Page 48 - The Resilient Organization

Parts More Resilient than the Whole 35

Competition may also mean the destruction of or the submission of the
other party (or parties). Competitive logic, then, implies the opportunity for
the use of raw force but also for cunning—beating the opponent or enemy
with wit and surprise. Such strategies of brutal or witty encounter are called
here “confrontational strategies” due to their nature as opportunistic and
dependent on interaction and/or engagement. Surprise and mobility were
Napoleon’s stock–in-trade in warfare, though Liddel Hart (1968) criticizes
his obsession with the idea of battle, which cost Napoleon dearly in the
demoralization of French troops in Moscow in 1812. Victorious were the
strategies for evasion, practiced so successfully by Kutuzov against
Napoleon. Kutuzov, of course, had the advantage of being able to retreat
all the way to Siberia if need be.

TYPES OF STRATEGIES

Sources of Sustained Advantage

(Non)competitive • Unique customer insight, superior
strategies industry know-how, managerial
competence, operational efficiency
• Rare, inimitable, or nonsubstitutable
underlying resources and/or competencies
• Erection and/or existence of entry
barriers to potential competitors
• Monopolistic market rights (for example,
ownership of intellectual property)
• Unique control of critical resources
Unison strategies • Divided and/or dispersed and hence
ineffective opposition
• Unreproducible or unimitable
complementarities in resources or
competencies
• Lowest partner and/or network
transaction and/or coordination
costs

(continued)