The Art Of Corporate Endurance

Due to the growing competition and diminishing market share, companies are opting for different strategies to achieve their survival objectives as well as growth. Companies are thus executing grand strategies to provide their businesses with a clear direction for its strategic actions. These strategies, therefore, aim at both short term and long term sustainability and growth, and they include innovation, market development, product development, and concentration.

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.

Today’s market demands organizations to have a strategic plan. The purpose of the strategic plan describes where the organization wants their organization to go. A strategic plan is a document used to communicate goals, and the actions needed to achieve those goals. In order to remain competitive every organization needs to innovate to stay ahead of the competition. They need to develop new products and services with increasing frequency. The design of these new products and services must meet, or exceed, customer expectations and at the same time, they must generate an acceptable financial return for the organization. However, any business that does not realize the importance of developing new products will not last very long as a consequence

He suggested that sustained competitive advantage derives from the resources and capabilities a firm controls that are valuable, rare, imperfectly imitable, and not substitutable. He further added that the resources and capabilities can be viewed in form of tangible and intangible assets. There are four different categories of resources financial, physical, human, and organization.

Secondly, the author highlights the way how business entities can achieve sustainable competitive edge through improving strategic planning practices in a fundamental manner. It has to be acknowledged that one and half decade has passed since the publication of the article and the principles outlined in the article are not revolutionary by today’s standards, however, there are solid reasons to believe that the article has contributed to the emergence of companies with revolutionary approach to business.

Strategic Planning is one of the most fundamental factors in the success of an organization. This research project will discuss the importance of strategic planning as well as the different components of strategic planning. Many organizations fail to accomplish their goals and tasks due to the lacking of strategic planning. In order for their businesses to be successful, organizations need to be well informed about how the strategic planning process works.

For a business to be successful and have a competitive advantage, it is important to evaluate the company’s resources and capabilities (Pitt & Koufopoulos, 2012). Resources in a company are the productive assets owned (tangible or intangible) whereas capabilities are what the company can do with this (Grant, 2010). “Establishing competitive

The Case Study concerning MacFarlane solutions is an interesting one to note down regarding strategic planning in an organization. From the information given, it appears that the small business expanded merely due to the insight of Bill MacFarlane and the planning that he gave forward. (McDonald 2011 pg. 736) Bill started off after working in a firm and having an experience of more than forty years. He specialized in what he knew and then gave forward what he was good out. There was risk in his ventures as the expert started out, however he trusted his instincts and went out with the planning.

A successful competitive strategy focus on creating value to customers, by efficiently use and integrate of these components.

Value is also perceived differently between customers, and is relative to the value customers perceive is available from market alternatives (Smith & Colgate, 1988). Customers may choose to shop at Smiggle over alternatives such as Kiki K because they may perceive Smiggle to have similar quality products at a lower monetary cost. Conversely, other customers may not place a high importance on colour and aesthetical appearance when shopping for a pen, and consequently may take their money to somewhere with more standard office pens, such as a newsagent. When assessing value, customers only factor in features of a product which they deem are important (Kotler et., al). Compelling value propositions must be created in order to entice customers and meet their specific demands (Smith & Colgate, 1988). Smiggle offers products that are functional, affordable and are creatively and colourfully designed to inspire fun in school and work tasks. Customers match their expectations to Smiggle’s value proposition, and if a customer believes the product does not hold the benefits it is supposed hold, the customer will be dissatisfied (Kotler et., el). Therefore, Smiggle must either meet or exceed customers’ expectations in order to satisfy them. This process is integral to the ‘mutual exchange’ characteristic of marketing, because companies must gauge demand and then deliver value in

The planning school of thought is a strategy that emphasizes the need for an organization to ensure that its business strategy is in alignment with the environment that it operates. In other words, an organization’s strategy must ‘fit’ the environment that it chooses for a business operation. A meticulous analysis of both the internal and external environments is considered in the planning school of strategy. Furthermore, the planning school of strategy often requires details that could probably make an organization not flexible to a market even when conditions demands flexibility (Barnat, 2014). Additionally, this strategy employs organizations to implement various marketing theories and Product Life Cycle in understanding the maturation of the market so that with past trends coupled with

From many of these examples and articles, we can gather much information over the relationship between innovation and strategic management. Although, some areas may not be proven in its fullest capacity, there are undoubtedly ways that innovation improved business operations and practices, which can be seen in examples such as Apple, Microsoft, Dominos, and Samsung. On the other hand, not every business incorporating innovation is a success story. In the dynamic days we find ourselves in today, business and organizations are digging deeper into the wells of innovation. We have all come to enjoy the benefits and I am not sure of anyone that would want to

Resources are the source of the firm’s capabilities. Resources are bundled to create organisational capabilities. Some of a firm’s resources are tangible and intangible. Tangible resources are assets that can be seen and quantified. Intangible resources include assets that typically are rooted deeply in the firm’s history and have accumulated over time. Intangible resources are relatively difficult for competitors to analyse and imitate. The four types of tangible resources are financial, organisational, physical and technological. And the three types of intangible resources are human, innovation and reputational (Hanson, D., Hitt, M., Ireland, R. D., & Hoskisson, R. E., 2011, pp. 75-78).

Capabilities mean how the company mixes and utilizes all assets to bring the best product offered. These capabilities summarize in company 4Ps, which are listed as below:

While “The Art of War” was written by Sun Tzu during the 6th century B.C., long before the colonization of the Americas, the onslaught of the Crusades, and before the Persian Wars of around 490 B.C., it remains relevant to this day. There is also strong evidence that the work inspired Napoleon and was used in the planning of Operation Desert Storm. “The Art of War” has withstood the sands of time due to its simplistic approach, and its applicability to non-military strategies. “The Art of War“, interpreted by Gerald, A. Michaelson, as well as other authors, use Sun Tzu’s timeless strategies and apply them to the modern day corporate world.