After assessing the forces affecting competition in an industry and how they affect the way firms compete, managers can better identify their own company’s competitive strenghts and weaknesses. Managers must take these into account when devising business-unit and marketing strategies for product-market entries in the industry.
At the business-unit level, managers can pursue either adaptive or proactive strategies. An adaptive strategy takes as given the competitive forces at work in the industry and tries to position the business unit so that its capabilities provide the best defense against those forces. A proactive strategy takes the offense and attempts to alter the balance of competitive forces through strategic moves, thereby improving the business’s position relative to its competitors.
Adaptive business strategy
An adaptive strategy weighs the business’s strenghts and weaknesses against the industry’s existing competitive structure. It builds defenses against the major competitive forces or finds positions in the industry where the competitive forces are the weakest.
Knowing a business’s capabilities and the competitive forces at work in the industry can help a manager identify areas in which the business should confront competitors directly and those where it should not.
Proactive business strategy
When dealing with the forces that drive competition within an industry, a business can devise a strategy that takes the offensive-a strategy that attempts to after the nature of competitive forces. For example, by making capital investments in large-scale facilities or in vertical integration, a firm can raise entry barriers and reduce the power of suppliers. Or its innovative marketing efforts can change the bases of competition and give the firm a competitive advantage through increased brand recognition and product differentiation. IBM’s emphasis on customer service during the early days of the mainframe industry, for example, not only changed the nature of competition in that industry but also gave the company a differential advantage and a customer base that has remained loyal to this day.
Adapting to, or trying to change, the major competitive forces in an industry is an important concern when formulating a business strategy. It is also a critical part of a successful marketing strategy for an individual product-market entry.