1341 Posts Found

Most of the strategy concepts in use today are static. They explain the stability and sustainability of competitive advantages. Strategy concepts like core competencies, experience curves, market share, entry barriers, scale, corporate culture, and even the idea of “superior resources” are essentially static, telling us why a particular position is defensible-why it holds the high ground.

If the terrain never changed, that would be the end … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Strategy

Financial theory would say that companies diversify to reduce risk, but in the business world diversification is done not to hedge risk but to sustain top-line growth. The riskiest companies-the start-ups and early-stage companies-are intensely focused. Companies begin thinking about diversification only when their growth has plateaued and opportunities for expansion in the original business have been depleted.

Content: Quotation | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Risk Management, Strategy

There are only two ways to get [substantially higher performance]. One, you can invent your way to success. Unfortunately, you can’t count on that. The second path is to exploit some change in your environment-in technology, consumer tastes, laws, resource prices, or competitive behavior-and ride that change with quickness and skill. This second path is how most successful companies make it. Changes, however, don’t come … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Planning, Strategy

Strategic thinking is essentially a substitute for having clear connections between the positions we take and their economic outcomes.

Strategic thinking helps us take positions in a world that is confusing and uncertain. You can’t get rid of ambiguity and uncertainty-they are the flip side of opportunity. If you want certainty and clarity, wait for others to take a position and see how they do. Then … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Opportunity, Strategy

You’re insured and hedged against many risks-but not the greatest ones, the strategic risks that can disrupt or even destroy your business. Learn to anticipate and manage these threats systematically and, in the process, turn some of them into growth opportunities.

Content: Article | Authors: Adrian J. Slywotzky, John Drzik | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subjects: Risk Management, Strategy

Although canceling a project or exiting a business may often be regarded as a sign of failure, such moves are really a perfectly normal part of the creative-destruction process. Companies need to realize that in this way they can free up their resources and improve their ability to embrace new market opportunities.

By neutralizing the psychological biases that make it harder for executives to evaluate struggling … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Dan P. Lovallo, John T. Horn, S. Patrick Viguerie | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Management, Strategy

If you gave away every idea you ever had, people would still step up to ask you to help them, or do it for them. The same can’t be said if you don’t share with them at all. …As our friend Sean D’Souza likes to say, “Give the ideas. Sell the system.”

Content: Quotation | Source: GrokDotCom | Subjects: Competition, Information

In most firms strategy tends to be intuitive and based upon traditional patterns of behavior which have been successful in the past. In growth industries or in a changing environment, this kind of strategy is rarely adequate.

Editor’s Note: written in 1968…

Content: Article | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subject: Strategy

Managers use the word “strategy” loosely and often erroneously. Understanding what a strategy is is a first step to developing a successful one.

Content: Article | Author: VN Bhattacharya | Source: European Business Forum (EBF) | Subject: Strategy

True, strategic change is something that’s played out over a longer time period.

This means that folks who are responsible for shorter time periods actually don’t need to worry much about “strategic uncertainty” and in fact should not worry much about strategic uncertainty. Why? Because somebody needs to actually deliver on the strategy that’s in place.

The problem I think in a lot of organizations is … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Ivey Business Journal | Subjects: Risk Management, Strategy

The big issue is the collision between uncertainty and commitment. The [strategy] paradox is a function of that underlying tension. So the strategies that succeed biggest are the strategies that are based on the boldest and the most difficult to imitate, and hence hard-to-reverse commitments. The problem is…it takes time for these things to unfold; and so as a consequence you are necessarily required to … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Ivey Business Journal | Subject: Strategy

This content is restricted to site members. Please log in or register

What do most companies do when their formula for success has stalled? Many leap into new markets or consider risky mergers. But rarely do such moves pay off. Instead, we find that companies choosing instead to mine their hidden assets – assets they already possess but have failed to tap for maximum growth potential – can go from unsustainable to unstoppable growth.

Content: Article | Author: Chris Zook | Source: Bain & Company | Subjects: Management, Strategy

It’s every executive’s worst nightmare: You wake up one day to find that a competitor is selling a product much like yours at a much lower price. Matching the lower price would devastate your profit margins, but ignoring the low-price gambit may prompt your customers to flee. Don’t panic. Taking on a low-price competitor requires a careful rethinking of how your company does business. To … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Geoffrey James | Source: BNET | Subjects: Pricing, Strategy

Companies have everything to gain from forging a strong link between regulation and strategy. By shifting their approach to regulation from confrontation or passive compliance to a proactive and informed dialogue with external stakeholders, they can help construct more balanced regulatory frameworks and ensure a better outcome for the organization.

Content: Article | Authors: Denis Bugrov, Luis Enriquez, Scott C. Beardsley | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Legal, Strategy

Segmentation is a critical aspect of corporate strategy. It is essential in visualizing the competitive arena and analyzing the preferred strategic emphasis. The goal is to find a way to convert differences from competitors into a cost differential that can be maintained.

Editor’s Note: written in 1974…

Content: Article | Author: Seymour Tilles | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subjects: Marketing / Sales, Strategy

When two companies band together to form an alliance, and sit down to negotiate the contract, what exactly determines the contract’s content? And why are some contracts so much more complex than others? The paper “Strategic Alliance Contracts: Dimensions and Determinants of Contractual Complexity” examines the complexity of contractual provisions. It determines the importance of several factors that influence the design of collaborative agreements: the … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: África Ariño, Jeffrey J. Reuer | Source: IESE Insight | Subjects: Management, Strategy

Articulating a good strategy is only the beginning. It’s the strategy’s execution that determines whether an organization can turn good intentions into profits.

Content: Article | Author: Scott Glatstein | Source: CEO Refresher | Subject: Strategy

There are three fundamental dimensions to differentiation: product or technology differentiation, customer proximity and operational efficiency. If you feel that you’re in this commoditization-is-upon-you timeframe, now is the time to decide which is your main differentiator and which is your secondary. Because once you decide that, you can deal with this other question of how to incent the sales force. If the sales force is … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Chief Executive | Subjects: Marketing / Sales, Strategy

Globalization is an issue that has captured the popular imagination, both positively and negatively. It has also been the focus for much academic research. The goal of this article is to anchor contemporary analysis of global strategy firmly in the classical mode of thought. The author supports that argument with two main lines of reasoning. The first identifies globalization as a further stage in the … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Gavin C Reid | Source: University of St Andrews | Subjects: International, Strategy