Dynamic View of Strategy

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. Choosing a distinctive strategic position involves making tough choices about whom to target as customers, what products to offer, and how to undertake related activities efficiently. The most common source of strategic failure is the inability to make clear, explicit choices in these areas. Unfortunately, not only do aggressive competitors imitate attractive positions but, perhaps more importantly, new strategic positions emerge continually. Successful incursions into established markets by strategic innovators such as Canon and the brokerage firm Edward Jones are based on strategic innovation--proactively establishing distinctive strategic positions that are critical to shifting market share or creating new markets. To prepare for the inevitable strategic innovation that will disrupt its market, an organization should: identify turning points before a crisis occurs by regularly monitoring indicators of strategic rather than financial health in the market, prevent cultural and structural inertia by creating a culture that welcomes change, develop processes that allow experimenting with new ideas, develop the required competencies and skills, and manage a transition to the new strategic position. Designing a successful strategy is a never-ending, dynamic process of identifying and colonizing a distinctive strategic position; excelling in this position while concurrently searching for, finding, and cultivating another viable strategic position; simultaneously managing both positions; slowly making a transition to the new position as the old one matures and declines; and starting the cycle again.

• Innovation
• Corporate strategy
• Change management