Critical evaluation organization's Resources and Capabilities of Coursework - 1

Critical evaluation organization's Resources and Capabilities of Starbucks in China. (internal environment) - Coursework Example In the case of Starbucks an effective Resources strategy should focus on the employment of unique resources so that a competitive advantage is acquired towards the firm’s major competitors. The potentials of Starbucks to develop such advantage is analyzed below by referring to the firm’s performance in regard to each of the elements of the Resource-based theory. 1.1 Tangible Resources The tangible resources of organizations are assets that have a physical existence; the buildings in which business operations are developed and the cash available to the business are assets of this kind (Sehgal 2010). In China, as in all countries worldwide, Starbucks is characterized by specific features as of the style/ decoration of its stores and the dinnerware sets/ cups used for serving the customers (Starbucks Coffee International 2013). However, these features are not unique since they can be identified, with differentiations, in other brands operating in the same sector. According to Wang (2012) the interior of Starbuck’s stores across China is unique not only in regard to decoration but also as of the chairs available to customers and the style of music chosen; in this context, it is noted that the stores of Starbucks in China offer to the business a unique competence towards the competitors (Wang 2012). 1.2 Intangible Resources The intangible resources of a business do not have a physical existence; intellectual property rights that the business have in regard to its products and the brands that the business owns are common examples of intangible resources (Sehgal 2010). For achieving a high competitiveness through its intangible resources, a firm needs to periodically update those resources, according to the market trends. The example of Toyota that developed Lexus as a separate brand so that it is able to increase its competitiveness in the luxury cars sector is important for understanding such practice (Sehgal 2010, p.44). In the above case, Toyo ta would not be able to enter this sector without the employment of a unique resource, such as the new brand (Sehgal 2010, p.44). 1.3 Human Resources Human resources can also lead to competitive advantage if they are unique (Rao and Sivaramakrishna 2009). The uniqueness of these resources would be related to a variety of issues, such as the quality of training, the hiring/ selection process or the performance appraisal (Rao and Sivaramakrishna 2009). In Starbucks employees are given the training that it is commonly available to the sector’s employees; also, no unique feature seems to exist in regard to the firm’s selection/ hiring process or the skills/ competencies of employees (Starbucks Coffee International 2013) 2.0 Starbucks’s Capabilities strategy in term of Value chain At the next level, the Capabilities strategy of Starbucks should be also reviewed. Porter’s Value Chain model could be used for evaluating the specific strategy of Starbucks. Accordi ng to Porter (2008) the activities of each organization contribute, more or less, to the development of products/ services that ‘are valuable to their buyers’ (Porter 2008, p.38). These activities can be categorized into ‘

Analysis of the operations management activities of zara Essay

Analysis of the operations management activities of zara - Essay Example The organisation that has managed to pull this off is Zara, the Spanish fashion retail chain. Not only has Zara continued to record rising profits in a stagnant market, but is increasing the pace of store openings to almost one per day in the current year. Currently there are 758 Zara stores throughout the world in 58 countries, but by 2009, there are planned to be 4000. (Kane 2005). The company is not just a European phenomenon, but a global force and in many ways could be considered a leader in the retailing revolution that is sweeping the fashion world. Zara is a company within the Inditex holding group also founded by the creator of Zara. Before looking in depth at the successful business model that Zara operates and how it was developed it is worth looking at the overall fashion scene in order to gauge the field and to further show how different Zara is and how it became and remains so successful. Without doubt, there is a fashion revolution underway in the High Street. This revolution underscores a fashion retailing war that can only be described as cut throat and it reflects a huge change in the underlying cause of fashion expectations amongst the shoppers - the huge reduction in cost of high fashion items which has been pioneered by such fashion retailers as H&M of Sweden, Top Shop of the UK and especially Zara of pain. The war has had many casualties which have been mortally wounded amongst them C&A and M&S which catered for the wrong people at the wrong time and ended up with millions in unwanted unsaleable stock. Other companies struggled through the bad patches and are fighting back to remain in the high street realising belatedly that shoppers all over Europe and indeed the rest of the world want to dress like the rich and wealthy and the stars of stage and screen. Fashion retailers are rushing to satisfy this demand and shops like Top Shop, gap, Zara and others are b attling it out to get ahead and stay on top in this cutthroat and swiftly changing business. The market in Britain alone is worth 27 billion pounds and decisions made by company and group managements right down to store managers together with their chosen business models make the companies sink or swim. A BBC report on the subject (BBC News 2003), noted that shoppers had become obsessed with the way that celebrities dressed because those clothes have become so much more accessible in both price and availability. Stores are becoming that much better at including items that celebrities wear and reproducing them very quickly. The same report quotes Top shop director Jane Shepherdson as saying that customers want to be able to buy into the trends that they've seen from the catwalk as soon as possible. Top shop wasn't always able to accommodate this because of its inflexible business plan that operated separate summer and winter collections which often had lead times built into the system of up to 18 months. By observing another rival on the high street scene, Gap, it can be seen that by relying on previous problems were due to a mistaken strategy of targeting the teenage market with its Old Navy stores. The Swedish firm H&M was one of the leaders in changing that by appointing young designers to make high fashion as swiftly and as cheaply as possible, but initially the quality