...also work in a foreign environment. (Wind, Yoram; Douglas, Susan P.; Perlmutter, Howard V (1973)) Companies looking at expanding into the global market must look at the country they wish to expand into. They must have total understanding of the country’s government, legal and trade regulations, exchange rates, and the culture of the various consumers they are trying to reach. First the company has to define its mission, what is the goal they are trying reach. If the company doesn’t state specifically what they want to accomplish, they won’t know what to work towards of if it is working. Once the mission/goal has been established, the company usually performs a SWOT analysis. A SWOT analysis looks at the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats to their expansion plans. They...
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...Evaluating company resources and competitive capabilities In the previous chapter we descrbed how to use the tools of industry and competitive analysis to assess a company’s external situation. In this chapter we discuss the techniques of evaluating a company’s resource capabilities, relative cost position, and competitive strength versus rivals. Company situation analy’external market circumstances and to its internal resources and competitive capabilities. The sopotlight of company situation analysis in trained on five questions: 1. How well is the company’s present strategy working? 2. What are the company’s resource strengths and weaknesses and its external opportunities and threats? 3. Are the company’s prices and costs compaetitive? 4. How strong is the company’s competitive position relative to its rivals? 5. What strategi issues does the company face? To explore these questions, four new analytical techniques will be introduced: SWOT analysis, value chain analysis, strategic cost analysis , and competitive strength assessment. These techniques are basic stragic management tools be-cause they expose the ccompany’s resource strengths and deficiencies, its best market opportunities, the outside threats to its future profitability, and its compertitive standing relative to rivals. Insightful company situation analysis is a precondition for identifying the strategic issues that management needs to address and for tailoring strategy to company resources and...
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...do not exist in vacuum. They operate within a competitive industrial environment. Analyzing its competitors not only enables an organization to identify its own strengths and weaknesses but also help to identify opportunities for and threats to the organization from its industrial environment. SWOT analysis is a systematic analysis of these factors and the strategy that reflects the best match between them. Let us analyze these principals in relation to the core competence of McDonalds, one of the largest food chain companies in the world. Let us first start with the strengths and the positive aspects which define the performance of this company. How can we define the company's strengths? Strength is a distinctive competence that gives the firm a comparative advantage in the market place. For instance financial resources, image, market leadership and buyer supplier relations etc McDonalds is the no: 1 fast food chain stores with a 40 million customers visiting it per day. It has over 30,000 branches in 120 countries. It derives 80% of its revenues from eight countries like Canada, Brazil, Germany, France, Japan, UK, Australia and US. The greatest strength was creating an image in the minds of the people and introducing them to the fast food culture. Delivery speed, customer care and cleanliness are the core strengths on which these stores expanded. They created a corporate symbol and their advertisement campaigns were highly successful in establishing the brand image and logo...
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...and external strategies (Piggott 2012). First of all, internal strategy covers resource based view, value chain and core competence (Soyref 2012). Specifically, core competence is defined as the business actions which give the company a benefit compare to its competitors (Needle 2011). The growth of economical and efficacious arrangement inside the business can lead to the core competences (Needle 2011). The first area of core competence is the connection between both consumers and providers which includes exchange the messages between parties (Needle 2011).Whether buyers are content with the goods and service or not can also create the core competences (Needle 2011).Finally, the innovation of the goods differentiates the goods of competitors’ which makes great core competences (Needle 2011). Secondly, external strategy includes supply chain and porter’s five forces (Soyref 2012).Porter’s five forces model reflects the rival environment which are the threat of potential entrants, threat of substitution, bargaining power of suppliers and buyers, and competitive rivalry (Needle 2011).The model makes managers to check whether five forces performing on the business and how it might be altered over a period of time (Needle 2011). In addition ,SWOT is an important tool in both internal and external strategy analysis which indicates the strengths ,weakness , opportunities and threats (Soyref 2012).This...
