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Chapter Roadmap
Matching Strategy to
a Company’s Situation
Proprietary technology
Buyers are first-time users and marketing involves inducing initial purchase and overcoming
customer concerns
First-generation products are expected to be rapidly improved so buyers delay purchase until
technology matures
Firms struggle to fund R&D, operations and build resource capabilities for rapid growth
Win early race for industry leadership by employing a bold, creative strategy
Push hard to perfect technology, improve product quality, and develop attractive performance
features
When technological uncertainty clears and a dominant technology emerges, try to capture any
first-mover advantages by moving quickly
Key suppliers
Profits appear
Managing the rapid expansion of facilities and sales to position a company to contend for
industry leadership
A company needs a strategy predicated on growing faster than the market average so it
Drive down costs per unit to enable price reductions that attract droves of new customers
A. Driving down costs per unit so as to enable price reductions that attract droves of new customers
B. Pursuing rapid product innovation, both to set a company’s product ofering apart from rivals and to
incorporate attributes that appeal to growing numbers of customers
D. Expanding the product line to add models/styles that appeal to a wider range of buyers
E. Putting top priority on heavy advertising and other marketing-related actions calculated to strongly
diferentiate its product ofering from rivals
Expand internationally
Build new, more flexible competitive capabilities
Employing a ho-hum strategy with no distinctive features thus leaving firm “stuck in the middle”
Overspending on marketing
Demand grows more slowly than economy as whole (or even declines)
Competitive battle ensues among industry members for the available business
Use outsourcing
End-Game Strategies
for Declining Industries
Frequent launches of
new competitive moves
Rapidly evolving
customer expectations
Adapt competencies
Cutting-edge expertise
Agility
Innovativeness
Opportunism
Resource flexibility
First-to-market capabilities
Competitive Features
of a Fragmented Industry
Absence of market leaders with large market shares or widespread buyer recognition
Market for industry’s product/service may be globalizing, thus putting many companies across
the world in same market arena
Exploding technologies force firms to specialize just to keep up in their area of expertise
Industry is young and crowded with aspiring contenders, with no firm having yet developed
recognition to command a large market share
Book publishing
Auto repair
Restaurant industry
Public accounting
Women’s dresses
Meat packing
Paperboard boxes
Furniture
Which of the following is unlikely to be a promising option for competing in a fragmented industry?
A. Employing deep price discounting, extensive advertising, and other muscle-flexing maneuvers to gain
market dominance in a select few country markets
What classification would you assign to each of the following industries—emerging, rapid-growth,
mature/slow-growth, stagnant/declining, high-velocity/turbulent, or fragmented?
B. Cigarette industry
Assume you are charged with crafting a strategy for XM Satellite Radio. What strategy alternatives
would you be inclined to give strong consideration? What strategy alternatives would you be inclined to
reject as unsuitable? Justify your answer.
Risks of Pursuing
Multiple Strategy Horizons
Competitive advantage may be difficult to achieve in medium- and long-jump businesses that do
not mesh well with firm’s present resource strengths
Strategies Based on a
Company’s Market Position
Industry leaders
Runner-up firms
Well-known reputation
Proven strategy
Stay-on-the-Ofensive Strategies
Technological improvements
Make it easier for potential customers to switch their purchases from other firms to the
leader’s own products
Fortify-and-Defend Strategy
Make it harder for new firms to enter and for challengers to gain ground
Fortify-and-Defend Strategy:
Strategic Options
Muscle-Flexing Strategy
Muscle-Flexing Strategy:
Strategic Options
Use arm-twisting tactics to pressure present customers not to use rivals’ products
Muscle-Flexing Strategy
Market challengers
Focusers
Concentrate on serving a
limited portion of market
Perennial runners-up
Strategic Options
for Runner-Up Firms
When big size provides larger rivals with a cost advantage, runner-up firms have two options
Be first-to-market with new or better products and build reputation for product leadership
Forge strategic alliances with key distributors, dealers, or marketers of complementary products
2. Specialist strategy
Growth potential
Strategy concentrated on
being a leader based on
Specific technology
Product uniqueness
Expertise in
Special-purpose products
Specialized know-how
Fine craftsmanship
Prestige quality
Approaches
Approaches
Achieving a Turnaround:
The Strategic Options
Cut costs
Combination of eforts
Objectives
Reduced levels of competitive efort will not trigger immediate fall-of in sales
Liquidation Strategy
Lack of resources
1. Always put top priority on crafting and executing strategic moves that enhance a firm’s competitive
position for the long-term and that serve to establish it as an industry leader.
2. Be prompt in adapting and responding to changing market conditions, unmet customer needs and
buyer wishes for something better, emerging technological alternatives, and new initiatives of rivals.
Responding late or with too little often puts a firm in the precarious position of playing catch-up.
6. Consider that attacking competitive weakness is usually more profitable than attacking competitive
strength.
8. Employ bold strategic moves in pursuing diferentiation strategies so as to open up very meaningful
gaps in quality or service or advertising or other product attributes.
9. Endeavor not to get “stuck back in the pack” with no coherent long-term strategy or distinctive
competitive position, and little prospect of climbing into the ranks of the industry leaders.
10. Be aware that aggressive strategic moves to wrest crucial market share away from rivals often
provoke aggressive retaliation in the form of a marketing “arms race” and/or price wars.
Which of the following does not qualify as a "commandment" for crafting successful business strategies?
A. Place top priority on crafting and executing strategic moves that will enhance a company's
competitive position for the long-term.
B. Avoid stuck-in-the-middle strategies that represent compromises between lower costs and
greater diferentiation and between broad and narrow market appeal.
C. Strive to open up very meaningful gaps in quality or service or performance features when
pursuing a diferentiation strategy.