Carlos Jarillo - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Carlos Jarillo
Long Range Planning, Feb 1, 1991
This article challenges the accepted assumption that success is achieved by unassailable competit... more This article challenges the accepted assumption that success is achieved by unassailable competitive advantage. Examples are cited of companies that have become successful by turning potential competitors into allies and thus making cooperation , rather than competition, their objective.
Deutscher Universitätsverlag eBooks, 2007
Gabler Verlag eBooks, 2003
Gabler Verlag eBooks, 2003
Gabler Verlag eBooks, 2005
Gabler Verlag eBooks, 2003
Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks, 2003
Gabler Verlag eBooks, 2003
Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks, 2003
Gabler Verlag eBooks, 2003
Elsevier eBooks, 1993
This chapter explains why subcontracting is dangerous. The first reason is intrinsic to the pract... more This chapter explains why subcontracting is dangerous. The first reason is intrinsic to the practice of subcontracting itself: if the company does not make the right decisions on what to do outside and what inside, it can find itself working on the wrong, that is, on the least profitable activities of the business system, even if at the beginning it does not look like that. The second reason stems, at least partially, from the sets of solutions that companies have devised to deal with the first problem. By introducing protecting mechanisms, they end up raising costs system-wide, which render them eventually inefficient. One of the strongest criticisms that levelled against the practice of subcontracting is that it ends up by emptying the company of its contents. By subcontracting, the company lets outsiders capture key positions in the business system. Eventually the company finds itself squeezed out of the most interesting activities. This is indeed a serious charge.
Publisher Summary An international strategy deals with the geographic or spatial aspects of strat... more Publisher Summary An international strategy deals with the geographic or spatial aspects of strategy. This chapter discusses the main issues that are necessary to complete the argument about coordination of the business system. To talk about the globalization of competition has become a cliche, but that does not make it less true. More and more companies are selling their products on somebody else's markets, up to a point where international competition is, in most industries, a matter of degree, always present to some extent. It is well-known that some basic costs—such as labour, raw materials, or capital—vary widely among countries. Thus, it is not surprising to find that those activities taking up a lot of direct labour—such as steelmaking or toy assembly—are performed in countries where labor costs are low. For the same reason, aluminum is mostly smelted in those countries where electricity is cheap for electricity makes up to a third of the cost of making aluminum. The economists call these differences in basic costs comparative advantages.
The last few decades have seen an extraordinary development in the field of Competitive Strategy.... more The last few decades have seen an extraordinary development in the field of Competitive Strategy. Ideas that were first developed by obscure academics working on Industrial Microeconomics were adopted (and adapted) by business school professors, consultants and, eventually, practitioners. Many tenets of corporate strategy held as evident in the last century are now rightly considered wrong. For instance, it would be difficult today for a company specializing in weapons to justify buying a shoe brand, as Oerlikon did with Bally, or for a European telecom to buy an isolated minority stake in an Asian country, as Swisscom did in Malaysia. Markets, i.e., investors, would immediately react against such strategic nonsense, no matter how much the respective Public Relations departments dressed the idea up. There is now a clear appreciation of the need for a solid strategy to ensure the health of the company, going beyond platitudes such as “diversifying cash-flow streams” or “establishing bridgeheads in emerging markets to ensure future growth”. We have all learned that future profits don’t depend on some “story telling”, but are subject to a strict “Strategic Logic”.
Elsevier eBooks, 1993
This chapter focuses on the current competitive requirements in the business world. It can be sai... more This chapter focuses on the current competitive requirements in the business world. It can be said that competition has always been strong. But the current widespread comments about the special intensity of competition are clearly warranted. The speed at which change is happening in the business world is certainly accelerating, because the impact of technology is a cumulative one: every improvement in information technology, in transportation systems, and in management systems builds upon the previous ones, thus generating an exponential rate of growth. There are different time lags between scientific innovation and its commercial application. It is more and more frequent that even successful companies cannot sit back for a while and catch their breath. They have to be innovating all the time, facing constant pressure from competitors to do so faster. This quickening pace of innovation has been accompanied by a generalized drop in prices.
Gabler Verlag eBooks, 2005
Gabler Verlag eBooks, 2003
The previous chapter established the foundation for strategic logic: a business is profitable as ... more The previous chapter established the foundation for strategic logic: a business is profitable as long as it is not exposed to perfect competition, that is, while it can benefit from sustainable singularity, because competitors, for some reason, either cannot offer the same (or something truly equivalent) to their clients, or they can only do it by incurring higher costs. Therefore, we have been able to establish that the potential profitability of a business depends on the entry barriers to it, barriers that depend in turn on the structural characteristics of the business. This principle is the basis on which we have to construct our understanding of managerial reality.
Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks, 2003
This chapter is, without doubt, the most important one in the book. In Part I we saw the basic el... more This chapter is, without doubt, the most important one in the book. In Part I we saw the basic elements of strategic logic and in Part II we applied them to the three dimensions that in fact define the strategy of a company. In these chapters we have tried to understand why the profitability of one business is so different from that of another, and what the basic variables that determine it are. In this sense, they are theoretical chapters that try to explain reality. To address most readers’ interest, however, we must go one step further: to see how to apply strategic logic ‘forwards’, that is, how the ideas that we have been discussing in this book can help to design a strategy that leads a company to the desired profitability. In Chapter 7 we tried to see how strategic logic throws light on the complex questions of mergers, but here we will try to apply this logic to the most creative aspect of a manager’s job: the determination of what the company is going to do in the future.
