Case Analysis: McDonalds
Write a summary of the case study. In your summary, be sure to discuss the external environment in which McDonald’s operates and how the environment influences its strategy.
Case Analysis: Google
Write a summary of the case study. In your paper explain how Google analyzed their value chain for the purpose of determining where they were able to create value when using their resources,capabiltites and core competencies.
Case Analysis: Porsche
Write a summary of the case study. In your summary be sure to include a discussion of Porsche’s competitors, competitive rivalry, competitive behavior, and competitive dynamics.
Case Analysis: Domino’s
Write a summary of the case study. Be sure to discuss reasons why Domino’s would use an acquisition strategy to achieve strategic competitiveness.
The external environment in which McDonald’s operates and how the environment influences its strategy
For the continuous success of McDonald it was seen that the company transported its business strategy to the other countries. The company used this formula to enter the other countries over the years. McDonald had a vision of one world one taste. Thus it wanted to expand to the countries that were English and were more acceptable to the American culture. There were many countries that were selling stuffs according to the American culture, and McDonald was one of those countries (annual report, 2013). They believed that if they incorporated the food of the other country than they would lose their identity. Thus they faced many problems since they had underestimated the impact of the cultures of the host country on the restaurant. There were other issues like the fatty food and the mad cow disease that had made a negative impact on the image of the company.
The problem of standardization of McDonald was another problem that they faced. The company was growing at a rapid pace and they needed the infrastructure in the restaurant but there were no adequate arrangements in the restaurants. More over there were no good suppliers in the foreign land and since it was the key to the standardization, they faced quite a problem. The joint ventures that they had in the foreign countries had made them difficult to supervise all the locations in the foreign countries which made them less profitable in the other countries rather than their domestic counterparts (Marketing at McDonald’s, 2015).
According to Skinner, the company needs to become more connected to the global customers. Over time the company had significance variance in the strategic actions in the different countries. To introduce the variation they started to utilize the local suppliers in order to upgrade the operations (McDonald’s Environmental Strategy, 2015). The company even encourage regional experimentation with t eh menu in order to align with the local taste of the people. More over the company hold events n the host countries. They allow the customer to visit the kitchen and meet the suppliers and the executives of the company. With the success of the company after so many struggles in the various countries, they are now influenced with the growing magnitude of impact that the culture has on the company.
Due to the size and the influence that the company has, it has received a more public attention that is both positive and negative. It is seen that they can generate great strain on the infrastructure every where it operates. The company began to experience great deal violence and vandalism since the firm was a symbol of western culture, thus to remove this tag they started to do a lot of socially responsible activities. They have also entered into several productive relationships with the non-governmental organizations. The company works effectively with the NGOs in an attempt to improve and better track the effects of its operations on both the suppliers as well as customers.
Explain how Google analyzed their value chain for the purpose of determining where they were able to create value when using their resources, capabilities and core competencies
It was seen that within a period of less than 13 years Google has become a giant company and are a general name that have strongly got connected with the people. It is one of the trusted search engines and the word itself has become a synonym of search. People say Google the word if you are not finding it. It is seen that the Google’s page ranking is the yard stick against which most internet companies are measured (‘Business under threat, technology under attack, ethics under fire: the experience of Google in China’, 2013). The success of the company lies on the fact that they constantly use its competencies in order to challenge the strategies of the world’s leading technological innovations. as the company ventures further into the growth phase of the life cycle and diversify its business into various new segments, there are various challenges that that the company faces.
The company needs to identify the optimal mix of resources and also the capabilities in order to manage the growth of the android mobile operating system. They need to decide on the strategies that it will adopt in order to tackle situation in countries with out with drawing the business from the country. The competitive industry in which the company operates cannot be simplified classified in simple terms; it includes a wide array of products and services that revolve around on the opportunities brought about the coming of the internet (‘Google grows on people’, 2013).
