MARKET-ORIENTED STRATEGIC

PLANNING

What is strategy?
Summary

Diksha Singh 190101043

Kritish PR 190101056
Medha Bhattacharjee 190101061
Niharika Bansal 190101070
Sai Srivastav Thanneru 190101098
Saurabh Warde 190101105
Anantaraman LM 190103023
What is strategy?
 People generally confuse operational effectiveness with the concept of
strategy, but although operational effectiveness is necessary for a
successful strategy, it isn’t sufficient. The parameters of effectiveness can
easily be adopted by the competitors. It is important for an organization
to have a strategic differentiating factor to have a competitive advantage.
They should be able to deliver a unique and greater value to the
consumers along with effective operational capabilities to keep up with
the performance of the offering. When a company offers a greater value,
they hold the opportunity to charge higher prices for their offerings.
Operational effectiveness on the other hand means performing similar
acts better than their competitors. Although, an organisation has to
improve their OE continuously for higher profitability, it is certainly not
enough. It is observed that certain companies have only invested on
improvising their OE and in the long run have incurred diminished
profits.

 Competitive strategy is about being different, delivering a unique value to

the customers which they don’t get from any other company. Most
managers express strategic positioning from the customer’s point of view,
pointing out the benefits of using the product/services. But in the truest
sense, strategy is the decision to perform the activities differently, taking
the risk of being unique in the value proposition.
 Strategic positioning is usually not obvious and it takes a keen eye and a
creative mind to find that out. Many competitors overlook these gaps and
one new organisation comes in and disrupts the market with their unique
positioning.
There are mainly two types of positioning for the customers:
1. Variety based positioning: where the company positions their products
for a wide variety of customers. Here, the reachability is higher but only
some of the customer needs are met.
2. Need based positioning: Here the products are positioned according to the
needs of certain customers. It is prevalent in areas where different
customers have different needs. But in this case, there has to be in-depth
research.
 Companies generally ignore the importance of need based positioning and
this gap created in the core offerings are filled by competitors and hence,
they get a competitive advantage.

 Establishing a strategic positioning is also not enough for an organization

to succeed, as they can be adopted or imitated by competitors. Although
adopting the unique positioning of the competitors is not easy and are
often subjected to critic and confusion, it is still not impossible.
Therefore, to maintain the competitive advantage, the value proposition
and the positioning should not only be unique, but should also be
inimitable.

 The positioning choices drive the set of activities a company will

perform. It is desirable for an organisation to achieve operational
excellence in terms of every individual activities but it is important to
strategize the activities, their order, and their nature: the combination of
the activities to achieve sustainability. It is the unique combination of
these activities which is translated to a strategic advantage for an
organisation.

In short, the three key principles of strategic positioning are:

1. Strategy is the creation of a unique valuable position, involving a
different set of activities.
2. Strategy is about trade-offs and choosing what to do as well as what not
to do.
3. Strategy is about the combination of activities and creating the correct fit
among the activities