You will reply to one of your classmate’s thread. Minimum of 250 words in the body
Content must include:
Summary of the author’s Thread – no less than 125 words
What you agreed with, did not agree with and why – no less than 125 words
Introduction
According to Gamble et al. (2019), there are five generic competitive strategy options for
building competitive advantage and delivering superior value to customers. It is important for an
organization to understand these five options when determining an overall competitive strategy.
An organization’s competitive strategy deals exclusively with the specifics of management’s
game plan for competing successfully. More specifically, the efforts to please customers,
strengthen its market position, counter the maneuvers of rivals, respond to shifting marketing
conditions, and achieve a particular competitive advantage (Gamble et al., 2019). After an
organization has settled on which factor to use, attention turns to what other strategic actions to
take in order to maximize the power of the overall strategy. It is also important for an
organization to explore diversification and experiment in international markets.
Process
The five factor options are the first step in strategic planning for competitive advantage.
These five factors include the following: a low-cost provider strategy, a broad differentiation
strategy, a focused low-cost strategy, a focused differentiation strategy, and a best-cost provider
strategy. Although all of the five generic competitive strategies are important, low-cost provider
strategy is discussed to understand an organization’s competitive approach. An organization
achieves low-cost leadership when it becomes the industry’s lowest-cost provider rather than just
being one of several competitors with low costs. It is important that organization’s include
features and services that buyers consider essential otherwise a customer may consider the
product or service undervalued regardless of its pricing (Gamble et al., 2019). According to Liu
et al. (2019), sometimes a low-cost strategy may motivate firms to use cheap materials and rely
on traditional manufacturing technology that is environmentally unfriendly.
Strategic Thinking
In order for an organization’s strategy to succeed in delivering good performance and the
intended competitive edge over rivals, it has to be well matched to the internal situation by an
appropriate set of resources, understanding, and competitive capabilities. This means an
organization has to have the resources and capabilities to keep its costs below its competitors.
Once an organization has settled on a low-cost strategy, or any of the five forces, the attention
turns to other strategic actions. It is critical for an organization to set up strategic offences where
they can find opportunities to gain profitable market shares at the expense of their competitors.
This aids in chipping away at a strong rival’s competitive advantage. For example, companies
such as Amazon and Samsung aggressively pursue competitive advantage and reap the benefits
in areas like leading market shares, increased profit margins, and rapid growth (Gamble et al.,
2019). Playing on offense helps organizations analyze which of their rivals to challenge which
attacks like market leaders that are vulnerable, firms with weaknesses in areas where the
challenger is strong, companies on the verge of going under, and small local companies with
limited capabilities.
Geographic scope is very important when analyzing an organization’s competitive
advantage. Mergers and acquisitions are strategic options an organization can choose to
strengthen their market position. Specifically, horizontal mergers and acquisitions involve
combining operations of organizations within the same product or service market and allows for
an increase in scale and horizontal scope. One of the quickest ways for an organization to expand
its geographic coverage by acquiring a rival with operations in desired locations. This helps an
organization to expand globally. Rumelt (2011) describes finding a pivot point in order to make
changes that could be prosperous in the long run. In competitive advantage, pivot points may be
an imbalance between a rival’s position or disposition of forces and their underlying capabilities,
or between pretension and reality. Nevertheless, there is a downside to globalization. According
to Kim (2015), acquiring knowledge from multiple countries bears important strategic
implications due largely to the differences across countries. Countries are different from each
other in multiple dimensions, which gives rise to two distinctive attributes of international
markets: a higher degree of market frictions and a higher degree of heterogeneity.
Lastly, distribution scope can gain competitive advantage for an organization by offering
a product in a variety of ways in order to gain consumer interest. Selling a product or service
through a distribution agreement can be profitable. However, a scope needs to be defined.
Variables such as territory, term, and exclusivity should be taken into account. The internet and
advances in information technology have really paved the way for rapid distribution channels.
According to Yu et al. (2017), manufacturers should consider distributing their products through
online channels in addition to conventional brick-and-mortar retail channels.
Decision Model
The decision model that fits most closely with a competitive approach to strategy is the
Chasm – Diffusion Model. Krogerus et al. (2018) discusses how some ideas – including stupid
ones – take hold and become trends, while many others disappear before consumers know
anything. The whole concept of diffusion is explained when a new type of corn hit the market in
the 1930s. When farmers switched to the new corn early on in the introduction process they were
dubbed “innovators” and “early adopters”. Eventually these groups led skeptical other groups to
try out the corn. Translated into a graph, this development takes the form of a curve. It rises
gradually at first, then reaches a critical point where innovation is the transition from the early
adopters to skeptics. This is called a chasm. If the early adopters succeed in getting the
innovation across the chasm to the skeptical masses, the cycle reaches the tipping point and from
there, the curve will rise sharply when the masses accept the product (Krogerus et al., 2018).
