Strategies and intentions
Business strategies are like fashion. There are trends and tendencies in everything. 20 years ago you should diversify and have vertical integration. 10 years ago you should concentrate and focus on your core business and outsource processes which wasn’t.
Today you have companies which are extremely successful by focusing on their core business and companies in the same line of business which are suffering using the same strategy . You have competitors who are prosperous by using the opposite strategy e.g. vertical intergration.
Examples of this are Apple who as we all know make hardware, software (programmes) and OS, that is to say is vertically integrated, and Dell who makes hardware, servers and networking products, that is to say is more focused.
How can two competitors be almost as prosperous while following totally different strategies?
How can we see so contrasting results for companies in the same line of business using the same strategy?