Businesses such as Ryan Air, CBB and Lidl have risen to prominence in densely populated and highly competitive marketplaces. Yet their approaches, and the common elements that bind them together, are not adequately explained in existing literature on business strategy. Using in-depth case studies of these three organizations and drawing on further examples of discount strategy used by such companies as IKEA and Dell, Discount Business Strategy explores the underlying philosophies beneath the success of these new market leaders bringing together aspects of different, and apparently conflicting strategies in a single market-conquering package. For readers, it provides insights into the hottest practice in strategy today and an opportunity to place yourself and your organization at the cutting-edge of new ideas in strategic thinking.
Book Details:
- Author: Michael Moesgaard Andersen
- ISBN: 9780470033531
- Year Published: 2006
- Pages: 320
- BISAC: BUS019000, BUSINESS & ECONOMICS/Decision-Making & Problem Solving
About the Book and Topic:
Businesses such as Ryan Air, CBB and Lidl have risen to prominence in densely populated and highly competitive marketplaces. Yet their approaches, and the common elements that bind them together, are not adequately explained in existing literature on business strategy. Using in-depth case studies of these three organizations and drawing on further examples of discount strategy used by such companies as IKEA and Dell, Discount Business Strategy explores the underlying philosophies beneath the success of these new market leaders bringing together aspects of different, and apparently conflicting strategies in a single market-conquering package. For readers, it provides insights into the hottest practice in strategy today and an opportunity to place yourself and your organization at the cutting-edge of new ideas in strategic thinking.
The aspiration to adopt the right strategy still casts its shadow over the business world. Michael Porters conventional wisdom says that you can either adopt a differentiator strategy or become a cost leader but not both. More recently Kim and Mauborgnes bestseller Blue Ocean Strategy has suggested that you can make the competition irrelevant by using value innovation to create uncontested market space. But, at a fundamental level, is there one single best strategy for a company? The answer, in most cases, is probably not. Furthermore, the world of business is accumulating examples of companies that do not fit any of these strategic moulds. Ryan Air, IKEA, CBB and Lidl certainly do not operate in uncontested market space and their strategies cannot accurately be described as either differentiation or cost leadership. Rather, they have cherry-picked the best aspects of each strategy and put them together to create a winning formula. Discount Business Strategy will explore how they have done it, and extract lessons for any business.
AUTHOR PLATFORMS: The authors are connected with a host of societies and journals, and are members of the SMS and the Academy of Management. As well as extensive contacts through consultancy, they holding positions on several boards of directors and are frequent speakers and facilitators at seminars and conferences. COPENHAGENBUSINESS SCHOOL:Flemming Poulfelt is Vice-Dean of the Copenhagen Business School and will ensure that the book is promoted through its channels as well as the authors own networks. Previous publishing collaborations with Copehagen have been successful. THEORY AND PRACTICE: Explores why new strategic approaches are now becoming possible through a blend of well-known international real-world examples (including Ryan Air, CBB, IKEA, Dell, Skype, Costco and Lidl), and cutting-edge strategic thinking with a focus on successful discount strategy execution. NEW APPROACH: Offers an alternative to current approaches, showing instead that clear winners such as the companies listed above have managed to emerge in hypercompetitive markets by successfully bridging the gap between differentiation and cost leader strategies.
About the Author
Michael Andersen is CEO of the management development firm Andersen Advisory Group, a subsidiary of Moesgaard Consulting, and an experienced consultant who has worked around the world for more than a decade. He is an external examiner at Copenhagen Business School, Denmark (where he was previously an Associate Professor), and is a frequent keynote speaker at conferences. He is the co-author of From Growth to Reorganization (1988). Flemming Poulfelt is Vice Dean and Professor of Management and Strategy at Copehagen Business School. He is also Director of LOK Research Center on Management, Organization and Competence, a network of researchers from Copenhagen, Aarhus School of Business, the University of Southern Denmark, and Aalborg University. He is a frequent conference speaker and the co-author of books including The Contemporary Consultant (2004).