Essays on Competitive Strategies

Discussion Questions

Discussion Questions

In essence, businesses and institutions apply different strategies in their operations to achieve set goals and targets. Myles and Snow, as well as Porter (2008), argue that when choosing a strategy, it is important to analyze the objectives of the institution as well as the priorities. Different organizations have different goals and priorities. Institutions of Higher Learning (IHEs) change their strategies based on several factors (Rowley & Sherman, 2001). They depend on the level of competition among different IHEs within a given area. Furthermore, they change their competitive strategies based on the level of the IHE in the ...

The paper presents a review of the book known as “Wharton on Dynamic Competitive Strategy." The book is divided into four parts and 17 chapters. Part one addresses understanding the advantage in changing competitive environment, part two addresses anticipating competitor’s actions, part 3 addresses formulating dynamic competitive strategy and the last part addresses choosing among alternative competitive strategies. This paper reviews part one of the book that covers chapters one to nine. The review involves a critical evaluation of the chapters and presentation of personal views on over the content of each chapter. The book brings together an ...

The Most Appropriate Way to Evaluate the Five Year Strategic Plan that has been in place for the Last One Year Implementing a five-year strategic plan to ensure that it is executed in the stipulated period of time requires an elaborate evaluation method. The most appropriate method of evaluating the plan is an outcome based and a process based method. The proposed methods are effective for firms, which intend to show the effectiveness of their program (Pantoja et al. 2014). The outcome measurement method will help the hospital measure the quantitative and qualitative differences between the programs (Lamont et ...

Q.1 The luxury goods industry is one of the best performing industries in the business world, dealing in quality and stylish leather goods such ladies handbags, ornaments, designer clothes, fine watches as well as writing instruments. In this industry, goods are characteristically defined by their quality, styling, and pricing for factories such as Coach Inc. that have attracted a large number of customers including middle-income earners (Gamble, 2006). The global luxury goods industry has shown a constant growth. From the year 2006, the industry was expected to grow by 7 percent which was equivalent to $112 billion. Statistics conducted ...

Nowadays, competitions on markets are getting more aggressive and the market of modern technologies in not an exception. Therefore, in order to maintain its market share, Apple Inc. embraces and executes the four competitive strategies model that was created and developed by Michael E. Porter. These strategies are also being used to enhance Apple’s advancement and maintainability of its business operations in the worldwide market (Kroenke, . Apple Inc. is a reputed and well-known computer manufacturer, smartphone, and digital device maker. From the beginning, the company has made strong roots in the market since because it managed to maintain ...

Introduction

The present report comprises of three sections. The first section discusses the recent trends in the business environment, which call for the attention of the Board of Directors as well as the Chief Executive Officer. The next section discusses Porter’s generic strategies including overall cost leadership, product differentiation, and focus strategies and demonstrates the way their implementation will help Partical, Inc. stay ahead of the competition in the global environment. The last section discusses and evaluates both the value chain analysis and Porter’s Five Forces, and indicates how the firms can gain competitive advantage through their effective ...

Individual Case Analysis of Apple Inc

Many companies operate in the mobile phone industry. One firm that many people around the world know and recognize to be the best in this industry is Apple Inc. The company is known to be market leaders in the sector in which it operates. The firm has a range of products, which include Smartphones such as the iPhone range of products, headphones, Mac computers and laptops among others. Those clients who have used products from the firm speak highly of them. On the same note, most people know that Apple’s products guarantee client satisfaction and are of high ...

How my chosen organization compete within its business area

Toyota is a leading manufacturer of automobile in the global setting, a position that has been earned through overcoming various hurdles over the past decades. One of the primary attributes that have contributed to the company's success is its focus on effective quality management (Toussaint, 2016). Moreover, the company's success is associated with a strict management system, which is based on the different principles of operations management as will be explained in the study. By embracing the above techniques, the company has experienced tremendous growth over the recent past. Therefore, the above study seeks to account for the significance ...

1.1 Attractiveness of the computer industry in the early years 1.1.1 Initiation of various companies in the computer industry 1.1.3 Attractiveness of the computer sector Although it appeared to be a booming business, some of the companies appeared to be more successful than others. Take, for example, IBM after launching into the market it was able to attract about 42% of the total market. In terms of production of mainframe computers, it was able to acquire a total of 61% of the total market due to its sales force and organization, and this is how Microsoft came into play, ...

