Competitive Strategy Dynamics

Preface.
Acknowledgments.
Part I: Getting Started.
1. The Critical Path-the Meaning of ''Dynamics''.
Strategic resources and performance.
The problem of valuing businesses and their strategies.
Industry factors and firm performance.
2. Strategic Resources-the Fuel of Firm Performance.
A sharper focus on strategic resources.
What is already known about resources and sustained performance.
SWOT analysis-a poor basis for sound strategy.
Winning and keeping resources.
Defining and measuring resources and their flows.
3. Getting Specific-Quantifying Change.
Get quantitative!-the importance of scale, rates of change, and time charts.
Adding ''lumps'' of resource.
Stimulating and exploiting potential resources.
Developing resources within the business.
Using time charts to estimate resource development.
An illustrative scenario for staff development.
Developing resources beyond the firm.
The failure of correlation methods to explain business performance.
4. Building the Machine-Reinforcing Feedback between Resources.
Current approach to linkages within and beyond the business.
''To he who hath shall be given''-the strength of complementary resources.
Resource interdependence-an example of self-reinforcement in brand building.
Reinforcing feedback-the magic of exponential growth (but dangers of collapse).
Completing the resource-system in brands-adding limits to potential resources, resource losses, and management decisions.
Most resources need not be depleted to build others.
Be clear where revenues and costs arise.
Resource dynamics and value-chain analysis.
A practical example-rejuvenating a knitwear brand.
5. Removing the Brakes-Balancing Feedback Holds Back Growth.
Recognizing balancing feedback.
Further developments of the banking example.
Self-balancing resources.
A note on spreadsheets, system dynamics, and simulation modeling.
6. The Strategic Architecture-Designing the System to Perform.
Industry example-new product development in car manufacture.
A seven-step process for capturing the Strategic Architecture.
Strategic Architecture: diagnosing performance challenges.
Part II: Further Concepts.
7. The Hard Face of Soft Factors-the Power of Intangible Resources.
Features and impact of intangible resources.
Measuring intangible resources.
''Indirect'' resources, reflecting people's feelings or expectations regarding issues that concern them.
Resource attributes.
Integrating intangible resources into the strategic architecture.
8. Into Battle-the Dynamics of Rivalry.
Type 1 rivalry: developing potential customers.
Type 2 rivalry: capturing rivals' customers.
Type 3 rivalry: competing for sales to shared customers.
Simplifying multi-competitor dynamics: Strategic Groups.
Extending rivalry to resources other than customers.
9. Building the Capability to Perform.
Measuring capabilities.
Learning as capability building.
A process for dealing with capabilities in analyzing performance dynamics.
The impact of capabilities on performance of the entire business.
From team learning to organizational learning.
Leadership team competence.
10. Keeping the Wheels on the Road-Steering the Dynamics of Strategy.
Managing a single resource-the ''goal and control'' structure.
Dissecting interference between policies.
Conflicting goals.
Limits to human decision making.
Interference between goals and policies.
Goals, controls and the Balanced Scorecard (BSC).
Illustration of valuing a strategic initiative.
11. Further Developments on Existing Strategy Concepts
Other firm-level strategy frameworks.
Industry-level approaches to strategy.
The strategy process.
Further opportunities from a resource-system approach-corporate-level strategy.
Appendix.
References.
Index.