ansoff matrix

In order for a firm to create competitive advantage, it needs to create a set of activites that can deliver value to the specific product and services it offers to its customers. To start talking about my life as a “value chain”, I may need to compare it to a specific product”. This is going to take precedence both in my personal life and professional life.

One of Porter’s main contributions was Porter’s value chain. The value chain is all the activities an organization undertakes to create value for a customer. According to Porter, there are two ways to gain an edge over competitors. A firm must provide comparable but value but perform the activities on the chain at a lower cost, or; Perform services in a unique way

“Competitive Advantage introduces the concept of the value chain, a general Framework for thinking strategically about the activities involved in any business and assessing their relative cost and role in differentiation”. Michael Porter, (1985).

According to Walters & Rainbird (2007), companies create additional value for their customers by building value chains that identify, produce, deliver, and service customer needs (p. 164). Michael Porter identified the value chain concept in his 1985 book “Competitive Advantage” (Manktelow, n.d.). He proposed a general-purpose value chain that companies can use to analyze their activities and see how they connect. The chain is comprised of five primary activities: Inbound logistics, Operations, Outbound logistics, Marketing and sales, and Service.

This theory was published for the first time in 1985 inside one of the Porter’s greatest work: “Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance.” In fact, the Porter’s Value Chain is a good tool through which evaluate the organization’s ability in achieving the competitive advantage and if achieved, this tool is useful to measure the quantity of this advantage. A business should focus on one of the primary activities in order to create an advantage in that. Moreover, the value chain can be used also to evaluate and determine which strategy is the best for a company to gain the competitive advantage.

This paper reviews the how AMEC Foster Wheeler, plc’s creates its value, how its value chain is defined and the key areas the company currently focuses on. It is also attempted to identify the areas the company can improve to stand out of the competition by to creating cost advantage and (or) differentiation advantage in the market.

This is a company looking to expand its market share in existing markets, the strategic choice of existing products. This option is companies seeking to maintain or increase market share in its existing products to gain market leadership position in a mature market changing competitive process, or to increase awareness among existing consumers.

Value chain analysis, which constitutes the basis of strategic cost management, includes the value creation chain for a corporation, composed of all activities that create value, from the supply of raw materials to the supply of the product to the final consumer. (Yüzbaşıoğlu 2006, 402) In other words, value chain analysis is defined as a strategic tool used to comprehend the competitive advantage of an enterprise, to determine which stage of the value chain may be improved or in which stage the costs may be reduced, and to better apprehend the relationship of the corporation with the suppliers, customers and other enterprises in the sector. . (Blocher et al. 2005, 40).

Michael Porter in his book “Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining superior Performance” published in 1985 introduce the Value Chain Analysis. His theory explained how an organisation can use or maximise its competitive position or strength by linking the activities it performs. This theory assumes that the organisation is more than a random compilation of machinery, people and money. It also proposes that if these things are arranged into systems and systematic activates, the organisation will be able to produce a product or provide a service that customers are willing to pay a price.

The more value an organization creates, the more profitable it is likely to be. And when you provide more value to your customers, you build competitive advantage. This is what Michael Porter discussed this in his influential 1985 book competitive Advantage in which he first introduced the concept of the value chain.

The value chain analysis (shown in appendix) was also generated by Michael Porter. This model is referred to “identifying ways to increase the efficiency of the chain” (Investopedia, n.d.). Furthermore, the overall objective is to produce maximum value with minimum total cost and establish a competitive advantage.

Now a day, many companies are trying to improve their value chain in order to use the value chain as a strategy in the manner of meeting the customers need and satisfaction. One of the strategies they are using with value chain is to gain competitive advantages for rival among their competitors. Value chain actually can discover and fulfil what customers want and the identification of customer needs will hence become one of the ways to surpass their competitors in term of competitive advantages. Customers can have the best satisfaction of the things that they really want, at an acceptable price level. In other words, a company overall competitive advantage derives from the difference between

A useful technique that most multinational organisations use to asses their strengths and weaknesses is the Value Chain, which was developed by Harvard Business School Professor Michael Porter. The value chain is a breakdown of activities within a MNE’s important activities – production, marketing, human resources management.

The value chain concept was created by Michael Porter and explained in his book “Competitive Advantage”, published in 1980. The value chain is a series of activities that create and build value- culminating in the contribution of total value to the organization. Porter used the concept of value chain as a systematic approach to examining the development of an organization’s competitive advantage in the marketplace.

One of the main goals of a business is to gain advantage on their competition. One way to gain advantage is to conduct a value chain analysis, which studies what an organization can do in order to generate a competitive advantage, while providing the greatest value to their consumers. The analysis involves identifying each part of the chain and seeing where improvements can be made from a production standpoint or a cost perspective, to guarantee that consumers get the most bang for their buck. It can benefit a business in the long run, when consumers are getting the most out of a product for the cheapest cost value to consumers. “The value chain analysis looks at each of the activities in the value chain to determine what steps are necessary and which are not in an attempt to boost the company’s bottom line.” (Brooks,