Competitive Strategy Goals and Objectives

Question: Discuss about the Competitive Strategy for Goals and Objectives. Answer: Introduction: Strategy is wrongly anticipated with the term tactics, goals and objectives. Strategy is used to demonstrate acumen of a business (Walker and Madsen 2016). The leader generally formulates strategy as he has a better orchestration and vision of the future. This makes the leader different from the field commander and he coordinates all the necessary commanders for a particular goal to be achieved. He may sacrifice some of his commander when necessary for achieving a particular goal (Rothaermal 2015). The formulation of a good strategy is based on the following question. If these questions are having prolific answers then the company will be achieving success in terms of strategy. The company should have a good idea in choosing a market to compete. The company should have clear knowledge on the unique value it provides to the customer. They should provide some customization, styling and reliability on the products and services to gain faith and attract the customers (Bamberger, Biron an d Meshoulam 2014). The company should be confident enough on the resource and the capabilities they utilize. They should have exceptional human capital, superior technology, trusted network connections and an unique reputation in the market. They should have the capability in incepting the moves and weakness of the rivals (Bamberger, Biron and Meshoulam 2014). The company should have the knowledge about their ability to sustain and providing unique value in the market. According to Henry Mitzberg strategy is classified into three sub ordinates Intended Strategy, Emergent Strategy and Realized Strategy. Intended Strategy is the strategy that has been planned before the execution of the plan. Emergent Strategy is the outcome of the executed strategy after the plan has been implemented. Real Strategy is the strategy that emerges out and it may not be the same as intended strategy. Strategy is dependent on the staging and timing. The execution of plan in an inappropriate time may lead t o the falling of the strategies. Ethan Allen a company in furniture retail sector, the company started business from United States and is now globally established. The company is successful to a certain extent but has failed to implement certain strategies, which IKEA, a company in the same sector has successfully applied. IKEA focused on selling inexpensive, contemporary furniture that became famous globally (Wenzel and Forster 2013). Ethan Allen though has made a good job in choosing a market. They should include some unique value. The unique value should include a fun and low-pressure showroom where order fulfillment is a medium and is done with great ease. The company should focus on selling inexpensive and stylish furniture with the help of excellent design capabilities. Products are designed to be manufactured by suppliers with the help of mass production technique. The shifting of product is done by flat box method, which requires final assembling done by the final customer. The inclusion of this technique he lps in reducing the shipping cost (Levinson 2016). Therefore, the company could manufacture a huge volume of the product and shipped it round the globe. A complex interdependence of the strategy should be adopted so that the competitors find it difficult to imitate. The incorporation of this strategy would bound the competitors to change the design, manufacture and shipment, which would be impossible. The company should not compete on the high-end furniture business. They should not use high level of service for customization to the customer. They should be responsible for designing the product and not manufacturing it. Pankaj Ghemawat: CAGE framework to evaluate international trade opportunities Pankaj Ghemawat is an international strategic frame worker who developed the concept o CAGE framework. This framework provided an innovative way for the businesses to compute countries in regards of distance. The distance mentioned in the CAGE framework does not defines the physical geography but also defines the cultural, administrative and the economic distance between the concerned countries. The term CAGE stands for Cultural Administrative Geographical and Economical distance that should be analyzed before a company wants a global establishment. The cultural distance is the most puzzling situation faced by the manager at the time of constructing the framework. It has to deal with the probable dissimilarity that exists in different country. The manager has to observe certain values and behaviours that differ from one country to the other. The different cultural influences are recorded on the dimensions of power distance, avoiding uncertainty, predominant values, long and short ter m orientation and individualism (Ghemawat 2013). The Administrative distance is based on the political and official associations. It also includes the history of the countries. Administrative facet helps the trading partners to research about the historical as well as the current factors that has the ability for favoring or threatening the business relationship with the market of the country in future. Establishing the practice of trade between two countries could be considerably affected due to laws and regulations. As laws and regulations have the potential to affect fundamental practice of business therefore, they also have the ability to affect the competitive positions that the firm achieved through continuous hard work. The Geographic Distance deals with the difference of the volume of the country, climate, transport and information networks of the concerned countries. The advance technology has reduced the distance, time of transport. Technology has also eliminated the barrie r caused by geographic distance with the invention of digital services. The Economic Distance deals with the differences created due to income, wealth distribution and the power of purchasing a segment in terms of a geographic market. The economic distance creates great disturbances since the economic condition of one country is not same that of the other. Therefore, a product, which has a good selling record in one country, might has the poor record in another country (Ghemawat and Altman 2016). The application of CAGE framework needs to consider the facts like the distance of the company in terms of location from the home market to the foreign market and the cultural difference. It is also implemented in marking the institutional differences. The markets in emerging stage face great differences as many countries are devoid of specialized intermediaries. The lacking of special intermediaries is defined as institutional voids. Considering stage of McDonald when tried to take an entry in the Russian Market faced institutional void. The institutional void they faced was they failed to found adequate amount of local suppliers who has the capability to supply the food product they needed (Genna and Mayer-Foulkes 2013). McDonald in United States adapts outsourcing operation of supply chain management. In Russia they decided for a joint venture partner to overcome the voids. The company started importing cattle from Netherlands, potatoes from U.S. , specialist in agriculture from C anada for improving the management practices of Russia. They also funded the farmers for getting better seeds and tools. McDonald establishing supply chain management systems of its own and it controlled 80% of the food market in Russia by the end of 2010. Reference List Bamberger, P.A., Biron, M. and Meshoulam, I., 2014.Human resource strategy: Formulation, implementation, and impact. Routledge. Genna, G.M. and Mayer-Foulkes, D.A., 2013.North American Integration: An Institutional Void in Migration, Security and Development(Vol. 8). Routledge. Ghemawat, P. and Altman, S.A., 2016. 11 Economic Distance and the Big Shift to Emerging Economies.The Laws of Globalization and Business Applications, p.358. Ghemawat, P., 2013.Redefining global strategy: Crossing borders in a world where differences still matter. Harvard Business Press. Levinson, M., 2016.The box: how the shipping container made the world smaller and the world economy bigger. Princeton University Press. Rothaermel, F.T., 2015.Strategic management. McGraw-Hill. Walker, G. and Madsen, T.L., 2016.Modern competitive strategy. McGraw-Hill Education. Wenzel, H. and Frster, A., 2013. Blue Ocean Strategy. How IKEA created a new market.