4. CURSO DE FORMACIÓN CAPACITACIÓN DOCENTE
4.10. Bibliografía
Michael Porter’s system of strategic management was a successor to the established ‘plan-ning’ approach to strategy. Porter’s view maintained strategy is about being and staying different. It introduced concepts of generic strategies, five forces analysis, and the value chain [Porter, 1980]. His frameworks for analysing and planning competitive differentia-tion have become established textbook tools.
i. Generic strategies
Porter argued there only a few key generic strategy types, “value disciplines” which combine to identify positions in the marketplace; it is important to occupy either cost leadership or differentiation, combined with a market focus (either broad or narrow).
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Cost leadership generally requires advantageous access to raw materials, labour, or other significant input. But with an emphasis on efficiency, the technical/engineering end of the design spectrum could offer clear cost-saving benefits in effective process design and in design for manufacture. Emphasising and communicating this position is also a design job, but not always recognised as such. In such a strategy, based on minimising all costs, design might be seen as an unnecessary and unjustifiable expense. Some firms overlook design in their eagerness to keep costs down [Design Council, 2006; Moultrie et al., 2006].
Differentiation protects against competition through a perceived uniqueness of the offer-ing, so design is a key weapon against commodification. Customers come to regard a product or service as unrivalled in value, and show increased loyalty. According to Treacy and Wiersema [1993], such “customer intimacy” is achieved by “segmenting and targeting markets precisely and then tailoring offerings to match exactly the demands of those niches” [Treacy & Wiersema, 1993]. This requires “detailed customer knowledge [and]
operational flexibility”, and arguably a proficient design resource to shape the offerings.
Differentiation and customer intimacy provide a rich field in which to leverage design ex-pertise, at both product level and at brand or corporate level. According to some, design services are defined by this very capability: the conception and specification of desirable, useful, usable, affordable products and services are generally perceived as the main com-petence of designers, and are usually the main reason companies engage external design expertise [Borja de Mozota, 2003].
With a narrow market focus it is easier both to understand and meet the customer’s needs in the product, and to build a strong relationship through focused communication. Design is an essential tool across all these activities.
ii. Five forces analysis
Porter’s five forces analysis identifies the forces shaping the competitive environment:
• Threat of new entrants – how easy it is for new competitors to enter the market;
what the barriers are.
• Threat of substitutes – how easily customers can find alternative products or services.
• Buyer bargaining power – how strongly buyers can dictate or influence the
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• Supplier bargaining power – how strongly suppliers can dictate or influence the prices they charge.
• Rivalry within the market – how crowded is the market; whether there are dom-inant players.
Potential Entrants
Substitutes
Suppliers Buyers
Industry competitors
Rivalry among existing firms 1
2
3
4 5
Figure 6: Porter’s 5 Forces [Porter, 1980]
As Porter states, “satisfying buyer needs may be a requisite for industry profitability, but in itself is not sufficient. The crucial question is whether this value is competed away to others.” [Porter, 1985: 9]. Exploring the possible changes in all five of these forces provides a snapshot market-based view (MBV, sometimes called outside-in). Considering how these forces might change over time is a useful way of exploring scenarios to shape the strategic plan. Effective design can contribute to the forces at play, strengthening a strategic position, most obviously by building loyalty through differentiation and clear customer focus, on both technological and ideological grounds [e.g. Olins, 1989; Lorenz, 1990; Blaich & Blaich, 1993]. Customers’ tendency to switch allegiance to rivals, new entrants or substitutes can be reduced by establishing brand loyalty through an identity, image and experience which are compelling and appealing. In terms of rivalry within the market, design enables a manufacturer to rise above competitive price wars and other profit-cutting practices.
Of course, design can be also be a strategic weapon for competitors. Many aspects of form and style are difficult to protect legally, and simply part of the pattern of trends. However, some aspects may be so inextricably associated with the original owner that if a new
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entrant were to imitate them they would undermine their own image. This can be achieved if a product is seen as definitive in its class: ‘me-too’ followers will be perceived as imitat-ors, and so valued less by some consumers [Kim & Mauborgne, 2004].
Unlike technological design features, the variations available in ‘look and feel’ are practic-ally limitless. For this reason there is always a chance of a radicpractic-ally different newcomer entering a market without necessarily any technological differentiator. A strikingly dis-tinctive and appealing design can elevate a late-comer above its established competitors.
An established market of similar products can make the newcomer stand out even more, its difference more pronounced by the sameness of its rivals.
