A: Essay Question Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the “six-forces model” for formulating business strategy. Apply the model to real cases. “Core competences are an interesting idea but are...

Running Head: Strategy
Strategy
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Contents
Solution 1    3
Solution 2    5
Solution 3    6
Strategy Formulation or Execution    7
Why Strategy Execution is more important?    8
Solution 4    8
Solution 5    9
References    11
Solution 1
Porter's Five Forces refers to a model and technology that can identify and analyze the five competitive forces that act on businesses in the industry. These forces generally identify the weaknesses or strengths of a business, while facilitating the process of determining industry structure and company goods or services affect participants in the industry (Bruijl, 2018). When decomposing the six powers in the framework, Apple will be analyzed to further highlight the key points of the six power models. More competitors mean more products moreover services in the market, which will reduce the strength of the company because other similar companies also have competition for profit, supply, and sales. In this business, R&D expenditures are high, and customers usually don't experience a lot of switching expenses between the company's products/services. The threat of a high business completion rate means that Apple must continue to expand new, different, or good-quality goods to ensure its position in the market. The threat of Apple’s new market entry is minimal (Asad, 2012). With a large number of market participants already established, new entrants entering the industry will face a difficult time, which will bring considerable income opportunities. A force in the framework that determines the difficulty for providers to determine the prices of goods/services in the business is called supplier power. This is also affected by the number of industry suppliers, the uniqueness of products or services, and the difficulty of changing suppliers. In the Apple market, the power of suppliers is very low. The fact that Apple and other companies have many suppliers to choose from reduces the supplier’s bargaining power in the industry (Fung, 2014). For example, there are not only many suppliers of microcomputer processors, but they also compete with each other in terms of functions and prices, which further reduces the strength of suppliers. Therefore, this makes Apple have almost no switching costs when choosing different suppliers, and at the same time it becomes an important customer for suppliers who do not need to lose their business. This makes Apple strong and providers weak, so suppliers have low power (Grebenshchikova & Yakushev, 2017).
The power and ability of customers in the business to influence prices as well as supply are called buyer moreover consumer power. This aspect is also affected by the number of customers or buyers and the switching costs of customers moving from one company in the industry to another. At the personal customer level of Apple, the power consumption is lower, but when dealing with a huge number of purchasers, the power consumption is higher, especially because the switching expenses in the business are usually very low. Industry must deal with competitive substitutes for goods or services (Asad, 2012). If a customer can easily substitute other services or products when performing a certain task, for example, the threat of substitution is great, so Grebenshchikova & Yakushev, (2017) will weaken companies in the industry. Considering Apple, the main product that may replace landlines is the iPhone. In this way, the threat of alternative products, in this case, is small, because by updating and developing its product variety, Apple has made alternative products much lesser than its goods, which means that consumers are unwilling to use alternative products to cause inconvenience. The sixth force focuses on complement. Complementary products are products or services that are paired with another product to provide customers with additional value. By using such a strategy, Apple can ensure that if the business of its complementary products develops smoothly, it will have a positive impact on its product range (Asad, 2012). The six forces framework used in strategic development can provide clear insights into the competitive landscape and market. It also analyzes the relationship between various aspects and market participants, so that people have a clear knowledge of the profitability of a business. The result of a well-designed 6-man troop can determine which positions the company enters, thereby reducing competition moreover obtaining greater profits. However, this model cannot identify threats from outside the business. A very general example is that the old media business was destroyed by the development of the Internet, which formed new competitors for industries such as advertising agencies and newspapers (Bruijl, 2018). The impact of innovations from other companies on the existing industries being analyzed does not take into account the limitations of the six power models. Using these six forces, despite their limitations, can enable companies to formulate strategies that not only show the best allocation of important resources, however also show which departments are most competent in generating huge profits while reducing competition (Fung, 2014).
Solution 2
A successful business has a set of main skills, information base, and human resources that can make it reach high values. This set of projects that do not include brand names,...