Anticipation

the key anticipations are often of buyer demand and competitive reactions.

The strategy must have insight into predictable aspects of others' behavior that can be turned to advantage.  At the simplest level, a strategy of investing in Manhattan real estate is based on the anticipation that other people's future demand for this real estate will raise its value.  In competitive strategy, the key anticipations are often of buyer demand and competitive reactions.

As an example of anticipation, while the SUV craze was booming in the United States, Toyota invested more than $1 billion in developing hybrid gasoline-electric technologies: an electronically controlled continuously-variable-speed transmission and its own chips and software to control the system.  There were two anticipations guiding this investment.  First, management believed that fuel economy pressures would, over time, make hybrid vehicles a major product category.  Second, management believed that, once presented with the chance to license Toyota's technology, other automakers would do so and not invest in developing possibly superior systems.  Thus far, both anticipations have proven reasonably accurate.

ACTION POINT: What are the predictable behaviors of your markets that you can anticipate to create advantage?