Potential substitutes from other industries (such as, for a car manufacturer, public trans-port or the bicycle) are inherently different in both positive and negative ways, and the of-fering must set itself apart with a clear appeal, which is part of successful product per-formance. Although there may be many substitutes that can perform the same function, design can make the experience feel very different.
Supplier bargaining power is largely defined by operational and strategic factors, such as the size of the operation relative to the supplier, the degree of commodification of materi-als used, demand from other buyers (direct rivmateri-als or otherwise) and on partnerships, ver-tical integration, logistics and geography. Technological design choices can reduce dependence on particular suppliers or technologies if this force is expected to become a threat. However, there are also more human factors at play here; it might be argued that the supplier relationship is as important as the buyer (or customer) relationship. If so, design can make a significant contribution to understanding and influencing emotional and functional aspects of the relationship, just as with the buyer.
Design can influence forces of competition in the marketplace by differenti-ating a product or service, by building loyal relationships through useful, relevant, pleasurable experiences, and by influencing dependencies on and of suppliers and buyers.
iii. Design in Porter’s Value Chain
Porter’s generic value chain describes an organisation’s internal environment in terms of primary and support value activities, “the physically and technologically distinct activities
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influences the cost of another [Porter, 1985]. Value activities should be consistent, optim-ised and mutually reinforcing to achieve “strategic fit”.
The value chain is interesting when considering a holistic design ethos; design’s value has been recognised as coming mainly from industrial design practice in operations and product development [Kotler & Rath, 1984; Lorenz, 1990; Lorenz, 1994; Trueman & Job-ber, 1998; Gemser & Leenders, 2001]. Lorenz noted that Porter only included design in the value chain in its technological sense, as a primary activity in ‘operations’ and ‘techno-logy development’. This might be extended to include communication design in market-ing, represented as separate activities within each of these, in “their traditionally subservi-ent role” [Lorenz, 1994] (see Figure 7, below).
Support activities
Mar gin
Mar
Operations gin
Inbound
logistics Outbound
logistics Marketing
& Sales Service
Primary activities Firm infrastructure Human resources management
Technology development Procurement
Design Design
Design
Figure 7: Design Activities in “their traditionally subservient role to Marketing and Engineering”
modified after Porter [1985] and Lorenz [1994].
Porter emphasises the importance of the buyer’s perception of value, and describes how this is influenced by “signalling criteria” in the product (e.g. its appearance, packaging, la-bels, advertising and price) and the company (e.g. reputation, visual image and market presence) [Porter, 1985: 139]. In everyday English usage, ‘value’ and ‘values’ may have quite different meanings, the former relating to cost and benefits, the latter to cultural or ideological standpoints. It is important to note that in Porter’s terms, signalling criteria
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clude both. Far more than merely the function or price, signals of value collectively em-body and influence brand values.
Design can raise customer perception of signalled value.
This complements the view, propounded around the same time, that design’s greater value results from an integrated effort of many areas of design specialisation (graphic, interact-ive, industrial etc.) concerted across operations. After Kotler and Rath [1984], Phatak and Chandron noted that “design permeates all areas of the company activity. It not only in-cludes logos, publications, architecture and the like, but also marketing, structure, products and services”. A holistic design strategy is necessary, they argue, because piece-meal responses to major environmental (regulatory, competitive, and consumer) forces are not effective [Phatak & Chandron, 1989]. Design can contribute across communica-tions and identity, products and services, and environments [Cooper & Press, 1994], but to do this effectively designers must work with human resources, marketing, PR, operations, finance, R&D, and IT departments [Olsonet al., 1998]. Managers should make a systemat-ic examination of every part of their organisation, and they will find that “design does play a function in each and every function of every business” [Phillips, 2004: 85].
A design-led view argues that design can be applied to the other activities, not just the product, to improve the quality, user satisfaction and even the image of the other value stages. Few academic papers have explicitly considered design’s place in Porter’s value chain. In one, Borja de Morzota [2003] finds design acts at three levels in the value chain, as simultaneously a differentiator, co-ordinator/mediator, and generator of new industry vision:
• By optimizing the primary activities: design action on the consumer perceived value.
• By optimizing the co-ordination – ‘fit’ – among functions and the support activ-ities of the firm: design as a new function in the structure that transforms the management process.
• By optimizing the external co-ordination of the firm in its environment: design generating a new vision of the industry. [Borja de Mozota, 2003]
Design can improve strategic fit of value activities by supporting value activities and mediating between professional domains.
Design can serve to mediate with a firm’s external environment generating
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