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Beating Low Cost Competition is a practical guide that will help executives in traditional companies with premium brands understand their options for responding to this growing threat.
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Interesting Blog on Low Cost Competition in the Newspaper Business
July 16, 2010 – 3:25 am
This blog by Rick Edmonds entitled “Are Newspapers Sticking to a Premium Strategy Amid Digital Disruption?” in Poynter Online comments on the applicability of my McKinsey Quarterly piece to the newspaper industry.
When Companies Underestimate Low Cost Rivals
July 15, 2010 – 7:00 am
McKinsey Quarterly recently published a short article I wrote on companies underestimating their low cost rivals. The article was a “conversation starter” and has attracted quite a large number of comments from executives from all over the world. Some of them are very thoughtful and you might find them very interesting.
Siemens Emphasizing Industrial Services in Order to Stay Ahead of Asian Rivals
April 29, 2010 – 8:00 am
The CEO of Siemens, Europe’s largest engineering group, recently emphasized that his company will continue to put increased emphasis on industrial services to try and stay ahead of his (low cost) Asian rivals. The Financial Times article pointed out that Siemens’ services business is growing faster than its products business. The article also mentions research [...]
Why Apple Can’t Control its Chinese Factories
March 11, 2010 – 8:04 am
Apple benefits a great deal from outsourcing its manufacturing. It is almost certainly much lower cost than in-house manufacturing, but probably the biggest benefits are the flexibility and the ability to rapidly ramp up a new product like the iPad. However, a few days ago an article in the Daily Telegraph (UK) reported on a [...]
Upstart Huawei Rises to No.2
November 30, 2009 – 11:41 pm
Huawei is now the No.2 (after Ericsson) in several segments of the telecommunications market. This New York Times article points out that while Huawei’s prices are often lower, a good deal of its ascendancy can be traced to innovative products and the low cost of ownership of its products. Huawei recently made headlines around the [...]
Panasonic Launches a New Strategy to Meet Low-Cost Competition in Developing Markets
November 29, 2009 – 10:35 pm
This Financial Times article describes the new strategy Panasonic is adopting in its appliance business to take advantage of opportunities in the good enough segment of the market in developing countries. The products are designed in the local markets to meet local needs and manufactured there. They may use key components, such as refrigerator compressors, [...]
Indian Companies Develop Innovative Low Cost Products & Services
October 21, 2009 – 10:12 pm
This article in the Wall Street Journal highlights a few recent examples of how Indian engineers are developing exciting new, low cost products and services for the poor. However, many of these innovations have the potential to find homes in other markets, including developed country markets. In my opinion we are likely to see a [...]
Chinese manufacturers begin to move beyond low cost
July 20, 2009 – 4:02 am
In a recent article in the Financial Times (May 28, 2009) Peter Marsh describes the efforts of several Chinese companies to develop more advanced products. He also discusses the implications of this for leading Western companies that supply these Chinese companies as well as other companies that want to take advantage of, and learn from, [...]
Open-Source Software Booming in the Recession
June 5, 2009 – 5:49 am
Many of the technology companies offering product or services tied to open-source software seem to be booming in tough times (Economist, May 30, 2009). Increasingly mainstream companies, such as IBM and Oracle, are capitalizing on the trend as more and more companies are implementing or expanding open-source software initiatives.
Jugaad in India
June 5, 2009 – 5:33 am
The Economist had an interesting article on jugaad. Jugaad are improvised Indian vehicles used by Indian farmers, but the term also refers to any innovative, low-cost way of providing a product or service. The global recession has increased the opportunity for Indian companies with such products to expand into foreign markets where there is a [...]
