Diving Into Strategic Analysis

Introduction

Have you ever asked yourself how it would be to be part of a startup? Well, I did, and I'm kind of living the experience. On August 3rd, I began the Future Founder fellowship program, and a new world opened up to me. The fellowship program lasts six months when you learn different skills startups are looking for. It's been one month since I started, and I am shocked by all the things I learned, for example how to give correct feedback to peers, the importance of group work, and more specific things such as how to do a Strategic analysis. This last is what this blog would be about… My peers and I were asked to choose a start-up of our choice for a class deliverable, and I chose Simpleat. The start-up is a meal delivery service company that provides healthy, nutritious, homemade meals ready in under 15 minutes to the customer's doorstep. After that, we were asked to develop a strategic analysis of the chosen start-up. But, what is a Strategic Analysis? Well, Strategic analysis is a process that involves researching the business environment in which, in this case, a start-up operates, which is important for decision-making and its efficient functionality. I followed these three steps to achieve a strategy analysis:

1. Conducting the strategy

2. Defining a Strategy

3. Defining a strategic roadmap

Conducting the strategy

We conducted extensive research in this step, and became acquainted with the start-up that each of us chose. The first step was to select a startup, and as I previously stated, I chose Simpleat. However, this step was not as simple as it appeared. To begin, we had to ensure that we were selecting a startup because as Future Founder program fellows, we will be working exclusively with startups. As soon as we were told this I started thinking about different options, I did a little brainstorming and this company came to my mind. I googled Simpleat and found some news. They were something like "Startups to consider this year," so I clicked in and Simpleat appeared in the list, and that's when I decided. Simpleat was the startup I was going to work with. Following the selection of a start-up, the next step was to develop an organizational framework. This was the most difficult step for me because there is little information about Simpleat available online. My advice is to gather information from every website you visit, including journalist blogs and YouTube videos. An organizational framework is an excellent tool for collecting all the important information about the company under consideration, allowing you to obtain the most important information together:

• The context and relevant systems:

For the making of the context and relevant systems, the history of the company, group composition, and the main systems are needed. With deep research, as mentioned before, you should be able to complete all of these as well as the next points. That's how I managed to find out that Simpleat was created by Tomás Yakub and Kenneth Sly, two friends who had the idea of ​​creating an app that would allow users to buy "healthy and delicious food" and cook it in a simple and fast way. Simpleat started at the end of 2016 selling different products with another business model, where people received a box with all the ingredients, and cooked it at home. This model had its pros and cons, but It was mainly because they discovered how much could be learned about consumers. With all this learning, in December 2017 the business model changed, and frozen products were launched. This decision marked a new direction, opened new doors, and was what made Simpleat a success.

What I found very interesting about the company is that they really seek to develop the best possible solution for what clients need, they even have as part of the team a Happiness Manager, which is a very important role for the company making sure the communication with the client is 100% transparent, clear and, above all, honest. That makes them achieve a very high trust with the client and also know how to recognize when something did not go so well, and solve it.

• External factors and stakeholders. (STEEPLE Analysis)

My favorite, and most challenging, step. For external factors affecting the company, we used STEEPLE analysis, which requires you to be completely open-minded in order to determine which things outside the company affect it. This is not as simple as it appears, so it requires careful consideration and research into areas other than the company itself. I tweaked my STEEPLE analysis a few times, but this was the final result:

Regarding stakeholders, what is asked is to find the relevant groups of people that construct the start-up and are essential for it to grow, too. The relevant customers, in Simpleat's case, are people who do not have lots of time for cooking and prefer to eat healthy food instead of fast food delivery, mostly working-age people. Their main competitors are delivery platforms like PedidosYa, Rappi, Uber Eats, independent restaurant deliveries, and local entrepreneurs. And last but not least the shareholders are Tomás Iakub and Kenneth Sly and their investors are Guilherme Bonifácio, Greenoaks Capital Partners, Diego Libanio, Angel Ventures Mexico, and Alaya Capital.

• Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT Analysis)

Another important component is the SWOT analysis, which focuses more on the company's internal factors than STEEPLE does. Internal research is conducted, and the factors can be altered by the company. My conclusion for Simpelat's SWOT analysis is as follows:

Defining a Strategy

After conducting a strategic analysis, the next step is defining a strategy. Where we had to focus to achieve different goals in the start-up, and how they will succeed. It defines a specific course of actions that will take you from where the Company is now to where you want it to be. What I did was pay close attention to the SWOT analysis's weaknesses and opportunities. Where I could specifically see the company's biggest internal problems and choose actionable and simple changes that can make noticeable growth in the company. In the case of Simpleat, I discovered that implementing nationwide delivery, sales in supermarkets, and expanding the menu perfectly met these requirements.

Defining a Strategic Roadmap

After defining a strategy, the next step is to organize it. Steps needed when planning and measuring a strategy: S1: Define the problem S2: Assemble data/inputs S3: Locate root causes S4: Find corrective and preventive solutions S5: Create an actionable strategy S6: Monitor the solution and confirm it works(with metrics!) All of these are significant because they will assist us in determining which specific tasks must be completed, as well as in determining the results to be obtained and how to measure them. We accomplished this by developing a strategic roadmap in which we established the objectives, results for each objective, and its activities with metrics and resources.

• Objectives: purpose statements that help create an overall vision and set goals and measurable steps for an organization to help achieve the desired outcome.

• Key results: the outcome that the objective will give us, for each objective there are three key results. They have to include a number or a percentage willing to reach.

• Activities: things that have to be done to reach the key result. Each activity needs a metric to be able to measure success and the resources that will be used to achieve them. For each key result, there are at least three activities.

• Metrics: the measurement of each activity made as percentages and numbers. Metrics are needed because that is how we know how effective the activity was.

• Resources: people, tools, and things required to do each activity.

For writing the objectives I had to think of the proper way to express them following the requirements. I went back to when I defined the strategy and made each idea quantitative. This was my result:

1. Objective: Expand menu options by the end of the year.

2. Objective: Implement delivery countrywide by 2023.

3. Objective: Sell products in half of the big chains of supermarkets in the country by the next semester.

Once I finished the objectives, it was time for the key results. I envisioned them as if the objective had been achieved, and what other things would follow as a result of the achievement. Some of the key results were difficult to recall, particularly those involving team members. My final key results were these:

1. Objective: Expand menu options by the end of the year.

Key Result 1: Have increased sales by 30% 6 months after new options are launched. Key Result 2: Have a 20% increase in vegan, vegetarian, and celiac customers after 2 months of products are launched. Key Result 3: Add 3 specialized chefs and nutritionists by next month.

1. Objective: Implement delivery countrywide by 2023.

Key Result 1: A growth in clients by 95% once delivery countrywide is available. Key Result 2: Brand being known in 80% of the country, by mid of 2023. Key Result 3: Logistics team growing 100% by 2023.

1. Objective: Sell products in half of the big chains of supermarkets in the country by the next semester.

Key Result 1: Increase productivity by 150% in the next quarter. Key Result 2: initiate an advertising campaign a month before the selling of products is launched in 100%of the supermarkets involved. Key Result 3: Brand being 60% more known by the end of the year. At last, we were instructed to select only one Objective and create key results and activities for it. I certainly chose the most interesting for me and the one that would take the least amount of time for the Company to achieve. I added three activities with corresponding metrics and resources for each key result. The most difficult part for me was thinking about the resources because we don't have to forget that each activity requires a human, believe it or not, it's easy to forget…

Recommendations

I can tell I've become a Simpleat expert. That is why I believe it would be a fantastic opportunity for the company to consider the objectives I proposed while continuing to develop the other two. They would thus create new opportunities. Having someone from outside the company develop this type of strategy is highly beneficial in my opinion. The problems are viewed from a different perspective than those already employed by the company, resulting in new ideas and proposals to assist the company in growing.

Key Takeaways

As key takeaways, I consider the following:

• A business strategy is embodied in its objectives, key results, and activities.

• Deep research is essential for great results.

• Make us understand how to compare different scenarios and their impact.

• Planning and executing are not separate.

• Learn and adjust from our mistakes.

After all, I can tell it was hard work, but it paid off. Since the start of the program, I believe both me and my peers have grown, it's wonderful that we can already carry on with a strategic analysis of this sort. I enjoyed making research and the challenge of finding the objectives, key results, activities, etc. As in life, I had some ups and downs, but I am extremely happy with the outcome.