Official skill · Strategy
Generic strategy choice
Chooses one of Porter's generic strategies on evidence, checks the stuck-in-the-middle risk, and writes the trade-offs the choice forces. Use it when deciding how to compete against bigger or cheaper rivals.
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When to use it
- Deciding how to compete against bigger or cheaper rivals
- The team is split between cutting prices and adding features or service
- The company is trying to serve everyone
What you give it
- Rivals and how each competes
- Your cost position with evidence
- What customers value and pay more for
- Segments, their size, and where you win
What you get
A two-by-two of options with evidence, one chosen strategy, a stuck-in-the-middle check, the trade-offs it forces, the activities that must fit, risks, and first moves.
How it works
- Map the options on two axes
- Test cost leadership honestly
- Test differentiation
- Test focus
- Choose one, and check for the stuck-in-the-middle risk
- Write the trade-offs
- List the activities that must fit the choice
- End with the decision, the risks, and the first moves
Example
What you give it
We're Mori Print, an online print shop in Japan, 18 staff. The big online printers sell business cards and flyers cheaper than us; their unit costs are lower, we can't match their volume. Local print shops are slower but give face-to-face help. Our orders: 40% are flyers and cards from small firms (price shoppers, low repeat), 35% are event organizers (conferences, school festivals) who need banners and signage delivered by a fixed date, often within 4 days, and who reorder each year. 25% is mixed. Event organizers often mention our phone check of their files before printing; reviews say we 'never miss a date'. Event orders have a 38% gross margin vs 21% for flyers. We also just started a cheap flyer campaign to win volume.
What you get back (the start of it)
Generic strategy: Mori Print, online printing in Japan
Prepared for: Mori Print leadership · Date: [date]
Options
| Broad market | Narrow segment: event organizers | |
|---|---|---|
| Lower cost | Cost leadership: cheapest cards and flyers for everyone | Cost focus: lowest-cost event signage |
| Differentiation | Differentiation: premium quality and service across all print | Differentiation focus: guaranteed-date event signage with file checks |
Evidence for each
| Option | Evidence for | Evidence against | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost leadership | None | Large online printers have lower unit costs and more volume | Weak |
| Differentiation | Reviews praise reliability | Broad buyers of flyers shop on price; low repeat | Weak |
| Cost focus | None given | No sign Mori is cheaper at signage [check: signage unit cost versus rivals] | Unproven |
| Differentiation focus | 35% of orders, yearly reorders, 38% gross margin, file checks and on-time record cited by customers | Segment size outside current customers unknown [check: number of event organizers reachable] | Strongest |
The rest of this output, the full steps and the checks the AI runs before it answers are in your pod once you add the skill.
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Changelog
- v1.0.0 · · First release.
Sources
- Porter's Generic Competitive Strategies - Institute for Manufacturing, University of Cambridge (read 2026-11-04)
- Strategic Positioning - Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness, Harvard Business School (read 2026-11-04)
- What Is Strategy? - Michael E. Porter, Harvard Business Review, November-December 1996 (read 2026-11-04)
- Operational Effectiveness vs. Strategy - Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness, Harvard Business School (read 2026-11-04)
- Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors (Free Press, 1980) - Harvard Business School (read 2026-11-04)
- Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance (Free Press, 1985) - Harvard Business School (read 2026-11-04)