chapter 4: business-level strategy
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IRELAND | HOSKISSON | HITT THE MANAGEMENT OF STRATEGY CONCEPTS AND CASES 10E. CHAPTER 4: BUSINESS-LEVEL STRATEGY. THE STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT PROCESS. KNOWLEDGE OBJECTIVES. BUSINESS–LEVEL STRATEGY: HOW TO COMPETE IN A SPECIFIC INDUSTRY. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
CHAPTER 4:BUSINESS-LEVEL STRATEGY
IRELAND | HOSKISSON | HITT
THE MANAGEMENT OF STRATEGYCONCEPTS AND CASES 10E
THE STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT PROCESS
KNOWLEDGE
OBJECTIVES● Define business-level strategy.
● Discuss the relationship between customers and business-level strategies in terms of who, what, and how.
● Explain the differences among business-level strategies.
● Use the five forces of competition model to explain how above-average returns can be earned through each business-level strategy.
● Describe the risks of using each of the business-level strategies.
BUSINESS–LEVEL STRATEGY: HOW
TO COMPETE IN A SPECIFIC INDUSTRY■ An integrated and coordinated set of
commitments and actions the firm uses to gain a competitive advantage by exploiting core competencies in specific product markets
■ It is the core strategy
■ Every firm must form and use a business-level strategy for each one of its businesses
■ Business-level strategy choices matter because long-term performance is linked to a firm’s strategies
IMPORTANT DEFINITION
BUSINESS-LEVEL STRATEGY
• A single-product market/single geographic location firm employs one business-level strategy and one corporate-level strategy identifying what or which industry the firm will compete in
ONE BUSINESS-
LEVEL STRATEGY
• A diversified firm employs a separate business-level strategy for each product market area in which it competes and one or more corporate-level strategies dealing with product and/or geographic diversity
SEVERAL BUSINESS-
LEVEL STRATEGIES
CORE COMPETENCIES AND STRATEGY
Providing value to customers and gaining competitive advantage by exploiting core competencies in individual product markets
Strategy
Business-level
Strategy
An integrated and coordinated set of actions taken to exploit core competencies and gain competitive advantage
Core Competencie
s
Resources and superior capabilities that are sources of competitive advantage over a firm’s rivals
CUSTOMERS: THEIR RELATIONSHIP TO BUSINESS-LEVEL
STRATEGIES
KEY ISSUESin
BUSINESS-LEVEL
STRATEGY
Who will be served?
What needs will be satisfied?
How will those needs be satisfied?
CUSTOMERS: THEIR RELATIONSHIP TO BUSINESS-LEVEL
STRATEGIES
EFFECTIVE GLOBAL
COMPETITORS
Adept at identifying customer needs across cultures and geography
Quickly and successfully adapt products/services
to meet those needs
BUSINESS-LEVEL STRATEGIES
GENERIC:Applicable
to any organization in
any industry
FIVE COMPETITIVE FORCES
VALUE CHAIN ACTIVITIES
RISKS for each Strategy
Effective STRUCTURE for each Strategy
CUSTOMERS: THEIR RELATIONSHIP TO BUSINESS-LEVEL
STRATEGIESSATISFYING CUSTOMERS IS THE FOUNDATION OF SUCCESSFUL
BUSINESS STRATEGIES
• Managing relationships with customers
• Reach, richness, affiliation• Who will be served• What needs will be satisfied• How those needs will be satisfied
CUSTOMERS: THEIR RELATIONSHIP TO BUSINESS-LEVEL
STRATEGIES
EFFECTIVELY MANAGING
RELATIONSHIPS WITH
CUSTOMERS
REACH Access and Connection
to Customers
RICHNESSDepth and Detail of Two-Way Flow
of Information Between the Firm and Customer
AFFILIATIONFacilitating Useful Interactions
With Customers
MARKET SEGMENTATIONA PROCESS USED TO CLUSTER PEOPLE WITH SIMILAR NEEDS INTO INDIVIDUAL
AND IDENTIFIABLE GROUPS
WHO: DETERMINING THE CUSTOMERS TO SERVE
ConsumerMarkets
IndustrialMarkets
MARKET SEGMENTATION:CONSUMER MARKETS
1.DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS (age, income, sex, etc.)2. SOCIOECONOMIC FACTORS (social class, stage in the family life cycle)3. GEOGRAPHIC FACTORS (cultural, regional, and national differences)4. PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS (lifestyle, personality traits)5. CONSUMPTION PATTERNS (heavy, moderate, and light users)6. PERCEPTUAL FACTORS (benefit segmentation, perceptual mapping)
WHAT: DETERMINING WHICH CUSTOMER NEEDS
TO SATISFY ■ Customer needs are related to a product’s benefits and features■ Customer needs are neither right nor wrong, good nor bad■ Customer needs represent desires in terms of features and performance capabilities ■ Successful firms learn how to deliver to customers what they want, when they want it Customers are the lifeblood of a firm
CUSTOMERS:HOW ● WHAT ● WHO
WHAT:Satisfy
CustomerNeeds
WHO:Target Group
of Customers
BUSINESS-LEVEL STRATEGY PURPOSEBUSINESS-LEVEL
