According to Porter, “The essence of strategy is choosing to perform activities differently than rivals do”.
We used this definition to make the case for why you need a strategy. If you are not performing activities differently than your competition, you really don’t have a strategy and will eventually lose the game.
You might say, “we are nothing like our competitors for these reasons….”, but I’d challenge you to really dig in here and validate that assumption.
So how do you chose what activities to do differently?
Back to Porter again – he gives us a nice framework to use:
You have two options (1) low-cost strategy OR (2) product/service differentiation strategy.
#1 You can offer the same product or service as a competitor at a lower cost.
#2 You can offer the same product or service as a competitor in a different way – a way that adds more value.
The third and fourth options are just subcategories of the first two. The difference is the market – a broad or narrow one.
What you decide has a number of implications.
Can you see where your company’s current strategy lies in Porter’s model?
What are you going to do differently than your competitors?
Need help figuring that out? Contact Us.