Michael Porter's presentation on aligning strategy and project management is a very important analysis of strategy that most business organizations need to emulate for high performance. Basically, the strategy is a set of actions that a company intends to take in order to attain the long-term overall goal ( Kaiser, El Arbi & Ahlemann, 2015) . According to Porter, strategy is about the good choices that an organization must take in order to be unique in the industry. However, it is argued that strategy is not only the attainment of goals but also the holistic understanding of how the company can organize itself in order to attain some kind of uniqueness in the industry. Furthermore, strategy should not be misinterpreted with an analogy of striving to be the best. Therefore, the formulation of any kind of business strategy should not be based on competition rather the desire to be unique in the industry.
According to Porter, a successful strategy encompasses all the distinctive parts of the organization. The constituents of each organization need to be enlightened on the corporate strategy so that the whole firm is aligned towards achieving a given goal. In order to achieve this motive, the organization needs to integrate the various distinctive business strategies so as to come up with the main corporate strategy. In a company that deals in a wide range of products, there is need to come up with a business strategy for each particular line of product.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
A successful business strategy is constituted based on industry structure and the positioning of the firm. Industry structure focuses on assessing the external factors that affect the firm. Some of these factors include; rivalry, customer pricing power, substitutes, suppliers power on price and market bottlenecks. These are very fundamental factors that help the organization to understand its external environment before making good choices on how to be unique. Positioning is a very key element that enables the organization to achieve a competitive advantage over its close rivals ( Poli & Shenhar, 2003) . However, this can be achieved by either being in a position to command a premium price in the market or by lowering the costs. Costs can be lowered by establishing efficient frameworks in the organization.
The value chain is another important element that focuses on breaking business activities into distinctive actions that are very difficult to copy. Value chain helps to limit imitations thus equipping the company with an exceptional competitive advantage in the industry. However, there is need to integrate value chain with operational effectiveness. This entails operating at the best price. However, operational effectiveness alone should not be considered when coming up with a strategy since it only considers the basic aspects of the plan. However, this point did not come out clearly in the video previewed. This is because Porter states that ‘best practice’ is not strategy yet it is constituted in order to attain some kind of goals just like strategy.
A unique strategy must assess the type of customers targeted. There is also need to evaluate the possible needs of customers before coming up with the strategy. Finally, there is need to translate this information into an appropriate market price for the products. These are very critical elements that enable the company to have a proper value proposition that ultimately leads to uniqueness. However, the integration of value proposition with the concept of value chain helps to enhance success in the market ( Poli & Shenhar, 2003) . In Porter’s presentation, he argues that a good strategy involves making some customers unhappy. This is a very risky idea since the backlash from customers may have negative implications on the company’s image. This concept may have detrimental effects on the company’s sales. Finally, the leadership structure of the organization plays a very vital role in ensuring that the strategy is fully implemented. This involves continuously mentoring each member of the organization to understand the specific role that needs to be accomplished for the firm’s success.
References
Kaiser, M. G., El Arbi, F., & Ahlemann, F. (2015). Successful project portfolio management beyond project selection techniques: Understanding the role of structural alignment. International Journal of Project Management , 33 (1), 126-139.
Poli, M., & Shenhar, A. J. (2003, July). Project strategy: The key to project success. In Management of Engineering and Technology, 2003. PICMET'03. Technology Management for Reshaping the World. Portland International Conference on (pp. 231-235).
