de Weerdt Consulting Inc.

How can strategy leaders become indispensable in a down market? I attended a "State of the Strategy Job / Strategy Consulting Market" webinar this morning from a speaker who regularly fills roles and speaks with chief strategy officers. I wanted to share a few takeaways from the webinar in terms of what 3 things tend to help strategy leaders and CSOs be indispensable in a down market (like the current market): 1. Be working on projects that deliver quantifiable value over the short-term 2. Have a role that is formally more than just strategy 3. Build an indispensable team of internal and/or contract resources For details / elaboration on these items, feel free to reach out or subscribe to my newsletter in the comments for the January 2024 edition. Or, always happy to discuss if you want to send me a message.

As part of a broader effort to answer the question: “build, buy, or partner” for leaders looking at growth strategy, I’m in the process of reading and condensing 20+ articles, journals, and books on the topic. One emerging takeaways is that the first question to ask appears to be “what is the strategy?”. Two main strategies emerge when looking at the purpose behind a build/partner/buy decision: 1. Same-vertical expansion. These are acquisitions that do not alter the business model. Their value is usually dependent on economies of scope and scale synergies and expanding market share. Companies are typically in the same industry serving the same type of customer. 2. Business model reinvention. For this type of strategy, companies are looking for new beachheads often in attractive complementary or adjacent markets. The purchase is less about cost synergies and more about adjusting the offering and business model to access growing profit pools in the value chain and/or generate more value for a customer along their journey. It’s not surprising then that the first type tends to lead to more of a traditional acquisition model while the second opens up consideration for acquisition, partnership, or organic growth depending on some additional factors. What are your thoughts? When do you buy vs build vs partner? For more takeaways from the full Build, Partner, Buy analysis, subscribe to my newsletter / blog.