Origin of the Quadric® framework
The need for better insight
The Quadric framework arose out of our need to better understand the companies we worked with. Specifically, to better understand their future potential and help them reach it. To advise companies effectively, we needed to know what drove them, what people trusted them to do and what people hoped they would do in the future. With that insight, we could help our clients grow more effectively.
The clients we worked with were international and global companies that wanted to move beyond the competitive advantages they had achieved using rational approaches (e.g. operational efficiency, technical superiority). Their operations were guided by the relevant best practices, they were constantly improving products and processes and some had strong brands. Yet, they knew they could achieve more; more effective integration of acquisitions, more focused innovation, more inspired employees, more committed distribution channels, more loyal customers. Their ambitious lists went on and on.
In most cases, their management teams had taken these “softer” issues seriously for some time. Most had run “values process,” “branding processes,” a wide range of management programs to redefine key metrics and many projects related to aligning sales and marketing with their strategy. Nothing had become the driving force they were looking for and frustration with consultants was high. Employee surveys still said their companies lacked direction and their power in their value chains had not changed significantly. Their financial valuations did not reflect the value they were creating nor their future potential.
In each case, the problem was that these companies had failed to achieve a true, relevant and high-value position in people’s minds. They excelled in many areas, but they had failed to achieve what could be called “strategic differentiation.”
We were fortunate to meet many of these companies at natural turning points in their development; a 300 year anniversary, a rebirth of a division as an independent company, a dramatic restructuring and a number of management or strategy changes. In each case, there was desire, even urgency, to re-take control of their future. Each management team agreed that differentiation needed to become an integral part of their strategy, anchored in senior management and driven across their entire value chain like nothing before.
A powerful management tool
The Quadric framework is the management tool that matched their ambitions. In each case, their “Quadric” guides decision-making and focuses every effort on building their position in the minds of people across their value chains. They are optimizing their brand portfolios to reinforce their positioning. They are building cultural uniqueness to reinforce their positioning. They are collecting operational evidence to reinforce their positioning. They are aligning marketing to reinforce their positioning. Most importantly, they are implementing all of these changes simultaneously, faster and with fewer consultants involved than ever before.
When working with the Quadric framework, the decisions above and many others are automatically linked. Simultaneous decisions are made naturally and at a faster pace than expected. It is the strategic role and high efficiency that make it a powerful management tool, a tool with the potential to increase the contribution of business to society.
We all have an intuitive sense that we lead more fulfilling lives when we understand and believe in what we put our effort into. Similarly, there is growing recognition that a company with a clear purpose beyond their products and profits, built by people committed to fulfilling that purpose, will be more successful than a company with lesser focus. The Quadric framework provides the missing link between a company’s purpose and how people contribute to it. Strengthening this link enables companies to achieve more than increased competitiveness; they increase their contribution to society.
Increasing global competition for talent, jobs, customers and capital, makes the role of business in society an even more critical issue. While each country has its competitive strengths and weaknesses, business has the potential to be a positive, unifying force across all of them. In Russia and other countries transitioning into market economies, business is being given a chance to play a role on which fundamental quality-of-life improvements depend. Companies that build genuine understanding and belief in their futures, companies that build strategic differentiation, will help ensure these improvements continue.
It is in this context that we offer the Quadric framework, a management tool that has already had a dramatic impact on companies in a wide range of industries and countries.
Read about Quadric client cases.