...different viewpoints. This article aims to explain and critically evaluate the approaches of Jay Barney and Michael E. Porter, two leading strategy theorists, in-turn explaining the basis leading to the difference. What is Strategy & Competitive Advantage? Strategy is the creation of unique and valuable position involving a different set of activities.1 A firm is said to have competitive advantage when it is implementing a strategy which is not is being implemented by it’s current or potential competitors and also sustains profits that exceed the average for it’s industry. " Is Competitive Advantage enough? The goal of much of business strategy is to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage which is the same as competitive advantage but the advantages of the strategy cannot be duplicated by the competitors. (Barney, 1989). Different authors have different viewpoint in regard to sustainable competitive advantage. A sustained competitive advantage is simply a competitive advantage that lasts for a longer period of calendar time (Porter, 1985). A competitive advantage is sustained only after the efforts to duplicate the advantages of the strategy have been ceased (Lippman and Rumelt,1982). " Michael Porter’s Viewpoint Sustainable competitive advantage is when a strategy is implemented and the same strategy is not being implemented by the current or potential competitor and that advantage lasts for a longer period of time. For example, BIC, the pen manufacturing company...
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...To create a marketing plan, the manager needs information: SWOT analysis is one of the most effective tools in the analysis of marketing data and information The SWOT analysis fulfils this role by structuring the assessment of the fit between what a firm can and cannot do (S/W) and the environmental conditions working for and against the firm (O/T). If the SWOT analysis is done correctly, it can be a viable mechanism for the development of the marketing plan. If done haphazardly or incorrectly, it can be a great waste of time. They are six directives for a productive SWOT analysis: Stay focused: We often make the mistake of conducting one generic SWOT analysis for the entire business unit. It should be a series of analyses, each focusing on a specific product/market combination (Example of GM) Search Extensively for competitors: The firm must watch for any current or potential direct substitutes for its products (Kodak) Collaborate with Other Functional Areas: It generates information and perspectives that can be shared across a variety of functional areas in the firm. Managers of other areas should learn what other managers see as the firm’s SWOT. Such cross-pollination can generate a very conducive environment for creativity and innovation. Examine issues from the Customers’ Perspective: All issues are not equally important; the marketing manager should identify the most critical issues by looking at each one through the eyes of the firm’s customers. We although...
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...Resumen del Paper “Strategic Planning as Competitive Advantage” Un total de 113 firmas respondieron la encuesta realizada siendo 68 de industria de muebles (SIC 2512) y 45 de la industria de indumentaria (SIC 2335). Entre los coeficientes de correlación que se tomaron en el estudio estaban el tamaño de la firma, la edad de la firma y el locus de control del CEO. Se cree que dependiendo del locus de control puede haber una relación positiva entre la planificación estratégica y los resultados de la planificación. La SIC 2512 se utilizó para probar la hipótesis H1 que es: H1: En industrias de “planificación en equilibrio”, la correlación entre la planificación estratégica y sus rendimientos no difiere significativamente de cero. La SIC 2335 se utilizó para probar la hipótesis H2 que es: H2: En industrias de “planificación en desequilibrio”, la correlación entre la planificación estratégica y sus rendimientos difiere de manera positiva y significativamente de cero. H3: La correlación entre la planeación estratégica y sus rendimientos es significativamente mayor en industrias de “planificación en desequilibrio” que en industrias de “planificación en equilibrio”. Como resultado del estudio estadístico se obtuvo la siguiente conclusión: existe una relación negativa entre las industrias de “planificación en equilibrio” y el rendimiento de la planificación. Esto significa que mientras más empresas en la industria construyan una planificación estratégica, la relación entre la planificación...
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...STUDY ON THE EFFECTS OF ECONOMIC WAR ON ORGANIZATIONS FROM A LEADERSHIP AND ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR PERSPECTIVE. Individual Term Paper Table of Contents I. A. 1. 2. B. 1. 2. II. A. 1. 2. B. 1. 2. C. 1. 2. III. A. B. Background of the topic ............................................................................................................... 3 What is Economic War and what are its practices? .............................................................. 3 Pre-technological Era ........................................................................................................... 3 Technological Era ................................................................................................................. 3 How Competitive Intelligence translates into companies’ life? ............................................ 6 As a tool of Corporate Strategy ........................................................................................... 6 As a part of the Corporate Culture ..................................................................................... 6 Economic War and Corporate Culture .................................................................................. 7 Organizational Leadership....................................................................................................... 7 Where Economic War becomes a problem: advocating ethical behaviour ..................... 7 Where Economic War benefits: crisis leadership ................
