Second in a series of famous quotes about strategy

This is the second in the series of famous quotes about strategy.

Although to be more accurate it is a list of ten practical implications advocated by Michael Porter but collected by Joan Magretta in her book “Understanding Michael Porter: The Essential Guide to Competition and Strategy“:

 1.            Vying to be the best is an intuitive but self-destructive approach to competition.

2.            There is no honour in size or growth if those are profitless.  Competition is about profits. Not market share.

3.            Competitive advantage is not about beating rivals; it’s about creating unique value for customers.  If you have a competitive advantage, it will show up on your P&L.

4.            A distinctive value proposition is essential for strategy.  But strategy is more than marketing.  If your value proposition doesn’t require a specifically tailored value chain to deliver it, it will have no strategic relevance.

5.            Don’t feel the need to have to “delight” every possible customer out there.  The sign of a good strategy is that it deliberately makes some customers unhappy.

6.            No strategy is meaningful unless it makes clear what the organisation will not do.  Making trade-offs is the lynchpin that makes competitive advantage possible and sustainable.

7.            Don’t overestimate or underestimate the importance of good execution.  It’s unlikely to be a source of sustainable advantage, but without it even the most brilliant strategy will fail to produce superior performance.

8.            Good strategies depend on many choices, not one, and on the connections between them.  A core competence alone will rarely produce a sustainable competitive advantage.

9.            Flexibility in the face of uncertainty may sound like a good idea, but it means that your organisation will never stand for anything or become good at anything.  Too much change can be just as disastrous for strategy as too little.

10.          Committing to a strategy does not require heroic predictions about the future.  Making commitment actually improves your ability to innovate and to adapt to turbulence.

 As Joan Magretta warns there is a danger in reducing this to a list.  However, it does provides a start point for further investigation.

Other famous quotes about strategy

You can also see the first in the series of famous quote about strategy here.