Strategic Management Robert M. Grant’s: Contemporary Strategic Analyses Answer section A & B. Total exam page length minimum expectation: about 4 single spaced 12 font. The answer for each question...

Strategic Management
PAGE
5
Contemporary Strategic Analyses
Running Head: CONTEMPORARY STRATEGIC ANALYSES
Contemporary Strategic Analyses
Name
Institution
Strategic Management
“While Industry and competitive analysis provides what the organization can aspire to do, it is the organization’s resource and capabilities analyses that determines how much it can accomplish.” Discuss.
Recommendations
Industrial and competitive analysis provides an insight into what an organisation intends to do, while the resource and the capability analysis provide an insight into what an organisation can accomplish. To ensure these, the organisation should:
· Carry out an industrial analysis
· Carry out a competitive analysis on the organisation
· Carry out resource analysis to identify the resources of the organisation
· Carry out capability analysis and to identify how an organisation can accomplish its tasks
Methods and Guidelines for Implementing the Recommendations
Discussions
Most organisations especially the profit making organisations, aim at determining ways of enhancing their competitiveness. Thus, they carry out industrial analysis as well as competitive analysis, which provide an insight into what they are up against in the industry and their competitors. Through industrial and competitive analysis, organisation’s managers decide on what they aspire to do with an aim of generating revenue. Industrial analysis provides an overview into trends that are available within an industry, and which may drive organisational managers towards venturing in a specific industry.
Industrial and competitive analysis provides insights into opportunities, which an organisation may aim at exploiting such as changes in technology, changes in demography, changes in culture, changes in the economical climate, changes in political and legal aspects, and various international events. Conducting an organisation’s industrial analysis involves the act of carrying out a SWOT analysis. This involves the identification of the organisational Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. Strengths and weaknesses are classified under the internal factors that contribute to the development of an organisation’s aspirations. The internal factors arise within the organisation itself. External forces are generated from analysing factors that arise outside the organisation. This forms the basis of the opportunities and threats that an organisation faces. Examples include; chances of serving a new market niche and the threat of new entrants into the industry.
While conducting industrial analysis, several factors will be considered such as the threat of new competition, threat of substitute products, customers’ bargaining power, suppliers bargaining power, and the intensity of the existing competitive rivalry. From the identified factors of industrial analysis, it is evident that the factors only assist an organisation in determining what they want to do. Having knowledge on the rise of new competitors within the industry assists an organisation in determining their aspiration. In cases where the new competitors in the industry are stronger in terms of the finances and the commodities, they offer in the market place, the organisation’s managers may reconsider their decision of venturing in that industry. This as well forms the basis of the competitive analysis.
Conducting competitive analysis on an organisation requires the organisation to identify its competitors in the industry. In addition, they ought to take into consideration various competitive strengths that the competitors have against them. This will provide the organisation with an insight into what they intend to do so that they avoid engaging in the sale of commodities that the competitors are doing well at selling. Moreover, they would rather indulge in the sale of substitutes to ensure that they do well in business alongside their competitors.
The resource and the capability analysis determine how much an organisation can accomplish. With a substantial amount of resources, an organisation has the capability of achieving a lot in the industry. The resources in context can be either human or financial resources. When an organisation has a large amount of financial resources, it has the capability of achieving a lot. The reason behind this is that the organisation has the capability of purchasing advanced technological equipment to aid in its operation. In addition, the organisation has the capability of offering free training to its staff members with a...