成本领先战略 / Cost Leadership

「释义」

成本领先战略是指企业通过降低自己的生产和经营成本，以低于竞争对手的产品价格，获得市场占有率，并获得同行业平均水平以上的利润。

成本领先战略旨在利用先进技术开发生产规模，明确范围和其他经济形式（例如良好的采购方法），生产高度标准化的产品。沃尔玛凭借其成本领先战略在全球范围内取得了成功。该公司减少了每个生产环节的多余产品，因此能够以低廉的价格为消费者提供优质的产品。

成本领先的概念是由迈克尔·波特（Michael Porter）提出的。

「应用场景」

我们审视了2008年衰退之前那一时期的数据，按照迈克尔·波特(Michael Porter)的理论，看看5278家上市公司凭借他们的基本策略（要么成为纯粹的差异化企业，要么成为纯粹的成本领先企业）运行得如何。差异化企业的竞争立足于质量或服务等各种因素，而不是优先考虑低价。另一方面，成本领先企业将其策略重点置于降低成本上，从而使他们能够以尽可能低的价格提供产品。波特表示，只要策略方向是纯粹的，这两种策略都会成功。可是在我们的分析中，差异化企业明显比成本领先企业更有可能在大萧条中减少收入，明显更有可能破产。

We looked at data from the period right before the 2008 recession addressing how 5,278 publicly-traded firms fared based on their generic strategy of being either pure differentiators or pure cost leaders, according to Michael Porter’s theories. Differentiators compete based on a variety of factors, such as quality or service, rather than prioritizing low prices. Cost leaders, on the other hand, focus their strategy on reducing costs thus enabling them to offer the product for the lowest possible price. Porter says either strategy will be successful, as long as the strategic orientation is pure. But in our analysis, differentiators were significantly more likely to suffer reduced revenues than cost leaders in the Great Recession and were significantly more likely to go out of business.

鉴于此，善于思考的策略师可能会认为，以转向成本领先的方式来改变策略是明智的选择。毕竟，从差异化转向成本领先有一定道理；在经济衰退中，尤其是在严重衰退中，人人都会勒紧裤腰带。消费者会减少他们的开支，寻找价格更低的供应商。企业力图减少其开支，以渡过难关。尤其是在我们2008年经历过的（或者现在经历的）那种不可预测的环境中，削减成本成为多数企业努力的核心焦点。然而，我们的数据并不支持在经济衰退时期改变策略，转而成为成本领先企业。我们发现，当差异化企业转向成本领先战略时，那些努力对他们并无助益。事实上，我们发现，改变策略并未增加企业从衰退中幸存下来的机会，也并未改善企业的收入或财务状况。

In light of this, a thoughtful strategist might think it wise to change strategies by moving toward cost leadership. After all, moving from differentiation toward cost leadership makes a certain sense; everyone tightens their belts in a recession, particularly a severe one. Consumers reduce their spending and look for cheaper suppliers. Businesses seek to reduce their expenses to weather the storm. Especially in an environment as unpredictable as we had in 2008 (or as we have now), cutting costs becomes a central focus of most businesses’ efforts. However, our data do not support changing strategies to become a cost leader during a recession. We found that when differentiators moved toward a cost leadership strategy such efforts did not help them. In fact, we found that changing strategy did not increase firm chances of surviving the recession, nor did it improve the firm’s revenues or its finances.

《大衰退带来的策略教训》

迈克尔·格雷纳，斯科特·朱利安

2020年8月刊

“Avoid Making This Strategic Mistake in a Recession”

by Michael Greiner and Scott Julian

编辑：马冰仑