Business Policy

COURSE INSTRUCTOR: TATHEER YAWAR

Watch Out for….
1. Attendance
2. Deadlines
3. Class Conduct
4. LMS
5. Quizzes
6. Case Studies
7. Term Project
What is Strategy
EXTRACTS FROM MICHAEL PORTER’S EXPLANATION
OF “WHAT STRATEGY IS? ”
So.. What is Strategy??
A good strategy provides clear answers to four key
questions:
1. Where do we compete?
2. What unique value do we bring?
3. What resources / capabilities do we utilize?
4. How do we sustain unique value?
 Economic Foundations of
Competition
Industry Sustainable
Attractiveness Competitive
A company’s economic performance results from Advantage
two distinct causes.
Determinants of Industry
Profitability
Industry Structure
Achieving Superior Performance
Within an Industry

Differentiation
(Higher Price)

Competitive Advantage

Lower Cost
 Part of strategy is the willingness to make customers
unhappy. If you are going to have a successful strategy,
you cannot try to make everybody happy. You have to
make some customers insanely happy. But you need to
be cool with the idea that you are not serving other
customers, you are not meeting their needs they have.
What Should Change?
Change is good but not in the strategy, not the value
proposition. But it should be in operational
effectiveness that is continuously finding better ways
of doing things. You can’t provide low cost one year
and expensive the other year.
References
‘What is Strategy’ by Professor Michael E. Porter,
Harvard Business School, Introduction to
Entrepreneurship, University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill Boston, MA, November 13, 2012.
Adapted from Hambrick & Frederickson, “Are you
sure you have a strategy?” The Academy of
Management Executive, 2001, Vol. 15. No 1.
Discussion Questions
What is the purpose of a Strategy?
How can strategy help explain why
Apple has outperformed its industry
peers?