An Arcus survey of 245 senior marketing executives confirms that it is important not to separate the corporate brand and culture from the people. For example, Four Seasons is an extraordinary brand culture with multiple stakeholders; guests, employees, property owners, shareholders and even Wall Street.
Each of those constituencies places Four Seasons in a category; almost by itself. When leaders talk about growing a company it can never be at the expense of those things, because they are so central to what the brand represents. There is an approach for growth that’s right for every organization; that is consistent with the way in which the company needs to continue to position the brand in the marketplace as the leader that it is or could be.
Obviously, food and hospitality are central to what Four Season does. Four Seasons is very much about that cultural and geographic diversity. The organization operates nearly 100 hotels in more than 38 countries around the world. Its culture is central to its brand.
One of the greatest challenges for Four Seasons according to Mr. Allen Smith CEO, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts is to continue to grow, expand, and innovate in how the organization serve its guests. It is a very competitive marketplace that they operate in, and Four Seasons, while being a leader nonetheless, needs to constantly have a very clear view of who they are, how they serve their guests, and what they stand for in the marketplace.
There are opportunities for outstanding service in almost everything people do.
Growth and strategy services
- Strategy Planning
- Innovation
- Marketing and Sales
- Marketing Strategy
- Market Research
- Capability Building
- Marketing Effectiveness
- Territory / Sales Deployment
- Pricing
- Customer Loyalty
- Brand Strategy
Capability Building: Marketing Organization and Capacity Building
Effective teams develop better strategies. Today the average tenure of a business unit leader in marketing has dropped to 18 months. In such a highly dynamic organizational environment, the approach to management tends to focus on quick wins instead of durable long term growth strategies. Leading companies recognize the importance of capacity building and bench strength in managing talent. Reinventing organizational practices for both for profit and nonprofit organizations with proven strategies can dramatically improve the ROI of marketing spending.
Growth Strategy Consulting Services
The key to our consulting services is our ability to integrate our know-how in functional areas with our deep industry knowledge. Find out more about our collective experience, services and client successes. Research applied to business strategy can result in powerful new ideas and ways of looking at and thinking through business challenges. The biggest challenge of any growth strategy is to prioritize investments behind the initiatives that will deliver against expectations. But, in challenging business environments and mature industry categories, the challenges are unique. Typical strategies are unlikely to work. The challenge requires deeper insight and identification of new ideas and strategies that fit each unique situation.
What makes a growth strategy successful? We have found that the most successful growth strategies are based on prioritization of products and services linked to markets with the most potential. It requires an analysis of the product portfolio and industries with pockets of high growth.
Leadership has a substantial impact on growth. It is critical for leaders to inspire employees and nurture innovation. Building a culture of innovation requires a greater appetite for risk. Teams realize its fine to fail as long as they have a clear goal in mind and work within a tight framework of risk that is defined by risk management teams. Management has a critical role in investing in R&D and promoting open, Strategic Planning Processes.
Concepts and strategy: Our approach is to first use our collective experience to come up with 15-20 provocative concepts for a strategy. These are based on a series of questions that probe various topics and drivers of change. The outcome of the process is used to build several strategic maps to define and strengthen each hypothesis for a strategy.
Corporate and Business Unit Strategy: We apply proven methodologies and best practices that are based on a scan of how successful companies worldwide have approached similar problems and opportunities. The process minimizes risk and ensures strategic options are arrived with a fact based methodology.
Competitive Dimension: Integrating diverse products, services, consumers, vendors, partners, R&D and product support services can be daunting.But a great strategy is an aggregation of numerous compartmentalized stratgies that are scalable and ladder up to a broader corporate and business strategy. The corporate mission is a critical influencer of all strategies across levels and functional areas.
Arcus Innovation Leaders Series
Learn how business leaders use innovative approaches to shape their strategies. The majority of executives make it to top positions by being very good operational managers: meeting sales objectives, improving products and services to keep up with competitors, supporting existing customers and acquiring new ones, and so on.
Arcus’ multi-industry survey of over 1500 senior executives found that of all the challenges companies face in this area, the biggest challenge is finding ways to create a “climate for innovation”. Management is about business results and processes. Leadership is about people. The key quality you need in good leadership is passion—the urgency to attack and solve the complex problems that all organizations face.
Sales force deployment, marketing and channel management
The effectiveness of a healthy sales organization requires an in-depth knowledge of the value of a customer and the effort necessary to release it. A durable consultative selling approach and sales deployment plan includes this ratio and a focus on accounts warrant more resources and attention.
“Arcus manages to consistently deliver tangible results on market research and strategy projects. They combine deep business expertise, powerful research capabilities, and innovative thinking to deliver substantial value.”
– Vice President, Nikon