within the set of Permissive choices

To understand this multiple strategic choices development process further – let us use yet another “chute and ladder (CL)” game metaphor, to better grasp its concept. The chutes and ladders within the game board playing area can be visualized as the opportunities and roadblocks respectively within the four walls of a corporation campus - in which one can reach the senior leadership floor- using multiple paths (very much like how one can reach the CL game destination using multiple paths within the CL game). Nevertheless, only one path, in general is the perfect path that is commonly used by the senior leaders except on few situations - where the internal/external conditions (construction work, unfortunate accidents beyond one’s control, bad weather etc) might make the senior leaders to take an alternate path – which might become the perfect path for a period of time and so and so forth.

This is where our PTV© comes in to the picture- as it is designed to help us find that perfect path in those unexpected situations – i.e. finding the perfect strategy choice from the multiple permissive strategy choices depending upon the internal/external competitive scenarios. The question however is - what happens if one chooses to take the permissive path even in normal circumstances? Granted, we will still be able to reach the final destination, but definitely not in an optimal fashion- as there might exist one or more chutes along the way within those permissive paths to slow us down before reaching the final destination - and this is where our PT view again (with its set of dashboard tools, techniques and templates) help us to perform various “what if scenario analysis” on top of its portfolio of aspiration structures to help arrive at the perfect choice (providing the right to win SCA ) out of the various permissive choices. Interestingly enough, we may be able to derive some additional insights from the spiritual concept of finding “GOD’S PERFECT WILL vs. PERMISSIVE WILL” that is commonly taught within the scriptures (of west and east alike) to better understand this PERFECT CHOICE vs. PERMISSIVE CHOICE strategy dilemmas.

The natural follow-on question is how do we choose the perfect choice between these two seemingly opposing permissive choices (i.e. Yin and Yang type scenarios) with conflicting goals? Well, this is where we need to use our intuition/synthesis based converging techniques (as opposed to the analytics based diverging techniques ) to reconcile/agree on the "essential" features from both options, yet compromising on the non-essential features – thus formulating the third option with a best of both worlds. While it might sound like an abstract theory – we can feel rest assured - that it has been used successfully by the philosophers of yester-years to resolve the doctrinal dilemmas for centuries.

Some of the most notable examples being - a) Augustine who had used a similar intuitive synthesis based technique to resolve the doctrinal conflicts between two opposing views in Church history and b) Gaudiya tradition that used a similar intuitive tactics to resolve Shiva-Vishnu conflicts. Augustine would say “In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, in all things charity” – which perfectly aligns with this intuitive synthesis principle of agreeing on the best of both world type essentials - yet compromising on the non essentials. Similarly under the Gaudiya tradition, the Shiva-Vishnu question is nicely dealt with, in terms of reconciling the major Shiva/Vishnu related doctrinal conflicts using intuitive contextual interpretation – in which Shiva/Vishnu are jiva on certain occasions and sometimes not- depending upon the context in which the deity is being interpreted very much like how “God the Father” and “God the Son” are being interpreted in bible. Honestly speaking – I have always been inspired by the deeper insights from the ancient scriptures of both west and the east like – and found them to be very helpful in sharpening the strategic insights. I would love to hear from other readers on their experiences as well.

PT View in Practice

Now that we have understood the perfect choice vs. permissive choice dilemmas within the context of both spiritual and strategy disciplines- the next obvious question is how does PTV© inherently help us to solve these dilemmas efficiently? The answer lies in the way PTV© efficiently knits (or balances) the aspiration structure portfolio elements with a help of our 10 box strategy threads/themes (such as differentiation, cost leadership, focus, globalization etc.) within the context of the four BSC perspectives - as identified by Kaplan/Norton’s BSC framework. In other words, PT view is designed to balance (and answer) the following “6W based cause and effect driven opposing scenario questions” within the context of the four perspectives of Kaplan/Norton’s BSC design - to help arrive at the optimal aspiration structure portfolio mix producing the magical SCA providing the right to win for our client CPG-Co– as part of their 2020 strategic planning engagement.

As we can clearly see that – each of the four perspectives of BSC are often at odds with each other in terms of their goals and requirements resulting in a 6W based seemingly opposing scenarios within these four perspectives- as outlined below and in the picture on the top of the page . For example, the most notable dilemma being the conflict between Financial and Growth/Learning perspectives - resulting in Q-To-Q results vs. long term results dilemma and so on and so forth. Solving these 6W’s efficiently is what sets an organization apart in terms of developing, testing and implementing well differentiated/well guarded strategies that are difficult to be emulated by the competitors.

1. Purpose vs. Profit Scenario (Addressing the WHO do we serve question of adding value to customers vs. shareholders). This hypothesis further drills down in to the customer and shareholder value segmentations at a granular level - to balance the profit and purpose value dilemmas in an effective and efficient manner.
   
