The strategy-circus reflection sheet

My interconnections with among the cases so far

What are the similarities and differences in the situations I got involved in? Similarities: All the three cases, the similarity was the industry structure, it was very competitive. For easyjet, airline industry is very competitive and difficult to survive in. Similarly, Apple was in computer industry during its growth years and so it had huge competition from IBM and Microsoft. Also, Levis being in a retail industry had competitions in the form of other premium segment retailers. Due to the industry structure, all the three firms focused more on innovation and used innovation as a differentiating factor to acquire market share. Apple was a premium segment product and it catered to a niche market with innovative products and this led to low market share of Apple. In all the three cases, the main focus was on growth and to achieve that, the companies were planning to do expansion. For expanding their horizons, Walmart looked upon its product portfolio, store formats and wholesale clubs; Nestle looked for acquisition of many companies and improving their R&D and Biocon was more inclined to acquiring startups so as to improve on its R&D. For expansion, Easyjet looked on other industries such as car rentals, internet cafes. Apple spread its footprint across industries such as electronic goods, consumer goods, etc with Apple TV, Ipod, etc. Differences: Apple and Easyjet are focusing on expansions, while Levis is not focusing on expansion, rather it is changes its strategies to gain more market and increase its revenues. Apple is expanding by using its technology in different domains and different industries while Easyjet is expanding to totally different markets with no significant connection with its firm. Are there any patterns in the occurrences of events, causes or consequences that I have seen within or across the situations? In levis there was the event where they needed variety of issues to be addressed such as what was the value chain system and how changes could be done in it. This showed that companies had a fixed analysis to list out issues and they evaluate it on basis of competitors and finally execute the strategy for the firm so that it can gain competitive advantage. In case of easyjet they catered to e different market and expanded to a different market. Have I discovered any interrelations among the events, causes and consequences? The expansion opportunities that each of the firm has were not much in their own segment and so they expanded into other segments and looked out for opportunities in different industries.

The strategy-circus reflection sheet

My illustrations of ten (or more) terms from articles and chapter readings
Key Terms of the articles Ipod Multi-touch Accelerometer technology 3G GPS NASDAQ Kiosk BarCode Financial footprint Lead-time My Illustrations Music player The screen is sensitive to dual touch responses Senses the movement of user and adjust screen orientation accordingly Third generation technology Global positioning system Newyork stock exchange Automated machine with a user interface usually used for a typical functionality Unique code used to differentiate items Value chain process of a firm w.r.t The time lag between order and receipt of goods and materials

My Decisions and My Analysis

Specific Decisions Taken by me Case1- Apple Apples in-store experience is very helpful in increasing its sales. Retail outlets should be increased Microsoft Office suite should be made by apple for it Macs R&D expense of 5% should be continued Case2-Easyjet Consolidate its position in the routes that are existing now and not make other choices Company should maintain its entrepreneurial culture but also get in some strict measures of professionalism and IPO can be done Venturing in on the basis of some facts and figures and not just a game of play. Case3- Levis The stores of Levis should be more near and usage of hub and spoke can be done Levis personal pair concept is attractive and should be started in the other stores as well

My abstractions from this course

Augmented frameworks/ new checklist of questions developed/concepts challenged?

The strategy-circus reflection sheet

Thorough internal and external analysis is helpful to understand the strategic decisions taken by the firms. Frameworks are very helpful in understanding the industry and in turn understanding the decisions taken by the firms. To sustain a firm has to act as per the changes in its environment and so PEST analysis is very useful in that Political, environment, social and technological aspects.

How this course so far has changed/developed me (my thinking process, biases, world view, attitudes, habits, etc.)
Understanding the strategic decisions taken by different firms and analyzing it has been very useful and added value to me. Due to the changing environment, the decisions of the firm also changes and this can be effectively seen by the analysis that is done. Learnt porters 5 forces model and how to analyze industry. The attractiveness of industry can be analyzed using this model. So using Porters five forces in various industries of Apple, we analyzed different industries, its attractiveness and how it changed across the years. Internal analysis of an industry and how the structure changes in an industry affects the firms is learnt from this course Such extreme research oriented approach is a useful one.