Competitive Advantage and Sustainable Entrepreneurial Growth of the HMV Company - Assignment Example

Competitive advantage is the response of a firm to the pressing need to organize and perform discrete activities. While these needs may not be perpetually spelled out, it is the responsibility of the planners and executors of policies to foresee such situations when catering to the growth and development of the firm n various levels. So this implies that the HMV Company needs to employ an individual perspective with an affiliation towards the basic industry type. There are various activities to take into consideration in the case of the HMV Company.

The activities performed when competing in a particular industry can be grouped into categories, as these activities can be divided broadly into primary activities and support activities. It has been noted that primary activities are those involved in the ongoing production, marketing, delivery, and servicing of the product. Whereas support activities are those that provide purchased inputs, technology, human resources, or the overall infrastructure functions supporting the other activities. Every activity employs purchased inputs, human resources, some combination of technologies, and draws on firm infrastructures such as general management and finance.

Activities vary in their importance in regard to competitive advantages from industry to industry. . While this is a good theory to reckon with, cynics are of the opinion that in today's world there are 'n' number of influences on a firm's activities and not just a set number of the same. In this regard, the HMV Company may make use of clusters which are groups of firms and other broad industries linked to each other on the basis of various skill and their subsets. These function in the sphere of providing the necessary technical and research-based support for various customer services, by making use of various institutions and universities apart from interns and other individuals.

In the context of the HMV Company, does Porter's theory ask the relevant questions What must the company do to ensure that the industry evolves in a way that is maximally advantageous for the organization in particular What skills and capabilities must the company begin building now if it is to occupy the industry high ground in the future How should the company organize for opportunities that may not fit neatly within the boundaries of current business units and divisions The answers are to be found in not in this theory but in the theories propounded by Gary Hamel, C.K. Prahalad titled Competing for the Future.

The authors are of the firm belief that when armed with the information in their findings and subsequent theories, a company can create a pro-active agenda for organizational transformation and can control its own destiny by controlling the destiny of its own industry. Few companies that began the 1980s as industry leaders ended the decade with their leadership intact and undiminished.