How Industries Evolve

Business strategy will not be effective unless it takes into account the current state of an industry as well as how that state is changing. Professor Anita McGahan of the Boston University School of Management argues that industries follow one of four evolutionary trajectories: progressive, creative, intermediating, and radical. If companies are to profit from strategic moves and investments in innovation, they must follow the … [ Read more ]

An Examination of the “Sustainable Competitive Advantage” Concept:

Significant progress has been made over the years with respect to construct definition, operationalization, and measurement of concepts in the marketing strategy field. However, there is still a lack of research that maps how a particular strategy can influence performance by providing firms with a Sustainable Competitive Advantage (SCA). This paper traces the origins of the SCA concept and links it to other concepts in … [ Read more ]

Anatomy of the Cash Cow

The first objective of corporate strategy is protection of the cash generators. In almost every company a few products and market sectors are the principal source of net cash generated.

A Framework for Strategy

What is the secret to creating real competitive advantage? Michael Tanner’s analysis, which reflects the approach of the Chasm Group popularized by Geoffrey Moore, goes beyond Michael Porter’s foundational work. Whereas Porter’s framework brought competitive forces into focus, it assumed relatively fixed industry boundaries. Tanner’s approach has the advantage of enhancing a company’s view across multiple, differing competitive situations while connecting these strategic positioning issues … [ Read more ]

First Mover Advantage

This article considers the sources of first-mover advantage, how often first-movers win, how this advantage relates to other factors such as learning and innovation, and why the first-mover advantage must-if it is to work at all-be only a small part of a more sophisticated strategy.

Fast Second: How Smart Companies Bypass Radical Innovation to Enter and Dominate New Markets

If your organization aspires to create or conquer the new markets of the twenty-first century, Fast Second offers concrete advice on how to go about achieving this. Internationally acclaimed strategy experts Constantinos Markides and Paul Geroski explore:
– How radical innovation creates new-to-the-world markets
– What the structural characteristics of early markets are and the implications for prospective new entrants
– How … [ Read more ]

Why Good Companies Fail

It’s not just weak organisations that spiral into decline and fail. Managerial arrogance and inflexibility can bring even great companies to their knees.

How “Star” Power Impacts the Complex World of Competitive Advantage

When Phil Jackson announced his return to coaching the Los Angeles Lakers in June, the basketball team’s prospects went up considerably. But does his skill as a coach guarantee The Lakers a competitive advantage as the season begins? Such factors as talent and timing, contends Russ Coff, a professor of organization and management at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School, challenge the long held belief that … [ Read more ]

Killer Strategies That Make Shareholders Rich

Here are five ways organizations can radically rethink their strategy.

Editor’s Note: I found the first half of this article of little value, but the five ways to radically rethink their missions in the second half is good stuff.

Coopetition Strategy: A New Kind of Interfirm Dynamics for Value Creation

The purpose of this paper is threefold. First, by proposing a first definition of coopetiton, it aims to move away from the mere recognition of the oversimplified conventional conception to a deeper understanding of the nature of coopetition. By suggesting that coopetition is a matter of “incomplete interest (and goal) congruence” concerning firms’ interdependence, we stress that coopetition does not simply emerge from coupling competition … [ Read more ]

Managing Cultural Differences In Alliances

The five most cited reasons for alliance failure are each the direct consequence of cultural mismatch. This is not to suggest that cultural differences doom a prospective alliance. Strategic alliances, after all, are formed to unite culturally different partners in pursuit of a common objective. Successful alliance leaders manage the relationship in the context of the partner’s cultural differences, finding ways to create value from … [ Read more ]

Sumantra Ghoshal

At what rate should a company grow? I think this is a very important issue for senior management. When you talk about sustainable development, it does not apply only to society and the planet. Issues of sustainable development apply to a company’s growth. I think that many of the management practices that have evolved over the last two-and-a-half decades have had little regard for concepts … [ Read more ]

Nicholas G. Carr

Industries are shaped, Michael Porter argued, by five forces of competition: industry rivals, potential new rivals, substitute products, suppliers, and buyers. The time has come to add a sixth force to the famous strategy-making framework: the public interest.

…As Porter showed, companies compete for profits with their customers and their suppliers, but that doesn’t mean that they view those groups as adversaries. Rather, it means … [ Read more ]

Competitive Strategy Dynamic

This book offers a practical, fact-based approach to explain how enterprises deliver performance over time. Rigorous methods explain how to quantify the growth, decline and interdependence within the organisation’s resources and capabilities as well as the continuous interactions with competitors and other external factors. These methods create clear and practical pictures of the strategic architecture driving earnings and other performance outcomes, not just for commercial … [ Read more ]

Selling to a Cash Poor Firm

“Bertrand Caron sat in his office and contemplated his most recent communications with George Milne and Philip Brown of Vancouver Aluminum Company of Vancouver, Washington, USA. Caron was the marketing director of the Canadian Railway Car Corporation (CRCC) headquartered in Montreal. CRCC was a privately-held firm that manufactured various types of railway cars. However, Caron’s firm was now threatened by increasing competition from U.S. manufacturers … [ Read more ]