CLEC Strategy: Fitting the Pieces Together

Yet CLECs are in their initial stage of development and like other companies at inception, their focus has been primarily on growth. Companies and analysts alike concentrate on operational metrics as a measure of growth and implementation ability, seeking out clues about viability and value. Most viewers, therefore, think of strategic analyses as but a handful among many discrete pieces that collectively constitute our "complete" picture of the firm. To the extent that technology implementation and general expansion have been key drivers thus far, this view of strategic tools has been logical.

However, given the increasingly complex nexus of activities in which a CLEC can now engage, strategic thinking can have far greater value for the firm and the analyst than it has thus far. Strategic frameworks can be used to more fundamentally shape and support the larger analytical process, helping make better sense of the broad range of options facing the CLEC and provide a better sense of the whole enterprise.

Toward this end, this report looks at the strategic thinking of Michael Porter, and the ways in which his work can relate to CLEC analysis.