There are various competitors of Google in the market which range from Yahoo, Microsoft and apple. It is seen that these companies are diversified and they include several industries and the common goal of all the companies is to provide innovative product to the customers. There are main four areas on which the company focuses in order to maintain a competitive advantage over the others; they are search, advertising, apps and mobile
In today’s world it is seen that technology plays an important role for the companies like Google, apple, Microsoft etc. it is so because the people are using the internet technology more than ever. The server hardware are another important commodity that the company needs. It is interesting to see that the Google does not purchase the servers rather they build their own. Google went on to become the fourth largest manufacture of servers in the world. It is seen that most of the companies uses large storage arrays that come at a cost higher than the standard desktop computer storage. But Google does not follow the trends and they use a low price, high redundancy model, where the individual drivers are very inexpensive and are expected to fail. It is seen that Google pays very little for the bandwidth due to the large scale purchase of the dark fibers (Strategic Capability, 2007).
In case of search the company the company seeks continuous advancements in terms of global access, ease of use, useful commercial information and improving the web, as they grew they grew they targeted the areas of satellite imaging, better products, increased traffic, and appeal to the advertisers. The AdWords and the AdSense are the two main advertising product of the company. Through this they provide much targeted, cost effective and very successful methods if advertising to the users. Moreover the apps and the mobile that they have are making the company strong in the market and a sought after company in terms of the product and the service they provide.
A discussion of Porsche’s competitors, competitive rivalry, competitive behavior, and competitive dynamics
Porsche is a successful car maker and it has been so over the last century, though there were certain financial crises that they felt. It was forced to hand over the keys to VW and they wanted to use the Porsche’s expertise in order to assist the other brands that were there under the VW umbrella. The VW family wanted to expand the product line of Porsche as well as increase the production of the cars. But there arises questions as to whether they will increase the product line and how they would combat the problem of brand dilution. There are several problems that they are facing apart from the tough competition of the sports car from other brands like the Audi and Lamborghini (‘Competitive rivalry’, 2014).
The sports car industry had also faced the economic crisis of the 20th century, and Porsche competes in a market segment where few companies can compete. The caliber with which the cars are made requires size and a lot of capital investment. Thus there are low new entries in the market and the old companies have most of the market share. It is seen that the technology are not in the grasp of the company, thus it has forged partnerships to keep its business on cutting edge.
Porsche realized that the preferences of the people are changing and they need to diversify in other segments. Though there was many oppositions from the people as diversification would hamper the image of Porsche, it had decided to include the SUV called the Cayenne under their umbrella (Weihrich, 2015). It is seen that the sports car manufacturing company faces a very complicated competition. There are various obstacles that the management team of Porsche had to overcome. There are various types of sports car that the company manufactures for the various markets. Porsche focuses on the quality and not on the quantity thus after so many years of operation it only has five varieties of cars to offer to the people (AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY ANALYSIS, 2015). They have introduced recently two models in the year 2002 and 2009, the Cayenne and the Panamera respectively. The main competitors of Cayenne are the BMW X6 M, Mercedes Benz ML63 AMG and Audi Q7. Whereas the Panamera has competitors like BMW M5, Mercedes Benz S65 AMG and the Audi S8. These two cars target the luxury vehicle and the SUV market segment and the Boxster, Cayman, and 911 targets the sports car segment. Porsche has always been a high achiever and they have exceeded the expectation of the people all the time. Thus they are ideal to meet the needs of the people at different stages of life. The strategy of the company to maintain the quality, the craftsmanship, and the excellent engineering had made them keep their good brand image and finally it was the strategy of the company to emphasize on the design, research and development of technology and the right marketing of the cars that had made it possible for them to maintain the reputation for the commitment to excellence.
Discuss reasons why Domino’s would use an acquisition strategy to achieve strategic competitiveness.
