Resource Based View (RBV) of Competitive Advantage

Jay Barney’s approach is known as resource based view of competitive advantage operates on the assumptions that firms are heterogeneous in terms of their control of important strategic resources and that resources are not perfectly mobile between firms. Firm resources are defines as strengths that firms can use to conceive of and implement their strategies. Classifications of resources are physical capital resources, human capital resources and organisational capital resources. Physical technology, plant and equipment, geographic location and access to raw materials come under physical capital resources. Human capital resources are the training, experience, judgement, intelligence, relationships and insight of the individual managers and workers of the firm. Organisational capital resources include the formal reporting structure, the informal and formal planning, coordinating and controlling systems, the informal relations among groups within a firm and other agents in the firm’s environment. Summary of resource based view is that firm can only have Continue reading

The Importance of Mission and Vision Statements

The corporate strategy starts through Vision and Mission Statements can be accessed by culture, core values and its core values on which it competes. Mission statement shows the exact purpose of the organization. This statement is primary objective of the organization to show the plans, aims and programs of the company. A mission statement is bit different from the vision statement.  A clear mission statement also focus on what are the advantages which is you are offering to your patrons as well as consumers it also tells you exact purpose of your organization. A good mission statement is like a born of success for the organization. It is very for the companies to find out the ways and also do the regular confirmation whether company or organization is on the right way or not. A purpose of a clear mission statement to an organization to align the people as well Continue reading

Business Strategy: The Three Generic Strategies

Three of the most widely read books on competitive analysis in the 1980s were Michael Porter’s Competitive Strategy, Competitive Advantage, and Competitive Advantage of Nations. In his various books, Porter developed three generic strategies that, he argues, can be used singly or in combination to create a defendable position and to outperform competitors, whether they are within an industry or across nations. The strategies are (1) overall cost leadership, (2) differentiation, and (3) focus on a particular market niche. Cost Leadership, Differentiation, and Scope These strategies are termed generic because they can be applied to any size or form of business. We refer to them as trade-off strategies because Porter argues that a firm must choose to embrace one strategy or risk not having a strategy at all. Overall lower cost or cost leadership overall cost-leadership strategy, a strategy in which an organization attempts to gain a competitive advantage by Continue reading

Greiner’s Model of Organizational Growth – Phases of Organizational Growth and Crisis

All organizations pass through various stages of growth and at each stage the  organization is required to solve some specific problems. A very useful model of organizational growth has been developed by Larry E. Greiner.  In his 1998 Harvard Business Review article entitled “Evolution and Revolution as Organizations Grow,” Greiner outlined five phases of growth punctuated by what he termed “revolutions” that shook up the status quo and ushered in the successive stage. Greiner’s Model of organizational growth  is based on certain assumptions about the organization which are as under: First assumption is organisations are rigid, bureaucratic, control-centric, and centralized entities. Second, organisations fail to see that the future success of an organisation lie within their own organisation, and also fail to assess their evolving states of development. Therefore inability of a management to understand its organisation development problems can result in organisation becoming frozen in its present stage of Continue reading

Advantages and Disadvantages of having a Mission Statement

Mission statement is a summary statement of a company’s or organization’s purpose about what it wants to accomplish in the larger environment. Mission statement is playing an important role with the overall strategic planning of an organization. All of the strategic planning of an organization should base on the mission of an organization that had been set. Strategic planning include all the long-range plans, strategic plans and also annual plans which include decision making about the human resource management, production and operation, finance and it is also concerned about the marketing planning. A well-defined mission statement is very important to guide people in the organization, clearly defines who the customer is and what services and products the businesses are intended to provide. A good mission statement should contain some criteria. First, a good mission statement should be market-oriented. A market-oriented mission statement focuses on satisfying customer’s needs. A mission statement Continue reading

Retrenchment Strategies Followed by Organizations

A retrenchment grand strategy is followed when an organization aims at a contraction of its activities through substantial reduction or the elimination of the scope of one or more of its businesses in terms of their respective customer groups, customer functions, or alternative technologies either singly or jointly in order to improve its overall performance. Eg: A corporate hospital decides to focus only on special treatment and realize higher revenues by reducing its commitment to general case which is less profitable. The growth of industries and markets are threatened by various external and internal developments (External developments – government policies, demand saturation, emergence of substitute products, or changing customer needs. Internal Developments — poor management, wrong strategies, poor quality of functional management and so on.) In these situations the industries and markets and consequently the companies face the danger of decline and will go for adopting retrenchment strategies. Eg: fountain Continue reading