The reality of many companies today is not very different between the localities of the planet: suddenly they find themselves with a highly competitive, globalized market, with a new way of doing business, with technology that is advancing rapidly and a significant gap between their competitors., added to this, a macroeconomic environment of great uncertainty.
The determining factor in this situation is to react, and on time…; detect the gap, redirect the strategy, _ or formulate it in some cases_, develop competencies and identify the key factors of business success.
In fact, in current times, where the permanent factor is change, the main challenge for companies is the strategic one, since it must respond to new forms of competition arising from changes in national and international economic conditions. The processes of opening and deregulation force companies to face modalities of global competition with other national and foreign companies. That is why, in order to remain, and even more, grow in the market, companies are forced to consider all levels of action in their strategy, since it must allow them to be flexible in the face of change.
In general terms, this strategy should contemplate the following approach:
- Business orientation: Portfolio strategy: Penetrating the Market. Developing the Market. Developing Products. Diversification and integration. (Perspective of processes and capacities). Business Structure: Framed towards the perspective that each business creates value for the corporation as a whole. Management Orientation: Leadership. It defines practices in terms of relations with external and internal clients with the connotation of commitment. The goal is to provide the customer with higher quality. Differentiate. Change Orientation: It promotes permanent innovation within the organization so that new and better business practices are generated, including management tools and technological innovations.
The need to define a strategy that anticipates changes and keeps the company in time is clear. However, as a consequence of globalization and trade openness, such a strategy must be sensitive to including technological innovation.
Arie de Geus in his book «The Living Company, Habits to Survive the Turbulent World of Business» presents a study of thirty successful companies in the world (located in North America, Europe and Japan, of which 27 were well documented) stresses as the first observation or common point among them that «Companies are sensitive to their environment, they must adapt and learn. They are characterized by a behavior that allows them to renew the company generation after generation and maintain itself over time ”.
That is why, today, companies must be able to quickly and effectively handle the innovations in the strategy that are required to generate the new technologies and the products and services that distinguish the new way of competing. We also found a new platform for doing business: e-business. To enter well to compete or carry out any transaction in that market, it is necessary to have technology and also be prepared for it.
It is vitally important that the competitive challenge is clear, and that the strategy includes how to compete, that identifies the future and is applicable to it, how to mobilize for that future and, above all, reach it first. «You cannot look at the future as a continuation of the past… because the future is going to be different. And we really have to unlearn our way of handling the past in order to manage the future. " (Charles Handy).
The success of the strategy will then depend on how effectively it can handle the changes that occur in the market: competition and demand. Globalization and technological changes are creating new forms of competition, the rules are changing in many sectors, markets are becoming more complex and unpredictable, to all this is added the flow of information in a fully interconnected world, allowing companies detect gaps and react to competitors faster.
It is important then, to interpret the current signals and to choose for a future in which the evolution of the current models prevails. Furthermore, it is imperative that the central point of competitive strategy is the ability to effectively manage technological innovations.
