Advanced Strategy Essay: CSR, Strategic Failures, and Key Influences

This essay delves into advanced strategy, examining Porter's Five Forces model and its role in strategic decision-making. It explores the reasons behind strategic failures, using examples like Blackberry and Nokia, and emphasizes the critical importance of strategy execution. The essay also highlights Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as a source of competitive advantage, citing Qantas as a case study. Key influences on strategic decision-making, such as competition, organizational structure, and community involvement, are discussed, with Qantas again serving as an example of how external pressures can reshape business strategies. The essay provides a comprehensive overview of these interconnected concepts, offering insights into how businesses can achieve and maintain a competitive edge in dynamic market environments.

Running Head: ADVANCED STRATEGY
Advanced strategy
Essay
Student Name
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ADVANCED STRATEGY 1
Porter’s five forces can give an organization a competitive advantage
Strategic decisions have a direct impact on the business operation of the organization in terms of
productivity and are in need of unified approaches from the management. As per the study, it has
been found that roots which are connected with the strategic exploration are very difficult
because of which organization is not able to implement any decisions. In this situation, Porters
five force model plays a very important role in offering clarification related to the strategic
decision making (Mathooko and Ogutu, 2015). This model helps the organization in identifying
the complex challenges related to the business environment so that it can categorize factors
which are associated with the business challenges that can impact the overall business strategic
decision. The main benefit of Porters five force model used by organizations is that it helps them
in solving issues which arise due to uncertainty in the business environment by offering the exact
difference between reality and expectation (Zhao et al., 2016). This model helps the organization
to understand the possible challenges which can arise from the bargaining power of suppliers,
bargaining power of customers, new entry or availability of similar product in the business
market. This helps the organization to understand the aspects which are affecting their revenue in
a particular industry. In addition to this, this model helps them to develop a strategic decision
which offers profit with competency in terms of entering a new market, adopt new skills or to
increase the capacity of the organization in particular market (Takata, 2016). In addition, this
model helps in exploring the intensity of completion as per the need of the market along with the
possible attraction aspects which are connected with the business market.
One of the best examples is Nike Company which makes use of porters five force model to
explore the possible challenges related to the sports footwear business market on the global level.
Nike was facing great financial loss in its US market. In order to solve this issue, Nike used
porters five force model to identify the main factors which are responsible for this issue. By
using this model company was able to find out that there are some companies which were
working on technological renovation in their business operations in order to fit themselves with
the dynamic business market (Muidili, 2017). In addition to this, they came to known that Adidas
Company is also targeting the same audience with the help of their pricing strategy which has
reduced Nikes sales hold in the market. As a result of this, it has reduced the profit margin of
Nike Company in the US market. In this situation, Nike Company has taken it as an opportunity
and introduce their innovative technology in order to take advantage of cost competency over
other companies which are operating in the same business market.

ADVANCED STRATEGY 2
Strategy Fails
As per the study, it has been found that strategy execution has always played a very important
role in the formation of any business decision. Present business world is full of competitive
environment due to increase in technology innovation which has changed the overall shape of the
business. It has been seen that despite having good strategy the organization is not able to
improve their present situation and most of the cases blame is put on the strategic formulation. In
fact, it has been seen that the organization spent most of their time on the strategic formation and
overlook the strategic execution (Sull, Homkes and Sull, 2015). As a result of this, the
organization faces numbers of challenges related to their strategy for which they are not prepared
because organization has explored the real factors which can impact the overall business
operation of the organization. It has been found that around 61% of the organization after
formulating strategy struggle to implement this strategy in their business organization (The
economist, 2019). In this situation, most of the organization have complained that they have
expected something different and got completed different outcomes which do not fit in this
business environment. In many cases, it has been found that strategy formulate is not able to
match the requirement of the organization because of which employees were not able to
understand the base need for this strategy. It is the strategic implement which decides the
positive impact of the strategy on the overall business operation in terms of improvement (Felin,
Foss and Ployhart, 2015). In this situation, if any organization overlook this important aspect of
business decision then it will be very difficult for the organization to maintain its sustainability in
this competitive business market.
One of the best examples of strategic failure is Blackberry; in this blackberry, company launched
one of the most innovative mobile products in the business market which consists of a lot of
features which other mobile provider cannot even think off. But at the same time, this
organization failed to understand the growing requirement in the mobile market at focussing
their mobile to operation on the business platform only. The company has focused its market
interest on business area only but were expecting that they will be able to capture the other
markets too but soon they realized that they have failed to implement their strategy in the right
context and as a result of this the company has to bear heavy loss in terms of revenue as well as
in brand image (CASCADE, 2019). As a result of this company was thrown out from the main
market and was not able to make recovery in any context. In this situation, they should have
understood that present needs are different from the past needs and people were looking for that
product which can offer them both advantages features within the low price which was clearly
absent in the products of Blackberry. Same kind of mistake was done by Nokia which was
known as king of the mobile market was thrown out of out the market because their strategy was
not matching with their objective which created confusion among the employees.

