Technology & Organisational Change

1. Technology & Organisational Change Business Level Strategy Week 4

2. Outline • Customers, Who, What and How? • Types of business level strategy • Cost leadership • Differentiation • Focused cost leadership • Focused Differentiation • Cost leadership\differentiation

3. Strategic Competitiveness To achieve strategic competitiveness, firms must: • Identify who their customers are • Determine customer needs/preferences • Focus on satisfying the needs of some group of customers • Select a strategy that enables them to satisfy customer needs

4. Internet Competitive Advantage In the Internet age, firms can maintain competitive advantage by: • Thinking continuously about accessing & connecting with customers (reach) • Maintaining info with depth & detail for and from customers (richness) • Determining how to build relationships with customers (relationship)

5. Determining which customers to serve • Need to identify customers on basis of needs or preferences • Firm must determine whether differences in needs/preferences are significant • If not, can offer a standardised product.

6. Basis for Customer Segmentation • Customer Markets • Demographic factors • Socio-economic factors • Geographic factors • Psychological factors • Consumption patterns • Perceptual factors

7. Basis for Customer Segmentation (cont.) • Industrial Markets • End-use segments • Product segments • Geographic segments • Common buying factor segments • Customer Size segments

8. Standardised Product When would a firm offer a standardised product? • When it can’t easily be customised or differentiated • Or when firm’s core competencies are best suited to producing standardised products. • Typically offer them at lowest competitive price as they follow a cost leadership strategy.

9. Increasing segmentation of markets • Availability of sophisticated info processing technologies allows firms to identify unique bundles of customer characteristics and needs • Competitors are becoming adept at identifying small but strategically relevant differences in customer needs • Trend towards smaller and smaller segments

10. Determining what needs to satisfy • Customers want needs satisfied and they want value • Need to identify key customer groups, needs and preferences. • Thus customer knowledge must be a priority for top level managers since they determine policy, technology etc

11. Customer knowledge • Becomes more important as firms attempt to perpetuate or sustain competitive advantage. By listening to customers, firms can correctly anticipate their future needs and create product innovations ahead of competitors- first mover advantage

12. Core Competencies Determining core Competencies to satisfy customer needs • Need to decide how to bundle resources & core competencies to satisfy customer needs to by implementing value creating strategies

13. Core Competencies This means that: • Firms must improve their ability to convert innovation and new technologies into commercial products • New products should be based on core competencies or technology • New products must meet present or future needs

14. Generic Strategies • Now look at 4 generic strategies, and how they relate to the 5 competitive forces, the applicability of the value chain, risks associated with each • A firms position in an industry relative to competitors and to the 5 forces of competition • Rivalry with existing competitors • Bargaining power of suppliers • Bargaining power of buyers • Potential entrants • Product substitutes

15. Generic Business-Level Strategies Source of Competitive Advantage Cost Uniqueness Cost Leadership Differen- tiation Broad Target Market Breadth of Competitive Scope Focused Differen- tiation Focused Low Cost Narrow Target Market

16. Generic strategy: Cost-leadership • Offers relatively standardised product – minimum differentiation at lowest competitive price • Reducing price is not necessarily a cost leadership strategy- need to give consumer value- includes quality

17. Cost reduction strategies • Building efficient scale facilities • Tight control of production & overhead costs • Minimising costs of sales, R&D and service • State of the art manufacturing technologies

18. Critical focus • Efficiency • Cost reduction • Still can’t ignore sources of differentiation that customers value- e.g. styling, minimal levels of service, quality

19. Strategy 1:Cost Leadership • Even when competitive forces are strong, a firm that has cost leadership can still earn above average profits.

20. Rivalry with existing competitors • Achieving the lowest cost position means that competitors will hesitate to compete on basis of price because in a price war, the low cost firm will continue to earn profits after competitors have competed away their profits

21. Bargaining power of buyers • Achieving low cost position provides some protection against powerful customers who attempt to drive down prices • If customers drive prices below the cost of the next most efficient firm, the firm might choose to exit the market, leaving the low cost firm in a monopoly position

22. Bargaining power of suppliers • Cost leadership strategy enables a firm to absorb greater amount of cost increases fro powerful suppliers before it must raise prices • If has dominant market share, might be able to force suppliers to lower prices

23. Potential Entrants • Firms generally must produce & sell in large volumes to have cost leadership- this acts as a barrier to entry why?

