• Threats Finally, let’s focus on the threats that may arise from the environment surrounding the company. Spain is still recovering from the deep economic crisis suffered, thus the GDP growth rates are not still expected to be high and competitive over the following years, moreover the unemployment rate in Spain is one of the highest of Europe. In addition, the political climate is tense due to the political changes happening in the government, moving from a right-wind party towards a left-wind one, due to those changes new rules and laws can be applied which could affect the way how Oakley does business in Spain. Finally, the last threat would be the intense competition faced by the company and that could become more intense as it has been seen over the last years with the appearance of new brands such as Hawkers, Palens or Knockaround. Annex ( employment rate Spain) ( Spain expectations) SWOT ANALYSIS OF OAKLEY Internal Strengths Weaknesses - Strong brand image and reputation - Vertical integration model - High-quality products - Technological leader - Poor social network strategy from a local perspective - Low volume of sales External Opportunities Threats - Active population with outdoor activities culture - Weather that allows the use of Oakley’s products - Good geographical positioning - Presence of world championships - Low GDP growth - High unemployment rate - Political changes that may lead to new laws and regulations - Intense growing competition 7.
In addition to this another benefit of vertical integration, is that your organization will be able to invest in highly specialized assets. Vertical integration gives the opportunity to go even further. With specialized assets and having more control over inputs, by implementing this, it is possible to differentiate from competitors, and gain competitive advantage. This is one of the ways to increase your market share, which will eventually lead to increased
This is because they look to interact directly with the final customers. The book states that a firm should vertically integrate business activities where they possess valuable, rare, and costly-to-imitate resources and capabilities. With competition consistently playing a factor, Verizon had to find a way to gain a competitive advantage. In this case, network reliability, products and services, customer service, and familiarity are the different paths Verizon has chosen to differentiate products and secure a competitive advantage. The forward integration strategy stands to benefit the larger cellular providers more.
4 FORMULATION OF STRATEGY FOR THE SELECTED COMPANY (NALCO) 4.1 Formulations of the strategic options According to Wheelen and Hunger (2012, pp. 182), the TOWS matrix illustrates how the external opportunities and threats facing a particular corporation can be matched with that company’s internal strengths and weaknesses to result in four sets of possible strategic alternatives. Weihrich (1982) developed TOWS as the next step of SWOT in developing alternative strategies. The authors Ravanavar and Charanthimath (2012), further reinforced that, TOWS matrix provides the means to develop strategies based on logical combinations of factors relate to internal strengths (or weaknesses) with factors related to external opportunities (or threats). TOWS matrix identifies four conceptually distinct strategic groups: (1) Strength-Opportunity (SO), (2) Strength-Threats (ST), (3) Weaknesses-Opportunities (WO), and (4) Weaknesses-Threats (WT), for creating the alternative strategies.
The critical factors that they seek to address in such a focused differentiation business strategy is the ability of customers and employees to identify with one another, for instance the management might wear biking attire. As such Harley-Davidson’s business strategy has achieved a differentiation advantage by careful examination of customer activities. There are however strategic recommendations to the business structure that would be in place to address the company’s looming threats (Grant 2010). One, the company should reinforce strategic alliance engagement with channels of distribution in the Asian market. This is because Harley-Davidson is faced by a lack of market expansion resulting into fewer market opportunities.
SWOT analysis is a tool used by businesses to identify their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in order to measure the performance of the business. The SWOT analysis helps assess issues that affect the business both internally and externally. (http://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/swot.asp - 31 March 2015) Strengths are qualities that are consistent and play a big part in the success of the business. The strengths of the business include what the business specializes in; things that the business can do better than other businesses in the market, the qualities that employees possess, individually and in teams, and are the features that set your business apart from another business. Weaknesses are qualities that prevent the business
VERTICAL INTEGRATION VIZ A VIZ HORIZONTAL INTEGRATION LEADING CORE COMPETENCIES AND MARKET LEADERSHIP Vertical Integration The degree to that a firm owns its upstream suppliers and its downstream patrons is cited as vertical combination. as a result of it will have a major impact on a business unit 's position in its trade with regard to price, differentiation, and different strategic problems, the vertical scope of the firm is a vital thought in company strategy. Expansion of activities downstream is cited as forward integration and enlargement upstream is cited as backward integration. The construct of vertical combination will be unreal mistreatment the worth chain. Take into account a firm whose merchandise is created via associate assembly
The scenario will be based upon a business-to-business producing company, who historically use distributors to adopt their products to your end customer market. 2.3.3 Elements of SWOT Analysis SWOT analysis is principally focused with Strengths, Weaknesses, and Opportunities, together with Threats. Understand that the aim of doing some sort of SWOT should be to reveal positive forces that band together and potential conditions need be recognized and perhaps addressed. Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities S-O strategies W-O strategies Threats S-T strategies W-T strategies Figure: 2.3.3 2.3.4 Internal Factors: Strength and Weakness (S, W) Internal factors include company resources and experiences. General areas to consider: Human resources - staff, volunteers, board members, target population Physical resources - your location, building,
Why innovation is important for company? It is because through innovation company can achieve competitive advantage, by innovation in technologies or new ways of doing things. Michael Porter (1990, p75) and also it allows the company to redefine the market place of their favour Rothaermel, F.T and A.Hess ( 2010,pp12-15) , simultaneously create value and fending off competitors’ imitation attempts. Ultimately bring the company to above-average and outstand its peers. Innovation is imperative for economic growth, despite the primary actor for innovation is the firm, leadership is also an important actor.
How they attained this status was by being different from most other companies out there. As a result, competitors copy Apple's products and designs to reduce the differentiation status they hold over them. This forces Apple to come up with more innovative ideas to remain ahead of their competitors and retain their market share As such, Apple holds a high product differentiation in their markets until technology diffusion makes their products available to their competitors to copy. 5) Technology: Apple, having expertise in the computer technology and the industry, has become a global leader in the computer industry and its research and development. Currently, they have expanded computer technology into phones, laptops, tablets, music players, and recently into watches with the help of medicine.