Exam 3: The Internal Organization: Resources, Capabilities, Core Competencies, and Competitive Advantages

____ is measured by a product's performance characteristics and its attributes for which customers are willing to pay.

Capabilities

Which of the following is a true statement about capabilities?

According to the Chapter 3 Opening Case, all of the following are core competencies of Subway EXCEPT

Core competencies are the activities a company performs especially well compared with competitors and through which the firm adds unique value to its goods and services.

Case Scenario 1: Heartsong LLC. Heartsong LLC is a designer and manufacturer of replacement heart valves based in Peoria, Illinois. While a relatively small company in the medical devices field, it has established a worldwide reputation as the provider of choice high-quality, leading-edge artificial heart valves. Most of its products are sold to large regional hospital systems and research hospitals. Specialty heart centers are another emerging, but fast-growing, market for its valves. While Heartsong would like to grow quickly, its growth is constrained by the need to finance larger production runs and then carry this additional inventory. For products like those of Heartsong, vendors typically do not collect payment until the unit is actually used in surgery. Moreover, heart valves are usually required on short notice which means that they must be either onsite, or inventoried at a nearby location. If nearby, then transport of the unit to a hospital or heart center occurs within a matter of hours, and sometimes minutes. For this reason, accelerated growth would require Heartsong to both finance increased production of its heart valves, along with carrying increased levels of inventory that are in fact sitting on their customers' shelves. In fact, inventory-carrying cost is its single largest cost outside of research and development. While profitable growth is necessary if Heartsong is to continue extending its competitive advantage through increasingly greater investments in basic heart valve R&D, it is not clear that the company can internally support all these increased financial commitments (R&D, manufacturing, and inventory). Doc Watson, the CEO of Heartsong, is considering an outside contractor, EdFex, to handle the inventorying, warehousing, and delivery of its valves. EdFex has secure, high-tech warehouses in most major population centers around the country, and can ensure delivery of a product to these markets from its warehouses in less than one hour. -(Refer to Case Scenario 1) What are the implications of an EdFex outsourcing arrangement for the capabilities underlying Heartsong's competitive advantage?

Capabilities typically come from

Which of the following is NOT a reputational resource?

Several months ago, a restaurant developed a new appetizer that is a hit with customers. Many customers go to the restaurant just for the appetizer and it was at the center of a recent highly positive review by a food critic. Preparation involves common ingredients and average culinary skills levels, but requires a very high oven temperature which significantly increases utility costs. Several competing restaurants have since added their own version of the appetizer to their menu. Which criteria for assessing capabilities/core competencies is met?

Case Scenario 2: ERP Inc. ERPI is a leading provider of enterprise integration software (EIS). EIS allows a firm to connect and integrate processes across all aspects of its business, regardless of where they are located around the world. ERPI is a product-focused company, whereas most competitors in its market space, like Oracle, operate as "solutions companies." Oracle and Microsoft have begun to devote considerable resources to the development of and acquisition of products to compete in the EIS space. Despite these recent threats, one benefit of its product-focused strategy is that ERPI's proprietary product is generally recognized as being 200% to 300% better than competitors' software. ERPI estimates it will take 2 to 3 years for competitors to develop the capabilities needed to bring a competing product to market. ERPI invests a considerable percentage of its profits in basic R&D to support its core products. As evidence of this, among its competitors the firm maintains the largest in-house programming staff dedicated solely to the development of advanced enterprise integration software. Installation and related consulting for EIS typically cost between $100 and $200 million, with the ERPI software component accounting for about 20% of the installed cost (the remaining 80% is spent on the actual installation, not counting the value of the customer's time). ERPI's target market consists of the world's largest manufacturing and industrial firms and it currently enjoys a 60 percent market share. -(Refer to Case Scenario 2) Which of the following represents the maximum level of performance ERPI should expect to achieve?

The owner of a store retailing fine quality fabrics for home-sewers bewails the fact that few young women know how to do fine tailoring, much less simple dressmaking. Many potential customers are unable to appreciate the premium quality of the fabrics available and are deterred by the high prices, as well as the complexity of fine sewing. In the past, the store had a strong demand for fabrics, large classes for women learning the fine points of sewing, and a reputation for excellent service and technical advice. Now the store is earning lower-than-average returns. This case is an example of

Understanding how to leverage the firm's unique bundle of resources and capabilities is a key outcome decision makers seek when analyzing the internal organization.

A major U.S. manufacturer of children's toys believes its main competitive advantage lies in its continuing development of innovative toys and games. The company is facing increasing competition on price and it is strongly considering outsourcing to offshore firms as a means of reducing costs. The LAST function this firm should consider outsourcing is

A major department store chain has a strict policy of banning photographs or videos of its sales floor or back room operations. It also does not allow academics to conduct studies of it for publication in research journals. In fact, some of its own top managers refer to the management's policies on secrecy as "verging on paranoid." These policies indicate that the top management of the firm believes the organization's core competencies are

An investor is considering buying a restaurant that has been in operation for a number of years. The restaurant has a highly-reputed chef, and many long-term kitchen and wait staff who work together smoothly. It has a reputation for dishes of consistently high quality and an appealing dining atmosphere.

Valuable capabilities

Internal analysis enables a firm to determine what the firm

The most numerous of the following organizational characteristics are

All of the following are tangible resources EXCEPT

Innovation, consumer understanding, brand-building, go-to-market, and scale are activities that P&G (Chapter 3 Strategic Focus) performs well and are examples of the company's __________ .