Michael Porter’s Five-Forces Model of competitive analysis is a widely used approach for developing strategies in many industries as the intensity of competition among firms varies widely across industries. According to Porter, the nature of competitiveness in an industry can be viewed as a composite of five forces: rivalry among competing firms, potential entry of new competitors, potential development of substitute products, bargaining power of suppliers and bargaining power of consumers. There are 3 steps to use Porter’s Five Forces Model can reveal whether competition in a given industry is such that the firm can make an acceptable profit. Firstly, identify key aspects or elements of each competitive force that impact the firm. Secondly, evaluate how strong and important each element is for the firm. Lastly, decide whether the collective strength of the elements is worth the firm entering or staying in the industry. Rivalry among the competing firms is Continue reading
Business Strategies
Case Study: Success Story of Exxon Mobil
Exxon Mobil Corporation (Exxon Mobil) is an integrated oil and gas company based in the US. It is engaged in exploration and production, refining, and marketing of oil and natural gas. The company is also engaged in the production of chemicals, commodity petrochemicals, and electricity generation. The company operates across the globe. It is headquartered in Irving, Texas and employs about 80,000 people. Exxon Mobil operates through three segments: upstream, downstream, and chemicals. The upstream segment explores for and produces crude oil and natural gas. The company’s upstream business has operations in 36 countries and includes five global companies. These companies are responsible for the corporation’s exploration, development, production, gas and power marketing, and upstream-research activities. The company’s upstream portfolio includes operations in the US, Canada, South America, Europe, the Asia-Pacific, Australia, the Middle East, Russia, the Caspian, and Africa. The company’s downstream activities include refining, supply, and fuels marketing. Continue reading
The Strategic Game Board
The Strategic Game Board is a concept coined by McKinsey & Company, this strategic framework can be used to identify the strategic management options in a competitive landscape by showing the strategists that the business organization can choose where (market segments), how (business system) and when (timing) to compete. A firm’s decisions pertaining to the scope and mode of competition and the time for the overall action should be based on a continuous analysis of the firm’s strengths, vulnerabilities, and resources in relation to those of its competitors. The strategic game board describes the options open to a firm regarding the scope and mode components of strategy. The vertical axis represents a continuum of where-to-compete options ranging from a sharp focus on a narrow market niche to competing across an entire market. The horizontal axis represents a continuum of how-to-compete options ranging from playing entirely by the accepted rules of Continue reading
Case Study: FedEx Success Story
Federal Express was founded in 1971 as the “big idea” of charter airplane pilot Fred Smith. It launched its overnight air express business in 1973, and just 10 years later, it was the first U.S. company to top $1 billion in revenues in its first decade. Today, FedEx (its nickname, “FedEx,” officially became the company name in 2000) is the world’s largest express transportation company-almost 196,000 employees move more than 3 million items to more than 200 countries each business day, up from 110,000 workers and 2 million packages just five years ago! In 1990, FedEx became the first service company to win the Baldrige Award. Since then, the company has expanded its ground delivery business by purchasing both Parcel Direct (formerly a division of Quad/Graphics, now renamed FedEx SmartPost) and more than 1,100 Kinko’s locations (now FedEx Kinko’s Office and Print Centers) in 2004. The survival issue is prominent Continue reading
Strategies for Stability
Stability strategy is a strategy in which the organization retains its present strategy at the corporate level and continues focusing on its present products and markets. The firm stays with its current business and product markets; maintains the existing level of effort; and is satisfied with incremental growth. It does not seek to invest in new factories and capital assets, gain market share, or invade new geographical territories. Organizations choose this strategy when the industry in which it operates or the state of the economy is in turmoil or when the industry faces slow or no growth prospects. They also choose this strategy when they go through a period of rapid expansion and need to consolidate their operations before going for another bout of expansion. Read More: Stability Strategy It’s not easy to identify organizations that are pursuing a stability strategy, if for no other reason than that few top Continue reading
Resource-Based View (RBV) Strategy Formulation
The resource-based view (RBV) is a tool to determine strategic resources and how it affects the performance of the firm based solely on reviewing its internal environment while the external environment remains fixed. Firms using RBV competes in terms of their resources and capabilities. The aim of this article is to study the factors that influence a firm’s performance. The RBV emphasizes the firm’s resources as the essential elements of competitive advantage and performance. It assumes two assumptions in examining sources of a competitive advantage which are that the firms are heterogeneous in terms of the resources they control and that resource heterogeneity can continue over a period as the resources used to implement their strategies are not easily portable across firms. The RBV method of analyzing a firm’s performance is focused that other vital factors that tend to be disregarded. Resources are not valuable of themselves; instead, they are Continue reading