The MADStrat approach is inherently multi-disciplinary and draws from strategy, innovation, culture, finance and marketing.
Our principals have published extensively in the business press across a range of topics relating to strategy, technology and customer value. Below are a selection of these materials, categorized by type:
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Article
COVID and the associated lock downs have dramatically impacted shopping behavior and rebalanced priorities for retail customers. This article reviews the impact on consumer behaviors based on research among a representative sample of more than 5,000 U.S. households and identifies five major shopper segments.
Article
A fundamental source of confusion among executives is the use of a single term to refer to three very different strategic responses to business challenges. We discuss how change can involve magnitude, activity or direction, and how executives can assess what form of change is appropriate in their context.
Article
Consumers have adapted their shopping routines due to COVID with more than 50% reporting they had made purchases from “brands that were new to them” and that these new brands accounted for more than 30% of their purchases. We use the SAVE framework to show how brands can adapt to the changes to consumer behavior and attitudes in order to innovate how new value can be created and delivered.
Case Study
The case analyzes attempts by Fidelity Investments to navigate the changing financial services landscape through the establishment of Fidelity Labs, an in-house innovation engine that was chartered to experiment, validate and develop new technological solutions. It explores some of the business implications of core technological changes that are sweeping through the financial services industry and in doing so helps them gain a better appreciation of the potential impacts of the 4th Industrial Revolution as it relates to financial services and investments.
Case Study
Retail shopping models had long been considered binary – either e-commerce or bricks & mortar – but in practice we observe a broad spectrum between these two extremes. This case explores the many hybrid models emerging like ordering online and picking up in-store (Walmart’s Grocery Pickup), shopping in-store and ordering online (Warby Parker and Bonobos made their name in this space – largely facilitating the showroom behavior of consumers), digitally-enhanced physical shopping (several companies hold patents in this space with virtual reality promising to push this model), and many others.
Article
Gillette’s campaign “The Best Men Can Be” prioritizes social approval over customer demand – and that’s a strategic mistake. Your organization’s license to operate relies on achieving buy in from a broad range of stakeholders, but your success as a business ultimately depends on engaging with customers in a way that motivates them to buy.
Case Study
Despite globally recognized product quality (primarily measured in terms of longer vase life), Ecuadorian rose growers were finding it extremely difficult to achieve attractive levels of profitability. As one of Ecuador’s chief exportable products, and generating more than 100,000 jobs, the industry needed to change. How could this small Latin American country re-imagine how it competes in this global market in 2018 and beyond?
Case Study
In 2018, Coda Coffee was paying three times the commodity exchange rate for raw coffee beans and their supply chains reached from Denver all across the world. How could AI, machine vision, blockchain, and IoT help Coda Coffee – and their suppliers – ensure that this premium pricing was translating into higher income for the coffee farmers?
Article
Nike delivers a masterclass on how to differentiate between the needs of their brand versus the reputation of their business. Most companies want “to have their cake and eat it, too” by not recognizing that achieving a distinctive brand positioning among consumers sometimes comes at the expense of popularity and approval in the eyes of a wider set of stakeholders.
Article
Since when did a “solution” refer to the bundle you want to sell, rather than to the resolution of a specific customer need? We explore the five key areas in which companies need to make progress if they are serious about focusing on the outcomes that their buyers wants to achieve.
