Introduction to Strategy Assignment 2022

Running head: INTRODUCTION TO STRATEGY
Introduction to Strategy
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

INTRODUCTION TO STRATEGY1
Executive Summary
Emerging from Hangzhu, China, a single apartment unit, Alibaba Group has developed itself
into a global e-commerce scene with Alibaba.com- a B2B website that caters the needs of
both buyers and suppliers from all around the world for becoming one of the first online
businesses in China. It has grown significantly from its initial starting as a general e-market
to a giant e-marketplace. This paper has elaborated on presenting an analysis of Alibaba and
its business environment using PESTLE analysis, Porter’s Five Forces, Value Chain
Analysis, VRIO etc. on the basis of the analysis, it is recommended that Alibaba should entry
in a new segment or sector where the competition will be low or negligible and it should
change its business development focus more towards the western regions

INTRODUCTION TO STRATEGY2
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Discussion..................................................................................................................................2
Company Background............................................................................................................2
a) PESTLE Analysis........................................................................................................3
b) Industry definition and life-cycle position..................................................................5
c) Porter’s five forces......................................................................................................6
Internal analysis.....................................................................................................................7
a) VRIO Analysis............................................................................................................7
b) Value Chain Analysis..................................................................................................8
Strategic Issues and Recommendations...............................................................................10
a) TOWS........................................................................................................................10
TOWS matrix.......................................................................................................................11
b) Strategy Canvas & Blue and/or Red Ocean..............................................................13
Conclusion................................................................................................................................14
References:...............................................................................................................................16

INTRODUCTION TO STRATEGY3
Introduction
The marketplace of electronic commerce is growing rapidly as more number of
customers today prefer the convenience of shopping online (Blazquez 2014). A huge number
of companies, both small and large have embraced the advantages of the combination of
supplemental internet based storefronts and the brick-and-mortar locations for meeting the
needs of majority of the customers. One of the notable players in this market is Alibaba. It is
considered to be number one e-commerce company that targets the online customers in
China.
This paper shall elaborate on analysing Alibaba and its business and business
environment. It shall provide a brief background of the company and its operations, while
analysing its external environment using the PESTLE, Porter’s Five Forces and its internal
environment using VRIO and Value Chain Analysis. Lastly, recommendations shall be made
in terms of TOWS matrix, Strategy Canvas and assessing whether they are playing in Red or
Blue Ocean.
Discussion
Company Background
Alibaba is an undisputed global leader in the field of e-commerce for the small
businesses. It was founded in the year 1999 by Peng Lei and Jack Ma (Lin and Mehaffy
2015). The company was started for championing the small businesses with a belief that
internet would level the playing field by means of enabling the small businesses for
leveraging the innovation and the technology to compete and grow more efficiently in the
global and domestic economies. It is a B2B website and is the flagship company of Alibaba
Group, which was founded in the year 1999 (Yu 2018). It provides C2C. B2C and B2B sales