theme 3

Question 1

Resource and Capabilities

Answer 1

Resource is a competitive asset that is owned and controlled by organization
Capabilities is the capacity of a firm to perform some activity
example :
• In a football team, the players, the coach and the staff are all the resources that this organization/team has, they are owned by the organization and they are used to achieve a certain goal and objective
• The capability is the potential of the players, the coach and the staff to achieve that goal and they all have to work together

Question 2

Resources types ?

Answer 2

Resource are divided into:
• Tangible resources
• Intangible resources
Both types of resources should work together and use the capabilities to come up with strategy that can achieve having a sustainable competitive advantage
Two of the most important things in life and in an organization, which are a key to success, are relationships (relational resources) and attitude (competences)

Question 3

Identify capabilities

Answer 3

It is the combination of all resources. Organizational culture have an effect on the capabilities
Capabilities are the intangible but noticeable

Question 4

what are competitive assets

Answer 4

Competitive assets
• The firms resources and capabilities
• The firms competitiveness and ability to succeed in the market
• The ability of the firm to develop a sustainable competitive advantage over its rivals

Question 5

what is the difference between competitive advantage and sustainable competitive advantage?

Answer 5

a competitive advantage can be short term, a sustainable competitive advantage means that you have a strategy that keeps always ahead of your rivals and always maintaining this competitive advantage without losing it like in the case of Apple, Mercedes etc…

Question 6

SWOT analysis

Answer 6

internal : Strength and Weaknesses

External : opportunities and threats.

Question 7

Mckinzey 7s internal analysis model

Answer 7

Mackinzey applied those 7s in a smart manner that explains what’s going on from a strategic perspective and how these 7s affect the strategy

• Strategy
• Staff
• Skills
• Style
• System
• Structure
• Shared Value

Question 8

VRIO

Answer 8

VRIO is a framework for internal resources and capabilities .
V : Valuable ?
R: Rare ?
I : easy to imitate ?
O: exploited by organization?

in order for a company to have a sustainable competitive advantage it has to have 4 yes. Which means an organization must offer a product that is valuable, rare, hard to imitate and the organization is exploiting it to its extend

Question 9

how value chain activity is changing ?

Answer 9

traditional value chain activity is changing, now what is still being done in some companies are only the head and tail and everything in between is being outsourced and this is as a result of companies
example : Nike

Question 10

Bench marking ?

Answer 10

Bench marking is comparing the company to the industry average and use that to update internal activities

Question 11

Hyundai case

Answer 11

Hyundai is the Korean car manufacturer that now owns KIA
In the 1980s and 1990s Korea was not known for good quality products and Hyundai came out of nowhere. Today it is an incredibly successful company because they invested a lot in engineering and marketing capabilities
Hyundai is the only car manufacturer that gives 7 years guaranty and this say to customers that this car Is reliable and that wont break in a couple of years because it is guaranteed for 7 years

Question 12

Ducati case?

Answer 12

Ducati is about performance, fast speed, winning races, sexy, fast, aggressive. this is the niche of people that Ducati promotes for
because Ducati is about differentiation they push the price up. They tried to push the price up and control cost because even if you differentiate you need to control it to be able to have a competitive price.
The new CEOs strategy was to increase willingness to pay and reducing cost which are the most two important things to differentiation and this what avoided Ducati bankruptcy
They took advantage about the intangible resources by boosting them
Ducati opened private stores and world of Ducati which is a museum about Ducati and this was one of the first things he did even though the company didn’t have any money. He did that because he wanted to rebrand and reposition Ducati and he built this museum to tell people what is the story of Ducati brand and what It stands for
• Ducati also created a club for Ducati owners because they wanted to create a community to push up the turnover
• Ducati makes almost 20% on accessories and not bike

Question 13

Harley Davidson case

Answer 13

• Harley does not sell a bike, the bike is slow, Harley sells an experience and a story that is constituted of a free and rebellious spirit, this is their brand image and the niche of people they promote for
• Harley has unique shops which only sell Harley bikes and this a kind of branding and marketing which states that this company is unique
• Harley has club for Harley owners because they wanted to create a community to push up the turnover

Question 14

Ducati vs Harley ?

Answer 14

Both these two companies have different strategies, different brand image and different niche targeted. They are both very successful because they are applying a successful a differentiation strategy

• Ducati is positioning itself in the Function and performance area
• Harley is positioning itself in the lifestyle and comfort area
What is interesting that both companies are taking strategic decisions to get into each-other territory and getting out of their niche and they are doing they because they want expansion and increasing profit
• Ducati is entering sport touring where Harley is strong
• Harley is building Race bikes where Ducati is strong
Both where very niche focused players but are changing their strategy which might be dangerous and repeat what happened in the Gucci case