ADVANCED STRATEGY 3
CSR as a source of competitive advantage
Growth and development of any organization are totally dependent on the effectiveness of the
organization. There are many factors which decide level of effectiveness level in the business
markets such as organization structure, strategies and their CSR activities. As per the study it has
been found that many organizations considered corporate social responsibility as one of the
effective management approaches which offers strength to the company in terms of their overall
performance (Herrera, 2015). This performance helps the organization to create a unique identity
for them in the business market. Present society is very concern related to the environment and
social aspects and if any organization is able to maintain both these aspects in their favour.
Organization does not have to worry about their sustainability for a long time due to community
support. Growing importance of CSR has forced the business world to consider it as one of the
most important parts in terms of corporate governance. Present communities are very much
aware of their health and therefore are willing to purchase those products which can offer them
high-quality service along with satisfaction (Rhou, Singal and Koh, 2016). In this situation, CSR
act as a practicing agent which focuses on the competition which is totally based on community
responsibilities. If an organization is working on CSR platform they will not only get support
from the community but also from the government because they also understand the importance
of this approach and hence will offer some kind of rewards to the organization which helps them
to run their business smoothly in this competitive business environment. In many cases, it has
been found that many organizations have formed a strategic partnership with the local
community under their CSR activities which have offered these organization a strong customer
base which is the basic need of all business corporates (Dupire and M’Zali, 2018). More
customers mean more profit and a better image in the business market.
One of the best example of CSR as source of competitive advantage is Qantas airline which has
use CSR activity as their business strategy. Earlier company was struggling with a lot of issues
related to their business operation. Many NGO has complained about the increasing carbon
footprint emission level in business operation. As a result of this, the image of the company
entered into bad zone and it had a direct impact on the sales of the company which has reduced
the profitability of the company (Qantas, 2017). In this situation, the company introduced a new
business strategy in which they mainly focused to reduce carbon footprint emission in their every
business. In addition to this, they focused on making use of solar energy as the source of power
supply. This decision was very successful for the organization for improving their image in the
community. This helped the organization to speed up their sales which offer them a competitive
advantage over other organization within the same industry.

ADVANCED STRATEGY 4
Key influence on strategic decision making
One of the most important factors which influence the strategic decision making is competition.
Due to technology innovation, every organization is trying to attain a major share in the business
market in order to keep them sustainable which has directly increased the competition.
Increasing competition has forced the organization to bring changes in their current business
strategy in order to gain a competitive advantage over others organizations (Wu, Straub and
Liang, 2015). In addition to this, there are other important factors which are influencing the
strategic decision are structure of the organization, type of leadership present in the organization,
working culture in the organization as well as the economic situation of the organization. In
addition to this one of the most important factors which can change the tables of the overall
business is the involvement of the community in the product or service of the organization
(Adam Cobb, 2016). Involving community in the design project of the organization offers good
financial support from most of the influential firm present in the corporate. In addition to this,
involvement of government in the welfare of the community also categorizes this factor as most
significant factor after technology advancement. In addition to this, cognitive business nature
also influences the strategic decision making because it keeps the organization depends on the
expected resulted and completely rely on the previous knowledge which is gained by a lot of
effort and time spending and dismiss the information that is being generated from other sources
(Wolf and Floyd, 2017). The organization which has not considered these factors important for
remain sustainable was a force to shut down their business operation under the influences of
these factors which are actually governed by the business environment.
One of the best examples of key factors which influence strategic decision making is Qantas
airline which has to change their strategic decision under the influence of community pressure.
In fact, the company has to bring a good amount of change in their business operations. In
addition to this NGO also forced Qantas to change their current decision which was impacting
the environment on large scale in terms of releasing green gases in the environment which is
impacting the health of the people living in the areas around their operations (Qantas, 2016). In
addition, the company has to bring change in their resource management system earlier company
were using the nonrenewable mode of resources to generate power. But they were forced to find
a new source of energy source in terms of renewable source which has changed their overall
business strategy.

ADVANCED STRATEGY 5
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ADVANCED STRATEGY 6
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