Q. In crafting a industry's strategy, management's biggest challenge is Explain how closely to mimic the strategies of successful companies in the industry. Managers have comparatively little freedom in choosing the "Explain how" of strategy. Managers are wise not to decide on concrete courses of action in order to preserve maximum strategic flexibility. Managers need to come up with some distinctive "aha" element to the strategy that draws in customers and produces a competitive edge over rivals. Managers are well-advised to be risk-averse and develop a "conservative" strategy-"dare-to-be-different" strategies rarely are successful.