Essay on The Description of a Business-Level Strategy

All companies have core competencies that they use to differentiate their company, product, or service from the competition, Sears is no exception. Also, it is common for a company’s core competencies to change, as their industry progresses through phases and shifts its emphasis between product and process innovations (Regis University, 2011), Sears is no exception. Yet, when a company’s core competencies become misaligned and no longer supports their strategic intent the business is in danger of becoming obsolete (Regis University, 2011), as their customers no longer perceive the unique benefits the company has

Thompson, Peteraf, Gamble, and Strickland (2012) found that competitive strategy depend on whether a company’s target market is narrow or broad, and whether a company is seeking competitive advantage through low-cost or product differentiation. These two factors reveal five generic competitive strategies. The five strategies are Overall Low-Cost Provider Strategy, Focused Low-Cost Strategy, Broad Differentiation Strategy, Focused Differentiation Strategy, and Best Cost

We celebrate the special way we treat and relate to our customers. We think retailing is all about customer experience, and that is what really differentiates us.

Core competencies are the capabilities that are critical to a business achieving competitive advantage. The starting point for analysing core competencies is recognising that competition between businesses is as much a race for competence mastery as it is for market position and market power. (Prahalad and Hamel)

Core competencies are set of skills, expertise and professionalism which the service is executed (Johnston & Clark 2001). They make a firm to stand apart and develop a competitive advantage.

The current strategy of the company is to enter foreign markets and to succeed there. The corporate main strategy is to provide high quality product to its customers.

A number of competitive strategies have been stated by studies, such as the classification system created by Chrisman et al (1988). However, the generic strategies identified by Porter (1985) remain the most popular theory over the years (Allen et al, 2007).

A strategy is a plan that is targeted over the long run. Business level strategies refers to strategic alternatives that an organization chooses from as it conducts business in a particular industry or market (Griffin,2002). A corporate level strategy means that a company manages its operations simultaneously across many industries and markets. Netflix operates across both a business and corporate level strategy. The main areas across which Netflix operate on in their corporate level are business portfolio and partnerships.

Core Competencies: The Company is full of assurance and potential. Each and every day represents a new opportunity to share Vision, strategy and style.

Every person gravitate its strengths to step up in life like the best cook in a family makes meals. The mechanically inclined person in a family fixes the broken parts at home and a plant lover takes care of the garden. Similarly, the businesses use their strengths to position themselves in the market. However they follow a formal path for developing core competencies. Successful businesses follow an exact approach to identify and define their core competencies and then jointly follow them. For example, Auto manufacturers restrict themselves only to the tasks that they do best like assembling or designing automobiles, leaving additional tasks for others. This keeps their mission clear and defined.

An effective Customer Relationship Management (CRM) program can be used to identify, retain, satisfy and obtain customers by using technology to optimize strategies for understanding customers’ needs to manage business interactions with current, former, and prospective customers. Additionally, CRM also enables companies to maximize internal, external, marketing and customer service operations to better address the needs of the customer building a better relationship with customers that a more profitable. (Ahmad & Buttle, 2001)

In this paper I will discuss Macy’s Incorporated by analyzing their business level strategies to determine which I think is the most important to their long term success and if I think it is a good choice. I will analyze their corporate level strategies to determine which I think is the most important and whether or not I believe it is a good choice. I will analyze the competitive environment to determine the corporations’ most significant competitor and compare the two companies’ strategies at each level and evaluate which company I think is most likely to succeed in the long term. Once the

The five generic competitive strategies are low-cost provider, broad differentiation, focused low-cost, focused differentiation strategy, and best-cost provider strategy. According to the textbook, “a company’s competitive strategy deals exclusively with the specifics of management’s game plan for competing successfully” (Gamble, 93).

The manner in which firms are able to compete is most commonly categorized by implementing Michael Porter’s strategic typologies. Porter’s strategic theory has been the most widely accepted strategic approach used by fellow academics (Kim and Lim 1988; Bordean et al 2010). Porter proposed three generic strategies namely: cost leadership, differentiation and focus strategy. Warszawski (1996) later introduced a competitive strategy

According to Griffin & Pustay (2005), a core competency is a distinctive strength or advantage that is central to a firm¡¦s operations, and by utilising its core competency in new markets, the firm is able to increase