Kroger Grocery Store operates in oligopoly market structure where there are a few large companies. The companies operating are such a market offer very close products or goods. It is worth to note that the level of competition in the market is very high. This is because each company is ever committed to responding to the action taken by the other company operating in the same market. For instance, if one company in the market designs a new product with unique futures the other companies respond to that act very fast so as to enhance competitiveness in the market. ...

Introduction

Porter’s competitive strategies determine the generic strategy implemented by an organization to penetrate the target market. There are mainly three generic strategies under Porter’s theory. These are cost leadership, product differentiation and focus strategy. Focus strategy can be further divided into focus differentiation and cost differentiation strategies. Cost leadership and product differentiation strategies help companies to target large market segment, whereas focus (differentiation/cost) strategy helps businesses to target small market segment (Daft, Murphy, & Willmott, 2010, p. 58-60). Porter’s competitive strategies can be applied to the automobile industry as there are a number of organizations that are ...

Study

CONTENTS

Introduction 3

Question 1 – Market Structure Definitions 4 Question 2 – Unique Resources of Quasar Computers 5 Question 3 – Oligopoly and Competition 6 Question 4 –Porter’s Generic competitive strategies for different types of the market 6 Question 5 – Porter Five Forces Ranking and Attractiveness of Perfect Competition for Computer Industry 8 Conclusion 9

References 10

Introduction Throughout the history of the humankind, different markets have been tested by the economies (Frank, 2008). Despite the fact that advantages of ones and deficiencies of others types of market have been respectively eulogized or vigorously criticized by the different scholars, the practice ultimately revealed that ...

Introduction

The analysis applies important microeconomic concepts capable of increasing the competitiveness of Kudler Fine Foods. Different organizations operate in different marketing structures depending on the type of business, size, and goods and products sold. According to Colander (2010), the four basic types of marketing structures that businesses currently operate on are oligopoly, monopolistic, perfect, and monopoly. Understanding competitive strategies adopted by Kudler Fine Foods assists in establishing the type of market structure where the company operates. Additionally, the analysis will discuss the effect of the chosen market structure on the organization and the relationship between the market structure and ...

Objectives

- Compare various market structures and their characteristics.

This objective’s aim was to help understand the various types of market structures namely; Oligopoly, Monopolistic competition, Perfect competition, Oigopsony, Monopoly and Monopsony. In evaluating the achievement of this objective, the group notes that the greatest difficulty in differentiating the types of markets was in the competitiveness of the different market structures. However, it was also pointed out that this differentiation could be clearly outlined in a sequence grouping the markets from the most competitive to the least competitive.

In this sequence, the most competitive market was found to be the ...

ECO/365

In this paper, the student discusses the different market structures with focus on the oligopoly market. The student identified he food processing industry as an oligopoly industry dominated by PepsiCo, Kraft Foods, and Nestle. Moreover, competitive strategies are presented for the maximization of profits in the long run as well as the strategies that the chosen organization (PepsiCo) might consider in maximizing profits.

I chose the food processing industry for the purpose of discussion in this paper. There are three world leading companies under this industry namely, PepsiCo, Nestle and Kraft Foods. It is stated in the book Rule ...

(Student’s Full Name)

Conclusion In conclusion, there are several points that should be considered in order to deal with the competitive strategies and government policies as well as the current conditions which global and multinational corporations operate in. Firstly, mergers, such as horizontal and vertical mergers, will help companies to compete effectively in the industry to ensure that a company maintain a competitive advantage in the industry. When considering the case of the technology industry, a horizontal merger with facilitates different companies, which each produce a few specialized products. Secondly, multinational companies are required to implement strategies related to new product ...

Introduction

The objective of establishing a firm in any industry is to increase profit or provide services and products to the society. A company is established in a market where there is a niche since the management aims is to ensure that the company is sustainable in the long run. The structure that a company will adapt will depend on barriers that exist in the market. With the increased possibility of competition, every company’s management is in search of strategies to ensure they gain competitive advantage. Competitive advantage is attained when a company can manage to retain its market share despite the presence of ...

Introduction

The paper will focus on fast food industry where the organization on the analysis is the McDonalds Company. To understand the activities of the business, it would be wise to evaluate the market structure of the industry. The analysis is useful in defining how the structure affects the operations of McDonalds Company. Different factors define the unique elements that are present in every market structure in terms of strategies for specific organizations in the industry. The success of McDonalds in the food industry depends on consideration of factors such as the type of goods or services produced, entry barriers, ...

