Five Competitive Forces That Shape Strategy - Porter What ARE the five competitive forces that shape strategy and profitability)? How does understanding these forces help a company? What is Strategy - Porter How does strategy differ from operational effectiveness? What are three distinct sources that strategy emerges from? Reigniting Growth-Chris Zook and James Allen Why do many successful companies eventually "stall-out?" What causes the "stall out" and what are the symptoms of it? What are the proposed ways of overcoming the stall out? Thought Leader Interview - Vijay Govindarajan What is the universal challenge faced by today's business leaders? Describe VG's three box approach to tackling this challenge Understand and be able to discuss each of the boxes What is reverse innovation and why is it essential to Western growth? Trader Joe's - Case What does Trader Joes do that contributes to its competitive advantage? What does Trader Joes not do that also contributes to its competitive advantage? Would it be easy for competitors to copy TJ's competitive strategy? Why or why not? How might Tu's lose their competitive advantage? Red Ocean Traps - W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne What is the difference between a red ocean strategy and a blue ocean strategy? Be familiar with the six red ocean traps discussed in your article Amazon 2019 - Case What business is Amazon in? What is an ecosystem and how does it figure into the competitive landscape around Amazon? How does digital technology change what we think of as "competitive advantage?" Why is Jeff Bezos the right person to lead Amazon on this adventure? Amazon Go - Case What makes Amazon (traditionally online) able to compete in the brick-and-mortar environment? What makes Amazon Go an especially attractive endeavor for Amazon (or other companies) in 2020? Discuss the pros and cons of being the first-mover in this arena (checkout-free convenience stores). What must be taken into consideration in order for Amazon to launch Amazon Go stores globally? What Airbnb and Strava Know About Building Emotional Connections with Customers Explain what the "100 lovers" model means. What caused Strava to differentiate itself from Garmin and Nike? How can other companies utilize this knowledge? AirBnB, Etsy, Uber - Growing from 1000 to One Million Customers Discuss the factors that made Uber grow to one million customers. Explain how AirBnB and Uber both disrupted an established market. What did/does photography have to do with AirBnB? Explain thoroughly. Etsy stock is up more than 400% over what it was in March 2020 and up 1000% over what it was in 2017. What explains for its enormous growth? The Acquisition and Restructuring of Kia Motors by Hyundai Motors - Case Did Hyundai make a strategically correct choice when it acquired Kia Motors in 1998? Support your answer (what benefits did it expect? What benefits did it achieve?) What does it mean to say "synergy effects occurred" when Hyundai acquired Kia Motors? What remains (at the time of the case) an area in need of work (issues that are unresolved) as an effect of the acquisition