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Video Discussions
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21st August, 2016
Video 1:

Strategy:

The basic idea explained in the video is about the strategy of a business. The business strategy is

defined as the tactics and methods businesses apply for achieving their business goals. There are

basically four important features of a good business strategy: a good strategy should define the

competitive market or a suitable market where the business can enhance its operations, strategy

should also illustrate the business value for differentiating its products from competitors. This is

how the business could add value to its products for persuading the customers to buy its products

instead of its competitors. Third feature is that a strategy should also describe the business

resources for achieving the organizational goals. The resources include the human resources,

technical resources, public relations. The resources could be divided into two major categories

tangible and non-tangible resources. The tangible resources are raw materials etc. and intangible

resources are business competencies and tacit knowledge. Lastly the strategy should mention that

how a business could add sustainable advantage for long term success in the industry. There are

different tools used to formulate the strategy for the organization. Some of the important tools

are SWOT analysis, TOWS Matrix, PESTLE Analysis and Porters five forces analysis (Hubbard

and Beamish, 2011).

In 1903 Henry Ford founded an organization named Ford Motor Company. It remained under the

ownership of the family and still continuous with same ownership. Intensive growth strategy for

Ford Motor Company is that for intensive growth Fords primary effort is to penetrate in the

market. This intensive strategy includes selling of more products to the current customers for

business growth. Ford focused on intensive growth strategy by increasing the number of its

dealership and increasing sales volume. This growth strategy of the business is linked to the
strategic objectives of Ford to increase the customer retention and also to increase the sales to

current customers. This strategy is also linked to Fords generic competitive strategy by

indicating the benefits of low costs and increasing the differentiation to increase the market share

(Coulter, 2013). Ford Motor Company used product development as its secondary intensive

strategy for growth. This strategy includes offering new products for increasing the sales volume

and revenue. This intensive growth strategy is applied by investment in R & D for developing

new and innovative products like all electric Ford Focus Electric. This strategy provides the

business with intensive growth and competitive advantage. The intensive growth strategy

supports the generic strategy of Ford for broad product differentiation in the market. The strategy

of market development is considered to be a supporting intensive strategy for growth of Ford

Company. This strategy involved providing new products in the existing markets or entering the

new markets or approaching the new market segments. Ford already has expanded its business

around the globe which means that market development is not significant for the business. Also

Ford has not taken any important strategic move to enter entirely into new market segments in

recent years (Dornbach-Bender, Slade and Thorpe, 2009).

Video 2:

Business Model Innovation:

The business like Nokia failed because they were busy in managing their daily operations and

was not able to bring innovation in daily operations. The businesses like Nokia failed to envision

the future opportunities. In other words todays success is enemy of tomorrows success.

Innovation increases the customer value of product or service and secondly lowers the cost

therefore create the competitive advantage. The innovation is not from ideas, big success does

not require big resources, and innovation is not always based on new and latest technology.
Successful innovators learn and recombine the existing ideas. There are four dimensions of

business model: Who are your target markets, what are you offering to the customers, how do u

create the value proposition and how do you generate the revenue? The business model

innovation changes at least two dimensions: How does u create the value proposition and how

do you generate the revenue? The 90% of the successful business models have adopted, refined,

or combined the previous innovative ideas. They apply creative imitation (Mellor, 2008). There

are four steps for innovative business model: 1. Initiation: analyze the current business model, 2.

Ideation: dont reinvent the wheel rather analyze the current ideas and refine them, 3. Integration:

It includes the consistency of the business model dimensions and 4. Implementation: Before final

implementation check for pilot testing. For successful business the organizations should

implement one business model at a time, communicate the need for change, innovation needs the

time, management commitment and to overcome not invented syndrome.

Facebook is worlds largest social networking site but it is not even close to be the first mover in

its industry. Myspace was the first movers in the industry. Facebook was late in social

networking industry. In 2004 Facebook followed Friendster which was introduced two years

earlier and MySpace was launched a year later. This idea was started as a networking site for

college students known as Friendster for college students. But Facebook extended the vision and

idea of Friendster and MySpace. Facebook surpassed MySpace in 2008 and become a global

social network with a global value of $160 billion. Although Facebook imitate the idea of

Friendster but later the business successfully exported its brands into other aspects and then

introduced new technology which never existed. Facebook created value by providing the

customers with innovative ideas. Facebook perfectly match its features with smartphones which

allowed the business to launch different services. The integration of technological advancement
has ensured to the success of Facebook for active and future years. The business has heavily

invested in the alternative markets.

References:

Coulter, M. A. (2013). Strategic Management in Action. 6th Edition. New York: Pearson

Publisher.

Mellor, R. (2008). Entrepreneurship for Everyone. London: Sage Publications.

Hubbard, G. and Beamish, P. (2011). Strategic management: thinking, analysis, action. Australia:

Pearson Education.

Dornbach-Bender, R.; Slade, B.; Thorpe, J. (2009, April 20 th) Strategic Report for Ford Motor

Company. Retrieved 21st August, 2016 from

http://economicsfiles.pomona.edu/jlikens/seniorseminars/oasis/reports/f.pdf