Reflective journal entry leeson 4 - Research Paper Example

I HAVE ATTACHED THE LEARNING GUID WERE YOU WILL GET ALL THE INFORMATION THAT IS REQUIRED Reflective Journal Activity entry Just answer the question with one paragraph which will be sufficient) What ethical guidelines would you suggest for gathering competitor intelligence? As experts suggest that 80 percent of what managers need to know about competitors can be discovered internally, it is important to take advantage of this and not look to gain an unfair competitive advantage over a competitor.

For any information acquired outside of the company, no information should be bought or given in exchange for something. For instance, explicit collusion would be considered illegally in most places, so this would not be a strategy to gain information about a rival competitor (Barney & Hesterly, 2012). How does the BCG Matrix help set direction at the corporate level strategy? When an organisation controls many business interests over a number of industries, it is important to be able to rank them in terms of performance.

The BCG Matrix helps to achieve this because it combines market share (current) and potential growth (future) (Hine, 2011). Managers are better able to allocate an organisation’s resources based on what the BCG Matrix tells them. If an organisation deems a business to not be reaching its potential, then the business can be moved into another quadrant. If not, then the organisation can choose to dispense with that particular business altogether. Refer reading Kraaijenbrink et al. ‘The Resource-Based View: A Review and Assessment of Its Critiques’ What are the complementarities and differences between RBV and Porter’s approach?

What elements of each approach can you identify in your organsiation’s competitive strategies? The RBV approach and Porter’s approach are similar in that they both attempt to answer why an organisation has increased its performance. On the other hand, there are some fine differences between the two approaches. The RBV approach’s focus is more internal, whereas Porter’s approach looks at the external environment (Bridoux, n.d.). In my organisation’s competitive strategies, I can see the need to create a competitive advantage over our competitors.

This is why Porter’s approach is useful to use in determining the company strategy. For the RBV approach, I know that my organisation needs to change by determining strengths that can be continued and weaknesses that can be turned into strengths. What contribution does Porter’s Framework and the RBV make towards strategic management? The contribution that is made by Porter’s Framework and the RBV approach are huge because any business level strategy needs to be able to position itself in the market both now and in the future.

These two forces allow organisations to do just that by choosing what competitive strategy to focus on. I work for TOYS R US in the distribution centre as a manager of the warehouse Identify your department/unit’s functional strategies. Do you feel they effectively support competitive strategies? As I am the manager of a warehouse at the distribution centre of a toy company, I am fully aware of the need to work with other departments to increase efficiency by keeping open communication channels.

Our organisation supports us whenever we need by providing regular updates. Discussion question 1 (Just answer the question with on paragraph which will be sufficient) Isn’t strategic planning a little like ‘crystal ball-gazing’ where you’re guessing what the future holds, and making plans to suit? No, strategic planning is not like crystal ball-gazing because it is taken from data over a long period of time and is used in conjunction with company surveys and focus groups to determine where the market will be in the short and long term.

Of course, there is always some unpredictability, but organisations can work around this by implementing a long-term strategy based from the feedback that they receive from within the industry. References Barney, J. B. & Hesterly, W. S., 2012. Strategic Management and Competitive Advantage. 4th ed. USA: Pearson. Bridoux, F., n.d. A resource-based approach to performance and competition. [Online] Available at: http://www.uclouvain.be/cps/ucl/doc/iag/documents/WP_110_Bridoux.pdf [Accessed 09 03 2012].

Hine, 2011. The BCG Growth-Share Matrix. [Online] Available at: http://highn.me/the-bcg-growth-share-matrix/ [Accessed 09 03 2012].