Environment and horizon, the exploration of Fusióni3 Valle SMEs in their face-to-face workshop
The 20 MSMEs benefiting from Fusióni3 Valle fulfilled their participation in the first Face-to-Face Workshop Become a strategist: Define the needs, opportunities and problems of your business, which was recently held at the Pontifical Javeriana University Cali and at the Cali Chamber of Commerce.
Through dynamic methodologies, known as Alexander Osterwalder’s Zoom Out and McKinsey’s Three Horizons, which were guided by the coordinator of University-SME Connection, Johana Oliveros, the entrepreneurs were able to relate the data previously collected in the virtual workshop Start by knowing your environment to define your innovation challenges with the economic context of their businesses, which allowed them to strengthen ideas and acquire new perspectives.
In the case of the Zoom Out exercise, the entrepreneurs put the main aspects of their environment on a canvas: such as trends, macroeconomic forces, market forces and industry forces in which their companies operate, in order to analyze those that have the greatest influence on their businesses.
Using the Three Horizons technique, opportunities were identified by considering the time and resources required to implement them. For example, those that can be easily addressed or applied to existing products or services, those that would be developed in the medium term, and those that require greater investment or exploration.
The Three Horizons concept is a strategic tool developed by McKinsey & Company to help organizations manage innovation and growth in the short, medium, and long term. It was popularized in the book The Alchemy of Growth, written by Mehrdad Baghai, Stephen Coley, and David White.
What does the Three Horizons technique consist of?
This presents 3 time perspectives on which a company focuses its strategy:
1. Horizon 1 (H1): Focus on the core business and existing operations. It involves activities and projects that generate short-term results and improve efficiency and effectiveness.
2. Horizon 2 (H2): This focuses on expanding and extending the current business and includes initiatives that will generate results in the medium term. It includes the introduction of new products or services, expansion into new related markets, or significant improvements to existing operations.
3. Horizon 3 (H3): This focuses on radical innovation, new business creation, research, and the development of opportunities that can transform the company in the long term. It involves exploring emerging technologies, identifying new revenue streams, and creating new lines of business.
Successful management involves a balanced portfolio of initiatives across all three horizons to ensure continuity and adaptability as the business environment evolves.
Interaction and visualization of the future
One of the workshop’s defining characteristics was its dynamism. From the introductions among participants, who spoke about the topics that motivate them or make them happy, to the use of tools like paper and markers to record their findings, and the close support of the Fusióni3 Valle team, everyone felt comfortable and confident sharing concerns, receiving suggestions, and proposing new ideas.
“There was a lot of anticipation among the business owners about how this workshop would help them define their innovation challenge. It was very satisfying, because many told me they weren’t familiar with the methodologies or had only seen them in master’s programs, which means we’re providing them with valuable information to begin developing their innovation challenges,” said coordinator Johana Oliveros.
Likewise, it was evident how all the attendees analyzed each topic, were immersed in the exercise, and found aspects that they had not considered before their participation in the project.
“Throughout the activity, which lasted four hours, the entrepreneurs organized information, generated some useful strategies and defined needs, opportunities and problems in a more conscious way or that perhaps they had not previously recognized.”
What’s the next step?
From now on, the University-SME Connection Coordination will produce a report that takes into account the needs, opportunities, and challenges of the sectors to which the SMEs belong. This report will be based on official information from various entities and on data collected by each of the beneficiary companies during the workshop. This will generate portfolios of needs, opportunities, and challenges, enabling them to make short-, medium-, and long-term decisions that will form the basis for establishing the innovation challenges they will address with partner universities in 2024.
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