Strategy fails because brands don’t pay attention to culture – Mohammed
By Abimbola Mohammed
Oladipupo Mohammed, Manager, Brands Marketing & Communications at Inlaks, a foremost ICT Infrastructure and systems integrator in Sub-Saharan Africa has said that strategy often fails when brands and businesses pay little or no attention to culture. Advising that brands, business owners and custodians must pay attention to culture, Mr. Mohammed posited that no brand or business can be sustainable without strategy.
The event, which was held at the MARKETING EDGE office in Ikeja, on 26 January, 2023, had the MARKETING EDGE workforce fired up.
Speaking at the 2023 MARKETING EDGE Fireside Conversation with theme: “Prioritizing Social Responsibility: Integrating Sustainability within Business Strategy”, the industry wizkid noted that as much as every business existence is based on making profits, it is also important for them to contribute to the environment where they operate in. He added that a company to remain in business and attain a high level structure and culture are major key facts to be taken strongly.
“For an average person who owns a business or who decided to start a business, what comes to your mind is profit making, however in the line of making profit there are some things that need to be in place to ensure that when that profit comes effectively and is used efficiently,” he said.
He noted that culture is very important because if businesses fail to pay attention to the culture that works, their strategy will become “breakfast” for the same culture. He posited that culture is the mother of strategy, while maintaining that a brand or business cannot create a strategy outside the cultural milieu of consumers.
Explaining how strategy works in a business model, Mr. Mohammed said: “Strategy takes a process and systematic approach: you need to take your time to look at your competitors, look at what you are trying to achieve, look at the message you are trying to pass across before you make decisions.
“When thinking about strategy, what you are trying to do is moving from point A to point B; point B is supposed to be better than point A. So, for you to even think the right way in relation to strategy, you must be able to have a good picture of where you are going.
“A business strategy is an outline of the decisions and actions an organisation plans to take in reaching its goals and objectives. It defines what should be done and why; to guide various processes for resource allocation. A business strategy helps different departments to work together; ensuring decisions support the overall direction of the company.”
Speaking on short time and long time strategy, Mr. Mohammed said: “Planning should be like an everyday thing that should continue to happen so that as you are planning for the long time, you are also strategizing. You need to think of what kind of resource you are using; is it human resource, natural resource or any other forms of resource that you need to make it happen?”
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