Introduction

The dynamism and complexity of doing business in the 21st century requires business entities to adopt more competitive strategies in order to obtain a share of the market. Firms operating in various industries are forced into adopting a series of strategies to counter the actions of their rivals, failure to which they can run out of business (Grant, 2013). This report intends to analyze and understand the competitive strategies that have been adopted by Apple, Nestle and Toyota- three companies operating in three different industries.

Apple is a company in the tech industry that develops a range of electronic gadgets. These include i-Phones, ...

Introduction

The major objective of every organization is to increase profit and create a competitive edge into the market. Cenlow Limited being an instant coffee company and considering launching of a new product through an improved pack lighter and cheaper to produce than their current glass jars avails a unique entity that can enable the company create a competitive edge into market. The undertaking was successful as the company’s products were embraced in the market starting to peak for the past few months. However, based on different factors, the change in the product launch is likely to have marginal implications on the financial ...

Introduction

The major objective of every organization is to increase profit and create a competitive edge into the market. Cenlow Limited being an instant coffee company and considering launching of a new product through an improved pack lighter and cheaper to produce than their current glass jars avails a unique entity that can enable the company create a competitive edge into market. The undertaking was successful as the company’s products were embraced in the market starting to peak for the past few months. However, based on different factors, the change in the product launch is likely to have marginal implications on the financial ...

Marketing objectives

Although Johnnie Walker is a global brand, based on the identified problems in assignment 1, the company needs to implement strategic approaches to building more on brand competitiveness in the global market hence increasing sales. These objectives are achievable through building on the current strategies embraced by the organization. The organization can achieve this through building on the product attributes which include; deep-complex flavor, age and time, power and refinement, and Malt Whiskey among others. Furthermore, the characteristics of the brand such as heritage, passion and luxury, international, Diageo are some of the features of the brand that can be ...

Introduction

In a highly competitive industry, companies need to develop new strategies every time. There must be news tricks in use to be a step ahead of the competitors. In the soft drinks industry, Coca-Cola is a major player but experiences extensive competition from a company such as Pepsi. Proper competition strategies should aim at the competitor’s weaknesses but avoid the strengths. As a result, the company gains competitive advantage. Coca-Cola has to be keen to employ exclusive competitive strategies to be the leading soft drink company.

The first and key element to consider about the success of Coca-Cola is its current position. The ...

Introduction

Dunkin' Brand Group is among the largest fast food companies. It is comprised of over 17000 points of distribution and operates in more than 57 countries. The headquarters of the company is in Canton, Massachusetts, in United States. In the fast food industry, it entails of two brands, Dunkin' Donuts and Baskin Robbins. Dunkin' Donuts is known for its swift customer service and high-quality coffee. Alternatively, the Baskin Robbins brand is known for its "31 flavors" slogan that represents 31 new flavors. Dunkin’ Donuts products include bagels, donuts, muffins, and hot and iced coffee. Baskin Robbins brand deals with ...

The world has been migrating from the analogue era to the digital era for the last couple of years. In the digital era, electronics are very essential components and hence their demand has increased. The number of electronics manufacturers has consistently increased over the years, and the level of production has surpassed the growing demand. Lenovo has been affected by the situation and therefore the company needs to take keen note on the demand and supply concepts.

Price determination using demand and supply curves

The price of any product should be derived from the demand and supply curves. The place at which the two curves intersect ...

Company Mission and Critique

Dunkin Brands Group Inc. is among the world’s top franchisors of the fast service restaurants that serve baked goods, cold and hot coffee, and hard serve ice cream. The Company’s brand groups include Baskin- Robbins, Dunkin’ Donuts, and Togo’s that are among the best loved names within the restaurant industry. Among the three brand groups, Dunkin’ Donuts is the biggest baked goods and coffee chain in the world, whereas Baskin Robbins is the leading ice cream franchise in the world. Togo’s is a fast growing and youngest of all the chains. It serves approximately164, 000 sandwiches ...

