Strategies

A cost advantage that is enjoyed by incuments in an industry and that new entrants cannot expect to match

The ability of buyers to bargain down prices charged by companies in the industry or to raise the costs of companies in the industry by demanding better product quality and service.

The ability of suppliers to raise the price of inputs or to raise the costs of the industry in other ways.

Factors that make it costly for companies to enter an industry

Preference of consumers for the products of established companies.

Enterprises that serve the same basic customer needs

The stage in which primary demand is declining

Reductions in unit costs attributed to a larger output.

An industry that is just beginning to develop

The economic, strategic, and emotional factors that prevent companies from leaving an industry.

Costs that must be borne before the firm makes a single sale

An industry that consists of a large number of small or medium-sized companies, none of which is a position to determine industry prices.

An industry where demand is expanding as first-time consumers enter the market

A group of companies offering products or services that are close substitues for each other--that is, products or services that satisfy the same basic customer needs.

The broader economic, gloabal, technological, demographic, social, and political context in which an industry is embedded.

The stage in which the market is saturated, demand is limited to replacement demand, and growth is slow.

Within-industry factors that inhibit the movement of companies between strategic groups

Opportunities arise when a company can take advantage of conditions in its environment to formulate and implement strategies that enable it to become more profitable

Companies that are not currently competing in an industry but have the capability to do so if they choose.

The competitive struggle between companies in an industry to gain market share from each other.

Groups of companies in which each company follows a strategy that is similar to that pursued by other companies in the group, but different from the strategies followed by companies in other groups.

The products of different businesses or industries that can satisfy similar customer needs.

Costs that consumers must bear to switch from the products offered by one established company to the products offered by a new entrant

Threats arise when conditions in the external environment endanger the integrity and profitability of the company's business.

Factors that make it difficult for a competitor to copy a company's distinctive competencies

A company's skills at coordinating its resources an dputting them to productive use

Output per unit of invested capital

The companywide context within which all the other value creating activities take place: the organizational structure, control systems, and company culture.

The percentage of a company's customers who defect every year to competitors

The time that it takes for a good to be delivered or a service to be performed

Varying the features fo a good or service to tailor it to the unique needs or tastes of groups of customers or, in the extreeme case, or individual customers.

A unique, firm-specific strength that enables a company to better differentiate its products and/or achieve substantially lower costs than its rivals and thus gain a competitive advantage

The quantity of inputs that it takes to produce a give output (that is, efficiency=outputs/inputs)

Output per employee

A range of manufacturing technologies designed to reduce setup times for complex equipmetn, increase the use of individual machines through better scheduling, and improve quality control at all stage of the manufacturing process. Also known as lean production

A project manager who has high status within the organization and the power and autority required to get the financial and human resources that a project team needs to succeed.

The creation of new products or processes

Non physical entities that are the creation of managers and other employess, such as brand names, the reputation of the company, the knowledge that employees have gained through experience, and the intellectual property of the company, including that projected through patents, copyrights, and trademarks

Cost savings that come from learning by doing

The position that a company takes with regard to pricing, promotion, advertising, product design, and distribution.

The ability of companies to use flexible manufaturing technology to customize output at costs normally associated with mass production.

The specific set of options a company adopts for a product on four main dimensions of marketing: price, distribution, promotion and advertising, and product features.

Acitivities related to teh design, creation, and delivery of the product, its marketing, and its support and after-sale service

The devlopment of a new process for producing products and delivering them to customers.

The development of products that are new to the world or have attributes superior to those of existing products.

Financial, physical, social or human, technological, and organizational factors that allow a company to create value for its customers. Company resources can be divided into two types: tangible and intangible resources

A team wherein members coordinate their own activities, which might include making their own decisions about hiring, training, work, and rewards

Activities of the value chain that provide inputs that allow the primary activities to take place.

Physical resources, such as land, buildings, plant, equipment, inventory, and money

The idea that a company is a chain of activities for transforming inputes into outputs that customers value