STRATEGIESare intended to create
differences between the firm’s position relative to
those of its rivals
To position itself, the firm must decide whether it intends to:
● Perform activities differently, or● Perform different activities as compared to its rivals
BUSINESS-LEVEL STRATEGY PURPOSE
BUSINESS-LEVEL STRATEGYis a deliberate choice about how the firm will perform the value
chain activities to create unique value
Southwest’s Competitive Advantages (rivals unable to imitate):
● Tight integration among activities ● Cost leadership strategy ● Unique culture and customer service
BUSINESS-LEVEL STRATEGY PURPOSE
Southwest Airlines Activity System
SOURCES OF COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
■ Achieving LOWER OVERALL COSTS than rivals
■ Performing activities differently (reducing process costs)
■ Providing a low cost product that customers deem as ACCEPTABLE
■ Possessing the capability TO DIFFERENTIATE the firm’s product or service and command a premium price
■ Performing MORE HIGHLY VALUED activities
FIVE GENERIC BUSINESS-LEVEL STRATEGIES
Five Business
Level Strategies
TARGET MARKETS
• Firms serving a broad market seek to use their capabilities to create value for customers on an industry-wide basis; competing in many customer segments
BROAD
• A narrow market segment means that the firm intends to serve the needs of a narrow customer group; tailoring its strategy to serving them at the exclusion of othersNARROW
BUSINESS-LEVEL STRATEGY EFFECTIVENESS
■ None of the five business-level strategies is inherently or universally superior to the others
■ The effectiveness of each strategy is contingent upon: ● External opportunities/threats ● Internal strengths/weaknesses
■ KEY: A successful business-level strategy must match external opportunities/threats with internal strengths, i.e., its core competencies
COST LEADERSHIP STRATEGY An integrated set of actions taken to
produce goods or services with features that are acceptable to customers at the lowest cost,
relative to that of competitors with features that are acceptable to
customers
■ Relatively standardized products
■ Features acceptable to many customers
■ Lowest competitive price
COST LEADERSHIP STRATEGY:
VALUE CHAIN ACTIVITIES ■ Value chain analysis identifies the parts of a firm’s operations that create value and those that do not
■ A competitive advantage in logistics creates more value for a cost leadership strategy than for a differentiation strategy
Inbound logistics [materials handling, warehousing, and inventory control]
Outbound logistics [collecting, storing, and distribution]
COST LEADERSHIP STRATEGY:
VALUE CHAIN ACTIVITIES Examples of Value-
Creating Activities
Associated with the
Cost-Leadership Strategy
• Cost-effective MIS
• Few management layers
• Simplified planning
• Consistent policies
• Effecting training
• Easy-to-use manufacturing technologies
• Investments in technologies
• Finding low cost raw materials
VALUE-CREATING ACTIVITIES FOR COST
LEADERSHIP
• Monitor suppliers’ performances
• Link suppliers’ products to production processes
• Economies of scale
• Efficient-scale facilities
• Effective delivery schedules
• Low-cost transportation
• Highly trained sales force
• Proper pricing
RECONFIGURE THE VALUE CHAIN FOR COST ADVANTAGE
VALUE-CREATING ACTIVITIES FOR COST
LEADERSHIP RECONFIGURE THE VALUE CHAIN FOR A
COST ADVANTAGE
Alter production process Change in automation New distribution channel New advertising media Direct sales in place of indirect sales
New raw material Forward integration Backward integration Change location relative to suppliers or buyers
COST LEADERSHIP STRATEGY:
RISKS• COMPETITIVE RISKS
– OBSOLESCENCE: processes used to produce and distribute goods/services may become obsolete due to competitors’ innovations
– COST REDUCTIONS: too much focus on cost reductions may occur at expense of customers’ perceptions of differentiation
– IMITATION: competitors, using their own core competencies, may successfully imitate the cost leader’s strategy
DIFFERENTIATION STRATEGY
An integrated set of actions taken to produce goods or services (at an
acceptable cost) that customers perceive as being different in ways that are
important to them
■ Focus is on non-standardized products
■ Appropriate when customers value differentiated features more than they value low cost
■ Firms must still be able to produce differentiated products at competitive costs to reduce upward pressure on the price that customers pay
DIFFERENTIATION STRATEGY:
DISTINCTIVE ACTIONS Firms seek to be different from
competitors on as many dimensions as possible
Differentiation approaches■ Unusual features■ Responsive customer service