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...TABLE OF CONTENT I. INTRODUCTION II. Assess how business missions, visions, objectives, goals and core competencies inform strategic planning III. Analyse the factors that must to be considered when formulating strategic plans IV. Assess efficiency of techniques used when developing strategic business plans V. CONCLUSION REFERENCE VI. I. INTRODUCTION Nowadays, business strategy is core element of all firms in over the world. Before building a business, participating in a new sector or new market, successful firms always deliberately research market, trends of customer, their strength and their weakness to create an appropriate strategy. Especially vision, mission, objectives and core competence are important factors in business strategy. This study will show you the analyses and evaluations about different aspects of business strategy and focus on vision, mission, objectives and competences. It will demonstrate for us about the function of SWOT, PESTEL and Porter 5 forces on the business. II. Assess how business missions, visions, objectives, goals and core competencies inform strategic planning 1. Mission Mission statement is a function or commitment that an organization desires to meet expectations of stakeholders. It describes how organizations run their business; identify their customer, identify range of their products/services and how businesses serve their customer. For example: The mission statement of FPT ...
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...industries offering substitute product (4) Suppliers of row materials parts, components, or other resource input (5) Buyers *Industry Driving Forces (1) Increasing globalization (2) Product innovation (3) technology change and manufacturing process innovation (4) marketing innovation (5) entry and exit of major firms (6) Changes in cost and efficiency (7) Changing social concerns, attitudes, and lifestyles Chap-4 *Identifying Company Resource Strengths & Competitive Capabilities (1)A skill or important expertise (2)Valuable physical assets (3)Valuable human assets (4)Valuable organizational assets (5)Valuable intangible assets (6)Competitive Capabilities (7)An achievement or attribute that plus the company in a position of market advantage (8)Competitively valuable alliances or cooperative ventures. *Company Competencies and Competitive Capabilities (1)Competence (2)Core Competence (3)Distinctive competence *What is the Competitive Power of a resource strength? (1)Is the resources strength hard to copy? (2)Is the resources strength durable (3) Is the resources really...
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...UK. The company is headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas, the US. The company's strategy is to offers its customers a broad assortment of products with even lower prices. It also aims to grow its global eCommerce business. SWOT Analysis - Overview Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. - Strengths Strength - Employee Friendly System Strength - Marketing Activities Strength - Robust Store and Distribution Network Strength - Diversified Product and Brand Portfolio Strength - Strong Market Position Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. - Weaknesses Weakness - Legal Controversies Weakness - Product Recalls Weakness - Declining Profitability Ratios Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. - Opportunities Opportunity - Increasing Demand for Private Label Products Opportunity - Strategic Expansion Opportunity - Conversion of Discount Stores into Supercenters Opportunity - Expansion through Acquisitions Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. - Threats Threat - Risks Associated With Suppliers Threat - Intense Competition Threat - Changes in Labor Laws and Other Issues http://andrewfanno.wordpress.com/2012/02/23/walmart-part-3-internal-analysis/ Strengths: -Cost advantage over rivals Information technology Walmart has a core competence involving its use...
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...‘Building a durable corporation requires long-term goals as well as rules to channel investments and - initiatives toward the achievement of these goals. These rules- which I will call “strategy”- have several dimensions. A strategy defines in broad terms where and how the firm will seek to add value, the opportunities it will pursue, the breadth and attributes of the firm’s product lines, its pricing policies, distribution channels, technologies, R & D efforts, and so on.’ (Amar V., 2000 pg 265). ‘Broadly, strategies encompass the set of approaches that the company will use to achieve its objectives’ (Jobber and Lancaster, 2006 pg 49) A well defined strategy should therefore integrate decisions about; scope of the business, objectives, resource allocation, developing sustainable differential advantage and synergy. The importance of strategy in the achievement of business goals cannot therefore be over emphasized judging from the above features. Split into corporate and competitive strategies, the former determines the scale and scope of the business while the later determines the sustainability of the company in the ever dynamic and competitive business environment. Whether inward out (resource based) or outward in (market based), competitive strategy is cardinal to the continued existence if the firm. Since successful strategies are those which adapt firms to the opportunities and threats in their markets/environments and which develop their internal capabilities...
