The concept of enterprise strategy

According to the classic textbook "Required Reading for Strategic Management 12", enterprise strategy is the general name of various strategies of enterprises, including not only competition strategy, but also marketing strategy, development strategy, brand strategy, financing strategy, technology development strategy, talent development strategy and resource development strategy.

Enterprise strategy means that an enterprise chooses suitable business fields and products according to its own resources and strength according to environmental changes, forms its own core competitiveness, and wins in the competition through differentiation.

Enterprise strategy is the general name of all kinds of enterprise strategies, including competition strategy, marketing strategy, development strategy, brand strategy, financing strategy, technology development strategy, talent development strategy, resource development strategy and so on. Enterprise strategy is endless, for example, informatization is a brand-new strategy. Although there are many kinds of enterprise strategies, their basic attributes are the same. They are all strategies aimed at enterprises, and they are all strategies aimed at the integrity, long-term and basic problems of enterprises. For example, enterprise competition strategy is a strategy aimed at enterprise competition, which is aimed at the integrity, long-term and basic problems of enterprise competition; Enterprise marketing strategy is a strategy aimed at enterprise marketing, which is aimed at the integrity, long-term and basic problems of enterprise marketing; Enterprise technology development strategy is the strategy of enterprise technology development, which is aimed at the integrity, long-term and basic problems of enterprise technology development; Enterprise talent strategy is the strategy of enterprise talent development, which is aimed at the integrity, long-term and basic problems of enterprise talent development. Wait, it's all the same. There are similarities and differences in various enterprise strategies, the same is the basic attribute, and the difference is the level and angle of planning problems. In short, no matter what kind of strategy, as long as it involves the integrity, long-term and basic problems of the enterprise, it belongs to the category of enterprise strategy. The definition of enterprise strategy in marketing is a long-term and overall plan or scheme made by an enterprise for survival and development on the basis of summing up historical experience, investigating the present situation and predicting the future in the fierce market economy competition environment.

When a company successfully formulates and implements a value creation strategy, it can gain strategic competitiveness.

Strategy is a series of comprehensive and coordinated agreements and actions aimed at developing core competitiveness and gaining competitive advantage. If you choose a strategy, the company has made a choice in different ways of competition. In this sense, the strategic choice shows what the company intends to do and what not to do.

When a company implements a strategy that competitors can't copy or the cost is too high to imitate, it gains a competitive advantage. Only when competitors' efforts to imitate its strategy stop or fail can an organization be sure that its strategy has produced one or more useful competitive advantages. In addition, companies must understand that no competitive advantage is eternal. The speed at which competitors acquire the skills to copy the company's value creation strategy determines how long the company's competitive advantage can last.

Three States of Enterprise Strategy

Strategic form refers to the strategic ways and countermeasures adopted by enterprises. According to the manifestation, it can be divided into three forms: expansion, stability and contraction.

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Expansion strategy

Expansion strategy refers to the strategic form of taking a positive offensive attitude, which is mainly applicable to leading enterprises in the industry, enterprises with development potential and enterprises in emerging industries. Specific strategic forms include: market penetration strategy, diversified management strategy and joint management strategy.

1, market penetration strategy

Market penetration strategy refers to the expansion strategy to realize the gradual expansion of the market. This strategy can be implemented by single or combined strategies such as expanding production scale, improving production capacity, increasing product functions, improving product uses, broadening sales channels, developing new markets, reducing product costs and concentrating resource advantages. Its strategic core is embodied in two aspects: using existing products to open up new markets to achieve penetration, and providing new products to existing markets to achieve penetration.

Market penetration strategy is a typical competitive strategy, which mainly includes three most competitive strategic forms: cost leading strategy, differentiation strategy and centralization strategy. Cost leadership strategy is a strategy to make the overall operating cost of enterprises at the lowest level in the industry by strengthening cost control; Differentiation strategy is different from competitors' business characteristics (from products, brands, service methods, development strategies, etc.). ); Centralized strategy is a strategy for enterprises to form professional advantages (serving the professional market or based on a regional market, etc.). ) by pooling resources. In textbooks, cost leading strategy, differentiation strategy and centralization strategy are called "business strategy", "business strategy" or "direct competition strategy".

