A Critique of Porter’s Cost Leadership and Differentiation Strategies

Thompson, Peteraf, Gamble, and Strickland (2012) found that competitive strategy depend on whether a company’s target market is narrow or broad, and whether a company is seeking competitive advantage through low-cost or product differentiation. These two factors reveal five generic competitive strategies. The five strategies are Overall Low-Cost Provider Strategy, Focused Low-Cost Strategy, Broad Differentiation Strategy, Focused Differentiation Strategy, and Best Cost

This paper was conducted as a Discussion Board Post assigned by Professor J. Reinke of: Liberty University, Graduate School of Business, Lynchburg, Virginia 24515.

He invented Generic Competitive Strategies that are vital to compete in any industry. His strategies are: cost leadership strategy, differentiation and focus, which is divided into cost focus and differentiation focus. If one company is to follow the cost leadership strategy, it should try to increase its profits by reducing costs and charging average prices. The differentiation strategy is an opposite way – the company that follows this strategy often has higher prices for its services, but it is different and more attractive than its competitors. Focus strategy means that the company that follows it concentrates on some niche market. The division of focus strategy means that one companies can try to be successful in cost leadership, while focusing on a niche market and other companies will follow differentiation strategy.

For the company to ensures success in its operations there is need to cultivate customer loyalty and facilitate efficient supplies, differentiator linkage between operations and buyers must be put in place. This will be facilitated through some ways. To cater for customer needs the company will have to ensure it adopts a competitive pricing strategy against the existing competitors and new entrants in the market. The company has a lean pricing policy and to take advantage of its off- price apparel strategy. The customer’s loyalty has to be sustained through the low prices they enjoy

A number of competitive strategies have been stated by studies, such as the classification system created by Chrisman et al (1988). However, the generic strategies identified by Porter (1985) remain the most popular theory over the years (Allen et al, 2007).

The five generic competitive strategies are low-cost provider, broad differentiation, focused low-cost, focused differentiation strategy, and best-cost provider strategy. According to the textbook, “a company’s competitive strategy deals exclusively with the specifics of management’s game plan for competing successfully” (Gamble, 93).

“Porter’s five forces”: Introduction. “Porter’s five forces” is widely applied in today’s business world. Harvard Professor Michael E. Porter’s first HBR article “How competitive forces shape strategy” was published in 1979. It became revolutionary in the field of strategy. Porter’s subsequent work has brought big changes to the study of competitive strategy for corporations, regions, and nations. With assistance from his colleagues from Harvard Business School, Porter continues to update and extend his classic work, providing practical guidance for

In this part, this report focuses on Porter’s Generic Strategies to analysis the strategic positioning of the major play in toys and games industry. According to Dess, Lumpkin and Eisner 2010, Porter’s Generic Strategies include three strategies which are Differentiation, Focus and Cost leadership which a company can use for achieve competitive advantage and overcome five force.

There are two schools of thought pertaining to how firms should choose the competitive strategy that best suits them. One is of the opinion that firms should choose one of the generic strategies and commit all resources to making it work. Porter belongs to this category. They believe that the value chain necessary for cost leadership is quite different from that of differentiation strategy and that while differentiation deals with better quality, cost leadership deals with lowering costs wherever possible.(DESS and DAVIES 1984) What porter articulated here is that there is need for strategic clarity.

Strategy can be defined as being different from one’s competitors, finding the race to operate and accomplished it. According to Michael Porter (1996), while becoming better at what you do is desirable, it will not benefit you in the long run because it is something other competitors can also do. Strategies for organizations are originally developed by Michael E. Porter in 1979 by introducing the five forces model. A company can identify the industry profitability and attractiveness by analyzing the five forces of Porter (Johnson et al., 2008). And then a reasonable strategy can be set up in line with the strengths and the weakness of an organization is able to create a plan for a stronger position for the organization within its

Competitive strategy is the moves and methods that the firm has taken and is taking to appeal buyers, improve its market position, and to endure competitive pressures. The strategy is about what a firm’s capability to try to knock off competitors and attain competitive advantage, which can be offensive or defensive. There are three approaches to competitive strategy, which are low-cost leadership strategy where struggling to be the overall low-cost manufacturer in the in industry. Moreover, pursuing to distinguish one’s product offering from competitors (differentiation strategy), and the last one is focus or niche strategy where aiming on thin portion of the market rather than the whole market (Porter, 1998).

There are five generic business strategies that companies choose from when trying to successfully compete within their respective industries. This is the first choice a company must make, even before deciding an overall strategy. These generic business strategies include low-cost provider strategy, broad differentiation strategy, best-cost provider strategy; focused strategy based on low costs, and focused strategy based on differentiation. These strategies have many advantages as well as disadvantages. Choosing which one to use depends on what market position a company wants to pursue. Deciding to be more offensive or defensive also plays a role in choosing a

The manner in which firms are able to compete is most commonly categorized by implementing Michael Porter’s strategic typologies. Porter’s strategic theory has been the most widely accepted strategic approach used by fellow academics (Kim and Lim 1988; Bordean et al 2010). Porter proposed three generic strategies namely: cost leadership, differentiation and focus strategy. Warszawski (1996) later introduced a competitive strategy

Porter’s generic strategies describe how a company attains competitive advantage across its chosen market scope. There are three generic strategies-cost leadership, differentiation and

The generic strategy allows the firm to react to the five forces better than their competitors (Worthington & Britton, 2006). According to Porter (1985), an organization can enjoy competitive advantage by focusing on the generic competitive strategies. The organization could enjoy competitive edge by either offering the product at low cost or differentiating the product from the competitors or by focusing on a specific market. Porter (1985) emphasized that the generic strategies should be at the centre of the strategic plans.