Porter's Strategy

Porter's Strategies
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Porter's Strategies: Southwest Airlines
Porter's Generic Strategies form a major input to the subject of Strategic Management. In his books published in the 1980s, the scholar emphasized that companies are faced with decisions regarding the scope of markets, which they can serve and how best they can compete in these markets. He advocates for realization and implementation of competitive strategies to acquire desired positioning in a market setting. Porter indicates that high profitability can well be achieved by lowering costs incurred (cost leadership) and improving service delivery consequently vis-à-vis competition faced by the company. This strategy involves offering standardized products and or services at the lowest possible cost per unit to price sensitive end users or consumers, to gain relatively higher profits. Additionally, Porter's generic strategies call for differentiation of a company's products and or services from what the competition offers to arrive at competitive advantage. This strategy aims to offer distinctive and unique products and or services in the market (Lynch, 2003). The other generic strategy put forward by Porter is key focus on specific market segments. This enables the company to meet the needs of specific groups of consumers or ni...