What Is Strategy?
by Michael E.Porter
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Improvements can be copied
Strategy can´t be copied
Operational effectiveness means creating,producing, selling, and delivering a product or service better
Japan
Practices are emulated
Strategic positioning attempts to achieve sustainable competitive advantage by preserving what is distinctive about a company. It means performing different activities from rivals, or performing similar activities in different ways.
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Strategy is the creation of a unique and valuable position, involving a different set of activities.
Fit = interaction + reinforcement
Clearly, strategy and leadership are inextricably linked.
rivals can quickly copy any market position
management tools have taken the place of strategy.
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Operational effectiveness and strategy are both essential to superior performance
Strategic positions emerge from three distinct sources
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After a decade of impressive gains in operational effectiveness, many companies are facing diminishing returns.
Choosing a unique position, however, is not
enough to guarantee a sustainable advantage.
The more benchmarking companies do, the more they look alike.
positioning can be based on producing a subset of an industry’s products or services
It is intuitive for most managers to conceive of their business in terms of the customers’ needs they are meeting
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Differences in operational effectiveness among
companies are pervasive
The productivity frontier is constantly shifting
outward
Operational effectiveness (OE) means performing
similar activities better than rivals perform them
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Consistency ensures that the competitive advantages of activities cumulate and do not erode or cancel themselves out.
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The importance of fit among functional policies is one of the oldest ideas in strategy
Strategic fit among many activities is fundamental
not only to competitive advantage but also to the sustainability of that advantage