Here is the synopsis of our sample research paper on Michael Porter - Strategy. Have the paper e-mailed to you 24/7/365.
Essay / Research Paper Abstract
This 5 page paper is an analysis of what Michael E. Porter defines and describes as strategy. Porter explains that operational effectiveness is not strategy. Strategy is about choices, operational effectiveness is not. The discussion incorporates Porter's three broad generic categories that may be used to gain a competitive advantage. Bibliography lists 5 sources.
Page Count:
5 pages (~225 words per page)
File: MM12_PGprtst.rtf
Buy This Term Paper »
Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
wrote about competitive strategy, not simply strategy (Nickols, 2000). All of his works, whether the word competitive precedes the word strategy or not, focus on competitive strategy. When one
thinks about business strategy, the name that comes to mind is Michael Porter (Hammonds, 2001). Porter charges that in the mid-1990s, company executives left strategy and focused on operational efficiency
(Hammonds, 2001). He explains there is a fundamental distinction between strategy and operational effectiveness. Strategy is about making choices, trade-offs; its about deliberately choosing to be different. Operational effectiveness
is about things that you really shouldnt have to make choices on; its about whats good for everybody and about what every business should be doing (Hammonds, 2001, p. 150).
Porter stated: "Operational effectiveness is not a strategy" (1996). He also pointed out that "to gain strategic positioning, many management tools and techniques are used" (Porter, 1996). These tools
include Total Quality Management, time-based consumption, outsourcing, benchmarking, change management and reengineering (Porter, 1996). Porter offers this difference between operational effectiveness and strategic positioning - the first means performing the
same or similar activities better than ones competitors, the second has to do with performing different activities than competitors or performing the same activities but doing them differently (Porter, 1996).
Porter asserts that strategy is the only thing that will help a company develop a sustainable competitive advantage and it must begin with a "different value proposition" (Hammonds, 2001, p.
150). Strategy is about choices, it is about delineating a territory, an arena in which the company can be unique (Hammonds, 2001). Strategy requires the setting of limits on what
the company attempts to achieve and accomplish (Hammonds, 2001). Porter asserts that an effective strategy beings with having the right goal (Hammonds, 2001). That goal needs to be superior
...