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Strategies are Sustainable

The Southwest case shows the importance of making tough choices (trade-offs) in defining strategy. Strategy is about purposely making tough choices when deciding which activities to pursue to best serve the needs of a group of customers. These trade-offs force your competitors to make even tougher choices if they decide to duplicate your activities and market position. It forces them to straddle both their existing operations and your unique activities which is usually untenable . This gives you the ability to defend your position with a sustainable advantage over your rivals which is, after all, the aim of competitive strategy.

Reference: “What Is Strategy?”, Michael E. Porter, Harvard Business School Press, Nov. 1, 1996.

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