Chapter 6 Flashcards
Who came up with strategic positioning?
Michael Porter
What does strategic positioning do?
attempts to achieve sustainable competitive advantage by preserving what is distinctive about a company
Corporate-level strategy
focuses on the organization as a whole; executives generally referred to as the “c-suite”
Business-level strategy
focuses on individual business units or product/service lines; managers at this level focus on issues aimed at implementing decisions under consideration from corporate-level
Functional-level strategy
applies to the key functional department or units within the business units
What are the three key principles underlie strategic positioning?
- strategy is the creation of a unique and valuable position
- strategy requires trade-offs in competing
- strategy involves creating a “fit” among activities
What is environmental scanning?
monitoring of an organization’s internal and external environments to detect early signs of opportunities and threats that may influence the firm’s plans
What is the SWOTT analysis?
strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, trends
What is the VRIO analysis?
value, rarity, imitability, organization
What is the question for value?
is the resource or capability valuable?
What is the question for rarity?
is the resource or capability currently controlled by only a few firms or no other firms?
What is the question for imitability?
is the resource or capability costly for other firms to imitate?
What is the question for organization?
is the firm organized to exploit the resource or capability?
What is forecasting?
a vision or projection of the future
What is trend analysis?
hypothetical extension of a past series of events into the future
What is contingency planning?
creation of alternative hypothetical but equally likely future conditions
What is benchmarking?
a process by which a company compares its performance with that of high-performing organizations
What does calculating relative market shares relate to?
benchmarking
What are the three types of corporate strategies?
- growth strategy
- stability
- defensive
What is growth strategy?
involves expansion, as in sales revenues, market share, number of employees, or number of customers
What is stability strategy?
involves little or no significant change
What is defensive strategy?
involves reduction in the organization’s efforts (aka retrenchment)
What are examples of benchmarking?
Apple, IBM, Harvard Med School
What are stars?
high growth, high market share, definite keepers
