Chapter 1 Total of 2 pages single space font 12 ( the new roman) do item 1: ( one page single space ) Outside Research Article (Academic Article) for chapter one : Research a scholarly article, then...

What Is Strategy? by Michael E. Porter Source: Harvard Business Review
Review:
“Strategy is the direction and scope of an organization over the long-term: which achieves
advantage for the organization through its configuration of resources within a challenging
environment, to meet the needs of markets and to fulfill stakeholder expectations” (Porter).
According to Michael Porter, the companies are focusing on adopting new rules so as to attain
competitive edge in the market. For this it is important for the company to focus on nurturing its
core competencies which will help the company to stay ahead of the competition. According to
the Porter Operational effectiveness is not a strategy, it is an important aspect of the organization
but not sufficient for the company to attain competitive edge in the market. The organizations
needs to have a strong focus on the operational effectiveness which states that the company can
perform the activities better than the rivals. The companies need to have a strong focus on
differentiation so as to attain competitive edge in the market and to sustain in the competitive
world. The companies are adopting different strategies and techniques which helps in attaining a
competitive position for the company, this includes adoption of different techniques like TQM,
JIT, time based competition, benchmarking and other strategies. So as to stay ahead the
organizations needs to turn themselves in an learning organization.
Different strategies are adopted by the companies so that they are able to achieve competitive
advantage, for providing differentiated products to the consumers. The companies focus on
adopting different strategies which is adopted at different levels of the company i.e. Corporate
Strategy, Business level strategy and marketing level strategy.
Companies like South-West Airlines have focused on adopting different strategies so as to attain
competitive edge in the market. Southwest Airlines is one of the largest Airlines operating in US.
Southwest Airline is characterised as a short haul, low-fare, high frequency, and point-to-point
carrier in the US. The business model of South west Airlines revolves around providing safe,
reliable, and short duration air service at the lowest possible fare.
The company believes in providing low cost air service. It believes that cost leadership should
not dilute the quality of service. Thus, South west Airlines does not compromise on quality, it
pursues cost leadership and blanketing strategy. There is only one Economy class which
southwest airlines operate in. The company strongly focused on low cost strategy so as to attract
more and more consumers across the nation. The success of Southwest spawned a number of
other airlines...