Strategic Management Amazon 2nd Case Study Assignment Sample

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Introduction

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The technique is the extensive activity plan that recognizes the drawn-out heading for an association as well as guides asset use to achieve hierarchical objectives with supportable cutthroat benefit. Also, strategic management can be defined as the concept of continuous designing, supervising, evaluation as well as checking of the entire requirements of a company requires attaining its objectives. Modification within the functioning of company ecology will call for companies to continuously evaluate their tactics for gaining achievement. Thus keeping in mind the module topic one of the main notions behind conducting this study is to show the effectiveness of strategies in different forms. The study has been divided into two segments for better understanding.

In the first part of the study, a proper comprising will be done on the use of “perspective along with an emergent move towards to tactics as well as their functions will also be outlined in the supply of these objectives. Now in the second part of the study, two questions will be answered which are again based on different kinds of strategies used within a company. The first answer will be on the topic of core competencies and how it helps in developing sustainable competitive advantage in Amazon. And the second answer will be related to the advantages, expenses as well as different kinds of threats included in innovation to drive long-term organization development in Amazon. Overall the study will help in identifying the core of using strategies within a firm in addition to how a firm can gain a competitive advantage out of this with the use of innovation sustainable competitive advantage.

Section 1

Answer 1: Application of prescriptive and emergent approaches to strategy

Strategy refers to the long-term direction of an organisation as it tends to attempt in achieving the competitive advantage amidst all the constraints of resources, managing the diverse stakeholder expectations along with coping up with the various changing business environments. This implies that it is the responsibility of the managers to analyse the internal environment in order to identify the strengths and weaknesses and the external environment in order to identify various opportunities that can be utilised and exploited by the organisation. It also requires analysing the thread so that it can be minimised (George et al., 2019).

Strategic planning is defined as the process that takes place within an organisation so that the internal and external aspect of the environment can be systematically analysed for the purpose of developing its strategy. There are two primary ways of approach to strategic planning which includes prescriptive approach and emergent approach (Soulard et al., 2018). The main aim of the report is to establish that strategy is a part of the comprehensive action plan which helps in identifying the long-term direction for an organisation along with guiding the utilisation of the resources for the purpose of accomplishing the organisational goals with sustainable competitive advantage. With the help of the prescriptive approach to strategic planning, mission, vision and core values of the company are clearly stated and the objectives are properly defined before the starting of the implementation of these strategies. This implies that the organisation will have to intentionally plan and formulate a rational strategy based on the priorities and intentions of top management (Coffie and Blankson, 2018). The prescriptive process is linear in which the steps include strategic analysis, strategy development and strategy implementation. Therefore, it can be said that strategic planning is showcased as an orderly, deterministic, rational and systematic process that is suitable for a stable business environment and activities.

With the help of a prescriptive approach, the organisation has been able to set up long-term strategic thinking. It has helped the managers to be encouraged in order to consider the impact of their deficiency and action on the long-term performance of the organisation (Kamal et al., 2020). It is very important that in order to get a proper direction with the help of the strategic implementation, it is mandatory to align the activities of the employees on the basis of the formulated mission, vision and objectives of the company. With the help of a prescriptive approach, it has become easier for the managers to coordinate their efforts with strategic business units as well as their employees. This has helped the organisation in enabling situations to make strategic decisions that has helped them in following a particular direction that is in alignment with the corporate plan. This is communicated through the organisation in order to achieve the consensus as much as possible (Mariappanadar, 2019). The process of formulating strategies with the help of prescriptive approach has helped the organisation involve themselves in the process of negotiation and harmonizing different kinds of views expressed in the business plan before they decide upon integrating into a corporate plan. This implies that strategic planning is a systematic process of learning. From the stage of strategic planning, the organisation has been able to determine a suitable strategic position that is to be occupied in order to maintain its position in the marketplace. This implies that the systematic analysis that is carried on under the prescriptive approach has enabled the organisation to be better organised in order to fit its business environment (Buys, 2020).