Dominos is a strong player in the pizza market both in the US domestic market as well as in the international market. The company operates in 63 countries and is in the second position after pizza hut and is the number one in the pizza delivery. It was seen that the company was suffering from decreased domestic revenue from the period of 2005 and 2009. The company was suffering from a negative reputation in the market place. In order to stay in the market they adopted a strategy to address the complaints of taste deficiency and the preference of the people for the fresh products. There were additions in the menu and new items like pasta, taco, chicken wings and chocolate lava cakes in the year 2011. Dominos has tried to carve out a niche for itself in case of ordering and delivering the pizza (Building Competitive Advantage, 2015). The company has brought out the e-commerce efforts in the ordering and the delivery process so that they can respond to the needs and expectation of the people.
There are three different types of segments that drive the sales and the growth of the company. They are the domestic stores, domestic supply chain services and international. In the domestic segment there are 454 company owned stores and 4475 franchised stores. The franchise stores are operated by the entrepreneurs in each of them operates on an average four locations. It is seen that the domestic supply chain segment consists of producing the dough on a daily basis, as well as deliver the pizza related food to all the franchise stores. It is seen that the company os the fourth largest brand in the publicly sourced traded restaurant brands. There is a network of 4422 international franchise stores that they have that are located throughout the world.
There are number of companies that operate in the market place like Pizza Hut, Papa John’s, Little Caesars, etc which offer tough competition to Dominos apart from the other small locally owned pizza companies (Henry, 2010). Since there are various countries in which Dominos operates, it would be beneficial for the company to make acquisitions in the domestic as well as the foreign market in order to have a strategic edge over the competitors. They will be able to identify the preference of the local people and can use the products of the company under their brand name in order to attract more people. The acquisition will be beneficial since they will have the idea of the operation in a new country where they are planning to start their business, thus this would reduce the cost of the company in terms of the cost otherwise spent for the setting up of a new store in an unknown area. at the end of the year 2010, it was seen that they have a significant gain as a result of the market position and the advertising, thus they can make acquisition in order to increase the market share in the domestic as well as the international market (Le & Pashut, 2015). Though there are problem that they will face due to the rising cost of the food and gasoline, the increased rate of unemployment and the diminished rate of disposable income, the company need to keep their strategy strong and take up the challenges in order to remain in the market.
References
annual report. (2013) (1st ed.). Retrieved from https://www.aboutmcdonalds.com/content/dam/AboutMcDonalds/Investors/McDs2013AnnualReport.pdf
AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY ANALYSIS. (2015) (1st ed.). Retrieved from https://www.srl.gatech.edu/Members/bbradley/me6753.industryanalysis.teamA.pdf
Building Competitive Advantage. (2015) (1st ed.). Retrieved from https://www.swlearning.com/pdfs/chapter/0324226217_1.PDF
Business under threat, technology under attack, ethics under fire: the experience of Google in China. (2013). Strategic Direction, 29(5). doi:10.1108/sd.2013.05629eaa.006
Competitive rivalry. (2014). Veterinary Record, 174(Suppl_1), 7-7. doi:10.1136/vr.g344
Google grows on people. (2013). Strategic Direction, 29(9), 16-18. doi:10.1108/sd-08-2013-0052
Henry, J. (2010). Domino’s Pizza (1st ed.). Retrieved from https://www2.dsu.nodak.edu/users/rbutz/International%20Business/pdf/sample_s10case.pdf
Le, T., & Pashut, T. (2015). DOMINO’S The Turnaround (1st ed.). Retrieved from https://www.econ.ucla.edu/sboard/teaching/tech/Dominos.pdf
Marketing at McDonald’s. (2015) (1st ed.). Retrieved from https://www.mcdonalds.co.uk/content/dam/McDonaldsUK/People/Schools-and-students/mcd_marketing.pdf
McDonald’s Environmental Strategy. (2015) (1st ed.). Retrieved from https://www.umich.edu/~nppcpub/resources/compendia/CORPpdfs/CORPcaseA.pdf
Strategic Capability. (2007) (3rd ed.). Retrieved from https://catalogue.pearsoned.co.uk/assets/hip/images/catalog/uploads/ECS8_C03.pdf
Weihrich, H. (2015). ANALYZING THE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF GERMANY (1st ed.). Retrieved from https://www.usfca.edu/fac_staff/weihrichh/docs/germany.pdf
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