Competitive strategy

Managers should make environmental investments for the same reason they make other investments: because they expect them to deliver positive returns or to reduce risks.

Many managers of service businesses are aware that the strategic management (by which I mean the total process of selecting and implementing a corporate strategy) of service businesses is different from that of manufacturing businesses. This article discusses how pure service businesses are different from product-oriented businesses and why they require different strategic thinking. A […]

When business conditions change, the most successful companies are often the slowest to adapt. To avoid being left behind, executives must understand the true sources of corporate inertia.

Less than a decade after the frantic merger activity of the late 1960s, we are again in the midst of a major wave of corporate acquisitions. In contrast to the 1960s, when acquirers were mainly freewheeling conglomerates, the merger movement in the 1970s includes such long-established giants of U.S. industry as General Electric, Gulf Oil, […]

A second generation of electronic commerce is emerging, one that will be shaped more by strategy than by experimentation. The battle for competitive advantage will be waged along three dimensions: reach, affiliation, and richness.

Every year since 1995, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has released a report on the state of competition in the wireless market. It’s just about to release its fifteenth one. This might not seem like a stop-the-presses moment for everyone in the media, but it’s a big deal for the companies involved—and their customers—because the […]

It’s fashionable today to enthuse over globalized markets and cite glowing examples of standardized marketing winners around the world. True, some markets are globalizing, and more companies are taking advantage of them with signal success. But the rosy reports of these triumphs usually neglect to mention the complexities and risks involved; for every victory in […]

A major shift is occurring in the nature of global competition, but it’s widely misunderstood. Emerging markets are no longer competing solely on price—by offering the lowest-cost manufacturing, for instance. Rather, they are increasingly competing with sophisticated skills in key sectors like health care, software, entertainment, consumer products, and manufacturing. They’re leveraging a fast-growing ability […]

The U.S. health care system is in bad shape. Medical services are restricted or rationed, many patients receive poor care, and high rates of preventable...

It’s up to the league to lay down the law.

As more and more industries decline or increase only modestly, the need for competent managers in stagnant industries will grow. Instead of following the often-heard advice to harvest such businesses, managers should understand the characteristics of their markets and build strategy accordingly. On the basis of their study of a number of declining industries, these […]

Luxury jewelers should be willing to part with low-end customers.

For the past 20 years, the theory of disruptive innovation has been enormously influential in business circles and a powerful tool for predicting which...

Firms in an industry typically cluster around a few strategic positions, and the intense competition on those occupied "mountaintops" makes it hard for...

As established markets become less profitable, companies increasingly need to find ways to create and capture new markets. Despite much investment and...

The U.S. may be the world’s leading innovator, but it won’t be for long if investors, regulators, and the legal establishment continue to penalize companies for risk taking, says Deborah Wince-Smith, president of the Council on Competitiveness. Recently, the council’s National Innovation Initiative, a leadership network of CEOs and university presidents, released a report in […]

Today's dynamic markets and technologies have called into question the sustainability of competitive advantage. Under pressure to improve productivity,...

On my first visit to Samsung’s Suwon complex, the headquarters of the company’s electronics and appliance division was even more Third World than I expected. The factory floors were bare concrete. People hand-wheeled parts to and from the production line. The research lab reminded me of a dilapidated high-school science classroom. But the work going […]

Congress and regulators must curb combinations that adversely affect the cost and quality of care.

The old ways of setting and implementing strategy are failing us, writes the author of Leading Change, in part because we can no longer keep up with the...