Week 3 - Analyzing the External Strategic Environment and Evaluating Industry Dynamics
One of the biggest words among the readings, is “trends”. “Be friends with trends”. IT has been mentioned by many, and there are always countless examples of successful ones, and (way more often) failed ones. As mentioned in class, the blockbuster iPod was a classic example of the successful implementation — the timing was just right where various elements altogether made up to its historic success. On the other hand, it reminds me of the story of Segway, the once-promising startup that was determined to “revolutionize the way people travel”. The magical 2-wheelers were indeed revolutionary, such that several people including Steve Jobs wanted to be a stakeholder of the company so bad after trying, but got rejected. However, the “Segway dream” never came into reality, although the company still survives to this day. The reasons of its failure were multi-fold, such as regulation conflicts, etc., but can be concluded by failing to sync with the grander trend on traffic.
One of the main takeaways from the readings is how important learning about macro trends will be a critical part of making strategies. For instance, one is learning about the inevitable aging population in the coming decades globally. I remember having read somewhere that business is not simply focusing on the tasks at hands, but what’s much more important is the grander trends. In the reading, it gives an example of Toyota, already a major car manufacturer in the US market, got hit severely when the recession hit. Rather than settling with letting the cars sit to waste in the stock and selling with discounts, Toyota identified the southeast Asia market that the economy there was booming which gave birth to the middle class that could afford cars, and brilliantly shipped the cars from the US and cleared nearly all of the stocks. This is a classic example of flexibly utilizing the macro trends and broaden the horizons of strategy, and made a great impression to me. One of the most famous entrepreneurs and founder of Xiaomi, Lei Jun, once said, “When tailwinds come, even pigs can fly”. There sure will be countless tailwinds for the smart pigs in the near future.
It has been mentioned by multiple readings that we need to prepare for the “disruptions”, which has been quite an overused word. One impressionable point of view I encountered, and agreed with, is that the rules applied to the successful of many traditional giant corporations for decades, don’t apply to the “tech” companies that have taken over the world. These tech companies’ models and operations are really something we haven’t seen before, ever. This “uncertainty” will surely proceed into the future and if anything, will become even more fierce.
One of the main takeaways from the readings is how important learning about macro trends will be a critical part of making strategies. For instance, one is learning about the inevitable aging population in the coming decades globally. I remember having read somewhere that business is not simply focusing on the tasks at hands, but what’s much more important is the grander trends. In the reading, it gives an example of Toyota, already a major car manufacturer in the US market, got hit severely when the recession hit. Rather than settling with letting the cars sit to waste in the stock and selling with discounts, Toyota identified the southeast Asia market that the economy there was booming which gave birth to the middle class that could afford cars, and brilliantly shipped the cars from the US and cleared nearly all of the stocks. This is a classic example of flexibly utilizing the macro trends and broaden the horizons of strategy, and made a great impression to me. One of the most famous entrepreneurs and founder of Xiaomi, Lei Jun, once said, “When tailwinds come, even pigs can fly”. There sure will be countless tailwinds for the smart pigs in the near future.
It has been mentioned by multiple readings that we need to prepare for the “disruptions”, which has been quite an overused word. One impressionable point of view I encountered, and agreed with, is that the rules applied to the successful of many traditional giant corporations for decades, don’t apply to the “tech” companies that have taken over the world. These tech companies’ models and operations are really something we haven’t seen before, ever. This “uncertainty” will surely proceed into the future and if anything, will become even more fierce.
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