p.4 Three key principles underlie strategic positioning. 1. Strategy
is the creation of a unique and valuable position, involving a different set of activities... 2. Strategy requires you to
make trade-offs in competing - to choose what not to do... 3. Strategy involves creating "fit" among a company's
activities... Fit drives both competitive advantage and sustainability: when activities mutually reinforce each other,
competitors can't easily imitate them.
p.8 Competitive strategy is about being different. It means
deliberately choosing a different set of activities to deliver a unique mix of value.
p.10 Strategic positionings are often not obvious, and finding them requires creativity and insight.
p.16 Strategy is the creation of a unique and valuable position, involving a different set of activities...
The essence of strategic positioning is to choose activities that are different from rivals'.
p.20 Strategy is making trade-offs in competing. The essence of strategy is choosing what not
to do. Without trade-offs, there would be no need for choice and thus no need for strategy... While operational effectiveness
is about achieving excellence in individual activities, or functions, strategy is about combining activities.
p.21 What is Southwest's core competencies? Its key success factors? The correct answer is that everything
matters. Southwest's strategy involves a whole system of activities, not a collection of parts. Its competitive advantage
comes from the way its activities fit and reinforce one another.
p.26 Competitive advantage grows out of the entire system of activities... Strategic
fit among many activities is fundamental not only to competitive advantage but also to the sustainability of that advantage.
p.28 What is strategy? We can now complete the answer to this question. Strategy is creating fit
among a company's activities. The success of a strategy depends on doing many things well - not just a few - and integrating
among them. If there is no fit among activities, there is no distinctive strategy and little sustainability.
p.35 Strategy renders choices about what not to do as important as choices about what to do.
p.35 one of the most important functions of an explicit, communicated strategy
is to guide employees in making choices that arise because of trade-offs in their individual activities in day-to-day decisions.
[JLJ - useful for game theory]
