Video Links
Video Links for Case 5: Wal-Mart
1. Wal-Mart’s Green Revolution: An NBC report on Wal-Mart's shift towards greener reporting, especially in the supply chain.
http://www.blinkx.com/video/wal-mart-green-revolution/LWInVG321aFnkpkLNe76_g
Supporting narrative: Short (2 mins.) news item on the Wal-Mart development to award ‘green ratings’ to all of its products. All of its 15,000 suppliers are to be questioned on varying environmental topics. It raises significant logistical and data concerns about the veracity of this process and its value in response to perceived customer demands.
Q) What are some of the expected difficulties /expected advantages of greater environmental awareness on Wal-Mart products?
Q) Try to identify some areas in the value chain for a typical Wal-Mart product where added value can be obtained (from this marketing perspective)
2. Bruce Peterson Shares Thoughts on Wal-Mart's Supplier Relationships
http://www.e-clips.cornell.edu/clip.do?id=6417&tab=TabClipPage
Supporting narrative: Bruce Petersen is Senior vice President for Perishables at Wal-Mart. He is responsible for purchasing and merchandising fruit, vegetables, dairy products, bread, and other fresh products. This is one of a series of video clips by Bruce Petersen that cover a range of Wal-Mart’s activities.
Q) List the observations about Wal-Mart’s capabilities, as presented by Bruce and compare this with your observations from (10) – what are the strategic concerns that emerge from both organisations?
3. Bruce Peterson Discusses Wal-Mart's International Expansion via Acquisition
http://www.e-clips.cornell.edu/clip.do?id=6415&tab=TabClipPage
Supporting narrative: 2 minute talk from Wal-Mart manager which focuses upon how Wal-Mart has expended in the domestic and international markets. Some of the difficulties of these approaches are discussed and by implication resource and capability requirements. One stressed outcome is organisational learning from international environments.
Q) How would you categorise the continued growth and success of Wal-Mart, in its mature industry? What structural and corporate features shape this success?
4. Sandeep Kumar Discusses Imbalance of Power in Dealing with Large Corporate Clients
http://www.e-clips.cornell.edu/clip.do?id=5837&tab=TabClipPage
Supporting narrative: A supplier’s perspective on the challenges of dealing with Wal-Mart and other big retailers.
Q) List the observations about Wal-Mart’s capabilities, as presented by Sandeep
Video Links for Chapter 05, Analyzing Resources and Capabilities
1. Bill Shore on the Role of Resources in Strategic Planning
http://www.e-clips.cornell.edu/search?querytext=resources&id=id&clipID=5077&tab=TabClipPage
Supporting narrative: Bill Shore is the founder and executive director of Share Our Strength, a national nonprofit that inspires and organizes individuals and businesses to share their strengths in innovative ways to help end hunger. This is a short clip (3 mins.) but important in that it strategically considers the role of resources in achieving and sustaining competitive success (both in terms of what is ‘owned’ by the organization and what is ‘needed’ by the organization). There is a clear linkage to be made to the strategic value of key resources (the tutor might make the contrast here between technical fitness and necessary evolutionary fitness of an organization).
Q) Why is it important to consider the resources that underpin current competitive advantage as well as future competitive advantage? What guiding strategic questions should help in identifying such resources?
2. Irene Rosenfield form Kraft on the Role of the Sales force in competitive Advantage
http://www.e-clips.cornell.edu/search?querytext=trade&id=id&clipID=10862&tab=TabClipPage
Supporting narrative: A clip (2.5 mins.) which specifically stresses the capability of the sale force and how this can be competitively deployed by an organization. Various benefits are identified and can be linked in usefully with key materials from Grant and into lectures/seminars. There is also a latter reference top Kraft’s integrated business strategies and its effective implementation through an appropriate organizational structure. This clip could therefore be used by a tutor in several locations within a program.
Q) What relational capabilities do you think would be required to exploit the sales force as a competitive asset? How would this change for an internationalizing organization?
3. Bill Lloyd Discusses Challenges of Building Kodak's Partnering Capability
http://www.e-clips.cornell.edu/themes.do?id=515&clipID=7272&tab=TabClipPage
Supporting narrative: This talk addresses Kodak’s effectiveness in managing parent relations, a specific capability weakness for Kodak. It does so in the context of strategic game theory (prisoners' dilemma). Aside from the clear capability discussion and its relevance to sustainable advantage, this clip also therefore stresses different perspectives of strategy formulation (specifically behavioral here). Note that there is a fault on the linkage to this clip. It can be downloaded and the file name changed to make it viewable.
Q) What are the concerns shaping the effective deployment of alliance management capabilities and orchestration for Kodak discussed here?
Q) Do you feel Kodak are appropriately equipped and experienced to effectively engage in such partnerships?4. John Alexander Discusses Growth of CBORD from Colleges to Healthcare to Hospitality
http://www.e-clips.cornell.edu/clip.do?id=1483
Supporting narrative : This is a very useful clip (4 mins.) in which the speaker makes specific reference to leveraging capabilities to new market segments and following a ‘head pin’ approach similar to that discussed by Grant. It also highlights the need to undertake significant market research when entering new markets (and not underestimating how different they might be from previous experience even when deploying a known capability).This clip makes a useful link between understanding the market environment in which you compete and understanding your own strategic strengths and weaknesses (it therefore links in directly with 2 of Grant’s key 4 questions of good strategy).
Q) What were the key resources and capabilities that were leveraged by CBord?
Q) To what extent do you feel these are broad or narrow?
Q) What is your view of the sustainability of the competitive advantage that these resources and capabilities produce?5. John Cannon (Nestle) discusses the Role of Marketing Capability in Launching New Products
http://www.e-clips.cornell.edu/clip.do?id=6455&tab=TabClipPage
Supporting narrative: John Cannon is the Business Development Director at Nestle USA. A clip (2 mins.) which whilst primarily marketing focused, highlights how decisions about their "4Ps" involves an interdependent set of capabilities. It could be a useful clip to provide to students to stress this interdependence if they are finding it difficult to grasp the key concepts.
Q) What range of resources and capabilities are required and discussed in the presentation to deliver the ‘corner bistro’ product to the marketplace effectively?
6. Steve Yu Discusses the use of Gap Analysis in Developing a New Business
http://www.e-clips.cornell.edu/clip.do?id=6698&tab=TabClipPage
Supporting narrative: Steve is the President and CEO of Epic Trip. This clip (3 mins.) talks about how an entrepreneur performed a gap analysis (by considering market opportunities and unsatisfied demand) to launch his new company, and the key resources and capabilities required to achieve this. It can be usefully linked directly to the website of this company to discuss the added value for the identified market segment, of this organization.