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...the company is competitively stronger or weaker than key rivals E. Pinpointing what strategic issues and problems merit front-burner managerial attention The spotlight in analyzing a company's resources, internal circumstances, and competitiveness includes such questions/concerns as Awhether the company's present strategy is better than the strategies of its closest rivals based on such . performance measures as earnings per share, ROE, dividend payout ratio, and average annual increase in the common stock price. B. whether the company's key success factors are more dominant than the key success factors of close rivals. C. whether the company has the industry's most efficient and effective value chain. D. what are the company's resource strengths and weaknesses and its external opportunities and threats. E what new acquisitions the company would be well advised to make in order to strengthen its financial . performance and overall balance sheet position. Which of the following is not...
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...match its greatest strengths, with external factors to create opportunities. When assessing opportunities to acquire a new business unit, firms should only seek to acquire units that have strengths that match, enhance or can be combined with the firms established strengths. The article [which? there is no list of references -- you’re supposed to discuss an issue from class before discussing the article] is about how firms are purchasing business units that do not align with their strengths or the vision/mission of the parent corporation. Once the business unit is acquired the viable option is to sell if off in pieces because it is not contributing to the corporations strengths. We agree with the author [sp] premise that diversification should not be pursued unless it will help a parent corporation achieve its already established mission. Corporations should avoid acquiring firms that possess strengths or missions not aligned with the parent corporation. A firm should not see purchasing business units as strength [clumsy]; a corporation’s strength is not an action. A corporation should see the reason why they have accumulated the financial resources necessary to purchase additional business units as their strength. Once that strength is identified the corporation should be pursing business units that have underlining strengths that will enhance the parent corporations [sp] ability to pursue their mission and maximize opportunities via their established strengths. In the same manner...
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...Wal-Mart for my company business analysis SWOT. Wal-Mart is one of the biggest retail stores in the United States. Wal-Mart operates under 69 different banners in the 27 countries. Wal-Mart mean goal is to saving people money to help them live better, that was Sam Walton. Today one will be talking about the strength, weakness, opportunity, and threats of the company I have chosen. Strengths • Wal-Mart is a powerful retail brand. It has a reputation for value for money, convenience and a wide range of products all in one store. • Wal-Mart has grown substantially over recent years, and has experienced global expansion (for example its purchase of the United Kingdom based retailer ASDA). • The company has a core competence involving its use of information technology to support its international logistics system. For example, it can see how individual products are performing country-wide, store-by-store at a glance. IT also supports Wal-Mart's efficient procurement. • A focused strategy is in place for human resource management and development. People are key to Wal-Mart's business and it invests time and money in training people, and retaining a developing them. Weakness • Wal-Mart is the World's largest grocery retailer and control of its empire, despite its IT advantages, could leave it weak in some areas due to the huge span of control. • Since Wal-Mart sell products across many sectors (such as clothing, food, or stationary), it may not have the flexibility of some of...
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...Part 01 Executive Summary M&S as an organization has faced a number of challenges in its 130 year existence, but has successfully weathered each challenge as it presents itself with relative aplomb. The foundation upon which the whole business has rested since its inception in 1884 was in its initial form, involved selling carefully chosen, good quality goods with low margins, and achieving volume sales (relatively speaking, at least) through Michael Marks' Penny Bazaars in the North West of England. This strategy was overwhelmingly successful, and continued to be the central tenet of M&S strategy for many years. M&S sailed through the depression and several recessions, but at the end of the 1990's something went severely wrong. Profits were falling year on year and the footfall in the stores was lower than it had been for several years. From the year of 1991 to 1998 it started to regain its profit again. But from 1999 the situation started to worsen again. This report sets out many of the reasons for that failure then concludes by suggesting and evaluating the strategic options open to the organization going forward. The report concludes that drawing on the substantial capital resources of M&S, brand and product development are the appropriate measures to take in order to put M&S back on the retail map. 1|Page Part 02 Strategic Profile and Case Analysis Purpose Strategic Profile The case study provided several descriptions on the basic elements of the company...
