Week 7 - Strategy (Ch. 6)

Question 1

SWOT (situational) analysis

Answer 1

1. Strengths: things your company has going for it inside of the company (patents, capabilities, talent and expertise, decision making skills)
2. Weaknesses: things you cannot do or capabilities that you don’t have (basic products that people could get anywhere else), don’t have a lot of capital/funds, don’t have expertise
3. Opportunities: external (current needs in the marketplace), scanning business environment (wherever you see a problem in the world there is an opportunity)
4. Threats: outside of your company—competitors, who is out there trying to create a similar product or service?

SW - internal, OT - external

Question 2

Corporate Grand Strategies

Answer 2

1. Growth: Focuses on increasing profits
-Internally: Open new lines of product
-Externally: Buy other companies/merge
2. Stability: Focuses on improving the way company sells
3. Retrenchment (Refresher/cycle): Focuses on turning around company performance.

Question 3

Firm-level strategies

Answer 3

1. Strategic Moves in Direct Competition:
Attacks & responses in red ocean–(stealing things back and forth) one upping each other

2. Entrepreneurship:
Movement into deep blue waters–a shark goes out and finds a wide blue ocean with new customers (find and create new products with new customers)

Question 4

Strategy Canvas

2 main purposes

Answer 4

1. Reveals the current state of the competitive landscape and known market space.
2. Drives an action towards a “blue ocean” strategic move by reframing the approach from competitors to alternatives