...Competitive Advantage Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance Author: Michael E. Porter Michael E. Porter's Competitive Advantage explores the underpinnings of competitive advantage in the individual firm. Porter's groundbreaking concept of the value chain disaggregates a company into "activities," or the discrete functions or processes that represent the elemental building blocks of competitive advantage. Giving readers a comprehensive understanding of business strategy and how to create a sustainable competitive advantage for their organization, Porter explores how a firm can put the generic strategies of cost leadership, differentiation and focus into practice. This essay will explore Competitive Advantage and the underlining theory that to compete in any industry, companies must perform a wide array of discrete activities that are narrower than traditional functions. It will analyze the real core of the book which is to determine whether companies profit from creating value for customers, or whether that value is competed away. INTRODUCTION “Competitive Advantage is at the heart of a firm’s performance in competitive markets. After several decades of vigorous expansion and prosperity, however, many firms lost sight of competitive advantage in their scramble for growth and pursuit of diversification. Today the importance of competitive advantage could hardly be greater. Firms throughout the world face slower growth as well as domestic and...
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...QUESTION: Choose an industry in which you would like to compete. Use the five forces method of analysis to explain why you find that industry attractive. Porter’s Five Forces Method Industry: Car service industry Introduction Michael Porter is a professor at Harvard Business School and is a leading authority on competitive strategy and international competitiveness. Five forces uses concepts developing, Industrial Organization (IO) economics to derive five forces that determine the competitive intensity and therefore attractiveness of a market. Attractiveness in this context refers to the industry profitability. Five Forces Analysis assumes that there are five important forces that determine competitive power in a business situation. These are: 1. Supplier Power: Here you assess how easy it is for suppliers to drive up prices. This is driven by the number of suppliers of each key input, the uniqueness of their product or service, their strength and control over you, the cost of switching from one to another, and so on. The fewer the supplier choices you have, and the more you need suppliers' help, the more powerful your suppliers are. In the car service industry, for company owned players the bargaining power of suppliers is less as it can get constant supply of spare parts including OEM parts (Vehicle manufacturer’s brand) and OES parts (reputed brands of component manufacturer’s either domestic or international, supplying to vehicle manufactures or aftermarket)....
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...Who is Michael porter? Michael porter is the Bishop William Lawrence University Professor, based at Harvard Business School, this is one of the highest professional recognitions that can be awarded to a Harvard faculty member. He is considered the father of the modern strategy field and also as one of most influential thinker on management and competitiveness. He is one of the leading man in competitive strategy, the competitiveness and economic development of nations, states and regions, and the applications of competitive principles to social problems. He has written 18 books and more than 125 articles. He has a BSE, he got high honors in aerospace and mechanical engineering (1969) from Princeton University. Porter has an M.B.A (1971) and a PhD in Business Economics (1973) from Harvard. One of his biggest contributions to business are the five forces, which are: • The threat of the entry of new competitors. • The threat of substitute products or services • The bargaining power of costumers (buyers) • The bargaining power of suppliers • The intensity of competitive rivalry Michael Porter wrote the book Competitive Strategy, which has been translated into seventeen languages. This book changed the way that chief executive officers thought about their companies. He was appointed in 1985 to President Ronald Reagan’s Commission on Industrial Competitiveness, this helped him publish his next big book, The Competitive Advantage of Nations, in 1990. Porter still teaches...
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...effective strategies that result in improved competitive. Technology has now made it so easy for competitors to match one’s product within a short space of time. Changes in customer tastes and preferences require robust systems and strategies to maintain current market share profitably and ensure growth. It is within this spectrum that Michael Porter has become a well-known contributor in the field of strategic management as he shades light on which elements to consider in coming up with a strategy for both domestic and international markets. A good strategy will result in the creation of a unique and valuable position, involving a different set of activities. Strategic position emerges from three distinct sources which are serving few needs of many customers, serving broad needs of few customers and serving broad needs of many customers in a narrow market. After positioning itself, an organisation must ensure that its strategic efforts results in creating “fit” among a company’s activities. Fit has to do with the ways a company’s activities interact and reinforce one another. In his endeavour to build strategic intent within organisations, Michael Porter is well known for the following contributions in the field of corporate strategy: 1. Generic Strategies 2. Value Chain 3. Competitive Advantage 4. Porter’s Diamond 5. Five Forces Model 1. Porter’s Generic Strategies Porter’s generic strategies is a frameworks used to outline the three major strategic options...
