Recent orders
Developing A New Business, The interview session involves the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) OF International Business Machine
DEVELOPING A NEW BUSINESS
Name
Course
Tutor
Date
Developing a New Business
The interview session involves the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) OF International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) Virginia M. Rometty. IBM is an international corporation dealing with manufacture of computer and consultation services. The manufacturing and consultation company require a self-motivated person that is innovative and ready to lead a multi-national company. Mrs. Virginia Rometty has new business ideas that will help in prospering the IBM Company (Berner, Gomez & Knorringa, 2012). The driving force of Mrs. Virginia Rometty is the varying technologies present that require testing before developing into a final product. General Enterprising Tendency Test gives entrepreneurial characteristics of individuals with entrepreneur ideas. The test identifies the motivational factors entrepreneurial characteristics of the potential leaders in entrepreneurship career. The growth orientation and testing of new technology are the essential factors in the technology career. Mrs. Virgina Rometty being the first woman in the Chief Executive positive of the IBM, the corporate world has all eyes on her to view her success in the tenure period.
An exclusive interview with Virginia Rometty, the most powerful Women Summit revealed that she posesses a good fundamental knowledge on computer technology. Mrs. Rometty has been in the IBM system since 1981 and she has served different dockets in the organization. Mrs. Rometty is aware of the areas that need improvement in order the company can remain competitive in the international market. Mrs. Rometty main aim is to facilitate the growth of cloud computing in IBM and using the technology for commercial use. The promotion of Mrs. Rometty is an opportunity for progressive social policies in IBM Company. The experiences present on the CEO on operational excellence makes her fit to head the IBM Company to the next level of technology (Sarasvathy, 2004). The IBM promotes employments for women and has a rate of thirty percent employment rate on women and twenty-six percent of the women are in senior managerial positions (Andersson & Wadensjö, 2007).
Improving an existing idea is common in the mind of many entrepreneurs and aim to fulfil the idea within the shortest time possible. Presenting impressive ideas on the business enterprise have the consequence of getting a promotion in the business industry or heading a department in the organization. Success in leadership leads, in success in entrepreneur management. The driving force of starting a business makes a small idea become gigantic upon implementation. Mrs. Rometty is fifty four years old and has statistics of successful entrepreneurship ideas that led in prosperity of the departments she held previously. Most case entrepreneurship skills become real from the age of thirty-six years. Successful entrepreneurs consider becoming business owners and shape the business according to the prevailing conditions. Mrs. Virginia Rometty has determination of running the business despite frustration and set-backs that may occur in her leadership. She is ready to pull-up upon facing obstacles without seeking external help (Segal, Borgia & Schoenfeld, 2005).
Entrepreneur skills require dedication. Dedication involves putting long hours of work daily in order to achieve success. Confidence is a personality attribute that made Mrs. Rometty become the Chief Executive Officer of IBM. Virginia Rometty has confidence that she will manage in her entrepreneurship roles to lead the company. Emotional reserves keep the CEO working for long hours that the company will reach the target in a set period. Expression of confidence ensures good cooperation with the junior staff upon success of the organization (Andersson & Wadensjö, 2007). The speech individual makes in the company’s general meeting show an invaluable asset in the prosperity of the company. Confidence eliminates doubts within the company and gives the staff a new enthusiasm of improving the esteem towards prosperity of the company. Taking steps on reading or engaging in motivation talks is helpful in improving the confidence of managers and CEO of the company (Littunen, 2000).
Passion is an invaluable attribute in running a business. A passionate individual does not need extrinsic force in running a business. Passionate individuals believe that the business will succeed and are excited in telling other staff members of the implementations of the new ideas in the business. A passionate idea and clarity in expression of ideas attract other investors, banks and customers towards creating or fulfilling the idea. Ability to communicate and express business ideas in a clear and simple language is a door-opener towards success in business operations. The entrepreneur or CEO should explain the business idea in a simple language that all members in the society should get an idea of the business prospects (Littunen, 2000). Attraction of business partners ensures the business will achieve its goals in within the set time. The passionate attribute of Mrs. Rometty assist her in striking business deals in an easy way and brings the customs on the company.
