Competitive Strategy Research Paper 2022

Running head: COMPETITIVE STRATEGY
Competitive
Strategy
8/20/2019

COMPETITIVE STRATEGY 1
Strategic Development Tool
Strategy development is the procedure of the organization of determining its strategy, or
direction and taking decisions related to assigning of resources for chasing this strategy.
Strategy development has been important in the business due to the increasing hurdles and
competition in the market. To develop the strategies, it becomes very important to first
analyze the market and challenges that business could come across in the specific industry
and then accordingly frame the strategies. To do so, businesses make use of different strategic
development tools. The intent of this paper is to discuss regarding three strategic
development tools that are used by the businesses to analyze the market situation and
available resources in the company to make the best use of them to gain the opportunity. The
selected tools that are being described in the paper are SWOT Analysis, Generic Strategies,
and Ansoff Matrix.
SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis is a strategic planning method utilized to support an organization or an
individual to recognize their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats associated with
the project of business competition. This method is determined towards specifying the
business objective and recognizing the external as well as internal factors that are unfavorable
and favorable for attaining those objectives (Sarsby, 2016).
Strength: Strength is the area or activity in which a business excels and supports it in
attaining advantage in the market. For instance, the BHP Billiton of Australia holds a
dominant place in the mining and metal industry. The global is established as the global
operator with 100 sites in 25 nations (BHP, 2019). The organization structure of the group
has allowed operating and owning the main profitable mineral resources all over the globe.

COMPETITIVE STRATEGY 2
Weaknesses: Weaknesses are the elements or activities that prevent a business to produce the
best results (Snelling, 2012). For instance, BHP Billiton is one of the well-known global
natural resources companies, with the diversified portfolio comprising steel, gas, and oil. But,
in spite of being the global player, the major weakness of the company is unmanageable
safety issues at its Western Australia Iron Ore operations (Saunders, 2015). Hence, to reduce
the issues that management of the company decided to enhance contractor management,
improving existing strategies for reducing excess working hours, enhancing standards of
traffic management and eradicating all the unnecessary work for the daylight hours.
Opportunities: Opportunities are considered as the favorable external factors that can offer
the business a competitive advantage against its competitors. For example, the huge
opportunity that is present to BHP Billiton is establishing strong potash resource position.
The organization is chasing opportunities to adopt the operations that can fit with the potash
operations in the Canadian site.
Threats: Threats are the factors that have the potential to harm an organization. For instance,
the major threat for the BHP Billiton is competition. The company deals with intense
competition in the mining and metal industry. The main competitors of the company are US-
based Newmont Mining involved in the gold production and the UK based Xstrata involved
in the operations of the natural resources with a major presence in alloys, coal, zinc, copper,
etc. (NASDAQ, 2019).
Porter’s Generic Strategies
Porter’s Generic strategies determine how a business attains a competitive advantage in the
selected market scope. In the market the generic strategies that are used by the businesses that
are focus, differentiation, or lower cost (Eldring, 2008). A business can select to pursue one
of the two types of the competitive advantage, through offering low-cost products in