Asda, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose

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The strategic pathways adopted by Waitrose and their resources and competencies that helped them to develop as an online grocery retailer is:

1. Office based ordering system.

2. No online presence.

3. Purchased an e-commerce grocery business to expand online services for consumer markets.

4. Created new online brand Ocado a warehouse-based grocery shopping operation.

5. Waitrose Deliver was introduced to offer online purchasing from 33 Waitrose stores.

6. Added more areas of service coverage.

Questions No. 2:

Discuss the extent to which Tesco has achieved a competitive advantage through superior IT resources.

Tesco achieved a competitive advantage through superior IT resources by:

- Promoted services by creating more access points for consumers to access online purchase.

- Diversified products adding financial services, telecoms, DVDs to your door-rental services, energy utilities and e-diets.

- Opened dedicated online warehouses in areas where online shopping thrives.

- Expanded its online shopping to overseas markets.

Questions No. 3:

Explain why the creation of a sustained competitive advantages becomes more difficult to achieve as competitive rivalry increases.

To create and sustain competitive advantage, the firm's managers must comprehend the company's internal strength and weakness and in addition its opportunities and threats that present themselves in the company's outside environment. This is done through a SWOT.

Today, technological innovation and differentiation are in many industries the most essential drivers of competitive advantages. Purposes behind the expanding significance of development in numerous industries include IT and retail industries associated with IT. Indeed, even in industries which are considered as mundane, technological innovation has gotten to be one of the key differentiating elements in determining a company’s performance.

However, when everyone realize that innovation and differentiation are fatal for their business, their will try every possibility to innovate and differentiate their products and/or services. As companies in the same or similar industries start to do this, a firm’s competitive advantages will no longer be its internal strength, and the threats from external environment increase. If a firm slave over their existing sustain competitive advantages, and does not seek for new ways to innovate and differentiate, it will eventually be obsolete by its rivals due to the competitors are trying to innovate and differentiate their products and/or services from their rivals. In today’s society, the competition is very high, and if a company wants to survive from the rivalry, it has to keep innovating its existing competency, and also make differentiations on their products and services. It does not matter which industry this firm is in, because today’s technology is developing faster than ever, our core advantages can be easily imitated by our competitors and they may even achieve a better performance, since the technologies have lowered or eliminates the barriers. Thus, no matter what kind of competitive advantages we have, it will subside and if we are eager to win the battle and the leading position in the industry, the most fatal factors are differentiation and innovation. Every firm is making innovation and differentiation, so creating sustained competitive advantages is no longer the weapon we were proud of, and it is becoming more and more difficult to achieve as the rivalry increase.

- Visit the websites of ASDA/WALMART, Morrison’s, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose and explore each company site noting down novel and common features – e.g. recipes, customer surveys, promotional information, store locator, extent of product range. Now summarize how each of the sites differ in terms of the services offered.