Elevation Insights ™ | Analogies What did others do when they faced a similar situation?

2. Commoditization
(weak value proposition)
Revenue concentrated
on 3-4 large accounts
Increased regulatory
compliance costs
Can’t keep up with
data deluge
Price wars
No or unsatisfactory
growth
Supply chain disruptions
Lack of new ideas &
innovative business
models
Generics & low cost
competitors
Poor marketing & sales
ROI
No geographic
diversification
Limited resources
delaying operations

3. Basic Text Search
Single Channel
Established leading
position in basic
web text search
advertising market
Limited to single
product and
channel
Susceptible to
larger competitors
& bundling threats
from their
diversified leading
products
Diversified Channels
& Products
Explored M&A to quickly
diversify and expand
into new channels and
services (e.g. location &
local applications, online
video, e-commerce
etc.), & gained
search/ad market share
Capitalized on growing
high speed internet
infrastructure & online
customers/businesses
Explored product
development, M&A &
new business models
to target the core
revenue generators &
platforms of established
competitors (e.g.
Google Apps, Docs,
Email, Browser)
New Channels
Mobile | Social
New Competitors
High Stakes
Evolved continually to
changing (fickle)
customer preferences
by making decisive M&A
and product
development actions
Google needs to find an
effective strategy to fight
Amazon’s locked retail
and ecommerce platform
Explored M&A to build
leading mobile
operating system and
used smart business
model to license the
operating system to
device makers
Studied the success of
Apple’s hardware
strategy & acquired a
leading handset maker
When M&A failed, they
then developed
Google+ to counteract
social media leaders
Mobile and social
advertising is still
challenging to monetize
and is a vulnerability for
Google & other
companies
Future battles will be
waged in the following
areas: home
entertainment, e-books,
automobile systems,
digital payments etc.
Hardware & software will
both be used as strategic
assets to fight and
monetize data insights

4. 1.
If you are facing a challenging situation, delay the urge to re-invent everything internally, and
keep an open mind to external ideas
2.
Explore what other companies did when they faced a similar situation. Do not limit this analysis to
your familiar industry space, but also branch out to other verticals and geographic markets to
seek ideas
3.
Critically examine external data and share this information with smart decision makers within your
company. We distinguish smart from rank related decision makers because ideas & solutions can
emanate from unexpected sections of your company, and is not limited to the executive or senior
management suite.
4.
Adapt external ideas to your situation and improvise with ideas generated by the smart decision
makers
5.
Expect hostility from affected parties who are trying to protect their turf and budgetary
resources. Leaders need to step up, mediate disputes and take decisive actions. Otherwise, the
situation will deteriorate and the company will be left with no choice but to replace current
leaders
6.
Please contact us if you and your team decide to seek external help. We can assist your team
based on our experience and access to extensive global resources and information databases.

5. Growth
Customer Insights
Competitor Strategy Countermoves
M&A
Product Development
Sales, New Market Entries
Segmentation, Value Proposition
Business Models
Engineering Scale-up/ Manufacturing
Supply Chain Disruptions
Diversification
Commoditization, Price Wars
Low Cost Competition
Regulatory Disruptions
Labor Disputes
Capex Optimization, Risk Management
Channel Management, e/m Commerce
Monetization strategies
Innovation & R&D
Emerging Markets
Etc…….