Strategic Management in Action Ch. 6
AndrewEtlingerAshley HarrisBlake GreenDavidStyersCarolynnSchnaubelt
Competitive Advantage
Competitive Advantage is a key concept in strategic management“Getting it and keeping it what managing is all about”Competitive Advantage-when an organization does something that others cant or does it better than others do (distinctive capability). Or, an organization has something that other competitors don’t (unique resources)
Understanding Competition
Competition-occurs when organizations battle or vie for some desired object or outcome, typically customers, market share, survey rankings, or needed resourcesWhat competition might an organization face?
Who are competitors?
There are three approaches to defining an organization’s competitionIndustryMarketStrategic Groups
Industry Approach and Market Approach
Industry: Identifies competitors who make the same or very similar goods and servicesExample: video rental industry, automobile industry, credit card industry, or the spa industryMarket: Identifies competitors who offer the same customer needsExample: Entertainment Industry
Strategic Groups Approach
Identifies not only a firms competitors but shows which are most relevantBased on the Strategic Groups covered in Ch.3Figure 6.2
Competitive Strategy
Organizations attempt to create a sustainable competitive advantage. An organization does this by using itscompetitive strategy,which is based on the competitive advantages that the firm has developed.Examples: Netflix
Approaches to DefiningCompetitive Strategy
Miles & Snow’s Adaptive StrategiesProspector StrategyDefender StrategyAnalyzer StrategyReactor StrategyPorter’s Generic Competitive StrategiesCost Leadership StrategyDifferentiation StrategyFocus Strategy
Miles & Snow’s Adaptive Strategies
Prospector Strategy- an organization that continually innovates by finding and exploiting new product and market opportunities.Constantly innovating, developing, and testing new products.Creates uncertainty for the prospector’s competitors because they never know what to expect next.Examples: Fox Broadcasting Network & MTV
Miles & Snow’s Adaptive Strategies (Cont.)
Defender Strategy-used to protect current market share by emphasizing existing products and producing only a limited product line.Prevent competitors from stealing ideas from their company.Analyzer Strategy- strategy of analysis and imitation. Analyzers look for and copy the ides of successful prospectors.Ex. Suave Shampoo and skin care
Miles & Snow’s Adaptive Strategies (Cont.)
Reactor Strategy- characterized by the lack of a coherent strategic plan or apparent means of competing.Reactors react to environmental changes and make adjustments only when finally forced to do so by environmental pressures.Can be thought of as a “default” strategy because it is not a recommended competitive strategy for developing competitive advantage.
Porter’s Generic Competitive Strategies
Porter believes competitive advantage can only come from 2 sources:Having the lowest costs in the industryPossessing significant and desirable differences from competitors.Cost Leadership Strategy- an organization strives to have the lowest costs in its industry and produces products for abroad customer base.Main objective is to keep costs as low as possible.Ex. Wal-Mart
Porter’s Generic Competitive Strategies
Differentiation Strategy-an organization competes by providing unique products with features that customers value, perceive as different , and are wiling to pay a premium for.Try to create brand loyalty: when customers consistently seek out, purchase, and use a particular brand.Ex. Pottery barn used to be unique in their industry.
Focus Strategy
It’s when an organization pursues either a cost of differentiation advantage but within a limited (narrow) customer group or segment.There are three broad ways to segment specialized market niches:GeographicalType of customerProduct line segmentWhat’s involved in a focus strategy?Cost focuser competes by having lower costs than the overall industry cost leader in specific and narrow niches.Differentiation focuser uses whatever forms of differentiation the broad differentiator might use and specializes in one or a few segments.
Focus Strategy (cont.)
Advantages:Focuser knows its market niche well and can stay close to customers and respond quickly to their changing needs.They can develop strong brand loyalty by effectively and efficiently responding to customers needs.Drawbacks:Focuser can often operates on a small scale making it difficult to lower costs significantly.The niche customers might change their tastes or needs.There’s always the threat of a broad-based differentiator taking notice of the focuser’s market niche.Stuck in the middleHappens when an organization hasn’t developed a low cost or a differentiation competitive advantage.
Contemporary Views on Competitive Strategy
Integrated low cost-differentiation strategy involves simultaneously achieving low costs and high levels of differentiation.This is not easy to pursue because an organization basically has to be good at everything.Technology is what makes this strategy possibleIncreasing affordability of information technology has made it easier for organizations to pursue product and service differentiation and still keep their costs low.
Contemporary Views on Competitive Strategy (cont.)
Mintzberg’sGeneric Competitive Strategies were developed because he felt they better reflected the increasing complexity of the competitive environment.Differentiation by price: having the lowest costs didn’t provide a competitive advantage by itself but the advantage came from the fact that is allowed the organization to charger below-average market prices.Differentiation by marketing image: create a certain image in customers’ minds and use it as a competitive weapon.Differentiation by product design: compete on the basis of providing desirable product features and design configurations.
Contemporary Views on Competitive Strategy (cont.)
Differentiation by quality: compete by delivering a higher reliability and performance at a comparable price.Differentiation by product support: emphasized the customer support services provided by the organization.Undifferentiated strategy: situations in which an organization had no basis for differentiation or when it deliberately followed a copycat strategy.
Strategy Implementation
If a strategy is not implemented, then it is only an ideaOnce it is implemented, it must be evaluated and changed if necessaryThe organization’s functional strategies play a major role in strategy implementation
Roles
Dual Roles1stchoice depends on the organization’s resources and capabilities being acquired and developed through functional strategiesOnce the competitive strategy is determined, the resources, capabilities and competencies found are HOW they are implemented
Offensive Competitive Actions
An organization’s attempt to exploit and strengthen its competitive position through attacksDifferent types:Frontal assault – going head to head with competitor and matching them in everythingAttach competitor’s weaknessAll out attack – hitting them from product and market segment sideManeuvering around competitor and changing rules of the gameGuerilla attacks
Defensive Competitive Actions
An organization’s attempt to exploit and strengthen its competitive position through attacksDifferent types:Don’t give them areas to attackIncrease competitor’s beliefs that retaliation will occur if they are attackedLower incentive for competitor to attack
Evaluating Competitive Strategies
Ask questions:What are the results?Are they having the intended effect?Are we successfully exploiting our competitive advantage?Don’t ONLY look at resultsYou must determine what happened and whyPinpoint areas of competitive weaknessIf levels of performance haven’t been reached, change might need to occur
Takeaways (Conclusions)
Competitive AdvantageApproaches to defining a competitor are:Industry perspectiveMarket perspectiveStrategic groups concept
Takeaways (Cont.)
Miles and Snow’s Four Adaptive StrategiesProspector, Defender, Analyzer, and ReactorPorter’s three strategiesCost leadership, differentiation, and focusTwo Contemporary views on competitive strategy: integrated low cost-differentiation vs.Mintzberg’sgeneric competitive strategies.
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