Assignment on Business Strategy Essay

Assignment on Business Strategy 1 . Evaluate a company of your choice’s Mission statement in the light of the 3 components of any Mission Statement. Also use the Abel framework to evaluate the business definition that this mission statement drives. Ans. ) While a business must continually adapt to its competitive environment, there are certain core ideals that remain relatively steady and provides guidance in the process of strategic decision making. These unchanging ideals from the business vision and are expresses in the company mission statement. The mission statement communicates the firm’s core deology and visionary goals, generally consisting of the following three components: a. Core values to which the firm is committed b. Core purpose of the firm c. Visionary goals the firm will pursue The firm’s core values and purpose constitutes its core ideology and remain relatively constant. They are independent of industry structure and the product life cycle. The core ideology is not created in the mission statement; rather, the mission statement is simply an expression of what already exists. The specific phrasing of the ideology may change with the times, but the underlying ideology remains constant. Here is the Coca-Cola Company’s mission statement for Stakeholders which is published in Jeffrey Abrahams’ new book, 101 Mission Statements From Top Companies . â€Å"The Coca-Cola Promise: The Coca-Cola Company exists to benefit and refresh everyone it touches. The basic proposition of our business is simple, solid, and timeless. When we bring refreshment, value, Joy and fun to our stakeholders, then we successfully nurture and protect our brands, particularly Coca-Cola. That is the key to fulfilling our ultimate obligation to provide consistently attractive returns to the owners of our business. The audience for this mission is specifically for the stakeholder. The values here are stated explicitly: refreshment, value, Joy, fun, and attractive returns. These words were obviously carefully chosen by those who crafted this mission statement. The â€Å"ultimate obligation† of â€Å"attractive returns† is a powerful way to state the company’s vision and keeps the values stated in context. A separate mission statement is published on The Coca-Cola Company’s website for access by the general public: â€Å"Everything we do is inspired by our enduring mission: * To Refresh the World†¦ in body, mind, and spirit. * To Inspire Moments of Optimism†¦ hrough our brands and our actions. * To Create Value and Make a Difference†¦ everywhere we engage. † These values are consistent with the stakeholder version of the mission: refreshment and value are echoed in addition to inspiration. 2. What does a Business model intend to achieve, and how? Evaluate any company of your choice’s Business Model in the light of the same. Ans. ) Business Models are simulations of actual business functioning. They act as ideal real life examples, and help participants actively discuss the pros and cons of the situation given. A business Model gives a Full Account of any particular Business Scenario. One has to SWOT analyze the Business Model based on different how it makes money or delivers value, and what it does and does not do. A business model can change throughout the life of business or can be applied to a specific product, or to a nonprofit. It is a more general and concise statement than the business plan, but is still often used to explain the business and its activities to investors, banks or employees. Standard business models are often referred to in shorthand, such as â€Å"subscription† or â€Å"low-cost leader. † As we know a business model is the mechanism by which a business intends to pecify a market offering. It is a summary of how a company plans to serve its customers and specifies its product offering. It mentions both the strategy and methods of implementation. As Amazon. com was being established, the delivery of information, goods, or services to end customers employed one strong business model called the Online Retailers of Physical Goods. This business model takes title to the newly manufactured products that they sell and often rely on third party providers. Like Amazon. com, it needed third party providers, such as Borders and Barnes & Noble, to maintain its product supply. When Amazon. om was first launched, Amazon. om was heralded for its feel-friendly culture that drew talented young people to apply for work there and employed smart hiring strategy by hiring the brightest, most intelligent and versatile people. Jeff Bezos wanted people who could share his vision and were willing to work to achieve it. He tried to establish a sense of community due to sharing both hard work and fun with his employees. Although pay was less than market salaries, attractive ownership options were offered. Amazon’s three operational strategies are 1 . Cost-Leadership – Amazon places itself as leader based only on the pricing. It offers the same product quality for lesser price. 2. Customer Differentiation – Amazon uses design, quality and convenience as a differentiator which set it apart from its close competitors. 3. Focus Strategies – Customer service is the major focus while realizing that each market has its own quirks. Amazon. com’s values and philosophy are at the center of the organization. These often determines the success and failure of the enterprise . The other important factors Amazon focuses on are customer satisfaction and operational frugality. These two values complement Amazon. om’s operational trategies in achieving and maintaining an effective competitive advantage. Growth Drivers There are four primary drivers for growth: 1. Product focus 2. Customer focus 3. Technology focus 4. Distribution focus Using the above stated strategies, Amazon has managed to place itself in a position of power and success. 3. Use the 5 forces model to analyze and interpret the opportunities and threats that the industry within which a company operates (of your choice), throws up. Explain how the company plans to capitalise on the opportunities and tackle the threats understanding where power lies in a business situation. It also helps to understand both the strength of a firm’s current competitive position, and the strength of a position a company is looking to move into. Despite the fact that the Five Force framework focuses on business concerns rather than public policy, it also emphasizes extended competition for value rather than Just competition among existing rivals, and the simpleness of its application inspired numerous companies as well as business schools to adopt its use (Wheelen and Hunger, 1998). * Chez Airlinbe company is not an isolated unit in the world and performs within a market full of other competitors. To be able to evaluate their position on market and to act accordingly they themed the Porter’s Five Forces Model. This model helped to define and realize their business and its surroundings and identify threats and opportunities to focthem on. They review this model periodically to obtain up-to-date data in this global and turbulent environment. The Porter Model consists of 5 elements which together comprises the environment business operate in. These elements are: suppliers, customers, new entrants, existing competition and the product itself. By assessing every one of these elements they get the whole picture of heir company within the market and the rating helps them target the key areas. They theme the scale of 0-5 to evaluate the policies of each element where O means no policies and 5 very high policies (reffering to the number in the brackets). * 1) Policies of Suppliers As they operate in the areas of services there are no critical commodities having large influence of their everyday service delivery. Therefore this area is not of critical policies in a short run. However, they should not underestimate this element as they wouldn’t be able to continue the business in long run without suppliers. f their supply (3) This is a threat in case of the aircraft machines. There are not many reputable airplanes (and airplanes parts) producers and therefore they could have strong policies to control the air travel industry. As for the catering, gift services and other indirect materials there are many fragmented choice and therefore their policies is of almost no significance as they could be replaced quickly. There are no substitutes for the particular input (5) There are no substitutes for planes (in case they want to continue providing air transportation instead of ground routes) and herefore the policies of this element is very high – business critical. They could reduce this policies by handling cargo theming the earth services but this might decrease service level they provide to their customers. * The suppliers’ customers are fragmented, so their bargaining policies is low (4) There are more than 200 airlines all over the world and despite some alliance organizations (such as IATA) they are all potential competitors. The policies of this element is relatively high as the suppliers could afford losing one customers but the customers can’t afford loosing the critical supplier (e. g. Boeing). The switching costs from one supplier to another are high (3) Switching costs in air transport industry are mainly related to the fact of limited airplanes producers and to the machine a company already owns. They theme planes form 3 producers: Airbthem, Boeing and ATR.