The passion of Mrs. Rometty motivates the staff in the IBM Company and other corporate bodies that have a direct link with the company. Mrs. Rometty has inspirations on the every worker towards working smart in achieving IBM goals. The ability of visualizing the big picture of the organization assists in managing the company’s bottlenecks. Every company has success points and setbacks. Many individuals fear taking the entrepreneurship role because of fear of the company’s setbacks. Visualizing a big picture of the organization saves the company from collapsing in situations of the financial crisis. Mrs. Rometty has the ability of visualizing the big picture of the IBM Company. The CEO sets a yearly budget and plan of activities that will help the company meet all its activities through growth without financial strain. Proper budgeting is the ultimate activity that will help the survival of the business (Lee & Tsang, 2001).
Business prosperity requires creating good and lasting business relationships. Taking the position of a CEO means being a servant of the community. The community brings business and profit in the company hence the need of maintaining a good relationship. A successful business entrepreneur has the ability of building a rapport easily and easily strikes up a chat in a group of people. The exclusive personal attribute of engaging people in a conversation enhances creation of ideas and clarification of existing ideas in the entrepreneurship prospects (Beugelsdijk & Noorderhaven, 2005). The CEO should also create a good relationship with the customer. Identifying the customers’ needs and a brief history motivates the customer to the vendor in the enterprise due to the mutual relationship in offering of services.
Customer relationship enhances long patronage of the customer even in a situation of crisis within the business. Loyalty increases within the company upon building a good rapport with the customers and suppliers. Loyalty is helpful in uplifting the company in situations of upgrading or change of the company’s products. In addition, loyalty helps in managing competitors that rise within the business niche market. Being a risk taker is the final attribute that Mrs. Rometty has upon her position as the CEO of IBM. It is a big risk in investing in computer technology that consumes billion dollars in getting a single product with no reward. Mrs. Rometty grabs the available business opportunity without fear of failure hence leading to success of the organization (Carland, Carland & Hoy, 2002).
References:
Andersson, P., & Wadensjö, E. (2007). Do The Unemployed Become Successful Entrepreneurs?.
International Journal of Manpower, 28(7), 604-626.
Berner, E., Gomez, G., & Knorringa, P. (2012). ‘Helping A Large Number Of People Become A
Little Less Poor’: The Logic Of Survival Entrepreneurs. European Journal of Development Research, 24(3), 382-396.
Beugelsdijk, S., & Noorderhaven, N. (2005). Personality Characteristics Of Self-Employed; An
Empirical Study. Small Business Economics, 24(2), 159-167.
Carland, H., Carland, J. W., & Hoy, F. (2002). ” Who Is An Entrepreneur?” Is A Question Worth
Asking. Entrepreneurship: Critical Perspectives on Business and Management, 2, 178.
Lee, D. Y., & Tsang, E. W. (2001). The Effects Of Entrepreneurial Personality, Background And
Network Activities On Venture Growth. Journal of Management Studies, 38(4), 583-602.
Littunen, H. (2000). Entrepreneurship And The Characteristics Of The Entrepreneurial
Personality. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour & Research, 6(6), 295-310.
Sarasvathy, S. D. (2004). The Questions We Ask And The Questions We Care About:
Reformulating Some Problems In Entrepreneurship Research. Journal of Business Venturing, 19(5), 707-717.
Segal, G., Borgia, D., & Schoenfeld, J. (2005). The Motivation To Become An Entrepreneur.
International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour & Research, 11(1), 42-57.
Appendix
List of questions and answers for the interview report
Give a brief background of your career
My career gets basis from my educational background as a computer engineer. I took roles as vice president of sales and marketing in IBM sales department. I was also a pioneer of cloud computing in IBM that led in huge percentage increase of sales.
What are your motivational factors at your current position as the CEO of the IBM Company?
I have determination, confidence, and passion towards my career. They three attributes are the ultimate requirements for a CEO. Other attributes that emerge later in the position are relationship skills and motivational attributes.
What personal attributes do you possess that will make IBM Company prosperous?
I possess analytical business skills that will help in spearheading the IBM Company towards increase in sales. I have strategies of improving the marketing skills and growth of IBM.
Mention the major challenges faced in entrepreneurship career?
Major challenges I face is financial crisis and ways of obtaining external sources of money. In addition, I face technical challenges in production of computer. Some computer may take long before completion leading in huge losses, in the company.
How do you relate your educational background and the current position in IBM?
