2. Analyzing a Company’s Resources and Competitive Position
Chapter 4
Analyzing a Company’s Resources and Competitive Position
Screen graphics created by:
Jana F. Kuzmicki, Ph.D.
Troy State University-Florida and Western Region

3. W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne
“Before executives can chart a new strategy, they must reach common understanding of the company’s current position.”
W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne

4. Chapter Roadmap
Question 1: How Well Is the Company’s Present Strategy Working?
Question 2: What Are the Company’s Resource Strengths and Weaknesses and Its External Opportunities and Threats?
Question 3: Are the Company’s Prices and Costs Competitive?
Question 4: Is the Company Competitively Stronger or Weaker than Key Rivals?
Question 5: What Strategic Issues and Problems Merit Front-Burner Managerial Attention?

5. Company Situation Analysis: The Key Questions
1. How well is the company’s present strategy working?
2. What are the company’s resource strengths and weaknesses and its external opportunities and threats?
3. Are the company’s prices and costs competitive?
4. Is the company competitively stronger or weaker than key rivals?
5. What strategic issues merit front-burner managerial attention?

6. Fig. 4.1: Identifying the Components of a Single-Business Company’s Strategy

7. Q #1: How Well Is the Company’s Present Strategy Working?
Key Issues
Identify competitive approach
Low-cost leadership
Differentiation
Focus on a particular market niche
Determine competitive scope
Geographic market coverage
Operating stages in industry’s production/distribution chain
Examine recent strategic moves
Identify functional strategies

8. Approaches to Assess How Well the Present Strategy Is Working
Qualitative assessment – What is the strategy?
Completeness
Internal consistency
Rationale
Relevance
Quantitative assessment – What are the results?
Is company achieving its financial and strategic objectives?
Is company an above-average industry performer?

9. Key Indicators of How Well the Strategy Is Working
Trend in sales and market share
Acquiring and/or retaining customers
Trend in profit margins
Trend in net profits, ROI, and EVA
Overall financial strength and credit ranking
Efforts at continuous improvement activities
Trend in stock price and stockholder value
Image and reputation with customers
Leadership role(s) – Technology, quality, innovation, e-commerce, etc.

10. Q #2: What Are the Company’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats ?
S W O T represents the first letter in
S trengths
W eaknesses
O pportunities
T hreats
For a company’s strategy to be well-conceived, it must be
Matched to its resource strengths and weaknesses
Aimed at capturing its best market opportunities and erecting defenses against external threats to its well-being S W O T

11. Identifying Resource Strengths and Competitive Capabilities
A strength is something a firm does well or an attribute that enhances its competitiveness
Valuable competencies or know-how
Valuable physical assets
Valuable human assets
Valuable organizational assets
Valuable intangible assets
Important competitive capabilities
An attribute that places a company in a position of market advantage
Alliances or cooperative ventures with partners
Resource strengths and competitive capabilities are competitive assets!

12. Competencies vs. Core Competencies vs. Distinctive Competencies
A competence is the product of organizational learning and experience and represents real proficiency in performing an internal activity
A core competence is a well-performed internal activity central (not peripheral or incidental) to a company’s competitiveness and profitability
A distinctive competence is a competitively valuable activity a company performs better than its rivals

13. Company Competencies and Capabilities
Stem from skills, expertise, and experience usually representing an
Accumulation of learning over time and
Gradual buildup of real proficiency in performing an activity
Involve deliberate efforts to develop the ability to do something, often entailing
Selecting people with requisite knowledge and skills
Upgrading or expanding individual abilities
Molding work products of individuals into a cooperative effort to create organizational ability
A conscious effort to create intellectual capital

14. Core Competencies -- A Valuable Company Resource
A competence becomes a core competence when the well-performed activity is central to a company’s competitiveness and profitability
Often, a core competence results from collaboration among different parts of a company
Typically, core competencies reside in a company’s people, not in assets on a balance sheet
A core competence gives a company a potentially valuable competitive capability and represents a definite competitive asset

15. Examples: Core Competencies
Expertise in integrating multiple technologies to create families of new products
Know-how in creating operating systems for cost efficient supply chain management
Speeding new/next-generation products to market
Better after-sale service capability
Skills in manufacturing a high quality product
System to fill customer orders accurately and swiftly

16. Distinctive Competence -- A Competitively Superior Resource
A distinctive competence is a competitively significant activity that a company performs better than its competitors
A distinctive competence
Represents a competitively valuable capability rivals do not have
Presents attractive potential for being a cornerstone of strategy
Can provide a competitive edge in the marketplace —because it represents a competitively superior resource strength
# 1

17. Examples: Distinctive Competencies
Sharp Corporation
Expertise in flat-panel display technology
Toyota and Honda
Low-cost, high-quality manufacturing capability and short design-to-market cycles
Intel
Ability to design and manufacture ever more powerful microprocessors for PCs
Wal-Mart
Low-cost distribution and use of state-of-the-art retail technology

18. Determining the Competitive Value of a Company Resource
To qualify as competitively valuable or to be the basis for sustainable competitive advantage, a “resource” must pass 4 tests:
1. Is the resource hard to copy?
2. Does the resource have staying power – is it durable?
3. Is the resource really competitively superior?
4. Can the resource be trumped by the different capabilities of rivals?

