chapter 1 25/09/2013s3.amazonaws.com/prealliance_oneclass_sample/4lv9wbpgwr.pdf · crafting a...
TRANSCRIPT
Chapter 1 25/09/2013
What Do We Mean by Strategy?
Strategy – action plan for outperforming its competitors and achieving superior profitability
How to attract and please customers
How to compete against rivals
How to position company in marketplace
How best to respond to changing economic and market conditions
How to capitalize on attractive opportunities to grow the business
How to achieve the company’s performance targets
Objective is to achieve lasting success that supports growth and provides secure future
Only stands a chance of succeeded when predicated on actions, business approaches, and competitive moves aimed
at appealing to buyers in ways that set a company apart from its rivals
Competitive advantage achieved when it has some edge over rivals in attracting buyers and coping with competitive
forces; giving buyers what they perceive as superior value compared to offerings of rival sellers, or giving buyers
same value as others at lower cost to firm
Sustainable if it persists despite the best efforts of competitors to match or surpass this advantage
Four most frequently used and dependable strategic approaches to setting company apart from rivals:
1. Striving to be lowcost provider; aims for costbased competitive advantage over rivals
2. Outcompeting rivals on the basis of differentiating features, such as higher quality, wider
product selection, added performance, valueadded services, more attractive styling,
technological superiority
3. Developing advantage based on offering more value for the money
4. Focusing on narrow market niche within an industry
Crafting a strategy is a work in progress due to everchanging marketing conditions
Company’s strategy is shaped partly by management analysis and choice; also by necessity of adapting and learning
by doing
Deliberate strategy consists of proactive strategy elements that are realized as planned
Emergent strategy consists of reactive strategy elements that emerge as changing conditions warrant
A Company’s Strategy and Its Business Model
A business model sets forth the logic for how its strategy will create value for customers while at the same time
generate revenues sufficient to cover costs and realize a profit
Two elements: customer value proposition and profit formula
What Make A Strategy A Winner?
Must pass three tests
Fit Test: Exhibit good external (in sync with prevailing market condition; tailored to company’s resources and
competitive capabilities) and internal fits (compatible with a company’s ability to execute strategy in competitive
manner)
Competitive Advantage Test: Strategies that fail to achieve durable competitive advantage over rivals are unlikely to
produce superior performance for more than a brief period of time
Performance Test: Two kinds of performance indicators – competitive strength and market standing, profitability
and financial strengths
Why Crafting and Executing Strategy Are Important Tests
Crafting and executing strategy are core management functions
The better conceived a company’s strategy and the more competently it is executed, the more likely the company
will be a standout performer in the marketplace
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What Does the StrategyMaking, StrategyExecuting Process Entail?
Five tasks:
Developing a strategic vision , mission statement, core values
Strategic vision: Describes management’s aspirations for future and delineates company’s strategic course and
longterm direction
Distinctive and specific to particular organization
Must be communicated down to lowerlevel managers and employees
Usually be stated adequately in onetwo paragraphs; explained in 510 minutes
Crystallizes senior executives’ views about longterm direction
Reduces risk of rudderless decision making
Tool for winning support of organization members to help make the vision a reality
Provides beacon for lowerlevel managers in setting departmental objectives and strategies that in sync with strategy
Helps organization prepare for future
Mission statement: Describes purpose and present business (who we are, what do we do, why are we here)
Identifies company’s products/services
Specifies the buyer needs it seeks to satisfy, and markets served
Gives company own identity
Values: Beliefs, traits, behavioural norms that company personnel are expected to display in conducting company’s
business and pursuing its strategic vision and mission
Setting objectives for measuring performance and tracking progress
Objectives are an organization’s performance targets – the specific results management wants to achieve
Focus efforts and align actions throughout the organization
Serve as yardsticks for tracking a company’s performance and progress
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Motivate employees to expend greater effort and perform at a higher level
Set objectives to stretch organization to perform at full potential and deliver the best results
Financial Objectives: Relate to financial performance targets management has established for organization to
achieve
Strategic Objectives: Relate to target outcomes that indicate a company is strengthening its market standing,
competitive position, and future business prospects
Balanced scorecard links both objectives to track achievement
Crafting a strategy to achieve objectives
Good strategies come from doing things differently from competitors where it counts – outinnovating them, being
more efficient, being more imaginative, adapting faster
Involves managers at all organizational levels
Corporate Strategy: Strategy at the multibusiness level, concerning how to improve company performance or gain
competitive advantage by managing a set of business simultaneously
Business Strategy: Strategy at the singlebusiness level concerning how to improve the performance or gain a
competitive advantage in a particular line of business
Functional Strategies: Concern actions and approaches employed in managing particular functions within a
business
Operating Strategies: Concern initiatives for managing key operating units and specific operating activities with
strategic significance
Only at full power when many pieces are united; topdown
Strategic Plan: Lays out future direction and business purpose, performance targets, and strategy
Executing chosen strategy
Initiatives to put strategy in place and execute it proficiently have to be launched and managed on many
organizational fronts
Emerges from assessing what the company will have to do to achieve the targeting financial and strategic
performance
Principal aspects:
Staffing organization to obtain needed skills and expertise
Developing and strengthening strategysupporting resources and capabilities
Creating a strategysupporting structure
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Allocating ample resources to the activities critical to strategic success
Ensuring the policies and procedures facilitate effective strategy success
Organizing the work effort along the lines of best practice
Installing information and operating systems that enable company personnel to perform essential activities
Motivating people and tying rewards directly to the achievement of performance objectives
Creating a company culture and work climate conducive to successful strategy executing
Exerting the internal leadership needed to propel implementation forward
Monitoring developments, evaluating performance, initiating corrective adjustments
Deciding whether to continue/change company’s vision, mission, objectives, strategy, etc.