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...TABLE OF CONTENTS I. Abstract II. Problem Statement III. Evaluation IV. Hypothesis V. Procedure/Design VI. Introduction VII. Definition and Examples a. Case I b. Case II c. Case III VIII. Origin of Competitive Intelligence IX. Why Collect Intelligence? X. What is Ethical? XI. Methods of Intelligence Collection XII. What Resources Are Used to Collect Information XIII. How Companies Utilized Collected Information XIV. Keeping Companies Secrets Secret a. Buildings b. Communication Systems c. Administrative XV. Conclusion I. ABSTRACT Intelligence gathering is considered commonplace in corporate America. Companies struggle to maintain the high ground within a competitive marketplace. One source for maintaining an elevated position is through information gathering on competitors, better known as Competitive Intelligence (CI). Collection of this information can be accomplished through numerous means. History has shown that the collection of CI is not a new practice, only that the methods used to collect the information have evolved over the past century. Intense pressure for turning profits, winning contracts, and avoiding expensive research and development costs drive the methods used in CI collection. With an increase in CI collection, companies are required to protect themselves from inside and outside intruders. II. PROBLEM STATEMENT Corporate America has become oblivious to the information being divulged concerning company trade secrets. ...
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...taking into account that different users with their own specific tasks may need their information presented in different ways. Improving the ways users retrieve, identify and respond to information. In contrast to a data system, that simply provides raw data to the user. Competitive advantage in the digital economy is even more important now than ever before, as for some businesses the impact of the digital economy is groundbreaking. The fast changing technologies, markets and the appearance of new business models have introduced major changes in industry structure shifting the nature of competition while keeping the core business but not the core business of most firms , not changing the, instead information systems simply offer tools that can increase the company’s success through the traditional sources of competitive advantages - be it reduced expenses, enhanced customer service, or superior management skills. This report studies in particular how information systems have contributed to the banking industry. Illustrating the ways it can improve a business firm’s competitive position and also points out its drawbacks and why it may not be able to be sustained in the future. Competitive advantages of Information Systems for Banks Information systems are now fundamentally changing the way banks...
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...2013 ------------------------------------------------- Dear Hiring Manager, I am applying for the Competitive Intelligence Analyst position at Google. Working at Google has always been a dream for me and this position excites me further because it involves my passion for research and keeping abreast of the technology industry. I do understand that my career path so far isn’t that of a typical intelligence analyst. However, I believe that many of the skills I gained during my five years as a business analyst are transferrable to this position. In addition, my MBA specialization in competitive intelligence (called ‘business intelligence’ in Thunderbird) and my project at BillingTree has taught me the latest techniques in information gathering. Studying at Thunderbird, which is the #1 in Global MBA, has also helped me appreciate the nuances of working with other cultures, which I am sure will help me in intelligence gathering. Listed below is a comparison of your job requirements and my qualifications: Your Requirements | My Qualifications | * MBA / BA / BS Finance, Economics, Marketing or Liberal Arts, or equivalent practical experience. | * MBA degree with a Competitive Intelligence concentration, BS degree in engineering and five years of business analysis experience. | * 4 years of analytical experience with an understanding of competitive industry dynamics. * Experience analyzing and synthesizing qualitative and quantitative information, identifying...
