Four Actions Framework

What is four actions framework? 

Four Action Framework

4 Actions Framework is one of Blue Ocean Strategy  tools, used by managers to reconstruct values offered to customers, in a new way that breaks the differentiation/low cost trade-off. It forces the organization to ask the following four questions:

1. Which of the factors that the industry takes for granted should be eliminated? 

• This question  considers elimination of factors that may have made sense in the past, but do not make sense or create value now.

2. Which factors should be reduced well below the industry's standard?

•   This question forces the business planners to consider reducing factors that may have been over-designed in the race to beat the competition.

3. Which factors should be raised well above the industry's standard? 

• The third question forces managers to uncover and eliminate the compromises that the industry has forced buyers to make.

4. Which factors should be created that the industry has never offered?

• The fourth question is about discovering new sources of value for buyers.

The first  two questions address the low cost and last two questions are designed to create differentiation.

You can use the following table for answering the questions. This helps you to consider all four forces simultaneously.

Eliminate	Raise
Reduce	Create

PESTEL

What is PESTEL?

What is PEST?

PESTEL stands for Political, Economic, Social, Technical, Environment  and Legislative, each of which represent a an environmental pressure on a group or organization. It is used as a strategic planning technique that provides a useful framework for  an “outside in” analysis.  It is recommended particularly for teams and organizations who have become too inward-looking.

PESTEL frame work which don’t have the last two forces is Called PEST frame work?

   

Flowing comes an example PETSEL framework with subsets.

Political -
- Trading policies
- Employment Law
- Taxation (Corporate;Consumer)

Economic -
- Interest Rates
- Inflation
- Economic growth
- Exchange rates
- stage of business cycle

Socio-Cultural -
- Branding
- Demographics

- Lifestyle changes
- Health and welfare

Technological -
- Stock Control
- Government spending on research
- Energy use and costs

Environmental -
- Packaging
- Recycling

Legal -
- Competition Commision
- Employment Law
- Trade Regulations

SWOT analysis

What is a SWOT analysis?

SWOT is an acronym for Strengths, Weaknesses, and Opportunities and Threats. SWOT is a simple but power tool that decision makers use for analyzing internal and external environment for an informed planning of next steps. SWOT is usually demonstrated as 2x2 matrix having Internal (S&W) and External (O&T) factors in one axis and Favorable (S&O) and Unfavorable (W&T) factors on the other axis.

By providing information that is helpful for creating a match between the organization’s capabilities and resource from inside-out perspective to the competitive environment of the organization from outside-in perspective, SOWT analysis covers both perspectives. However, “fitting internal strength and weaknesses to external opportunities and threats is often frustrated by the fact that the two sides pull in opposite directions- the distinctive resource base and activity system of a firm can point in totally different direction compared with developments in current markets”( Dewit and Meyer, 2004)

		Favorable factors			Unfavorable factors
Internal factors		Strengths			Weaknesses
		Characteristics that gives an advantage over the others.			Characteristics that put the organization at an inferior position compared to the others, the disadvantages can be lack of advantages or even flip side of an advantage that has also negative sides.
External factors		Opportunities			Threats
		Factors that could help to improve competitive advantage			Factors that could cause trouble.

Utilizing the analysis helps the decision maker with different options:

to match strength to opportunities

to convert the weakness to strength

to avoid threats

to develop current strength

or any combination if them.

De Wit Bob and Meyer Ron Strategy: Process, Content, Context (an International Perspective) [Book Section]. - Minneapolis/St. Paul : International Thompson, 2004. - Vol. 3rd editoin.