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...BIS5101 Strategic IT-Management Prof. Dr. Karl-Heinz Rau WS 2013/14 Term Paper Topic: How Companies Could Achieve Sustainable Competitive Advantage Gahn, Philip MACFA, ID# 309601 gahnphil@hs-pforzheim.de Kominek, Lukas MACFA, ID# 300953 komluk@hs-pforzheim.de Wenz, Eugen MACFA, ID# 300636 weneug@hs-pforzheim.de th Submission date: November 2 2013 2 Table of Contents 1 Purpose and Structure ......................................................................................... 5 2 Definition and Origin of Competitive Advantage .............................................. 6 3 Approaches and Methods to Achieve Competitive Advantages......................... 8 3.1 The Traditional Approach According to Porter ........................................... 8 3.1.1 Cost Leadership ................................................................................. 10 3.1.2 Focusing on Priorities ........................................................................ 10 3.2 Modern Approaches .................................................................................. 10 3.2.1 The Strategy as a Compilation of Simple Rules ................................ 11 3.2.2 The Blue Ocean Strategy ................................................................... 12 4 Ways to achieve Sustainable Competitive Advantage...................................... 13 5 Conclusion ............................................................................
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...Professor Michael E. Porter Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness Harvard Business School Stockholm, Sweden 22 January 2008 This presentation draws on ideas from Professor Porter’s articles and books, in particular, The Competitive Advantage of Nations (The Free Press, 1990), “The Microeconomic Foundations of Economic Development,” (with C Ketels, M Delgado) in The Global Competitiveness Report 2006, (World Economic Forum, 2005), “Clusters and the New Competitive Agenda for Companies and Governments” in On Competition (Harvard Business School Press, 1998), and the Cluster Initiative Greenbook (Ivory Tower, 2004) by C Ketels, O Solvell, and G Lindqvist. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means - electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise - without the permission of the author. Additional information may be found at the website of the Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness, www.isc.hbs.edu The Changing Nature of International Competition • Falling restraints to trade and investment • Globalization of markets • Globalization of value chains • Shift from vertical integration to relying on outside suppliers, partners, and institutions • Increasing knowledge and skill intensity of competition • Nations and regions compete on becoming the most productive locations for business European Cluster Policy 01-22-08 CK 2 Copyright 2008 © Michael E. Porter Outline ...
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...Business Review and written by Michael Porter and Mark Kramer on January 1, 2011. The article deals with the idea of innovating the purpose of a corporation and their relationship to the social environment in order to identify unknown customer needs and to expand the relationship with the communities in order to be mutually dependent. Porter and Kramer urge leaders to recognize that "shared value is not social responsibility, philanthropy, or even sustainability, but a new way to achieve economic success". They advocate that creating shared value will drive the next wave of innovation and growth in the global economy (Porter & Kramer, 2011). Several large corporations have already started implementing a shared value initiative – such as Google, IBM and Wal-Mart (Porter at el, 2011). Shared value creates economic value for the corporation through innovations that address society's needs and challenges. Companies create shared value in three ways: 1. By redefining products and markets 2. By redefining productivity in the value chain 3. By enabling local cluster development 1Arguably, products and markets are the greatest unmet needs in the global economy (Porter at el, 2011). Too many companies fail to reevaluate their strategy and ask themselves if their product is right for the customer. 2A company’s value chain is definitely affected by – numerous societal issues, such as natural resources and water use, health and safety (Porter at el, 2011). Opportunities to...
