Business Strategy
Business strategy is focused at the level of the individual business or business unit within the
firm, and is concerned with where the business positions itself within a particular industry
or market as well as with how and with what capabilities the business will win customers,
cooperatively and/or in competition with other players in its industry. Empirical evidence
from a study of over 100 companies found that those companies that engaged in system level
thinking (Sterman 2000) about their business strategies significantly outperformed those that
focused at the product level. Specifically, the study (Hax and Wilde 2001) differentiated three
views a firm might take in setting strategy:
1. Best Product: This view comes from the classic competitive strategy field of thought.
Simply, it focuses on beating the competition by positioning the firm’s products or