LEADING STRATEGY

There are four strategic approaches to strategy. They are low-cost leadership, differentiation, customer relationship as strategy, and network effect strategy. The low-cost leadership is successful in having the same product as rivals but delivering the product at lower prices enabling them to still assure an adequate level of profitability. Differentiation is the process by which an organization allocates people and resources to organizational tasks and establishes the task and authority relationships that allow the organization to achieve its goals. Differentiation strategy involves competing by offering goods or services that customers/clients distinguish uniqueness in ways that are important to them. The risk could possibly involve the underlying market shifting. In a clear-cut organization, differentiation is low because the division of labor is low. According to Jones (2013), typically, one person or a few people perform all organizational tasks, there are few problems with coordinating who does what, or whom, and when. With growth, however, comes complexity. In a complex organization, both the division of labor and differentiation are high. Green (2000) tells us popular understandings of development emphasize individual achievement in a context of social differentiation, in what amounts to recognition of the importance of an individual agency in bring about social transformation. In order to be successful at making customer relationship strategy work the following should be considered: simplifying customer’s lives or work, personal contact, ongoing benefits, customized solutions personalized service and continuous learning. The Beach-Head strategy is when the supporters have identified a clear, defined customer profile or segment that will most likely be the first to purchase the new product or service. The beach-head strategy is to place emphasis on focus in order for the organization and its resources to accelerate market, client & Revenue acquisition progress. There needs to be clear measurable goals and timeframes for the beach head. Process innovation is the process of bringing an invention/original to the market that will turn the strengths of the opposers into weaknesses. Buying your way in is sometimes the quickest and surest way of entering a new market or expanding substantially in an existing one is to by your way in by means of a strategic acquisition, merger, or joint venture partnership (HBE, 2005, p.57). In order for a strategy to be competitive it must be centered on some source of comparative improvement to be successful. A Manufacturer has to have a product marketing strategy to get consumers to purchase its products. Most product marketing strategies begin with an idea or concept, then move into various stages of development that can include market testing, setting pricing, training a sales force and executing promotion. The product marketing strategy encompasses every department in a corporation from engineering and design to distribution and sales (Suttle, 2014, p.1). The Ten Commandments listed in the Strategies for the Business Live Cycle are listed as follows:
1. Enhance the firm’s competitive position for the long-term
2. Be prompt to adopt
3. Invest in creating a sustainable competitive advantage
4. Avoid strategies that will succeed only in the most optimistic circumstances
5. Don’t underestimate rivals’ reactions and /or commitments
6. Attack rivals competitive weaknesses is better than attacking their strengths
7. Be judicious in cutting prices
8. When differentiating, create meaningful gaps in quality or service or performance features
9. Avoid compromises between lower cost and differentiation and broad and narrow markets
10.Aggressive moves toward rivals often result in retaliation.
Oftentimes there is too much focus on the program budget such as utilizing the program at a lower cost and what programs should be funded. More focus should be placed the conditions required for success or on the principles that depict how the program or practice will accomplish its desired results. When organizations begin to frame their conversations about talent programs and practices in terms of necessary and sufficient success conditions, they uncover ways to be far more logical, productive, and systematic than when the conversations are primarily about techniques (Boudreau & Ramstad, 2007, p. 144). The necessary and sufficient conditions applied to talent acquisition depicts the staffing process as a series of stages through which talent flows and that ultimately define the conditions that must be met and each stage eliminates an additional subset of the original group (Boudreau & Ramstad, 2007, p. 145). These stages are: Building and planning, recruiting, screening, selecting, offer and closing, and final on-boarding.
Effectiveness in policies and practices are derived from how HR organizations spend their time, reports its results and guide framework for its strategies, contributions and plans. The policies and practices are organized around programs and practices (Boudreau & Ramstad, 2007, p.141). The programs and practices are put into place to help maintain the most effective impact on the purpose of the organization. Effective programs and practices are needed to preserve our employees or attain their knowledge before they retire.
Efficiency is a crucial factor as to the measure of success of an organization. Efficiency is often considered the predominant decision framework for talent and organization investment decisions.
Necessary conditions for organization development is insight which is to know what is needed to develop, motivation which is to be willing to invest the time and energy required to be developed, new knowledge which is to know how to acquire the new capabilities required, real-world practice which is to receive and use opportunities to try their new skills at work, and accountability which is to internalize their new capabilities to improve performance and results.
Focusing on optimization, not just maximization can adhere to a mature decision framework that will illustrate that more is not always better. The key to success is often in combining practices so that the total return is maximized, rather than pushing only one program to its fullest capacity (Boudreau & Ramstad, 2007, p. 151).
The difference between a low-cost strategy and a differentiation strategy according to Jones (2013) is Low cost strategy characteristics would be simple structure, centralized decision making, low differentiation, low integration and mechanistic structure.
The characteristics for the differentiation strategy consists of a complex structure, decentralized decision making, high differentiation, high integration and organic structure.

References
Green, M. (2000). Participatory Development and the Appropriation of Agency in Southern Tanzania. Critique Of Anthropology, 20(1), 67.
Jones, G. (2013). Organizational theory, design, and change (7th edition). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: PEARSON, 1-26.
Jones, G. (2013). Organizational theory, design, and change (7th edition). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: PEARSON, 92-119.
Harvard Business Essentials. (2005). Strategic Moves
Suttle, R. (2014). Hearst newspapers, LLC. Houston, TX
Boudreau, J. W. & Ramstad, P. M. (2007). The essential evolution. Beyond HR. Harvard Business School Publishing Corp.