The Summary of "What Is Strategy" from Michael Porter

reviewed. This is analysed by putting the article in to a wider debate about strategy, then

As the consumer attitude gradually changes, people are more in favor of the natural and safe products in cosmetic market. Australia consumers are not exception. They respected green-added cosmetics, namely, they are increasingly in pursuit of natural, pollution-free cosmetics with no chemicals added. Consequently, the products of chemical-free will gain competitive advantages in Australian cosmetic market to meet the consumer’s psychological needs for green, organic skin care products.

Michael Porter’s article, “What is strategy?” sets to explain that both operation efficiency (OE) and strategy are required for reaching superior performance, but further clarifies and emphasizes the misnomer that OE is not strategy.

The quest for beauty is an endless endeavour at all times. Despite the old saying cautioning us that beauty is only skin deep, billions of dollars is spent on skin care products every year for men and women, young and old alike. In this multi-million-dollar industry, every company tries hard to maximize their profit. One of the most common methods they apply is market segmentation.

The fourth step into the creation of executable strategies relies in the alignment of resources, purposes, and strategical thinking contemplations into reality. The rationale of this step is to create

Skin treatment products are often sold next to the cosmetics, but in reality are not cosmetics themselves. Skin treatment products are created with the purpose to improve the natural condition of the skin rather than purely the aesthetic. Cleansers, astringents, toners, acne medications, sunscreen, and lotion all help the skin stay healthy and free from blemishes. In the past, it used to be that consumers

There are various schools of strategy that have been vigorously debated on and after a consolidated effort; three schools of strategy were produced. They are the planning school, the positional school, and the resource based school of strategy (Ritson, 2013). All these strategies will be described with examples to buttress each.

Position: It is the current situation or standing of the organization in the company. In this strategy, it is the aim of developing the ‘position’ in the marketplace.

To deal effectively with the wide array of factors affecting the ability of a business to grow and prosper, managers need advanced processes they feel will facilitate the optimal positioning of the business in its competitive environment. Such positioning is possible with strategic management because this process improves preparedness for unexpected internal or competitive demands.

 In general, manager’s look at competition has been too narrow. There is a broad set of competitors that need to be looked at, which are described in “The Five Competitive Forces That Shape Strategy” by Michael E. Porter. The model explains that there are several other forces in the competition for profits that the strategist should be aware of when forming a stagey. Those forces determine the profitability of the industry and are the most important to look at when you are forming a strategy. These five forces are are the “industry structure” model which contain: New Entrants, Suppliers, Buyers, Substitutes, and Existing Competitors.

According to Porter, a sustainable advantage cannot be guaranteed by simply choosing a unique position, as competitors will imitate a valuable position in one of the two

Alfred Chandler(1963) defines strategy as ‘ the determination of the long-run goals and objectives of an enterprise and the adoption of courses of action of an enterprise and the adoption of courses of action and the allocation of resources necessary for carrying out these goals’. And Michael porter(1996) sees it as ‘Competitive strategy is about being different. It means deliberately choosing different set of activities to deliver a unique mix of value’.

There is no exact definition for Strategy because it is defined in different ways as some people think that make a plan to get success in future is a strategy while others think that future is hard to predict. Exceptionally, some Japanese companies have no strategies though these companies have a good cost and continuous improvement. The definition for strategy is to explain the direction and scope of any company for the long term to achieve advantage for the company or to fulfill the needs and expectations. Strategy is different from Operational effectiveness and they work in different manner in the companies. Michael Porter, who is a professor at Harvard Business School and a strategy expert, says that it should determine how organizational resources and skills should create advantage. Accordingly, Strategy can also be defined as an organizational change during actions in the organizations for better and advantageous results or to determine how we win and get success in the future period. It is a needful developed plan with respect to market to compete the world. Organizations should be responsible for competitive changes according to the market. It is the main goal for any Organizations. Business/IT strategy is very important to know the success rate of your business. Apart from Business Strategy, the other two main types of strategy are Corporate Strategy and Team Strategy. These strategies give competitive advantage of cost leadership, differentiation and focus. The

Porter describes three choices of strategic position that influence the configuration of a firm's activities:

Strategic posture: 1. Organizational profile (minimum one page) 2. Vision 3. Mission 4. Organizational objectives (bullet points) 5. Corporate governance (minimum one page) 6. CSR (minimum one page) 7. Core values (bullet points) 8. Code of conduct (bullet points) 9. Policies/standard operating procedure External factor analysis 10. Stakeholders analysis (primary, secondary) (diagram) 11. PESTEL analysis (minimum one page) 12. Task environment (minimum one page) 13. Issues priority matrix (diagram) 14. Porter five competitive forces analysis (minimum one page) 15. Strategic group (diagram) 16. Strategic type (one paragraph) 17. Industry matrix