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Transcript

Narrator: Real-World Connections. Episode 0: The Contract That Almost Walked

Narrator: Monday morning at Hearth and Harbor Bakeries.

Narrator: Fourteen cafés, one wholesale plant in Hamilton, and a phone call nobody wanted.

Marisol: Tomás, I'll be straight with you. Another supplier's offering us sliced bread for less. I need a reason to stay.

Tomás: We've shipped to you on time for nine years, Marisol.

Marisol: And I appreciate that. But on time isn't a reason anymore. Send me something by Friday.

Narrator: That afternoon, the leadership team meets in Toronto.

Tomás: We cut the price. We keep the contract. Done.

Adaeze: My father never had a five-year plan. He just knew what to bake and who to call.

Priya: Can I ask something? What's our strategy? Not for Friday. For the whole company.

Adaeze: We make good bread and we treat people well.

Priya: That's a value. I'm asking where we're choosing to compete, and why we'd win there.

Tomás: Wholesale pays the bills. That's the strategy.

Priya: Or that's just what we've ended up doing, year after year. Maybe that counts as a strategy too. But nobody actually chose it.

Adaeze: So the price cut is a tactic. Not a strategy.

Priya: It might fit inside one. Right now there's nothing for it to fit inside.

Adaeze: Then we build one. A real one. And I want to be challenged on it.

Narrator: Hearth and Harbor has a habit, a budget, and a buyer with a deadline.

Narrator: As you begin this unit, think about the forms strategy can take.

Narrator: Which forms does this company already have, and which ones is it missing?

Pause and apply

Using this unit's readings, list the different forms strategy can take. For each one, write a sentence saying whether Hearth and Harbor has it today, using something from this episode as evidence.

License: CC0 1.0 Universal (public domain dedication), except the Lucide icons (ISC License) and the background music (Motivating Mornings, Mixkit (Mixkit Stock Music Free License)), which aren't covered. https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/

Back to 'Unit 1: Introduction to Strategy'