Leveraging Generic Strategy

Leveraging a Generic Strategy
Grantham University

Generic strategies can be defined as the basic approaches to strategic planning that can be adopted by any organization in any market to improve its competitive performance.   (www.businessdictionary.com). If the primary determinant of an organization’s profitability is the attractiveness of the industry that it operates in, then the secondary determinant is its position in that industry.   An organization can position itself by leveraging its strengths. “Michael Porter has argued that a firm’s strengths ultimately fall into one of two headings: cost advantage and differentiation” (“Porter’s generic strategies, 2010).   By applying these two strengths either in a broad manner or a narrow on, three generic strategies are resulted.   Those generic strategies are cost leadership, differentiation, and focus.   They are applied at the business unit level and are called generic because they are not organization or industry dependent.
“A differentiation strategy calls for the development of a product or service that offers unique attributes that are valued by customers and the customers perceive to be better that or different from the products of the competition” (“Porter’s generic strategies, 2010).   The Coca-Cola Company has been an established trademark in the U.S. since 1886.   The company has been able to differentiate themselves by being known as the world’s largest manufacturer, distributor and marketer of non-alcoholic beverages and syrups.   “The Coca-Cola Company follows the differentiation strategy by spending enormous amounts of money in advertising to differentiate and create a unique image for their products” (Steven K, 2010).    
Organization’s that succeed with a differentiation strategy usual have strengths such as leading research, a creative product development team, a strong sales team and the ability to communicate the perceived strengths of the product and corporate reputation for quality innovation....