Business Strategy 499 '10

I have a query about presentation in the class about Ufone. Ufone had such a great opportunity in the industry to expand in the form of readily available PTCL. I just want to know that what is the reason that inspite of such a large infrastructure what is the reason that Ufone is not largest cellular network? Rest of the companies like Warid and Telenor came up later but took away the market from Ufone. WHY, what is the reason?

In the book built to last, there is comparison between two types of companies, there are visionary companies and on the other hand there are comparison companies. Comparison companies are not dog companies rather they are good but not to that extent where visionary companies are. The good point is, comparison between the companies is not like that one company is more than just "successful" and on the other hand comparison company is completely a "looser". Book mentioned this thing as the comparison between the companies is like gold medalist with silver OR in some cases with bronze. So, the comparison is very logical and very helpful, not just comparing those things were comparison is not even possible or fair.

How to source ideas!!!

This post is related to what we have discussed about generating ideas. It is about going to extreme and having bold ideas.
Strategy stripping is one of the tools for sourcing ideas. With this strategy, the focus is on the essentials of the business, the things you are already good at, and you take them to their absurd extreme.

This strategy will include
• Strip to the core
• Go way overboard
• Scale back a little
In the first one, you begin by listing all the elements of your current corporate mission and strategy. Then each manager has to take turns making each element more concrete and striking from the list one strategy element that the company could survive without. When the list has gotten painfully short, then you have reached the core of your strategy. You have now taken off (stripped down) nonessential aspects of your business. E.g., for a retailer the core might be “distinct personal service for high-end consumers”. It must not be something as vague as “excellence”.

In the second one, you generate alternatives for radicalizing the company. For each core element, ask yourself, “This strategy is all well and good, but what it mean to take it too far? How could this strategy get us into trouble? This is focused creativity that should yield radical, even absurd ideas.

Finally, you must scale these ideas back a little bit. First, look at what you came up with and see which ones spark interest and then seek some outside feedback from experts or from the market itself. Some ideas may be extreme but uninteresting. Then make a modified version that is toned down just enough that you might possibly pull it off. At the end of this step, you should have several bold ideas to consider for pushing your current strategy to its extremes.

The built to last is an exceptional book on business strategy. It narrates the stories of successful firms with refernce to their key strategies. The book starts with the concept of building a company rather than building a product because the writer believes that only a great company can produce a great product.Just apply this idea to the democracy in our country. To simplify the things, just assume that the democracy is the product of the system.Liberalization, fairness,rule of law,guarantee of fundamental rights and justice are the prerequisites for implementing democracy. Until and unless , we do not build a fool proof system by socio-economic and institutional reforms ,the democracy in our country will not flourish.It will not gain good reputation in international scenario and will remain vulnerable to military coups.

The example that was described by Sir mannan in class relates to another company as well that is haleeb Foods. They decided to go for the juices and sent their products to the market but they did not recieve the appreciation as much as they exxpected and now you see haleeb juices no where.

Managers who make the strategies to run the business in an efficient manner. They are suppose to take the business decisions for instance whether they should carry on their past strategies (in case if they are satisfied with the performance of business) or they should quickly move towards something new, for a totally new strategy (in case if results are hurting their expectations) or they should keep balance and for future there should be a blend of strategies some part taken from past and add some new flavor in it (in case they are partially satisfied with their performance).These are some basic possible ways to figure out what to do. But personally, what I have examined from real life examples, most of the managers always avoid to fall their business in any of these three categories. For instance, they always prefer to “innovate….innovate….innovate…” when they feel that their business is not doing well. They just want to ignore or protect the present strategies by launching some innovations but they forget to figure out why that innovation is required, why there is need to put some more sugar in a cup of tea when there is no need. So, can we have a cup of tea with four tea spoons of sugar, while we are addicted to take just half tea spoon? What would happen, you can just imagine.
Express your opinion.

The term core competency was first coined by Prahalad and Hamel. According to him core competencies are the basis of competitive advantage and allow the firm to introduce an array of new products and services. Core competencies lead to the development of core products. Core products are not directly sold to end users; rather, they are used to build a larger number of end-user products. For example, motors are a core product that can be used in wide array of end products like fan, coolers etc. There are three tests useful for identifying a core competence. A core competence should:
1. Provide access to a wide variety of markets
2. Contribute significantly to the end-product benefits
3. Be difficult for competitors to imitate.
For further details read http://www.quickmba.com/strategy/core-competencies/