Competitive Advantage

Textbook gems

P9 – Inkpen and Choudhury argue that the absence of formal strategy can introduce a level of flexibility which is advantageous under some conditions. This flexibility may be critical in organisations that are operating in turbulent environments when long-term planning is impossible and no organisation can make irrevocable commitments to a specific strategy. They point out that strategies “may act like blinders and block out an organisations peripheral vision”. Associated article

P10 – Studies have shown that organisations do not usually adopt purely emergent or purely planned strategies, but normally end up with a combination of both. The more rapid the rate of change in the organisations external environment, the more significant the emergent component of the strategy becomes. Associated article

P13 – The notion that strategy is something that should happen way up there, far removed from the details of running an organisation on a daily basis, is one of the great fallacies of conventional strategic management. Associated article

P14 – But why cant individuals or organisations make optimal decisions in the absence of this guidance? Consider the 1997 “man versus computer” chess epic in which Garry Kasparov – Former World Chess Champion – was defeated by IBMs computer Deep Blue. Deep Blue did not need strategy.  Its phenomenal memory and computing power allowed it to identify optimal moves. Kasparovs analysis was subject to the limitations of his mental abilities, which did not enable him to identify as many effective moves on this occasion. Human chess players normally incorporate a planned element in their strategy as a guide for decision making process; it reduces the range of potential options available and so simplifies the task of selecting the most optimal decision.

P15 – One must highlight that strategic thinking involves understanding of the environmental conditions, particularly those that are most critical to the organisation, and developing an organisation, which will perform as strongly as possible in those conditions

Peculiar – idiosyncratic nature of the RFS DTZs creates frustration and minimises the scope of success.

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P30 – Frew suggests that even senior administrators cannot quickly alter the structure of the public sector organisations because the relationship networks within the organisation are resistant to change and change slowly. This makes structural changes slower in the public sector than in the commercial sector. Frew also suggests that changing the industry structure has different consequences in the public sector. If two commercial sector organisation attempt to service the same market with the same products or services, they will compete and respond to this competition by increasing their efficiency or adding attractive features. In the public sector, however; when two organisations service the same customers they will not compete. Instead they will build their own internal complexity in an effort to gain the most resources. This process leads to duplication of resources and inefficiency in the sector.