A. How could Jeff's attitude toward social responsibility impact Perry's
strategy? Justify your rationale with support from course materials.
Jeff said that he doesn’t believe in this stuff and that he believes making changes
focused on sustainability will actually hurt the company. g His goal is based on not
looking bad compared to a competitor rather than actually making changes that may
have a positive impact. g It seems most likely any decision he would make would be
based more on perception than on actually accomplishing anything. g He seems to be
showing some overconfidence bias (Mastering Strategic Management, 2014, pg.
335) in thinking that he knows that he knows more about the potential business
impacts than other researchers who have shown that some focus on the environment
can be a positive for companies.
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.
The competitor is attempting to use a differentiation strategy to gain market share
(Mastering Strategic Management, 2014, pg. 149) but in reality is taking part in a
greenwashing marketing campaign (Edwards, 2022). g This is largely intended to
mislead consumers since these processes and equipment they use are pretty much the
same as other companies like Perry’s. g There would be no reason to make an
extensive list of sustainable practices being undertaken since in the end it could
actually hurt the competitor if people realize these statements don’t mean all that
much (Edwards, 2022). g The best response would be a short statement or comparison
to the industry that shows that conveys Perry’s is not any less environmentally
friendly. g If they decide they want to make a real difference, they should then try to
use a more sophisticated approach that includes sustainability in the strategy of the
company (Czinkota, 2013).
B. Porter identified one of the most commonly accepted definitions of
strategy as "choosing a unique and valuable position, g 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.
There are a lot of areas to work with in the area of sustainability and I think that
leaves opportunities to use it as a strategy. g In fast food companies like McDonald’s,
Burger King, and Wendy’s essentially offer the same products like burgers, fries,
and chicken nuggets but with a slight difference. g Burger King is flame-broiled,
Wendy’s “fresh” burgers, and McDonald’s thrives on being the first and largest. g
Sustainability could be used in the same way if a company becomes an industry
leader in a certain area and differentiates that way. g In the case of Starbucks they
differentiated by eliminating plastic straws from stores (Goodwin, 2020). g While in
the end many of these are not that difficult to replicate other companies will not
achieve the fanfare that came from the first mover (Mastering Strategic
Management, 2014, pg. 184).
References
Czinkota, M. (2013, January 13). Global consumerism and sustainability. Retrieved
from http://michaelczinkota.com/2013/01/global-consumerism-and-sustainability/
Edwards, C. (2022, February 24). What is greenwashing? Retrieved from
https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/10946-greenwashing.html
Goodwin, J. (2020, September 10). Starbucks has officially abandoned straws in
favor of sippy cup lids..well, mostly. Retrieved from
https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/10/business/starbucks-straw-free-lids-plastic-straws-
sustainability/index.html
Mastering Strategic Management (2014). Adapted by the Saylor Foundation under a
creative commons attribution-noncommercial-sharealike
