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Sameer Ambegaonkar: Strategies for Growth
Date Published: Wednesday April 22, 2009
Sameer Ambergaonkar, MD Lowe Scanad (K) Ltd (a subsidiary of ScanGroup Ltd.) has no qualms about sharing his hard earned knowledge acquired while maneuvering his way forward within the world of advertising. And naturally it's mostly about the strategies and tactics required to become an industry leader and stay that way. Who better to impart this knowledge that a man who has worked with some of the most respected advertising firms in Kenya and abroad including Lowe Scanad & McCann Erickson. A task he set on doing and did it with excellence during the recent Leadership Forum by The British Council in Nairobi.
The evening event took place on April 15th 2009 at The Sarova Stanley hotel, Nairobi. Attended by more than 140 industry leaders and aspirants from around Nairobi, the topic for the day; "Strategies & Tactics for Growth" turned out to be quite beneficial to all in attendance despite of job description and/or industry for every individual and company needs to have a strategy and the tactics to match.
Using, as he describes it, "lessons from life and history," Mr. Ambergaonkar took the audience through the various strategies adopted by industry players in order to get ahead in the game. Strategy being the grand plan and tactic being merely the execution style, he emphasized the importance of recognizing first and foremost the combative nature of strategy and how much like a game it resembles.
One strategy Ambergaonkar mentioned among others was The Fortress Strategy which is used commonly among brand leaders and niche players. Within the fortress strategy a player first creates a market and then sets on defending that market, fiercely if need be. The essentials of defense in this case is acquiring a 'tall wall' to keep intruders out via consumer brand affinity; creating a 'Moat' around the fortress thus making it difficult for the anyone who wants to enter - by means of distribution, sales and pricing; And 'Food and Drinks' for the people inside through excellent customer service to help keep the consumers grounded.
The fortress strategy while suited for some is not the ultimate strategy, different industry players use different strategies or different strategies are suited to different industry players, individuals and corporations alike. Other strategies according to Ambergaonkar that can be adopted include;
- The Oasis Strategy which involves staying ahead in innovation; commonly used by Sony & Apple.
- The Flanking Strategy which involves using the element of surprise to engulf the competition commonly used by Toss against Omo.
- the Apple Strategy that involves consistent delivery on ones product or services and creating a hype about it
- The Ripple Effect Strategy which involves creating sufficient confusion and disturbance in order to dislodge a leader.
- The Liquid Engulf Strategy which involves surrounding the market leaders until their resistance breaks down; and
- The Tidal Wave Strategy which involves persistent 'chest thumbing' by a new player till they too are recognized as part of the game.
By using local and popularly known international examples, the speaker managed to grab the attention of those in the audience and keep them interested the entire length of the speech. Though not able to go deeper into the tactics, he was however careful at emphasizing the importance of tactics towards any strategy. Some tactic he noted includes:
- The crab attack that emphasis on putting your best part/features first and intimidating your competitors e.g. the i-phone marketing techniques compared to Nokia's
- The spider web that works towards luring the innocent in the market and having them hooked on your product or services
Leadership Forum, held every third Wednesday of the month is an initiative of The British Council in Kenya.
For more info contact:
Tel: +254 020 283 6214
Email: Leadership.Forum@britishcouncil.or.ke
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