Question

Topic: Strategy

Most Critical Phases In Business Life-cycle?

Posted by Chris Blackman on 10/22/2004 at 1:02 AM ET 424 Points
I am planning to incorporate a section in our website www.asvpconsulting.com which will identify several (perhaps up to six) key phases in the life-cycle of a business.

The aim is to focus on those phases where a business and marketing strategic consultant can add value and help the business through to the next stage.

So, I'm not interested in "mortician" type phases where the Chapter 11 / Receivers & Administrators types get involved. I want to the businesses we work with to soar like an eagle, not to be a carcass that gets picked over by carrion crows.

However, I don't want to ignore the possibility of business turn-around projects where sick companies can be revived and made healthy again.

So far I have considered:

Start-Up
Commercialise a Product
Develop a Strategic Business & Marketing Plan

Growth
Strategic Review to keep on track
Balancing Growth with Risk
Collaboration & Partnerships

Established
Keeping A Strategic Focus
Turnaround an ailing enterprise
Exit, Diversify or Grow through M & A

That gives me three major categories each with two or three complementary potential client business issues. It could be argued that the issues under the Growth heading and the issues under the Established heading could easily be combined under one heading...

I want the focus of the content I develop to be more on established companies because startups, while tremendously exciting and fun to work with, just don't have the budgets to sustain any significant efforts from an experienced strategic firm.

What does the venerable counsel at KHE think? (That means you, ladies and gentlemen!)

What Business Life-Cycle phases can most benefit from input from an external consulting firm?

Look forward to your inputs and views.

Also would appreciate any other comments on the website, although that will be the subject of a further question in the near future.
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by Chris Blackman on 10/22/2004 at 1:37 AM Author
    Michele

    Thanks for the quick response! Isn't the Southern Hemisphere great today?

    Yes, I had thought of Plateau but was concerned about it sounding negative. I guess that's the point though - a company that has plateaued needs help. So I'll take that on board.

    Not clear how we can help in a winding-up. I've had a passive investment in some companies that went that route and by the time the Receivers and Administrators get involved there's rarely any chance of resurection left; plus it's terribly high risk credit, unless your contract is with the administrator.

    Usually, though, an administrator is more keen on selling off assets to someone else who will put up the risk funds to get the assets productive again. Keen to hear alternative views about that...

    Yes, the focus of the consulting is business/marketing, rather than marketing/advertising. Strategic rather than tactical. The MarComms space is terribly crowded.
  • Posted by SRyan ;] on 10/22/2004 at 2:03 AM Accepted
    Hi, Chris!

    Some quick thoughts before I turn into a pumpkin...

    Under the Growth heading, I think item one should be Maintaining Strategic Focus. Under the Established heading, I'd change item one to Keeping Your Competitive Edge.

    I'll keep pondering the Growth title... Michele might be right to call it Plateau. Perhaps Mature would fit? Surely it will come to me in my sleep. (You think I'm kidding, but it occasionally happens!)

    I'll also take a look at your site.

    Expect more comments from me tomorrow! Nighty-nite...

    Shelley
  • Posted by Chris Blackman on 10/22/2004 at 3:12 AM Author
    Shelley

    Thanks for the thoughts. Good input.

    Of course you can solve problems in your sleep!

    Sweet dreams!

    Chris
  • Posted by bobhogg on 10/22/2004 at 1:10 PM Accepted
    Chris...

    Forgive me if this is a "teaching granny to suck eggs" suggestion, but...

    ...are you familiar with some of the academic models of small business growth such as those proposed by Greiner or Churchill & Lewis? Although academic, they do stimulate thinking about the various stages of growth - for example, the Greiner model talks about the management "crises" faced at each stage of business growth.

    The Greiner paper was in Harvard Business Review, vol. 50, July-August, pp. 37-46.

    Churchill & Lewis in Harvard Business Review, vol. 61, May-June, pp. 30-50.

    Or there is a good summary of them in Chapter 10 of "Entrepreneurship and Small Firms" by Deakins and Freel (McGraw Hill; ISBN 0077099931). The Amazon.co.uk link is:

    https://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0077099931/qid=1098461306/sr=1-1/...

    Hope this helps!

    Good luck with the project,
    Bob
  • Posted by Peter (henna gaijin) on 10/22/2004 at 1:37 PM Accepted
    I agree that marketing strategy can add value at all stages of a business cycle. Given this, if you do only want to focus on a subset of all the stages, you may want to chose the ones you do have great references or case studies on which to show how you can really improve them.

    Under established, you may want to hit up how to handle when a company's products are mature, often risking becoming commodities.

    And also may want to cover how to treat the products as a cash cow.
  • Posted by SRyan ;] on 10/22/2004 at 7:14 PM Accepted
    Chris, regarding your business stages...

    Whatever you call them, I'm imagining how you can present them in a way to make them relevant to your consulting services. What about an If-Then table?

    Left column heading says, "If your business is at this stage..."

    Right column heading says, "...then we can help you with these strategic decisions."

    I'd get rid of the Business Life-Cycle link that's now in your navigation panel. In the meaty part of your home page, I'd put some brief text about how your consulting fits customers at different stages, then have a big fat link titled "What stage is YOUR business at?" (Or something like that, not so gramatically clumsy.)

    Do you want detailed website feedback now? I realize these things are always a work in progress, but I don't know what you've got planned for it. In its current state it screams TEMPORARY. I know you know that, so I'm not afraid to say it out loud. ;]

    First thing is to shrink the logo. Also get rid of the hovering graphic effect because it's simply not useful. The site needs some graphic polish... but not just for the sake of digital bling.

    When you're ready for suggestions on the website copy, let me know. It's a good start, but so far it's rather text heavy.

