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In any organization, strategic planning and implementation are the cornerstones of business growth and success. A comprehensive business strategy helps in making major decisions by encouraging an organization to work on its strengths. It’s a combination of decisions or courses of action that assist the management to achieve business goals and secure a competitive position in the market.
The main purpose of a business strategy is to help businesses maximize returns and find ways to map progress. The term is often used interchangeably with business-level strategy but the two aren’t quite the same. Let’s see what business-level strategies entail, their meaning and examples.
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What Is A Business-Level Strategy?
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Business-Level Strategy Examples
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Focus On Creating Business Solutions
What Is A Business-Level Strategy?
Business-level strategies are detailed plans that incorporate an organization’s policies, actions and goals with a focus on how to deliver value to customers while having a competitive advantage in the market. It determines the position of a business in an industry and the direction of profits. By exploring core competencies, a business-level strategy analysis can help organizations set guidelines to achieve overall objectives.
If you take business-level strategy examples, you can see how it helps businesses find an innovative way to showcase unique assets, synchronize individual components so that organizations function as a whole unit and improve their competitive advantage and leverage in the market. Business-level strategies also help an organization focus on strengthening inter- and intradepartmental roles while guiding them toward common objectives.
Business-level strategy definition is rooted in three key characteristics:
- They ensure that all departments follow the same strategy while staying on track to fulfill business goals
- They coordinate different elements and members of various teams and departments to ensure that everyone’s on the same page
- They provide direction to every department, and therefore each individual by extension; they help determine various skills and responsibilities that every person needs to shoulder
There are various types of business-level strategies, each instrumental in meeting goals and boosting market share.
Business-Level Strategy Examples
Business-level strategies are a combination of actions and decisions that help organizations offer value to customers and create a competitive advantage. Here are some business-level strategy examples that discuss different kinds of strategies used by organizations:
1. Cost Leadership
Such strategies focus on reducing costs and producing products for the masses (general population). There is cost reduction in different areas such as production, packaging and storage, among others. Ways in which businesses reduce costs are:
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- Establishing strict cost control
- Using high-quality facilities to produce goods at low cost
For such business-level strategies to be effective, you need to standardize your product or service.
2. Differentiation
This aims at developing a unique product for the mass market. There is uniqueness in specifications, customer service and brand image. While it may not lead to a necessary competitive advantage, there is a greater chance of customer satisfaction. Multiple ways to ensure differentiation include:
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- Creative design
- Superior quality
- Good customer service
Differentiation has multiple benefits as it brings you brand loyalty and powerful buyers.
3. Focused Cost Leadership
Such businesses compete on the basis of costs but they’re also unique as they serve a niche market. Some common mechanisms include:
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- Serving a small customer base
- Understanding demands of the target market and reducing costs accordingly
4. Focused Differentiation
Similar to differentiation business-level strategies, focused differentiation helps organizations focus on a narrow segment of the market. Businesses offer unique products to a smaller segment. They are able to do so by:
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- Selecting a profitable subset of the market
- Focusing on areas where competition is weak
- Focus on areas where product substitution is hard
5. Integrated Cost Leadership And Differentiation
As the name suggests, this type of business-level strategy meaning is rooted in low-cost product offerings with differentiated features. These are core drivers of competitive advantage. Often called a hybrid strategy, this may get risky but can be highly appealing to consumers.
It’s clear from these business-level strategy examples that such planning and organizing are essential as they provide a blueprint for the entire business, informing how an organization should compete in the market.
Focus On Creating Business Solutions
What is a business-level strategy without thorough planning and organization? If you want to identify opportunities and trends that can inform decisions for the future, you need to rely on your decision-making and problem-solving skills. Harappa’s Creating Solutions course will help you avoid common analytical errors while piecing solutions together. You’ll use logic and data to understand multiple aspects of problems using various frameworks such as Synthesis Technique and AQR Framework. Be an effective problem-solver to lead your strategies with confidence!
Explore Harappa Diaries to learn more about topics such as Exit Strategy, Business Strategy, the Importance Of Business Level Strategy and Business Planning Process to classify problems and solve them efficiently.
