# Blog 2 : Internal Organizational Analysis and Developing Strategic Options (Part I)

I think that my biggest takeaway from the readings is that a good company strategy stems from a proper evaluation of the Companies internal factors and intentions by the top leadership and its ability to associate this understanding with the larger macro-economic and market trends. The coherence test is presented as a tool that when used effectively, will help a company understand its organizational factors better. The article shows how Mars was able to succeed with its acquisition by understanding its business and Wrigley’s business well and running it parallelly instead of converging them to one. I believe that Microsoft’s decision to sell Nokia was a move that came from a great understanding of Microsoft’s strength and correction of course that led to it being more successful. By doing so, the company moved away from consumer hardware that the company never had expertise in manufacturing or selling and towards enterprise cloud solutions like Azure and Power BI which it has experience in doing and the infrastructure needed. 

Certain macro-economic trends and technological disruptions will force companies to re-evaluate the value they're adding to their customers. Such a situation would in most cases require new capabilities that are beyond their current core-capabilities. I believe that in such cases, companies should start by looking outside rather than by evaluating their internal strengths and weaknesses. It becomes important for companies to be aware of the macro trends that might put the company out of business before evaluating its internal capabilities. By doing so, the company can acquire the capabilities it currently lacks and can strengthen its position. An example of such trends is the sudden surge of “Design Thinking” methods and “Innovation consulting firms”. The trend has forced conventional consulting firms like BCG, Deloitte, and McKinsey to acquire these Design consulting firms and also develop in-house talent. Among the many acquisitions BCG has made, Maya, a Pittsburgh based Design consultancy is one. BCG has also started “BCG digital ventures”, that does design consulting for startups. McKinsey has acquired “Lunar Design” a California based Design consulting that has a different Client base and completely different core-capabilities. BCG and McKinsey continue to operate the design consulting firms separate from their core business. By doing so, I believe that BCG and McKinsey are accounting for Macro trends while maintaining Coherence and avoiding “the synergy mirage”.