Este blog es solo...
un vómito de pensamientos, de esos que se esconden dentro de mi, pero no pueden ser lanzados por mi lengua.
lunes, 26 de agosto de 2013
IV. Fit Drives Both Competitive Advantage and Sustainability
Positioning choices determine not only which
activities a company will perform and how it
will configure individual activities but also how
activities relate to one another. While operational
effectiveness is about achieving excellence in individual
activities, or functions, strategy is about
combining activities.
Southwest’s rapid gate turnaround, which allows
frequent departures and greater use of aircraft, is
essential to its high-convenience, low-cost positioning.
But how does Southwest achieve it? Part
of the answer lies in the company’s well-paid gate
and ground crews, whose productivity in turnarounds
is enhanced by flexible union rules. But the
bigger part of the answer lies in how Southwest
performs other activities. With no meals, no
seat assignment, and no interline baggage transfers,
Southwest avoids having to perform activities
that slow down other airlines. It selects airports
and routes to avoid congestion that introduces
delays. Southwest’s strict limits on the type and
length of routes make standardized aircraft possible:
every aircraft Southwest turns is a Boeing 737.
What is Southwest’s core competence? Its key
success factors? The correct answer is that everything
matters. Southwest’s strategy involves a
whole system of activities, not a collection of parts.
Its competitive advantage comes from the way its
activities fit and reinforce one another.
Fit locks out imitators by creating a chain that is
as strong as its strongest link. As in most companies
with good strategies, Southwest’s activities
complement one another in ways that create real
economic value. One activity’s cost, for example, is
lowered because of the way other activities are performed.
Similarly, one activity’s value to customers
can be enhanced by a company’s other activities.
That is the way strategic fit creates competitive
advantage and superior profitability.
Types of Fit
The importance of fit among functional policies
is one of the oldest ideas in strategy. Gradually,
however, it has been supplanted on the management
agenda. Rather than seeing the company as
a whole, managers have turned to “core” competencies,
“critical” resources, and “key” success factors.
In fact, fit is a far more central component of
competitive advantage than most realize.
Fit is important because discrete activities often
affect one another. A sophisticated sales force, for
example, confers a greater advantage
when the company’s product
embodies premium technology and
its marketing approach emphasizes
customer assistance and support.
A production line with high levels
of model variety is more valuable
when combined with an inventory
and order processing system that
minimizes the need for stocking finished goods,
a sales process equipped to explain and encourage
customization, and an advertising theme that
stresses the benefits of product variations that
meet a customer’s special needs. Such complementarities
are pervasive in strategy. Although some
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