Strategy Course - Business Strategy Assignment Solution

This assignment solution addresses key concepts in business strategy, covering topics such as business strategy development and deployment, the impact of precision farming on agriculture, the current situation of WPP in relation to horizontal mergers, strategies for the craft brewing industry in a mature market, and the potential for success of the company Affectiva in emotional facial recognition. The solution provides detailed answers to five questions, referencing relevant literature to support the analysis. It explores the strategic implications of each scenario, offering insights into market dynamics, competitive advantages, and ethical considerations. The assignment provides a comprehensive overview of strategic decision-making in diverse business contexts, providing valuable insights for students studying business development.

Running head: STRATEGY COURSE
Strategy Course
University Name
Student Name
Authors’ Note

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Table of Contents
Strategy Course..........................................................................................................................1
Answer to Question 1:................................................................................................................2
Answer to Question 2:................................................................................................................2
Answer to Question 3:................................................................................................................3
Answer to Question 4:................................................................................................................3
Answer to Question 5:................................................................................................................4
References..................................................................................................................................5

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Answer to Question 1:
Business strategy development as well as deployment can be associated to focus of the
organization on attainment of identical goals. However, deployment of strategy refers to
formulation of clear corporate aims, dissemination and alignment of the laid objectives
throughout different levels of corporation (Menon et al. 2015).
Answer to Question 2:
Precision farming is going to transform the agriculture as the technological development and
artificial intelligence of computer to perform agricultural tasks is something out of then ambit
of human intelligence. This in turn can lead to optimization of the process of decision making
as well as learning and help in meeting the needs of agriculture. As the initial process of
acquirement of the advanced tool for development of agriculture can prove to be expensive,
farms can enter into alliances for adoption of technological innovation (Baker 2014).
Answer to Question 3:
As per the given case study, it can be hereby mentioned that the current situation of WPP can
be related to that of horizontal mergers. Business consolidation has taken place between
corporations that function in the same business segment as level of competition in the global
marketing business tends to be very high. Essentially, these synergies as well as potential
gains can be said to be higher for different merging corporations in such kind of industry.
WPP is said to have a premium as WPP has a clearly defined space of operation, advantages
of economics of scale as with increase in the size of corporation, of production price per unit
for specific product of the adman reduced since there is removal of duplication of
products/strategies, raise in bargaining power in the market owing to gigantic size
of merged firm together with less outlay on advertising (Armstrong et al. 2015). There is

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said to be no principal-agent problem in the business of WPP, although the parent company
had to substantiate its subsistence. Thus, there is said to be no principal-agent problem as
agents of the company does not agree in favour of other party (that is principal) against
incentives and there exists no conflicts of interests. The swift transformation perhaps might
not affect the conglomerate structure of the business as this affects the industry as a whole.
Answer to Question 4:
As per the given case, it can be hereby mentioned that the craft brewing industry is in a
matured state as the sales of beer is slowing down and breweries are finding it difficult to
retain their share of the market. In addition to this, the case study mentions that the
developing and for the most part successful beer industry is luring more number of breweries
to enter this market that eventually might lead to over saturation as well as closures in the
breweries market.
The good business decisions as well as strategies for the mature market include development
of new products (replacement of existing products or else extension of the product line)
(Palmer et al. 2014). Additionally, redesigning the product can be regarded as an effective
strategy for enhancement of the specific product for meeting additional requirements and at
the same time boost the entire value proposition (Perreault Jr et al. 2013).
Answer to Question 5:
The given case study mentions about the fact that the company Affectiva is gathering
requisite data in particularly the public domain as well as from its own data set on emotional
facial recognition research. This innovative start up business of Affectiva has the possibility
of succeeding as it is maintaining a right balance between technical as well as business
knowledge with requisite technical expertise in the course of development of their product.

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This strategy of introduction of an innovative technology can help the business in conferring
a competitive advantage through differentiation in case if the competitors fail to replicate the
business (Ferrell and Hartline 2014). However, there are ethical concerns involved in the case
as regards the process of acquirement of specific information and the way of using the
acquired information, although the company has devised guidelines for information
management.

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References
Armstrong, G., Kotler, P., Harker, M. and Brennan, R., 2015. Marketing: an introduction.
Pearson Education.
Baker, M.J., 2014. Marketing strategy and management. Palgrave Macmillan.
Ferrell, O.C. and Hartline, M., 2014. Marketing Strategy, Text and Cases.. USA: Cengage
Learning. Gabay, JJ (2010, February 26). Make a Difference with Your Marketing (Teach
Yourself).
Menon, A., Bharadwaj, S.G., Adidam, P.T. and Edison, S.W., 2015. Effective Marketing
Strategy-Making: Antecedents and Consequences. In Proceedings of the 1997 Academy of
Marketing Science (AMS) Annual Conference (pp. 224-224). Springer, Cham.
Palmer, M., Simmons, G. and Mason, K., 2014. Web-based social movements contesting
marketing strategy: The mobilisation of multiple actors and rhetorical strategies. Journal of
Marketing Management, 30(3-4), pp.383-408.
Perreault Jr, W., Cannon, J. and McCarthy, E.J., 2013. Basic marketing. McGraw-Hill Higher
Education.