1st Edition

Creating Valuable Business Strategies

By Shiv Mathur, Alfred Kenyon Copyright 2008
    264 Pages
    by Routledge

    264 Pages
    by Routledge

    Creating Valuable Business Strategies will change existing mindsets about strategy. Here is an answer for the strategist who asks, 'What should I do differently next Monday morning?'.

    The object of strategy is to create financial value and the offering-centred approach of Creating Valuable Business Strategies provides a novel and pragmatic framework for setting strategic direction: choosing which markets to contest and how.

    This book:
    * Identifies the individual offering as the fundamental unit of strategy--the choices that customers make regarding individual offerings are at the root of a company's financial success.
    * Provides an innovative and comprehensive approach to profitable business strategy--designing each offering and also the collection as a whole.
    * Explains that strategy is a task for all businesses with offerings, even the smallest, not just the giants.

    The book first sets the scene and makes the case that each value-adding offering needs a competitive strategy: it must have a winning competitive position and use one or more winning resources. It provides the reader with a rich classification of how an offering can be competitively positioned vis-à-vis rival offerings and customers. Winning resources and why offerings need them is discussed next. Corporate strategy, i.e. the managing of the company’s whole collection of offerings is then examined. This is followed by a discussion of the implications for organizing and structuring for an offering-centred approach to strategy. Finally all the aspects of this new framework that may meet with resistance are explored.

    Creating Valuable Business Strategies is essential reading for anyone who is involved in designing tomorrow's offerings: from the backroom specialist to the CEO. It has a clear logical presentation with a focus on practical implementation.

    Setting the scene: The need to design future offerings; The purpose of a business is to build value; The basics of designing a winning offering. How to design a winning competitive position: Why and how to differentiate; Differentiating in the support and merchandise dimensions; Differentiation creates private markets; Markets with dominant players. No success without winning resources: A winning offering needs to exploit a winning resource with the four cornerstones; Winning resources: pitfalls; Getting it together: the scissors process. Corporate strategy: managing the collection of offerings: Corporate strategy: its nature and aim; Success in diversification: relatedness; Success in diversification: the filters and the better-off test. Organizing and structuring for offering-centred strategies: Offerings need sponsors; Delivering value through corporate strategy. Final reflections: Stumbling-blocks and entrenched attitudes.

    Biography

    Authored by Mathur, Shiv; Kenyon, Alfred

    "Very much a common sense, practical approach to implementing strategy."
    David Butler, Kent Business School, University of Kent

    "I found it so interesting I could have happily read more."
    Dorothy Courtis, freelance business author and editor

    "A new and interesting take on an old topic, but one which may well be exactly what managers and organizations need."
    Professor Ian Favell, consultant for CMI, CIPD and author