However, it will sink again when there are stragglers remaining.
Conclusion
It is important for an organization to understand the necessary areas to gain competitive
traction. Organizations can choose one of the five factors to focus on and then decide how to
compete on a global scale with distribution and cost strategy. An organization should understand
their competitive advantage in order to create an effective strategy. According to Keller and
Alsdorf (2016), the gospel worldview has many influences on how one should actually do their
work. Every field of work to some degree is influenced by alternate worldviews and their
attendant idols. In business, money and power can quickly become an idol to most. These are
things that can be vital to creating new products and to serve customers. It is important not to
idolize these things but instead organizations should work with employees and offer
opportunities to use the gospel to shape their vision. Whether it is for a non or profit business a
vision of serving a need in a way that reflects God’s plan for the world is essential.
References
Gamble, J., Thompson, A. & Peteraf, M. (2019). Essentials of strategic management: the quest
for competitive advantage. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education
Keller, T., & Alsdorf, K. L. (2016). Every good endeavor: connecting your work to God's work.
Penguin Books.
Kim, M. (2015). Geographic scope, isolating mechanisms, and value appropriation. Strategic
Management Journal, 37(4), 695–713. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.2356
Krogerus, M., Tschäppeler, R. & Piening, J. (2018). The decision book: fifty models for strategic
thinking. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.
Liu, Y., Li, W., & Li, Y. (2019). Ambidexterity between low cost strategy and csr Strategy:
Contingencies of competition and regulation. Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 37(3), 633–
660. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10490-019-09647-3
Rumelt, R. (2011). Good strategy, bad strategy: the difference and why it matters. New York:
Crown Business.
Yu, D. Z., Cheong, T., & Sun, D. (2017). Impact of supply chain power and drop-shipping
on a manufacturer’s optimal distribution channel strategy. European Journal of Operational
Research, 259(2), 554–563. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2016.11.025
Introduction
Developing a competitive approach an abundance of knowledge such as strategy
development, setting a direction, knowing the external environment as well as the internal
environment. Deciding a competitive approach for a company requires a critical process for
creating an organizational strategy. It is also significant to review the organization geographic
and production scope. Comprehending those facts will aid in developing a decision model to
implement impactful change.
Process
To obtain a competitive approach it requires an organization to create a strategic
formulation and a strategy execution process (Gamble, Peteraf, & Thompson, 2021). A strategy
formulation and execution process consist of five stages (Gamble et al., 2021). The process
reviews developing a strategic vision, setting objectives, crafting a strategy, implementing, and
executing the chosen strategy, and evaluating and analyzing the external and internal
organization performance (Gamble et al., 2021). A strategic vision is to act as a managerial
instrument to assist managers in comprehending what the organization should resemble and to
serve as a backing when making strategic decisions (Gamble et al., 2021). The objective takes
the strategic vison and develops performance goals (Gamble et al., 2021). A great tool to use is
proximate objective because it focusses on a target that a company can use to rationalize
expectations without stressing (Rumelt, 2011). Crafting a strategy requires a plethora of hows’
(Gamble et al., 2021). Speaking on the hows of strategy understands that there is doubt, danger,
annoyance behind it (Gamble et al., 2021). However, change or creation of a new strategy places
an organization in position to craft products or services into competitive advantages (Gambe et
al., 2021).
Organizations facing competitive displacement will often have to amend product or services to
craft a specific characteristic separating them from other competitors (Mierzejewska, Yim,
Napoli, Lucas, & Al-Hasan, 2017). Companies’ implementation and execution strategy is
particular and tedious component of strategic management actions (Gamble et al., 2021). Lastly,
the process for developing a competitive approach is to evaluate performance and making
necessary adjustments (Gamble et al., 2021). The final stage seeks to review internal and
external factors to make change the according to organization vision (Gamble et al., 2021).
Evaluating performance is necessary to determine how well an organization is doing and to
process with improving to remain competitive in business (Tripathi, Hasan, & Jha, 2019).
