The global financial crisis has certainly changed the business landscape around the world. We have seen giant companies like General Motor collapsed, industries such as the financial services industry severely dented and governments all over the world has to pump-prime the economies to prevent further melt down.

The the business landscape has changed, how would you know your business models remain appropriate even when giants corporations had even fallen? 

What is a business model?

Simply, a business model is how an enterprise sees the relationship between the infrastructure that is has in generating the value proposition it offers to serve its customers and ultimately capturing the financial benefits. A business model is the articulation of the corporate strategy.

An example that we could use here is the airline business. There are two distinct business model that are commonly applied, the full...

Like it or not the world is moving forward. This means that we, as business people, may not know with certainty what would happen in the future, even as close as tomorrow. This may not really scare many of us as we are very familiar with going to sleep at night and waking up again another day. However, for business, the dynamics in the market may have re-shaped the landscape overnight and what in store beyond the horizon may provide both opportunities and challenges for our business.

How do we know what is beyond the horizon? There is no easy answer.

What could be done to answer the question is perhaps by having better understanding the change drivers and try to understand the trends that may come with them. From here, we could figure out few likely scenarios. Having the idea about what might happen, we could have a better feel about the opportunities and risks that would likely be in store for the business and would be in a better position to decide the...

Nik Mohd Hasyudeen Yusoff

We are now approaching the end of another year. Soon we are going to enter into a new year, again. To some businesses, new year or not, it would not make any different to them. To the business owners and directors, it would be business as usual. However, for those who want to achieve better performance and move their businesses to higher levels, this would be a good time to review the industry landscape and plan for a better future.

Why business as usual is not an option?

Firstly, the business drivers that shape the industry which your business is in may have changed and would continue to change. Political developments, changing economic conditions, changes in values and preference of society as well as technological innovation may have shifted the fundamentals of success factors of the industry. What would be the new opportunities and what are the risks...

By Nik Mohd Hasyudeen Yusoff

As defined in an earlier article, strategy is about how an enterprise plans to win in the competitive market place. Naturally, an enterprise has to determine the market it is going to serve, the offerings that differentiate itself from other competitors as well as how it would achieve its intend to be successful in serving the market.

Let's re-visit Jack Welch's three steps strategy formulation approach:

    * First, come up with a "big aha" for your business - a smart, realistic, relatively fast way to gain sustainable competitive advantage;
    * Second, put the right people in the right jobs to drive the big aha forward; and
    * Third, relentlessly seek out the best practices to achieve your big aha, whether inside or out, adapt them, and continually improve them.

By Nik Mohd Hasyudeen Yusoff

Strategy is about how an enterprise plans to win in the competitive market place. In the present liberalised business environment where new competitors could access the market easily, enterprises need to have a clear idea of how they could fulfill the needs of the market they are serving and differentiate themselves against competitors to obtain competitive edge. Therefore, having a clear strategy to win in the marketplace is important to all enterprises, notwithstanding their sizes.

It appears that some entrepreneurs misunderstood strategy with strategy execution. This is especially true when varieties of ideas are being promoted to entrepreneurs such as the quality initiative and managing the supply chain. My simple explanation on the importance of strategy is in situations where businesses spend resources to improve the quality of products and reduce production...