Mastering Business Essentials: Strategy

Overview

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Strategy is about sustainable competitive advantage. Create massive value for customers and protect your profits. Strategy is about winning. Play your own game and use your unfair advantage.

Syllabus

Strategy creates a "sustainable competitive advantage"

Strategy is about sustainable competitive advantage; it's about winning. It's about playing the long-game, knowing what you do well, creating massive value for customers, and finding your unfair advantage. It applies to everyone.

Porter's 5 Forces and industry analysis

Industries don’t change overnight. They have structural dynamics and players that push/pull for profits. If we were Coca Cola, it's natural to think of rivals (e.g., Pepsi, Dr. Pepper), but also consider other players: a) suppliers (aluminum, glass providers) who want to raise prices; b) distributors (grocery, retail, gas stations) who want discounts; c) new entrants (energy drinks) who want to get into your industry, your business; d) substitutes (water, tea) that offer different kind of value. Business is a wrestling match for profits, so we should always remember who we are wrestling with.

Strategy is Set of Activities

Strategy is how we deal with competition. Customers have high expectations and competition (rivals, suppliers, distributors, new entrants, and substitutes) are always knocking on the door. So our strategy needs to be a "flywheel" that gets stronger over time. . . sustainable, enduring, and hard to copy.

Strategic positioning

Positioning is a marketing concept that also applies to strategy. When your customers think of their top 3 choices, how would they describe you, and how would they describe their other choices. Question: How are Dell and Apple different? Don't they both make electronics? Answer: They use their core competencies - what makes them truly unique to "be the best versions of themselves" and "play their own game."

Strategy is scary and involves risk

Strategy is not a straight line. Your customers have opinions and choices; they don't have to like your products. They don't have to pay for your service. Competitors are always eager to out-best you, work harder, copy your success. Steal your market share. Free markets are great for customers and terrible for lazy companies. Strategy involves trade-offs. You cannot be all things to all people. Strategy involves innovation, risk, and potential failure. As Roger Martin, ex-Dean of Rotman Business School (Toronto) said, "If you're not scared, it probably means your strategy is no good."