BUSA 4126 Week 1: Business Case Study

BUSA 4126 has given me the chance to study the different business policies and strategies a company has to consider when operating. Numerous topics in this course have given me a better insight on companies that interest me such as Nike, UPS, Nestle, and the NFL to name a few. A few of the topics that interested me most were the subjects of creating and linking the companies vision and mission with its core values, key success factors, competitive advantage, key resources and capabilities, and the four test of a resources competitive power.

Before a company can even began running it must first create a vision, mission statement, and its core values. The vision is created by the company’s top management’s views and plan for the company. The

To do so companies have to have access to certain tools, those tools that are called resources and capabilities. Resources are stock or supply of money, materials, staff, and other assets that can be drawn on by a person or organization in order to function effectively. For example, some tangible resources include land, equipment, and technology. Intangible resources include, but are not limited to human capital, intellectual property, and brand image. Capabilities are the abilities of a firm to perform by using a collection of people, processes, and technology gathered for a specific purpose. For example, Nike has the capabilities to technologically innovate their products. Having both resources and capabilities provides a company with a competitive asset or sustainable competitive

A manager should assess the competitive power of a company’s resources and capabilities by applying the VRIN tests for sustainable competitive advantage. VRIN stands for Valuable, Rare, Inimitable, and Nonsubstitutable. If a resource or capability passes the first two tests, this concludes that the resources or capabilities can support a competitive advantage. The last two tests define whether the advantage can be sustained. A resource or capability is seen as valued if it relates closely to the company’s strategy. When this is the case these assets are perceived as rare when they are not widely available. Resources and capabilities are perceived as inimitable if they are hard to copy and being non-substitutable if there are no threats of substitutes