What skills are necessary for a new manager to manage a business unit following a differentiation strategy?

What skills are necessary for a new manager to manage a business unit following a differentiation strategy? Explain in detail and provide an example.

The nature of differentiation strategy calls for unique set of skills from a manager to be able to manage a business. Differentiation strategy focuses on bringing a product or service that has unique characteristics and attributes that the services or products of a competitor business does not possess. To manage in such a situations, a manager must be able to be knowledgeable about the uniqueness of the characteristics of the product or services so that he/she is able to guide the employees working in different functional units in understanding these characteristics and work efficiently.  Without a proper knowledge and understanding, the employees might be lost and go in the wrong directions. Managers also need to be innovative and encourage innovation as differentiation strategy requires thinking out of the box to achieve uniqueness in products and services.

For example if a price leader strategy is utilized to be ahead of the competitors, the manager must be able to keep an eye on market prices and profit margins. The managers also need to closely monitor the prices of the competitors as they may also decrease their prices.