Porter's 5 Forces Case Study

1) Strategy - 20 Points
A) What is the essence of strategy? What does this mean?
According to Michael E. Porter, the essence of strategy is “choosing to perform activities differently or to perform different activities than rivals.” This means that a company that has a strategy is capable in creating a distinct and valuable position beyond its rivals in serving its consumers.

B) What is the difference between strategy and operational effectiveness?
Both strategy and operational effectiveness are the primary goal of any enterprise, but they work in very different ways. “Operational effectiveness means performing similar activities better than rivals perform them” (Porter, 1996). In another word, a company that has operational effectiveness

Bean 's fortunes and return it to one of the Premiere Apparel Company 's in the world?
The main issue faced by L.L. Bean(LLB) is growth. the company endured years of stagnant sales and the company’s signature sturdy, conservative apparel is now seen as simply expensive and unfashionable (Day, 2002). This results LLB had to cut its catalog and several categories merchandise. In order to fight the stagnated growth, I believe LLB has to open more retail stores, market aggressively and focus on several lines of product.
As the catalog sales have fallen 20 percent this year (Day, 2002), it is best for LLB to focus and open more stores. They can serve to customers who do not trust catalog shopping and people who keen to try and see the products before buying. Moreover, older adults tend to want to buy at physical store instead of buying

Walt Disney’s revenues had climbed from $1.65 billion to $ 25 billion. Moreover, Disney generated a 27% annual total return to shareholders during those 15 years. He turned Disney as one of the world’s most successful powerhouse of home entertainment as his vision is to build the Disney brand. From my opinion, one of the best parts of his leadership is his “feeling is that [if] you put a lot of smart people in a room and listen to them duke it out…the best idea will pop out.” He encourages Disney colleagues to fight in order to show their worth. This shows that he is good in leading the company and the competition at the unit level leads to the best results or