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
why is strategy
It is intuitive for most managers to conceive of
their business in terms of the customers’ needs
they are meeting. But a critical element of needsbased
positioning is not at all intuitive and is often
overlooked. Differences in needs will not translate
into meaningful positions unless the best set of
activities to satisfy them also differs. If that were
not the case, every competitor could meet those
same needs, and there would be nothing unique or
valuable about the positioning.
In private banking, for example, Bessemer Trust
Company targets families with a minimum of
$5 million in investable assets who want capital
preservation combined with wealth accumulation.
By assigning one sophisticated account officer for
every 14 families, Bessemer has configured its activities
for personalized service. Meetings, for example,
are more likely to be held at a client’s ranch
or yacht than in the office. Bessemer offers a wide
array of customized services, including investment
management and estate administration, oversight
of oil and gas investments, and accounting for racehorses
and aircraft. Loans, a staple of most private
banks, are rarely needed by Bessemer’s clients and
make up a tiny fraction of its client balances and
income. Despite the most generous compensation
of account officers and the highest personnel cost
as a percentage of operating expenses, Bessemer’s
differentiation with its target families produces a
return on equity estimated to be the highest of any
private banking competitor.
Citibank’s private bank, on the other hand,
serves clients with minimum assets of about
$250,000 who, in contrast to Bessemer’s clients,
want convenient access to loans–from jumbo mortgages
to deal financing. Citibank’s account managers
are primarily lenders. When clients need other
services, their account manager refers them to
other Citibank specialists, each of whom handles
prepackaged products. Citibank’s system is less
customized than Bessemer’s and allows it to have a
lower manager-to-client ratio of 1:125. Biannual office
meetings are offered only for the largest clients.
Both Bessemer and Citibank have tailored their activities
to meet the needs of a different group of private
banking customers. The same value chain cannot
profitably meet the needs of both groups.
The third basis for positioning is that of segmenting
customers who are accessible in different
ways. Although their needs are similar to those of
other customers, the best configuration of activities
to reach them is different. I call this accessbased
positioning. Access can be a function of customer
geography or customer scale – or of anything
that requires a different set of activities to reach
customers in the best way.
Segmenting by access is less common and less
well understood than the other two bases. Carmike
Cinemas, for example, operates movie theaters exclusively
in cities and towns with populations under
200,000. How does Carmike make money in
markets that are not only small but also won’t support
big-city ticket prices? It does so through a set
of activities that result in a lean cost structure.
Carmike’s small-town customers can be served
through standardized, low-cost theater complexes
requiring fewer screens and less sophisticated projection
technology than big-city theaters. The company’s
proprietary information system and management
process eliminate the need for local administrative
staff beyond a single theater manager.
Carmike also reaps advantages from centralized
purchasing, lower rent and payroll costs (because of
its locations), and rock-bottom corporate overhead
of 2% (the industry average is 5%). Operating in
small communities also allows Carmike to practice
a highly personal form of marketing in which
the theater manager knows patrons and promotes
attendance through personal contacts. By being the
dominant if not the only theater in its markets–the
main competition is often the high school football
team – Carmike is also able to get its pick of films
and negotiate better terms with distributors.
Rural versus urban-based customers are one example
of access driving differences in activities.
Serving small rather than large customers or densely
rather than sparsely situated customers are other
examples in which the best way to configure marketing,
order processing, logistics, and after-sale
service activities to meet the similar needs of distinct
groups will often differ.
Positioning is not only about carving out a niche.
A position emerging from any of the sources can be
broad or narrow. A focused competitor, such as
Ikea, targets the special needs of a subset of customers
and designs its activities accordingly. Focused
competitors thrive on groups of customers
who are overserved (and hence overpriced) by more
broadly targeted competitors, or underserved (and
hence underpriced). A broadly targeted competitor–
for example, Vanguard or Delta Air Lines – serves
a wide array of customers, performing a set of activities
designed to meet their common needs. It
ignores or meets only partially the more idiosyncratic
needs of particular customer groups.
Whatever the basis – variety, needs, access, or
some combination of the three – positioning requires
a tailored set of activities because it is always
a function of differences on the supply side;
that is, of differences in activities. However, positioning
is not always a function of differences on
the demand, or customer, side. Variety and access
positionings, in particular, do not rely on any customer
differences. In practice, however, variety or
access differences often accompany needs differences.
The tastes – that is, the needs – of Carmike’s
small-town customers, for instance, run more toward
comedies, Westerns, action films, and family
entertainment. Carmike does not run any films
rated NC-17.
Having defined positioning, we can now begin to
answer the question, “What is strategy?” Strategy
is the creation of a unique and valuable position, involving
a different set of activities. If there were
only one ideal position, there would be no need
for strategy. Companies would face a simple imperative
– win the race to discover and preempt it. The
essence of strategic positioning is to choose activities
that are different from rivals’. If the same
set of activities were best to produce all varieties,
meet all needs, and access all customers, companies
could easily shift among them and operational effectiveness
would determine performance.
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