Overview of Strategy:

Emphasis on Porter
BUS 497A
Nazarian School of Business / CSUN
09-Feb-2017
 Topics
Review of Porter’s “What is Strategy?”
• Operational Effectiveness Is Not Strategy
• Strategy Rests on Unique Activities
• Sustainable Strategic Position Requires Trade-offs
• Fit Drives Both Competitive Advantage and Sustainability
• Rediscovering Strategy

• Extra: Implementing Strategy (Pope)

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 Review: Strategy as an Ancient
Byzantine-Roman Concept

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 Operational Effectiveness Is Not Strategy

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 Strategy is not . . .
• Holding a “strategy meeting” and taking notes

• A list of “new stuff to do” derived from the meeting

• Creating “new buzz words” for the same old activities

• A list of “best practices”

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 Recall: Strategy is . . .

“A unifying theme that gives coherence and direction to

the actions and decisions of an individual or an
organization.” -- R. Grant (2010)

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 Operational Effectiveness
Focuses on the details of . . .

• Who?
• What?
• When?
• Where?
• How much?

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 Strategy Rests on Unique Activities

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 Creativity and Strategy:
The Unique Approach of Nikola Tesla

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 A Sustainable Strategic Position
Requires Trade-offs (Vietnam War)

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 Trade-offs: “Guns vs. Butter”
The Vietnam War vs. The Great Society

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 “Fit” Drives Both Competitive Advantage
and Sustainability

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 Three types of fit

• First-order fit: simple consistency

• Second-order fit: activities are (mutually) reinforcing

• Third-order fit: (results in overall) optimization of

effort
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 Conclusions: “Rediscovering Strategy”
or Retreating from Strategy?

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 Strategy Depends on Context

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 Complexity Requires Strategy

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 Important: The Project Life-Cycle
(simplified version)

Concept

(Re)Evaluation Design You are here

(@ strategy).

Implementation

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 Implementation:
The Art and Science of Meeting Objectives

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 So how do we actually implement a strategy?

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 Strategy requires a global / top-down view

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 Recall: Three broad domains of action

9-Feb-2017 Overview of Strategy via Porter / B. Pope

 Sometimes Adjusting
to External Conditions is Required

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 Sometimes internal / organizational
change is required

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 Change Management:
The Art of Implementing Org. Changes

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 Implementation (usually) requires teamwork

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 Implementation:
The Case for Diversity in Teamwork
• We don’t necessarily need “well-rounded individuals.”

• But we almost always need “well-rounded teams”

(esp. for complex projects / activities)

• Why? To leverage diverse knowledge, skills, and

experiences (for a robust “brain trust”).
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 The End

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 References
Hidden Figures (film), 2016. http://www.foxmovies.com/movies/hidden-figures

Johnson. “The New Frontier & The Great Society: Domestic Programs of Kennedy & Johnson.”
http://slideplayer.com/slide/9007856/ (downloaded 6-Feb-2017)

Luttwack, Edward (2011). The Grand Strategy of the Byzantine Empire. Belknap Press.

Porter, Michael. “What is Strategy?” Harvard Business Review. Nov-Dec 1996.

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 Appendix: Porter’s Five Forces

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