Cemex: Global Growth Through Superior Information

see if you can identify additional capabilities and core competencies. Do you think the core competencies mentioned in the case and/or the ones you found are valuable, rare, difficult to imitate, and nonsubstitutable and as such, are also competitive advantages? Why or why not?

•Profitable: one of the key criterions for selecting the above competitive advantages is that the company can introduce them profitably.

CEMEX and their competitors have realized many benefits from globalization. The first of these was a reduction on tariffs associated with exporting their product. If the manufacturer has a localized facility, they do not have to pay export tariffs on the delivery of cement. Next, transportation costs are very expensive for cement. Tariffs aside, shipping or trucking cement long distances will erode margins or demand higher prices for a given manufacturers product. Both eat at the profitability of the business.

There are two different types of competitive advantage: low cost and differentiation. We will develop them in this part I.

Question 1 Several factors have been proposed as providing a rationale for mergers. Among the more prominent ones are (1) tax considerations, (2) diversification, (3)

When companies combine/merge the whole objective is to gain new opportunities, gain market share, grow the business, to become more innovative and to improve product offerings, utilizing/sharing the existing resources and data. From the case

Strengths- Better flexibility with handling customers. More branch offices and more agents. Gains a better head-start in expanding their market growth.

Michael Porter investigated why nations have a competitive advantage in specific industries his findings saw two basic types of competitive advantage that firms could pose low cost or differentiation. If you combine the two types of competitive advantage and allow room for a way in which firm wish to achieve them this will lead to three generic strategies which will achieve higher average performances in industries: cost leadership, differentiation and focus.

How has CEMEX managed to outperform its leading global competitors in the cement industry? Please focus on comparing CEMEX with Holderbank, which is the other large competitor focused principally on cement. What do this comparison and the other data in Exhibits 4-8 suggest about the competitive game being played out amongthe major international competitors?

1. What is competitive advantage, and how does it relate to a company’s business model?

Competitive advantage(CA) is an advantage competitors gain by providing or offering customers or consumers greater value for their money through product and service differentiation or through lower prices. Maintaining competitive advantage is crucial to many businesses or organizations' success in order to survive in the market. Competitive advantage is characterized by superior performance which could be an attribute to outperform the competitors whether current or potential; or gaining a higher market share in a particular industry thereby ensuring market leadership; or ultimately, maximization of profit.(JOBBER 2010)

One major objective of mergers is to be able to reduce or fully eliminate the weaknesses that may exit in

Alliance Concrete was purchased by National Industrial Supplies in 2006. Martin Harris, Chief Financial Officer of Alliance, must decide between paying National a dividend, making principal repayments to the bank, or making capital investments. Choosing not to make principal repayments means negotiating with the bank, while choosing not to make capital investments means risking a possible stoppage. It is in Alliance’s best interest to make the capital investments to negate this risk. Financial data and ratios are presented to persuade the bank to renegotiate terms and convince National to

Competitive advantage is explained by Mahoney and Pandian (1992) as the function of industry analysis, organizational governance and the firm’s effects in the form of resource advantages and strategies. In order for a firm to be competitive it must adapt to the volatile business environment and through strategic management decisions establish a competitive advantage that will ultimately produce superior performance relative to its competitors (Akimova 2000).

What is a competitive advantage for the company? How can the management use it? Make SWOT analysis for the company.