Strategy plan
ETHNICAL CASE STUDY – Decision Processes and Vision
Based on your compelling analytic findings and recommendations, EthniCal leadership was convinced to refocus their efforts from loyalty to acquisition in the face of strong competition from BC2K. Results were immediately evident after the new acquisition strategy was put in place, and EthniCal has been successful in driving a growth trend within just a few months. Their revenues have now nearly recovered to the earlier level of $30MM and are on a path to exceed their goals.
EthniCal’s data-driven turnaround has impressed their investors, and the CEO Sam was successful in raising funds for their expansion into high-end handicrafts and art. With the funding, he plans to put in place a new set of functions and expand the company to a staff of ~100 within the next two years. Through this major expansion, he is keen to ensure that the company retains it’s core values and closeness to the customer. He is also now a stronger advocate of analytics, although he is still learning how to balance analytic findings with his own judgment and intuition.
Sam has extended you a full-time offer to lead an analytics function with EthniCal. The function will sit within Marketing to be close to the business lines, reporting into the Head of Marketing, Sherin. Before accepting the offer, you have a conversation with Sam and Sherin to propose that the analytics function should report directly to Sam to support decision-making across the organization. You explain that it is not a “condition” for your acceptance, but that you are proposing it with the sincere belief that it will drive a much greater impact this way.
Both Sam and Sherin are very ambivalent about your proposal. They see clear value in analytics for Marketing, and are less clear about how decision-making in other functions could benefit the organization. With this uncertainty they are worried that the impact of analytics would be diluted if the function is spread too thin. However, they want to bring you on board and are willing to give you a chance to make your case with more substance. They would like to see a high-level business case for how analytics can drive value beyond Marketing within the expanded EthniCal organization, and will make their decision accordingly.
THE NEW ETHNICAL ORGANIZATION
With the funding to expand the organization, the CEO Sam announces the formalization of the following new functions in addition to analytics:
Talent Acquisition and Retention: this function will sit within Human Resources and will be responsible for the design and implementation of strategies for employee hiring and retention as EthniCal expands it’s staff.
Revenue Management and Demand Forecasting: this function will sit within Finance and will work closely with Marketing on strategies for revenue optimization through pricing and demand optimization.
Shipping and Logistics: this function will sit within Supply Chain and is responsible to optimize the fulfilment and delivery of merchandise to EthniCal’s customers. It will also implement more rigorous methods for inventory management across EthniCal’s nationally-distributed warehouses.
Partnerships: this function will sit within Legal and will be responsible for due diligence on suppliers/partners in other countries to ensure full compliance of their local practices with US laws and regulations. Their work will involve extensive reviews of financial reports, filings and public domain content about the suppliers/partners.
Data Management: this function will sit within IT and will revamp EthniCal’s infrastructure to ensure fast, efficient data feeds to support new and existing functions so that access to information is no longer a barrier.
YOUR TASKS
Part I (Day 3 Morning)
For each of the new functions, list out the decisions that are necessary to successfully carry out their responsibilities
Identify potential opportunities for analytics to guide decisions in each area
Prioritizing according to business relevance and impact to identify a recommended set of areas that the new analytics function will support in addition to Marketing
[Note: the Data Management function is a partner whose role is to configure information for reporting and analysis. They will set up the data streams and data integration needed for Analytics to effectively support the other functions.]
Part II (Day 3 Afternoon)
Taking the decision processes from Part I, combined with the planned support of Marketing, develop an overall vision of analytic maturity for EthniCal to present to Sam and Sherin.
What are the functions that Analytics will support? What is the business value that this will deliver?
At full maturity, what level of analytic rigor will be applied (i.e. descriptive, predictive, prescriptive) in each area?
At full maturity, what level of scale will be achieved in each area? Will analytics be responsible for all support on a project-by-project basis, or will there be automation and development of analytic products for end users?
The main competitor BC2K will compete in all areas but with a traditional, intuition-driven approach. What are the specific attributes of competitive advantage that this enterprise analytical approach will provide?
