In 1975, Kenichi Ohmae, a director at the management-consulting firm McKinsey & Company, published ‘The Mind of the Strategist: The Art of Japanese Business.’ While it is now considered a somewhat dated classic on Japanese corporate strategy, its core premise is very relevant to marketing:
The purpose of strategy is to maximize competitive advantage, strategy begins with analysis, and the ‘strategic triangle’ of customers, competitors, and company is an effective analysis framework for identifying competitive advantage.
I read the book in 1985, and have since used the ‘strategic triangle’ as the starting point of every marketing plan I’ve developed and written. Simply put, I analyze customer needs by market segment, examine how competitors meet those needs, and determine my company’s competitive advantages and disadvantages. This method of analysis yields two critical insights:
1. The market segments to target now based on present competitive advantage.
2. The market segments that offer the best future opportunities based on size, projected growth rate, and a company’s ability to quickly and economically gain a competitive advantage.
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