What is the The Positioning School of Strategy?

The Positioning School focuses on the content of strategies giving rise to the study of strategic management. The position view posits that a limited set of strategies can fit any given firm.

The leading scholar in the position field is Michel Porter, who proposed the concept of Competitive Advantage through the used of Generic Strategies. 

He posited that any firm there are a few positions giving rise to an advantage in the market place. The position in the market place is one of any Five Forces. 

Finally, Porter also proposed a Value Chain which categorized the operational aspects of a firm into primary and support activities. Arranging these activities can lead to competitive advantage through differentiation or cost structure. 

What are the Premises of the Positioning School?

The premises of the position school include:

• Strategies are generic, specifically common and identifiable positions in the Market Place.
• The Market place is economic and competitive.
• The strategy formation process is only a matter of selecting any of the generic positions of the firm in the market place, based on analytical calculation.
• Although the analysis process is fundamental, the top manager has the control over the choices (results).
• After the analysis and choice, the strategy is ready for implementation. In general, is the market structure that drives position strategies and therefore, it is the market that also drives the organization‘s structure

The strategy formation process separates thinking from doing, giving to the top management total control over the strategy formulation.

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