Question: How to Keep the Salsa Hot
Break up into groups of three to five people and discuss the following scenario. Appoint one group member as a spokesperson who will communicate your findings to the class. You are the managers of a company that has pioneered a new kind of salsa for chicken that has taken the market by storm. The salsa's differentiated appeal has been based on a unique combination of spices and packaging that has allowed you to charge a premium price. Over the past three years, your salsa has achieved a national reputation, and now major food companies such as Kraft and Nabisco, seeing the potential of this market segment, are beginning to introduce new salsas of their own, imitating your product.
1. Describe your business model and the strategies you are pursuing.
2. Describe the industry's environment in which you are competing.
3. What kinds of competitive strategies could you adopt to strengthen your business model in this kind of environment?
Article File 6
Choose a company or group of companies in a particular industry environment and explain how it has adopted a competitive strategy to protect or enhance its business-level strategy
Strategic Management Project: Module 6
This part of the project considers how conditions in the industry environment affect the success of your company's business model and strategies. With the information you have at your disposal, perform the tasks and answer the questions listed:
1. In what kind of industry environment (for example, embryonic, mature) does your company operate? Use the information from Strategic Management Project: Module 2 to answer this question.
2. Discuss how your company has attempted to develop strategies to protect and strengthen its business model. For example, if your company is operating in an embryonic industry, how has it attempted to increase its competitive advantage over time? If it operates in a mature industry, discuss how it has tried to manage industry competition.
3. What new strategies would you advise your company to pursue to increase its competitive advantage? For example, how should it attempt to differentiate its products in the future or lower its cost structure?
4. On the basis of this analysis, do you think your company will be able to maintain its competitive advantage in the future? Why or why not?