strategy and organisation

Singapore airlines appears to have competitive advantage from

- lower costs than many of its rivals - better plane utilisation rates than its rivals - better service levels than many of its rivals

Steps in the Value Chain

- use the value chain template to break down the firm into its key activities - analyse each activity and its drivers to look for ways to reduce cost and/or increase willingness to pay - decide on a customer value proposition (CVP) and a set of activity choices to efficiently deliver it.

the bargaining power of suppliers is likely to be high

- when suppliers' industry's concentrated - when they are supplying differentiated products - when the industry with which the suppliers are transacting is relatively fragmented

competitive advantage can be defined as

A firm's ability to earn a persistently higher profit rate than its rivals

in our discussion of the resource based view of the firm, we categorise the resources of the firm as:

Human, Intangible and Tangible

A country has a comparative advantage

In producing those products or services that make intense use of those resources in which it has a relative abundance

Resource Analysis

Systematic identification of resources & capabilities - Systematic listing of resources - Functional analysis of capabilities - Value chain activity-based identification of capabilities Appraisal of resources & capabilities: VRIO - Valuable, Rare, Inimitable and Organized to capture value Isolating mechanisms - Physical uniqueness - Path dependence - Causal ambiguity - Social complexity - IP protection

invention and innovation

are linked concepts. innovation is the commercialisation of invention

a resource is costly to imitate if

competitors can't develop the resource for a reasonable price

three characteristics of resources and capabilities determine the sustainability of the competitive advantage they offer:

durability, transferability and replicability

The firm is organization to capture value through

effective internal organizational structure and coordinating systems

the basis of entering a new industry at the Introduction phase is:

efficient product innovation

the most often sited benefits of diversification are:

growth, risk reduction and value creation

a resource is valuable if

it helps to exploit an opportunity or offset a threat

in its first, largely European, internationalisation phase IKEA:

made minimal change to its products and processes

a resource is rare if

only one or a few firms possess it

Strategy and Tactics

relate to achievement of overall long-term objectives, and multiple short-term objectives, respectively

strategic goals should be

simple, consistent and long term

of Michael Porter's 3 tests of whether a proposed diversification will create value, the most important one is usually:

the "better-off" test

Porters 5 forces model is intended to be

used as a conjunction with the PEST and other models