Under the emergent approach, it is showcased that strategies emerge as managers make the decision of taking strategic and operational decisions on a timely basis which results in a certain pattern. The emergent approach is a short-term and new experience that has helped in adopting the strategy which implies that it contains the learning school of strategy development. This is due to the fact that strategies of any kind evolve and go through strategic change as the managers are required to acquire new experiences and learn different ways of doing things. This ability to learn and shift tactics in a quick manner helps in making the approach quite suitable so that it can rapidly change the unpredictable and uncertain business environments (Chidiac, 2018). Organisations following the emergent approach to strategy are less resistant to change. This is due to the fact that strategy has a tendency of emerging incrementally in which different individuals and groups that are a part of the organisation can be prepared for strategic changes as the organisation can simultaneously change and implement strategies. Ideas can emerge from the lower authority levels of the organisation; the employees usually feel valued and successfully contribute to the direction of the organisation that provides the company with a competitive edge. These employees more or less feel motivated when they successfully contribute to the general goals and obtain them successfully (Fundin, 2018).

It can be said that the organisation which follows an emergent approach through strategic planning usually develops the feature of learning and innovation within the company. An organisation which facilitates learning can be described as a company in which there is a continuous facilitation of culture, sharing and utilisation of knowledge along with continuously upgrading their skills in order to improve their performance (Baptista et al., 2020). Whenever an organisation implements an emergent approach, they are allowed to emerge new ideas from lower levels which can be debated and tried out. This helps in encouraging the individuals in order to bring out their creativity, initiative and innovation. It has been significantly noticed that these two approaches of strategic planning both have advantages and disadvantages that are relevant to the organisation depending on their business environment in which they are operating. It also helps them in formulating strategies that can take the organisation to profitability and productivity in the longer run along with providing the employees with a direction that can help them in achieving their personal goals as well as professional goals (Alkaraan, 2020).

Section 2

Answer 2: Role of ‘Core Competence’ in developing Sustainable Competitive Advantage

In this segment of the study a brief discussion will be done on the “Role of ‘Core Competence’ in developing Sustainable Competitive Advantage” within Amazon. Before discussing the min segment of the question firstly it is important to understand the meaning of core competency as well as sustainable competitive advantage. The main idea of centered skill which is in management term known as " core competency" alludes to the chance of a firm to assemble super durable along with reasonable upper hand in present-day frequent modifying as well as changeable business nature (Kawshala, 2017).

There are numerous paths for organizations to seek to acquire an edge against different organizations within their respective centers. Intending to stick out, organizations seek to advance sole facets of their business that improve them than the rivalry in addition to additionally appealing to clients (Makhloufi, 2017). For any sort of business, tactics is concerning the competition. Usually, tactics are concerning with long-haul flourishing. It is regarding long-haul resource development, not momentary benefit. Along these lines organizations require procedures to facilitate that assets are distributed in the best manner. This is especially significant with regard to significant asset designation choices. Framework connecting to different components as well as features the significance of an orderly way to deal with intangible assets. This implies that the transitory accentuation on a component and its improvement can invigorate the advancement of the entire framework by maintaining a sustainable competitive advantage through these core competencies. The administration of the intellectual fund is then centered around a far-reaching evaluation of the association's way to deal with distinguishing the parts of the intellectual fund, its thorough estimation employing alleged scholarly capital pointers, consistent observing of improvements and changes of its singular parts, benchmarking the main elements influencing the business section and intending to guarantee the fundamental assets and their ability for building sustainable cutthroat benefit (Papula, 2013).

Now, in order to show the importance of this point a company example will be provided so as to gain more insight on the topic. Amazon.com is a known multination e-commerce firm which was established by Jeff Bezos, the person who is acknowledged as the planet’s top creative manager. The company initiated as a web based bookstore as well as stretched with time to deal with near about each and every products.  The company is known for its valuable core competencies which create sustainable competitive advantage. The center capabilities for Amazon has been distinguished as client accommodation in addition to openness, limitless choices for assortment, uniquely designed administrations, the predominance of the substance of the site, the productive and great quality inquiry apparatus to track down one's preferred things and cost (Odediran, 2020). Amazon is from the beginning of its business focusing on three main core competencies which is creating a better sustainable competitive advantage for them which are discussed in detail below.

Cost leadership: Cost leadership is relied on benefits which produce same kind of worth with much less expenses as compared to main business sector. This core competency not only helps the Amazon in getting g more customers but it also helps in maintaining the sustainable competitive advantage.

Client differentiation: Client differentiation is the next core competencies which help in creating better sustainable competitive advantage. This core competency is concerned with the bigger volume of assortment as compared to rivalries which helps the Amazon in segregating its customer based on needs and demands.

Focus tactics: Focus strategy is the third core competency which provides its focal point on its exclusive niche client by means of using one the first two mentioned competencies (Koay, 2011).