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...Introduction----- The diamond model is an economics model developed by Michael Porter in his book The Competitive Advantage of Nations. In the mid-1980s, Professor Michael Porter of Harvard Business School developed the model to assess the competitiveness of regions, states and nations. It’s a model that attempts to explain the competitive advantage some nations or groups have due to certain factors available to them. Porter used a diamond shaped diagram to illustrate the determinants of national advantage. That’s why it is called the Porter’s diamond model. The body -------- Now we will use some examples to illustrate the determinants of national advantages. For example:- • Germany is associated with good car making • Japan is strong with respect to micro-electronics and cameras. • France is strong with respect to wine. • The UK (at least until recently!) was associated with a strong financial services industry The chart --- Factor conditions: Some countries enjoy natural advantages. For example, France starts with an advantage in the wine industry because of its climate and soil. Finland, however, is never likely to be good at producing wine. Germany has an abundance of iron ore, ready to be used in the car and other industries. Climate and natural resources are known as basic factors. In addition, countries can develop advanced factors such as their transport infrastructure, telecommunications, and educational system. Demand conditions: The first step...
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...labor pools, its interest rates, and its currency’s value. However, according to Michael Porter theory, national prosperity is created, not inherited. A nation’s competitiveness depends on the capacity of its industry to innovate and upgrade through new technologies or new ways of doing things, as a result of technology push or market pull. It is important to upgrade your competitive advantage. What is considered as a competitive advantage at the national level = productivity of the nation, which leads to high and rising standard of living for its citizens. Classic theory: success of nations depends from factors of production (labor, lands, etc) but it has been overshadowed in advanced industries and economics by globalization of competition and power of technology. Porter’s theory brings a comparative advantage to the competitive advantage of a nation. Porter says that a new theory must explain why a national provides a favorable home base for companies that compete internationally. It succeeds in reflecting conception of competition that includes: - segmented markets - differentiated products - technology differences - economies of scale The new theory must go beyond costs, and must explain why companies from some nations are better than others at creating advantages based on quality, features and new product innovation. The Porter’s Diamond is a model developed by Michael Porter - who is considered as an authority on company...
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...The diamond model by Michael Porter 3 1.1 Introduction 3 1.2 Diamond model Theory 4 1.2.1 Factor Condition 4 1.2.2 Demand conditions 5 1.2.3 Firm strategy, structure and rivalry 5 1.2.4 Related and supported industries 6 1.2.5 The role of Government 6 1.3 Criticism of the framework 7 1.4 Practical Example 7 1.5 Conclusion 8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1. The diamond model by Michael Porter 1 1.1 Introduction According to Recklies (2001), increasingly corporate strategies have to be seen in global context and even if an organization does not plan to import or to export 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 and information technology has been reinforcing this trend. The classical models and theories related to international trade before Michael Porter’s Diamond theory, mainly proposed that the comparative advantage resides in the factors endowments that a country may be fortunate enough to inherit and these factors mainly consisted of land, natural resources, labour and the size of the local population but Porter argued though his diamond model that a nation can create new advanced factor endowments such as skilled labor, a strong technology and knowledge and knowledge base, government support and culture, in short Porter used a diamond shaped...
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...Porter’s Diamond Theory The diamond model is an economical model developed by Michael Porter in his book The Competitive Advantage of Nations, where he published his theory of why particular industries become competitive in particular locations. Porter believes that the following factors can decide a country’s competitiveness:- * Factor conditions are human resources, physical resources, knowledge resources, capital resources and infrastructure. Specialized resources are often specific for an industry and important for its competitiveness. Specific resources can be created to compensate for factor disadvantages. * Demand conditions in the home market can help companies create a competitive advantage, when sophisticated home market buyers pressure firms to innovate faster and to create more advanced products than those of competitors. * Related and supporting industries can produce inputs that are important for innovation and internationalization. These industries provide cost-effective inputs, but they also participate in the upgrading process, thus stimulating other companies in the chain to innovate. * Firm strategy, structure and rivalry constitute the fourth determinant of competitiveness. The way in which companies are created, set goals and are managed is important for success. But the presence of intense rivalry in the home base is also important; it creates pressure to innovate in order to upgrade competitiveness. Apart from the above mentioned four...
