Sun 19 Mar 2006

Professor Michael Porter (left) is arguably the worlds leading strategy guru. On March 10th at the Innovative Strategies conference in Manchester he addressed the question of whether, in the highly fluid business environment of today a business should have a strategy and, if so, how can it have an effective strategy.

In order to be really successful a business needs to be different from its competitors. It needs to identify a set of customers and meet their needs better than anyone else can.

The strategy is the blueprint for making the business different, the map it follows, with both the route and the destination defined by the strategy.

Porter believes a successful strategy needs 5 things:

A unique value proposition. It is important to be different from competitors. Do not compete head to head.
A different, tailored value chain. Deliver to customers in a different way.
Clear tradeoffs. Be clear about what not to do. Make choices to exclude pieces of business which are outside your focus.
Activities that fit together and reinforce each other. The more differences you have and the more mutually reinforcing they are the harder it is for competitors to imitate you.
Continuity of strategy with continual improvement in realization. This enables people inside and outside the organisation to understand the strategy and what the organisation is about.

It is difficult to keep focus, avoid distraction and keep to and achieve the aims of strategy, but the prize for success is substantial.

Does Jepson Holt have a strategy? Yes we do.

We are happy to discuss Porter’s views on strategy, how we are applying them and how you can apply them in your organisation.