I graduated in 1979 in Computer Science and electrical engineering. The background knowledge in computers and technology is helpful in solving technical issues that get presented in my desk. I also participate in brainstorming sessions that require improvement of technology since I possess the technical skills.
What are your personal experiences that have attributed towards achieving your career success?
I have worked for General Motors for a period of two years then later I joined IBM as a systems engineer. I was among the teams that led in purchasing of PricewaterhouseCoopers at a competitive bid price of $3.5 billion. My position as the head of sales, I managed to increase the sales target to an international level.
If I do not possess the business personal traits, how can I run a business?
A person can run a business without business personal traits. Most of the business personal traits get learned in the process of running a business; they are intrinsic and only emerge after running a business.
What are the prevailing conditions for a person to become a CEO of a company?
There are no specific conditions for qualifications. The major conditions are personal qualities and a workable business idea. In some situations, the recruitment team may check previous successful ideas in entrepreneurship career.
Which ways can a business entrepreneur improve their confidence towards running a business?
Improving confidence of a business entrepreneur involves reading motivational books and recording every success story in the daily interaction. A business entrepreneur may also gain confidence through engaging in activities that they fear and measuring the outcome.
What makes a person to be an entrepreneur?
Entrepreneur is a career and needs a clear thought before engaging into the business transaction. An entrepreneur should have the ability of withstanding the challenges and success of the business.
Africas Physical Geography as Portrayed by Rive
Student’s Name:
Name of Instructor:
Course:
Date of Submission:
Africa’s Physical Geography as Portrayed by Rive
Rive’s literary pieces had their setting in the African environments/ geography. As such his discreet description of his settings painted out images of the African geography in as such pieces were mostly based on South African history (Rive, 25).
The temperate regions, classified as semi arid, have climatic variations that have considerably led to uneven distribution of kinds of vegetation. The southern part of Africa has major features of plateaus that spread to the Eastern side. The Karoo plateau that also has rocky mountains and hills, takes to the Western part of South Africa, a factor that makes the region rather dry because of its proximity to the Kalahari dessert. south Africa can hence be very hot during the summer, and contrastingly cold during the winter.
Africa is majorly has a huge coastal line along the Oceans of India and Atlantic that have plankton. The features hence make it a great fishing ground.
Africa’s Origin
Africa at the moment,, is composed of several races, inclusive of Indians, Whites, Asians and the majority black population. The merged population has its origins from the expeditions that were conducted by the Europeans and Americans (Allen, 14). The historical scrambling and partitioning of Africa led to its division by European powers as they colonized and enslaved the native African population (Rive, 21).
The other populations that make the African population are portrayed by Rive as people who had come to the continent to either trade their expertise or engage in economic activities. The administrative structures in Africa were left behind by the colonizing nations that also imposed segregatory rules in Africa. Such racial segregation was evident in south African that dived the nation into areas that demanded discretion of races (Rive, 46).
Role of Blacks and Whites in Africa’s History
Richard Rive’s writing covered majorly south Africa in which most of his ideologies condemned apartheid. He portrayed blacks, or rather the native Africans as people who were considered insignificant and the lesser race. They were segregated and discriminated against and as such played the largest roles in the anti apartheid campaigns (Allen, 23). During the struggle against the apartheid, they were thrown into concentration camps in which they were tortured. Considering that they their freedom had been limited by policies that included use of pass, the end of the apartheid was a great win and marked an emblem of freedom for the black population.
However, there was quite a considerate population of blacks who had been integrated into the work force by white to assist in executing policies (Rive, 44). The British Army armed over 10,000 blacks and used them to dispatch information and protect their families. Such populations have portrayed by Rive as the outcast and unwanted population considered rebellious by people of their color.
The white population on the other hand, are historically considered settlers (Allen, 25). In Rive’s literature, they are portrayed as the superior race that exercised their power to racially divide and segregate against other populations in Africa. They are largely responsible for the problems that Africans faced and the racial rules that were imposed on Africans.
The white population developed prestigious facilities that they used discriminatively and used armed force against the African resistance that condemned the apartheid (Rive, 73). However, when the apartheid came to an end, legislations that ensured peaceful coexistence between the whites and blacks were established.
