Assignment on the Porter Generic competitive strategies

The New Balance is one of the largest manufacturers of athletic shoes. The New Balance Corporation is using a cost leadership strategy and differentiation strategy for getting a competitive edge over its competitors.  As mentioned above the organization manufacture its product on a large scale which helps the organization to achieve economies of scale. The design of the products of the company is unique and through its unique marketing strategies, the corporation has differentiated itself from the rest of the competitors. By creating attracting marketing campaigns and through focusing on the needs and preferences of its customers the corporation can become more competitive in the global market (Kourdi, 2015).

New Balance Opportunities and Threats

There are a variety of opportunities for New Balance. The corporation has the opportunity to diversify its business and can enter into different markets. The organization has the opportunity to enter into developing countries and meet the needs of various customers. The organization has the opportunity to provide unique products to its customers that other corporations are not providing to their customers. The major threat for the organization is the huge level of competition. The change in the external environment factors which include political factors, social factors, economic factors, and technological factors can affect the sales and overall performance of the business. It is recommended to the corporation to create such strategies that help the organization to mitigate the impact of external environment factors up to a lot of extents (New Balance, 2020).

Project 2

VIRO Framework: The VIRO framework is a tool that is utilized by the organization to determine whether the corporation has a sustainable competitive advantage or not. The VIRO framework includes 4 components through which it analyzes the sustainable competitive advantage. The first thing which the framework analysis is whether the capability of the organization creates value. The second thing that it evaluates is whether the organizations’ capability is rare or not. The third thing which the framework evaluates it’s whether the resources are imitable by other firms? And 4^th component analyses whether the capability of the firm is organized for capturing value or not (Jurevicius, 2013).

The organization where I worked previously has a sustainable competitive advantage in a strong culture. The organization’s strong culture was not only valuable and rare but also difficult to imitate and organized. Therefore it can be said that the organization has a competitive advantage in a strong culture. Another sustainable competitive advantage of the organization was that it has a skilled human resource. Through skilled employees, the performance of the organization increases, and the complex problems were solved in less amount of time. It can be said that skilled labor was generating value for the organization and was a rare resource of the corporation (Jurevicius, 2013).

Five steps of strategic management Process: The strategic management process consists of 5 steps and each step has its own significance and allows the organization to manage its operation efficiently. The first step is to create the mission and vision of the business. It allows the business to define the goals which it wants to achieve in the near future. The second step is to perform internal & external analysis. In the third step, the corporation establishes its strategy which will help the business to achieve its goal. In the 4^th step, the business implements the strategy, and in the last step, businesses monitor and control the implemented strategy (Campbel, Edgar, & Stonehouse, 2011).

The first step of the strategic management process is one of the most important steps because without a clear vision and mission organization cannot move further.it is important to establish the goals first because if the organization does not know where it wants to go and what it wants to achieve than it cannot establish successful strategies. It is important for any organization to have a clear idea regarding what its goals are and how those goals are going to be achieved in the upcoming future. Therefore the first step of the strategic management process is the most important (Campbel, Edgar, & Stonehouse, 2011).

Groupthink: Groupthink is a phenomenon through which the group takes such a decision which is not rational and can cause a problem for the corporation. This issue can be resolved through various techniques (Spender, 2014). The group leader or team leader can play an important role in mitigating this issue. The team leader or group leader can influence its members to take such a decision that is rational and can benefit the whole organization. The management of the corporation can also play important role in encouraging the employees to perform brainstorming and using various techniques to take can help the group to take such decisions that are rational (Campbel, Edgar, & Stonehouse, 2011).

References on the Porter Generic competitive strategies

Campbel, D., Edgar, D., & Stonehouse, G. (2011). Business Strategy: An Introduction. Macmillan International Higher Education.

Jurevicius, O. (2013). VRIO Framework. Retrieved from https://strategicmanagementinsight.com/tools/vrio.html

Kourdi, J. (2015). The Economist: Business Strategy 3rd edition: A guide to effective decision-making. Profile Books.

New Balance. (2020). INSIDE NB. Retrieved from https://www.newbalance.com/about-new-balance-content-assets/inside-nb-overview.html

Spender, J.-C. (2014). Business Strategy: Managing Uncertainty, Opportunity, and Enterprise. OUP Oxford.