The general philosophy of doing business declared the firm in the mission statement must be translated into a holistic statement of the firm’s in the mission statement must be translated into a holistic statement of the firms strategic orientation before it can be further defined in terms of a specific long-term strategy. In other words, a long-term or grand strategy must be based on a core idea about how the firm can best compete in the marketplace.
Any long-term sstrategy should derive from a firm's attempt to seek a competitive advantage based on one of three generic strategics:
1.Striving for overall low-cost leadership in the industry.
2.Striving to create and market unique products for varied customer groups through differentiation.
3.Striving to have special appeal to one or more groups of consumer or industrial buyers,focusing on thier cost or differentiation concerns.