Wal-Mart Business Operations Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Wal-Mart Business Operations - Case Study Example The industry environment tools include: industry definition, industry life cycle, and Porter's five forces. The competitor environment can be analysed by the framework explained in chapter 2; comparison of critical success factors; and market commonality or resource similarity. A framework of competitor analysis takes into consideration the high or low level of market commonality, simultaneously with the high or low level of resource similarity. The portfolio of resources of two different firms are examined to find the degree of market commonality and resource similarity, and this is displayed graphically as shaded area. In question #2 we analyse the internal environment, which consists of: tangible resources, intangible resources, capabilities, core competencies, competitive advantage, and value chain analysis. We then summarise the main strengths and weaknesses that we have identified from the analysis of the internal environment. Question #2 is answered using the case study and tools such as SWOT matrix/SWOT analysis, Ansoff's matrix, Grand Strategy matrix, etc. These tools are used to identify strategic options available to Wal-Mart. We then critically assess these strategic options. The components of internal analysis leading to competitive advantage and strategic competitiveness include the inter... We then summarise the main strengths and weaknesses that we have identified from the analysis of the internal environment. Question #2 is answered using the case study and tools such as SWOT matrix/SWOT analysis, Ansoff's matrix, Grand Strategy matrix, etc. These tools are used to identify strategic options available to Wal-Mart. We then critically assess these strategic options. The components of internal analysis leading to competitive advantage and strategic competitiveness include the internal environment factors considered above. In addition, the category of discovering core competencies involves four criteria of sustainable advantages: valuable, rare, costly to imitate, and nonsubstitutable. Discovering core competencies also includes value chain analysis, that can be outsourced. In addition to competitive analysis is strategic competitive analysis. Tangible resources include financial resources, such as the ability to generate internal funds; organizational resources, which consist of the reporting, planning, controlling and coordinating systems; physical resources, such as access to raw materials; and technological resources, such as patents and trade secrets. Intangible resources include human resources, such as knowledge; innovation resources, such as ideas and capacity to innovate; and reputational resources, such as brand name. For a sustainable competitive analysis, McKinsey & Co. suggest a company strive for three to four core competencies. More than this number may cause a company to lose its focus. A value chain analysis is a tool that lets a company see where its value lies, and what elements of the company do not hold value. Value chain analysis is also used to understand the company's cost position. In a value chain,

External and Internal Environmental Analysis Assignment

External and Internal Environmental Analysis - Assignment Example Davivienda which is renowned Colombian Bank and the bank is part of Bolivar Corporate Group, was established as mortgage and savings Corporation in the year 1972. In the next 30 years, the Columbian bank had diversified its business credit card portfolio and retail banking services (Davivienda, 2010). In 2002, the bank has established partnership with IFC in order to form Titularizadora de Colombia which is a securitization arm of the bank. In the last 10 years, Davivienda acquired financial institutions like Bansuperior, Confinanciera and Bancafà © along with its subsidiaries in order to become third largest financial institution in Columbia. At present, Davivienda has more than 21.5% market share in the credit cards portfolio (Davivienda, 2010) Davivienda has tried to implement technology up gradation such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) etc in order to speed up the process flow. However, still the bank lags behind global financial giants in order to ensure security of customer accounts. However, as the domestic savings in the country has decreased after economic recession hence demand for credit card has decreased slightly in Columbia in recent years. Colombian banking industry has been dominated by four major players Bogotà ¡, Davivienda, Bbva and Bancolombia and these four players contribute more than 50% of the financial sector of the country. However, Davivienda has reached third position in terms of credit balances while the bank is ranked as no. 1 in the field of agricultural banking. System side is showing overall picture of the banking industry in Colombia while the left hand side is depicting the business portfolio of Davivienda. According to the comparison, Davivienda focuses more on consumer loans in comparison to competitors and that is the reason why Davivienda is ranked second in terms of consumer loan segment in the country. Till