Essay Sample on Maximise Resources for Competitive Edge: Porter's Five Forces Model

Introduction

The strategy is about placing resources in a position where they will have the best possible effect or achieve the best possible result. The resources can be the 4M(s), i.e., manpower, machinery, money, and material. Though some sources state 'methods' as the third resource in the place of 'money' (Cho, M. & Cho, J., 2016). The aim of writing this paper is to describe two elements of Michael Porter's Five Force Competitive Model and what significance they play in an example of industry. Environmental trends that have the most significance will also be discussed using an example of a company within the industry to be outlined. I will use sources to justify my choices (2) from the list of 8 trends provided.

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It would be prudent to say that strategic management is all about ensuring that a company manages the resources that they have so as to gain a competitive advantage. The Service Industry is a very important section of many economies across the world, regardless of whether a country is developing or developed. On a global scale, the service industry contributes to around 3-fifths of the global GDP (gross domestic product) and employs more than a third of the labor force worldwide. The two elements chosen for exploration from Porter's Model include; Threat of substitutes and industry rivalry.

The threat of substitutes affects the quality of products, in this case, of services that an organization offers, e.g., if there are many substitutes to a catering service, then the company will most likely offer high-quality service so as to retain current and attract potential customers. As for Industry rivalry, if an industry or niche within it, has a large number of competing organizations, it becomes unattractive and more expensive to compete within, i.e., a firm has to spend on research to constantly develop products that outrank those of rivals and help the company achieve market leadership status.

The examples of a company to be used will be from the transportation sector (air and land). Some of the environmental trends chosen include;

Sustainability (avoiding the exhaustion or depletion of resources in the natural environment so as to achieve an ecological balance):

This has proven to be a good path towards gaining a competitive advantage. For example, Harbour Air, a Canadian airline, made its first commercial flight of a six-passenger all-electric plane (Kotwicz & Garrow, 2019). Major airlines, such as EasyJet, are planning to shift to electric aircraft in the next decade (Monaghan, 2017). The aim is to reduce and eventually eliminate reliance and depletion of petroleum reserves that are used to manufacture jet fuel.

Renewable energy sources:

A time will come when the non-renewable energy sources, especially petroleum and natural gas, are depleted. If an organization relies on them, it will most likely decline/die out. Unless, of course, it embraces the use of renewable energy sources (hydroelectricity, wind, solar, etc.). The other aim is to also reduce the level of pollution, and 'carbon-footprint' caused by use of fossil fuels as the renewable sources are also pollutant-free.

Transport oriented Companies in countries across the world have embraced the manufacture and use of solar-powered vehicles. Although not that much developed, they are gradually becoming popular. Light Year, a Dutch start-up company, has developed a solar-powered car, Light Year One that went on to win the Climate Change Innovator Award. It has a range of 400-800 km! How amazing is that?? And it recharges by solar power. (Vu, Pham & Shin, 2019).

References

Vu, N. H., Pham, T. T., & Shin, S. (2019). Flat concentrator photovoltaic system for automotive applications. Solar Energy, 190, 246-254.

Cho, M. H., & Cho, J. H. (2016). A Study on the Role of Input Stabilization for Successful Settle down of TRM in Production Process: A Case of Display Industry. Journal of the Society of Korea Industrial and Systems Engineering, 39(1), 140-152.

Monaghan, A. (2017). Easy Jet says it could be flying electric planes within a decade-the Guardian, 27.

Kotwicz Herniczek, M., Garbo, A., Lau, M., German, B., & Garrow, L. A. (2019). Exploration of Near-Term Urban Air Mobility Operations with Retrofitted Electric General Aviation Aircraft. In AIAA Aviation 2019 Forum (p. 2872).