Marketing Strategy and Competitive Positioning pdf ebook

‘Nimble’ consultancy focuses on quick response to 
disruption
By Gill Plimmer

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INTRODUCTION
Introduction 
Of central importance in developing and implementing a robust marketing strategy is aware-
ness of how the environment in which marketing takes place is changing. At its simplest, 
the marketing environment can be divided into the competitive environment (including 
the company, its immediate competitors and customers) and the macro-environment (the 
wider social, political and economic setting in which organisations operate). Competition 
between firms to serve customers is the very essence of modern, market-led economies. 
Since the middle of the twentieth century, competition has been intensifying as firms seek to 
create competitive advantage in ever-more crowded markets and with increasingly demand-
ing customers. This chapter provides a number of tools for understanding the competitive 
environments in which firms operate and recognising the opportunities and threats they 
present. It can provide no simple rules for achieving competitive success, but can explain 
the forms of industry environment that exist, the competition within them and when and 
why certain strategies succeed. 
It should be borne in mind, however, that industries and markets are not the same thing – 
industries are collections of organisations with technologies and products in common, 
whereas markets are customers linked by similar needs. For example, white goods firms 
Working with Saberr, an artificial intelligence 
company, Adaptive Lab helped to design a strat-
egy that included a simplified, viable product with 
which Saberr could go to market quickly. This has 
resulted in Coachbot, a digital team coach that 
is being piloted in the NHS and at Unilever and 
Logitech. 
Other clients include Barclays, Santander, Lloyds, 
Standard Life, Vodafone, TalkTalk, Asos and Tesco. 
It is also working with Konica Minolta, a manufac-
turer of photocopiers and office equipment. 
The business, which employs around 50 staff, has 
grown quickly. In the past four years, sales have dou-
bled every year, and it is aiming to increase revenues 
by 40 per cent next year. 
‘Big companies are so ingrained in what they do, 
they don’t ask, “why do we do it like this?” We try 
to help them act a little more nimbly,’ he says. ‘It’s a 
matter of when, not if, banking will be reinvented, so 
we are helping them to figure out how.’ 
The foreign exchange market is one part of bank-
ing that is being transformed, with new online 
businesses such as TransferWise stealing market 
share from the large lending institutions. 
‘They are really eating into the margins of the 
foreign currency market,’ says Mr Haycock. ‘The 
banks may have invited them in and held meetings 
but they haven’t shaken up the business to adapt. 
Even though they are aware of the new entrants 
and scanning them they don’t necessarily take 
them as seriously as they should,’ he adds. 
Mr Haycock is convinced that Adaptive Lab offers 
something fresh in the overcrowded consultancies 
market. The bigger consultancies can take up to two 
years to come up with a plan, he says – far too long 
to get competitive advantage. 
‘Although big consultancies say they are agile, 
they take a long time to deliver. They will say, “this 
is a big programme of work so we need a big busi-
ness case”,’ he says. ‘From a [large] consultancy’s 
perspective, the more bodies on a project the better 
for the longer term.’ 
Source: from ‘”Nimble” consultancy focuses on quick response to disruption’, Financial Times , 18/01/18 (Plimmer, G.).
Discussion questions 
1 
What changes in the market environment has Adaptive Lab exploited?
2 
What is Adaptive Lab’s competitive advantage over larger consultancy firms?

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