November 2nd, 2021. It is a holiday in town: it is a day granted to commemorate those who have left us. Usually, every 2nd of November, herds of families embark on a journey to visit and join the cemeteries to bring flowers and/or floral arrangements specially prepared to embellish the gravesites of loved ones who already left us. It is a significant manner to honor those who´ve passed. Additionally, it is the day on which family members who live in different cities; meet, and greet for a chit-chat, drink coffee, eat some sweet bread, a sherbet, or crispy hojuelas. And, it is one of the only days on which the memorial graves are arranged with pulchritude to be neat and clean.

Because of COVID19, we won´t be visiting our grandparents’ burial places today, to avoid agglomeration of people. Probably we will go next week when the memorial gardens of remembrance are in solitude again.

Today´s purpose is to write about the Abell and Hammond 3×3 investment opportunity matrix. Please remember that at the bottom of this page, the section of musical strategic reflection awaits.

Who are Abell and Hammond?

Derek F. Abell is the founding president of ESMT European School of Management and Technology and Professor Emeritus (1). His primary teaching and research interests are in strategic marketing, general management, leadership in the technology-based industry, etc. He has been a Faculty Professor (under different courses and roles) at IMD, Laussane; Harvard Business School, ETH Zurich, and EPF Lausanne, Switzerland.  Professor Abell graduated first in aeronautical engineering, then went to Boston, Massachusetts to get his MBA at MIT and his Doctorate from Harvard Business School. He has vast experience as a consulting brain in European-based public and private entities and multinationals. His co-authorship with John S. Hammond of the classical textbook “Strategic Marketing Planning” in 1979, is the reason why he is named in this saga.

John S. Hammond was a Harvard Business School faculty professor who lived most of his life in Lincoln, Massachusetts (2). At Harvard, Professor Hammond taught Decision Analysis, Computer Modelling and then pioneered the teaching of Negotiation, now widely taught in all venues. An avid swimmer, Professor Hammond completed an undergraduate degree in physics, and a Master of Engineering at UCLA. Then got the Doctoral in Business Administration at the Harvard Business School (HBS). Afterward, he was the founder of an independent management consultant entity specializing in Negotiation and Strategic Planning. John left HBS in 1976 for a 40-year career as an independent management consultant specializing in Negotiation and in Strategic Planning. He also taught strategy at MIT’s Sloan School and co-authored the capstone textbook with Derek F. Abell: Strategic Market Planning. He also was the author of the award-winning book “Smart Choices: A Practical Guide to Making Better Decisions”. Before he passed away, Professor Hammond was deeply involved in environmental causes, especially climate change, and served as a trustee and Massachusetts Advisory Board member for the Conservation Law Foundation and as a member of the Mass Audubon Advisory Council. He enjoyed traveling, vegetable gardening, aviation, and historical aerial photography.

What is the 3 x 3 matrix from Abell and Hammond?
Here we go. This is another similar matrix to the ones we have visited during this saga. Look at it below (3):

Isn`t this matrix the same one that we have already studied under the subject of the Shell Directional Policy matrix?

Basically, our Abell and Hammond 3 x 3 matrix (4) is the same matrix that we already studied in the chapter corresponding to the Shell Directional policy matrix. Do you remember that we arranged the x-axis and y-axis and we turnaround the matrix then? Well, you can compare it and it is the same conceptual guidance. Of course, the factors may be different, but the concept is the same.

For the time being, we have finished with the 5 most popular portfolio analysis frameworks for SBUs of a corporation. Next week we will continue with the subject relative advantages and limitations of portfolio analysis when used for corporate strategic decision making and then for business strategy planning. We will also provide an overall summary of all that we have been writing since the month of August.

Again, be aware this is the last saga of the year 2021. After ending “Portfolio Analysis: Igniting a long-term spirit in a short-term world” (which we hope to finalize by the end of November), we will enter two weeks of strategic planning preparation for next year program, and the last two weeks of December will be to enjoy some days off (yes, we also need vacations too). The name of the first saga of 2022 will be revealed soon. Stay tuned, please.

Why did we choose Mars & Ronson’s “Uptown Funk” composition last week? If you click the original official video at 3:27 minutes, the whole experience of watching the screenplay is shifted to the band. The protagonist is not the singer Bruno Mars anymore, but the instruments played by the rest of the band members. The power of watching them playing each individual instrument (the bass, the trombones, the saxophones, the keyboards, the drums, the electric guitar, the electric bass, and the trumpets, altogether) is still hilariously remarkable and energetically powerful, so well-conceived, and performed by the band players. Regardless of the many awards, the Grammy, the millions of streams, and the number of copies sold; “Uptown Funk” sticky mix of rhythms is still so popular, to a point that it is the top longest-running Billboard Hot 100 song of the past 2010´s decade (5).

“Don´t believe me, just watch”. In addition, we posted in parallel, the interpretation of the same song by the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain (6). Since 1948, more than 5,000 teenagers have been part of this orchestra. “Young musicians discover the benefits of collaborating with a vast group of like-minded people, in the process gaining skills and friendships that last a lifetime”. Symphonic Orchestra music, as much as other artistic and sportive disciplines are the best extracurricular activity for kids after school. You can see in the video, how much joy the teens share when interpreting Uptown Funk. Orchestras keep youngsters well-grounded and luckily cheerful.

If we destroy real-true art played with real instruments we will reap the consequences. Societies with youngsters who lack sports facilities after school or societies who lack artistic infrastructure for kids and the youth (as an orchestra, a painting class, a dancing studio, a school of theater, a crafts group, a book-reading club, a bibliotheque, a literary creative writing get-together, etc) are condemned to wrongdoings and misconduct based in ignorance. These societies are usually immersed in structural violence, “gangsterization”, and a progressive circle of harmful social relationships that in adulthood are the seeds of irresponsible social interaction, a crime plague, and corruption that we want to eradicate forever.

Song of today. Today´s piece of music is the interpretation comparison of “A thousand years” performed by Christine Perri and by the lovely duet The Brooklyn Duo with the Dover Quartet.  Guess why?

Blessings and see you again soon. Thank you for reading to me.

Sources of reference utilized today:

1. https://faculty-research.esmt.berlin/person/derek-f-abell/bio
2. https://www.deefuneralhome.com/obituaries/John-S-Hammond-III?obId=3321273
3. Gilligan, Colin and Wilson, Richard; Strategic Marketing Planning, Butterworth-Heinemann (Elsevier), Oxford, UK, 2003.
4. Abell, Derek K. and John S. Hammond,  Strategic Market Planning. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1979.
5. https://www.billboard.com/music/bruno-mars/chart-history/streaming-songs/song/868081
6. https://www.nyo.org.uk/history

Disclaimer: Illustrations in Watercolor are painted by Eleonora Escalante. Other types of illustrations or videos (which are not mine) are used for educational purposes ONLY. Nevertheless, the majority of the pictures, images, or videos shown on this blog are not mine. I do not own any of the lovely photos or images posted unless otherwise stated.

Published by eleonoraescalantestrategy

Corporate Strategy Artist, San Salvador, El Salvador View all posts by eleonoraescalantestrategy