Inside Out and Outside In of Organizations

In the business environment it is important for organisations to look at their competitors, and aim to be better than them. An Inside Out strategy examines what their strengths and weaknesses are, once they are identified the organisation will then produce the products and attempt to market it well (CMA, 2012). Whereas the Outside In strategy looks at customer value as its starting and end point, emphasising the outside environment when undertaking strategic thinking (Brandmatters, 2010). Strategy looks at issues that may concern the future of organisations, and to prepare for or overcome these issues as a number of strategies can used to identify them. This essay will define the Inside Out and Outside In of organisations. In particular, the different strategic theories and concepts will be looked at using examples of organisations to explain how the Inside Out and Outside In will explain the success of organisations.

The external factors of an organisation could be emphasised when strategic thinking is taking place, looking at the bigger picture, including their competition and customers. The PESTEL analysis framework can be used to identify an organisation’s external macro-environment. Issues including political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal environments may be the key drivers that affect organisations (Johnson G et al, 2011). Managers within an organisation should analyse their environments carefully, as it could help an organisation to anticipate any future threats and take action and minimise the threats before it could affect the company. An example is the western European brewing companies, where the legal laws such as the drink and driving has affected large supermarket chains like ...

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...re not just buying a product or service but benefits as well (European business review, 2008). By using an Inside out strategy the products and service do meet the requirements to compete with competitors and sell to customers. However, they are not looking at how the external environment factors may affect consumers and the change in their needs, which affects what products or service they need. For a company to be successful they should consider to make great contributions around the strategy making process rather just inside it (Harvard Business Review, 1996)). As shown in the Outside In strategy, organisations should have broad visions of their external macro-environment and be able to adapt to the changing environments. This will prevent them from any future problems although some managers may be more concerned with their current success and what happens today.