Week 4 seminar madonna suggestion

3BM020 Organisational Strategy & Decision Making Week 4 Seminar: Case study Madonna: The Reigning Queen of Pop?... Question 1:Describe and explain the strategy being followed by Madonna

3BM020 Organisational Strategy & Decision Making

Week 4 Seminar: Case study Madonna: The Reigning Queen of Pop?

Question 1:

Describe and explain the strategy being

followed by Madonna in terms of competitive strategy

 The strategy pursued by Madonna can be explained

both in terms of a generic competitive strategy

(Michael Porter’s generic strategies) and in terms

of principles of hypercompetitive strategies.

Clearly she has sought to differentiate herself

throughout her career This has taken different forms,

as the case explains, but there has been an underlying theme of the ‘independent woman’ throughout What

has varied has been the different personas within

this Students could debate whether or not these have been pitched at particular ‘market segments’ and in this sense represent multiple niche strategies or

focused differentiation; or the extent to which they

are simply tactical bases of differentiating herself

from imitators and followers.

 Another interpretation would fit with explanations

of hypercompetitive strategies Many of the

principles outlined by D’Aveni seem to apply:

Cannibalising the bases of success:

organisations have to be willing to cannibalise the basis of its success in order to develop new

advantages Maintaining the old basis can hinder the development of new advantages.

A series of small moves rather than big moves:

in gaining and maintaining advantage a series of

small moves as opposed to big moves create more flexibility and result in a series temporary

advantages, smaller moves also give the advantage

in that they are harder to detect by the

competitors

Be unpredictable: unpredictability can be

important in in the pattern of strategic

moves, it makes it difficult for competitors to predict the next moves and hence more

difficult to quickly imitate or copy Arguably Madonna has successfully followed this

unpredictable pattern in sustaining her reign

as the ‘queen of pop’ As a more up to date

example perhaps Lady GaGa is also a follower

of this strategy, whether she is imitating

Madonna is another talking point

Mislead the competition: linking into point

three above, in some instances business

managers and strategy formulators might

consciously appear to be unpredictable or

irrational to the outside competition whilst

internally being thinking through strategies

This links to Game Theory where

organisations might signal and show

intensions to act in one way but the do

something different in reality This approach can also be employed where an organisation might play down initial success in a market until it is ready to use this strategically

against competitors

 Each persona is temporary; each one is very

different from the last; Madonna seems to move

on to a different image even while being

successful in her last one; they are not

predictable changes; they can be surprising,

even shocking.

 The Madonna case therefore illustrates that the idea of hypercompetition is not necessarily

contradictory to the idea of generic basis of

competition It might be possible to be

differentiated in a hypercompetitive way Think about links to Questions 2 and 3 here, that is, the most recent events allow for the questioning of the long-term sustainability of hypercompetition itself.

Question: 2

Why has she experienced sustained success over three decades?

 This question invites students to consider the basis of sustainability in this context Students might wish to ask which principles of

sustainability hold They should see that a

number of principles do Madonna appears to

have competences of innovation and

flexibility.

 The pop industry has learned to work with her, and in this sense they have developed a mutual co-specialised dependence; so, it looks to

promote her interests given her track record Certainly it is difficult to predict where she will move next, or how she is successful

(causalambiguity).

Question: 3

Can Madonna sustain her success?

This question invites students to question

these bases of sustainability The strategy

does not seem to be vulnerable to others

imitating it since it is difficult for them to

understand or predict what they would be

imitating However, students might argue

that it is surely a risky strategy as she seeks

to second guess the nature of the market and make so many changes to her image

They are likely to argue that the risk is

market acceptance If so, how would they

explain the continued success, given so many changes over so many years? Has the formula for success run out of steam? And if so why?