Corporate Governance
Board of directors has four important obligations:
Oversee financial accounting and reporting practices
Fiduciary duty to protect shareholders
Critically appraise company’s direction, strategy, business approaches
Evaluate calibre of senior executives’ strategic leadership skills
Institute a compensation plan for top executives that rewards them for actions and results that serve shareholder
interests
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What Are the Strategically Relevant Factors in the MacroEnvironment?
Macroenvironment encompasses the broad environmental context in which a company’s industry is situated
Political, economic conditions (local, country, regional, worldwide), sociocultural forces, technological factors,
environmental factors, and legal/regulatory conditions
à PESTEL analysis
Determine strategically relevant factors – important enough to have a bearing on decisions the company ultimately
makes about business
Assessing the Company’s Industry and Competitive Environment
Six questions:
1. How strong are the competitive forces?
2. What are the driving forces in the industry, what impact will they have on competitive intensity and
industry profitability?
3. What market positions do industry rivals occupy – who is strongly positioned and who is not?
4. What strategic moves are rivals likely to make next?
5. What are the industry’s key success factors?
6. Is the industry outlook conducive to good profitability?
How Strong are the Industry’s Competitive Forces?
Five forces model of competition
1. Competition from rival sellers
2. Competition from potential new entrants to the industry
3. Competition from producers of substitute products
4. Supplier bargaining power
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5. Customer bargaining power
Step 1: For each force, identify different parties involved and specific factors that cause pressure
Step 2: Evaluate how strong pressures from each force are (strong, moderate, weak)
Step 3: Determine whether the strength of the five forces, overall, is conducive to earning attractive profits in the
industry
Rivalry increases when buyer demand is growing slowly or declining
Companies desperate to gain more business employ various tactics to gain market share
Rivalry increase as it becomes less costly for buyers to switch brands
Switching costs include monetary, time, inconvenience, psychological factors
Rivalry increases as products of rival sellers become less strongly differentiated
Rivalry is more intense when there is excess supply or unused production capacity, especially if the industry’s
product has high fixed/storage costs
Sellers cut prices in order to cope with excess inventory
Rivalry intensifies as the number of competitors increases and they become more equal in size and capacity
Sellers cut prices to drive sales when there are many competitors in a market
Rivalry becomes more intense as the diversity of competitors increases in terms of longterm directions, objectives,
strategies, and countries of origins
Rivalry is stronger when high exit barriers keep unprofitable firms from leaving the industry
Price discounting and more over crowded
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Competitive Pressures Associated with the Threat of New Entrants
Seriousness of competitive threats depend on expected reaction of incumbent firms to new entry and barriers to
entry:
Cost advantages enjoyed by industry incumbents
Scale economies in production, distribution, advertising, etc.
Learningbased costs savings that accrue from experience in performing certain activities such as manufacturing or
new product development/inventory management
Costsavings accruing from patents or proprietary technology
Exclusive partnerships with the best and cheapest suppliers of raw materials and components
Favourable locations
Low fixed costs (older facilities that depreciate)
Strong brand preferences and high degrees of customer loyalty
Strong “network effects” in customer demand
High capital requirements
The difficulty of building a network of distributors or dealers and securing adequate space on retailers’ shelves
Restrictive government policies
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Strongest competitive pressures associated with potential entry frequently come not from outsiders but from current
industry participants looking for growth opportunities
The threat of entry changes as the industry’s prospects grow brighter or dimmer and as entry barriers rise or fall
Strength of competitive pressure from substitute products:
Whether substitutes are readily available and attractively priced
Price ceiling
Whether buyers view substitutes as being comparable or better in terms of quality, performance, and other relevant
attributes
Invites customers to compare performance, features, etc.
