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Internal Analysis. Lecture Topics. Purpose of Internal Analysis Competitive Advantage and Core Competence Value Chain Financial Analysis Combining Internal and External Analyses. Purpose of Internal Analysis.
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Lecture Topics • Purpose of Internal Analysis • Competitive Advantage and Core Competence • Value Chain • Financial Analysis • Combining Internal and External Analyses
Purpose of Internal Analysis • An organization’s future success depends on its own internal conditions as well as external conditions • Managers need to be able to identify • Strengths that the company can relay on in order to compete • Weaknesses that need to be corrected or minimized as competitive factors
Managers must understand • The role of resources, capabilities, and distinctive competencies in the process by which companies create value and profit • The importance of superior efficiency, innovation, quality, and responsiveness to customers • The sources of their company’s competitive advantage (strengths and weaknesses)
Competitive Advantage • The collection of factors that sets a company apart from its competitors and gives it a unique position in the industry/market • Means to add value for stakeholders • Focus especially on adding value for customers
Core Competence(ies) A unique set of lasting capabilities that a company relies on to achieve competitive advantage and add value • Innovation • Efficiency • Customer Responsiveness • Quality • Special Expertise
The Value Chain • A company is a chain of activities for transforming inputs into outputs that customers value • The transformation process is composed of primary and support activities that add value to the product
Value Chain Service
Value Chain Interpretation • Represents a company or any organization • Simplified illustration of all activities that an organization must perform • Framework for analyzing a company’s strengths and weaknesses • Margin represents profit- expand margin by • Being able to charge a higher price • Operating at a lower cost within the Value Chain
Primary Activities in the Value Chain Activities directly involved in producing, selling, distributing, and servicing product for buyer. • Inbound logistics: receiving, storing, and distributing inputs for production • Operations: all activities involved in transforming inputs into final products • Outbound logistics: collecting, storing, distributing product to final buyer • Marketing and Sales: activities used to get customers to buy company products • Service: installation, repair, support, training for using a product
Support Activities in the Value Chain Activities that enable the performance of primary activities • Firm infrastructure: companywide support of entire value chain; includes quality of management, financial performance, strategy, organizational culture • Human resource management: recruiting, hiring, training, reward systems for employees • Research and development: design of products and processes that enhance company performance; not limited to equipment • Procurement: purchasing and managing inputs used in operations; developing and managing supplier relations
Applying Value Chain Analysis • Framework for identifying company’s strengths and weaknesses • Means to focus on where the company’s core competencies exist and can be used to achieve competitive advantage and add value • Comparison with competitors reveals opportunities for improving company’s competitive position
Resource-Based View (RBV) • RBV is a method of analyzing and identifying a firm’s strategic advantages based on examining its distinct combination of assets, skills, capabilities, and intangibles • The RBV’s underlying premise is that firms differ in fundamental ways because each firm possesses a unique “bundle” of resources • Each firm develops competencies from these resources, and these become the source of the firm’s competitive advantages
Three Basic Resources • Tangible assets are the easiest “resources” to identify and are often found on a firm’s balance sheet • Intangible assets are “resources” such as brand names, company reputation, organizational morale, technical knowledge, patents and trademarks, and accumulated experience • Organizational capabilities are not specific “inputs.” They are the skills that a company uses to transform inputs into outputs
What makes a resource valuable? 4 Guidelines: • Is the resource or skill critical to fulfilling a customer’s need better than that of the firm’s competitors? Resurgence of Environmentalism • Is the resource scarce? Is it in short supply or not easily substituted for or imitated? • Appropriability: Who actually gets the profit created by a resource? • Durability: How rapidly will the resource depreciate?
Elements of Scarcity • Short Supply • Availability of Substitutes • Imitation • Isolating Mechanisms: • Physically Unique Resources • “Path-Dependent” Resources • Casual Ambiguity • Economic Deterrence
Using RBV in Internal Analysis It is helpful to: • Disaggregate resources • Utilize a functional perspective • Look at organizational processes • Use the value chain approach
Making Meaningful Comparisons • Managers need objective standards to use when examining internal resources and value-building activities • Strategists use the firm’s historical experience as a basis for evaluating internal factors • Benchmarking, or comparing the way “our” company performs a specific activity with a competitor or other company doing the same thing, has become a central concern of managers in quality commitment companies worldwide
Comparison with Key Success Factors in the Industry • The key determinants of success in an industry may be used to identify a firm’s internal strengths and weaknesses • A strategist seeks to determine whether a firm’s current internal capabilities represent strengths or weaknesses in new competitive arenas
Financial Analysis • Uses company’s financial results to assess company’s performance • Requires comparisons of results over multiple years and against industry standards • Important tool to identify company’s strengths and weaknesses and potential problem areas.
Types of Ratios • Profitability • Activity – Efficiency • Liquidity • Debt - Leverage • Growth
Analyzing Competitive Advantage and Profitability • Benchmarking company performance against that of competitors and the company’s own historic performance • Return on invested capital • Net profit = Total revenues – Total costs
Ways to Increase ROIC • Increase the company’s return on sales • Reduce cost of goods sold • Reduce spending on sales force, marketing, general, and administrative expenses • Reduce R&D spending • Increase sales revenue more than costs • Increase sales revenues from invested capital • Reduce the amount of working capital • Reduce amount of fixed capital
Why Companies Fail • Inertia • Companies find it difficult to change their strategies and structures • Prior strategic commitments • Limit a company’s ability to imitate and cause competitive disadvantage • The Icarus paradox • A company can become so specialized based on past success that it loses sight of market realities • Craftsmen, builders, pioneers, salesmen
Combining Internal and External Analyses • Internal and External Analyses commonly referred to as SWOT: Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats • Strengths and Weaknesses identified from Internal Analysis • Opportunities and Threats identified from External Analyses
Internal Analysis • Strengths and Weaknesses identified through the use of tools such as: • Vision, Mission, Objectives • Stakeholder Analysis • Core Competencies • Value Chain • Building Blocks of Competitive Advantage • Financial Analysis
External Analysis • Opportunities and Threats identified through the use of tools such as: • General Environment Assessment • Five Force Analysis • Key Success Factors in Industry • Competitive Changes during Industry Evolution • Strategic Groups • National Competitive Advantage
Results of Internal and External Analysis • Requires creative interpretation • Understanding of company’s competitive position in its industry • Identification of strategic issues the company faces • Strategic issues • Represent dangers to the company’s long-term survival • Suggest areas where the company should concentrate its efforts in order to grow
Internal Analysis • Strengths • Weaknesses • External Analysis • Opportunities • Threats Tools Tools Strategic Issues Strategic Alternatives Strategy