The challenge to be unique

By Christopher Ward, Chief Executive of Wales Management Council

Getting ahead in the market is a major challenge for anyone running an enterprise, but sustaining the lead for any length of time is a monumental feat indeed.

However, following a recent encounter in Cardiff with one of the world's most impressive business thinkers, hundreds of managers and directors from across Europe now have a new insight into this elusive phenomenon of competitive staying power.

I had the pleasure and privilege of chairing Professor Michael Porter’s one-day management conference on 20 May 2004 at St David’s Hall, Cardiff.

Professor Porter, head of Harvard's renowned Institute of Strategy and Competitiveness has been dubbed “the world’s leading business intellectual.”

He certainly showed it to his Cardiff masterclass of more than 500 British, Irish, Belgian and Swiss delegates under the title: “Discovering Strategy – Directing Business – Delivering Success”.

He was on stage for a total of four and a half hours, presenting his ideas with the help of almost 90 slides and dishing out new and challenging food for thought at every turn.

This short article won’t even attempt to summarise what he said but I'd like to share a few statements that certainly resonated with me:

For example: “If companies are going to sustain competitive advantage, they can’t do it by being more efficient at running the business. They have to have a distinctive way of competing.”

Throughout the conference, the words “distinctive”, “unique”, “different” appeared time and time again. And Michael Porter was at pains to emphasise that statements of aspiration to be the best, or to do something specific, or to have a grand vision, are not strategy at all.

Furthermore “operational effectiveness and best practice are not strategy” because they can all be imitated by others.

Strategy is for Michael Porter “creating a unique and sustainable competitive position”, and, for the most successful businesses, it’s not about “running the same race faster”, it’s about “running a different race” in relation to your competitors.

And strategy is both about deciding what you are going to do to be unique, and deciding with equal clarity what you are not going to do.

The only goal “is superior long-term return on the capital invested in the business.” That is creating economic value, which is the only thing that really matters.

Lessons for us all, and lessons for Wales.