Power of Marketing – CIM Northern Conference – 5
Strategic Collaborative Advantage
This was a great talk (best of the day for me) from Paul Skinner of Agency of the Future and Pimp my Cause, full of fantastic tips for any business and also those studying CIM qualifications, particularly the Driving Innovation module of the Diploma in Professional Marketing.
Starting with the question about whether competitive advantage is the wrong goal, and should we be moving from a control to an influence position Paul said their needs to be a change in mindset.
There are many challenges in Competitive Advantage now, these include:
Zero sum industries where no one makes any money or gains advantage- Sub-optimal societal outcomes – overall society can lose out whilst organisations pursue advantage for themselves
- Unsustainable practices
- Ignoring white space innovation (this should be a familiar concept to those who have studies the Driving Innovation module!)
- Overly hierarchical
- Simply no longer useful
A great quote about competitive advantage from a book I have now ordered – The Lords of Strategy, from Harvard Business Press – was given by Paul:
“The 21st century of the discipline will have to do more to help if, or when, the dominant verb becomes not compete but something like co-create”
A proposed five step approach to open participation to develop strategic collaborative advantage through an outside-in framework is:
- Set the agenda – define unique pursuit you support others in participating in
- Innovate – By creating useful, engaging ways for people to participate in your shared agenda
- Engage – by creating an environment of roles and customs that help people to participate alongside each other
- Enhance – work with your early adopters to reach a broader mainstream
- Scale – by partnering up to achieve more than you could alone
Many thanks Paul – really great stuff which I look forward to sharing when teaching, particularly for CIM Diploma in Professional Marketing and Chartered Postgraduate Diploma qualification courses.
