5 - Strategy: What’s the Purpose?

Summary

‘We know that there is always more that can be done, so we are always looking into new ways that we can grow our efforts and develop what has come before’, the Moomin Group onboarding booklet boldly states.

In life, nothing lasts forever. The same applies to business activities. While taking care of the brand and strategic partnerships today, the Moomin ecosystem engages with the future, or multiple possible futures, and tries to figure out what is likely to happen next. There is a forward- looking and proactive stance in the ecosystem. We refer to this as strategy work, that is activities, practices, and talk that look beyond the horizon. This can also be called strategizing.

The crucial thing in doing strategy is to engage in joint activities that lead to smart choices and decisions; to turn strategic ideas into actions. As Richard Whittington and other ‘strategy as practice’ scholars have argued, strategy only comes into being when it gets done. This seemingly self- evident fact is often forgotten in traditional takes on strategy focused on analysis and planning.

Working on the future(s) strategically is about purpose, vision, and values. Purpose, or mission, is the reason for existing. Vision is a target state. Values are shared beliefs that offer a framework for actions.

The purpose, or mission, in the Moomin ecosystem is to spread the joy of the Moomin stories and to promote the values they represent globally. The vision of Moomin Characters Ltd at the centre of the ecosystem is to be the number one art- based licensing company in the world.

The question is how to fulfil the purpose and realize the vision, not only today but tomorrow? For Moomin, this is about becoming better and better in creating products and services based on Tove Jansson's art globally in ways that appeal to those who are looking for an alternative to the mainstream entertainment industry.

This leads us to strategy and to making things happen. Figuring out where to allocate resources (and where not) is the classic strategic question, referred to as ‘men, money, and materials’ by pioneering strategy scholar Alfred D. Chandler, and recounted in numerous studies after him.