Cited Works
Allen, John. Apartheid South Africa: An Insider’s View of the Origin and Effects of Separate Development. New York, NY: iUniverse, Inc, 2005. Print.
Rive, Richard. Advance, Retreat: Selected Short Stories. Cape Town: David Philip, 1983. Print.
Rive, Richard. Buckingham Palace, District Six: [hauptbd.]. Berlin: Cornelsen, 2006. Print.
Developing a market strategy in Conde Nast Campany
MARKETING STRATEGY
by Student’s name
Code + course
Professor’s name
University name
City
Date
Introduction
Business and the current economy require constant upgrading in order to keep up with the competition in the global market. A case study on Conde Nast as the company of choice will create a picture of the current market and the challenges it has faced over the years. This paper seeks to develop a marketing strategy in order to come up with a competitive advantage as well as maintain its market share and sustainability.
Conde Nast
Conde Nast is a leading publisher of consumer print and online titles globally. It covers over 150 million readers in about 23 countries, 127 print titles which include Glamour, Vogue, Vanity Fair, GQ, and wired, and 84 websites. This company has a reputation for being the most innovative publishers who have embraced mutual support and synchronized portfolio of offline and online publications. The sudden increase of the use of the Internet as a media channel over the last ten years has resulted in several publishers facing the challenge of digitising their content. Publishers of consumer titles with many challenges face a critical one of moving important proportions of marketing communication budgets to the Internet.
In the face of such competition, Conde Nast came to the conclusion that there was a need to ensure that their print titles like the Glamour, GQ, AD, Vogue and Men’s Vogue engaged their wider network of readers on a more personal, deep and relevant level than it had ever done. By doing this, there would be editorial satisfaction, and brand relationships would be strengthened resulting in an increase in unit sales, retention of readers and improved advertising revenues. For this strategy to be a success, the marketing team had to gain a deep and immense understanding of its consumer audience. They would have hastily and cost effectively involved in varied and frequent research on consumers to understand their interests thus enabling core publications to increase attractiveness to advertisers as well as consumers.
The insight team in Condé Nast started its customer immersion expedition by first embracing the pace and cost effectiveness of online market research (Aaker 2002). Further, the company understood that, with its list of subscribers, enormous web traffic volumes and the possibility to use its print publications for recruitment, it could utilise the existent assets to convert its customers to a branded panel community. The Panel Portal solution was selected based on five key performance criteria for this conversion. These performance criteria’s were simplicity of use, speed at which they could be implemented, support services and expertise, multilingual support, and scalability to integrate into future web community projects. With the Panel Portal platform, Condé Nast was now equipped with an easy-to-use solution which would enable quick and highly effective gathering of consumer insight. From the start, Condé Nast embraced the potential of Panel Portal and conducted research studies to solve a wide variety of business problems.
Definition of Strategy
Strategy is the art of coordinating the means that is human resources, money, and materials to achieve the ends, which in this case are customer satisfaction, profit, and company growth as defined by the company policy and growth. It can further be defined as actions to achieve long-term objectives which exist at three levels.
First is the high level of corporate strategy where one aims at coordinating and deploying company resources toward the fulfilment of the company’s vision for the future along with the related long-term objectives. This means implementing the company’s strategies with a view towards understanding the changing market conditions, keeping in mind the long-range potential for its future development and profitable growth (Brennand n.d.). The second level is the mid level strategy which operates in the division, business unit, and department or within the product line. This one is more precise than the corporate strategy as it covers a period of three to five years focusing on quantitative and non-quantitative objectives.
This level bears the intent to penetrate existing markets with existing products, in this case the production titles. Then, expand into new markets with existing products as well as develop new products for the existing markets. Launching this company online will create a window for establishing a new market and acquiring an even bigger share of readers. The marketing team will also be in a position to create new products for the new market acquired as well as attract more subscribers. The final level is the lower-level strategy which is tactical and requires a shorter time frame than the two higher levels. Usually it correlates with the company’s business plan and the budgetary process.
David Aaker and Michael porter define marketing strategy as “The process that allows an organisation to concentrate its resources on the optimal opportunities with the aim of increasing sales and achieving a sustainable competitive advantage. Or as Porter puts it, it’s defining your position, making trade-offs and forging fit among organizational activities” (Hill & Jones 2008). Aside from these two, many others have attempted to define marketing strategies in different ways. One would ask why there are so many definitions, but this is due to the fact that marketing as a profession is very versatile. This results in a difference in situations and no two marketers find themselves in the same one. It is therefore understandable to say that there cannot be a consensus when it comes to the perfect definition of a marketing strategy.
