Group Assignment 1 – Porter 5 Forces.

Read the article ‘Competitive Advantage or Flexibility’ also called ‘The End of Competitive Advantage’.
Briefly describe the Theory of ‘sustainable competitive advantage’.
Briefly describe the environment in which this theory would be effective.
Why does Rita Gunther McGrath believe that ‘Companies are successful, McGrath wrote, because they are “exploiting temporary competitive advantages, not sustainable ones”’.
Briefly describe the environment in ‘exploiting temporary competitive advantages, not sustainable ones’ would be effective.
How does the shortening of the ‘strategy life cycle’ and the shortening of the ‘product life cycle’ contribute to the change described by Rita Gunther McGrath.
Identify a company that has been successful by ‘exploiting temporary competitive advantages’. Discuss the key factors contributing to this success. What strategy recommendations would you make for this company.
This is a group assignment. Every member of the group is expected to be able to discuss all areas of the report.
You should meet many times and discuss the issues identified in the report.
Each member of the group will be responsible for bringing two journal articles to the discussion. Each student will be identified in an appendix to the assignment along with the two journal articles this student brought to the discussion and a short paragraph about why these journal articles are relevant to the assignment. The ideas from these journal articles will be captured and discussed in the main body of the report.
All ideas in the report must be referenced using Harvard Referencing.
In the first half of the report you introduce ideas, then in the second half of the report you will discuss and evaluate these ideas to identify what is most relevant and significant.
This is a short report, so fill it with ideas and discussion.
Descriptive material has negligible value and should be avoided. We are seeking analysis, discussion and recommendation, enriched by ideas found in journal articles.
In business you will be expected to produce short well-argued reports. This is where you both develop and demonstrate that skill.
(1200 words, week 6, 20 marks)

GUIDLINCE FOR ASSIGNEMENT
Written document: A short report
Marks: 20
Report Due: Week 6
Words limit: 1200

• Students need to research and identify 2 to 3 industries and 2 to 3 companies who have been successful in creating a competitive advantage over their competition for longer period may be 5 to 10 years or more but finding difficult to maintain that.
• Also identify some companies who have been successful in following bit of flexibility in their approach
• You need to discuss both sides of the arguments whether there is such thing as sustainable competitive advantage or companies need to be flexible in their business strategies due to changing business environment.
• There will always be some companies who have been changing part of their business model and still keeping something which has been helping them.

• You can see the Article on line on “Competitive Advantage or flexibility” by Rita Gunther McGrath and also see how the shortening of the strategy life cycle and product life cycle are contributing towards this change.
• Following concepts can be useful to analyse this research:
- Porters 3 generic strategies
- “AAA” framework to show where these changes are being adopted to become more flexible and/or sustainable competitive advantage

• Every member needs to submit 2 articles each with their assignment (hard copy)
• Assessment criteria has been given in the subject outline.
• References Harvard style