Harvard Business Review: Use If-Then Thinking to Change Your Behavior

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Use If-Then Thinking to Change Your Behavior

 

We all have habits and behaviors we wish we could change. But just being aware of a bad habit isn’t enough. To truly fix it, start by considering your goal (say, “I want my team to know that I trust them”) and the obstacles you expect to face along the way (“I struggle to delegate”). Next, frame what you will do about the obstacles as if-then statements. To address the delegation obstacle, for example, you could tell yourself: “If I start to feel uncomfortable about not completing the work myself, then I’ll ask for updates on it in our next team meeting.” Eventually the link between the cue (the “if” part of the statement) and the action (the “then”) will become strong enough to help you change how you react. By using if-then statements, you can think through what will get in your way and make a plan to overcome it.

Adapted from “Two Techniques for Helping Employees Change Ingrained Habits,” by Joel Constable

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Business unit Level of Strategy

Business unit Level of Strategy

BMW is known as a leading motor industry player whose businesses strategies has seen it develop stronger competitive advantage that other players such as Lincoln are only emulating. The business level strategy of BMW is based on extinct product differentiation based on design and digitalization as well as efficient electro-mobility designs such as i3 in 2013 and later improvements in the preceding years. The differentiation is based on the need to effectively distinguish the product as the main form of competitive advantage, which is driven by high level of profitability in short-term basis (Bakker, 2010). Also, the company has an ambitious plan of increasing the long-term values based on shaping the future, profitability, growth, access to customers and technology. 

On the other hand, Lincoln, a constituent of Ford, has a business strategy which majors on the production of greater products, a wide range of vehicles with best quality, efficiency, and fuel consumption. The company’s business is based on effective balancing of the product portfolio as well as the product’s global presence though elaborates marketing, publicity, and sales promotion (Bakker, 2010). Also, the company is based on the sustainability strategy that seeks to make a better world for all the users of the product. 

Based on these assessment of the business level strategies of both Lincoln and BMW, the critical finding is that BMW  has the best strategy due to strong focus in has for both the long-term and short-term aspects of business. The company has embraced technology, and variety of products, based on stronger effort to differentiate the products. Their quality and environmental friendly awareness campaign and the comfort ability of the products give them both financial and business edge above the rest. 

Reference

Bakker, S. (2010). The car industry and the blow-out of the hydrogen hype. Energy Policy,

 38(11), 6540-6544.