5 Things High-Performing Teams Do Differently

In a transformational situation it’s key to explore new spaces and ways for value creation in your industry. I like the framework that W. Chan Kim, Renée Mauborgne and Mi Ji presented in a recent INSEAD article. It basically lays out four questions you can ask yourself to identify these new strategic opportunities, especially in a post-Covid world:

Which factors that the industry takes for granted should be eliminated?
This question forces you to look at parts of the service/product offering that could be disregarded. It aims to identify factors that have long been thought to be important and needed in competition, even though they no longer provide real value. Eliminating these factors creates a cost advantage.

Which factors should be reduced well below the industry’s standard?
This question forces you to determine if products or services have been overdesigned. When customers are over-served, costs are incurred without value being seen. This is another way to create a strategic cost advantage.

Which factors should be raised well above the industry’s standard?
This question focuses on identifying where customers are currently forced to make a compromise. There can be an overlooked opportunity in an industry to offer more of some elements than the industry standard is offering.

Which factors should be created that the industry has never offered?
This question challenges you to define entirely new types of value for buyers, but also to create new demand by attracting and converting non-customers into customers.

I liked the example of Zwift, an online training app for fitness-minded cyclists on stationary bikes, which experienced explosive growth during #Covid, accelerated by the cancellation of outdoor races. Their smart trainer allows you to measure your performance and connects bikes/riders around the world.

• It eliminates the need for people to travel with their bikes to specific locations to train or compete together.
• It reduces dedicated training time and equipment needs, and lowers the cost of participation.
• It creates new experiences with lifelike virtual worlds like the routes of the Tour de France.
• By bringing people together from around the world to cycle and race together, it increases social connectedness.

What can you eliminate, reduce, create and/or increase?