2. Diversified business strategy

Diversification strategy refers to the expansion strategy of an enterprise operating two or more industries at the same time, which can also be called "diversified operation". It mainly includes concentric diversification, horizontal diversification and comprehensive diversification. Concentric diversification is to face new markets and new customers, and to increase new business by using the original technology and superior resources. Horizontal diversification refers to the diversification of existing markets and customers by adopting new technologies and increasing new businesses; All-round diversification is a diversified operation realized by directly using new technologies to enter new markets.

Diversification strategy is suitable for large and medium-sized enterprises. This strategy can make full use of the business resources of enterprises, improve the utilization rate of idle assets, ease the pressure of competition, reduce operating costs, spread operating risks, enhance comprehensive competitive advantages and accelerate the process of collectivization. However, the implementation of diversification strategy should consider the correlation of industry selection, enterprise control and cross-industry investment risk.

3. Joint operational strategy

Joint operation strategy refers to the expansion strategy of two or more independent business entities horizontally forming a business entity or enterprise group, which is an inevitable form of social and economic development to a certain stage. The implementation of this strategy is conducive to the effective combination and rational allocation of enterprise resources, increase the scale of operating capital, realize complementary advantages, enhance collective competitiveness, speed up expansion and promote the development of economies of scale. In industrialized western countries, joint operation is mainly in the form of holding. The common feature of each group is that the holding company (parent company) establishes a control relationship with its subsidiaries with capital as the link, and the members of the group adopt two holding methods: circular holding (mutual holding) and one-way holding, which are divided into two control methods: mutual control of the group with large banks as the core and vertical control of the subsidiaries with large production enterprises as the core. In China, joint operation mainly takes the form of merger, merger, holding and equity participation, and establishes enterprise alliance through horizontal joint formation. Its joint operation strategy can be mainly divided into four types: integration strategy, enterprise group strategy, enterprise merger strategy and enterprise merger strategy.

The integration strategy is an enterprise consortium composed of several affiliated units, which mainly includes vertical integration (serial connection between manufacturers and suppliers and distributors), forward integration (connection between manufacturers and distributors), backward integration (connection between manufacturers and raw material suppliers) and horizontal integration (connection between enterprises in the same industry). The advantage of this strategy is that through the close alliance of affiliated enterprises, resources can be shared and the comprehensive cost can be reduced. Its disadvantage is that the management scope is enlarged, which is not conducive to the coordination of resource allocation and interest relations.

Enterprise group strategy is an economic joint organization composed of several enterprises with independent legal person status in various forms. The organizational structure is divided into: the core enterprise of the group (a group company with the nature of parent company), the tight layer (composed of subsidiaries controlled by the group company), the semi-tight layer (composed of enterprises in which the group company shares) and the loose layer (composed of enterprises that recognize the articles of association of the group company and maintain a stable cooperative relationship). The relationship between the tight layer and semi-tight layer and the group company is based on capital, while the relationship between the loose layer and the group company is based on contract. Group companies can form enterprise groups by combining with close layers. The difference between a group company and an enterprise group is that a group company is a legal person, while an enterprise group is a legal person consortium and does not have legal person qualification. The internal components of group companies are closely integrated, and the internal components of enterprise groups are multi-level integrated.

The strategy of enterprise merger and acquisition refers to the joint form of participating enterprises to realize the unification of assets, public relations and business activities and establish new legal personality by transferring ownership and management rights at the same time. Adopting merger and acquisition strategy can optimize the resource structure, realize complementary advantages and expand the scale of operation, but it is also easy to absorb non-performing assets and increase the risk of merger and acquisition.

The strategy of enterprise merger and acquisition is a joint form in which one enterprise obtains all assets or control rights of another enterprise through cash purchase or stock exchange. Its characteristics are: the merged enterprise abandons its legal person status and transfers its property rights, but retains its original enterprise name and becomes a surviving enterprise. The merged enterprise obtains property rights and undertakes the responsibilities and obligations of the creditor's rights and debts of the merged enterprise. Through merger, social resources can be integrated, production scale can be expanded, and enterprise output can be rapidly increased, but it is also easy to disperse enterprise resources, leading to out-of-control management.