ASSIGNMENT OF WEEK 9

1. In your own words and using referenced quotes describe what is meant in strategy by the ‘Resource-Based View’?

Strategies are very much dependent on the internal strategic capability. If a company is to get competitive advantage over other organizations or company it will use strategic fit or stretch. It will do because other companies involved in such activities may not have capabilities that we have.  These capabilities of an organization can be taken as the resources. They might also be a path to formulate or use these resources and is considered as the organization’s competencies.  Hence, resource- based view of strategy is the competitive advantage of an organization which is explained and justified by the distinctiveness and uniqueness of its capabilities.

It helps us to explain how some business organization is able to earn huge profit compared with other business organization. Their resources permit them to produce at lower cost and make best quality products as compared to the inferior resources of others.

2. How might you undertake ‘Internal Strategic Analysis’? What models would you apply and why? Where would you go to find the information you need? 

    Internal Strategic Analysis in an organization can be done with the help of different analytical tool. Analytical tools such as resource and competence analysis, value chain analysis, McKinsey Seven S analysis, financial analysis and VRIN. I will prefer McKinsey Seven S Analysis because of its uniqueness.

     It is used to measure the performance of an organizational activity. If anyone elements is changed then all the other elements will be affected. Hence, they are very much interrelated with each other.

    Under the McKensey Seven S Analysis we need to understand seven elements. They are Strategy, Structure, System, Style, Shared Values, Skills and Staff. They are the main elements of measuring the quality of performance of an organization.

3.   Talk about your group video work. How is it going so far? Do you have a plan? What are you most worried about at the moment? What is going well?!

Three weeks ago we have formed a group of five members. Narayan Sapkota, Prasant Timilsina, Bicky Gauchan, Shaurav Shahi and Bipin Lamichanne are the members of our group. We have decided to analyze the two big players of telecommunication industry in Nepal. The organizations which we have chosen are Nepal Telecommunication and NCELL. Nepal Telecommunication is a government owned organization whereas NCELL is a private owned organization.

We have decided to use three or more analytical tools both the internal analytical tools and external analytical tools. We have decided to use PESTLE analysis, McKensey 7s model, and SWOT analysis and if possible we will be also using Porter’s Five Forces model. We have equally divided the task to each member and we are working on it.

As we know that it is very difficult to collect information about the industry in Nepal. In the case of Mckensey model it would become more difficult to collect information because they are the internal information of these organizations. So, we are facing some difficulties in collecting data but we are trying our best to provide correct and relevant data and information.

Our group members are close friends of each other. So, we do not hesitate to share ideas with each other. We are discussing about the group video presentation every day. Every team members will be completing their assigned task this Saturday and we will be giving it the final shape. So, we will be practicing the presentation from Sunday for a week and record the video next Saturday. We will be submitting the draft of the presentation in between 10^th January to 13^th January.

We are enjoying this assignment, because there is a lot of responsibilities and fun.

References: 

• Montgomery, C.A. and Porter, M.E., Strategy: Seeking and Securing Competitive Advantage, Harvard Business School Publishing, Boston, 1995.            
• Weisbord, Marvin R., Inventing the Future: Search Strategies for Whole Systems Improvement, Productive Workplaces, Jossey-Bass, 1987.
• http://www.mindtools.com

         [Mind Tools, Accessed on 1st January, 2013]

• http://www.jstor.org/discover

          [JSTOR: The Academy of Management Review, Accessed on 1st January, 2013]