Strategic Management Cheat Sheet

The core ideas of Strategic Management distilled into a single, scannable reference — perfect for review or quick lookup.

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Quick Reference

Competitive Advantage

A condition that allows a firm to produce goods or services more effectively or at lower cost than its rivals, enabling superior profitability. It can stem from cost leadership, differentiation, or focus strategies.

SWOT Analysis

A strategic planning framework that evaluates an organization's internal Strengths and Weaknesses alongside external Opportunities and Threats to inform decision-making.

Porter's Five Forces

A framework developed by Michael Porter for analyzing the competitive intensity and attractiveness of an industry by examining five structural forces: rivalry among existing competitors, threat of new entrants, threat of substitutes, bargaining power of buyers, and bargaining power of suppliers.

Resource-Based View (RBV)

A perspective holding that sustained competitive advantage derives from a firm's unique bundle of resources and capabilities that are valuable, rare, inimitable, and non-substitutable (VRIN criteria).

Value Chain Analysis

A tool for identifying the primary and support activities within a firm that create value for customers, enabling managers to find sources of cost advantage or differentiation.

Balanced Scorecard

A strategic performance management system developed by Kaplan and Norton that translates an organization's vision into measurable objectives across four perspectives: financial, customer, internal process, and learning and growth.

Corporate-Level Strategy

Decisions about the overall scope and direction of a corporation, including which industries or markets to compete in and how to manage a portfolio of business units through diversification, vertical integration, or divestiture.

Dynamic Capabilities

An organization's ability to integrate, build, and reconfigure internal and external competencies to address rapidly changing environments, as theorized by David Teece.

Blue Ocean Strategy

A strategic approach that seeks to create uncontested market space rather than competing head-to-head in existing industries. Developed by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne, it emphasizes value innovation.

Strategic Alliance

A cooperative arrangement between two or more firms that combine resources and capabilities to pursue shared strategic objectives while remaining independent organizations.

Key Terms at a Glance

Balanced Scorecard:A performance management framework measuring strategy execution across financial, customer, internal process, and learning perspectives.

Barriers to Entry:Obstacles that make it difficult for new competitors to enter an industry, such as capital requirements, economies of scale, and brand loyalty.

BCG Matrix:A portfolio management tool classifying business units by market growth rate and relative market share into Stars, Cash Cows, Question Marks, and Dogs.

Blue Ocean Strategy:A strategic approach focused on creating uncontested market space through value innovation rather than competing in existing markets.

Competitive Advantage:A set of qualities or conditions that allow a firm to generate greater value for customers or operate at lower cost than its rivals.

Core Competency:A unique combination of skills, knowledge, and technology that provides a firm with a distinctive advantage and access to diverse markets.

Corporate Governance:The system of rules, practices, and processes by which a company is directed and controlled, balancing the interests of stakeholders.

Cost Leadership:A generic strategy in which a firm aims to become the lowest-cost producer in its industry to achieve above-average profitability.

Differentiation:A strategy that seeks to offer unique products or services that command premium prices through features, quality, branding, or customer experience.

Diversification:A growth strategy involving expansion into new products or markets, either related (sharing resources) or unrelated (conglomerate).

Dynamic Capabilities:A firm's ability to integrate, build, and reconfigure competencies to address rapidly changing environments.

Economies of Scale:Cost advantages that arise when increased production volume leads to lower per-unit costs through spreading fixed costs over more output.

First-Mover Advantage:Benefits gained by the initial significant occupant of a market segment, including brand recognition, customer loyalty, and resource control.

Horizontal Integration:A strategy of acquiring or merging with competitors at the same stage of the value chain to increase market share and reduce rivalry.

Mission Statement:A formal declaration of an organization's core purpose, defining what it does, whom it serves, and how it creates value.

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