PEST Analysis
PEST is basically the study of the market in respect to politics, economy, social aspect, and technology. PEST analysis may be incorporated within a SWOT analysis to achieve the same effect.
PEST becomes more useful and relevant to a large and more complex business or proposition, but even for very small local businesses a PEST analysis can still throw up one or two very significant issues that might otherwise be missed. It is often utilised for business development and marketing assessment and decision-making; the PEST template stimulates proactive thinking rather than relying on instinctive or habitual reactions (Aaker & McLoughlin 2010).
Political
Political issues, legislations, and policies can be analysed through this method of analysis. It allows a company to be in touch with the happening around the political arena that affect them and react accordingly. The government of the UK has also taken to the Internet in its policies and initiatives hence giving access for any person with interest in any political field to learn something. In the business arena, this is good as an online research regarding political issues and legislation makes the mentioned company to be ahead in terms of the legalities they need to comply with. They are also in a good position to involve the government in any program that they have or even ask for funding. The government and businesses can also monitor pressures from international bodies as well as wars and conflicts.
Economic
With the current home economic situation, most families are trying to cut costs rather than incurring it hence the need to have cost effective publications. Having such publication will also see overseas embracing the products because they will be at an affordable rate. The company will also need not to go at a loss when it comes to publishing. This highly supports the idea of having the online marketing especially for the overseas market (Drejer 2002). Consumers will not have to wait for the deliveries unless, of course, they request for it, and the company will save on the cost of material. Taxation will cease to be an issue as the goods will be online but as a service hence no need to pay for tax while exporting to markets overseas. Interestingly, launching products in the online market gives the company a competitive edge with other competitors. It is also very good for the economy of this country.
Social
The current lifestyle trends change very fast, and one needs to keep up one way or the other especially in the United Kingdom. To cover the demographics and ever-changing trends, the online publication is a perfect remedy, especially in the world of fashion where a trend may appear overnight, and it has to be documented. It allows one to keep up with whatever is happening at all times. The real time that the Internet offers gives immediate feedback, and the company gets real time consumer attitudes and opinions (Competitor analysis n.d.). Monitoring is also made easy as the company is able to track sales and consumer patterns. It also allows gauging when the time is right to rebrand or change the technology in use. Featuring fashion and role models as well as major events in the UK gives a platform to advertise other brands within one brand while cutting costs and increasing sales.
Technological
Research funding is laborious, especially if a company seeks to make profits, but with the use of technology, research can be done online. It also gives employment to software developers to come up with new techniques that will heighten competition in business. In regards to Conde Nast, manufacturing capacity is greatly increased because various publications can be worked on simultaneously and sent out almost at the same time. Immediately, they are placed in the market where consumers can make a choice of the publication they want, and the company is able to see sales from the comfort of the Internet wherever they are.
Internal Market Place Analysis
Conde Nast measures and communicates the value of digital magazine editions with relevant, real time responses and has proven to be unmatched in the world of magazine publishing. Having adapted very well to the changing times, Conde Nast boasts of having 18 consumer magazines, 27 websites, for B2B (business-to-business) publications and well over 50 apps for tablet and mobile devices. However, this does not mean it has been a smooth sail as the company has had some challenges adjusting to the digital shift. This came from the need for publishers to rethink every aspect of creating and presenting content as well as how it is being consumed online and offline.
In regard to this, the executive director sought new ways of providing Conde Nast and its advertisers with clear measurements of how each of its publications’ brands was performing across channels. His efforts helped to attract advertisers and build revenues as the company presented the most complete and accurate view of audience engagement on websites and with emerging tablet publications. The result was a detailed, issue level insight into the behaviour of readers of digital editions. Marketing tactics delivered a 50 % increase in traffic as well as real time responses on emerging trends in digital readership (Oster 1999). Enabling the issue-level viewing of analytical data related content in digital editions allowed better development of the next issue based on the view and opinions of the readers.
