Summary of “How competitive forces shape strategy” by Porter, M

The strongest competitive force or forces determine the profitability of an industry and so are of the greatest importance in strategy formulation.
Force 1: Threat of entry – New competition, new ideas, shakes up the industry. Six major barriers to entry reduce the threat.
· Economies of scale
· Product differentiation
· Capital requirements
· Cost disadvantages independent of size (learning curves)
· Access to distribution channels
· Government policy
Force 2: Bargaining power of suppliers – Suppliers ability to raise prices without losing business.
· Dominated by few companies and concentrated more than market selling to
· Lack of substitutes
· Unique product, high switching costs
· Industry of low importance to supplier group
Force 3: Bargaining power of buyers – Buyers can choose whom to buy from so Industry must compete for the business.
· Buyer buys large volumes
· Buys a standard product
· Product forms significant fraction of buyers selling costs
· Buyer has low profit
· Industry product quality not important to buyer
· Industry product does not save buyer money
· Buyer can integrate backwards to make the industry product
Force 4: Substitute products – Buyers could move to another product and not by from this industry.
Finally Force 5: Jockeying for position – Competition within the industry, price competition, product introduction and advertising wars.
· Numerous competitors
· Slow industry growth
· Similar product and little switching cost
· High fixed costs or perishable product
· Capacity is normally augmented in large increments
· Exit barriers high
· Rivals have diverse strategies

Summary of “The competitive advantage of nations” by Porter, M

The diamond shows the four keys that influence the competitiveness of nations.
Depending on how well a company performs domestically and the nature of the home markets can determine how it performs globally.
Factor Conditions – A nations position in factors of production, skills, infrastructure, resources, capital and land. Having an advantage in these areas adds to the overall competitive advantage. However, where have no advantage, Japan lacks natural resources, and then companies’ ability to innovate and upgrade technology to overcome this disadvantage is key in the overall competitive advantage.
Demand Conditions – If there is a highly competitive home market of discerning consumers creating a high domestic demand for quality, innovative and advanced products then for the company to survive it must become the best locally. If able to compete in an aggressive local market then the company is likely to compete equally as well in the global market.
Related and Supporting Industries – The suppliers of a company should also be a globally competitive supplier so that get best from them, same diamond conditions should apply to supplier. Then company will get best prices and best quality so the related industries become equally valuable to the nation as the companies the supply. Spin off products / companies will arise out of a successful support industry furthering the global competitiveness of the nation.
Firm Strategy, Structure and Rivalry – The firms’ strategy and structure must fit into the local environment and fit the company, so that company will grow. Again, skills and the motivation to apply those skills are important in the growth. Another point reiterated here is rivalry among local firms as this stimulates the growth of an industry in that region.
Governments’ role – This is to push or encourage firms, to raise them and for them to move to higher levels of competitive performance. In democratic countries where a party will only have power for a short term, then policies tend to be short-term – to win popularity and stay in power. The policies that would make a difference usually take to long for a politician to want to implement. The policies that government should implement are to support national competitiveness: encourage change, promote domestic competition and stimulate rivalry. The other key role government needs to enforce is strict product safety and environmental standards, if firms have to comply in domestic market to stringent standards then in the global market will have an advantage.
Company agendas
The leadership of company needs to encourage and seek out challenges and pressures to make the company continuously innovate and upgrade so that their level of competitiveness increases, make the suppliers firm deals with supply at a high standard of quality so further promotes growth in those markets. By growth, they create jobs boosting other areas of the economy.

Summary of “What is Strategy?” by Porter, M

In the beginning there was Operational Effectiveness, but this has just led to an optimisation of companies with very little direction and strategic vision.
“Competitive strategy is about being different”: This is the way that you choice to service your customers, or present what you are offering, are distinctly different from those of your competitors. If this is just a statement and not an action then the competition will win if they have a strategy that they actually implement.
Strategic Positions
· Variety Based Positioning – companies that within an industry offering a wide variety of choices choose to specialise in just one, so they can offer superior value for a particular service.
· Needs Based Positioning – Company strategy is to focus on a specific need of a customer base and meet all their needs in this one area, the example sited is Ikea targets young, not wealthy, likely to have children family’s and meets all their furniture needs in one store. Then the company must have a unique value proposition to meet these needs.
· Access Based Positioning – If there is a specific way that deal with your customer base, only dealing with rural customers that might mean no transport so have to take your product to them.
Therefore, an answer to the question posed becomes “Strategy is the creation of a unique and valuable position, involving a different set of activities”.
Trade-offs needed
To maintain a strategic advantage requires some trade-offs, to be able to maintain a position you have to give up something which then prevents you from changing your position without incurring costs. This also means competitors who try to straddle across their existing market and then copy your model have to give up, or accept new, practices required for their existing position which then either makes it cost ineffective to compete in same sphere or cause irregularities in their brand or reputation.
Again this refines our answer, “Strategy is making trade-offs in competing. The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do.”
Fit
· Simple Consistency – Each activity and the overall strategy work together
· Reinforcing – Activities build on the strategy
· Optimisation of effort – Processes optimised towards the strategy.
The activities that company doing as it strategy make it harder for competition to copy without having to copy the whole system.
Thus, the final answer to “What is strategy? Strategy is creating fit among a company’s activities. The success of a strategy depends on doing many things well – not just a few – and integrating among them. If there is no fit among activities, there is no distinctive strategy and little sustainability.”
With the answer to what is a strategy, the problem then moves to not ‘sticking to your guns’ and in the chasing of profit losing track of your goal as defined by the strategy. As with Neutrogena moving into the mass merchandisers away from the drug store, they are no longer unique and their image becomes diluted.
However, to obtain profitable growth companies must reinforce their activities that fit with the strategy, focus on meeting those needs, and unless rework and refocus the complete company strategy then do not change what doing if it is in line with the current strategy. The leadership of the company must keep a tight rein on direction the company is taking to ensure inline with the strategy.
In closing, managers must differentiate between operational effectiveness and strategy, as both are essential and both are different.

Summary of “Can you say what your strategy is?” by Collis, D and Rukstad, M

There are three critical components of a good strategy statement:
· Objective,
· Scope, and
· Advantage
That is the focus of the article.
Objective:
From a strategic viewpoint is a clear, concise, measurable and time based goal; unlike a mission statement that is the main objective referred to when referring to a company’s objective as these are more the values of the company than the clear goal of the company.
Scope:
This is split into three areas customer or offering, geographic location and vertical integration.
The scope is not as clear-cut as the objective, as it allows for flexibility by employees, but will specify areas that the company is not considering entering, so in case Jones targets the “delegator” and not the “validator” or the “do-it-yourselfer”. With whom they going to do business they are very specific on the two types of customer do not want.
Advantage:
The key ingredient to a strategy statement, this adds clarity about what makes the firm unique and helps employees understand how they contribute to the success of the strategy.
So putting all these together, you can then move into developing your strategy statement, this requires evaluation of the industry, understanding of customer needs, segmentation of customers, and then identifying what unique value, you offer. The company capabilities’ and those of the competitors, from this you can then work where the ‘strategic sweet spot’ is, the point where company is meeting customers needs that a competitor cannot.

Screen Saver Disabled Registry Setting

OK so I couldn't change my screensaver as the dropdown had been disabled.

To fix this delete the registry keys under:

HKCU\software\policies\microsoft\windows\control panel\desktop

Then run
%SystemRoot%\System32\RUNDLL32.EXE user32.dll, UpdatePerUserSystemParameters
so dont need to reboot to make effective.

Now posted here I should never forget...