Business Strategy and Competitive Advantage Quiz

Strategies in a Disruptive World

• This course explores strategies in a rapidly changing, disruptive world.
• It focuses on new paradigms and frameworks for strategic management.
• The ultimate goal is to enable companies to analyze disruptive trends, understand industry impacts, anticipate future scenarios, and develop successful strategies and implementation plans.
• The course provides frameworks applicable to a wide range of strategic problems.
• Objectives include understanding how to cope with changing business landscapes, the value of disruptive innovations, emerging disruptive trends' impact, various future scenarios, and effective leadership strategies.
• Skills covered include understanding the processes behind business transformations, evaluating disruptive technologies, full scenario planning, strategy implementation methodologies, and evaluating disruptive technology's impact.
• A new paradigm is presented. Strategies are needed for this ever-changing world.
• A single approach to business strategy is no longer sufficient. Existing businesses are more commonly disrupted.
• Many businesses emerge from disruption that move beyond traditional strategic plans.
• Traditional philosophies like Business Plans, ROI and market research are often insufficient in a disruptive environment.
• Companies need to detect problems, seek solutions through technology, and embrace unconventional approaches.

The Strategic Landscape

• The strategic landscape is a framework for understanding the psychological reality of the future, including:
  • Self: Resources, capabilities, skills, values, and attributes of a strategic player
  • Chessboard: Competitive positioning and competitive dynamics within the industry
  • Mountain: Challenges now and in the future, with significant goals and objectives
  • Star: The enduring and guiding purpose, be it social, transformative, or economic

The Strategic Intent

• Strategic intent is an organization's vision of its future.
• Turning intent into reality involves urgency, personalized challenges, necessary skills, targeted action, and clear milestones.
• Strategic intent is best understood as a marathon run within a 400m sprint.
• Techniques such as building layers of advantages, seeking out "loose bricks" and altering terms of engagement, along with collaborative competition, are central to achieving strategic intent.

The New Scenario for Incumbent Companies

• Incumbents are established industry leaders with significant market share and influence.
• Challenges arise when incumbents face disruption from innovative entrants with new business models.
• The video presents the idea that in a disruptive world, incumbents must adjust their approach to business modelling in order to remain competitive. This includes evaluating existing business models (e.g., business model canvas, VRIO, five forces), adapting to new technological environments, and considering factors like technology innovation models, strategic positioning, and the impact of technology on industry structure.
• Sustaining competitive advantage involves operational effectiveness (superior execution of established practices), or strategic positioning (developing unique value offerings.)
• Sustainable competitive advantage requires adapting to the evolving digital environment and creating new business processes and models.
• Disruptive technologies bring about new competitors with cheaper or more convenient offerings.

Business Model Innovation

• Business model innovation is changing the game in business, in response to difficult competition
• It involves adopting new business models to address existing challenges, such as intense competition, and evolving customer needs.
• There exist several business model innovation examples, including how Jetstar competed with Qantas, and the Vélib bicycle sharing program
• There are several possible failures in business model innovation, including overlooking risks when adapting to new markets, overlooking potential for failures, internal issues, and historical biases leading to a lack of innovative response.

Disruptive Trends

• Various disruptive technologies are changing industries.
• Examples include AI, 3D printing, gene editing, brain-computer interfaces, quantum computing, metaverse, decentralized finance, anti-aging, and space exploration
• Homework involves studying the current state of one disruptive technology and its impact on a particular industry across the next ten years.

The Apple Turnaround

• Apple's transition from near-bankruptcy to industry leadership is analyzed.
• Factors influencing Apple's turnaround include changing business models, and adaptation to disruptive technologies and customer preferences.
• This case study examines the 'hole' in Apple's previous business model, as well as the company's "treasure."
• Key discussions include how Steve Jobs changed Apple's strategy, the implications of iPod's launch and the strategic convergence of products (iPhone/iPad).
• The analysis considers the new product paradigm, different business models, and the platform structure of the computer industry.