Strategising for startups part 2 - Unstrategising Simone Santoni

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Strategizing
For Start-Ups
Part II

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Paolo Aversa
Lecturer in Strategy
Cass Business School
Paolo.Aversa.1@city.ac.uk
Strategizing for Start-Ups
Part II
Simone Santoni
Research Fellow
Cass Business School
Paolo.Aversa.1@city.ac.uk&

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About me
• Cass research fellow
• My research focuses on:
• creative industries (music industry) and big
data;
• entrepreneurial team formation and change.
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Outline
• Part I, recap
• Is strategizing different for start-ups?

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Al Pacino, Every Given Sunday
Part I, recap

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What is strategy about?
“The determination of the long-run goals and objectives of an
enterprise; and the adoption of courses of action and the
allocation of resources necessary for carrying out these goals.”
Alfred Chandler, Strategy and Structure
“Strategy is a pattern of resource allocation that enables firms to
maintain or improve their performance.”
Jay Barney, Gaining and Sustaining Competitive Advantage
“A diagnosis, a guiding policy, a set of coherent actions.”
Richard Rumelt, Good Strategy Bad Strategy
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What is strategy about?
For me strategy is the process through which select and develop
business opportunities.
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Al Pacino, Every Given Sunday

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Part I core proposition
Strategy stimulates value creation.
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The roles of strategy
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Decision Support
Improves the quality
of decision making
Improves performance
by setting high
aspirations
Coordination &
Communication
Target
Creates consistency
and unity
Source: Grant, 2013

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What makes a successful strategy
Source: Grant, 2013

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Al Pacino, Every Given Sunday
Is strategizing different for startups?

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Al Pacino, Every Given Sunday

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The antecedents of strategy—RPV framework
Source: Christensen et al. 2004
Resources
Processes
Values
Strategy

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The antecedents of strategy—RPV framework
Source: Christensen et al. 2004
Resources
Processes
Values
Strategy
Things or assets
that organisations
can buy or sell,
build or destroy.
Examples:
• People
• Technology
• Products
• Equipement
• Information

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The antecedents of strategy—RPV framework
Source: Christensen et al. 2004
Resources
Processes
Values
Strategy
Establish ways
companies turn
resources into
products or services.
Examples:
• Hiring/training
• Product
development
• Manufacturing

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The antecedents of strategy—RPV framework
Source: Christensen et al. 2004
Resources
Processes
Values
Strategy
The criteria by
which prioritization
decisions are
made. Examples:
• Cost structure
• Income statement
• Customer
demands
• Ethics

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RPV framework—core proposition
Firms successfully tackle business opportunities
when:
• they have the resources to succeed;
• when their processes facilitate what needs to get
done, and
• when their values allow them to give adequate
priority that particular business opportunity in the
face of other demands that compete for the
company’s resources.

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The antecedents of strategy?! RPV framework
Source: Christensen et al. 2004
Resources
Processes
Values
Strategy

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Resources ~ entrepreneurial team

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The antecedents of strategy?! RPV framework
Source: Christensen et al. 2004
Processes
Values
Strategy

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Processes—as routines—tend to zero.

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Firms face a
resource-process trade off.

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The antecedents of strategy?! RPV framework
Source: Christensen et al. 2004
Values
Strategy

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The antecedents of strategy?! RPV framework
Source: Christensen et al. 2004
Resources
Processes
Values
Strategy

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Al Pacino, Every Given Sunday
Does strategy matter for startups?

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Al Pacino, Every Given Sunday
Wrap-up

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Bring home
• Strategy stimulates (can stimulate) value creation
• Strategizing is different for startups
• The process of strategy formulation is
tremendously ambiguous for startups
• Successful entrepreneurs are able to navigate
ambiguity to discover superior courses of
action