Whether the costs that buyers incur in switching to the substitutes are lower or high
The lower the price of substitutes, the higher their quality and performance, and the lower the user’s switching costs,
the more intense the competitive pressures posed by substitute products
Competitive Pressures Stemming from Supplier Bargaining Power
Whether demand for suppliers is high and they are short in supply
Pricing power
Whether suppliers provide a differentiated input that enhances the performance of the industry’s product
Whether it is difficult or costly for industry members to switch their purchases from supplier to another
Whether the supplier industry is dominated by a few large companies and whether it is more concentrated in the
industry it sells to
Whether suppliers provide an item that accounts for a sizable fraction of the costs of the industry’s product
Whether it makes good economic sense for industry members to integrate backward and selfmanufacture items they
have been buying from suppliers
Whether there are good substitutes available for the suppliers’ products
Whether industry members are major customers of suppliers
Competitive Pressures Stemming from Buyer Bargaining Power and Price Sensitivity
Buyer power increases when buyer demand is weak in relation to industry supply
Buyer power increases when industry goods are standardized or differentiation is weak
Buyers’ bargaining power is greater when their costs of switching to competing brands or substitutes are relatively
low
Buyers have more power when they are large and few in number relative to the number of sellers
Buyers gain leverage if they are well informed about sellers’ products, prices, and costs
Buyers’ bargaining power is greater when they pose a credible threat of integrating backward into the business of
sellers
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Buyer leverage increases if buyers have discretion to delay their purchases or perhaps even not make a purchase at
all
Buyer price sensitivity increases when buyers are earning low profits or have low income
Buyers are more pricesensitive if the product represents a large fraction of their total purchases
Is the Collective Strength of the Five Competitive Forces Conducive to Good Profitability?
Strong competitive pressures coming from all five directions drive industry profitability to unacceptably low levels,
producing losses for many industry members and forcing some out of business
Strongest of the five forces determines the extent of the downward pressure on an industry’s profitability
A company’s strategy is increasingly effective the more it provides some insulation from competitive pressures,
shifts the competitive battle in the company’s favour, and positions firms to take advantage of attractive growth
opportunities
Effectively matching a company’s business strategy to prevailing competitive conditions has two aspects:
Pursuing avenues that shield the firm from as many of the different competitive pressures as possible
Initiating actions calculated to shift the competitive forces in the company’s favour by altering the underlying factors
driving the five forces
What Factors Are Driving Industry Change, and What Impact Will They Have?
All industries are affected by new developments and ongoing trends that alter industry conditions, some more
speedily than others
Industry and competitive conditions change because forces are enticing or pressuring certain industry participants to
alter their actions in important ways
Driving Forces: Major underlying causes of change in industry and competitive conditions
Identifying what the driving forces are
Changes in industry’s longterm growth rate
Increasing globalization
Emerging new Internet capabilities and applications
Changes in who buys the product and how they use it
Technological change and manufacturing innovation
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Product and marketing innovation
Entry or exit of major firms
Diffusion of technical knowhow across companies and countries
Changes in cost and efficiency
Reductions in uncertainty and business risk
Regulatory influences and government policy changes
Changing societal concerns, attitudes, and lifestyles
Assessing whether the drivers of change are, on the whole, acting to make the industry more or less attractive
Are the driving forces as a whole causing demand for the industry’s product to increase or decrease?
Is the collective impact of the driving forces making competition more or less intense?
Will the combined impacts of the driving forces lead to higher or lower industry profitability?
Determining what strategy changes are needed to prepare for the impact of the driving forces
What strategy adjustments will be needed to deal with the impacts of the driving forces
How Are Industry Rivals Positioned in the Market?
Strategic Group Mapping: Technique for displaying the different market or competitive positions that rival firms
occupy in the industry
Strategic Group: Cluster of industry rivals that have similar competitive approaches and market positions;
procedure for constructing:
Reveal which companies are close competitors and which are distant competitors
Prevailing competitive pressures from the industry’s five forces may cause profit potential of different strategic
groups to vary
Industry driving forces may favour some strategic groups and hurt others
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What Strategic Moves Are Rivals Likely to Make Next?
Studying competitors’ past behaviour and preferences provides a valuable assist in anticipating what moves rivals
are likely to make next and outmanoeuvring them in the marketplace
Michael Porter’s Framework for Competitor Analysis outlines 4 indicators of rival’s moves and countermoves
Current strategy: Company strategists need to have a good understanding of each rival’s current strategy as an
indicator of its pattern of behaviour and best strategic options
Objectives: Should include financial and strategic objectives
Capabilities: Serve as a strong signal of future strategic actions
Assumptions: How top managers think about their situation can have an impact on how they behave
What are the Industry’s Key Factors?
Competitive factors that most affect industry members’ ability to survive and prosper in the marketplace
Can be deduced :
On what basis do the buyers of the industry’s product choose between the competing brand of sellers?
What resources and competitive capabilities must a company have to be competitively successful?
What shortcomings are almost certain to put a company at a significant competitive advantage?
Is the Industry Outlook Conducive to Good Profitability?
The degree to which an industry is attractive or unattractive is not the same for all industry participants and all
potential entrants
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Question 1: How Well is the Company’s Present Strategy Working?
Must see what the strategy entails
Evaluate competitive approach
Three indicators:
i. Whether the company is achieving its stated financial and strategic objectives
ii. Whether its financial performance is above the industry average
iii. Whether it is gaining customers and increasing its marketing share
Question 2: What Are the Company’s Competitively Important Resources and Capabilities?
