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. aa His goal is
based on not looking bad compared to a competitor rather than actually making
changes that may have a positive impact. aa It seems most likely any decision he
would make would be based more on perception than on actually accomplishing
anything. aa 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). aa 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. 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). aa 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. aa 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, 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. aa 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. Burger King is
flame-broiled, Wendy’s “fresh” burgers, and McDonald’s thrives on being the
first and largest. aa Sustainability could be used in the same way if a company
becomes an industry leader in a certain area and differentiates that way. aa In the
case of Starbucks they differentiated by eliminating plastic straws from stores
(Goodwin, 2020). aa 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
