In Michael Porter’s highly regarded strategy model, companies gain
competitive advantage by lowering costs or differentiating products. But today the traditional points of competitive differentiation had being squeezed on all sides. Third part contribution and the reasonable labor costs are available in almost any business, big or small. Other that, unassailable sources of advantage, such as access to capital or reasonable raw materials, are disappearing as markets go global. Companies that compete in advantages of environment are becoming ever more and more hard to establish and maintain.
This renovation of landscape requires refined business strategy. The capacity for innovation bringing imagination to bear to solve problems and respond to human needs. It all lies at the heart of success and Companies must find new and better ways to break out of the pack. Those that don’t will struggle to keep up in the marketplace. Read more
When Katsuaki Watanabe took over as President of Toyota
in zoo he made it clear that developing environmentally friendly technologies would be his top priority—even ahead of safety, quality, and cost. If this weren’t shocking enough, he also promised that his engineers would someday develop a car that could “cross the U.S. continent on one full tank of gas.” Talk about a stretch goal!
Goals for an organization can be splashy like Toyota’s or more concrete. Unilever, for example, set a fairly unsexy goal of zero liquid effluent from its 76 facilities in India. Watanabe himself set more realistic targets alongside his big 2oo-miles-per-gallon vision, including a sales goal of one million hybrid cars per year. Either way, fanciful or functional, stretch goals are a vital tool for provoking fresh thinking, promoting innovation, and building an Eco-Advantage. Read more