A. g How could Jeff's attitude toward social responsibility impact Perry's
strategy? Justify your rationale with support from course materials.
When speaking with Jeff it was easy to see that, he is not fully on board
with the green manufacturing processes that the operations management is
recommending and insisting on implementing. The competitors of Perry’s
have already implemented these same strategies and are using them in
their ad campaigns to add a competitive advantage to their products. By
telling the customer base that they are, using these green manufacturing
processes the competition is inferring that the others (including Perry’s) are
not. This is one way the competition sets their business apart and creates a
technology-based competitive advantage (Lipovich, 2020, Para. 1). Without
complete buying from Jeff, the CEO the rest of the corporate structure will
not have the leadership driving force required to make and retain such a
big strategic plan. The rational decision-making model requires first the
proper identification of a problem (Saylor, 2014, p. 332). With Jeff not
seeing sustainability as a big problem his decision-making process will be
skewed and drive the company in a possibly bad direction. Jeff is also
failing to understand that failing to invest in the future of the company for
fear of hurting the bottom line can have catastrophic effects years down
the road. This was shown in the
B. Should Perry's Printing respond to this new strategic plan published by
their competitor? Why or why not? Justify your opinion with support from
course materials.
Perry’s printing must respond for two reasons that I can see. The first is
that if they do not respond they will be letting Donovan’s Printing gain
distinct market advantage with the ability to differentiate themselves with
what is perceived as a unique technique in the printing marketplace. The
second reason that I can see is that if they do not reply then it will in a
sense show that they do not care about green manufacturing and the
environment which can prove to be devastating. The proper response will
come from the use of the rational decision-making model (Saylor, 2014, p.
332). They will have some time to properly plan a strategy to try and regain
the customers that they might have lost to the competition but not much
so they should act quickly.
C. g Porter identified one of the most commonly accepted definitions of
strategy as "choosing a unique and valuable position, rooted in systems of
activities that are difficult to match." In other words, differentiation is the
key to strategy. If all competitors are choosing sustainability as part of
their processes, can sustainability really be a strategy? Support your
opinion with course materials.
Porter's Five Forces is a tool that companies can use to identify the level of
competition in a specific market (Bruin, 2016). With, one of the ways that
Donovan’s Printing was able to find a unique area of the market was to
promote itself as green. Even if this is something that everyone else is
doing, they can give the customer more of a sense of worth in using their
printing services versus companies that don’t place that type of process as
one of their big selling points. With the current federal regulations on
carbon reduction affecting all businesses, there is still going to be an
advantage to being green that will give any company that uses these
processes an edge according to Porter's Fiver Forces. This edge will come
from the force of the barging power of the buyer and even more so the
price to the consumer. Governments around the world are not only
requiring green practices but are penalizing those companies that are not
acting to clean up their carbon footprints. One way this is being done is
using carbon taxing (Gurria, 2013). This force is in my opinion the strongest
faced in any market if you can manufacture a superior product at a cheaper
price, you will have a distinct market advantage and be extremely
competitive.
References
Bruin, L. de. (2020, December 5). Porter's five forces explained with
examples: B2U. Business. Retrieved May 2, 2022, from
https://www.business-to-you.com/porters-five-forces/
Gurria, A. (2013, October 9). Mathias Cormann, OECD secretary-general.
OECD. Retrieved May 3, 2022, from
https://www.oecd.org/about/secretary-general/the-climate-challenge-
achieving-zero-emissions.htm
Lipovich, I. (2022, April 14). Council post: How to use technology to gain a
sustainable competitive advantage. Forbes. Retrieved May 2, 2022, from
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinesscouncil/2020/10/06/how-to-