Some of the challenges that Conde Nast faced were the uncovering of the most important metrics of digital editions. Communicating more relevant, timely audience data to advertisers was the other challenge Conde Nast went through as well as isolating data by magazine issue for more intuitive understanding (Thakur 1997). The biggest challenge yet was to build ad revenues by proving to agencies the value of placements. A publication is more successful with an ad running and getting agencies to place ads on the online publications was also a task that arose.
Overcoming these challenges, leveraging data from Adobe Site Catalyst and Insight was taken to learn about the behaviours and digital readers and combine with Audience Research to uncover in greater detail how readers engage with specific content in digital editions. For magazine publishers, Audience Research makes it easy to focus on activity within particular magazine issues as opposed to just capturing higher-level views of activity on a webpage. This also allows the company to zero in on the performance of specific content within each magazine issue. The flexibility of Audience Research makes all the difference, according to Reynolds, enabling Condé Nast to offer its managers and eventually its advertisers a clear, issue-by-issue view of trends in content consumption over time (Varghese 2012).
Competitor’s Analysis
What drives the competitor INCLUDEPICTURE “http://www.NetMBA.com/lib/pixel/999966.gif” * MERGEFORMATINET INCLUDEPICTURE “http://www.NetMBA.com/lib/pixel/999966.gif” * MERGEFORMATINET What the competitor is capable of doing or is doing
Objectives
INCLUDEPICTURE “http://www.NetMBA.com/lib/pixel/0.gif” * MERGEFORMATINET INCLUDEPICTURE “http://www.NetMBA.com/lib/pixel/0.gif” * MERGEFORMATINET INCLUDEPICTURE “http://www.NetMBA.com/lib/arrow/315-01.gif” * MERGEFORMATINET INCLUDEPICTURE “http://www.NetMBA.com/lib/arrow/315-01.gif” * MERGEFORMATINET INCLUDEPICTURE “http://www.NetMBA.com/lib/pixel/0.gif” * MERGEFORMATINET INCLUDEPICTURE “http://www.NetMBA.com/lib/pixel/0.gif” * MERGEFORMATINET INCLUDEPICTURE “http://www.NetMBA.com/lib/pixel/999966.gif” * MERGEFORMATINET INCLUDEPICTURE “http://www.NetMBA.com/lib/pixel/999966.gif” * MERGEFORMATINET Strategy
INCLUDEPICTURE “http://www.NetMBA.com/lib/arrow/225-01.gif” * MERGEFORMATINET INCLUDEPICTURE “http://www.NetMBA.com/lib/arrow/225-01.gif” * MERGEFORMATINET INCLUDEPICTURE “http://www.NetMBA.com/lib/pixel/0.gif” * MERGEFORMATINET INCLUDEPICTURE “http://www.NetMBA.com/lib/pixel/0.gif” * MERGEFORMATINET INCLUDEPICTURE “http://www.NetMBA.com/lib/pixel/0.gif” * MERGEFORMATINET INCLUDEPICTURE “http://www.NetMBA.com/lib/pixel/0.gif” * MERGEFORMATINET
INCLUDEPICTURE “http://www.NetMBA.com/lib/pixel/0.gif” * MERGEFORMATINET INCLUDEPICTURE “http://www.NetMBA.com/lib/pixel/0.gif” * MERGEFORMATINET
CompetitorResponse Profile
INCLUDEPICTURE “http://www.NetMBA.com/lib/pixel/0.gif” * MERGEFORMATINET INCLUDEPICTURE “http://www.NetMBA.com/lib/pixel/0.gif” * MERGEFORMATINET
INCLUDEPICTURE “http://www.NetMBA.com/lib/pixel/0.gif” * MERGEFORMATINET INCLUDEPICTURE “http://www.NetMBA.com/lib/pixel/0.gif” * MERGEFORMATINET INCLUDEPICTURE “http://www.NetMBA.com/lib/arrow/045-01.gif” * MERGEFORMATINET INCLUDEPICTURE “http://www.NetMBA.com/lib/arrow/045-01.gif” * MERGEFORMATINET
Assumptions INCLUDEPICTURE “http://www.NetMBA.com/lib/pixel/999966.gif” * MERGEFORMATINET INCLUDEPICTURE “http://www.NetMBA.com/lib/pixel/999966.gif” * MERGEFORMATINET INCLUDEPICTURE “http://www.NetMBA.com/lib/arrow/135-01.gif” * MERGEFORMATINET INCLUDEPICTURE “http://www.NetMBA.com/lib/arrow/135-01.gif” * MERGEFORMATINET INCLUDEPICTURE “http://www.NetMBA.com/lib/pixel/0.gif” * MERGEFORMATINET INCLUDEPICTURE “http://www.NetMBA.com/lib/pixel/0.gif” * MERGEFORMATINET
Resources& Capabilities
Source: Competitor analysis n.d.
