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Strategy and its outcomes are not always as deliberate as they appear. Strategy is deliberate action but it can also be strangely accidental. Businesses begin by accidents of time and thought blended with action. This article highlights four ways in which strategy can be accident first before it is followed through with purposeful action.
Extension by accident
It happens in the corporate world that a business is looking for one thing but finds another -by accident. This is particularly observable when companies are involved in product development. For instance, when Procter & Gamble first introduced the now famous Febreze air freshener, it was a disaster in the market. The company was convinced it would be a big hit but that was not the case when it entered the market. Investigations into why the product was doing badly took the company’s researchers into customers’ homes. During one of these visits, they discovered that one woman was using the product as an after-cleaning finish – spray in the air, on upholstery, on curtains, on fabrics and so on. This insight led to repositioning the product and extending its significance to users. P & G found a product extension by accident and evolved a new strategy which yielded tremendous sales results a few months after. Accidents of strategy are waiting to happen during routine procedures or operational activities.
Accident of trial
An entrepreneur is waiting for a delayed flight when he catches sight of a plane on the tarmac. His enquiries reveal that the plane is available for charter. A quick calculation shows that the cost of chartering the plane can be covered by a certain number of passengers paying a certain rate. Not long after, the plane is in the air fully loaded and the entrepreneur’s fare fully paid with a profit. The flight was advertised to passengers with a borrowed blackboard which served as an improvised banner. Upon it was written: VIRGIN AIRWAYS: $39 SINGLE FLIGHT TO PUERTO RICO. The idea that British Airways could be challenged was conceived by an accident of trial led by Richard Branson during a holiday. Branson didn’t plan to start an airline that day neither was he certain that passengers would subscribe to an unknown name. Desperation got the better of passengers and strategy by accident was activated. Years later, the actual airline was established. A lesson from this story is that opportunities are not always screaming aloud. Opportunities can be quiet but loud enough for discerning minds to hear and act upon.
Accident of personal pain
Kevin Plank is not one of those entrepreneurs who dreamt of starting a business after graduation but he did start such a business. He didn’t plan to run a sports enterprise with revenues in billions of dollars but now he does. He was a hardworking but by no means outstanding college football player. He also perspired a lot. Being less naturally athletic than his teammates, he did not want to be hindered by an ounce of sweaty weight. From asking at a fabric store, he realized that synthetic fabrics were better than cotton in soaking up sweat. He bought a stretchy microfiber material which through seven tailored prototypes gave him his desire: a tight-fitting T-shirt that weighed three ounces when dry and only seven ounces in a wet state. His teammates were delighted with the samples and that was the beginning of Underarmour. Graduation from college was graduation into a startup. Today, Underarmour is a top sportswear business that reported 2016 revenues of $4.8 billion. Strategy as accident emerged from Kevin Plank’s personal pain which he sought to resolve directly. He is neither a fabric nor retail expert but in the words of author, Amy Wilkinson, “he cracked the creator’s code” of translating a personal need to a gap in the industry and a strategy in itself. Strategy by accident can be a story of easing your own pain.
Accident by instruction
Business has numerous stories of people who stumble upon ideas. There are also cases of people who are given ideas to implement. Marie Callender was working in a restaurant during the 2nd World War when her boss told her customers were requesting for pies. His idea was for Marie to start making pies. She did and the customers loved them. A simple idea as an addition to a job description led Marie Callender to start her own pie shop. By 1964, she had 115 shops in 14 states and sold the pie business to Ramada Inn for $90 million in 1986. The bakery and restaurant chain continues to operate successfully in the US in her name.
Closing note
Not every strategy is so carefully thought out. There are accidents of strategy which evolve into businesses of repute. Who knows where the accidents might occur?
Weyinmi Jemide
