17th Week Journal

Learning Journal Week 17

Can you think of an organization that has ‘implemented high risk strategy’ that has resulted in success (why was it high risk at the time and why was it a success – was it good luck or good judgment)?

Apple Inc. is a multinational corporation who designs, develops and sells the electronics, computers and software. The company went through many reforms during the stages. The company had series of failure products launched in the market. The company was at the point of bankruptcy.

Many reforms were done during the period of 30 years.  It made many innovative products to get click by customers. The apple used high risked strategy to make the product where it produced the great innovative products I Pod  I phone, I Mac, and I pad.

After the development of the products the company had many hit product to match the need to the customers. The customers were loyal toward the company products. Company became the third in mobile market and second in world's largest information technology company after Samsung.

The company sued Samsung for copyright issue. It was not only the good luck but the great judgment made the company.

Now, do the same for an organization who embarked on a high risk strategy that resulted in some sort of failure (why was it high risk and why did it fail- bad luck or poor judgment?)

Kodak company one of the largest organizations in photographic industry in the world. Kodak Company has been an American multinational imagining and photographic equipment, materials and services company.

Kodak Company is best known for the photographic film products and it has dominant position in photographic film since 20^th Century where it had the market share of 90% in sales of film in USA.

Kodak struggle financially in 1990s as it has heavily invested on the photo film machine. The company made a high risk strategy to improve the film quality but the market had taken the turn. The company despite of invented the core technology used in digital cameras but have a missed the decision on the changing its company into filming to digital world.

                                             http://philebersole.wordpress.com/tag/eastman-kodak-co/

The company which was the leader in the film photographic industry was lead down by the wrong decision taken at the time where company sales decreased tremendously. Digital photograph replace all the film photography.

With the lesson learned the company started to invest on the digital world where the company started to come back and compete with other companies. It could not make it's way as it has done before 1990s. The company who was holder of 90% share had sold many patents to groups of companies.

The company must have had made the immediate investment in the digital world soon as to keep the market steady and client toward its boundary. It old client who was loyal toward the company was force to buy another product.

Kodak. History of Kodak. (Online) Available at :< http://www.kodak.com/ek/US/en/Our_Company/History_of_Kodak/Imaging-_the_basics.htm> [Accessed on: 26^th March 2013]

Mui, Chunka,. 2012  . How Kodak Failed. (Online) Available at :< http://www.forbes.com/sites/chunkamui/2012/01/18/how-kodak-failed/3/> [Accessed on: 26th March 2013]

Ali, .2012. An introduction to Apple Company. (Online) Available at :< http://hookingtech.com/an-introduction-to-apple-company/> [Accessed on: 26th March 2013]

Wikipedia,. Apple Inc. (Online) Available at :< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc.> [Accessed on: 26th March 2013]

16th Week Journal

Learning Journal Week 16

1.In your own words and using referenced quotes describe the difference between organic growth, merger & acquisition and strategic alliance.

Organic Growth

"Organic growth represents the true growth for the core of the company. It is a good indicator of how well management has used its internal resources to expand profits. Organic growth also identifies whether managers have used their skills to improve the business." – Investopedia

Organic growth can be stated as the expansion of the firm operations with the effort of internal resource of the firm without collaboration.

Merger

"The combining of two or more companies, generally by offering the stockholders of one company securities in the acquiring company in exchange for the surrender of their stock." – Investopedia

Merger is generally combination of two companies which forms a single company where new company has its new market strategy and new share in the market.

  

Acquisition

"A corporate action in which a company buys most, if not all, of the target company's ownership stakes in order to assume control of the target firm. Acquisitions are often made as part of a company's growth strategy whereby it is more beneficial to take over an existing firm's operations and niche compared to expanding on its own. Acquisitions are often paid in cash, the acquiring company's stock or a combination of both." Investopedia

 Acquisition referred as the when one company is taken over by another company where taken over company has been implemented the strategy as per other company. But the acquired company still remains independent company in the market.

   

Strategic Alliance

 “An arrangement between two companies that have decided to share resources to undertake a specific, mutually beneficial project. A strategic alliance is less involved and less permanent than a joint venture, in which two companies typically pool resources to create a separate business entity.” Investopedia

Strategic Alliance is referred as the mutual agreement between two or more firms work together toward common objectives of aims.

2.Give an example of a company that has grown through a) organic growth, b) merger or acquisition and c) strategic alliance

Organic growth example: P & G (Procter & Gamble Co)

Merger example:  America Online and Time Warner formed AOL Time Warner, and Sony and Ericsson

Acquisition example:  Google Acquired Android, and  IBM Acquired SPSS

Strategic Alliance example:  Philips and BenQ , and Siemens and Huawei Technologies

3.Briefly discuss the merger between Britvic and AG Barr. What advice would you give to the new Board?

Merger between Britvic and AG Barr

The two giant companies of UK merging together and becomes the biggest company with 1.4 billion pound, Britvic and AG Barr in the beverage industry.  There are many positiveness and negativeness in the merger of the two companies. The advice to the new board are:-

·         Development of new product with the taste of consumer requirement.

·         Promotion of the company after merger.

·         Effective communication and team work is needed.

·         Both specialized on the each filed.

·         Market research needed in the new company.

