Business Strategy

For Week #1, our textbook readings focused on the importance of business strategy (Chapter #1) and building out a company’s long term mission, objectives and strategy (Chapter #2). And for Week #2, you learned about the 5 generic competitive strategies a firm can employ (Chapter #5) as well as a review of SWOT (readings and resources folder).

You have now completed two practice rounds of the BSG simulation. Although much of the goal of the practice rounds are to learn how to use the BSG simulation system and understand how the various screens and reports operate, another key goal is to try to build and execute on a business strategy.

Defining a strategy is critical in guiding effective decision-making.

For this week’s discussion board posting, consider the following:

• A winning business strategy must fit the firm’s external and internal situation, help build sustainable competitive advantage, and improve company performance.
• Yet, how well a firm performs, and the degree of market success it achieves are directly attributable to the caliber of it’s strategy and the proficiency with which that strategy is executed.
• Excellent execution of an excellent strategy is the best test of managerial excellence.

Use your assigned Porter company (UNDER ARMOUR) to address this question, in detail:

1. Using the five generic strategies as the framework, which generic strategy best fits your company? (UNDER ARMOUR)
2. Why? What characteristics of your company (UNDER ARMOUR) support/align with that strategy?

   Use facts/figures to support your assessment, and of course, document in detail.

Potential sources include (besides the etext) company annual report, Mergent industry and company research, and current news clips from sources like WSJ and Barrons.