24. Product substitutes • To retain customers the low cost leader can more easily reduce prices to maintain the price-value relationship and maintain customers

25. Cost Leadership Competitive risks of the cost leadership strategy: • Tech innovations by competitors could eliminate advantage • Over focus on efficiency might cause lack of focus on consumer preferences • Competitors might imitate low cost leaders value chain configuration

26. Strategy 2: Differentiation • Value is provided through the unique features of the product • Can charge premium price • Price charged must exceed the cost of the differentiation • Focus on product innovation and product features

27. Means of differentiation • Superior quality • Unusual or unique features • More responsive customer service • Rapid product innovation • Advanced technological features • Engineering design • Additional features • Image of prestige

28. Achieving above average returns • Even when competitive forces are strong

29. Rivalry with existing competitors • Brand loyalty means that customers will be less sensitive to price increases. As long as the firm satisfies the differential needs of customers it may be insulated from price base competition

30. Bargaining power of buyers • Product considered unique • Reduces customer sensitivity to price

31. Bargaining power of suppliers • Differentiator can absorb a greater level of cost increase from powerful suppliers through its higher margins

32. Potential entrants • Principal barrier is customers loyalty

33. Product substitutes • Brand loyalty insulates differentiated products

34. Differentiation Strategy Competitive risks of differentiation strategy: • Customers may decide the cost of uniqueness is too high • Firms means of differentiation no longer of value to customers • Customer learning may influence customer perception of value • counterfeiting

35. Strategy 3: focus • Firms focus on small segments or niches • Why follow a focus strategy? • Able to serve niche more effectively • Needs are so special that industry wide competitors choose not to meet them • Can be based on cost leadership or differentiation

36. Focused cost leadership strategy • Generally targets the smallest buyers in the industry

37. Focused differentiation strategy • Customised products for small segments • Successful when quantities involved are too small for industry wide competitors, or when the degree of customisation requested is beyond capabilities of the industry wide differentiator

38. Competitive risks of focus strategies • Competitors may successfully focus on an even smaller segment of the market • Industry-wide competitor may recognise the attractiveness of the segment • Preferences of the narrow segment may become similar to those of the wider market

39. Integrated cost-leadership/differentiation • Integrating generic strategies may enable them to: • Adapt quickly to environmental change • Learn new skills and technology • More effectively leverage core competencies across business units and product lines • Produce differentiated products at a relatively low cost

40. Integrated cost leadership/differentiation Benefits • Differentiation enables firm to charge premium price • Cost leadership allows firm to charge lowest price

41. Integrated cost leadership/differentiation Products from integrated cost leadership/differentiation strategy are: • Less differentiated than if firm pursued just a differentiation strategy and • Costs not as low as if pursued cost leadership strategy

42. Integrated cost leadership/differentiation To overcome Competitive Risks must be able to: • Focus consistently on reducing costs • Add differentiated features that customers value and for which they are willing to pay a higher price • Avoid becoming ‘stuck in the middle’ by failing to consistently pay attention to the competitive requirements of either or both generic strategies.

43. Competitive dynamics

44. Outline • Increased rivalry • Model of competitive dynamics & rivalry • Likelihood of attack • Likelihood of response • Firms abilities to take action and respond • Outcomes of inter-firm rivalry

45. New ways of competing • Bring new products to the market more quickly • Use of new technology • Diversifying product line • Shifting product emphasis • Consolidation of industries • Combining on-line selling with traditional

46. Changing Competitive Environment Reasons for changing competitive environment • Attention on global market • Advances in ICTs- more info, faster decision making • Innovation • Cooperation between former competitors in development of new technology or formation of strategic alliances

47. Competitive dynamics • When one firm takes action, so do others

48. Model of competitive dynamics & rivalry • Competitive rivalry exists when firms jockey with one another in pursuit of advantageous market position • Exists because of competitive asymmetry- i.e. firms differ in terms of resources, capabilities, core competencies & the opportunities and threats in their environments • Competition results in mutual interdependence

49. A firm’s strategic conduct is dynamic in nature Actions taken by one firm elicit responses from competitors Competitive responses lead to additional actions from the firm that acted originally Competitive Dynamics Actions and responses shape the competitive positions of each firm’s business-level strategy

50. Model of Inter-firm Rivalry • Awareness- whether the attacking/responding firm is aware of a potential attacker or respondent. • Motivation- incentives that firm has to attack/respond when attacked • Market commonality- extent to which firms compete in same market