Contemporary Strategy Analysis Techniques and Applications

Question: Discuss about the Contemporary Strategy Analysis for Techniques and Applications. Answer: Introduction: Cost leadership and differentiation are two major sources of competitive advantage which companies can use to supply a product at low cost or it can be used to supply a differentiated product and thus have pricing power over others.(Grant, 2007) Walmart has used its cost cutting to develop a moat by using innovative warehouse systems with flexibility in regional warehouses, analytics and doing studies on consumer. Also it uses innovative inventory system to bring down working capital cycle by paying to vendors late and procuring from them. This gave it leadership in terms of cost.(Brown, 2006). Amazons CEO once said, There are two kinds of companies: Those that work to try to charge more and those that work to charge less. We will be the second.But, JC Penney is example of how the same strategy backfired. The everyday low pricing strategy with coupons kept sales high but customers got used to it. So, when coupons withdrawn and prices were lowered it was compared with Amazon and the company fell to pieces. Apple is the success story of differentiation which it used in the form of great design, innovation, successful branding with their advertising campaigns and designs of Apple store. Also, they have created an ecosystem of Apple that provides with huge cross selling opportunity while keeping brand intact. On the other hand, Blackberry could not survive long. It had differentiated itself with its quality, its keyboard features and inner chat circle of Blackberry. But, with the changing times and coming of touchscreen phones it did not take steps to come out of its comfort zone and differentiate. It was stuck to old technology and its differentiation once an asset became the reason of its demise. (Savov, 2016) References Grant, R.M. (2007)Contemporary strategy analysis: Concepts, techniques, applications. 6th edn. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing. Brown, M. (2006)How did Wal-Mart attain a cost-leadership position?Available at: https://www.worldhistoryblog.com/2006/09/how-did-wal-mart-attain-cost.html (Accessed: 7 December 2016). Savov, V. (2016)BlackBerrys success led to its failure. Available at: https://www.theverge.com/2016/9/30/13119924/blackberry-failure-success (Accessed: 7 December 2016).