   
2. Market Driven vs. Resource Driven Scenario (SPV vs. RBV) – Addressing “WHAT strategy formulation view to use” question by using the best features from Strategic Positioning View vs. Resource Based View. This hypothesis further drills down to choose the perfect choice out of the many permissive choices at a granular level – and to clearly articulate the underpinnings of the portfolio aspiration structure portfolio elements (that maximizes the SCA) with a help of a dashboard driven what-if-analysis scenario design tools, techniques and templates.



3. Operational Excellence vs. Innovation Excellence Scenario (SEV vs. DTV) - Addressing “WHICH strategy management view to use question” by using the best features from Strategic Execution View and Design Thinking View. This hypothesis further drills down to choose the perfect choice out of the many permissive choices at a granular level – and to clearly articulate the underpinnings of the portfolio aspiration structure portfolio elements (that maximizes the SCA) with a help of a dashboard driven what-if-analysis scenario design tools, techniques and templates.



4. Customer centric vs. Vision centric Scenario – Addressing WHY do we exist question – or the reason for being in the business - i.e. meeting the “needs and wants” of customers vs. redefining their” needs and wants” with a vision centric innovation. This hypothesis further drills down to at a granular level - to clearly define the boundaries and source of innovation in terms of whether it is going to be limited within four walls and meets just the current needs and wants of customers vs. going across the related and unrelated industry vertical boundaries in the form of the purpose innovation as we had identified in our earlier blog .



5. Supply/Push driven vs. Demand/Pull Driven Scenario (Inside the Four walls vs. outside the four walls) – Addressing the WHERE to position the value question – to help design an efficient value chain based on the best features from Push and pull value chain designs. This hypothesis further drills down at a granular level - to clearly define how and where the value will be created and consumed in terms of whether it is going to be limited within four walls meeting just the current needs and wants of customers (and the immediate partners/suppliers) vs. going across the related and unrelated industry verticals in the form of the pull value chain based purpose innovation as we had identified in our earlier blog .



6. Q-To-Q results vs. long term results Scenario -Addressing the WHEN to reap the financial value question of focusing on quarter by quarter results vs. 3-5 year results. These hypothesis further drills down in to financial results at a granular level to help focus both on the Q-To-Q results and long term results with a Corporate Performance Management (CPM) System.

Although these 6W’s appear to be resulting in 6 seemingly opposing scenarios on the surface – PTV© inherently helps us to balance (& solve) these 6W’s – with a set of analytics/synthesis based tools, techniques and templates (using an automated what if scenario based dashboard tools) to help answer these 6W’s with clarity, certainty and speed. In other words, PTV© uses a balanced combination of analytics and synthesis driven “doing both” principle driven problem solving techniques, tools and templates - as promoted by Inder Sidhu and Roger Martin. Time permitting- we will cover the details behind these dashboard tools/techniques in a future blog. Coincidentally, couple of our fellow strategist like Mr. Gerald Nanninga (http://planninga-from-nanninga.blogspot.com/search/label/Balanced%20Scorecard) and Mr. Ali Annani have used similar balancing opposites based thinking to show the relationship between blue ocean strategy and team work dimension of BSC framework(http://www.slideshare.net/hudali15/blue-ocean-strategy-balanced-scorecard-strategy-and-team-forming-a-shared-perspective) as well.

Conclusion

This type of PtC© collaboration driven PTV© strategic view – not only helps us to answer these seemingly opposing 6W’s - but also, inherently enables us to take a systemic view in our strategic planning efforts– which further positions us to create boundary less purpose innovation models and bundles as outlined in one of our earlier blogs.In other words, this well orchestrated strategic planning process that is based on the nature’s principle of balancing opposites, reinforcing teamwork and collaboration - is what differentiates PTV© from other dominant strategic views. With that said, let us be rest assured that this PtC© driven PTV© is guaranteed to help unlock the creative innovation potential that is buried deep inside the large organizations like CPGR-Co.

Balancing Opposites Using a “Redefined Value Equation”

For those of you who have been following my blogs closely perhaps would have noticed a follow-up question that was asked within the context of my last week’s blog– how does this concept of “balancing opposites” work in the real world from strategy execution standpoint? Although, I had answered the question at a high level within the comments section (http://strategywithapurpose.blogspot.com/2010/09/strategy-is-it-marathon-sprint-or-both.html), the more I thought about it- the subject of “balancing opposites” is a much deeper one -and so decided to write a separate post.

As I started reading more on this subject- to my amazement, I quickly learned that the philosophers of yester-years from both the west and the east alike (Yin-Yang, Ayurvedha, Feng-Sue, UMO, Greek basic elements, Qur’an’s tenets, Sun Tzu’s art of war, and Solomon’s wisdom etc.) have not only used this concept to explain the ultimate meaning of life, but also, have used them to explain the ultimate reasoning behind the existence of human race - which clearly suggests that “balancing opposites” is a mystical process that is filled with enlightenment and wisdom -and so, leveraging their work to explain the relevance of this concept within the business world (using a “redefined value equation”) is more appropriate within this context.