Strategy Thinking
An amazing strategy comes from using the mind, the energy around you, and acting
(Rumelt, 2011). Organizational strategies review the corporate strategy, the business strategy, the
functional area strategies, and operating strategies (Gamble et al., 2021). Corporate strategy is
the universal company plans for governing the business (Gamble et al., 2021). Business strategy
focuses on strengthening organizations competitive advantages and create new advantages
(Gamble et al., 2021). Functional-Area strategy refines relevant descriptions on the how in
business strategy essentially crafting plans to support to keep the plan intact (Gamble et al.,
2021). Operating strategy defines the overall to the business and functional-area strategy which
consist of a blueprint to managing lower levels of strategy and ventures (Gamble et al.,
2021). Operating strategies fall to the front-line workers managers and often must wait for
higher ups before decisions are finalized (Gamble et al., 2021). Managing knowledge as it relates
to strategy is a weapon developed to formulate long-term and short-term plans for organizations
to develop or recreate new and exciting competitive advantages (Bolisani & Bratianu, 2017).
Responsibility falls to all in the organization do their part to execute organizations strategies
while board directors and CEOs oversee the development of the strategic plan and adjust those
plans according to internal and external environmental factors (Gamble et al., 2021).
Geographic Scope
Business is conducted throughout all countries and the operation will very similar but the
same. Organizations international growth direction and the geographic scope are dissimilar, with
data from 1999 to 2008 from the Fortune Global 500 organization (Oh, Kim, & Shin, 2019).
Results indicate that organization operating in a large driven organization widen the drive
activity internationally, but the geographic scope is minimal (Oh et al., 2019).
Production/Distribution Scope
Competitive scope on product and service specifically in large corporations is the features
or characteristics of the product or service itself. Organizations often focus on market, and it
changes daily due to new and shifting demands and needs. Strategic decisions are made to keep
the organization up and running as well as driving demand from customers. Production scope
remain competitive due to the decision model an organization uses to make changes in a
fluctuating global market (Krogerus & Tschappeler, 2018).
Decision Model
Competitive decision models can use the Yes/No rule because it is a quick way to reach a
decisive decision (Krogerus & Tschappeler, 2018). Using this decision model is necessary when
determining the intensity of the risk associated (Krogerus & Tschappeler, 2018). The decision
model is the process of elimination but also process clear parameters beneficial to management
as they are making competitive decisions (Krogerus & Tschappeler, 2018). A quantitative
evaluation sets how vision is determined by a group of yes/no answers on differentiation of
vision cells (Hasegawa et al., 2017). Yes and no answers are answers that needed most opinion
(Krogerus & Tschappeler, 2018).
Conclusion
To run a business, it is vital to understand the process necessary to remain in a
competitive market. Breaking down the process of a business into stages will aid in
implementing those changes to a refine manner. Every process requires strategic thinking and
strategic thinking will require its own steps because the overall objective is to remain
competitive or to retain a competitive advantage over other organizations in the industry.
Geographic and product scopes are significant factor an organization seek to clarify as demand
grow and sectors expand. To build a strong hold on the competitive market requires executing a
decision plan such as yes and no. Yes and no decision model is not a simplistic model that does
not require thinking, it is a model that requires more thinking. The business world regardless of
industry is cut throat and requires constant change as it grow and as society grows.
Reference
Bolisani, E., & Bratianu, C. (2017). Knowledge strategy planning: An integrated approach to
manage uncertainty, turbulence, and dynamics. Journal of Knowledge Management, 21(2), 233-
253. https://doi.org/10.1108/JKM-02-2016-0071
Gamble, J., Thompson, A., & Peteraf, M. (2021). Essentials of strategic management: the quest
for competitive advantage. McGraw-Hill.
Hasegawa, E., Mizumoto, N., Kobayashi, K., Dobata, S., Yoshimura, J., Watanabe, S.,
Murakami, Y., & Matsuura, K. (2017). Nature of collective decision-making by simple yes/no
decision units. Scientific Reports, 7(1), 14436-11. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-14626-z
Mierzejewska, B. I., Yim, D., Napoli, P. M., Lucas, H. C., & Al-Hasan, A. (2017). Evaluating
strategic approaches to competitive displacement: The case of the U.S. newspaper
industry. Journal of Media Economics, 30(1), 19-30.
https://doi.org/10.1080/08997764.2017.1281817
Oh, C. H., Kim, M., & Shin, J. (2019). Paths and geographic scope of international expansion
across industries. International Business Review, 28(3), 560-574.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ibusrev.2018.12.002
Rumelt, R. P. (2011). Good strategy, bad strategy: the difference and why it matters. Crown
Business.
