Question One.
I work in the food service industry. Some of the means by which we have been able to attain competitive advantage are by ensuring that our restaurant is in an area with less competition but high visibility so that our clientele can easily reach us. We also studied new competition to see which products they were selling and at what price and adjusted our prices accordingly. By adjusting our prices accordingly due to the competition, we compromised on the quality of our product as we the business had to cut short on some ingredients in order to make the product profitable at the new price. This led to the loss of some clientele.
Question Two
A product life cycle is the stages that a new product progresses through which are the introduction, growth, and maturity and decline stages(Stark, 2005). Some of the unethical practices that a managers could engage during the introductory stages are setting bad managerial behaviors. For instance, by forcing employees to participate in unethical behaviour like fake figures or else face dire consequences, Poaching competitors staff and stealing competitors secrets and setting goals that are unrealistic therefore making the employees to practice unethical behaviour due to pressure to meet targets. Some of the countermeasures that I would offer are setting realistic goals, setting a code of conduct so that employees can have an overview of what type of behavior is acceptable in the workplace (Trevino & Nelson, 2011). I would also set up an ethics training to teach the employees about the value of practicing ethical behavior.
Question Three
During the slump stages, the sales volume experience a decline and profit diminishes, therefore, resulting in product withdrawal. Within the organization, there will be a determined effort to deny these realities, principally driven by self-preservation. Noticeably, sales figures will be inflated, and excuses will be given for declining performance. The advice I would give to the CEO is to reduce the cost of production by looking for cheaper manufacturing companies or by moving the business to a different location. I would also advise the CEO to venture into new more competitive markets. This would allow profit to be sustainable and hence counter the organization behaviors in the decline stage.
Question Four
The strategic concept of venture capital involves two businesses working together in agreement to achieve specific goals, but the businesses can maintain their independence and identities as individual companies while counterbalancing one’s companies weakness with the other companies’ strength.
An example of a successful joint venture company is Siemens AG and Nokia Corp Joint Venture. Due to the competition from the low-cost Chinese telecommunication manufacturers like Huawei, these two companies felt the need to merge in 2006. They are currently operating in more than 150 countries and were rated as the fourth largest manufacturer company of telecommunications in 2011 from their sales revenues.
An Example of a failed joint venture is the Mahindra and Renault venture in India. The partnership was meant to sell Renault’s Logan car, but it was unsuccessful as the length of the vehicle put it in a higher tax bracket compared to its competitors with similar vehicles. As a result, the two companies had to end their joint ventures and go their separate ways.
Leadership lessons learned from above ventures is that it is important to appreciate cultural issues given that the merger between Siemens and Nokia worked in several countries. Also, the merger should be mutually beneficial. It is also good to do due diligence in the industry before going into a joint venture because if Mahindra and Renault had done this, they would have known that their product was not viable for the market.
Question Five
One of the key elements of strategic management is to set clear goals and objective.The video shows how Philip Krinks reflected on his life and career and decided to change course to a more satisfying profession. One lesson I draw from his experience is that it is important to identify and focus on your goals and once you have set the goals, go for it whatever the personal cost.
References
Stark, J. (2005). Product Lifecycle Management : 21st Century Paradigm for Product Realisation. London: Springer-Verlag.
Trevino, L. K., & Nelson, K. A. (2011). Managing Business Ethics. New York: John Wiley.