Resources are a competitive assets; determine strength of competitive power
Resource/capability analysis provide managers with powerful tool for evaluating competitive assets and determining
potential competitive success; two steps
Identifying the company’s resources
Fundamental building blocks of competitive strategy
Resource – Productive input or competitive asset that is owned by the firm
Capability – Capacity of a firm to perform some internal activity competently; vary in form
Tangible resources:
Physical
Financial
Technological
Organizational
Intangible resources
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Human assets and intellectual capital
Brands, company image, reputational assets
Relationships
Company culture and incentive system
Identifying company’s capabilities
Knowledgebased, residing in people and in a company’s intellectual capital or in organizational processes and
systems, which embody tacit knowledge
Two methods of identifying: Complete listing of resources, survey various functions a firm performs to find
different capabilities associated with each function
Assessing competitive power of company’s resources and capabilities
VRIN Tests for Sustainable Competitive Advantage
Is the resource valuable? à Must be directly relevant to company’s strategy
Is the resource rare? à Held only by small number of firms in the industry
Is the resource inimitable? à The more difficult and costly resource is to imitate, the more likely it will provide firm
with competitive advantage
Is the resource nonsubstitutable?
A company’s resources and capabilities must be managed dynamically
Resources and capabilities must be continually strengthened and nurtured to sustain their competitive power, and
may need to be broadened and deepened to be in position of pursuing emerging market opportunities
Challenges in managing resources dynamically:
Attending to ongoing modification of existing competitive assets
Monitoring opportunities to develop new kinds of capabilities
Dynamic capability: Ongoing capacity of a company to modify its existing resources and capabilities/create new
ones
Question 3: Is the Company Able to Seize Market Opportunities and Nullify External Threats?
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SWOT analysis – basis for crafting a strategy that capitalizes on the company’s strengths, overcomes weaknesses,
seizes best opportunities, defends against competitive/environmental threats
Identifying a Company’s Internal Strengths
Something a company is good at doing/attribute that enhances competitiveness in the marketplace à Depends on
quality of resources and capabilities
Assessing a company’s competencies – what activities does it perform well?
One way to appraise the degree of a company’s strengths has to do with the company’s skill level in performing key
pieces of its business
Competence: An activity that a company has learned to perform with proficiency – a capability, in other words
Core Competence: An activity that a company performs proficiently that is also central to its strategy and
competitive success à Contributes directly to competitive success
Distinctive Competence: Competitively important activity that a company performs better than its rivals –
represents a competitively superior internal strength
Identifying company weaknesses and competitive deficiencies
Weakness: Shortcomings that constitute competitive liabilities à Inferior/unproven skills/expertise in competitively
important areas of the business; deficiencies in competitively important assets; missing/competitively inferior
capabilities in key areas
Identifying a company’s market opportunities
Newly emerging markets present plenty of opportunities but managers cannot see into the future; opportunities are
seized when management is diligent and aware of market
A company is welladvises to pass on a particular market opportunity unless it has or can acquire the resources and
competencies needed to capture it
Opportunities most relevant to a company are those that are conducive to assets, offer the best prospects for growth
and profitability, and present the most potential for competitive advantage
Identifying the threats to a company’s future profitability
Threats can emerge from various factors; affect profitability and competitive wellbeing
Management’s job is to identify and address what strategic actions can neutralize/lessen impact
What do the SWOT listings reveal?
Drawing conclusions and translating into strategic action
What are the attractive aspects of the company’s situation?
What aspects are of the most concern
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Are the company’s internal strengths and competitive assets sufficiently strong to enable successful competition?
Are the company’s weaknesses and competitive deficiencies of small consequence and readily correctable, or could
they prove fatal if not remedied soon?
Do the company’s strengths outweigh its weaknesses by an attractive margin?
Are there attractive market opportunities that are conducive to the company’s strengths? Does the company lack the
competitive assets to pursue the most attractive opportunities?
Where on a scale of 1 to 10 do the company’s overall situation and future prospects rank?
Translate diagnosis of the company’s situation into actions for improving the company’s strategy and business
prospects
Question 4: Are the Company’s Cost Structure and Customer Value Proposition Competitive?
Companies that enter the market incredibly strong with a lowprice product probably have lower costs and offer
prices that result in more appealing customer value propositions
The higher a company’s cots are above those of close rivals, the more competitively vulnerable it becomes
The greater the amount of customer value that a company can offer profitably relative to close rivals, the less
competitively vulnerable it becomes
The Concept of a Company Value Chain
Value Chain: Identifies the primary activities and related support activities that create customer value
Primary activities à Foremost in creating value for customers (ie. Supply chain management, operations, sales and
marketing, profit margin, etc.)
Secondary activities à Facilitate and enhance performance of the primary activities (ie. Product R&D, Human
Resources, administration, etc.)