    I'll help any way I can! Glad to see you're making progress from the single-page billboard. ;]

    - Shelley
  • Posted by Chris Blackman on 10/23/2004 at 1:12 AM Author
    Peter

    Good point - products becoming commodities. We actually include this as a stadard part of our portfolio analysis. And our workshops teach people how to identify the potential commoditsation of a product, and what can be done about it.

    Perhaps it's a significant enough concern for businesses to make a project focus. Or at least a website dicussion focus.

    I think the iterative nature of all strategic work means you just have to find the right starting point, the site of the pain or sensitivity, in order to identify the client's need.

    As far as focus is concerned, I want to focus on the subset where the MOST value can be provided by a consultant. Many companies are in-sourcing their strategic development and planning processes, so proving the value of hiring in a temporary, expensive (cormpared to internal) resource is probably the key sales and marketing challenge.

    Thanks for the invaluable input.
  • Posted by Chris Blackman on 10/23/2004 at 1:16 AM Author
    Paul

    Thanks for your input re business size/segmentation.

    Ironically, I am huge proponent of segmentation in the strategic process for clients, but, well, you know what they say about the cobbler's children always being the worst-shod. I shall put this into the mix or will add an additional dimension to the way I view these business life-cycle stages.

    Thanks again.

    Chris
  • Posted by mgoodman on 10/23/2004 at 8:28 PM Accepted
    I think you may be falling into the trap so many of us have: trying to be all things to all people. Even if you have all those skills, a prospective client isn't going to care. If the client needs someone to help develop a new advertising campaign (for example), he's not going to care if you are really great at pricing strategy.

    The best approach, in my experience and that of others I've interviewed on the subject, is to do your homework on the client's needs. Then present your credentials to the client in a way that speaks singlemindedly to how you are uniquely well positioned to address those needs.

    Trying to be an "expert" on products/businesses in every phase of the life cycle is guaranteed to be too broad a positioning for every potential client.

    I actually develop this line of thinking and this approach to consulting in the book, Rasputin For Hire (www.rasputinforhire.com). I interviewed dozens of individuals who either are or were management consultants, and passed on their thoughts and advice on several topics of relevance. There's even a round-table discussion transcript in the appendix that addresses the "all things to all people" trap.

    Hope this is helpful.
  • Posted by Chris Blackman on 10/24/2004 at 3:12 AM Author
    Bob

    I'm not familiar with the works of Greiner or Churchill & Lewis, and I can't figure out how to access online any HBR volumes older than twelve months ago, so I guess I'll have to buy the book you suggested.

    Thanks for the input.

    Chris
  • Posted by Chris Blackman on 10/24/2004 at 3:25 AM Author
    Michael

    I haven’t read your book but I have ordered a copy from your website as it appears not to be available in Australia anywhere.

    Your comments are absolutely right. It’s impossible to be all things to all people and that was never my intention… The aim of highlighting particular points in the business life-cycle is to allow prospective clients to look at various scenarios and say “Yes, that’s us, so what do we do now we’ve identified our current status quo?”

    The answer actually isn’t a whole range of different consulting products or services. Of course the outcomes will be different, but the essential consulting practices via a range of frameworks that are iterative in nature. The selection of frameworks to apply in the analysis of the current position may be different, depending on the client’s issues, but the application of a strategic “fix” follows a very similar pathway from there. So it’s not really a question to needing to be good at all those things… There’s not all that many “things” to be good at.

    What I’m trying to do, rather than display a huge product/service range which would be a furphy anyway, is to encourage the prospect to use the website to hold up a series of mirrors until they find a view in which may they recognise themselves. And from that point, to give an outline of the suggested pathways they can choose, which may or may not include availing themselves of ASVP’s consulting services.

    I don’t think consulting can ever be successfully "sold" with any degree of pressure, it's a selling process where the prospective client is persuaded to buy. I think clients have to recognise there is an opportunity to improve their performance, and for the consulting firm to show they can be part of that process. From that point I think it’s a matter of personal chemistry between the parties, and the client being persuaded via case studies or past client references, that the consulting firm, or rather, the particular consultants who will perform the assignment, have the capability to deliver what the client wants.

    Does than sound too simplistic, too idealistic, or naive?

    Feel free to set me straight!
  • Posted by SRyan ;] on 10/24/2004 at 2:24 PM Member
    Furphy ???
  • Posted by Chris Blackman on 10/24/2004 at 6:36 PM Author
    Praf

    Would love to read your ezine. I visited your RESCO site but the ezines there seem very engineering-orientated so I presume you must be talking about another one.

    Shelley

    Furphy - a falsehood or rumour - see https://www.anu.edu.au/ANDC/Ozwords/November_97/6._furphy.htm for an explanation. In this context I meant there is no vast portfolio of products or services... The consultant's toolset is essentially like a set of spanners. You just need the right one for the particular client's... errm... needs.

    Didn't realise at the time I wrote it, that's another Australianism. I've obviously been here too long. And the other 99% of the world has SO MUCH to learn from Australia!!

    Have a great day.

    Chris
  • Posted by SRyan ;] on 10/25/2004 at 12:46 AM Member
    In my college days, a dorm friend had a copy of the "Oxtail English Dictionary." One of our favorite (and most memorable) entries was the word FURFLE, a verb meaning to disguise the natural sounds your body makes in a public restroom, usually by coughing or by spinning the toilet paper roll.

    Could be a derivative of furphy!
  • Posted by Chris Blackman on 10/27/2004 at 12:29 AM Author
    Thank you all for some very insightful advice and ideas.

    Now I really have my work cut out for me... Improving the business model, the value proposition, updating the website and reading all the new books I've had recommended to me!

    What an excellent online community this is!

    Thanks KHE!

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