In
Competition Demystified, Bruce Greenwald, one of the nation's leading economists, presents a new and simplified approach to business strategy that cuts through much of the fog that has surrounded the subject. Based on his hugely popular course at Columbia Business School, Greenwald and co-author Judd Kahn offer an easy-to-follow method for understanding the competitive structure of your industry and developing an appropriate strategy for your specific position.
Over the last two decades, the conventional approach to strategy taught in business schools (based on Michael Porter's work in the 1970s and 1980s) has become frustratingly complex. It's easy to get lost in a sophisticated model of your competitors, suppliers, buyers, substitutes, and other players, while losing sight of the big question: Are there barriers to entry that allow you to do things that other firms cannot?
After establishing the overriding importance of barriers to entry, Greenwald and Kahn argue that:
*there are really only three sustainable competitive advantages;
* firms operating without competitive advantages should concentrate all their efforts on being efficient;
*companies that do have competitive advantages need to design strategy with their competitors in mind;
*most competition is over pricing or capacity, and there are established techniques for analyzing these situations and devising the right strategies to handle them;
*cooperation between competitors is possible and beneficial and can be accomplished without breaking the law;
*in an increasingly global economy, competitive advantages still stem primarily from local conditions. Even large international firms need to understand and protect the local sources of their success.
The authors illustrate their principles with detailed examples drawn from prominent companies in a wide range of industries, including Wal-Mart, Coors, Cisco, Apple, Microsoft, Intel, Kodak, Sotheby's, Fox Broadcasting, and Coca-Cola.
Competition Demystified is an indispensable book for business leaders and will change the way strategy is taught for years to come.