Is Yahoos Business Model Working in 2011

Introduction In the year 2006, Yahoo! was the top most visited social website in the world with an average of 144 million users per day. The company managed to generate a lot of revenues during this time because there was limited competition and people were eager to join web portals for socialization. As the years went by, other Web Portals emerged and Yahoo faced stiff completion from Google and Facebook making it rank number three in 2010. In addition, Yahoo’s market share decreased dramatically by almost 18% leading to an average stock price of 15 dollars in 2011. ...

Haiti’s Ministry of Tourism

- Competitive/ Business Strategy – Haiti’s Ministry of Tourism After the devastating earthquake that hit Haiti, the country is currently embroiled in efforts to rebuild its economy. The development of tourism is a top priority for the incumbent government. - Haiti Competitive Strategy - Cost advantage - Differentiation advantage (Hong, 2008). - Competitive strategy alternative

In the future, Haiti can explore the following competitive strategies alternatives.

- In order to gain cost advantage in the future, Haiti needs to consider the following competitive strategy alternatives: - Economies of scale - Economies of learning - Economies of scope and scale - Market share ...

Chapter One

Why is Introduction to MIS the most important class in business school? Perfect Gardens Inc. was founded based on the mission statement that we will be a global leader in garden and lawn care services. In order to accomplish this mission, it requires that every aspect of our business is aligned perfectly and fully organized to meet the needs of each and every client. We must then be positioned for success. With each stage of growth that the organization anticipates encountering, knowledge of Management Information Systems (MIS) is essential as this is how we will grow. It is the ...

During the lecture on the Operations Management, I was able to comprehend significant factors that a firm should consider in order to be competitive and hence successful. According to the discussion, I understand that the operation management involves organization, control and coordination of firm’s scarce resources in the production process of the products. In addition, the operation manager assists in the transformation of the production inputs such as information and raw materials into final products. During the discussion, I learnt that, for the multinational corporations, they should apply diverse logical operation strategies to develop their competitive strategies that ...

Keep in mind that all of the free essays on our site are only the exampes, do not use them as your own.

Innovations under conditions of uncertainty- Normative model of innovation

Introduction

Innovation is one of the most important aspects in most of the business organizations as they strive to attain their goals and objectives. It brings about changes in the traditional way of management to new and improved methods. All these methods will try to answer questions that are usually presented to managers regarding the value of the products and services offered these organizations (Davis& Scott, 2007). The need for to coming up with characteristics that can stimulate innovations is paramount to organization’s success. Furthermore there is need to provide a conducive environment where such innovators can thrive ...

MANAGEMENT OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

INTRODUCTION Gaining competitive advantage by leverage information technology and information systems is a critical concept for organization. Baltzan and Phillips define competitive advantage as a product or service that an organization’s customers value more highly than similar offerings from its competitors’. This implies the products, services and capabilities that an organization has while the competitor’s do not have. Competitive advantage are temporary as competing organizations seeks ways to duplicate the competitive advantage. In order to lead in competition, organizations have to continually develop strategies. This paper describes the procedures in which organizations can analyze, identify, and develop competitive ...

Report Based On Published Cases

Executive Summary This paper limits itself to the discussion on the sustainability of competitive strategies employed by three distinct companies including Wal-Mart, Hewlett-Packard (HP), and PepsiCo. The paper offers an analysis on the competitive strategies, which are evidently employed by the above connoted companies during their day to day operations. Furthermore, the paper examines the sustainability of these strategies. This is because unsustainable strategies limit the competitiveness of these strategies; hence, may result in the eventual failure to thrive by any given organization. On another note, the paper offers a theoretical analysis on the reasons that leverage the attainment ...

Dell organization structure

Organization structure is an overview of how rights and duties are distributed in an organization. The structure describes the line of designation of authority to various individuals. Dell structure is matrix, and is characterized by high decentralization. The structure is formed out of functions and duties and not product or geographical location. It is structured into three divisions’ namely institutional which is the highest level, administrative and functional level. The second level in the hierarchy is administrative level. Managers are assigned to head various department, for example marketing, research and development, finance, distribution, human resource and sales. The ...

Executive summary 1

Question 1: Environmental analysis of Severstal Company 2 Question 2: Severstal’s corporate and competitive strategies evaluation 3 Question 3: strategic recommendations for Severstal 4

References 5

Executive summary Steel is one of the most widely used materials in infrastructure development. This is due to the quality of its products and the fact that it is relatively cheaper than other materials that would be used to make the same products. However, the steel industry has had its fair share of tribulations especially during the 2008 economic crisis that fell many giants in the business. The industry experienced operations ...

