¶ … strategy?
Strategic positioning means offering different goods and services from rivals or offering goods and services in a unique way.
The company must provide a unique product or service, in contrast to its rivals.
This might include offering a relatively narrow range of services to a broad range of customers or serving the many needs of a targeted niche market.
The reverse is also true: a company can serve broad needs for a narrow market and narrow needs for a niche market.
Strategy requires trade-offs: no company can do everything well and be all things to all people.
There must be a good 'fit' between disparate company activities to achieve organizational efficiency.
Operational effectiveness (OE) means performing certain actions better than competitors such as improving quality and speed.
A. OE has received increasing emphasis in management literature in recent decades.
B. Maximizing the productivity frontier to improve organizational efficiency is critical for OE: this means being more productive by pushing the frontier using new techniques (such as Total Quality Management practices) or technology. Companies can 'do more with less' (fewer labor and input costs) through OE.
C. But regardless of OE, reducing competitive convergence (i.e., not being the same as one's competitors in terms of goods and services...
OE is essential but not enough.
E. OE is not the same as strategy: a company can max out the benefits of technology, for example, but not use that efficiency to achieve a differentiated status from rivals.
1. OE is not enough because it raises the bar for everyone in the industry regarding productivity, once again causing competitive convergence.
2. The more companies benchmark, the more they all look alike and mergers are not a solution because they do not address the real problem of differentiation.
F. Strategy, in contrast to OE is about being different, not just efficient, although OE can be one way amongst many to achieve that differentiated status.
III. There are a number of ways to differentiate goods and services.
A. Low-cost difference: Offering items at lower cost conveys an obvious advantage for price-sensitive customers.
B. Variety-based positioning entails offering multiple services using distinct activities.
C. Needs-based positioning means targeting a very specific segment of customers and focusing on their needs in a broad or narrow fashion.
D. Access-based positioning means serving the needs of customers in a specific geographical area.
E. Problems of maximizing OE without strategy can be seen with Japanese companies, given that there is a strong emphasis…
"Serving small rather than large customers or densely rather than sparsely situated customers are other examples in which the best way to configure marketing, order processing, logistics, and after-sale service activities to meet the similar needs of distinct groups will often differ" (Porter, 1996, p.67). But choosing a unique position, however, is not enough to guarantee a sustainable advantage. A competitor can reposition itself to match a superior performer by
Strategic Management It is very important that the factor of 'change' figures within an organization prominently. Different people utilize different approaches to implement these changes, and most often, it is that particular method that suits the organization the best that is used. Among some of the tried and tested methods of implementing change within an organization is the 'Delta Technique', which is one of the more popular and extremely successful methods
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What is Strategy? Strategy represents the development of an advantageous, unique position, entailing diverse activities. An ideally-positioned organization requires no strategy. At strategic positioning’s core is doing activities competitors aren’t. If identical activities proved effective in manufacturing every variety, accessing every client, and satisfying every need, one could conveniently shift between them; further, efficacy of operations would prove to be a performance determinant. Strategy success relies on doing a large number