Questions based on the following 3 handouts:

1. What is strategy : By Michael Porter

2. Case study: Wal Marts Competitive advantage :
3. Case study: South West Airline: A case study in putting people at the heart of a strategy

1) How do you differentiate between operational effectiveness and strategy? Is operational

effectiveness always a strategy?
2) Companies can outperform rivals only if it can establish a difference that it can preserve.
3) Strategy rests on Unique activities: The essence of strategy is choosing to perform
activities differently than rivals do. Discuss how the foll. firms perform activities
differently?
a. Wal Mart
b. Southwest
c. Apple
4) Strategy is about choosing a unique positioning.
a. Discuss Michael Porters model for Generic strategies and the connect with strategic
positioning.
b. Discuss the generic positioning adopted by Wal mart, Southwest, Indigo, Apple,
Ikea, Dell.
5) Are trade off essential to strategy? If yes why, if no why not?
a. Discuss the trade-offs made by Wal Mart, Southwest, Indigo, Apple, Ikea, Dell.
6) Strategic fit is essential for sustainable competitive advantage. (Operational effectiveness
is about achieving excellence in individual activities or functions but Strategy is about
combining activities).
a. Discus how fit is achieved by Wal mart, Southwest, Indigo, Apple, Ikea, Dell
7) Strategic leadership leads to effective strategy formulation. Effective strategies create
competitive advantage. Competitive advantage results in superior performance which
then translates into sustained profitability. Can you explain this with help of one example
(Wal Mart/Southwest). So for strategy to be successful 3 things are required.
a. Strategic leadership,
b. Competitive advantage
c. Superior performance