DG has a current competitive advantage within its industry that is maintains through a unique cost-efficient approach. This low-cost structure is apparent through low inventories, low advertising costs, and location of stores in rural areas. Though profitable in the short-run, DG's current advantage is not
Most businesses strive to attain competitive advantage, whether they explicitly realize this or not. The concept of competitive advantage was propagated by Michael Porter, in his landmark book Competitive Strategy. He defined competitive advantage as “Competitive advantage grows out of value a firm is able to create for its buyers that exceeds the firm 's cost of creating it.” (Porter, 1985) The concept provided a new paradigm for looking at the role of competition in firm’s success or failure in the long term. The succinct definition encapsulates number of related concepts that help firms identify and analyze their competitive advantage. In normal parlance, competitive advantage is described as the advantage a firm has that helps it get ahead of competitors or gain higher market share. Whether the management explicitly realizes this fact or not, they usually are focused on identifying and developing traits that help their firm get ahead of competition and have sustained growth in the long term. Many organizations that do not have strategic separate strategic thought process, try to attain the same advantage through micro decisions like product portfolio, cost cutting, pricing decisions, location selection, etc. However, their final objective is competitive advantage. Barney (1991) explained number of internal resource that help the firm in attaining competitive advantage in the long term. In this analysis, the author defines key terms related to competitive advantage, and
First on the list is Aliko Dangote, a Nigerian, who initially made his fortune trading cement, sugar, and flour. He is the largest manufacturer of cement in Africa with a market value $15 billion. In 2016, he will be opening an oil refinery. Currently, his
5. Opportunity – Certainly there is a good opportunity for buying cheaper products. Most goods are bought in large volumes and factories in poorer countries are compelled to offer cheaper prices to keep their factories running with that kind of bulk buying. DG does not require a factory to be Audited and certified for quality standards and social compliance. Their products are sourced from the lowest priced, low standard small factories based in rural areas that usually employ child labour. These factories are able to produce cheap items because they do not have to add additional costs of being a compliant factory. This results in cheaper items coming to their shelves and being passed onto an unsuspecting customer. Their introduction does not reflect their mission statement for the above given reasons in terms of : Respect, a better life for customers, superior returns for
Porter’s model aims to enable managers not only to understand their industry environment but also to shape their firm’s strategy. The five competitive forces are threat of entry, power of suppliers, power of buyers, threat of substitutes, and rivalry among existing competitors. “As a rule of thumb, the stronger the five forces, the lower the industry’s profit potential- making the industry less attractive to competitors. The weaker the five forces, the greater the industry’s profit potential – making the industry more attractive” (Rothaermel, 2013, p. 65). It is recommended that managers position their company in an industry in such a way that relaxes the constraints of strong forces and
Selecting a business strategy that details valuable resources and distinctive competencies, strategizing all resources and capabilities and ensuring they are all employed and exploited, and building and regenerating valuable resources and distinctive competencies is key. The analysis of resources, capabilities and core competencies describes the external environment which is subject to change quickly. Based off this information a firm has to be prepared and know its internal resources and capabilities and offer a more secure strategy. Furthermore, resources and capabilities are the primary source of profitability. Resources entail intangible, tangible, and human resources.
Bargaining Power of Buyers - The force of the buyer’s bargaining power can reduce prices and demand higher quality products and services (Porter, 1998).
delivering superior value to buyers and building competencies and resource strengths in performing value chain activities that rivals cannot readily match.
Costumer satifsvation is a newer method by which a company can turn more profitable. Due to fierce global competition, senior management must understand not only the technologies, but also the competencies and motives of competitors. Building successful alliances requires identifying the core competencies of both the partners and developing the strong interpersonal skills and values needed to manage them. If an organization's capabilities are scarce, defensible, or hard to imitate, these can form the basis for sustainable competitive advantage and surplus profits. An organization's competitive advantage potential depends on the value, rareness, and imitability of its resources and capabilities
He said he never had the rings resized by a jeweler or left the two engagements to get resized or cleaned. Whieldon stated the Puerto Rican women that he planned to marry never lived at his apartment or elsewhere as he did not want to surrender any contact information about the identity of this particular women.
As we begin to strategically plan for our business, it is important for us to take a deep dive into our competitive environment to understand where we are strong competitively and where we are weak competitively. An analysis of the forces driving industry competition using M.E. Porter’s Five Forces Model will assist us in determining where the power lies in a business situation as we begin to plan. We must understand how they work in our industry and how they affect our particular situation. Whatever the collective strength of these forces is, our job as the strategists of the organization is to
Through an internal environment analysis, companies can identify and understand their own unique resources, capabilities, and competencies that are required for their sustainable competitive advantage. Resources, capabilities, and core competencies are the foundation of competitive advantage. There is no competitive advantages are permanently sustainable in any companies, so they have to consist on their current advantages and develop new advantages by internally understanding and analyzing their resources and capabilities. Competitors have their own unique resources, capabilities, and core competencies to create values for their customers. Both tangible and intangible resources, which include individual, social and organizational phenomena, are combined to generate capabilities. In turn, company’s capabilities are used to build core competencies. Also, core competencies are as a source of competitive advantage for a company to win in the competitive market.
Michael Porter, an authority on competitive strategy, mentions five forces that the stronger each of these forces is, the more companies are limited in their ability to raise prices and earn greater profit. In carefully scanning it industry, the corporation must assess the importance to its success of each of the five forces. Now, we will analyses these five forces in the inner-city paint corporation. The first one is threat of new entrants which means newcomers to an existing industry. The new entrants typically bring new capacity, if the company wanted to resist the threat of new entrants. They must build an entry barrier which is an obstruction that makes it difficult for a
The power of buyers is high because this company depends of the businesses and consumers’ demand. This is because they can decide where to buy
To establish whether JKB is competitively positioned to tackle the evolving and increasing challenging business environment hence recommend the way forward, a situation analysis must be conducted. This analysis aids in collecting essential information about the organization internal and external factors. Keen interest should be placed on these factors since they have the capability of adversely affecting an organization; they can create or on the other diminish, or altogether destroy the chances of an organization attaining competitive advantage.