Ideal tool for examining how a company delivers on its customer value proposition; offers deep look at company’s
cost structure and ability to offer low prices
Comparing the Value Chains of Rival Companies
Value chain analysis facilitates a comparison, activitybyactivity, of how effectively a company delivers value to its
customers
Segregate operations into different types of primary and secondary activities
Company’s Primary & Secondary Activities Identify the Major Components of Its Internal Cost Structure
Cost of each activity contributes to whether overall cost position relative to rivals is favourable or not
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Key purpose is to develop data for comparing costs to rivals and to learn which internal activities are a source of
cost dis/advantage
A company’s cost competitiveness depends not only on the costs of internally performed activities but also on costs
in the value chains of its suppliers and distribution channel allies
Degree to which total costs should be broken down depends on how valuable it is to know the costs of specific
activities vs. broadly defined activities
The Value Chain System
Affects factors that are important to customer value proposition and profitability
Distributor value chains are important because:
The costs and margins of a company’s distributors and retails dealers are part of the price the ultimate consumer
pays
The activities that distribution allies perform affect sales volumes and customer satisfaction
Benchmarking: Assessing if the Costs and Effectiveness of Value Chain Activities Are In Line
Benchmarking: Potent tool for improving a company’s own internal activities that is based on learning how other
companies perform them and borrowing their “best practices”
Provides hard evidence of whether a company is costcompetitive
Strategic Options of Remedying a Cost or Value Disadvantage
Results can disclose cost/value disadvantages relative to key rivals; key to crafting strategies to eliminate
disadvantages and improve profitability
Three main areas in a value chain system managers can improve efficiency/effectiveness in delivering customer
value
Company’s own internal activities
Suppliers’ part of the value chain system
Forward channel portion of the value chain system
Improving Internally Performed Value Chain Activities
Reduce costs of internal performed activities, improve cost competitiveness
Implement the use of best practices
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Eliminate some costproducing activities altogether
Relocate highcost activities
Outsource activities from vendors who can do it cheaper
Invest in productivity enhancing, costsaving technological improvements
Find ways to detour around highcost activities
Redesign product
Improve effectiveness of customer value proposition, enhance differentiation
Implement best practices for quality, customer service, innovation, marketing
Prioritize consumer purchase criteria; reallocate resources accordingly
Understand how activities impact buyer’s value chain and improve those with greatest impact
Improving SupplierRelated Value Chain Activities
Pressuring suppliers for lower prices, switching to lowerpriced substitutes, collaborating with suppliers to identify
mutual costsaving opportunities
Improving Value Chain Activities of Forward Channel Allies
Three ways:
Pressure distributors, dealers, and other forward channel allies to reduce costs and markups
Collaborate with forward channel allies to identify winwin opportunities to reduce costs
Change to a more economical distribution strategy (ie. Cheaper distribution channels, integrating forward into
companyowned retail outlets)
Enhance differentiation through activities at the forward
Engaging in cooperative advertising and promotions with forward allies
Creating exclusive arrangements with downstream sellers to enhance delivered customer value
Creating and enforcing standards for downstream activities
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Translating Proficient Performance of Value Chain Activities into Competitive Advantage
Valuecreating activities can offer competitive advantage through:
They can contribute to greater efficiency and lower costs relative to competititors
Provide basis for differentiation, so customers are willing to pay relatively more
How Activities Relate to Resources and Capabilities
Organizational capability/competence implies capacity for action; valuecreating activity initiates the action
Resources and capabilities that are both valuable and rare provide a company with what it takes for competitive
advantage
Performing value chain activities with capabilities that permit the company to either outmatch rivals or
differenation/costs will give company a competitive advantage
Valuecreating activities contribute to formation and development of capabilities
Question 5: Is the Company Competitively Stronger or Weaker than Key Rivals?
How does the company rank relative to competitors on each of the important factors that determine market success?
Does the company have a net negative competitive advantage or disadvantage versus major competitors?
Analyses reveal the key success factors and competitive forces that separate winners for losers; reveals which of
these are competitively important given the external situation and if advantages are sustainable
5 Steps
Make a list of key success factors and measures of competitive strength or weakness
Assign weights to each measure based on perceived importance
Calculate weighted strength ratings by scoring each competitor on strength measure and multiply assigned rating by
assigned weight
Sum weighted strength rating on each factor to get overall measure of competitive strength for each company being
rated
Use strength ratings to draw conclusions of net competitive dis/advantages
High weighted competitive strength ratings signal strong competitive position and possession of competitive advantage;
low ratings signal weak position and competitive disadvantage
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The Five Generic Competitive Strategies
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A company’s competitive strategy deals exclusively with the specifics of management’s game plan for competing
successfully
Competitive strategies can be similar between companies; two factors that can distinguish:
Target market – broad or narrow?
Is the competitive advantage linked to lower costs or differentiation?
