Business Strategy & Data Analytics
Business Strategy & Data Analytics
2025/2026
,Lecture 1 - Introduction to Business Strategies
What is strategy? Origin and importance of strategies
Definition: “Strategy is about making choices; it’s about deliberately choosing to be different”
(Porter 1996) → you choose what to focus on and how you want to be different from others.
→ Word origin: Army
● Use resources wisely (soldiers, supplies, terrain)
● They had to be effective, not just busy
● Establish favourable position
→ Business environment has changed
● Less predictable environment – markets change fast, technology disrupts industries
● Analytical reasoning – decisions need data, not just intuition
● Strategic positioning – companies must choose where and how they want to compete
→ Elements of successful strategies
● Consistent and long-term goals
● Formulated based on analyses
● Effectively exploit resources → doing a few things really well, not doing everything
Strategy: Definitions in the Business Context
→ Business Strategy:
● “ …an idea, a business concept, a plan” (Czepiel 1992)
● “…the search for a favourable competitive positioning” (Porter 1985)
● “ …a thoughtful plan by a company to produce desired outcomes in the marketplace
vis-a-vis customers, channel members, & competitors” (Kotler 2012)
→ Marketing Strategy:
● A functional strategy aimed at customer value creation, market orientation, segmentation,
targeting, and positioning
● Decisions that involve selling products on the market
● Other functional strategies in a firm include production strategy, financial strategy,…
Different events might act as stimuli for a company to rethink its strategy:
● International expansion
● Performance gap (e.g. unmet growth aspiration)
● Changes in ownership
● Anticipated trends (e.g. disruptive technologies)
● New CEO or executive leadership team
● Interventions from external stakeholders
1
, ● More unstable environment
● Mergers & Acquisitions
Examples
→ Example 1: Sometimes companies make wrong strategic choices
● Kodak had difficulties adapting to the changing business circumstances
● Kodak invented the roll film and was a lead in the market
● Kodak didn‘t capture the full potential of digital photography on time (they ignored
digital photography because they feared it would destroy their profitable film business)
● What did Fujifilm do differently?
● → Concrete strategy: dependent on the industry it takes place in. That means that there is
no universal strategy that works everywhere.
→ Example 2: A strategy for new product development
→ Example 3: Glocal strategy of McDonald’s
● McDonald‘s is the leading fast food chain in the world operating in more than 100
countries
● Variety of services and product catering to the needs of consumers
● Standardization strategy: Anywhere the company operates, it offers identical food
products such as McNuggets, Happy Meal or Filet-O-Fish.
● Adaption strategy: McDonald's adapts to the needs of the consumers as required by the
cultures of specific countries.
2
, Many Business decisions are based on intuition
→ Most Decisions in Life Rely on Simplifying Strategies or Rules of Thumb (Heuristics), Not
on the Rational Model
● Heuristics (= mental shortcuts that help people make decisions quickly) are helpful in
strategic management as they provide timepressured professionals with a simple way of
dealing with a complex world.
● Sometimes, however, heuristics lead to severe and systematic errors in decision making
(people are typically unaware that they rely on heuristics).
Why not just use managerial intuition?
1. Example 1
a. “I think there is a world market for maybe five computers” → manager
underestimated how technology would evolve and relied on their current
worldview, not future possibilities.
2. Example 2
a. “We don’t like their sound and guitar music is on the way out.” Decca Recording
Company in 1962 → intuition can be shaped by personal taste, not market reality.
So she trusted her own preference instead of listening to the audience.
3. Example 3
a. “...interesting and well formed, but in order to earn better than a C the idea must
be feasible” Yale professor to undergraduate Fred Smith about an idea for
overnight delivery courier. → intuition struggles with radical innovations. New
business models often look “impossible” at first.
b. Which later became Federal Express
3
Business Strategy & Data Analytics
2025/2026
,Lecture 1 - Introduction to Business Strategies
What is strategy? Origin and importance of strategies
Definition: “Strategy is about making choices; it’s about deliberately choosing to be different”
(Porter 1996) → you choose what to focus on and how you want to be different from others.
→ Word origin: Army
● Use resources wisely (soldiers, supplies, terrain)
● They had to be effective, not just busy
● Establish favourable position
→ Business environment has changed
● Less predictable environment – markets change fast, technology disrupts industries
● Analytical reasoning – decisions need data, not just intuition
● Strategic positioning – companies must choose where and how they want to compete
→ Elements of successful strategies
● Consistent and long-term goals
● Formulated based on analyses
● Effectively exploit resources → doing a few things really well, not doing everything
Strategy: Definitions in the Business Context
→ Business Strategy:
● “ …an idea, a business concept, a plan” (Czepiel 1992)
● “…the search for a favourable competitive positioning” (Porter 1985)
● “ …a thoughtful plan by a company to produce desired outcomes in the marketplace
vis-a-vis customers, channel members, & competitors” (Kotler 2012)
→ Marketing Strategy:
● A functional strategy aimed at customer value creation, market orientation, segmentation,
targeting, and positioning
● Decisions that involve selling products on the market
● Other functional strategies in a firm include production strategy, financial strategy,…
Different events might act as stimuli for a company to rethink its strategy:
● International expansion
● Performance gap (e.g. unmet growth aspiration)
● Changes in ownership
● Anticipated trends (e.g. disruptive technologies)
● New CEO or executive leadership team
● Interventions from external stakeholders
1
, ● More unstable environment
● Mergers & Acquisitions
Examples
→ Example 1: Sometimes companies make wrong strategic choices
● Kodak had difficulties adapting to the changing business circumstances
● Kodak invented the roll film and was a lead in the market
● Kodak didn‘t capture the full potential of digital photography on time (they ignored
digital photography because they feared it would destroy their profitable film business)
● What did Fujifilm do differently?
● → Concrete strategy: dependent on the industry it takes place in. That means that there is
no universal strategy that works everywhere.
→ Example 2: A strategy for new product development
→ Example 3: Glocal strategy of McDonald’s
● McDonald‘s is the leading fast food chain in the world operating in more than 100
countries
● Variety of services and product catering to the needs of consumers
● Standardization strategy: Anywhere the company operates, it offers identical food
products such as McNuggets, Happy Meal or Filet-O-Fish.
● Adaption strategy: McDonald's adapts to the needs of the consumers as required by the
cultures of specific countries.
2
, Many Business decisions are based on intuition
→ Most Decisions in Life Rely on Simplifying Strategies or Rules of Thumb (Heuristics), Not
on the Rational Model
● Heuristics (= mental shortcuts that help people make decisions quickly) are helpful in
strategic management as they provide timepressured professionals with a simple way of
dealing with a complex world.
● Sometimes, however, heuristics lead to severe and systematic errors in decision making
(people are typically unaware that they rely on heuristics).
Why not just use managerial intuition?
1. Example 1
a. “I think there is a world market for maybe five computers” → manager
underestimated how technology would evolve and relied on their current
worldview, not future possibilities.
2. Example 2
a. “We don’t like their sound and guitar music is on the way out.” Decca Recording
Company in 1962 → intuition can be shaped by personal taste, not market reality.
So she trusted her own preference instead of listening to the audience.
3. Example 3
a. “...interesting and well formed, but in order to earn better than a C the idea must
be feasible” Yale professor to undergraduate Fred Smith about an idea for
overnight delivery courier. → intuition struggles with radical innovations. New
business models often look “impossible” at first.
b. Which later became Federal Express
3
