Welcome to the segment VSA, which stands for vision, strategy and action. It's a commonly used framework for formulating strategy. Sometimes they add objectives and goals, but let's keep it simple. So this will be the agenda. I will explain what a VSA means and I will link it to the concept of weak signals, and we will then survey the kinds of potential threats existing in the especially Asian region. And this is why we need VSA, to plan for these potential threats. So, let's get started. Okay, so VSA is a framework. It stands for vision, strategy, and action and I like to think of it as being like a building. Why? Because a building has many different floors, and we learn how distance matters but also it's a matter of height as well. Because the higher you are, the further away you can see. So that is vision. You need to be able to see farther away. So if you're standing at a roof on top of a 50 story building, that's easy. But trying doing that on the ground floor, that is almost impossible. There are too many things in front of you and also sometimes you need sort of a mid level kinda linkage between the top level and the ground level. So you all need three levels and companies have to think like that, too. You need people at the top level and you need bridging role people and then you need well rounded people. So they all perform different roles within a company. But here we're talking about sorta the top level executive and CEOs and managers who have to see much further away. We can also think of it as being like a car navigational system. Because I do a lot of driving myself, and I rely often on the so called navigational systems. Especially when I'm traveling to some unknown destination. The kinda Navis that I prefer are the one's that show me, not only the streets, the action part, but also the bigger picture. And sometimes through alternative routes which I liken to strategy. So a strategy, corporate strategy, market strategy can be like that too. You of course need to know where to turn, but you need some sorta lead time to be able to do that, especially when you're moving very fast. If you're driving at 100 km, and you have to turn very soon, again that can be hard to do. So you need to know early on, again from an aerial view where you have to turn. When that sorta turn is coming up. Some good navies even alert you to potential delays. So it can act as an early warning signal where again, you wanna have different options in terms of if this original route will be closed what alternative routes you can take. So that is the strategy part. Okay, so on the note of getting this sorta early warning, we can think about weak signals. And I reference weak signals from this very insightful book by Kotler and Caslione, Chaotics, where they talk about the potential threats in the environment. And they sold themselves as initially weak signals, they're at the margin of the trend, potentially a mega trend. And because they're so small, we may kinda ignore them even though we see them. Because the major impact will come much later, again, we don't take them as seriously. But these weak signals can convert themselves to incredibly sorta huge tidal waves, as we see with natural tsunamis, very, very, fast. In a matter of hours, again, the danger can be upon us. So that is what I call a Marketing Tsunami. These are the weak signals which pretend in a positive way sometimes, but often in a negative way much more significant change. And we see this not only in the natural environment, but in all the other environmental sectors as well. And we can think about this especially here in Asia, because Asia has been witness to so much change. From a demo graphical standpoint. And of course it differs by country but where I live in Korea, also in Japan, as well as in China. People talk often about this so called, aging time time. Is ticking away. And people are getting older. So this will impact, of course, HR in terms of who works that company. But also from a marketing standpoint, it can be a major, major tsunami. Especially if you're a company like Yuhan Kimberly. So, I wrote a case with Bern Schmitt at Columbia and Yuhan Kimberly is a joint venture between Kimberly Clark and Yuhan Pharmaceutical. They're a pioneer in CSV, CSR, brand management, CSR standing for corporate social responsibility. And some of their major product lines are in products that cater to young people. Babies, like baby diapers for younger women. What's alarming potentially which is discussed in the case is that birthrate in South Korea is among the lowest in the OECD. It's 1.19 per couple. You do the math. If you have a man and a woman as a couple. And they're only producing on average 1.19. What that implies is that we have a shrinking population in Korea. So again, this should raise some alarms for companies that cater to a younger population. In terms of technology, we hear a lot about 3D printing. We also hear a lot about the Internet of things. So depending on the industry you're in, this can wreck potential havoc in terms of us assuming that we're not impacted. But, because the impact is so wide spread that the reality maybe that we are. In terms of a political tsunami, we hear a lot about the tensions that exists between the countries and even though we may assume that this is just a political problem, ultimately in the political economies that we live in, that can have a negative impact such as in hurting tourists. In terms of economic tsunamis, we had a major one in the late 90s when we had the financial crisis. And that changed the whole landscape of business and marketing here in Asia, and for some companies that was a positive thing, but again for other companies it brought on this ice age. So again, these are the kinda threats that we always have to be on the look out for, especially if you're relying on things like oil prices, which many countries in Asia are. And it could also be you being impacted by very volatile exchange rates, which impact your ability to market to some countries. And lastly, slowly but surely and in some cases very rapidly, we see culture change here in Asia as well, such as in gender roles. And so a topic that we'll discuss in future segments is how more and more women are not getting married, and this in a way contributes to the lower birth rates that you have in East Asia. And so the Gold Misses in Asia and you even have Gold Misters, men not getting married. What does this mean? Again, this could be a negative thing. But this could also be a very positive thing. So we have to assess from a VS and A standpoint how we have to adjust our vision to kinda wiggle when we want in terms of our strategy. And ultimately how to actually do it. So regardless of which environmental driver or factor we're talking about, to the extent that it can have a positive impact or negative impact. This has to be addressed in term of our V, S, and A. So wrapping up VSA, like guidance systems for companies, when charting course for the future and this isn't just something that companies can use. I use it all the time to map even my future strategy. So people can use this usefully. We learned about how weak signals in the environment can pretend significant major change in the future. This is what I called a Marketing Tsunami. To the extent that your company or you are impacted again, we have to plan for that. And this has to be of course, company and person specific.
