Strategic Management - Four Criteria for Sustainable Advantages - Literature review Example

Strategic Management Student’s Name Course Professor Date Introduction Corporations identify and describe the strategies that their managers carry towards better performance and increase the competitive advantage for an organization. In turn, strategic management can be conceived as an array of decisions and actions taken by managers to decide the result of performance (Killen, Jugdev, Drouin & Petit 2012). Strategic management comprise of important tasks such as defining a strategy its features and components, management process, scanning the business environment, formulation of a strategy, implementation, continuous evaluation, decisions, developing business policy and use of matrix, analysis, models, strategic leadership as well as corporate governance towards the organizational objectives (Osterwalder & Pigneur 2013). There are a number of firms which have had competitive advantage despite the difficult economic contexts, confronting important rivals, disappearance of economic boundaries and changing scenarios. Some of these organizations such as Google, Samsung, FedEx, Unilever and Apple have had a global and long-term view in their areas of operations and used certain way to analyze their reality and make pertinent decisions. This essay will look at their international operations and focusing on how criteria for sustainable competitive advantage compares with their success. It will first incorporate various theories in strategic management before analyzing how various competitive advantages reflect or have been developed in these firms in their efforts to remain competitive in their respective areas of business. Theoretical Approaches Zheng, Yang & McLean (2010) defines a strategy as an attempt to define the goals, set objectives and provide means of achieving them. Various theories show the causality among various concepts. Strategic management exists as a systematic approach to manage strategic change. Firms position themselves through planning strategy and identifying capabilities, ensure real-time response and issue management, systematic management of resistance in implementation process. Aremu (2003) observe a strategy in terms of 5 P’s- planning, patterns, positioning, perspective and ploys. The plan is a conscious course of action, which is further broken into a sub-set of plans marking the real intention of the firm against its competitors, a term referred to as ploy. The patterns are revealed as consistent processes and behaviors in line with the intended and unintended actions. The position conjures an acceptable location in the environment that the firm operates. The business must note its market position. Perspective as the final aspect describe the action of looking inside the organization either through the SWOT analysis, use of various matrices and realigning the organizational structure for to serve the strategic purposes (Wheelen & Hunger 2011). According to Dubois & Gibbert (2010), strategy is a business architecture that is structured from various management elements including a strategy, the organization, technologies, operations and leadership. In turn, congruence should be implemented in appropriate ways among all these elements in the business environment (Gebauer, Edvardsson, Gustafsson & Witell (2010). Strategy is developed alongside environment creation or adaptation to ensure that the strategies to be implemented are appropriate to the environment. Firms may mostly consider short-term profit, focus on various future possibilities and target different areas. Technology is important business architecture in strategic management. In corporations dealing with communications devices, electronics and machine tools, they acquire a sustained competitive edges through technological innovation that lead to product architecture (Keupp, Palmié & Gassmann 2012). A good example from the case study companies are Samsung and Apple. Cardeal & Antonio (2012) argues that organization is a business architecture that leads to realization of the strategies. Organizational design, networks organizations with various stakeholders and joint venture help build the game business. Unilever has set a good organization by merging with major national firms to form competitive markets like India through its Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL). Cardeal & Antonio (2012) observes that, operation is an important concept in business as firms have to adopt those operations that relate to its strategies, organizations and technologies. For instance a good supply chains is promoted by ICT management like in the case of FedEx. FedEx build its core competences through mapping operations and then integrated and exploited ICT (MBASkool.com 2015. Samsung and Google also implement their dispersed operations by ensuring real-time management and adapting its operations to a competitive environment. Four Criteria for Sustainable Advantages There are four criteria that a firm must achieve in order to be said to achieve sustainable advantages. First, a firm must reveal its valuable or the capabilities that promote it to neutralize the threats in its niches of operation and exploit opportunities (Cardeal & Antonio 2012). For instance, Samsung uses innovation with rapid technological change to target the young consumers (Jurevicius 2013). Unilever has remained effective by emphasizing on cost as an important value in