Taking on a large corporation in an industry can seem like an insurmountable task for a small business. The fact is that many small companies cannot compete because they cannot lower prices enough to beat the large competitor. While some of these companies cannot compete with corporations, there are plenty that are able to take […]
Porters Five Forces – content, application, and critique
The model of the Five Competitive Forces was developed by Michael E. Porter in his book „Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance“ in 1980. Since than it has become an important tool for analyzing an organizations industry structure in strategic processes. The Porters Five Forces model is actually one of the best-known tools for […]
Beyond Porter – A Critique of the Critique of Porter
The writings of the American management-guru and Harvard-Professor Michael E-Porter are considered to be among the most influential of their subject – and among the most critiqued ones.
The Strategy IS the Brand. Or: How Can You Create Your Very Own Monopoly?
About 95% of what executives in competing companies do is pretty much the same all around. This is good management. If you are CEOing a wireless communication services provider, you strive to have an advanced technological infrastructure with a promising future, cool end-user phones, other devices and accessories, a great service system, attractive added-value services, […]
In Tough Times, ‘Hyper-Creatives’ Provide Creative Advantage
Every change in the marketplace, every upheaval in the economy, every shift in technology, and every change in consumer attitudes and outlook creates opportunities for successful new products. Since these changes are amplified during tough times, new product opportunities are actually more numerous during economic turbulence. The companies that develop and deploy new products during […]
Porters Diamond – Determining Factors of National Advantage
Increasingly, corporate strategies have to be seen in a global context. Even if an organization does not plan to import or to export directly, management has to look at an international business environment, in which actions of competitors, buyers, sellers, new entrants of providers of substitutes may influence the domestic market. The Porters Diamond model […]
Adaptability – The New Competitive Advantage
Adaptability: The New Competitive Advantage is an article from Harvard Business review about four organizational capabilities to attain adaptive advantage. The need for these new capabilities comes from the high level of uncertainty that poses a tremendous challenge for strategy making these days.
New Bases of Competitive Advantage
New Bases of Competitive Advantage: The Adaptive Imperative is an article from the Boston Consulting Group about the changing nature of competitive advantage. It points out that the traditional bases of competition need to be supplemented by six new bases of advantage. One of them is adaptive advantage.
Every blue ocean will eventually turn red; Create an unfair advantage instead
By Dr. Dan Herman Once your Blue Ocean Strategy works, sooner or later someone will copy or even improve your already successful model, and your ocean will become red again. The critical question is: what can be done which is immune from imitations? Apparently the principle is simple. Introducing the Unfair Advantage.
Test Yourself: Are You An MBA Clone?
By Dr. Dan Herman Standardization in MBA programs results in a similarity in the professional approach and managerial thinking of their graduates. Thus, many executives today turn into “MBA clones.” In our hyper-competitive markets, MBA clones pose an imminent and tangible threat to the competitiveness of the companies they work for. What about you? Do […]