Five competitive strategy options:
Lowcost provider strategy: Striving to achieve lower overall cots than rivals on comparable products that attract a
broad spectrum of buyers
Broad differentiation strategy: Seeking to differentiate the company’s product offering from rivals’ with superior
attributes that will appeal to a broad spectrum of buyers
Focused lowcost strategy: Concentrating on narrow buyer segment (or market niche) and outcompeting rivals on
costs, thus being able to serve niche members at a lower price
Focused differentiation strategy: Concentrating on a narrow buyer segment (or market niche) and outcompeting
rivals with a product offering that meets the specific tastes and requirements of niche members better than the
product offerings of rivals
Bestcost provider strategy: Giving customers more value for their money by satisfying buyers’ expectations on key
attributes while beating price expectations. This is a hybrid strategy that blends elements of differentiation and low
cost strategies; aim is to have lowest costs and prices among sellers offering products with comparable
differentiating attributes
LowCost Provider Strategies
Lowcost provider’s basis for competitive advantage is lower overall costs than competitors
Successful lowcost leaders, who have the lowest industry costs, are exceptionally good at finding ways to drive
costs out of their businesses and still provide a product or service that buyers find acceptable
Two options for translating lowcost advantage into profit performance
Use lowercost edge to underprice competitors and attract pricesensitive buyers in great enough numbers to
increase total profits
Maintain present price, be content with present market share, and use the lowercost edge to earn a higher profit
margin on each unit sold, thereby raising profits
Two Major Avenues for Achieving a Cost Advantage
CostEfficient Management of Value Chain Activities
Cost driver is a factor that has a strong influence on a company’s costs
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Costcutting methods:
Striving to capture all available economies of scale: Stem from an ability to lower unit costs by increasing the scale
of operation
Taking full advantage of experience and learningcurve effects: Cost of performing an activity can decline as
learning and experience of employee build
Trying to operate facilities at full capacity: Higher rates of capacity utilization allow depreciation and other fixed
costs to be spread over a larger unit volume, thereby lowering fixed costs per unit
Improving supply chain efficiency: Partnering with suppliers to streamline ordering and purchasing process reduces
costs
Using lower cost inputs wherever doing so will not entail too great a sacrifice in quality
Using the company’s bargaining power visàvis suppliers or others in the value chain system to gain concessions
Using communication systems and information technology to achieve operating efficiencies
Employing advanced production technology and process design to improve overall efficiency
Being alert to the cost advantages of outsourcing or vertical integration
Motivating employees through incentives and company culture
Revamping the Value Chain System to Lower Costs
Dramatic cost advantages can often emerge from redesigning the value chain system à Eliminate steps, bypass cost
producing activities
Selling direct to consumers and bypassing the activities and costs of distributors and dealers: 1) Create own direct
sales force, 2) Conduct sales operations through website
Streaming operations by eliminating low valueadded or unnecessary work steps and activities
Reducing materials handling and shipping costs by having suppliers locate their plants or warehouses close to the
company’s own facilities
The Keys to Being a Successful LowCost Provider
Outmanaging rivals in finding ways to perform value chain activities faster, more accurately, more costeffectively
When it works best:
Price competition among rival sellers is vigorous
Generic Competitive Strategies 25/09/2013
Products of rival sellers are essentially identical and readily available from many eager sellers
Few ways to achieve product differentiation in ways that have value to buyers
Most buyers use the product in the same ways
Buyers incur low costs in switching their purchases from one seller to another
The majority of industry sales are made to a few, large volume buyers
Industry new comers use introductory low prices to attract buyers and build a customer base
Pitfalls to Avoid in Pursuing a LowCost Provider Strategy
Overly aggressive price cutting can end up in lower profitability
Lowcost/lowprice advantage results in profitability only if gains in unit sales are large enough to bring in larger
total profit
Relying on approaches that are easily imitated by competitors
Value of cost advantage relies on sustainability; leader’s advantage will be too shortlived to yield valuable edge in
marketplace if copied
Becoming fixated on cost reduction
Offering must always contain enough attributes to be attractive to prospective buyers
Broad Differentiation Strategies
Attractive when buyers’ needs and preferences are too diverse to be fully satisfied by a standardized product offering
Successful differentiation allows a firm to…
Command a premium price for its product
Increase unit sales (win over additional sales through differentiation)
Gain buyer loyalty to brand (strongly attracted to differentiating features; bond with company and product)
Essence à Offer unique product attributes that a wide range of buyers find appealing and worth paying for
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Enhances profitability whenever a company’s product can command a higher price to more than cover the added
costs of achieving the differentiation
Uniqueness drivers create differentiation
Striving to create superior product features, design, and performance
Improving customer service or adding additional services
Pursuing production R&D activities
Striving for innovation and technological advances
Pursuing continuous quality improvement
Increasing emphasis on marketing and brandbuilding activities
Seeking out highquality inputs
Emphasizing human resource management
Enhancing differentiation through changes in the value chain:
Coordinating with channel allies to enhance customer perceptions of value
Coordinating with suppliers to better address customer needs
Delivering Superior Value via a Broad Differentiation Strategy
Objective is to offer customers something that rivals can’t; four basic strategies:
Incorporate product attributes and user features that lower the buyer’s overall costs of using the product; helps
business buyers be more competitive in market and more profitable
Incorporate tangible features that increase customer satisfaction with the product (ie. Specifications, functions,
styling)
Incorporate intangible features that enhance buyer satisfaction in noneconomic ways; can extend beyond product
attributes to the reputation of the company and to customer relations or trust
Signal the value of the company’s product offering to buyers (ie. High price, more appealing packaging than
competitors, etc.)
