Aquagen: Leveraging internal engagement and future foresight to design strategy

AquaGen is a leading Norwegian research-oriented company that delivers genetic starter material and eggs to the global aquaculture industry. To secure their continued relevance and leading position, they asked EGGS to support creating an even more customer-centric strategy with a clear direction and value proposition.

The challenge

Developing a customer-centric strategy
Like many others, the aquaculture industry is experiencing changes, and customer demands and expectations are increasing. There’s a need for an even more customer-oriented approach, with better use of data and relevant technology. All this while securing profitable operations that work to decrease any negative environmental impact. How might we develop a customer-centric strategy providing a clear, value-driven direction for AquaGen?

The outcome

Diagnosis of the current state and a concrete strategic direction
To ensure that the strategy would make sense both internally in the organisation and externally among customers, we invested significant time and energy in the diagnose-phase of the project. Together with key people in the organisation, we explored the most important drivers for change through interviews and workshops. This generated insights, engagement, and thorough anchoring within the company. To widen the picture and get relevant 
User insights on the market drivers, we also interviewed AquaGen’s key customers and partners and analysed both the current 
Market assessment in a market assessment and through Megatrend Exploration. The end result was a concrete strategic direction for AquaGen, with a long-term (5-10 years) horizon. The Business Strategy specifies AquaGen's purpose - why they exist and for whom. It breaks down what this means in practice: where they should play, how, and what they should win.

Delivered value

Internal anchoring and an actionable strategy based on future foresight
Thanks to the thorough and wide-reaching involvement of people across the organisation, the strategy is well-anchored in AquaGen. This is completely necessary to execute the strategy. Moreover, the involvement of key customers and partners and a clear customer focus when formulating the strategy's aim give a concrete, value-driven, customer-centric strategy that ties their customers even closer to their business.
Apart from describing the overarching goal and how to get there, the strategy also contains a development portfolio - concrete actions for AquaGen’s focus areas.
Although the strategy has a long-term perspective, it is also concrete and action-oriented, and Aquagen is already executing prioritised action points. Strategy is about making choices that you act on today to be where you want to be in the future. Big plans and long-term ambitions mean nothing unless you translate them into action.