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...IN AN article entitled “Strategy and the Internet” published in the March 2001 edition of the Harvard Business Review, Michael Porter outlined six principles that he believes companies need to follow if they want to establish and maintain a distinctive strategic position in the market place. Since the internet is a business platform with low barriers to entry, these six strategic principles are particularly relevant to any company that wants to be profitable online: 1. Stand for something In order for a company to develop unique skills, build the right assets, and establish a strong reputation it is important to define what the company stands for so that the company will have continuity of direction. 2. Focus on profitability This point seems obvious, however many internet based companies have instead focused on “unique visitors” and “page views” as measures of performance. At the end of the day, sustainable profits will only be possible where goods or services can be provided at a price which exceeds the cost of production. 3. Offer consumers a unique set of benefits Good strategy involves being able to provide a distinct set of benefits to a particular group of consumers. Trying to please every consumer will not give a company a sustainable competitive advantage. 4. Perform core activities differently If a company is able to establish a distinctive value chain by performing key activities differently from its competitors, then this will help...
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...The Broadway Cafe Advantage Exercise One: The Broadway Café This exercise will develop a competitive Advantage for the Broadway Café. The café has been in business since 1952 and has never had a single competitor in the neighborhood. Now that the café may have a competition will affect the business. Therefore the café need to develop a new strategic direction to bring the café into the 21st century. • Describe your strategy for addressing your employees’ concerns, building loyalty among your customers, and remaining competitive in a changing market? Developing a strategy will help to communicate goals and priorities to employees. It would also improve manages and employees’ abilities to make the right decisions in their day to day work. Inform the employees of the upcoming challenges and let them know that the company values their opinions and concerns regardless of the economic. As owner of the Broadway café would have to have conversation with the customer will be essential to build their trust and loyalty, so that they continue to shop at café. The best way to keep the customers inform is to make sure that they are inform of all the changes in the café. To keep customers updated and engaged will had to get up-to-date with the technology by acquiring a computer get engage in the new social networks like Facebook and Twitter are essential to build a communication with the current and future customers. Update Facebook and Twitter on occasion asking...
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...difference in company’s strategies. A strategy can be defined in many ways and has many different viewpoints. This article aims to explain and critically evaluate the approaches of Jay Barney and Michael E. Porter, two leading strategy theorists, in-turn explaining the basis leading to the difference. What is Strategy & Competitive Advantage? Strategy is the creation of unique and valuable position involving a different set of activities.1 A firm is said to have competitive advantage when it is implementing a strategy which is not is being implemented by it’s current or potential competitors and also sustains profits that exceed the average for it’s industry. " Is Competitive Advantage enough? The goal of much of business strategy is to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage which is the same as competitive advantage but the advantages of the strategy cannot be duplicated by the competitors. (Barney, 1989). Different authors have different viewpoint in regard to sustainable competitive advantage. A sustained competitive advantage is simply a competitive advantage that lasts for a longer period of calendar time (Porter, 1985). A competitive advantage is sustained only after the efforts to duplicate the advantages of the strategy have been ceased (Lippman and Rumelt,1982). " Michael Porter’s Viewpoint Sustainable competitive advantage is when a strategy is implemented and the same strategy is not being implemented by the current or potential competitor and that advantage...
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...Michael Porter’s theory on National Competitive Advantage, is the best theory to utilize when an internationalising firm wants to select one country over another for new entry The globalization has become a ubiquitous and potent symbol of the age since the early 1980s. The term globalization was used to describe strengthening interactions of people from various countries, which resulted from the emergency of numerous new technologies (Daniel, Radenbaugh & Sullivan, 2002). As the popularization of globalization, more firms prefer to enter the emerging markets, like China, to search for the higher return. However, resulted from the studies segment, there is not an exact theory or study can be regarded as guidelines for these internationalizing firms. Overall, Michael Porter’s theory on national completive advantage is a better theory to be adopted by the international firms which want to select a better country for new entry. The dominance of Porter’s theory are its comprehensiveness, the dynamic Diamond theoretical system and analysis form both inductive and deductive sides. Meanwhile, it is at a disadvantage in its assumption. Thus, this essay will explore both sides of Porter’s theory. Porter's model includes four key elements. The Diamond model is depicted as figure 1, where the four forces jointly constitute a firm's global competitiveness in a given industry ( Porter,1990) Source: Porter (1990) The Competitive Advantage of Nations. The first element...
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