Culture can serve as a lever for implementing organizational change. Leaders must start the process by determining the type of change they’re seeking â€" change that involves reinforcing magnitude, reimagining activity, or rethinking direction. Each approach to change requires leaders to make certain choices about culture. The authors use examples from direct experience in corporate human resources leadership at three different companies to illustrate three different strategies in action.
A survey of more than 1,600 Bed Bath & Beyond shoppers reveals why a business recovery strategy set in motion by a new management team in 2019 failed: The BB&B leadership team's focus on cost cutting overlooked the importance of creating value for customers. The story of the retailer's bankruptcy is a cautionary tale for other businesses that are struggling to adapt and at risk of losing sight of customer value creation amid increased competition in a changing market.
The shift away from a sole focus on financial returns to multistakeholder capitalism has involved a welcome rediscovery of the idea that businesses are social entities. Embracing this strategy requires a combinatorial accounting, taking into consideration the health of five types of stakeholders: employees, partners, and communities, along with investors and customers. This is not easy to achieve, even for companies that say they want to move in this direction.
In traditional shareholder capitalism, the only stakeholders that have mattered are investors, as the providers of financial capital, and customers, as the source of revenue. But great strategy recognizes the significance of other valuable stakeholders. The authors highlight the successes that a range of companies have achieved by addressing the needs of employees, business partners, and local communities as well.
A new analysis of the pandemic's effect on in-person shopping behaviors has resulted in an actionable framework to help brand owners and retailers understand and address the consumer needs and preferences of five retail customer segments. The authors suggest actions that retailers can take to better target each segment, whether the goal is to recapture former customers or retain new ones gained during the pandemic.
COVID-19 has quickly disrupted how companies market their brands to consumers and the way customers shop for products. The current environment offers an unprecedented opportunity for smaller and midtier brands to compete against their more established rivals for exposure, mindshare, product trials, and market share with a new and broader base of potential customers.
Rather than trying to sell standardized products or services to the biggest possible set of buyers, B2B companies need to develop ways to help specific customers achieve better outcomes. Instead of describing their solutions, companies first need to understand customers'specific challenges, objectives, operating practices, and competitive environment, then create offerings to deliver value within a customer's specific business context and culture.
The traditional marketing mix--product, place, price, promotion--yields narrow strategies that are increasingly at odds with the imperative to deliver solutions. Marketers need to adopt a new framework focused on solutions, access, value, and education--SAVE.
Having studied the relationship between how newly merged companies brand themselves and their subsequent stock performance, the authors find that a "fusion" branding strategy-one that combines elements of the two companies' names and logos-leads to superior financial returns three years out. The reason, they believe, is that this approach sends reassuring signals to employees, customers, and ultimately investors.
This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. Of the myriad complex decisions that senior executives make before and during a merger, one is mandatory and critical but often given short shrift: the branding of the new corporate entity. When executed effectively, a corporate rebranding can greatly facilitate the merger of the two businesses by sending the right signals to people both inside and outside the organization. In a study of more than 200 mergers and aquisitions completed since 1995 with a transaction value exceeding $250 million, the authors found 10 different strategies for corporate rebranding. The 10 options can be grouped into four main categories that communicate fundamentally different messages: (1) This deal is a merger and we are adopting the stronger brand; (2) this deal is a merger and we are adopting the best of both brands; (3) this deal is a transformational merger and we are creating a new brand; and (4) this deal is simply a portfolio transaction and no brand changes will occur. In any M&A, executives need to select the right strategy with respect to three important constituencies: employees, customers and the investment community.