CHAPTER 1
What Is Strategy and
Why Is It Important?
Copyright © McGraw-Hill Education. Permission required for reproduction or display.
, LEARNING OBJECTIVES
THIS CHAPTER WILL HELP YOU UNDERSTAND:
1. What we mean by a company’s strategy
2. The concept of a sustainable competitive advantage
3. The five most basic strategic approaches for setting a firm apart
from rivals and winning a sustainable competitive advantage
4. That a firm’s strategy tends to evolve because of changing
circumstances and ongoing efforts by management to improve the
strategy
5. Why it is important for a firm to have a viable business model that
outlines the firm’s customer value proposition and its profit formula
6. The three tests of a winning strategy
© McGraw-Hill Education.
, CORE CONCEPT (1 of 4)
A company’s strategy is the set of
actions that its managers take to
outperform the company’s competitors
and achieve superior profitability.
© McGraw-Hill Education.
, WHAT DO WE MEAN BY STRATEGY?
♦ What is our present situation?
● Business environment and industry conditions
● Firm’s financial and competitive capabilities
♦ Where do we want to go from here?
● Creating a vision for the firm’s future direction
♦ How are we going to get there?
● By crafting an action plan that heads the firm in the
direction of its intended market position, attracts
customers, achieves financial and market performance
targets, and gets it where it wants to go—that is, its
strategy
© McGraw-Hill Education.
What Is Strategy and
Why Is It Important?
Copyright © McGraw-Hill Education. Permission required for reproduction or display.
, LEARNING OBJECTIVES
THIS CHAPTER WILL HELP YOU UNDERSTAND:
1. What we mean by a company’s strategy
2. The concept of a sustainable competitive advantage
3. The five most basic strategic approaches for setting a firm apart
from rivals and winning a sustainable competitive advantage
4. That a firm’s strategy tends to evolve because of changing
circumstances and ongoing efforts by management to improve the
strategy
5. Why it is important for a firm to have a viable business model that
outlines the firm’s customer value proposition and its profit formula
6. The three tests of a winning strategy
© McGraw-Hill Education.
, CORE CONCEPT (1 of 4)
A company’s strategy is the set of
actions that its managers take to
outperform the company’s competitors
and achieve superior profitability.
© McGraw-Hill Education.
, WHAT DO WE MEAN BY STRATEGY?
♦ What is our present situation?
● Business environment and industry conditions
● Firm’s financial and competitive capabilities
♦ Where do we want to go from here?
● Creating a vision for the firm’s future direction
♦ How are we going to get there?
● By crafting an action plan that heads the firm in the
direction of its intended market position, attracts
customers, achieves financial and market performance
targets, and gets it where it wants to go—that is, its
strategy
© McGraw-Hill Education.
