On Competition The Five Forces & The Blue Ocean

a. We have said that competition forces society to deliver superior value at all levels socially, culturally, politically, and economically. Identify and discuss your team companys competitive advantage and core competency in essence, the magic sauce that makes the company stay in the game.

b. Provide a descriptive discussion of the Porters Five Forces Model of your teams company and include what Wheelen and Hunger call the sixth force in your analysis.

c. Kim and Mauborgne argue that sustaining a competitive advantage is to make the competition irrelevant hence, the blue ocean metaphor. Identify and discuss what must be done to achieve or sustain your team companys position in a blue ocean. Pull from the readings to support your response while identifying the factors of competition and a specific four actions framework model.

On the Value Chain

a. Identify and discuss the business model that best describes your team company.

b. Provide a descriptive overview of the various components of Porters value chain model

as they apply to your CEO company. Identify the areas within the value chain needing to

be strengthened. Ultimately, what is your firms profit margin targets and your rationale

for these benchmarks? In other words, what are you doing to improve your profitability

targets?

c. Lastly, what are the central pillars of your CEO companys corporate theory? Identify the

companys assets and activities that are rare, distinctive, and valuable.

i. Pull from Zenger to support your response while providing an illustrative model

of the companys corporate theory as well.

On General Strategy

a. Define and discuss your team companys current business strategy in other words, what

best defines how you compete in the marketplace? What resources are needed to strengthen

your competitiveness?

b. Define and discuss your team companys current corporate strategy in other words, what

best defines the boards directional vision of the entire company? What headwinds must

be overcome to maintain or strengthen the firms sustainable growth?

Note: Team company is The Gap Inc.