Competitive strategies are concerned with how a strategic business unit achieves competitive advantage in its domain of activity meanwhile competitive advantage is about how an strategic business units (SBU) creates value for its users both greater than the costs of supplying them and superior to that of rival SBUs. An SBU can have lower costs than its competitors or it can have products or services that are so exceptionally valuable to customers that it can charge higher prices than competitors. There are two basic criteria that can help in identifying appropriate SBUs: Market-based criteria and Capabilities-based criteria. For Market-based criteria, if the parts of an organization are targeting same types of customers through the same sorts of channels and facing similar competitors, they might he regarded as the same SBU. As for Capabilities-based criteria, if they have similar strategic capabilities then the parts of an organization should only be regarded Continue reading
Business Strategies
Case Study of Walmart: Business Model Innovation for Sustainability
A business model is a plan or strategy that a company uses to attain its goals and objectives. The goals and objectives of an organization relates to the identification of the targeted customer base, identifying the sources of funds and the various areas for revenues. The goals for most companies are to maximize the profit and to make sure that the company expands and grows in the process. A business model is an abstract depiction of a company. It integrates the various processes of a company and highlights the various strategies and approaches taken by a company to achieve its objectives and goals in the process. A business model is developed by aligning the goals of an organization with the structure of an organization. There are various types of business models. Some of them are, “Bricks and clicks model”, “collective business models”, Direct sales model” etc. These are some of Continue reading
Market Activated Corporate Strategy (MACS) Framework
Market Activated Corporate Strategy (MACS) Framework was developed in the late 1980s. But it wasn’t developed at once. There were several predecessors to this framework. Once of the first can be the BCG Growth-Share Matrix. This matrix represents the market growth rate and the relative market share, and according to the level, the business units were divided into 4 categories. It was used very often before, but over the time more comprehensive tools were designed, to eliminate the weaknesses of BCG Matrix, like the fact that is takes into consideration only two factors, avoiding many many others that have a huge impact on profitability. BCG Matrix also assumes the independence of each business unit, therefore it leads to underestimation of the interconnection that often exists (as “Dogs”, for example, sometimes help in gaining competitive advantage) Another predecessor is the old nine-box matrix, developed by McKinsey. It covers industry attractiveness and Continue reading
The Effects of Organizational Culture on Strategic Management
Organizational culture is one of the important parts of the strategic thinking and it can impact on company’s employees, customers, suppliers and other different targets. The owner of the company can create their own strategy on the alignment of unique organizational culture with a competitive space. It also involves how organizational culture affects its strategic decision, options and actions. Culture of an organization refers to the unique configuration of norms, beliefs, ways of behaving and so on that characterize the manner in which groups and individuals combine to get things done. It also can define that the set of important assumptions that members of an organization share in common. There is other definition of the organizational culture involves assumptions, adaptations, perceptions and learning. Organizational culture have three layers. First layer includes artifacts and creations, such as annual report, a newsletter, wall dividers between workers and furnishings. Second layer includes values, Continue reading
Case Study: Disney’s Diversification Strategy
The story of Disney is that of a company founded in 1923 by the Disney brothers, Walt and Roy. In the beginning, the company was referred to as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio and later incorporated as Walt Disney Productions in 1929. Walt Disney Productions made its mark for many years in the animation industry before venturing into television and live-action film production. Something else also happened before Walt had the breakthrough with Mickey Mouse. Before Mickey, there was Oswald, the Lucky Rabbit. But because he didn’t own the copyright, Walt lost the rights to Oswald, a bitter lesson that was to shape his company positively in the future. That experience thought him very early the value of intellectual property and Disney has used that knowledge to tighten controls over its properties as well as build defense against entrants and competing incumbents. The characters at Disney are well protected and Continue reading
VRIO Analysis – Meaning, Components, Advantages, and Disadvantages
Resources and capabilities have been considered as one of the biggest factors that aids and assists the business entity in performing and executing the varied range of operations and functionalities. Moreover, the business corporation should utilize various mechanisms for stimulating the resources and capabilities of the enterprise. VRIO analysis will be proven very much beneficial for any business entity while analyzing the internal sources and capabilities of the enterprise. It has been noted down that Jay B Barney introduced the framework of VRIO in 1991. This tool was introduced in his work ‘Firm Resources and Sustained Competitive Advantage’. Valuable: Resources and capabilities minimize the impacts of threats and moreover, the stakeholders determine whether or not the resources are beneficial to the company or not. The resources are proven very much beneficial for the business in various areas, internally and externally and thus will assist in the firm’s development process. Rare: Continue reading