Michael E. Porter has suggested three generic strategies. Briefly explain: (i) Basic objective to follow a generic strategy

According to Michael E. Porter, strategies allow organisations to gain competitive advantage to for long-time survival and growth, from three different bases: cost leadership, differentiation, and focus. These bases form different generic strategies as under: The Cost leadership strategy also involves the firm winning market share by appealing to cost-conscious or price-sensitive customers. This is achieved by having the lowest prices in the target market segment, or at least the lowest price to value ratio (price compared to what customers receive). Differentiation is appropriate where the target customer segment is not price-sensitive, the market is competitive or saturated, customers have very specific needs which are possibly under-served, and the firm has unique resources and capabilities which enable it to satisfy these needs in ways that are difficult to copy. The focus strategy is also known as 'niche' strategy. This is so because, companies adopting focus strategies focus on niche markets and, by get hold of the dynamics of such niche market and unique requirements of its customers.