some markets. It uses cost-saving measures in its manufacturing processes, source from efficient suppliers and having new technology in place to produce cars in a very cost-effective manner (Management Study Guide 2015). FedEx majors on delivery as an important value to most customers delivering products on time, every time, in the current quality and quantity (MBASkool.com 2015). FedEx wide network in over 220 countries and high number of employees worldwide allow it to serve its clients faster and with better services. Unilever majors on flexibility where it adapts its processes in a changing competitive environment like adopting combining global thinking and local execution. Pursuing Glocal strategies enable it to win the customers who like to use such products that are famous globally but reveal distinct local flavor. In addition, Unilever has a distinct competitive advantage over its competitors like P&G due to its flexible pricing. Its distribution channels also help it to reach nearly every corner of the world (Management Study Guide 2015). Secondly, a firm should manifest rare capabilities not possessed by various others in the industry (Sirmon, Hitt, Arregle & Campbell 2010). Google have been a rare phenomenon and a corporation that has retained the first position in the ranking of the Best Place to work (Jurevicius 2013b). Its role in information technology industry is very unique as it connects people from various diversities. Samsung strive to improve of develop new products which can be released in almost every month and new operating system to make sure they continuously have substitutions (Jurevicius 2013). Apple diversifies in closely-related business such as e-commerce payment systems and gain wide customer base that in turn use the system to buy from the company (Kandasamy 2015). Unilever have braced itself to pursue a long-term profit making strategies by incorporating unmatched sustainable operations across its supply chain instead of pursuing short-term profit objectives which are rarely sustainable (Management Study Guide 2015). FedEx supply chain management has enabled to have a unique stand in delivery of products through strong relationship build with its customers worldwide (MBASkool.com 2015). Thirdly, firms that have achieved sustainable advantages adopt strategies that are costly to imitate. Others firms in the same industry find it hard to develop those capabilities easily and in usual manner (Casadesus‐Masanell & Zhu 2013). For instance, the firm may have a unique historical conditions related to its founder or culture like Apple. A firm may have causal ambiguities where its capabilities are hidden or social complexity where its capabilities are distributed. For example, Unilever operates in over 190 countries, has broad portfolio of brands, market innovation through intensive R&D and flexible pricing (Management Study Guide 2015). Samsung focus on hardware integration and having many open software and OS. Google open source products and services and quality are major areas of its strengths (Jurevicius 2013b). FedEx have best technology as it has highly invested in IT system enabling its worldwide clients to track their products on transit (MBASkool.com 2015). Lastly, sustainable advantages are revealed by nonsubstitutable capabilities where it is hard to have strategic equivalents. The competitors may not see such capabilities; the firm may have specific knowledge or develop trust-based working relationships between its managerial and non-managerial personnel (Allred, Fawcett, Wallin & Magnan 2011). For example, FedEx has operated for over three decades making it more experienced in logistics services. Unilever Corporation is gaining a wide recognition as a best company being responsible about the global social and environmental challenges. The positive impact in society that Google serves is vital to attracting and retaining crucial and unmatched talents and skills. Samsung are giants in quality and innovation in electronic industry. The firm has gained a world-wide image which may increase the retention rates of its employees. Apple has loyal users who eagerly wait for the next product from Apple. Unilever combines a global footprint, Glocal strategies and mostly leverage the economies of scale and synergy through its manufacturing facilities around the world. Conclusion In order to achieve best performance, strategic management is a prerequisite for business organizations. In the face of increasing competition and meeting the current challenges, strategic management allow the organization to set objectives, establish polices, assign responsibilities, coordinate actions, select and develop personnel, adjust to change and continually evaluate results. The evaluation of the five firms has revealed how they have applied strategic management to enhance their performance in different environment. Unilever’s strategy has revealed actions towards global footprint, broader portfolio of brands, R&D, flexible pricing and distribution channels, leveraged economies of scale and Glocal strategies. Samsung competitive advantage is build on its technological prowess, innovation and marketing its brands. Apple reveals unmatched loyal users and powerful brand images through quality and superior design. Google’s financial situation, access to wide internet users worldwide and open source products and services have led to it competitiveness. 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