Is Porter right?

Porter (Harvard Business Review, 1996) described strategy as 'the creation of a unique and valuable position'. He dismisses the concept of increasing market turbulence as being a driver for 'flexibility' and calls 'hypercompetion' a 'self-inflicted wound'. The idea is that no matter what the environment, organisations need a strategy to set their course, define their constraints and create a unique position. The Southwest airline model is frequently used as an example. For Europeans Ryanair and Easyjet are better still. Who would have thought some 10 years ago that Europe's 3rd biggest airline (passenger numbers) would be an Irish start-up and that in 3 years time Ryanair may be the biggest European airline surpassing Air France-KLM and Lufthansa! Ryanair owe their success to the Southwest example but also to a relentless focus on their low cost strategy and its achievement as intended. Meanwhile the established airlines with no particular strategy, except to meet operational targets, struggle to survive. The lesson is to separate strategy formulation from managing operations. Targets set out in terms such as revenue, cost, margin, passenger miles or similar are not strategy (they may become constraints). Strategy is what you are and what you want to be. Successful strategy is what sets you apart. I agree with Porter.