> Home > Strategy Tools > Bowman's Strategy Clock
Time Management
Useful Links
 
Not a
Member Yet?
The Mind Tools Career Excellence Club gives you the training, coaching and support you need to make a lasting success of your career. Take our FREE tour, and find out what it can do for you!
Recent Discussions:
 
Quick Start
 
Relevant
Courses & Resources
  Career Excellence
with a Mind Tools
Coach
 
 
Mind Tools Coach - Sharon Juden
 
 

Mind Tools Career Coaches give you the focused personal help you need to find direction, think through your goals, and make the very most of your life and career.

Find Out More >>

 
     
 

Mind Tools Ebook

 
 

 
 

The key tools on the Mind Tools site, brought together into one easily downloadable, easily printable PDF.

More>>

 
     

   Get more resources like this...
  


The Career Excellence Club

...by joining Mind Tools. With over 600 skill-builder articles and Bite-Sized Training sessions, the first month costs only US$1!

Find Out More>>

Bowman's Strategy Clock

Making Sense of Eight Competitive Positions

In many open markets, most goods and services can be purchased from any number of companies, and customers have a tremendous amount of choice. It's the job of companies in the market to find their competitive edge and meet customers needs better than the next company. So, how, given the high degree of competitiveness among companies in a marketplace, does one company gain competitive advantage over the others? When there are only a finite number of unique products and services out there, how do different organizations sell basically the same things at different prices and with different degrees of success?

This is a classic question that has been asked for generations of business professionals. In 1980, Michael Porter published his seminal book, "Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors", where he reduced competition down to three classic strategies:

  • cost leadership
  • product differentiation; and
  • market segmentation.

These generic strategies represented the three ways in which an organization could provide its customers with what they wanted at a better price, or more effectively than others. Essentially Porter maintained that companies compete either on price (cost), on perceived value (differentiation), or by focusing on a very specific customer (market segmentation).

Competing through lower prices or through offering more perceived value became a very popular way to think of competitive advantage. For many businesspeople, however, these strategies were a bit too general, and they wanted to think about different value and price combinations in more detail.

Looking at Porter's strategies in a different way, in 1996, Cliff Bowman and David Faulkner developed Bowman's Strategy Clock. This model of corporate strategy...(Sign in to read more.)

Full text of this article is available to members of the Mind Tools Career Excellence Club. If you're a member, please click here for full text, or sign in below.

Where to go from here: Join Mind Tools Free Newsletter
  Next Article
 
 

New Articles (Not included in the Mind Tools E-book.)
* Shows articles available in full only to
Career Excellence Club members

Porter's Diamond - Shaping strategy to reflect national strengths and weaknesses*
Using the TOWS Matrix - Developing strategic options
Scenario Analysis - Exploring different futures*
The McKinsey 7S Framework - Ensuring all parts of your organization work in harmony
ADL Matrix - How industry position influences your strategy
The Boston Matrix - Focusing effort to get the greatest returns
The Ansoff Matrix - Understanding the different risks of different options
Porter's Generic Strategies- Choosing your route to competitive advantage
Core Competence Analysis - Get ahead. Stay ahead.
The Pyramid of Purpose - Concisely communicating your strategy*
Hoshin Planning System - Steering everyone in the right direction*
The Balanced Scorecard - Motivating employees to deliver your strategy
The Triple Bottom Line - Measuring your organization's wider impact*
Practical Business Planning - Understanding the components of future success*
The Cultural Web - Aligning your organization's culture with strategy
Deal and Kennedy's Cultural Model - Understanding rites and rituals*
Congruence Model - Aligning the drivers of high performance*

A full list of Mind Tools articles is available here.

return to top

Learn to manage the stress in your life with our sister site, stress.mindtools.com.

Online Training
Mind Tools Store: Mind Tools Ebook, Make Time for Success
 Stress Management Masterclass, How to Lead
 Relaxation MP3s

© Mind Tools Ltd, 1995-2010, All Rights Reserved

We welcome appropriate reprinting and reuse of Mind Tools material,
however, you must get our permission first!
To do this, please visit our Permissions Center.

Store · Search · Newsletter · Downloads · Advertisers · Affiliates

MindTools.com is one of the Internet's most-visited career skills resources.
Click here to see analysis.

Mind Tools
Free eNewsletter
New Career Skills - twice a month PLUS Personal Development Plan Workbook Free!
Subscribe to our free e-newsletter, and get new skill-builder tools every two weeks. Plus get our Personal Development Plan Workbook worth US$19.99 free when you subscribe!
"Great newsletter. Simple and not too long. Great articles. Thank you."
Mandi J Luis, Burlington, Ontario, Canada
First name
Email
Privacy Policy
 
What People Say
About Mind Tools...

"I love this newsletter! As a manager I can relate to all topics and use them quite often within myself and my team."

Christina Wall,
Davenport, IA, USA

"I have been receiving your newsletter and using your website as a resource for a while now. I wanted to let you know that you have done a great job at providing useful business tools and explainations on how to use the tools. Before finding your site I used some of the information while consulting with clients. Now I just refer people to your site and it saves me time."

Henry Pellerin,
President,
VantaEdge

 
What Bugs You?
Let us know about anything wrong, or anything you don't like about this site, and you could win a US$50 Amazon voucher!
 
Sponsored Links



Search Now:
In Association with Amazon.com