Question
In the context of Good Strategy, Bad Strategy, coherence refers to the alignment and integration of actions, policies, and organizational structure. It's not about isolated practices or initiatives, but about how all these elements work together to form a comprehensive strategy. For instance, Wal-Mart's success is attributed to its coherence - the way its network, not just individual stores, operates as a unit. This coherence makes it difficult for competitors to replicate their success.
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Overall, it is the coherence of structure, policy, and actions that made Wal-Mart so difficult to compete with. Isolated examples, such as the introduction of barcode scanners at checkout, are not enough; Kmart also had barcode scanners in the early '80s. The difference between it and Wal-Mart is coherence, a total strategy as opposed to "some imagined 'best practice' form. … The network, not the store, became Wal-Mart's basic unit of management."
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