Strategy development in a chemical park: from offering to customer value

The strategy process brought together the perspectives of the individual business units, with customer loyalty and customer benefit as central reference points. The aim was to connect customer segmentation, the company’s core competencies and a positioning that could support the company as a whole.

The team identified core competencies, examined developments in the business environment and analysed the interests within the stakeholder network. Discussions and workshops with shareholders and key customers complemented the internal view. This allowed expectations of the service offering and possible market developments to be worked through together.

The analysis produced five strategic options, ranging from a sharper focus to expanding business activities. Topics included land use, the further development of the site, new technologies and the service portfolio. The options were assessed against customer expectations.

At first, the internal corporate development team acted as a bridge between the organisation, its managers and the external consultants. It coordinated the process and supported customer segmentation, service packages and strategic initiatives. In this phase, the external consultants were responsible for designing the strategy and intervention architecture and for guiding the process.

The 2016 strategy review was designed as a learning architecture. Corporate development ran the working meetings on its own, while external consultants supported with coaching, sparring and input on the realignment. The review confirmed the basic direction and refined it in light of market changes since the original process.

How does a new positioning become a shared leadership task? Consider which internal roles connect customer insight, strategic decisions and implementation, and which capabilities need to be built for this.

• Five strategic alternatives, worked out together as a set of options.
• A strategy review facilitated internally in 2016, with a refined strategic direction.
• Step-by-step handover of strategy development and steering to the in-house corporate development team.

This information describes the historical strategy process and the 2016 review. It says nothing about the company’s current positioning. The documentation does not provide an independently verified return on the consulting work.