Wettbewerbsstrategien (Essay)

Competitive strategy (essay) A well constructed competitive strategy makes a significant contribution to the economic success of a forest enterprise. The essay introduces Porter's analysis of competitive strategy (1980), in the context of a short description of the forest economy. Three basic competitive strategies, one focused on expenses and two on income, are presented and applied to the classical output groups of the forest economy – wood, protection from natural risks, protection of nature, leisure and recreation. The expense-focused strategy aims at reducing own costs. The first income-focused strategy looks for products or services for which the client is prepared to pay significantly more than at present. The second income-focused strategy develops areas of activity by which the forest enterprise can avoid competition and supply products or services which the client must buy from it. In this way, the forest enterprise can claim a larger share of the exchange surplus for itself. However, some of the outputs of the forest enterprise are more suited than others for this strategy.