Week 6 - Strengthening a Company's Competitive Position

Assalamualaikum

Alhamdulillah, for the opportunity given to continue writing in my blog. We already enter into 6^th week lecture for this semester. This week, our beloved lecturer, Miss Ummi gave lecture about chapter 6 which is Strengthening a Company’s Competitive Position.

At the end of lecture, i learnt about whether and when to pursue offensive and defensive strategic moves to improve a company’s market position. In order to attack the rivals weaknesses, we must first know the weakness of our rivals company before make a strategy. It’s the best offensive strategy that we can use and apply in our company.  Apart from that, I also learnt about blue-ocean strategy. Blue-ocean strategy offers growth in revenues and profits by discovering or inventing new industry segments that create altogether new demand. For example, Starbucks Coffee is the first company that provide elegant coffee cafe concept.  

On Wednesday morning we had tutorial class with madam Huda. I felt very sad and guilty as madam Huda was felling upset and angry with us because didn’t read the case study “ The Digital Age : Shall I tag along?” before enter the class and make a preparation. Im sorry Madam, we promise we do not repeat the same mistake again. =)

After that, we discussed about blue Ocean strategy and so on. She gave a good explanation and example about it.   Then madam also asked us about the case.

All in all,  I have learnt about many new strategy, which is important for my future preparation. Whatever happen today, we realize that, we should make it as a lesson so that we do not repeat the same mistake.  As a student we should make a preparation before come to the class, and do the work given as that are our responsible. 

That’s all from me. Thank you for reading this entry. =)

Week 5 - Generic Strategies

Assalamualaikum,

Alhamdulillah Ya Allah for the nikmat iman and islam given. I hope everyone always in good health, InsyaAllah. For this week, Miss Ummi asked us to post and describe in our blog regarding generic strategies of some companies. the question was post in GOALS by miss Ummi.

Thats all for the entry this week, till meet again, thank you =)

Week 4 - Evaluating a company's resources, capabilities, and competitiveness

Assalamualaikum, 

  Alhamdulillah, i have a chance to continue writing in this blog, as usual, i will share with all of you abaout what i have learnt in 4^th lecture for this subject. This week, Miss Ummi explained about Evaluating a company’s resources, capabilities, and competitiveness. I got many information and knowledge from her lecture this week.

     For this topic,  miss Ummi explained about the techniques for evaluating a company’s internal situation, including its collection of resources and capabilities and the activities its perform along its value  chain. Internal analysis enables managers to determine whether their strategy has appealing prospect for giving the company a significant competitive edge over rival firms.  From my understanding by miss ummi explanation, the company should examine their competitive approach and also their rivals. Apart from that, they can build their own strategy to compete with their rivals and can improve market position.

Moreover, in this chapter, I also learnt about how to access the company’s strengths and weaknesses in light of market opportunities and internal factor. I had learnt about SWOT analysis before, but not SWOT analysis. So, today I have learnt something new. Besides, we also can use SWOT analysis for ourselves so that we can know our strength, weakness, opportunity and also threats in our life.  Apart from that, miss Ummi also explained about how company’s value chain activities can affect the company’s cost structure and customer proposition.

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In tutorial class, we have asked by Madam Huda to make a presentation about our own restaurant. So, our group decided to open a seafood restaurant. Our restaurant is located at Avenue, Giant, Nilai. From the presentation, we learn about how to manage our own restaurant and also as a manager we should develop a good strategic, and know our rivals. Besides that, we also should know how to manage resources and capabilities to make sure that we can compete with our rivals. We gain new knowledges, opinion and advise from madam Huda. I very impressed by madam Huda’s experiences and knowledge. InsyaAllah I will grab this opportunities to dig knowledge as much as i can.


That’s all for entry this week. thank you =)

Week 3- Evaluating a company's external environment

Assalamualaikum,

Alhamdulillah and praise to Allah, first of All i want to apologize to miss ummi, because of my deferred blog post due to some technical problem that caused error sign-in into my blogspot account. But i will cover it and promise to attach all my post regarding this subject, insyaAllah. Sorry again to miss ummi.  

On week 3, I have learnt about Evaluating a company external environment. Miss ummi had explain more regarding macro environment which is PESTEL analysis. Politic, Economic, sociocultural, technological, environmental, Legal and regulating factors. Studying PESTEL analysis is important in order to know whether the industry is condusive or not to enter.  Besides that, we also discuss about Porter’s five competitive forces.

In tutorial class with Madam Huda, we should find an article or news about business. So, I got an article from website regarding the new car launching by BMW Group Malaysia, namely all-new BMW 1 series. Madam Huda choose one representative for each group to present their article, and from my group, Madam Huda chose Ain Juraimi to share about her article. She explained and shared about Suprima S. madam huda also added some new information about business.

After that, we discuss the case study given by Miss Ummi in GOALS. We were read that case study before we enter into tutorial class. The case study for this week is ROBIN HOOD.  Madam Huda asked us to form into group and make some discussion about that case. Then, Madam Huda shared to us an easy way to answer and solve a case, by look into an important point.  After that, we need to finish it in group and must submit it to madam Huda by the following week.

Thats how our Strategic Management class running this week. I enjoyed both class and cant wait for the next class.. thank you and thats all , =)

Week 2 - The nature of strategic management, & The business vision and mission

 Assalamualaikum,

In the 2^nd week, we had cover two chapter of strategic management. A little bit rushing and actually I’m almost sleep in the class, he.. sorry Miss Ummi.  But the class had fun with the energizing and powering lecturer..

Shortly, for the first chapter we had learn about the nature of strategic management. Below are the conclusions and short notes that i can make in order to get better understanding for this subject.  

first thing first,

Strategic management is defined as the art and science of formulating, implementing, and evaluating cross-functional decisions that enable an organization to achieve its objectives

 

 Strategic management is used synonymously with the term strategic planning. 

 

That is stages of strategic management, firstly, formulation includes developing a vision and mission, identifying an organization's external opportunities and threats, determining internal strengths and weaknesses and ect. meanwhile, implementation requires a firm to establish annual objectives, devise policies, allocate resources and so on. and finally, strategy evoluation reviewing external and internal factors that are the bases for curretn strategies, measuring performance , and taking corrective actions.

competitive advantage will make one company looks different from the thier rivals. 

so basically, for the 1st chapter, it mention about strategic management in nature, its process, key terms, and benefits.

next we move to the 2nd chapter, The business vision and mission.  

In tutorial class, i met Mdm NorulHuda. she just a wonderful lecturer with experiences and knowledgeable in many field. i really admire her experiences with many companies, and her way she talking confidently. For the first class, she requested us to write about our vision and mission and submit to her. In the online forum, I mentioned that I want to become a successful entrepreneur and setup my own business with my own product. InsyaAllah.

Thats all on my 2nd strategic management class.. =)