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...Running head: EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL ENVIRONEMNT External and Internal Environment Analysis Bharti Gupta University of Phoenix External and Internal Environment Analysis: Mayo Clinic The purpose of this paper is to analyze the External and Internal environmental factors of Mayo Clinic (MC). Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit worldwide leader in medical care, research and education for people from all walks of life (Mayo Clinic, 2011). Various types of external and internal factors affect the smooth flow of business at Mayo Clinic. External environment analysis is important in determining the strategy that should be adopted by a business and internal environment analysis is critical to identify the core competences of the business. External Environment External environment (EE) can be broadly classified into three types: Remote, Industry and Operating. Remote environment (sometimes called as macro environment) consists of the forces at work in the general business environment which will shape the industries and markets in which an organization competes (Stonehouse, Campbell, Prudie & Hamill, 2008). Industry environment (sometimes called as micro environment) is the competitive environment facing a business. It consists of the industries and markets in which the organization conducts its business competes (Stonehouse, Campbell, Prudie & Hamill, 2008). Operating environment also called the competitive or task environment comprises factors in the competitive situation...
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...diversified the source of its coffee beans. It can make sure that they have less risk of the supplier and other factors that can effect the coffee beans. 2. Starbucks keeps a very good relationship betweent themselves to customers and suppliers. They directly connect to the customers. 3. Starbucks treats their employees and suppliers. They teach their employees coffee knowledge to satisfied the more and more educated customers problems. Strengths: 1. High quality brand image. 2. Advantage roasting technology. 3. Effective and efficient supply chain management/ 4. Loyal employee and friendly valued, and honest partners. 5. Well strategy to acquire retail store location and real estate. Weakness: 1. Expansion to international market without suitable infrastructure which may hurt starbucks high quality brand image. 2. Starbucks did not forcus on its products different from other brand strategy. Core competences: 1. High quality brand image. This is the fundamental, but also the most important and valuable competence for starbucks. This brand image can differ them from other coffee brand and constantly attract more and more customers. 2. Advantage roasting technology. This can keep starbucks constandly get high quality coffee beans and produce high quality...
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...Leadership Style: What Do People Do When They Are Leading? Ramon Feliciano Strayer University Leadership and Organizational Behavior BUS 530 Dr. Nasser Assaf February 28, 2014 Leadership Style: What Do People Do When They Are Leading? 1. Provide a brief (one [1] paragraph) background of the CEO. Tony Hsieh got his start as the co-founder of LinkExchange, an online adverting company. At the age of 24 he sold LinkExchange, to Microsoft for $265 million (Chafkin, 2006). After the sale of LinkExchange, Tony Hsieh founded Venture Frog, an investment fund, of which Zappos an on-line footwear retailer was one of the first investments ("Venture Frogs," 2013). In 2009, Zappos join the Amazon, Inc. family, where Tony Hsieh remained as CEO ("In The Beginning - Let There Be Shoes," n.d.). We focus on making sure we have a great service-focused culture. If you get the culture right, then a lot of really amazing things happen on their own (Hsieh, 2010). Under his leadership, Zappos has grown gross merchandise sales form $1.6M in 2000 to over $1 billion in 2008 by focusing relentlessly on customer service (http://www.zapposinsights.com/). 2. Analyze the CEO’s leadership style and philosophy, and how the CEO’s leadership style aligns with the culture. Tony Hsieh has a transformational leadership style because he is charisma, inspiration, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration for the employees of Zappos (Schermerhorn, Osborn, Uhl-Bien, & Hunt...
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