Markelys Rojas

Activity 4

1. External Opportunities helps a company detect future benefits. They comes in many
forms such as in the economic, social, cultural, demographic, environmental and so on1.
When companies are aware of these situations, they are also aware of the many different
costumers and they are more responsive to their needs. This can help create a competitive
advantage.
2. Internal Weakness- all businesses must be aware of their internal weaknesses and how
to target the situation. If a company is able to target their weakness, they would be able to
generate strategies to create and internal strength and therefore they will become more
profitable than others companies.
3. Long-term Objectives are important because they state direction; aid in evaluation and
reveal priorities2. If a company has well long- term objectives they would help the
company to plan, lead, organize, motivate and control all aspects of the company, making
it a organize structure in comparison to other companies
4. Annual objectives- in order to establish long-term objectives, it is necessary to make
annual objectives. This is important to create a competitive advantage because it is part of
strategy implementation to allocate resources properly. Allocating resources properly is
equivalent to better revenue. This can create a competitive advantage.

David, F. (2013). The Nature of Strategic Management. In Strategic management concepts: A competitive
advantage approach (14th ed., p. 10). Boston: Pearson.
2

David, F. (2013). The Nature of Strategic Management. In Strategic management concepts: A competitive
advantage approach (14th ed., p. 11). Boston: Pearson.

5. Vision Statement answer the question what do we want to become. This is very
important because it is basically the first step for planning their future ahead as a whole
company. This is significant for a competitive advantage since it states direction.
6. Mission Statement states what is the scope of the company and what is that they
provide. This is important because it distinguish one business from another3. First it makes
clear who they are and by doing so, it establishes the company values and priorities. This
helps create a competitive advantage because they have mission to focus on.
7. Policies- Policies are the guides by which a company can accomplish the annual
objectives they set. Good policies are central to create a competitive advantage. Policies
can be state in the form of marketing. A great example is CVS Tobacco free policy. The
company wont be selling cigarettes to honor their name of helping customers with a
healthier way. The company will lose $2 billion annually4. Nevertheless, it is good
marketing strategy because unlike other pharmacies, CVS is putting people health first.
8. Strategies are important because as polices are important for the implementation of
annual objectives, strategies serve for the long term. According to our book, business
strategies may include geographic expansion, diversification, acquisition, product
development, market penetration, retrenchment, divestiture, liquidation, and joint
venture5. An example of this is aging tech companies like EMC has not been performing
as it expected on the market. However, to change such outcome the company is talking of

David, F. (2013). The Nature of Strategic Management. In Strategic management concepts: A competitive
advantage approach (14th ed., p. 10). Boston: Pearson.
4
Landau, E., Hicken, C., Smith, A., Christensen, J., & Falco, M. (2014, February 5). CVS stores to stop
selling tobacco. Retrieved September 25, 2014, from http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/05/health/cvs-cigarettes/
5

David, F. (2013). The Nature of Strategic Management. In Strategic management concepts: A competitive
advantage approach (14th ed., p. 11). Boston: Pearson.

merging with another tech company like Cisco6. This is a joint venture that can help the
company survive in the market and create a competitive advantage.
9. Strategy Evaluation- Strategy evaluations is an important step because this is when
managers can figure out if a particular strategy is a strength or a weakness. Failing to
evaluate a strategy properly can cause very serious problems to the company. When I
think of this I think of the Malaysia airline. After two-air disasters in the same year, the
company is now facing a crisis. According to the article in yahoo.com, Malaysia Airlines
said the worst financial impact from the disasters would come in the second half of this
year7. The company now is being forced to evaluate their strategies and to take action.
This important to create a competitive advantage because as we can see, if not done
correctly problems can rise ahead.
10. Strategy Implementation- This is the step where company must take action in order to
correct any issue. After evaluating their strategies, the Malaysia airline is taking some
action to strength their probability to stay in the market. This is when sacrifices must me
made and one is able to see this when the company will cut 30% of their employees of
20008. The company will also cut route from Europe and china. This is the sacrifice that
the company must do to implement new strategies and be able to one day create a
competitive advantage.
6

DE LA MERCED, M. (2014, September 22). Aging Tech Giants Like EMC Look to Deals to Help Bolster
Revenue. Retrieved September 25, 2014, from http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/09/22/emcs-strategicexplorations-surprise-analysts/?ref=business
7

CHAN, E. (2014, August 29). Malaysia Airlines to cut 6,000 staff in overhaul. Retrieved September 25,
2014, from http://news.yahoo.com/malaysia-airlines-cut-6-000-071637501.html
8

CHAN, E. (2014, August 29). Malaysia Airlines to cut 6,000 staff in overhaul. Retrieved September 25,
2014, from http://news.yahoo.com/malaysia-airlines-cut-6-000-071637501.html