STRATEGY ANALYSED

The first step, in the strategic process, is to provide clarity as to where you are right now. This must include the context in which you operate and the potential opportunities available. DavinDigital reviews your competitors’ offerings, your customer needs, and your company’s capabilities. We also review the market and the macroeconomic context. With this analysis, DavinDigital can assess the nature and scope of your company’s Unique Competing Space (UCS) – this is the space where you create and deliver superior value and address customer needs in a way your competitor cannot.

Five core questions are answered for your company:

What is your external competitive environment and how is it changing?
What is your own basis of competitiveness and how is it changing?
Who are your customers, what are their needs and how are they changing?
What is your Unique Competing Space and how is it changing?
How do you get your organisation to “act together” and deliver on your USC?

A Diagram explaining the Unique Competing Space (UCS). an Inner Ven-diagram with 3 circles. Circle on the left personifies Competitor Offerings, the Circle on the right personifies Customer Needs and the circle underneath personifies Firm's Competitive Basis. The intersection between the Firm's Competitive Basis and the Customer Needs is called the Unique Competing Space (UCS) Surrounding the top 2 circles is the Industry/market context and surrounding all 3 circles is the Macro Economic Context

Tovstiga, Strategic Innovation & Knowledge Management

STRATEGY Quantified

With the strategic analysis completed, the next step is to quantify the options; in terms of their commerciality and risk vs reward profile. Through the lens of Finance, such analysis would include business model definition, the preparation of Financial Statements (P&L, Cash-Flow & Balance Sheet), Pricing & Margin Structure Analysis, Key Financial Ratios and the potential IRR (Internal Rate of Return) and Free Cash-Flows derived from the investment.

At the Marketing Strategy level, such quantified analysis includes market sizing : Total Addressable Market (TAM) Serviceable Available Market (SAM) & Share of Market (SOM), Segmentation, Unit Economics (Lifetime Value to Customer Acquisition Cost Ratio), Marketing Budget Formulation and the building of a KPI-Driven Revenue Model that ultimately drives the Financial Statements Forecasts.

strategy SUMMARISED

With the analysis completed, quantified and insights gained, the next stage is to shortlist the strategic options that personify your Unique Competing Space (UCS). At the Business Unit level, such options can be illustrated and easily digested through, Strategyzer’s Business Model Canvas. The Business Model Canvas provides an overview that summarises the strategic option and captures the digital business's key components and commercial potential.

A Diagram of the Business Model Canvas. it is a canvas divided up into 9 boxes. Going from top left is 1) Key partners, 2) Key Activities, 3) Key Resources, 4) Value Proposition, 5) Customer Relationships, 6) Channels, 7) Customer Segments and underneath bottom left 8) Cost Structure and 9) Revenue Streams

Desirability & Usability (Customer)

Does it meet our customer needs?

Will customers use it?

Feasibility (Capability)

Is it possible? Will it work? Can we build it?

Viability (Competitive Position)

Can we deliver a profitable/cost saving/high growth business? Is the business model sustainable? Is the risk worth the reward?

In the digital arena, a VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex & ambiguous) environment is more common and as a result a Strategic Emergent Planning (SEP) Process (incremental, cumulative & market data driven) may prove more suitable. Rapid, inexpensive, iterative technologies combined with “Lean Start-Up” delivery techniques offer a legitimate strategy process, favoured by Silicon Valley VCs and tech start-ups around the world. Depending on the context, this it is not an either-or approach, but rather a blend of two approaches (UCS & SEP) that yields the required insights and results in the most cost-effective and expedient delivery coupled with minimal risk.

start-up strategy

The fastest and most cost- effective way to grow a successful high tech start-up is through Customer Development.

Pioneered by Steve Blank (8x Entrepreneur & Professor of Entrepreneurship at Stanford University) and recognised as the gold standard in Silicon Valley, Customer Development is an experiential, four-step scientific framework that enables you in real-time, and in market to test, validate and iterate your start-up idea from initial concept to a long-term sustainable business.

Customer Discovery

Form a series of business model hypotheses & test with customers to turn them into facts.

Customer Validation

Examines whether the resulting business model is repeatable and scalable.

Customer Creation

Builds end-user demand and drives sales channels and messaging to scale the business.

Company Building

Focused on executing and scaling a validated business model.

DavinDigital utilises The Business Model Canvas to map out your new business assumptions and to identify and prioritise the largest risks to tackle upfront. We then avail of Lean Start-Up techniques and Agile Development to validate all assumptions through continuous learning and feedback loops, allowing you to grow a sustainable, long-term business.

Over 90% of Tech Start-Ups fail due to a lack of customers, rather than a lack in technology. As a result, Customer Development is the ideal process to minimise start-up risk, as it delivers vital feedback quickly, and puts the customer at the heart of the start-up process.

Digital strategy executed

An approved strategy and financial model is just the beginning. The real challenge is not only to ensure all stakeholders are fired up but also, to have the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus and the right people in the right seats all facing the same direction.
‍

At a Business Unit Level, the ideal Digital Dream Team, consists of:

The Hipster – Customer Experience (Design Lead)
Duties: Customer Development, Product, Customer Experience, Usability, Design, Brand & Content
‍
The Hacker – Platform (Tech Lead)
Duties: Product, Customer Development, Technology, Dev. Ops., Data, Processes, Application Infrastructure, Development & Code

‍The Hustler - Business (Team & Product Lead)
Duties: Product, Customer Development, Team, Business Model, Funding, Legal, Accounting, HR, Marketing, Leadership & Company Building

Together, such a team should be able to deliver revenue-generating, beta products for your company to market and be capable of validating the market opportunity.

STRATEGY ANALYSED

STRATEGY Quantified

strategy SUMMARISED

start-up strategy

Digital strategy executed

DOUBLE YOUR RETURN ON DIGITAL