Choosing a business strategy for a company is often a challenging process that requires a deep evaluation of contradicting views and taking into account various possibilities. There are many factors to be considered by managers when making a decision about applying a new strategy. Thus, the main aim of this paper is to analyze the article by Costas Markides “Strategy as balance: From `either-or` to `and`” which provides valuable information regarding choosing and implementing a new business strategy in an organization.
The process of choosing a new business strategy
A common practice of choosing a business strategy is based on evaluating various options and perspectives suggested by all managers and business partners involved in the process. However, it is exceptionally difficult to decide which option has more advantages than others. Thus, the author suggests that a truly effective business strategy must incorporate separate elements from different prospective strategies and points of view.
Markides argues that there are three main controversial issues in the process of choosing a strategy. They include identifying the elements that establish the process and content of a strategy, defining if a strategy is more about a precise analysis or creativity, and monitoring the strategy dynamics. Hence, a strategy must find the right balance between the controversies in order to be successful.
There are many opposing views regarding the definition of a business strategy and its content. Moreover, the process of developing a strategy is not absolutely straightforward either. Comprehending how innovative strategies are created and developed is another issue for business practice. Some scientists argue that a strategy cannot be chosen only through a process of rational thinking, but it has to be mainly based on experimentation.
The content of a strategy
The existence of two main approaches to understanding the content of a strategy is connected to the ideas of two major schools of thought. The approaches explain the main target that companies can reach by choosing any of these approaches.
The first approach, which otherwise is called a “Porterian” view, states that the main aspect of a strategy is positioning a company in the market. Hence, the strategy identifies a game that a company is going to play in the market. The second approach mainly considers how a company is going to play the game in the market rather than what game to play. It includes choosing the ways of outmaneuvering and outperforming the competitors. The second approach promotes a more dynamic and innovative point of view on the strategy content.
Nevertheless, the current practice demonstrates that an efficient business strategy must combine the two approaches. It is crucial to know what game a company is going to play and how exactly it is going to play that game. The process of choosing a strategy should foresee the means for achieving high performance of a company through understanding the place of the company in the market and the business tactics it is going to follow. Identifying what game to play requires deciding about the target group of customers and the products or services that would attract them. At the same time, planning how to play the game is based on a decision about the value-chain activities that a company is going to perform.
Therefore, the main three considerations of a business strategy are connected to identifying the target customers, choosing the products and services to offer, and deciding on the ways to offer the company’s products and services to the targeted audience.
Modern business ideas bring new considerations in the strategy launching process. Some researches claim that the main aim of a strategy is to fix the existing problems, not planning about avoiding them in future. The followers of this concept consider the essence of a strategy to be connected to creating new products, market, and industries that did not exist before. It leads to reconsidering the importance of competing for the market share in the existing industries and increasing the significance of creating new markets and reaching the leading positions in them.
However, Markides does not support this idea explaining that it is crucial to sustain businesses in the existing markets to ensure them making enough profit now to be able to compete in new markets in future. The author suggest that creating new markets and industries should be based on facilitating current business in existing markets, but not instead of it. Considering common disagreements and confusions, the author suggests reinventing the process of developing a new business strategy through understanding if a strategy can be planned or should they be created as the result of an experimentation and trial process.
Analysis via creativity in the process of developing a business strategy
Rational analysis has been commonly considered as the most efficient way of developing a business strategy. However, searching for creative and innovative ways of developing a strategy has overlapped the importance of strategic thinking for many companies. New business tendencies quite often see strategic planning as a time-consuming process that does not bring needed results.
Thus, the author highlights the importance of the approach that mixes rational thinking and deep analysis with creativity and experiments. The effectiveness of strategic planning is based on creativity and intuition applied in the process of developing a strategy, although it has to be supported by the rational analysis in order to be sustainable.
In order to be successful, strategic thinking should be applied in a creative way and generate emotional commitment rather than introducing innovative ideas. Furthermore, the importance of the balance between the rational and emotional, the thinking process and idea implementation, and factual analysis and creativity cannot be denied.
Markides illustrates that modern businesses mainly focus on finding the answers to certain questions about positioning the company, identifying the competitors and customers, finding the key factors to success, and developing a competitive advantage when developing the strategy. The author argues with the efficiency of such an approach suggesting ways of changing it. Thus, instead of being supply-driven, Markides thinks that strategies should mainly focus on the customers since they play a crucial role in shaping the companies’ strategies. One of the suggestions is to identify a competitive advantage that a company can develop after analyzing its competitors. The customer-driven approach has to be able to identify and manage every issue connected to their customers’ demand.
Strategy dynamics
Thinking of a company in a dynamic way is an essential aspect of the strategy development process. It foresees if a company should diversify or stay in the chosen business segment, to improve its products to be better than competitors or aim at introducing innovative products the main advantage of which is that they are different.
Companies that ignore the importance of dynamic thinking often face the problem of contradictory advice received from consultants regarding the development of the. Moreover, it can lead to the failure of considering the company’s past and future activity and its influence on the current strategic choices.
Conclusion
Thus, the article describes the process of choosing a strategy and implementing it in the market. The author argues the importance of understanding the target and taking into account every aspect of a strategy. It is explained in the article that the strategic process develops all the time with the introduction of new tendencies and approaches. However, considering the suggestions of the author, the best approach is based on reaching a perfect balance between different views and ideas. Moreover, it is important for every company to stay flexible and able to adjust the strategy to the changes in the market.