■ Rapid product innovations ■ Technological leadership■ Perceived prestige and status■ Different tastes■ Engineering design and
performance
DIFFERENTIATION STRATEGY:
VALUE CHAIN ACTIVITIES Examples of Value-
Creating Activities
Associated with the
Differentiation Strategy
• Highly developed MIS
• Emphasis on quality
• Worker compensation for creativity/productivity
• Use of subjective performance measures
• Basic research capability
• Technology
• High quality raw materials
• Delivery of products
VALUE-CREATING ACTIVITIES FOR
DIFFERENTIATION
• High quality replacement parts
• Superior handling of incoming raw materials
• Attractive products
• Rapid response to customer specifications
• Order-processing procedures
• Customer credit
• Personal relationships
RECONFIGURE THE VALUE CHAIN FOR DISTINCTIVENESS
VALUE-CREATING ACTIVITIES FOR
DIFFERENTIATION RECONFIGURE THE VALUE CHAIN FOR
DISTINCTIVENESS
Whereas cost leadership targets a specific industry, differentiation creates value by distinguishing products/services
A firm must consistently upgrade differentiated features that customers value and/or create new valuable features (innovate) without significant cost increases
Create sustainability through: Customer perceptions of distinctiveness Customer reluctance to switch to non-
distinctive products
DIFFERENTIATION STRATEGY:
RISKS• COMPETITIVE RISKS– PRICE DIFFERENTIAL: between the
differentiator’s and the cost leader’s products becomes too large
– VALUE DIMINISHED: Differentiation ceases to provide value for which customers are willing to pay
– EXPERIENCE: narrows customers’ perceptions of the value of differentiated features
– COUNTERFEIT: goods replicate differentiated features of the firm’s products
FOCUSED STRATEGIES
An integrated set of actions taken to produce goods or services that serve the needs of a particular competitive
segment
Target markets include:
■ a Particular buyer group (e.g., youths or senior citizens)
■ Different segment of a product line (e.g., products for professional painters or the do-it-yourself group)
■ Different geographic market (e.g., northern or southern Italy by using a foreign subsidiary)
FOCUSED STRATEGIES
Types of focused strategies: ■ Focused cost leadership strategy ■ Focused differentiation strategy
To implement a focus strategy, firms must be able to:Complete various value chain activities in a competitively superior manner in order to develop and sustain a competitive advantage and earn above-average returns
FACTORS THAT DRIVE FOCUSED STRATEGIES
■ Large firms may overlook small niches■ A firm may lack the resources
needed to compete in the broader market
■ A firm is able to serve a narrow market segment more effectively than its larger industry-wide competitors can
■ Focusing allows the firm to direct its resources to certain value chain activities to build competitive advantage
FOCUSED COST LEADERSHIP STRATEGY
A firm focuses on a niche market, adding value by
leveraging value chain activities that allow value-creation
through the cost leadership strategy
■ Competitive advantage: low-cost
■ Competitive scope: narrow industry segment
FOCUSED DIFFERENTIATION
STRATEGY The value chain may be
analyzed to determine if a firm is able to link the activities required to create value by
using the focused differentiation strategy
■ Competitive advantage: differentiation
■ Competitive scope: narrow industry segment
FOCUS STRATEGIES: RISKS
• COMPETITIVE RISKS– OUTFOCUSED: a focusing firm may
be “outfocused” by its competitors
– COMPETITION: a large competitor may decide that the market segment served by the focus strategy firm is attractive and worthy of competitive pursuit
– CHANGING PREFERENCES: customer preferences in the niche market may change to more closely resemble those of the broader market
INTEGRATED COST LEADERSHIP/
DIFFERENTIATION STRATEGY
Efficiently produce products with differentiated attributes:
• EFFICIENCY: SOURCES OF LOW COST• DIFFERENTIATION: SOURCE OF UNIQUE
VALUE
■ Readily adapts to external environmental changes
■ Concentrates simultaneously on TWO sources of competitive advantage: cost and differentiation
■ Competence and flexibility required in several value chain activities
INTEGRATED COST LEADERSHIP/
DIFFERENTIATION STRATEGY
Three sources of flexibility useful for this strategy:
■ Flexible manufacturing systems (FMS)
■ Information networks
■ Total quality management (TQM) systems
INFORMATION NETWORKS
Links companies electronically with their suppliers, distributors, and
customers■ Facilitates efforts to satisfy customer expectations in terms of product quality and delivery speed
■ Improves flow of work among employees in the firm and their counterpart suppliers and distributors
■ Requires customer relationship management (CRM)