19. Identifying Resource Weaknesses and Competitive Deficiencies
A weakness is something a firm lacks, does poorly, or a condition placing it at a disadvantage
Resource weaknesses relate to
Inferior or unproven skills, expertise, or intellectual capital
Lack of important physical, organizational, or intangible assets
Missing capabilities in key areas
Resource weaknesses and deficiencies are competitive liabilities!

22. Identifying a Company’s Market Opportunities
Opportunities most relevant to a company are those offering
Good match with its financial and organizational resource capabilities
Best prospects for profitable long-term growth
Potential for competitive advantage

23. Identifying External Threats
Emergence of cheaper/better technologies
Introduction of better products by rivals
Entry of lower-cost foreign competitors
Onerous regulations
Rise in interest rates
Potential of a hostile takeover
Unfavorable demographic shifts
Adverse shifts in foreign exchange rates
Political upheaval in a country

24. Role of SWOT Analysis in Crafting a Better Strategy
The most important part of S W O T analysis is not developing the 4 lists of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, but rather
Using the 4 lists to draw conclusions about a company’s overall situation and
Acting on the conclusions to
Better match a company’s strategy to its resource strengths and market opportunities,
Correct the important weaknesses, and
Defend against external threats

25. Fig. 4.2: The Three Steps of SWOT Analysis

26. Q #4: Are the Company’s Prices and Costs Competitive?
Assessing whether a firm’s costs are competitive with those of rivals is a crucial part of company analysis
Key analytical tools
Value chain analysis
Benchmarking

27. The Concept of a Company Value Chain
A company’s business consists of all activities undertaken in designing, producing, marketing, delivering, and supporting its product or service
A company’s value chain consists of a linked set of value-creating activities performed internally
The value chain contains two types of activities
Primary activities – where most of the value for customers is created
Support activities – facilitate performance of the primary activities

28. Fig. 4.3: Representative Company Value Chain

29. Characteristics of Value Chain Analysis
Combined costs of all activities in a company’s value chain define the company’s internal cost structure
Compares a firm’s costs activity by activity against costs of key rivals
From raw materials purchase to
Price paid by ultimate customer
Pinpoints which internal activities are a source of cost advantage or disadvantage

30. Why Do Value Chains of Rivals Differ?
Several factors can cause differences in value chains of rival companies
Internal operations
Strategy
Approaches used in execution of the strategy
Underlying economics of the activities
Differences complicate task of assessing rivals’ relative cost positions

31. The Value Chain System for an Entire Industry
Assessing a company’s cost competitiveness involves comparing costs all along the industry’s value chain
Suppliers’ value chains are relevant because
Costs, performance features, and quality of inputs provided by suppliers influence a firm’s own costs and product performance
Forward channel allies’ value chains are relevant because
Costs and margins are part of price paid by ultimate end-user
Activities performed affect end-user satisfaction

32. Fig. 4.4: Representative Value Chain for an Entire Industry

33. Example: Value Chain Activities
Pulp & Paper Industry
Timber farming
Logging
Pulp mills
Papermaking
Distribution

34. Example: Value Chain Activities
Home Appliance Industry
Parts and components manufacture
Assembly
Wholesale distribution
Retail sales

35. Example: Value Chain Activities
Soft Drink Industry
Processing of basic ingredients
Syrup manufacture
Bottling and can filling
Wholesale distribution
Advertising
Retailing
Albertson’s

36. Example: Value Chain Activities
Software Computer Industry
Programming
Disk loading
Marketing
Distribution

37. Developing Data to Measure a Company’s Cost Competitiveness
After identifying key value chain activities, the next step involves breaking down departmental cost accounting data into costs of performing specific activities
Appropriate degree of disaggregation depends on
Economics of activities
Value of comparing narrowly defined versus broadly defined activities
Guideline – Develop separate cost estimates for activities
Having different economics
Representing a significant or growing proportion of costs

38. Activity-Based Costing: A Key Tool in Analyzing Costs
Determining whether a company’s costs are in line with those of rivals requires
Measuring how a company’s costs compare with those of rivals activity-by-activity
Requires having accounting data to measure cost of each value chain activity
Activity-based costing entails
Defining expense categories according to specific activities performed and
Assigning costs to the activity responsible for creating the cost

