Competitive and Corporate Strategy

Setting the strategic direction for a business is one of the most complex tasks facing any senior manager. Competitive and Corporate Strategy recognises the link between competitive (business) strategy and corporate strategy and provides a new form of analysis for the role of the corporate centre. This book discusses the responsibilities of the corporation in managing its constituent, profit-making business units in relation to the changing competitive environment.

Cliff Bowman and David Faulkner introduce a number of new tools as the basis for the analysis leading to all major competitive strategic decisions. These tools include the customer matrix (identifying what the customer wants and what the competition is offering), the producer matrix (what the firm needs to be able to do well in terms of its effectiveness and its unit costs) and the risk cube. By identifying the key competences of a corporation, the book provides practical tools to aid the analysis of the competition, to assess the company's ability to meet the needs of the market place, and to maintain and improve its market position.

Moving away from the more theoretical, analytical perspectives that have influenced many strategic management texts, Competitive and Corporate Strategy offers description, analysis and practical demonstrations of the matrices, tools for identifying diversification risk and co-operative strategies and a specific methodology for scenario planning. The text also deals with product and service industries, international aspects and diversification, supported by chapter summaries, illustrations, worked examples and references.

Ideal for strategic management, corporate strategy and business policy courses at MBA and undergraduate levels, as well as for senior managers, Competitive and Corporate Strategy provides a suitable framework for the analysis of problems faced by strategists in real-world situations and will assist managers making realistic strategic and resource decisions.

• Part 1
1. Introduction
• Overview of the Approach
• Competitive Strategy: Some Basic Principles
• Some Building Blocks
• Corporate Strategy
• The Structure of the Book
2. The Customer Matrix
• Representing the Customer in the Matrix
• Segments of Demand
• Representing Products on the Matrix
• Cutting Price
• Adding Perceived Use Value
• What Happens Next?
• Other Moves in the Customer Matrix
• Exploring Value-for-Money Curves
• Constructing the Customer Matrix
• Summary
3. The Producer Matrix
• Profitability: Market Structure or Firm Resource?
• The Producer Matrix
• Reducing Costs
• Constructing the Producer Matrix
• Some Case Examples
• Competitive Imitation
• Renewing Sources of Advantage
• Resources, Systems and Know-How
• Analysable and Cryptic Space
• Filling Competence Gaps
• Summary
4. Strategic Pathways
• Combining the Customer and Producer Matrices
• Strategic Pathways
• Competing Across Segments
• Competitor Actions and Reactions
• Playing to Win
• Summary
• Appendix
5. The Competitive Environment
• Drivers of Demand
• Drivers of Imitability
• Structures Analysis of Industries
• Rivalry
• Barriers to Entry
• Bargaining Power of Buyers
• Bargaining Power of Suppliers
• Threat of Substitutes
• Advantages of the Five-Force Framework
• Competitor Analysis
• Strategic Group Analysis
• Assessing the Value of the Techniques
• Summary
6. The Future
• A Turbulent World
• Turbulence: An Assessment
• Changes in the Customer Matrix
• Changes in the Producer Matrix
• PEST Analysis
• Scenario Planning
• A Proposed Scenario Planning Method
• The Benefits of Scenario Planning
• Game Theory
• Summary
7. Strategy and Structure
• Organizational Structure: Some Basic Concepts
• Organizational Processes
• Linking Strategy, Structure and process
• The Functional Structure
• A Contingency Approach to Strategy and Structure
• Changes in Contingent Variables
• Organizational Implications of the Contingent
• Variables
• Structural Responses to Changes in Strategy and Environment
• Coping in Diversity
• Changes in Contingent Variables
• The Machine Adhocracy
• The University and Complete Development
• A Hybrid or a New Configuration?
• Summary
8. Strategy and Culture
• Culture and Strategy
• Organizational Processes
• Grouping
• Power
• Controls and rewards
• Management Styles
• Routines
• Stories and Symbols
• Cognitive Processes
• Behaviour
• Realized Strategy and Performance
• Interactions
• A Required Culture
• Organization Processes
• Cognitive Processes
• Behaviour
• Realized Strategy
• Summary
9. Managing Strategic Change
• Culture and Strategic Change
• Content Quality versus Process Quality
• Triggering Change
• The Role of the Mission Statement
• Mission Statement: Some Guidelines
• Strategy Statements for Firms Serving Many Segments
• The Role of Mission Statements in Strategic Change
• From Mission Statement into Action
• Using the Status Quo to Change the Status Quo
• Delivering the Aims of the Mission Statement
• Capability Champions
• Project Management
• Cross-Functional Teams
• Reorganization
• Identifying Barriers to Change
• Prioritizing and Ownership
• Summary
• Part 2
10. The Nature of Corporate Strategy
• Selecting a Direction
• The Vision Statement
• Objectives
• Creating Value from the Centre
• Exercising Corporate Competences
• Summary
11. Selecting: The Business Portfolio
• The Boston Box
• The McKinsey Directional Policy Matrix
• The Arthur D. Little Life-Cycle Matrix
• Other Problems
• A New Approach to Resource Allocation
• The Portfolio Cube
• An Example
• Diversification and Strategic Risk Options
• The Risk Cube
• Same Products/Market, Same Competences
• Same Competences, Same Product/Market
• New Competences, Same Product/Market
• New Competences, New Product/Market
• Development Method
• Summary
12. Selection: The Scope of the Corporation
• Transaction Cost Analysis
• The Make—Buy—Ally Matrix
• Vertical and Horizontal Integration
• Summary
13. Resourcing: The Self-Sufficient Approach
• Providing Specialist Services
• Achieving Synergies
• Mergers and Acquisitions
• Acquisitions — The Enigma
• Why Acquire?
• Risks Attached
• The Evidence
• Target Company Selection
• A Proposed Approach
• Summary
14. Resourcing: Joint Development
• Cooperative Strategy
• What is the Motivation for Alliances?
• How do Alliance Firms select a Partner?
• Farming the Alliance
• How Should the Partners Manage the Alliance?
• Mechanisms for Alliance Management
• What Happens to Cooperations in the Long Run?
• Summary
15. Controlling the Corporation
• The Strategic Planning Style
• The Financial Control Style
• The Strategic Control Style
• Selecting an Appropriate Style
• Outcome and Behaviour Control
• An Organizational Economics Insight
• Summary
16. International Corporate Strategy
• Selecting International Segments
• Resourcing Global Production
• Controlling to Achieve Competitive Advantage Internationally
• The Transnational Enterprise
• Summary
17. Summary and Conclusions
• Business Level Strategy
• Corporate Level Strategy
• Behaving Strategically
• Strategic Action