Play to Win Approach Drives Covenant Logistics to Niche Market Growth Strategy
Industry: Logistics
Location: Chattanooga, TN
Tactic: Strategy Workshop
Results:
Strategic Clarity: Covenant established a shared aspiration and identified specific areas to focus efforts, aligning business units under a unified vision.
Empowered Teams: Equipped with a strategic toolkit, Covenant’s teams now have a clear roadmap and the tools to independently advance their strategy.
Enhanced Awareness and Growth: A pre- and post-session assessment showed significant improvement in participants’ awareness of developing a winning strategy choice, with an average growth of 55% (from a score of 6.0 before the session to 9.3 after).
Background
Covenant Logistics, a key player in logistics, sought to transition toward niche market leadership, establishing itself as a specialized provider. To achieve this, Covenant collaborated with Bridge Innovate, utilizing Roger Martin's Play to Win framework to refine its strategic direction and empower teams with a focused, actionable approach.
Challenge
Covenant Logistics aimed to define its unique strengths and leverage them within specialized markets, navigating two fundamental questions:
What is our Winning Aspiration? – Establishing a clear and aspirational vision to lead in niche logistics solutions.
Where will we play? – Identifying target segments, channels, and geographic areas aligned with Covenant’s value proposition.
Bridge Innovate’s challenge was to help Covenant solidify these foundational choices while equipping them to independently build upon this strategy.
Solution
Leveraging Roger Martin’s Play to Win framework, Bridge Innovate concentrated on the first two points of the Strategy Choice Cascade, guiding Covenant through a strategic redefinition of their goals and positioning. The work involved:
Defining the Winning Aspiration
Covenant's teams collaborated to set an ambitious aspiration: to be the leader in “nichey” logistics services. They defined “nichey” to include service specificity, customer focus, and competitive differentiation, and provided examples to clarify this vision across business units.Defining Where to Play
Each business unit mapped out opportunities by identifying service channels, geographic regions, and supply chain phases where Covenant could maximize its impact. This exercise led to:A cohesive “Nichey Value Proposition.”
Defined customer needs and characteristics across various stages, regions, and segments.
To ensure sustained progress, Bridge Innovate provided a comprehensive toolkit, empowering Covenant’s team to continue refining and expanding the strategy.
Results
Bridge Innovate’s facilitation of the Play to Win framework set Covenant on a path toward leadership in niche logistics.
Covenant achieved strategic clarity by establishing a shared aspiration and identifying key areas of focus, aligning their business units under a unified vision. With a strategic toolkit in hand, Covenant’s teams are now empowered with a clear roadmap and the tools to independently drive their strategy forward. A pre- and post-session assessment demonstrated significant growth, with participants’ awareness of developing a winning strategy increasing by an impressive 55%—from an average score of 6.0 before the session to 9.3 after.
This collaborative process positioned Covenant for growth and success in the niche logistics market, aligning their strategy with market demands and long-term goals.
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