Discuss How Supply Chain Management Is an Important Focus as Companies Strive to Be as Efficient as Possible

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The second thing that firm needs to consider are what core competency of the firm is. A core competency of a firm can be anything from product design to sustained dedication of a firm’s employees. Let take Honda is an example; their core competency is to develop a variety of quality product s from lawn movers and snow blowers to trucks and automobiles. The safety is core competency of Volvo. The core competency has three characteristic namely: potential access to a wide variety of markets; increasing perceived customer benefits; and hard for competitor to imitate.

References

Jacobs, F. R., & Chase, R. B. (2010). Operations and supply chain management (13th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill

Question 6

Briefly discuss the process for developing corporate strategy.

According to investortowork “ The overarching strategy of a company developed by its leadership that reflects its mission and core values in its goals and underlying business strategies for achieving them. The corporate strategy provides clear direction for all the business units working in concert to meet shareholder expectations while providing value to their customers and employees.”

And one may know that every organization will establish business strategies for themselves that are designed to support their mission, vision and values, and achieve goals specific to their market, business and industry. Business management team who take the time to analyze and understand their market, industry and the external environment can develop strategies that are most likely to promote business success. There are many kinds of strategic that can apply to the firms as mentioned below:

The first one is “Cost Leader” strategy. It happened in Wal-Mart as you can see their statement that “selling at the cheapest price than ever” Businesses that consciously choose to position their company as a provider of products or services at the low end of the pricing point compared to their competitors believe that they can make up in volume what they may forfeit in terms of a high price point.

The second one is choosing Luxury Brand. It happened in some company like Roll Roy, Rolex, and IPhone as they choose to position their products and services at the high end of the competitive pricing scales. This brands appeal to a distinct group of consumers with ample disposable income and the desire to purchase exclusive products. Companies that choose this strategy are able to increase their ROI (return on investment) through product cost versus volume. Their customers may be fewer, but they will buy more expensively.

The third one is a niche-focused business strategy targets a narrow group of consumers with a product or service designed specifically to meet their needs. Health care products targeted to consumers with specific health concerns, such as diabetics, for example, are an example of this type of strategy. In the general consumer environment, niche-related products may target consumers with specific interests in sports, foods or leisure pursuits.

And the last one is mass market business strategy attempts to appeal to the broad range of consumers across many demographic categories. Mass market products include such consumer goods as detergents and other forms of household goods.

References

Jacobs, F. R., & Chase, R. B. (2010). Operations and supply chain management (13th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill

Corporate strategy retrieved from:

http://smallbusiness.chron.com/examples-corporate-business-strategies-4755.html

The Main Characteristics of Business Level Strategies retrieved from: http://www.investorwords.com/19276/corporate_strategy.html#ixzz3wRfoN9iB

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