Nigel Malone keeps his favourite ten keynote slides related to strategic business development — his “Ten Commandments” — close to his chest at all times. Okay, sometimes he puts them down to bathe, but they are never far from his thinking.
In this series he shares the contents of these slides, which are drawn from a cross-section of sources, including the great business, brand and military planners of all time.
Also in this series:
- Favourite Slide #1: The Hedgehog
- Favourite Slide #2: Six Buying Roles
- Favourite Slide #3: Creative Development
- Favourite Slide #4: Values
- Favourite Slide #5: Message Development
- Favourite Slide #6: Competition
- Favourite Slide #7: Positioning
- Favourite Slide #8: The Sales Funnel
- Favourite Slide #9: Integrated Communication
- Favourite Slide #10: The Creative Brief
Favourite slide #1: The Hedgehog
One of my favourite keynote slides in strategic planning is the ‘hedgehog concept’ slide, and I’ve got a gentleman by the name of Jim Collins to thank for it. It’s generally the first slide I focus on with any company, but especially so with startups or businesses going through significant change.
There’s a plethora on information online about Jim and his thinking, but the ‘hedgehog concept’ is one of his gems. It’s really about determining business focus. Rather than being a ‘fox’ that is always on the lookout for everything and anything in terms of prey, Jim’s view is that it’s far better to keep it simple and be great at one big thing — much like the hedgehog, that when under threat rolls itself into a tight impenetrable ball.
Whether you like the analogy or not, it’s amazing how many companies that don’t have a simple, coherent strategic concept that they pursue with relentless consistency. Jim should know. His book, GOOD TO GREAT: Why Some Companies Make the Leap … And Others Don’t, attained long-running positions on the New York Times and Wall Street Journal best seller lists.
So how do you find your ‘hedgehog concept’? Get your three circles right.
1. What are you really passionate about?
Nothing great can be accomplished without passion, so it’s important you limit your primary arenas of activity to those for which you have great passion. Be it education, sailing or strategy.
2. What can you be the best in the world at?
“Best in the world” might be local or highly-focused, e.g. “best in the world at breaking the cycle of homelessness in Australia” or “best in the world at providing financial services to people in Darwin,” it nonetheless captures what you can do better than any other institution on the planet.
3. What best drives your economic or resource engine?
If you are a for-profit business, identify your one economic denominator that has the most significant impact on your economics. If you are a social sector organisation, how do you best improve your total resource engine, so that you can spend less time worrying about money and more time fulfilling your mission?
While most of my work is concerned with branding and marketing strategy, for me they are both a subset of business strategy, and that’s why I find the hedgehog invaluable. Not only does it help me identify the focus of the business, it more often than not helps the business itself find their focus.
Nigel Malone is a freelance brand strategist and writer, with particular expertise in the fields of tourism, finance, technology, sustainability and social change. Find out more at www.icycalm.biz
7 Comments
Martin Hosking
January 12th, 2010 at 4:08 pm
I agree, this is the most compelling and succinct view of successful company strategy that I have read. One important aspect of this view is that it typically takes time and you need to allow time to come to your hedgehog. RedBubble has been going for three years and only now are we beginning to be very clear about our hedgehog. But we have also actively worked to form it. In a sense the dream of the hedgehog has been a steadying force but we also have not attempted to get their too quickly or artificially.
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Xavier Russo
January 12th, 2010 at 5:05 pm
Agree. The hedgehog concept is truly powerful and should be applied more often (and with more rigour) by companies. It sets a tough standard of course but “great” isn’t a title you get for just showing up. Well chosen Nigel.
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Lesley-Ann
January 15th, 2010 at 10:08 am
Nigel, I was curious as to why you’d chosen to illustrate the Hedgehog Concept without the circles being interwoven?
Maybe it’s just a stylisitc thing and I’m probably being pedantic but my understanding of the Hedgehog Concept is that it’s power lies in all 3 circles working together to form the focus of the enterprise – making the cente where they’re represented as interwoven integral.
What do you think?
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Nigel Malone
January 15th, 2010 at 1:24 pm
Hi Lesley-Ann – yes purely a stylistic thing, or lack of it, in my case! but yes you make an extremely good point of how the visual you have described would better reflect the hedgehog… perhaps I subconsciously chose not to overlap as it looks like another favourite slide.. soon to come… stay tuned!
Thanks for your comment – same to Xavier and Martin.
Nigel
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James Tuckerman
January 19th, 2010 at 4:13 pm
I’m loving this slide but it’s starting to do my head in.
When looking at most media organisations (like Anthill), the revenue model is usually not directly related to what the organisation is best at (and vice versa). For example, The Australian Newspaper might be the best at publishing national news but it is unlikely to be the best at delivering an ROI to its advertisers (the core of its revenue model). These two elements don’t relate to each other in the same way that a company that is the best at making… say… sandwiches is likely to also take revenue from selling these awesome sandwiches.
So… In our case, we’ve had to create two things that we are ‘best’ at – one to ensure that our editorial team understands its role in the business and the other to ensure that we also don’t neglect our commercial function as an advertising and marketing platform. We have two client/stakeholder sets.
For example…
What’s Anthill’s passion: Educating/Inspiring business builders and fostering a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship in Australia.
What we’re best at: While we rarely ‘break the news’, we have excelled at creating a vibrant community of proactive business builders AND we are also among the best in Australia at providing measurable, ROI driven digital marketing services to our sponsors and advertisers. (We are one of few media outlets able to provide ‘reach’ and ‘intelligence’.)
What’s the revenue model: Advertising and digital marketing services.
Nigel – Do you know how other organisations that make their money from a ‘back-channel’ navigate this beautifully succinct structure? Any suggestions?
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Nigel Malone
January 19th, 2010 at 9:19 pm
Mmm, James, would love to hand- over to Jim on this one! However this would be my take on your situation…
Passionate about innovation and entrepreneurship
Best at building a vibrant community of proactive business builders
Revenue: measurable ROI driven digital marketing services
That’s the beauty of the hedgehog it makes you distill it down to the bare essence, and why it does your head in! It’s not easy to find a focus for a business. It’s far easier being a fox!
Remember if you don’t have the community, doesn’t matter how measurable your ad services are?
Doesn’t mean you have to ease up on the sales team
but their number one selling factor will always be the value of your audience…
But maybe your “Best at” should be:
Best at building a vibrant (quantified & qualified) community of proactive business builders
Just thinking out loud, winging it…
but great comment, hope it inspires a few responses better than mine!
Bottom-line: if it got you thinking about your business focus, then mission accomplished
Oh, and other organisations that make their money from ‘back-channel’… plenty, google for eg – I’ve got their mission/vision statement somewhere, I’ll dig it out and see how it applies to the hedgehog…
Nigel
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James Tuckerman Reply:
January 20th, 2010 at 9:23 am
Great feedback Nigel.
Gotta say that each of your posts has “got me thinking” and TALKING… with the Anthill crew and anyone who’ll listen.
Keep ‘em coming!
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