Long Range Planning, Feb 1, 1991
This article challenges the accepted assumption that success is achieved by unassailable competit... more This article challenges the accepted assumption that success is achieved by unassailable competitive advantage. Examples are cited of companies that have become successful by turning potential competitors into allies and thus making cooperation , rather than competition, their objective.
Deutscher Universitätsverlag eBooks, 2007
Gabler Verlag eBooks, 2003
Gabler Verlag eBooks, 2003
Gabler Verlag eBooks, 2005
Gabler Verlag eBooks, 2003
Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks, 2003
Gabler Verlag eBooks, 2003
Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks, 2003
Gabler Verlag eBooks, 2003
Elsevier eBooks, 1993
This chapter explains why subcontracting is dangerous. The first reason is intrinsic to the pract... more This chapter explains why subcontracting is dangerous. The first reason is intrinsic to the practice of subcontracting itself: if the company does not make the right decisions on what to do outside and what inside, it can find itself working on the wrong, that is, on the least profitable activities of the business system, even if at the beginning it does not look like that. The second reason stems, at least partially, from the sets of solutions that companies have devised to deal with the first problem. By introducing protecting mechanisms, they end up raising costs system-wide, which render them eventually inefficient. One of the strongest criticisms that levelled against the practice of subcontracting is that it ends up by emptying the company of its contents. By subcontracting, the company lets outsiders capture key positions in the business system. Eventually the company finds itself squeezed out of the most interesting activities. This is indeed a serious charge.
Publisher Summary An international strategy deals with the geographic or spatial aspects of strat... more Publisher Summary An international strategy deals with the geographic or spatial aspects of strategy. This chapter discusses the main issues that are necessary to complete the argument about coordination of the business system. To talk about the globalization of competition has become a cliche, but that does not make it less true. More and more companies are selling their products on somebody else's markets, up to a point where international competition is, in most industries, a matter of degree, always present to some extent. It is well-known that some basic costs—such as labour, raw materials, or capital—vary widely among countries. Thus, it is not surprising to find that those activities taking up a lot of direct labour—such as steelmaking or toy assembly—are performed in countries where labor costs are low. For the same reason, aluminum is mostly smelted in those countries where electricity is cheap for electricity makes up to a third of the cost of making aluminum. The economists call these differences in basic costs comparative advantages.
The last few decades have seen an extraordinary development in the field of Competitive Strategy.... more The last few decades have seen an extraordinary development in the field of Competitive Strategy. Ideas that were first developed by obscure academics working on Industrial Microeconomics were adopted (and adapted) by business school professors, consultants and, eventually, practitioners. Many tenets of corporate strategy held as evident in the last century are now rightly considered wrong. For instance, it would be difficult today for a company specializing in weapons to justify buying a shoe brand, as Oerlikon did with Bally, or for a European telecom to buy an isolated minority stake in an Asian country, as Swisscom did in Malaysia. Markets, i.e., investors, would immediately react against such strategic nonsense, no matter how much the respective Public Relations departments dressed the idea up. There is now a clear appreciation of the need for a solid strategy to ensure the health of the company, going beyond platitudes such as “diversifying cash-flow streams” or “establishing bridgeheads in emerging markets to ensure future growth”. We have all learned that future profits don’t depend on some “story telling”, but are subject to a strict “Strategic Logic”.
Elsevier eBooks, 1993
This chapter focuses on the current competitive requirements in the business world. It can be sai... more This chapter focuses on the current competitive requirements in the business world. It can be said that competition has always been strong. But the current widespread comments about the special intensity of competition are clearly warranted. The speed at which change is happening in the business world is certainly accelerating, because the impact of technology is a cumulative one: every improvement in information technology, in transportation systems, and in management systems builds upon the previous ones, thus generating an exponential rate of growth. There are different time lags between scientific innovation and its commercial application. It is more and more frequent that even successful companies cannot sit back for a while and catch their breath. They have to be innovating all the time, facing constant pressure from competitors to do so faster. This quickening pace of innovation has been accompanied by a generalized drop in prices.
Gabler Verlag eBooks, 2005
Gabler Verlag eBooks, 2003
The previous chapter established the foundation for strategic logic: a business is profitable as ... more The previous chapter established the foundation for strategic logic: a business is profitable as long as it is not exposed to perfect competition, that is, while it can benefit from sustainable singularity, because competitors, for some reason, either cannot offer the same (or something truly equivalent) to their clients, or they can only do it by incurring higher costs. Therefore, we have been able to establish that the potential profitability of a business depends on the entry barriers to it, barriers that depend in turn on the structural characteristics of the business. This principle is the basis on which we have to construct our understanding of managerial reality.
Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks, 2003
This chapter is, without doubt, the most important one in the book. In Part I we saw the basic el... more This chapter is, without doubt, the most important one in the book. In Part I we saw the basic elements of strategic logic and in Part II we applied them to the three dimensions that in fact define the strategy of a company. In these chapters we have tried to understand why the profitability of one business is so different from that of another, and what the basic variables that determine it are. In this sense, they are theoretical chapters that try to explain reality. To address most readers’ interest, however, we must go one step further: to see how to apply strategic logic ‘forwards’, that is, how the ideas that we have been discussing in this book can help to design a strategy that leads a company to the desired profitability. In Chapter 7 we tried to see how strategic logic throws light on the complex questions of mergers, but here we will try to apply this logic to the most creative aspect of a manager’s job: the determination of what the company is going to do in the future.