“I don’t think there’s a brand in America that is more consistent than the NBA. To me, a brand is a promise, and you know what you’re going to get out of the NBA, just as you know what you’re going to get out of Tiffany and Harley-Davidson”

David Carter
Sports business professor at USC, in Fortune

Make a difference, plus business model (this set of questions is key) – What are the top one-to-three make-a-difference items about our business? About our revenues? About our profits? What are the key drivers? What do we really compete on? How can we improve or take advantage of that? Which customers, markets, and products make up eighty percent of our sales? Our profits?  What’s our business model? How simple? Effective? Innovative and possibly disruptive?

Customer needs – Who are our customers? What do they value? How do we increase that value? How do we know? Why do customers buy from us? Why not? What’s our market share? Trends? How are we externally (market) focused? Besides knowing our customers’ needs, how well do we know, add value, and sell through to our customers’ customers?

Competitive analysis/matrix – What are the competitive matrices? From the matrices, which are the real drivers? How do we stack up against top competitors? What’s the gap? What should we do to close gaps?  What’s our competitive advantage?

Targeting – What is our customer targeting criteria? Accountability to the criteria?

Branding – What’s our brand? Our promise?  How strong, consistent, and successful is it? Related, private label opportunities?

Relevancy and world presence – How will we stay relevant/useful in a fast-changing world? What would be lost if we disappeared? Related, what is our global strategy? Global marketing?

“I don’t think there’s a brand in America that is more consistent than the NBA. To me, a brand is a promise, and you know what you’re going to get out of the NBA, just as you know what you’re going to get out of Tiffany and Harley-Davidson”

“I don’t think there’s a brand in America that is more consistent than the NBA. To me, a brand is a promise, and you know what you’re going to get out of the NBA, just as you know what you’re going to get out of Tiffany and Harley-Davidson”

Besides checking against prior page’s Keys to Increasing Multiple, perhaps a few summary questions requiring serious contemplation are:

  • Do we have a handle on what our business is? What our business can or should be?
  • What are the real drivers? What do we need to do to protect and sustain the drivers we’re strong at? What do we need to do to shore up or improve the value drivers where we’re not so strong?
  • … In short, what’s our Strategy??

Strategic Planning.  Improving value is tantamount to or inherent within strategic planning. A strategic planning process helps lay out a vision, define values, establish goals, determine focus areas and key strategies, and provide for accountability.

What’s Answered by the Team:

  • Purpose – why do we exist? What are we good at? What’s our relevancy?
  • Vision/future – what do we want our future to look like?
  • Core values – intentionally limited to very few, real and meaningful
  • Key goals/results – five to ten, and tied to purpose and vision
  • Key strategies – focused and limited, tied to purpose and vision; bold, meaningful, targeted, and difference making; plus determining tradeoffs

A strategic planning process may incorporate the following assessments:

  • SWOT or situation analysis – strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. 
  • Industry analysis – industry and customer sectors, and trends.
  • Customer analysis, by sector – Who are our customers? What do they value? How do we increase that value? How do we know? 
  • Competitive analysis, by sector – What are the competitive matrices? Of the matrices, which are the drivers? How do we compete against lead competitors? How do we want to compete in the future?

“I don’t think there’s a brand in America that is more consistent than the NBA. To me, a brand is a promise, and you know what you’re going to get out of the NBA, just as you know what you’re going to get out of Tiffany and Harley-Davidson”

Rice & Associates Help with Regards to Strategy: Since 1991, Rice & Associates has worked with clients on strategy, whether a strategic planning process, or more often today, abbreviated process or process components, or time-to-time strategy advice, feedback, and dialogue.

Beyond or related to Strategy, Rice & Associates works with client CEO’s and others towards:

  • M&A
  • Succession 
  • Confidant
  • Board member or Board advisory 
  • Management organization design 
  • Executive recruitment
  • Compensation design – performance/incentive
  • Governance and accountability – e.g., board and senior management responsibilities, key measures /results, key activities, and reporting or decision rights
  • Individual leadership development

“I don’t think there’s a brand in America that is more consistent than the NBA. To me, a brand is a promise, and you know what you’re going to get out of the NBA, just as you know what you’re going to get out of Tiffany and Harley-Davidson”