So, it can be concluded from the above done discussion that these days big companies like Amazon is also providing its focal point on the role of core competencies to attain sustainable competitive advantage not just to stay in the competition but also to keep hold of client base which is most important to any company. In addition to this Amazon has created a framework by putting away gigantic measures of fund to make investigation simple for clients to purchase any item (Koay, 2011).

Answer 3: The benefits, costs in addition to risks of using ‘innovation’ to drive long-term organization development

The term business innovation is a kind of situation when an organization executes new techniques, notions, amenities, or new items with the objective of increasing the bottom line. Within the world of business, there are a lot of different kinds of innovation that a firm might use (Kogabayev, 2017).

Now, when any innovation is implemented in the business it comes with various benefits, costs, as well as risks which will be discussed in this segment.

Advancement is fundamental in the work environment since it gives organizations an edge in infiltrating business sectors quicker in addition to gives a superior association with creating markets, which can prompt greater open doors, particularly in rich nations. Innovation might offer various benefits for the long-term development of the companies.

1. Firstly the implementation of innovation within a company helps in improving the efficiency of that company by allowing them to use new ideas.
2. Secondly, innovation provides the advantage of augmented product recognition as well as worth. For example, when a company executes any new technology within its functioning it automatically increases the efficiency of the worker which in return provides boosted results as well as revenue.
3. When an already established company looks for doing partnership they usually see whether the partner company is using the idea of innovation. Thus innovation helps in getting new alliances too.
4. Last but not least innovation helps in augmenting company revenue along with better profitability scope by providing additional opportunities to the companies for doing future development (nibusinessinfo, 2017).

Implementing or doing something new always comes with various expenses as well as threats. Although the biggest threats and cost associated with the contemporary business concerning the innovation is whether it will be a useful one or will be a fail.

• Incremental Innovation- Steady can be seen as ceaseless advancement
• Extremist Innovation-Extremist advancement is the contrary idea of Incremental development.
• Compositional Innovation
• Problematic Innovation

In addition to this the kinds of costs and risks in innovation that can affect the accomplishment of the organizational development are business sector threats, credit hazard, functional danger, vital danger, liquidity threats, administrative danger, reputational hazard, political danger. In terms of the business they are also identified as inner, outer threats of innovation (Pisano, 2015).

Innovation occurs as a segment of usual day activity in Amazon.  Each and every people working in amazon is considered as manufacturer as well as everybody in Amazon is their due to the reason of their want to rebuild as well as generate on behalf of their clients. Amazon is an organization of numerous new companies, with groups along with organizations plunging into new client manifestations everywhere and we urge workers to jump on the profession valuable open doors this gives. They give innovation more priority as compared to any other organization since it is entirely a client based business. They consider innovation as a business strategy and implement them in their different segment. Out of many advantages the most prominent advantages of using innovation which has been seen in Amazon is creating various level of services within its functioning like augmented supply and delivery of products to their clients. Now considering the cost related to using of innovation it mainly depends on the type of technology Amazon is using. For example while creating Amazon Alexa they use the virtual assistance technology which costs them a lot and the risk related to developing this innovation is competition with the other companies who are developing same technology for example:

• Google Assistant.
• Apple Siri.
• Microsoft Cortana.
• Samsung Bixby (Staff,Amazon , 2019)

Amazon always focuses on using different kinds of strategy due to which they are considered as the top multinational company among its competitors. Using innovation as a part of strategy comes with its own benefits, expense as well as threat which big companies like Amazon are always ready to deal with. It also helps them in attaining the long term organizational development by providing some of the best services to its clients. To continue planning for impressive future as well as offering novel thoughts of real value, Amazon perceives that inventiveness as well as advancement go connected with each other. Thus overall it can be said that based on the functioning of the company innovation provides its advantages, costs as well as threat to them (nibusinessinfo, 2017).

Conclusion

So, from the overall discussion it can be concluded that strategic management plays a very pivotal role in the development of any organization. Strategic management not only focus on creating and maintaining strategy in a proper manner but also helps in developing long term organizational development.  From the entire study the importance of innovation has also been identified and with the case example of Amazon it can be concluded that with proper implementation of innovation with a company the threats as well as the expenses might be handled with an ease. Now, based on the topic of core competencies and sustainable competitive advantage topic it can be concluded that both are dependent on each other and brings development for the companies. With the case example of again Amazon it can be concluded that there is need to make use of all core competencies based on the company requirement it can be used for gaining sustainable development. The entire study has helped understanding the importance of strategy and the use of strategic management and how it brings about development and worth for the companies like Amazon.

References

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