General Strategy Knowledge
What is strategy?
“A firm’s theory about how to gain competitive advantage”
-Company’s distinctive approach to gain competitive advantage
-Strategy is about positioning / making choices
Rio Tinto, Oxfam, UK High Street, Team New Zealand, Richer Sounds, Nespresso, Infosys
What was the theme of this week's lecture?
Growth strategies & Managing strategy across organisation
What case study are we looking at this week?
Infosys
Explain a SWOT analysis
Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats
What was the first case we look at?
Rio Tinto
Name the reasons for foreign expansion (mentioned in the lecture)
1. Market development
2. Resource access
3. Learning
4. Coordination
What is Infosys?
- software business based in India, but also targets markets around the globe
Name Porter's 5 Forces
Threat of new entrants, Bargaining power of buyers, Bargaining power of suppliers, Threat of new substitutes, and Competitive rivalry
Give a quick summary of the High Street UK case
How covid-19 affected the shops along High Street in the UK
What are the factors to consider in a partner
The 4C’s: Complementarity, Congruent goals, Compatibility, Change
Who did Infosys start a joint venture with in 1987?
Management consultant firm based in Atlanta
Name the 4 common organizational structures
Simple, functional, multidivisional, matrix
What type of competitive strategy is Nespresso using
Focused differentiation
- strategies Securing competitive advantage with a product/ service design to appeal to unique preferences and needs of a narrow, well-defined group of buyers
Explain 'Apple Card' discussed in the lecture
- Credit card (partner Goldman Sach)
- Cashback on Apple Pay, Apple purchases, other physical purchase
- To provide enhanced privacy protection, with financial usage tracking
Explain the reasons why Infosys has been successful
- world class operations and high quality products and services
- recognizes human resources need to be nurtured
- expertise in project management
- clear structure
- large clients are sought
Explain the blue ocean strategy
Create uncontested market
Make the competition irrelevant
Create and capture new demand
Break value/ cost trade-off
Align whole system of company’s activities with strategic choice of differentiation OR low cost
What was the Oxfam scandal mentioned in the case?
Oxfam staff deployed to Haiti to help in the aftermath of the 2012 earthquake had been accused of sexually abusing and exploiting women who were survivors of the earthquake
What are the issues ahead for Xiaomi
- Strategy & direction good or clear enough?
- International expansion
- Building its brand
- Building a platform and winning people over – competition abound
The United States usually generates two thirds of the company's revenues