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

Resources are the source of capabilities, some of which lead to the development of core competencies; in turn, some core competencies may lead to competitive advantage.

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) Imagine that ERPI's historic growth strategy has focused on making one sale and then moving on to the next target company. After several years of building market share using this approach, what new resources has ERPI developed?

According to the Chapter 3 Strategic Focus, P&G typically uses its capabilities and core competencies to grow through mergers, acquisitions, and cooperative relationships.

To build social capital whereby resources such as knowledge are transferred across organizations requires _________between the parties.

Firms that have strong positive relationships with suppliers and customers are said to have _________________, an essential ingredient to creating value.

In the airline industry, frequent-flyer programs, ticket kiosks, and e-ticketing are all examples of capabilities that are ____ but no longer ____.

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) If Heartsong LLC is to continue extending its competitive advantage in high-quality, leading-edge artificial heart valves, it must keep the inventorying, warehousing, and delivery of its heart valves in-house rather than outsourcing these activities.

Firms should never outsource a primary activity because of the danger of the activity being imitated by rivals.

Case Scenario 3: B.B. Mangler. B.B. Mangler is a top U.S. business-to-business distributor of maintenance, repair, and service equipment, components, and supplies such as compressors, motors, signs, lighting and welding equipment, and hand and power tools. Customers include contractors, service and maintenance shops, manufacturers, hotels, government, and health care and educational facilities. Mangler's industry is typically referred to as MRO, which is an acronym for maintenance, repair, and supplies. Mangler states its strategy as having the "capacity to quickly offer an unmatched breadth of lowest total cost MRO solutions to business." Mangler's GoMRO sourcing center for indirect spot buys locates products through its unique database of 8,000 suppliers and 5 million products. Mangler also dominates the North American market in terms of its sheer local physical presence. It has 388 physical branches in the U.S. largest cities, including Puerto Rico (90% of sales), 184 in Canada, and five in Mexico. This physical presence also has garnered them a reputation for excellent, dependable service in their target markets, which in turn translates into a vast and loyal clientele. -(Refer to Case Scenario 3) The Internet threatens to displace physical locations as a basis for competitive advantage. If Mangler's vast network of branch offices were an integral part of its core competencies, what might the branches become if the basis for competitive advantage in the MRO industry moves to the Internet?

The value of tangible assets such as the firm's borrowing capacity and its physical plant are high because they can be easily leveraged to derive additional value.

Outsourcing is the

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

Firms should seek to continually develop new core competencies because all core competencies have limited life spans.

Describe the four specific criteria that managers can use to decide which of their firm's capabilities have the potential to create a sustainable competitive advantage.

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 value-chain activities appear to underlie Heartsong's competitive advantage?

Two concerns about outsourcing are the potential loss of a firm's innovative ability and the loss of jobs within companies that decide to outsource some of their work.

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?

According to the Chapter 3 Strategic Focus, organic (internal) growth at P&G benefits the company by allowing it to draw on core competencies and capabilities to become stronger.

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) How valuable, rare, costly to imitate, and nonsubstitutable are ERPI's capabilities?

Examples of support activities include all of the following EXCEPT