3. Describe the competitive strategies used by each of Williams-Sonoma's competitors. Which of these strategies are the most effective? Support your answer. The competitive strategies of Crate & Barrel directly match the strategies of Williams-Sonoma, especially in the retail outlets, use of catalogs and website. It however focused on cheaper products that customers could afford. This price strategy could be effective in capturing the price sensitive market, of which Williams-Sonoma was not too much entrenched. On the other hand, Restoration Hardware was noted to compete directly with William-Sonoma’s Pottery Barn, especially in targeting the wealthiest clientele. Likewise, ...

Home Depot

The paper describes the history and the background of the Home Depot putting into consideration its financial performance in the past and in the recent years. It will also discuss the importance of vision and mission statement in companies and as such it will explain the mission and vision statement of the Home Depot. The paper will go on to describe the objectives and the strategies that are used to achieve those objectives in the company. It will explain the five generic competitive strategies that are being pursued by The Home Depot. The competitive environment of the company will ...

The current global business characterized by complexities in the conduct of business and increased competitiveness, strategic management has taken the centre stage for majority of the global organizations. Organizations have realized the need for achievement of a competitive advantage in the global market as the only survival tactic in the competitive global business environment. Strategic management has been identified as the most appropriate means through which organizations can achieve competitive advantage. United Parcel Service (UPS) is a multinational corporation providing logistics services, through delivery of products to more than 200 countries in the globe. It has been approximated that the organization ...

A. Current Performance

Orchid Couriers has a good penetration into corporate contracts, commercial tenders and individual courier systems now and in the past one year the company has been successful in achieving 17% of ROI and increasing 1.2% of local market share, there is a new market which has started to get covered and that is the e-commerce market.

B. Strategic Posture

2. Vision:

3. Mission: The mission of the company will be to exceed the customer’s expectations for every transaction of documents across the world, and to create value in the services by ensuring a planned strategy with effective delivery solutions & with the help of ...

Executive Summary

China is recognized as the fastest growing countries in trade. There are various products that are sold in China and the market has been declared favorable to many due to its high demand brought about by the high population. Lipton tea is a product of Unilever Company which was recently launched in China and its market has been tremendously increasing for the past few years. Unilever caters in three types which include personal care, food brands and home care brands. Personal care brands include Lotions, creams and soaps, Food Brands include Lipton and Blue band while home care brands include ...

(2) Global Marketing Mix Firms cannot reasonably expect to standardize all elements of their marketing program across the entire world. Indeed, there are probably diminishing returns upon reaching a certain level of standardization and uniformity worldwide. The key in global strategy is to find the best balance between local adaptation and global standardization. So global marketing is not a blind adherence to standardization of all marketing elements for its own sake, but a different, global approach to developing marketing strategy and programs that blends flexibility with uniformity. Global marketing comprises all the elements of the marketing mix product, price, promotion/advertising, and ...

The business organization under analysis in this case is Mueller-Lemhmkuhl that is involved in production and sale of apparel fasteners and it is located in Germany, Europe. The company has operations on the international front though it is faced with multiple challenges that inhibit is profitability and market dominance. The cost accounting model used has flaws and impinges on pricing of fasteners leading to reduced earnings due to intense competition from rivals. The President of the company, Dr. Richard Welkers attested that HI, a Japanese firm poses a great challenge to Mueller- Lemhmkuhl due to their price wars, as they price ...

The first chapter of the book gives an insight on the need to critically evaluate the structure, operations and people in an organization with an aim of developing a thematic way of successfully running the organization to profitability, growth and employee loyalty and satisfaction. The chapter begins with a case scenario of Xerox, a once successful manufacturer of copier machines. The case traces the origins of the company and the success of one of its initial product, the Xerox copier, and how the company developed within its ranks a system of recruiting and developing employee loyalty as enshrined in its vision statement then. ...

ETHICAL ISSUES

Ethics application is indeed a very vital input in all businesses. Organizations are increasingly getting inclined to the aspect of ethics and its relevant application. The factors and issues regarding ethics and its consequent application are numerous. This paper will only take some of the issues into analysis. The modern business milieus by organizations present a competitive aspect on issues regarding ethics and its consequent application. Ethics and its application are important in the current business environment because of various factors. To a large extent, the application of ethics in organizations has become relevant as a key determinant of success. The main ...