The traditional idea of focusing on the placement of products (or services) underplays much of what most would concur makes a company really competitive. An effective strategy, then, is comprised of three essential components: product/ initiation, knowledge and marketplace standings. But even if a business masters the three tactical positions of product/ market, knowledge and innovation individually, it truly is still in danger. Can a strategy succeed only when all three places are aligned and mutually augmenting. In adopting the idea of alliance, organizations have to see each standing - product/marketplace, knowledge and innovation - as aspects of the overall strategy of an organization.
Creating an integrated strategy thus needs focusing not on each position individually, but instead on all three positions concurrently. The authors introduce the idea of competing based not on what an organization makes or the service it provides, but on what it understands and it innovates. Each facet represents a competitive position that must be assessed relative to the capacities of the organization and to others in the market battling for exactly the same space. And it needs to be adjusted as circumstances warrant, although each component must not only be aligned with the other two. Organizations boom when done correctly. The firm can endure, and perhaps fatally so, as the history of Polaroid points out when done poorly.
PUBLICATION DATE: October 01, 2008 PRODUCT #: SMR294-PDF-ENG
This is just an excerpt. This case is about STRATEGY & EXECUTION
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