Bowman’s Strategy Clock

Bowman’s Strategy Clock

*Making Sense of Eight Competitive Positions* (*https://www.mindtools.com/community/pages/article/newSTR_93.htm) 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 extends Porter’s three strategic positions to eight, and explains the cost and perceived value combinations many firms use, as well as identifying the likelihood of success for each strategy. Figure 1 below, represents Bowman’s eight different strategies that are identified by varying levels of price and value. {draw:frame} Position 1: Low Price/Low Value

Firms do not usually choose to compete in this category. This is the “bargain basement” bin and not a lot of companies want to be in this position. Rather it’s a position they find themselves forced to compete in because their product lacks differentiated value.