A Reflection by: Insert Student Name
The article primarily communicates to managers the three different types of strategies that can be utilized for innovative purposes in order to effectively address the prevailing trends. These strategies are augmenting, combine and counteract. It not only creates awareness of the factors that managers should consider when developing innovative strategy but also offers critical advice to enable managers to be more effective in analyzing trends.
The article is authored by two distinguished scholars; Professor Eli Ofek teaches business administration at Harvard Business School while Luc Wathieu chairs the Ferro International Marketing at European School of Management and Technology. The primary target audience for this article is business managers since it is their responsibility to develop and implement business strategies
The article provides verifiable examples of companies that have effectively addressed trends. It list Coach, Nike and iToys as examples of companies that have successfully used augment, combine and counteract strategies respectively. The effectively utilization of innovative strategy has enable these companies to remain competitive even during economic down turn. This has been achieved by using the innovative strategy to creating new value proposition that serves customer’s aspirations and perceptions arising from prevailing trends. The authors conclude highlighting the best approach that should be employed in developing an effective innovative strategy to address trends. This process consists of four critical steps; identification of the trend, market research, analysis of market research findings and lastly, selecting the best strategy among augment, combine and counteract that best serves the identified changes in behavior and values that are attributable to trends.
The article highlights important concepts to guide strategic decision making processes that are geared towards addressing powerful trends. It provides business managers with a checklist of important factors that should be addressed to ensure that a company remains competitive despite the dynamic nature of customer perceptions and values driven by powerful trends.