Michael porter presented a framework of analysing competitors based on four aspects.
The competitor’s current strategy says that the major sources of information about it are what are said by the competitor and what he does. However, it could differ if what the competitor is doing is evident in where its cash flow is directed. A competitor’s objective says that knowing the objective facilitates a better prediction of the competitor’s reaction to different moves. Competitor’s objectives may be financial or related to market share, growth rate and technology leadership. Competitor’s assumption: the assumption that managers hold about their firm and their industry help define the moves to be considered. Competitor’s assumptions may be based on a number of factors including industry trends, regional factors, past experiences with a product among others.
Competitor’s capabilities: knowing the assumptions, objectives, and strategies is useful in understanding how the competitor might respond to a competitive attack. Capabilities and resources determine the ability to respond effectively. Competitive response profile: analysis of the assumptions, objectives, capabilities, and strategy of the competitor can be compiled to make a response profile. The profile includes both defensive moods and potentially offensive ones.
Conclusion
Conde Nast has made the big step to switch to the digital market, and it has been able to overcome its challenges. Its publication online gives the consumers real time information and almost real time data feedback enabling the right adjustments to be made in the next publications. The competition from phones and tablets is healthy as it keeps the developers up to date, as well as the advertisers. This company has a reputation for being the most innovative publishers who have embraced mutual support and synchronized portfolio of offline and online publications. The insight team in Condé Nast started its customer immersion expedition by first embracing the pace and cost effectiveness of online market research (Aaker 2002). In regard to Conde Nast, PESTEL was considered. It is basically the study of the market in respect to politics, economy, social aspect and technology. It tends to assess the market, including competitors, from the standpoint of a particular proposition or a business. Internal Market Place Analysis shows that the company has had some challenges adjusting to the digital shift. This came from the need for publishers to rethink every aspect of creating and presenting content as well as how it is being consumed online and offline. Finally, for magazine publishers, Audience Research makes it easy to focus on activity within particular magazine issues as opposed to just capturing higher-level views of activity on a webpage.
Marketing Strategy
The company should involve the government in any program that they have or even ask for funding, and this will enable it to have good reputation.
Having a cost effective publication will also see overseas embracing the products because they will be at an affordable rate.
Launching products in the online market. This will give the company a competitive edge with other competitors. It is also very good for the economy of this country.
Monitoring should be made easy to enable company to track sales and consumer patterns.
Featuring fashion and role models as well as major events in the UK will give a platform to advertise other brands within one brand while cutting costs and increasing sales.
Enabling the issue-level viewing of analytical data related content in digital editions will allow better development of the next issue based on the view and opinions of the readers.
Audience Research will be done. This makes it easy to focus on activity within particular magazine issues as opposed to just capturing higher-level views of activity on a webpage.
Reference List
Aaker, D 2002, Developing business strategies, Wiley, New York.
Aaker, DA & McLoughlin, D 2010, Strategic market management: global perspectives, John Wiley & Sons, New York.
Brennand, S n.d., What is marketing strategy, viewed 5 December 2013, <https://exploreb2b.com/articles/what-is-marketing-strategy>
Competitor analysis n.d., NetMBA, viewed 5 December 2013, <http://www.netmba.com/strategy/competitor-analysis>.
Drejer, A 2002, Strategic management and core competencies: theory and application, Greenwood Publishing Group, UK.
Hill, CWL & Jones, GR 2008, Essentials of strategic management, Cengage Learning, UK.
Market analysis n.d., NetMBA, viewed 5 December 2013, <http://www.netmba.com/marketing/market/analysis/>.
Oster, SM 1999, Modern competitive analysis, Oxford University Press, UK.
Thakur, M 1997, International management: concepts and cases, Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing, New Delhi.
Varghese, J 2012, Competitor analysis, working paper, AuthorHouse, London.