Investopedia, Strategic Alliance. (Online) Available at: < http://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/strategicalliance.asp> [Accessed on 12th March 2013]

East west alliance. Some Examples of Relevant Strategic Alliances. Online) Available at: < http://www.ew-alliances.com/RecentAlliances.pdf> [Accessed on 12th March 2013]

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company; 2010 . Organic growth business definition. (Online) Available at :< http://business.yourdictionary.com/organic-growth > [Accessed on 12^th March 2013]

Investopedia, Organic Growth. (Online) Available at: < http://www.investopedia.com/terms/o/organicgrowth.asp > [Accessed on 12^th March 2013]

Investopedia, Acquisition. (Online) Available at: < http://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/acquisition.asp> [Accessed on 12th March 2013]

Yarow, Jay., 2011. The Dumbest Acquisitions In The History Of Tech. (Online) Available at: < http://www.businessinsider.com/bad-acquisitions-2011-8?op=1> [Accessed on 12th March 2013]

Investopedia, Merger. (Online) Available at: < http://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/merger.asp> [Accessed on 12^th March 2013]

Reybern , Stan., 2010.  The 12 Biggest Mergers in American History. (Online) Available at: < http://www.billshrink.com/blog/6834/the-12-biggest-mergers-in-american-history/> [Accessed on 12^th March 2013]

15th Week Journal

Learning Journal Week 15

 Why has this artist been so successful? What are her key sources of sustainable competitive advantage?

• Think about her unique resources and core competencies, think about how she has responded to changes in the external environment, why is she difficult to imitate?

Madonna is a very famous artist who has been ruling the music industry more than 30 year. She is not only singer but writer , actress, dancer, entrepreneur, songwriter, record producer, film producer, film director, fashion designer, author as well as philanthropist. She is considered as one of the most sensational singer in modern days. She has ruled and gave hit songs more than 30 years. She has also implemented the strategy to overcome the change which helped her to sustain changing market. 

She did not only stick to one kind of music but where she put her interest on different arenas. She became the style icon, awarded on the movie "Evita" and also was the most featured on MTV, remarkable performance at MTV VMA.

What strategy directions could the artist pursue over the next ten years to continue her commercial success? 

Market Penetration	New products and services
Diverse age group	Charity and other social activities.
Musical Tour to increase customer	Encourage the people to come to music industry
Music with different taste according to people desire
Market Development	Conglomerate Diversification
Promote by advertisement	Show in Foreign Countries
Development of new talents	Collaborate with foreign artists
Buy a competitor company
Collaboration with Music Artist to meets the taste of different buyer.

Reference:

Bio True Story ., 2013. Madonna biography. (Online) Available at :< http://www.biography.com/people/madonna-9394994?page=5> [Accessed on March 5^th 2013]

The top tens, 2002. Top ten controversies of Madonna. [online] Available at: < http://www.the-top-tens.com/lists/controversies-madonna.asp > [Accessed 5^th March 2013]

Flavor of success, 2010. Madonna – the spicy dessert. [Online] Available at: < http://flavor-of-success.com/success-stories-madonna-the-spicy-dessert/> [Accessed 6^th March 2013]

14th Week Journal

Learning Journal Week 14

In your own words and using referenced quotes, describe the difference between “business unit level” strategy and “corporate level” strategy.

Business strategy:

"An integrated and coordinated set of commitments and actions the firm uses to gain a competitive advantage by exploiting core competencies in specific product market." Quizlet

Business Strategy is the only concerned with the implementation of the particular business or product in the market and gaining competitive advantage.

  

Corporate Strategy:

"The overall scope and direction of a corporation and the way in which its various business operations work together to achieve particular goals." Business Dictionary

Corporate Strategy is the decision that are taken in regard to the direction of the an organization as a whole. It affects the overall firms.

The difference between Corporate strategy and Business Strategy are:

·         Corporate strategy is broad where are business strategy is narrow focused.

·         Corporate strategy is developed by senior level like board of director where as business strategy is formed by managers.

·         Corporate strategy affects entire organization where business strategy is concerned with specific business only.

Discuss the corporate parenting style of Virgin group

Virgin group one of the well renown organization which has made it's investment in various sector of products and services such as travel, music, holiday, airlines, mobile telephony and many more. The organization has more than 200 companies working under its management with a low parental control. Due to decentralization the company has actually had good performance as a individual company.

The CEO of the Virgin group has a good relation in the public and leadership quality has strengthened his relation amongst the internal and external people. He has a good public relation. Virgin group has been successful in the most of the portfolio.

Reference

Business Dicitionary. Corporate Strategy. Online) Available at :< http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/corporate-strategy.html> [Accessed on 3^th March 2013]

Quizlet. Business level strategy. (Online) Available at :< http://quizlet.com/9755373/business-level-strategy-flash-cards/> [Accessed on 3^th March 2013]

Virgin Atlantic confident of prospects despite big FY2009/10 loss; CAPA center for aviation.[Online] Available at: http://centreforaviation.com/analysis/virgin-atlantic-confident-about-future-prospects-despite-big-fy200910-loss-32681 [Accessed on 2 March, 2013]

About Virgin; Virgin.[Online] Available at: www.virgin.com/about-us [Accessed on 28 Feb,2013]

Virgin history; Virgin. [Online] Available at:< www.virgin.com/virgin-history> [Accessed on 28 Feb,2013]

Guru focus, 2003. Daniel Leob reports new top position Virgin media. [online] Available at: <http://www.gurufocus.com/news/211837/daniel-loeb-reports-new-top-position--virgin-media > [Accessed 28 Feb 2013].