~STRENGTHENING A COMPANY’S COMPETITIVE POSITION: STRATEGIC MOVES, TIMING, AND SCOPE OF OPERATIONS~

NUR FILZAH BINTI SULAIMAN

TMA 2

1110820

The strategic offensive principles are:

• Focus on relentlessly building competitive advantage and then converting it into sustainable advantage. 
• Apply resources where rivals are least able to defend themselves.
• Employ the element of surprise as opposed to doing what rivals expect and are prepared for.
• Display a strong bias for swift, decisive and overwhelming actions to overpower rivals.

We can see that the best offensive use a company's most powerful resources and capabilities to attack rivals the areas where they are weakest. We also can chose which rivals to attack through the best target for offensive attack such as:

1. Market leaders that are in vulnerable competitive positions.
2. Runner-up firms with weaknesses in area where the challenger is strong.
3. Struggling enterprises on the verge of going under.
4. Small local and regional firms with limited capabilities.

Blue-Ocean strategy- A special kind of offensive

The business universe is divided into two which is, an existing market with boundaries and rules in which rival firms compete for advantage. 
A ''blue ocean'' market space, where the industry has not yet taken shape, with no rivals and wide-open long-term growth and profit potential for a firm that can create demand for new types of products.
The examples of blue ocean are 1 malaysia for youth (im4u), ebay, and FedEx.

A blue-ocean strategy offers growth in revenues and profits by discovering or inventing industry segments that create altogether new demand.
Good defensive strategies can help protect a competitive advantage but rarely are the basis for creating one.

Purpose of Defensive Strategies

1. Lower the firm's risk of being attacked.
2. Weaken the impact of an attack that does occur.
3. Influence challengers to aim their efforts at other rivals.

The core concept is about because of the first-mover advantages and disadvantages, competitive advantage can spring from when a move is made as well as from what move is made.
Horizontal scope is the range of product and service segments that a firm serves within its focal market.
Vertical scope is the extent to which a firm's internal activities encompass one, some, many or all of the activities that make up an industry's entire value chain system, ranging from raw-material production to final sales and service activities.

Horizontal Merger And Acquisition Strategies
- Merger: Is the combining of two or more firms into a single corporate entity that often takes on a new name.
- Acquisition: Is a combination in which one firm, the acquirer, purchases and absorbs the operations of another firm, the acquired.

SPAC is the acronym for special purpose acquisition company. SPAC is a company that is initially listed with no operations but formed exclusively to make acquisitions using cash raised based primarily on the prior track record of the individuals forming the management team who promote the venue.

Vertical Integration Strategies

• Vertical integrated firm - is one that participates in multiple segments or stages of an industry's overall value chain.
• Vertical integrated strategy - can expand the firm's range of activities backward into its sources of supply or forward toward end users of its products.

Types of Vertical Integration Strategies

1. Full Integration: a firm participates in all stages of the vertical activity chain.
2. Partial Integration: a firm builds positions only in selected stages of the vertical chain.
3. Tapered Integration: Involves mix of in-house and outsourced activity in any stage of the vertical chain.

Benefits of a vertical integration strategy are add materially to a firm's technological capabilities, strengthen the firm's competitive position, and boost the firm's profitability.

The core concepts of 

• Backward integration involves entry into activities previously performed by suppliers or other enterprises positioned along earlier stages of the industry value chain system.
• Forward integration involves entry into value chain activities closer to the end user.
• Outsourcing involves farming out value chain activities to outside vendors.
• Strategic alliance is a formal agreement between two or more separate companies in which they agree to work cooperatively toward some common objective.
• Joint venture is a partnership involving the establishment of an independent corporate entity that the partners own and control jointly, sharing in its revenues and expenses.