Strategy iQ
Which business strategy is right for your business?
Michael Porter has probably made the most influential contribution to business strategy
(Competitive Strategy Free Press 1980). He proposed two basic strategies - cost leadership or
differentiated value. Since then, he has built on and extended that thinking to five competitive
forces. (What is Strategy? Harvard Business Review Nov-Dec 1996)
Michael Treacy (Customer Intimacy and other Value Disciplines Harvard Business Review Jan-Feb
1993) proposed three sources of competitive advantage - product leadership, operational excellence,
and customer intimacy - and maintained that a successful business needed to focus and really excel
in just one of these value discipline.
These are approaches to developing competitive advantage. But the current and future prospects
for the industry in which you operate is also important. There is little value in achieving a great
competitive position in an industry that is inherently unprofitable or dying.
The most appropriate strategy depends on which creates most shareholder value (which depends on
future return on investment and rate of growth).
So the question is whether and how to invest, given expected future profitability and growth,
and also market characteristics such as economies of scale, relative market share, technological
opportunities etc.
The Strategy iQ iPad app been created that enables your management team to assess the drivers of
profit and growth in your business and, based on that understanding, agree which of eight generic
business strategies is appropriate for your business. (A combination of two or more might be
indicated).
The eight generic strategies are:
- Grow Share
- Acquire
- Merge or Joint Venture
- Hold share
- Niche
- Reduce Investment or Milk
- Sell
- Close
The Strategy iQ app helps provide a disciplined process that will assist managers come to a shared
understanding of what needs to be done, and a determination to do it!
It starts with an investigation of the business drivers of the current profitability of the business. This
covers industry characteristics and the competitive position of this business.
Next it helps the team explore the likely future profitability of this business, examining possible
changes in price sensitivity and the balance of power between customers and suppliers.
Finally it explores eight generic strategies: Grow Share, Acquire, Merge or Joint Venture, Hold
share, Niche, Reduce Investment or Milk, Sell, Close.
The relevance of each strategy depends how it contributes to shareholder value (if expected
profitability is greater than cost of capital then a growth strategy is indicated; conversely if future
profitability is likely to be less than the cost of capital, then capital needs to be extracted).
But the relevance also depends on industry characteristics such as economies of scale and also
on the business positioning such as market share, relative perceived value and under-exploited
technological opportunities.
Click here for details of the Strategy iQ iPad app.
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