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...Mariam Diab ID:10931041 Sec: C Date: 19-4-2014 Dr.Ali Dirani IMGT497 Entrepreneurship 1- Competitive intelligence is the action of defining, gathering, analyzing, and distributing intelligence about products, customers, competitors, and any aspect of the environment needed to support executives and managers making strategic decisions for an organization Competitive intelligence is an ethical and legal business practice, as opposed to industrial espionage, which is illegal Competitive intelligence essentially means understanding and learning what's happening in the world outside your business so you can be as competitive as possible. It means learning as much as possible as soon as possible about your industry in general, your competitors, or even your county's particular zoning rules. Ethics has been a long-held issue of discussion among CI practitioners. Essentially, the questions revolve around what is and is not allowable in terms of CI practitioners' activity. A number of very excellent scholarly treatments have been generated on this topic, most prominently addressed through Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals publications. The book Competitive Intelligence Ethics: Navigating the Gray Zone provides nearly twenty separate views about ethics in CI, as well as another 10 codes used by various individuals or organizations. Combining that with the over two dozen scholarly articles or studies found within the various CI bibliographic entries, it is clear...
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...How can Indus reconcile the varying objectives of its stakeholder and realize its vision? The stakeholders started with a common vision. This vision was to direct their attention on what they do best, which was focusing on their core business of marketing and customer service while outsourcing the infrastructure development/maintenance to an outside party. They have realized that the industry has evolved, and infrastructure sharing has now become the norm. Service providers needed to embrace this trend, as resistance to it would not only increase their operating costs and reduce efficiencies, while diluting their core focus, thereby inadvertently rendering themselves less competitive. It has, therefore, become clear to the providers that it was imperative for their long term success and competitiveness to take the sharing approach and establish a joint infrastructure management venture which would benefit the stakeholders. As the three service providers were all in agreement that establishing a shared tower network is in their common best interest, it is now critical that they bring in a neutral executive team to run Indus. Up to this point, each of the Telecom company leaders who oversaw the inception of Indus had a vast array of roles and wore many different and divergent “hats.” As the case states on page 9 “they were simultaneously shareholder, board members, and representatives of customers.” While the advantage of having such well-rounded leaders was the fact that each...
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...Administrative Management – Assignment 1 The very first The Body Shop store opens on 26th March 1976 in Brighton, on the south coast of England. By 1978 a kiosk in Brussels became the first overseas franchise, and by 1982 new shops open at the rate of two per month. In 1985, in its first year as a public company, The Body Shop sponsor posters for Greenpeace. A year later, it creates an Environmental Projects Department of its own, while the first major window campaign for The Body Shop is "Save the Whale" with Greenpeace, in 1986. The first Community Trade product for The Body Shop, a Footsie Roller, is produced in 1986 by a supplier in southern India. This trade in Footsie Rollers has evolved into the current trade with Teddy Exports in India, one of our key Community Trade suppliers. By 1990, just one year after launching in the USA, there are 2,500 applications for a franchise, with demand for The Body Shop products ever-growing, In 1990 The Body Shop Foundation is established The Body Shop At Home, the direct-selling arm, is launched in the UK in 1994, Canada in 1995, Australia in 1997, and USA in 2001. It has now rolled out in 48 states in the USA and is set to grow even bigger. The Body Shop International has many strong traits of strength that have catapulted them into the limelight throughout the years. Many of them are extremely unique to their business which also grips them into political controversy and "drama" as they undergo "business as usual". Their first strong...
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...CRISIS MANAGEMENT Competitive intelligence: It’s the process of ethically, collecting, analyzing, and disseminating accurate, relevant, specific, timely, foresighted and actionable intelligence regarding the implications of business environment, competitors and the organization itself. SCIP – Strategic and Competitive Intelligence Professionals 3 main axes: 1. An ability to procure accurate and validates information to decision makers, project managers and even project team members 2. A capacity to produce specific studies and assessment describing a situation, the effect/cause of an event, the action/strategy of an actor 3. A mission consisting in delivering alerts and warnings to decision makers CI and crisis “ Lack of transparency can mean the management doesn’t see or doesn’t want to see important, vital competitive information. At time, this can lead to crisis.” Leonard M. FULD The secret language of competitive intelligence DEFINITION * BRUTAL,SUDDEN AND TRAUMATIC EVENT * Effect of surprise * Low probability (which make prevention difficult) * Considerable stakes (even the survival of the organization) * COMPLEX SITUATIONS WITH UNCERTAIN OUTCOMES * AN EXCEPTIONAL SITUATION REQUIRING “EXTRA-ORDINARY” MEASURES * Major impact * Fast reaction is imperative GOALS * You have to preserve your company’s activity, employees and assets, but not by any means * Laws...
