Dynamic Competitive Paradigm of Managing Moving Targets : Implications for Korean Industry

The new competitive paradigm of managing moving targets in the 21st century is being proposed. In the new era of rapid and volatile changes, whatever strategy you try, competitive advantage is tougher to create and sustain with each passing year. It is like in the world of professional baseball today, the world-class players not only need to hit better, but also field the balls better and run faster and steal more bases.In this article, we will first review the past and present competitive strategies that have been developed for a stable and predictable environment. Each of the three competitive strategies of operational excellence, product leadership and the customer intimacy has been analyzed in terms of value chain activities required for its effective implementation. Effective implementation of respective competitive strategies seems to require a unique set of strategy mix as well as organizational structure. In addition, the concept of core and supportive activities are defined for the implementation of respective competitive strategy. Now the dynamic competitive paradigm of managing moving targets can be reformulated as that of replacing the core activity from the current competitive priority with the new core activity associated with the future competitive priority. To elaborate, during this transition, the high risk of abrupt and wholesale change to the current strategy mix and organizational structure in use can be avoided. By modifying only the core activity in its value chain, an organization can make a smooth and effective transition.Now the theoretical development of dynamic competitive paradigm of managing moving targets is complete, final part of this article will present practical implication for the benefit of leadership firms in Korea. In general, the leadership firms in Korea are in transition from the strategy of operational excellence they have pursued during the first thirty years of their operations into the strategy of product leadership in the last ten years. To ensure successful transition, they need to understand the concept of selected replacement of core activities in their value chain. They also should be aware of the option of implementing separate competitive strategy for the segmented market. Finally, they should take advantage of their capability for rapid implementation during this transition