Chapter 6

Defining the Organization's Strategic

Direction

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 Chapter 6
Defining the Organizations Strategic
Direction
 Reinventing Hotels: citizenM
In 2008, Michael Levie, Rattan Chadha, and Robin Chadha set out to
develop a new kind of hotel by rethinking what dimensions customers
really cared about, and which they didn't really value.
They decided to offer:
Small pod-like rooms with luxurious amenities
Stylish ambience
Self check-in with no reception desk or porters
Self-service kitchen instead of restaurant or bar
Mood pads for adjusting temperature, lighting, etc.
Average of $50 lower price per night than hotels in a similar class
The combination of the comfortable and stylish ambiance with
affordable prices resulted in occupancy rates that were consistently
higher than industry averages -- over 95% compared to 85%.

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 Reinventing Hotels: citizenM
Discussion Questions
1. What are some of the challenges and opportunities of competing
in the hotel industry? How do you think the hotel industry (or
travel industry more generally) has changed over time?
2. Can you identify different customer groups in the hotel industry?
What are some of the ways that hotels attract these different
groups?
3. What are the advantages and disadvantages of targeting a
narrower niche of customers rather than trying to appeal to a
wide range of hotel customers?
4. What are some of the ways that citizenM has substituted
technology for labor? What are some of the benefits/risks of this
approach?
5. Can you think of other ways to dramatically re-envision how a
hotel might operate and attract guests? What are the advantages
and disadvantages of your approach?
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 Overview
A coherent technological innovation
strategy leverages the firms existing
competitive position and provides
direction for future development of the
firm.
Formulating this strategy requires:
Appraising the firms environment,
Appraising the firms strengths, weaknesses,
competitive advantages, and core
competencies,
Articulating an ambitious strategic intent. 6-6
 Assessing the Firms Current
Position
External Analysis
Two common methods are Porters Five-
Force Model and Stakeholder Analysis.
Porters Five-Force Model
1. Degree of existing rivalry. Determined by number of
firms, relative size, degree of differentiation between
firms, demand conditions, exit barriers.
2. Threat of potential entrants. Determined by
attractiveness of industry, height of entry barriers (e.g.,
start-up costs, brand loyalty, regulation, etc.)
3. Bargaining power of suppliers. Determined by number
of suppliers and their degree of differentiation, the
portion of a firms inputs obtained from a particular
supplier, the portion of a suppliers sales sold to a
particular firm, switching costs, and potential for
vertical integration.
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Assessing the Firms Current Position
4. Bargaining power of buyers. Determined by number of
buyers, the firms degree of differentiation, the portion of a
firms inputs sold to a particular buyer, the portion of a
buyers purchases bought from a particular firm, switching
costs, and potential for vertical integration.
5. Threat of substitutes. Determined by number of potential
substitutes, their closeness in function and relative price.

Recently Porter has acknowledged the role of complements.

Must consider:
a) how important complements are in the industry,
b) whether complements are differentially available for the
products of various rivals (impacting the attractiveness of
their goods), and
c) who captures the value offered by the complements.

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Assessing the Firms Current Position
Five-Force Model

6-9
Assessing the Firms Current Position
Stakeholder Analysis
1. Who are the stakeholders.
2. What does each stakeholder want.
3. What resources do they contribute to
the organization.
4. What claims are they likely to make on
the organization.

6-10
Assessing the Firms Current Position
Internal Analysis
1. Identify the firms strengths and weaknesses. Helpful to
consider each element of value chain.

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Assessing the Firms Current Position
2. Assess which strengths have potential to be
sustainable competitive advantage
Rare Competitive
Valuable Advantage Sustainable
Durable Competitive
Inimitable Advantage

Resources are difficult (or impossible) to imitate when they

are:
Tacit
Path dependent
Socially complex
Causally ambiguous

6-12
Identifying Core Competencies and
Capabilities

Core Competencies: A set of integrated and

harmonized abilities that distinguish the firm in
the marketplace.
Competencies typically combine multiple kinds of
abilities.
Several core competencies may underlie a business unit.
Several business units may draw from same
competency.
Core competencies should:
Be a significant source of competitive differentiation
Cover a range of businesses
Be hard for competitors to imitate

6-13
Identifying Core Competencies and
Capabilities

6-14
 Risk of Core Rigidities
When firms excel at an activity, they can
become over committed to it and rigid.
Incentives and culture may reward current
competencies while thwarting development
of new competencies.
Dynamic capabilities are competencies that
enable the firm to quickly respond to
change.
E.g., firm may develop a set of abilities that enable
it to rapidly deploy new product development
teams for a new opportunity; firm may develop
competency in working with alliance partners to
gain needed resources quickly.

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 Strategic Intent
Strategic Intent
A long-term goal that is ambitious, builds upon and
stretches firms core competencies, and draws from all
levels of the organization.
Typically looks 10-20 years ahead, establishes clear milestones
Firm should identify resources and capabilities needed to close
gap between strategic intent and current position.

6-16
 Theory In Action

The Balanced Scorecard

Kaplan and Norton argue

that effective performance
measurement should
incorporate:
Financial perspective
Customer perspective
Internal perspective
Innovation and learning

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 Discussion Questions
1. What is the difference between a strength, a competitive
advantage, and a sustainable competitive advantage?
2. What makes an ability (or set of abilities) a core
competency?
3. Why is it necessary to perform an external and internal
analysis before the firm can identify its true core
competencies?
4. Pick a company you are familiar with. Can you identify some
of its core competencies?
5. How is the idea of strategic intent different from models
of strategy that emphasize achieving a fit between the
firms strategies and its current strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities and threats (SWOT)?
6. Can a strategic intent be too ambitious? 6-18