Promoting Sustainable Performance Applied research project

Key findings to date

James Turpin

Saturday 3rd July 2010

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Background informationResearch Assistant at Kent Business School

Member of the Centre for Employment, Competitiveness and Growth (ECG)

Dynamic Applied Research Centre Full-time researchers and PhDs Participation of a multi-disciplinary team of

academics Promotes high quality research into organisational

productivity, competitiveness and growth

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I. The Promoting Sustainable Performance projectBackground to the project Importance of the projectProject Methodology

II. Research FindingsThe Price and Quality ParadoxThe value of long term strategic planning

III. Summary

Overview of presentation

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I. The Promoting Sustainable Performance Project

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Background to the project

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Building on the success of the original INTERREG project

Concerned with achieving sustainable and productivity for organisations across all industries

Aiming to provide significant impact through interaction with SMEs and policymakers

Methodology230 completed surveys

69 face-to-face interviews

5 detailed case studies

2009 Leadership for Growth workshop

2010 Masterclass recovery event

2010 Leadership network6

II. Research Findings

Insight into the first findings from the Promoting Sustainable Performance project

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“Sustained commitment to one single strategy is usually necessary to achieve success and outperform competitors”.

Michael E. Porter

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However, our research would suggest that Kent-based Small and Medium Enterprises are combining both quality and price driven strategies…

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The demands of Price and Quality

Are businesses walking a tightrope?10

Conventional theory

Low Price

High Price

Low Quality High Quality11

A paradox…

67% of companies…

…report offering lower prices than their competitors

61% of companies…

…report offering better quality than their competitors12

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Growth was found to be linked to both :

A high emphasis on quality

A flexible approach to pricing

How do we start to explain this paradox?

1st

contributory factory to GROWTH…

Customer care

…Personal attention to customer needs

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74% of

companies…

Quality Standards

…with an ISO 9000 accreditation demonstratedGROWTH

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67% of

companies…

Performance Measurement

…measuring product/service quality reportedGROWTH

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Pricing

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23% of

companies…

…relying solely on price focused tactics demonstratedGROWTH

Lack of consultation Ad hoc planning of activities Short term focus – fire fighting

Firms lack of strategic planning capabilities

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But Growth was found to be fortuitous rather than planned…

III. Summary of key findingsGrowth can be influenced by:• Placing an emphasis on quality of product/service• Being able to read the market place• Gaining a sound understanding of the needs of the

customer• Maintaining a flexible strategy to pricing• A sound strategic planning capability

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The Centre’s contributionto sustainable performance

The Centre is feeding these results back to: business academics policymakers

through workshops, seminars and forums Leadership for growth workshop Business engagement forum Masterclass event on recovery and growth Owner-manager development programme

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Thank you.

For more information about the project and results, visit: www.ecg-kent.com

Source of pictures: Gettyimages.com

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