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...INTERPERSONAL RELATIONS AND GROUP PROCESSES Going Green to Be Seen: Status, Reputation, and Conspicuous Conservation Vladas Griskevicius Joshua M. Tybur University of Minnesota University of New Mexico Bram Van den Bergh Rotterdam School of Management Why do people purchase proenvironmental “green” products? We argue that buying such products can be construed as altruistic, since green products often cost more and are of lower quality than their conventional counterparts, but green goods benefit the environment for everyone. Because biologists have observed that altruism might function as a “costly signal” associated with status, we examined in 3 experiments how status motives influenced desire for green products. Activating status motives led people to choose green products over more luxurious nongreen products. Supporting the notion that altruism signals one’s willingness and ability to incur costs for others’ benefit, status motives increased desire for green products when shopping in public (but not private) and when green products cost more (but not less) than nongreen products. Findings suggest that status competition can be used to promote proenvironmental behavior. Keywords: altruism, environmental conservation, costly signaling, status competition, consumer behavior ported that the number one reason for purchasing the car is because it “makes a statement about me.” What statement does the Prius make? “It shows the world that its owner...
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...next moves, exploit their weaknesses and undermine their strengths. There are four stages in monitoring competitors - the four "C"s: * Collecting the information (with a first stage - deciding what to collect) * Converting information into intelligence (with three steps: CIA -Collate and catalogue it, Integrate it with other pieces of information and Analyse and interpret it) * Communicating the intelligence. * Countering any adverse competitor actions - i.e. using the intelligence. One mistake a lot of people make is to start by collecting information without thinking how the information will be used. There is no value in information that will just sit on a shelf. If it cannot be used to inform the business's strategic or tactical decisions then the time, money, and effort spent collecting it is wasted. * The business may be planning a new product - so information on what competitors are doing in the same area will help in the decision processes and plans for this new product. * Alternatively, the business may be looking at how the industry will develop over the next 5 or 10 years. * Or perhaps the board is looking at a potential merger, acquisition or business partnership. The information requirements for each of these business decisions will be completely different and so the information that should be sought will also be different. Thus before starting to search for information the competitor analyst needs to sit back and define...
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...admittedly looks complicated and requires a bunch of entries, the logic underlying the sales forecast entries is fairly straightforward: • Your entries in the four columns headed “Company __’s Marketing Effort” represent tentative values for your company’s marketing effort for the upcoming year in each of the four geographic regions. Think of the entries as “preliminary” or “trial” decisions that represent “what if we do this to try to sell branded pairs in this region.” The numbers already in these columns when you first come to the screen are the decisions your company made last year and represent the competitive marketing effort your company employed to achieve last year’s branded sales volumes and market shares in each geographic region. • Your entries in the four columns headed “Your Estimate of the Industry Average” represent your best “guestimates” of what level of competitive effort your company will be up against in the upcoming year — they are, in other words, what you think that rivals, on average, will...
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...The Sport of Dancing Courtney Packwood ENG-106/Professor Zafonte March 17, 2013 Dancers should be considered athletes as well as artists. Dancers must use their bodies to express emotions, tell a story, commit to years of physical training, develop stamina, work as a team, take care of their bodies, stretch to prevent injuries, and enter into competitions against other dancers. They deserve to be helped at the athletic office. The dance education majors are not even allowed to ask for an ice pack from the athletic trainers. Members of the Grand Canyon University Dance Team are considered athletes, while the Dance Education majors are not. Both programs involve dance training but yet the school team is the only one of the two that reaps the benefits of being an athlete. The label of dancing being an art or sport has been questioned for decades now but no one has given it a definitive answer. When looking up the definition for athlete, several interpretations are given; overall, the main idea of an athlete being, “a person who is trained or skilled in exercises, sports, or games requiring physical strength, agility, or stamina” according to the Webster dictionary. When comparing this definition to dancers, it is clear that they meet each of those standards. So, why are dancers being denied help from the athletic training office when they demonstrate comparable abilities in physical training, competition, teamwork, and dedication; just as much as any of the athletic teams on...
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