Achieving a successful differentiation strategy requires that company have capabilities in areas that create and
support differentiation (customer service, marketing, brand management, technology)
Generic Competitive Strategies 25/09/2013
Differentiation that creates switching costs that lock in buyers creates sustainable advantage
When a differentiation strategy works best:
Buyer needs and uses of product are diverse
Many ways to differentiate the product/service that have value to buyers
Few rival firms are following a similar differentiation approach
Technological change is fastpaced and competition revolves around rapidly evolving product features
Pitfalls
A differentiation strategy keyed to product or service attributes that are easily and quickly copied is always doomed
The company’s attempt at differentiation produces an unenthusiastic response on the part of the buyers
Overspending on efforts to differentiate the company’s product offering thus eroding profitability
A lowcost provider strategy can defeat a differentiation strategy when buyers are satisfied with a basic product and
don’t think “extra” attributes are worth a higher price
Focused (Market Niche) Strategies
Focused LowCost Strategy
Concentrating on a narrow pricesensitive buyer segment and on costs to offer a lowerpriced product
Attractive when a firm can lower costs significantly by limiting consumer base
Outcompete with rivals by minimizing value chain activities
Focused Differentiation Strategy
Concentrating on a narrow buyer segment by meeting specific tastes and requirements of niche members
Luxury retailers targeting market segment that is willing to pay a premium for products
When Focused Strategies are Attractive
Generic Competitive Strategies 25/09/2013
Target market niche is large enough to attract a profit
Industry leaders have chosen not to compete
Costly/difficult for multisegment competitors to meet the specialized needs of niche buyers and meet expectations of
regular customers
Industry has many different niches and segments
Few rivals competing for niche market leadership
Risks
Large competitors can find effective ways to match focused firm’s capabilities in serving the niche à multibrand
strategies
Potential for preferences and needs of niche customers to shift towards mainstream
Niche saturation
BestCost Provider Strategies
Hybrid of lowcost provider and differentiation strategies that aim at providing desired
quality/features/performance/service attributes while beating rivals on price
Give customers more value for the money by satisfying buying desires for product attributes while charging a lower
price compared to rivals
Company must have resources and capabilities to incorporate attractive/upscale attributes into its product offering at
a lower cost than rivals
Target market is valueconscious buyers
Works best where product differentiation is the norm, and valueconscious buyers can be induced to purchase
midrange products as opposed to low or high priced goods
Risk: Being squeezed between either end differentiation strategies
Company’s Competitive Position 25/09/2013
Offensive Strategies to Improve Market Position
à Should be based on company’s strongest competitive assets
Offering an equally good or better product at a lower price
Leapfrogging competitors by being first to market with nextgeneration products
Pursuing continuous product innovation to draw sales and market share away from less innovative rivals
Adopting and improving on the good ideas of other companies
Using hitandrun or guerrilla warfare tactics to grab market share from complacent or distracted rivals
Launching a preemptive strike to secure an advantageous position that rivals are prevented or discouraged from
duplicating
Choosing Which Rivals to Attack
Market leaders that are vulnerable
Runnerup firms with weaknesses in areas where the challenger is strong
Struggling enterprises that are on the verge of going under
Small, local and regional firms with limited capabilities
BlueOcean Strategy
Offers growth in revenues and profits by discovering or inventing new industry segments that create altogether new
demand
Defensive Strategies to Protect Market Position
Lower the risk of being attacked, weaken impact, influence challengers to aim efforts at other rivals
Blocking the avenues open to challengers
Signalling challengers that retaliation is likely
Timing Strategic Moves
Firstmover advantages and disadvantages mean that competitive advantage can spring from when a move is made
as well as from what move is made
Company’s Competitive Position 25/09/2013
à Does market takeoff depend on development of complementary products/services that are not yet available?
à Is new infrastructure required before buyer demand can surge?
à Will buyers need to learn new skills or adopt new behaviours?
à Will buyers need encounter high switching costs in moving to the newly introduced product or service?
à Are there influential competitors in a position to delay/derail the efforts of a first mover?
When FirstMover Advantages are Wise
Pioneering helps build a firm’s reputation and creates strong brand loyalty
When a firstmover’s customers will thereafter face significant switching costs
When property rights protections thwart rapid imitation of the initial move
When an early lead enables the first mover to move down the learning curve ahead of rivals
When a first mover can set the technical standard for the industry
FirstMover Disadvantages
When pioneering is more costly than imitative following
When the products of an innovator are primitive and do not live up to buyer expectations
When rapid market evolution gives secondmovers an opening to leapfrog
When market uncertainties make it difficult to ascertain what will eventually succeed
Strengthening a Company’s Market Position via Its Scope of Operations
Scope of the firm refers to the range of activities which the firm performs internally, the breadth of its product and
service offerings, the intent of its geographic market presence, and its mix of businesses
Horizontal Scope: Range of product and service segments that a firm serves within its focal market
Vertical Scope: Extent to which a firm’s internal activities encompass one, some many, or all of the activities that
make up an industry’s entire value chain system, ranging from rawmaterial production to final sales and service
activities
Company’s Competitive Position 25/09/2013
Horizontal Merger and Acquisition Strategies
Objectives:
Creating a more costefficient operation out of the combined companies
Expanding a company’s geographic coverage
Extending the company’s business into new product categories
Gaining quick access to new technologies or complementary resources and capabilities
Leading the convergence of industries whose boundaries are being blurred by changing technologies and new
market opportunities
Sometimes they don’t work:
Cost savings may prove smaller than expected
Gains in competitive capabilities take longer to realize or never materialize at all
Change resistance