40. Benchmarking Costs of Key Value Chain Activities
Focuses on cross-company comparisons of how certain activities are performed and costs associated with these activities
Purchase of materials
Payment of suppliers
Management of inventories
Getting new products to market
Performance of quality control
Filling and shipping of customer orders
Training of employees
Processing of payrolls

41. Objectives of Benchmarking
Identify best practices in performing an activity
Understand the best practices in performing an activity – learn what is the “best” way to do a particular activity from those demonstrating they are “best-in-world”
Learn how other firms achieve lower costs
Take action to improve company’s cost competitiveness

42. Ethical Standards in Benchmarking: Do’s and Don’ts
Avoid talk about pricing or competitively sensitive costs
Don’t ask rivals for sensitive data
Don’t share proprietary data without clearance
Have impartial third party assemble and present competitively sensitive cost data with no names attached
Don’t disparage a rival’s business to outsiders based on data obtained

43. What Determines if a Company Is Cost Competitive?
Cost competitiveness depends on how well a company manages its value chain relative to how well competitors manage their value chains
When costs are out-of-line, high-cost activities can exist in any of three areas in the industry value chain
1. Suppliers’ activities
2. Company’s own internal activities
3. Forward channel activities
Activities,
Costs, &
Margins of
Forward
Channel Allies
Internally
Performed
Margins
Suppliers
Buyer/User
Value
Chains

44. Options to Correct Internal Cost Disadvantages
Implement use of best practices throughout company
Eliminate some cost-producing activities altogether by revamping value chain system
Relocate high-cost activities to lower-cost geographic areas
See if high-cost activities can be performed cheaper by outside vendors/suppliers
Invest in cost-saving technology
Innovate around troublesome cost components
Simplify product design
Make up difference by achieving savings in backward or forward portions of value chain system

46. Translating Performance of Value Chain Activities to Competitive Advantage
A company can create competitive advantage by managing its value chain to
Integrate knowledge and skills of employees in competitively valuable ways
Leverage economies of learning / experience
Coordinate related activities in ways that build valuable capabilities
Build dominating expertise in a value chain activity critical to customer satisfaction or market success

47. Fig. 4.5: Translating Performance of Value Chain Activities into Competitive Advantage

48. Q. #4: Is the Company Stronger or Weaker than Key Rivals?
Overall competitive position involves answering two questions
How does a company rank relative to competitors on each important factor that determines market success?
Does a company have a net competitive advantage or disadvantage vis-à-vis major competitors?

49. Assessing a Company’s Competitive Strength vs. Key Rivals
1. List industry key success factors and other relevant measures of competitive strength
2. Rate firm and key rivals on each factor using rating scale of 1 to 10 (1 = very weak; 5 = average; 10 = very strong)
3. Decide whether to use a weighted or unweighted rating system (a weighted system is superior because chosen strength measures are unlikely to be equally important)
4. Sum individual ratings to get an overall measure of competitive strength for each rival
5. Based on overall strength ratings, determine overall competitive position of firm

52. Why Do a Competitive Strength Assessment ?
Reveals strength of firm’s competitive position vis-à-vis key rivals
Shows how firm stacks up against rivals, measure-by-measure – pinpoints firm’s competitive strengths and competitive weaknesses
Indicates whether firm is at a competitive advantage / disadvantage against each rival
Identifies possible offensive attacks (pit company strengths against rivals’ weaknesses)
Identifies possible defensive actions (a need to correct competitive weaknesses)

53. What Strategic Issues Merit Managerial Attention?
Based on results of both industry and competitive analysis and an evaluation of a company’s competitiveness, what items should be on a company’s “worry list”?
Requires thinking strategically about
Pluses and minuses in the industry and competitive situation
Company’s resource strengths and weaknesses and attractiveness of its competitive position
A “good” strategy must address “what to do” about each and every strategic issue!

54. Identifying the Strategic Issues
How to stave off market challenges from new foreign competitors?
How to combat price discounting of rivals?
How to reduce a company’s high costs?
How to sustain a company’s present growth in light of slowing buyer demand?
Whether to expand a company’s product line?
Whether to acquire a rival firm?
Whether to expand into foreign markets rapidly or cautiously?
What to do about aging demographics of a company’s customer base?

55. Stating the Issues Clearly and Precisely
A well-stated issue involves such phrases as
“How to ?”
“Whether to ?”
“What should be done about ?”
Issues need to be precise, specific, and “cut straight to the chase”
Issues on the “the worry list” raise questions about
What actions need to be considered
What to think about doing