Today, digital disruptions are blurring industry boundaries and geopolitics is challenging long-held assumptions. These changes in the environment are often uncertain and shorten the life of business models and leadership positions. In such an environment, it is necessary to both develop a vision of how it is likely to change and identify how to quickly create value before it changes again. The key questions then are:

 • How will technological, regulatory, geopolitical changes affect business economics, customer priorities, competitive advantages, and possible strategic moves?

• What is the ambition and timing for value creation? In the future, which business models have the best chance of winning? 

Answering these questions requires an understanding of the competitive environment, the creativity to imagine a path, and the resources and discipline to make the vision a reality. It also requires acquiring new skills, expanding market access, and even shutting down some operations while starting others; even though more than half of all transactions destroy value, M&A is seen as a critical lever.

Business units that create value do three things right:

 • Define the right strategy – the vector or direction to take.

 • Put the right impetus behind the strategy to ensure it succeeds.

 • Constantly review their strategic approach.

Successful strategies often combine three key success factors.

1. A thorough understanding of the strategic environment: where are the current profit sources and how are they likely to change or be disrupted? How are the priorities of leading customers changing? How well positioned are competitors – traditional or emerging – to respond? Which combination of choices – customers, markets, and investments – has the greatest potential to create value?
2. A frank assessment of true competitive advantages: are they based on cost, capability, intellectual property, unique access to information, position in an ecosystem? What to do to acquire new assets or capabilities that are critical to future advantage?
3. An agile connection between strategy and execution: what is the best way to generate alignment with strategy, to set and communicate goals, to create short feedback loops that enable rapid learning and adaptation in the marketplace. While preserving rigor in execution?

The Covid-19 crisis has accelerated the movement, especially that of digital transformation. It also revealed the weaknesses of certain strategic choices or transformations that were too slow.

Pagamon assists business units to build and adapt their strategy. Our consultants work together with the members of the Management Committees to map out the best directions to follow. We intervene in particular on:

• Diagnosis and strategic planning for the next 3-5 years.

• Development of related business models.

• Operational due diligence operations.