Loss of key employees at acquired firm
Mistakes
Vertical Integration Strategies
A vertically integrated firm is one that performs value chain activities along more than one stage of an industry’s
value chain system
Vertical integration strategies expand the firm’s range of activities backward into its sources of supply and/or
forward toward endusers of its products
Full integration
Firm participates in all stages of vertical activity chain
Partial integration
Company’s Competitive Position 25/09/2013
Firm builds positions only in selected stages of vertical chain
Tapered integration
Mix of inhouse and outsourced activity in any stage of the vertical chain
Backward integration: Entry into activities previously performed by suppliers or other enterprises positioned along
earlier stages of the industry value chain system à Reduction of supplier power, reduction in costs of major inputs,
assurance of supply and flow of critical inputs, protection of proprietary knowhow
Achieving same scale economies as outside suppliers – lowcost based competitive advantage
Matching or beating suppliers’ production efficiency with no dropoff in quality – differentiationbased competitive
advantage
Forward integration: Entry into value chain system activities closer to the end user à Lower overall costs by
increasing channel activity efficiencies relative to competitors, increase bargaining power through control of channel
activities, gain better access to end users, strengthen and reinforce brand awareness, increase product differentiation
Lower overall costs by increasing channel activity efficiencies relative to competitors
Increase bargaining power through control of channel activities
Gain better access to end users
Strengthen and reinforce brand awareness
To increase product differentiation
Outsourcing Strategies: Narrowing the Scope of Operations
Outsourcing involves contracting out certain value chain activities to outside vendors
An activity can be performed better or more cheaply by outside specialist
Activity is not crucial to the firm’s ability to achieve sustainable competitive advantage
Improves organizational flexibility and speeds time to market
Reduces the company’s risk exposure to changing technology or buyer preferences
Allows a company to assemble diverse kinds of expertise speedily and efficiently
Allows a company to concentrate on its core business, leverage its key resources, and do even better what it already
does best
Company’s Competitive Position 25/09/2013
Risks:
Hollowing out resources and capabilities that the firm needs to be a master of its own destiny
Loss of control when monitoring, controlling, and coordinating activities of outside parties by means of contracts
and arm’s length transactions
Lack of incentive for outside parties to make investments specific to the needs of the outsourcing firm’s value chain
Strategic Alliances and Partnerships
Strategic Alliance: Formal agreement between two or more distinct companies in which they agree to work
cooperatively toward some common objective
Joint Venture: Partnership involving the establishment of an independent corporate entity that the partners own and
control jointly, sharing in its revenues and expenses
Alliances become strategic when:
Facilitates achievement of an important business objective
Helps build, sustain, enhance a core competence or competitive advantage
Helps block competitive threat
Remedy an important resource deficiency or competitive weakness
Increases bargaining power of alliance members over suppliers/buyers
Opens up important new market opportunities
Mitigates significant risk to company’s business
A company racing to stake out a strong position in an industry of the future needs to:
Establish a stronger benchhead
Master new technologies and build new expertise and competencies
Open up broader opportunities
Factors of benefit:
Company’s Competitive Position 25/09/2013
Picking a good partner
Being sensitive to cultural differences
Recognizing that the alliance must benefit both sides
Ensuring that both parties live up to their commitments
Structuring the decisionmaking process so that actions can be taken swiftly when needed
Managing the learning process and then adjusting the alliance agreement over time to fit new circumstances
Principal advantages over vertical integration/horizontal mergers
Lower investment costs and risks for each partner by facilitating resource pooling and risk sharing
More flexible organizational forms and allow for a more adaptive response to changing conditions
More rapidly deployed – a critical factor when speed is of the essence
Make it work:
Create a system for managing the alliance
Build trusting relationships with partners
Set up safeguards to protect from the threat of opportunism
Make commitments to partners and see that partners do the same
Make learning a routine part of the management process
Framework for Executing Strategy 25/09/2013
Executing strategy entails figuring out the specific actions, and behaviours that are needed to get things done and
deliver good results.
Good strategy executing requires team effort; all managers have responsibilities in strategy execution in their areas
of authority
The Principal Components of the Strategy Execution Process
1. Staff the organization with managers and employees capable of executing the strategy well
2. Build the organizational capabilities required for successful strategy execution
3. Create a strategysupportive organizational structure
4. Allocate sufficient resources (budgetary and otherwise) to the strategy execution effort
5. Institute policies and procedures that facilitate strategy execution
6. Adopt best practices and business processes that drive continuous improvement in strategy execution
activities
7. Install information and operating systems that enable company personnel to carry out their strategic
roles proficiently
8. Tie rewards and incentives directly to the achievement of strategic and financial targets
9. Instil a corporate culture that promotes good strategy execution
10. Exercise the internal leadership needed to propel strategy implementation forward
Building an Organization Capable of Good Strategy Execution
Staffing – Putting together a strong management team, and recruiting and retaining employees with the needed
experience, technical skills, and intellectual capital
Resources and Capabilities – Accumulating resources, developing proficiencies , and updating capabilities to match
changing market conditions and customer expectations
Structuring the Organization – Organizing VCA, establishing lines of authority and reporting relationships, deciding
how much decisionmaking authority to delegate to lowerlevel management and frontline employees
Staffing the Organization
Putting Together a Strong Management Team
Fill key managerial slots with smart people who are clear thinkers, good at figuring out what needs to be done, skilled in
managing people, and accomplished in delivering good results
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