BUSI 4900: Capstone: Strategic Business Management. Week3 Discussion: Applying Strategies to Achieve Competitive Advantage

How do business leaders know how to choose the best strategy for an organization? This question can be complex and nearly impossible to answer because there are multiple strategies that organizations can integrate, and some may work better in certain situations than others. For example, if a company produces luxury cars, it may not want to pursue a strategy that includes offering the lowest price in the market because that could be interpreted as a compromise on quality or some other aspect that consumers in that market might expect. Likewise, a company that competes in a market that is saturated with other brands of the same product might find that creating a cost-cutting strategy would allow it to be more profitable and to achieve a competitive advantage.
In this Discussion, you will play the role of consultant and will give a selected organization some recommendations for what strategic approaches they should take to achieve competitive advantage. 

To prepare for this Discussion:

Identify an organization with which you are familiar that is in need of a change in its strategy in its pursuit of competitive advantage.
Review this week’s Learning Resources, focusing specifically on the different competitive strategies and strategic frameworks you have learned about in this program. Consider the concept of the Blue Ocean strategy, as well as Porter’s five forces, vertical integration strategies, and others.
Review the Academic Writing Expectations: Capstone Courses document, provided in this week’s Learning Resources.

Post a 225- to 300-word (3- to 4-paragraph) analysis of how your selected organization can use competitive business strategies to create competitive advantage. In your analysis, include the following:

Examine two strategies that the organization could take to create and sustain competitive advantage. Explain why these strategies could be effective for the organization’s achievement of competitive advantage.
Devise recommendations for how the organization could implement a Blue Ocean strategy or strategic approach to achieve and sustain competitive advantage.
To support your response, be sure to reference at least one properly cited scholarly source.

Required Resources
Competitive Strategy

The planning, implementation, and adherence to a company’s competitive strategy is critical for its sustained success. The better a company can set a plan in place for variables and unforeseen circumstances, the better it can make clearer and more intelligent decisions. These resources examine competitive strategies, including the important role that competitive advantage plays in the planning process. 

Thompson, A. A. (2018–2019). Strategy: Core concepts and analytical approaches (3rd ed.) [BSG electronic edition]. Burr Ridge, IL: McGraw-Hill Education.

Chapter 5, “The Five Generic Competitive Strategy Options: Which One to Employ?” (pp. 90–109)
Chapter 6, “Supplementing the Chosen Competitive Strategy–Other Important Strategy Choices” (pp. 110–130)

Time Estimate: 82 minutes (40 minutes for Chapter 5; 42 minutes for Chapter 6)    

WolvesAndFinance. (2018). What is competitive advantage? [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeCCT7CKpYA