A. aa 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. aa 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-
use-technology-to-gain-a-sustainable-competitive-
advantage/?sh=5fb93609328c
Saylor.org. (2014). Mastering Strategic Management. essay, Saylor.org.
Retrieved March 29, 2022, from
https://leocontent.umgc.edu/content/dam/permalink/17a490e9-e4fc-
42e2-8537-6b40b98b8911.html.
