Planning and Delivering Strategic Value

Strategic Planning Midterm Exam
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Strategic Planning Midterm Exam
Question 1: Planning and Delivering Strategic Value
Answer 1
The primary five factors that contribute to Coach’s demise in women’s handbag business include the following: the number of competing companies, similar capabilities of competing firms, easy switching of brands by consumers, low market entry barriers, and the sale of similar products or services by business rivals (“Why are the Ladies Shunning Coach”). Many of the factors affecting Coach can be summarized by Porter’s Five Forces, namely the threat of substitution, competitive rivalry, supplier power, buyer power, and the threat of new market entry. The primary factors affecting Coach are competition from Michael Kors (KORS), Kate Spade (KATE), and Tory Burch, entry of new firms, and threats of being substituted in the handbag business and losing its market share.
Answer 2
The following is the rank of the five factors affecting Coach’s performance in the handbag business from 1-5 (1=high impact to 5=least impact):
1. Sale of similar products or services by competitors.
2. Low barriers in market entry.
3. Easy switching of brands by consumers.
4. The number of competing companies.
5. Similar capabilities of competing firms.
For sure, Coach is closing some of its stores since its consumers might be switching to the products offered by its competitors, probably due to their good design, quality, or low price.
Answer 3
In most cases, ladies look for design, quality, and brand when purchasing handbags. As such, some of the things that Coach must do to re-earn its reputation include hiring highly skilled handbag designers, remodelling stores, and revamping its marketing strategies. The following is a 3*4 matrix that reveals the positioning of three business rivals in the handbag business:
PriceQualityYouthfulnessStyleCOH2111KORS3232KATE1323Question 2: Ethics
Answer (a)
Kenneth Andrews’ “Ethics in Practice” portrays how ethics is crucial in the decision-making processes in an organization and the difficulty in developing and maintaining it. The author says that unethical and illegal behavior persists since efforts in eliminating it are short-lived. The three aspects of the issue of corporate ethics are the development of executives as moral people, a firm’s influence as a moral workplace, and actions need to facilitate ethical and economic performance (Andrews, 1989). Educators do not offer ethical interpretation guidance or teach applied ethics. The three qualities that are crucial in ethical decision-making include competence, tough-mindedness, and self-confidence.
(b)
One of Andrews’ concepts that can be incorporated in the audit of the ethical section is tough-mindedness. According to William James, tough-mindedness entails making decisions when the needs cannot be known, and questions have no incontrovertible or established solutions. As such, it means that ethical deci...