Although, these opposites are distinct things on their own right, it is important to recognize that each of these opposites coexists by consent of their other half. For example, as we saw earlier in one of my previous blogs - the “concept of seasons” is what gives us the confidence that every opposite or down cycle in life or business has a beginning and an end. In other words, happiness cannot exist without sadness; therefore if we seek happiness, we are also destined to encounter sadness (in another season) because both depend on each other for their existence. Analyzing these interdependency of opposites with a key natural principle “Like repulses like and opposites attract each other ” – will clearly help us to come to the conclusion that “balancing the opposites” within the context of their respective seasons is critical for us to maximize life or business’s outcome.

For example, on the surface, cost containment (bottom line focused) and innovation (top line focused) strategies might sound like seemingly opposites -very much like the opposing pairs of Solomon. But, if we think about them within the larger context or objective (say, to turnaround and grow the company) — cost containment (for a season) is indeed a stepping stone for innovation (for a new season) – which kind of implies that “balancing opposites” within the context of the larger objective is the way to go, as long as we do not mix them up within the same season– in the words of Solomon. In other words, both of these strategies might sound like polar opposites when we weigh them in isolation- but, when we look at them within the context of the larger purpose governing those seasons — we can clearly recognize that they are complimentary to each other provided they are executed within the context of their respective seasons as a stepping stone for each other.

The question however is – why most corporations, still struggle to balance these opposites? What is preventing them from balancing these opposites? The answer in my opinion is “misplacement of value components within the value equation”. In other words, the value equation, in its current form, in most corporations create divisions by dissecting businesses into opposites –the core and edge, the stars and the dogs, purpose and profit initiatives so on and so forth -from the standpoint of achieving quick wins. Don’t get me wrong, that these structures and quick wins are absolutely necessary for better manageability and for meeting the quarter numbers; however, in most situations we get carried away with this short sighted quick win focused mentality and fail to recognize the larger context or purpose wherein these opposites (e.g. core and edge) are part of a cohesive whole. In other words, we cannot have an edge without a core and cannot have a core without an edge, therefore, to try and label a particular facet of business as being more important than the other half is illogical and self-defeating – and, so, corporations must redefine their value equation with an end goal of arriving at that mystical centre point where these opposites are balanced and executed within their own respective seasons.

However, arriving at that mystical centre point (where these complimentary opposites are balanced) is both an art and science - and so, we may have to get some additional inspirations from the following five underlying natural elements that were used by the philosophers to represent our universe’s value equation.

“Water soaks and descends; Fire blazes and ascends; Wood bends and straightens; Metal holds its shape and is malleable; Earth takes seeds and gives crops”

As we can see from this causal chain, it contains natural elements that are representative of different stages of an ongoing process of transformation within this universe’s seasonal causal chain as discussed earlier in one of my previous blogs (http://strategywithapurpose.blogspot.com/2010/09/transforming-what-aboutso-what.html). On a deeper philosophical level, these transformations are balanced on a continuous basis by the dynamic interplay between complimentary opposites within their respective seasons. Interestingly enough- Sun Tzu leveraged inspirations from these five natural elements as well, while forming his five strategy system elements – i.e. mission, ground, climate, command, and methods.

With this prelude- let us leverage the inspirations from both “five nature elements” and Sun Tzu’s “five strategy element system” to redefine our value equation to help balance these complimentary opposites: i.e. with “purpose & profit," at the center of the equation balancing the remaining four opposites with a causal chain based creation and destruction cycles. The remaining elements are imagined to be part of a circular causal chain similar to the natural element causal chain, as outlined below.

“Water creates wood by growing trees. Wood creates fire. Fire creates earth by transforming wood to ash. Earth creates metal, which is why metal, is mined from the earth. Metal creates water, as we can see by condensation on metal surfaces”.

Likewise, within our redefined value equation,

“Environment or competitive advantage analysis” creates winning strategies, and then, those strategies in-turn transform the “current state business” in to “Purpose-profit balanced future state business”(center) using the execution focused leadership skills, strategic positioning and expert knowledge. And then, those renewed execution leadership skills, propel forth newer visions and continue the transformation process of turning the environmental conditions in to winning strategies”.

And, the cycle continues – and, gets refined every iteration- by continuously balancing these complementary opposites – thus creating the ultimate business harmony (or optimal outcome) as outlined in the picture at the top of the page.

Bottom line: The ultimate success of businesses lynch on this key principle of “balancing opposites” within the context of their respective seasons using this redefined value equation. However, to reach that success in reality, we need to be practicing this principle on a daily basis using our redefined “causal chain based value equation” –which not only will help corporations to become the experts in this balancing act (of opposites), but also, make them the purpose leaders of tomorrow -in accordance with the purpose, wisdom and spiritual principles of the world renowned philosophers.

Source: Scriptures, Ancient literatures and Sun Tzu's art of war