Tripathi, K. K., Hasan, A., & Neeraj Jha, K. (2019). Evaluating performance of construction
organizations using fuzzy preference relation technique. International Journal of Construction
Management, 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2019.1613210
1
Competitive strategy, Geographic Scope, and Decision Models Response
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliations
Course Name
Instructor
Date
2
Competitive strategy, Geographic Scope, and Decision Models Response
Response to Domenica
The competitive advantage can be built by five generic competitive strategy options
namely: low-cost provider strategy, broad differentiation strategy, focused differentiation
strategy, focused low-cost strategy, and a best-cost provider strategy (Gamble et al, 2019).
Organizational strategies have to be matched to the internal situation by an appropriate set of
resources, understanding, and competitive ability to be successful (Liu et al., 2019). The
geographic scope of an organization determines its competitive advantage. The market position
of a company can be boosted by mergers and acquisitions. Necessary changes have to be
introduced in an organization through determining a pivot point (Rumelt, 2011). The competitive
advantage of a company can be increased by distribution scope. The Chasm-Diffusion model
discusses how some ideas trend among customers while others disappear (Krogerus et al., 2018).
I agree with you that low-cost strategies lead to the use of cheap raw materials and
traditional methods of producing goods and services. Most traditional methods of production
harm the environment (Liu et al., 2019). The business will only focus on the low-cost side and
forget about the effect of the methods on the environment. Indeed, business institutions can use
mergers and acquisitions to strengthen their competitive advantage (Rumelt, 2011). Small
businesses offering the same good or service can merge to form a big business organization that
will compete fairly in the market. Big businesses can also minimize competition by acquiring
some businesses offering similar products or services. Mergers and acquisitions allow for an
increase in scale and scope.
3
References
Gamble, J., Thompson, A. & Peteraf, M. (2019). Essentials of strategic management: the quest
for competitive advantage. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education
Krogerus, M., Tschäppeler, R. & Piening, J. (2018). The decision book: fifty models for strategic
thinking. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.
Liu, Y., Li, W., & Li, Y. (2019). Ambidexterity between low cost strategy and csr Strategy:
Contingencies of competition and regulation. Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 37(3),
633–660. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10490-019-09647-3
Rumelt, R. (2011). Good strategy, bad strategy: the difference and why it matters. New York:
Crown Business.
1
Competitive Approach, Geographic Scope, and Decision Models Response
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliations
Course Name
Instructor
Date
2
Competitive Approach, Geographic Scope, and Decision Models Response
Response to Shanice
An organization can obtain a competitive approach by creating a strategic formulation
and a strategic execution process (Gamble et al., 2021). The stages of strategy formulation and
execution process are: developing a strategic vision, settings objectives, crafting a strategy,
implementing and executing the chosen strategy, and evaluating and analyzing the internal and
external organization performance. Organizational strategies include business strategies,
corporate strategies, operating strategies, and functional area strategies. The geographic scope is
minimal for organizations operating in a large driven organization. The drive activities of such
organizations are widened internationally (Oh et al., 2019). The competitiveness of production
scope is boosted by the decision model used by a company. Decisions in an organization can be
made using the competitive decision model. Decisions can be made by the use of yes/no answers
(Krogerus & Tschappeler, 2018).
It is true that a strategic formulation and a strategic execution process are essential for
achieving a competitive approach. The five stages of strategy formulation and strategic execution
process play a key role in ensuring an organization can keep up with the competition (Gamble et
al., 2021). Indeed, when a company is threatened with ouster from the market, it has to change its
product or service. All the necessary actions have to be taken to redeem the quality of services
and goods offered. Board directors and CEOs of a company are responsible for overseeing the
development of strategic plans. They can also make the necessary changes to the plan according
to the internal and external environmental factors (Bolisani & Bratianu, 2017).
3
References
Bolisani, E., & Bratianu, C. (2017). Knowledge strategy planning: An integrated approach to
manage uncertainty, turbulence, and dynamics. Journal of Knowledge Management,
21(2), 233-253. https://doi.org/10.1108/JKM-02-2016-0071
Gamble, J., Thompson, A., & Peteraf, M. (2021). Essentials of strategic management: the quest
for competitive advantage. McGraw-Hill.
Krogerus, M., & Tschäppeler, R. (2012). The decision book: 50 models for strategic thinking.
WW Norton & Company.
Oh, C. H., Kim, M., & Shin, J. (2019). Paths and geographic scope of international expansion
across industries. International Business Review, 28(3), 560-574.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ibusrev.2018.12.002
