Strategic capability can be defined as the resources and competences of an

organisation needed for it to survive and prosper.

In terms of resources, an organisation’s resources can be considered under the
following four broad categories:
 Physical resources – such as the machines, buildings or the production
capacity of the organisation. The nature of these resources, such as the
age, condition, capacity and location of each resource, will determine the
usefulness of such resources.
 Financial resources – such as capital, cash, debtors and creditors, and
suppliers of money (shareholders, bankers, etc.).
 Human resources – including the mix (for example, demographic profile),
skills and knowledge of employees and other people in an organisation’s
networks.
 Intellectual capital – as an intangible resource – includes patents, brands,
business systems and customer databases. An indication of the value of
these is that when businesses are sold, part of the value is ‘goodwill’. In a
knowledge-based economy intellectual capital is likely to be a major asset
of many organisations.
- The term competences is used to mean the skills and abilities by which
resources are deployed effectively through an organisation’s activities and
processes.
A distinction needs to be made between capabilities (resources or competences)
that are at a threshold level and those that might help the organisation achieve
competitive advantage and superior performance.
- Threshold capabilities are those needed for an organisation to meet the
necessary requirements to compete in a given market. These could be
 threshold resources required to meet minimum customer requirements: for
example, the increasing demands by modern multiple retailers of their
suppliers mean that those suppliers have to possess a quite sophisticated IT
infrastructure simply to stand a chance of meeting retailer requirements. Or
they could be the threshold competences required to deploy resources so as
to meet customers’ requirements and support particular strategies. Retailers
do not simply expect suppliers to have the required IT infrastructure, but to
be able to use it effectively so as to guarantee the required level of service.
Unique resources are those resources that critically underpin competitive
advantage and that others cannot easily imitate or obtain - a long-established
brand, for example. Moreover, Unique resources must be rare and valuable
within the industry. Unique resources means that there is no freely available
substitute resources and it can be better than competitors.
Core competences are the skills and abilities by which resources are deployed
through an organisation’s activities and processes such as to achieve
competitive advantage in ways that others cannot imitate or obtain. For
example, a supplier that achieves competitive advantage in a retail market might
have done so on the basis of a unique resource such as a powerful brand, or by
finding ways of providing service or building relationships with that retailer in
ways that its competitors find difficult to imitate – a core competence. Core
competences vary with strategies and time and can be exploited in several ways.
Critical success factors are those product features that are particularly valued by
a group of customers and therefore where the organization must excel to
outperform competition. Besides, these factors could include Excellence of
service, delivery, product delivery, Product range and Innovation.
SWOT analysis
SWOT summarises the key issues from the business environment and the
strategic capability of an organisation that are most likely to impact on strategy
development. This can also be useful as a basis against which to generate
strategic options and assess future courses of action. The aim is to identify the
extent to which strengths and weaknesses are relevant to, or capable of dealing
with, the changes taking place in the business environment.
SWOT analysis of Samsung
Strengths
Strengths Prestigious Brand Image Value
Maintaining a long-standing leading position in the
market.
Constantly innovate
Take the lead in the market of TVs, LCD displays
Large product portfolio
Leading Brand in the Asia Market
Good distribution network
 Weaknesses Overly dependent on the US and Indian markets
In a weak position in the Chinese market
Revenues and profits tend to decline.
Opportunities The power of 5G technology
Increasing demand for digital services
Diversifying product portfolios
Improve the quality of human resources management
Advantage in having a large number of existing customers
Threats Increasing level of competition
Faced with problems related to design patents with
business rivals
Legal threats such as data security, user privacy,
environmental laws, employee protection, etc.
Volatility of the economy

Stakeholder Theory of Entreprenuership

What is the stakeholder? - Stakeholders are those individuals or groups who
depend on an organisation to fulfil their own goals and on whom, in turn, the
organisation depends.
External stakeholders can be usefully divided into three types in terms of the
nature of their relationship with the organisation and, therefore, how they might
affect the success or failure of a strategy:
- Economic stakeholders, including suppliers, competitors, distributors (whose
influence can be identified using the five-forces framework) and
shareholders (whose influence can be considered in terms of the governance
chain ).
- Socio/political stakeholders, such as policy makers, regulators and
government agencies who will influence the ‘social legitimacy’ of the
strategy.
- Technological stakeholders, such as key adopters, standards agencies and
owners of competitive technologies who will influence the diffusion of new
technologies and the adoption of industry standards.
Power is the ability of individuals or groups to persuade, induce or coerce others
into following certain courses of action. This is the mechanism by which one set
of expectations will influence strategic development or seek compromise with
others. There are many different sources of power.
Source of Power:
- Internal stakeholders: formal hierarchical position, salary, control of strategic
resources,
informal influence, possession of knowledge, information
- External stakeholders: Control of strategic resources, bargaining power,
informal influence, possession of knowledge, involvement in strategic
implementation, decision making (voting power); Political power through
 legist ration, regulations, lawsuits (government); economic power
(customers)
Indicators of power include: the status of the individual or group (such as job
grade or reputation); the claim on resources (such as budget size);
representation in powerful positions; and symbols of power (such as office size
or use of titles and names). It should be remembered, however, that the
distribution of power will vary in relation to the strategy under consideration.
Stakeholder Mapping:
The approach to stakeholder mapping identifies stakeholder expectations and
power and helps in understanding political priorities. It underlines the
importance of two issues:
 Level of interest: How interested each stakeholder group is in impressing its
expectations on the organisation’s purposes and choice of strategies.
 Level of power: Whether stakeholders have the power to do so and the
degree of influence a stakeholder has.
The power/interest matrix describes the context within which a strategy might
be pursued by classifying stakeholders in relation to the power they hold and the
extent to which they are likely to show interest in supporting or opposing a
particular strategy.

Stakeholder roles:
• Owners have a financial stake in the corporation and expect a return
on their investment.
• Employees have their jobs and usually their livelihood at stake.
• Suppliers provide raw materials to the corporation, thus the
corporation is vital to the supplier's success.
Customers exchange resources for the products or services of the firm
and in return receive the benefits of the products or services.
• Local community grants the corporation the right to build facilities in
their area; in turn, the community benefits from the tax base and
economic contributions of the corporation.
• Managers must look after the health of the corporation and carefully
balance the conflicting claims of all stakeholders.
Case Study: Nike

SESSION 3: Entreprenuerial Marketing

Traditional marketing is a hallmark of big business — corporations with time,

money, and people power to spare. Traditional marketing avenues include high-
value, high-budget tactics like tv, radio, print, and large-scale paid advertising
through social media and the web.

Entrepreneurial marketing focuses more on lean cost, using tactics that typically
require the lowest budget for the highest impact. Emotional appeal ( positive
affect) has higher impact on entreprenuerial performance. This can include:
  Relationship building through client/customer conversations,
partnerships, and deals with vendors and investors.
 Thought leadership strategies such as producing articles and blogs that
showcase your expertise, attending conferences and trade shows, and
hosting your own events.
 Search engine optimization
 Marketing automation tools like triggered email sends, lead generation
capture forms, and social scheduling tools give you back necessary time
in an already packed schedule.
 Monitoring your competition through social media, events, and surveying
your own customers.

STP is a three-step process that guides businesses in identifying and reaching

their ideal customers. Each step plays a crucial role in developing a marketing
strategy that resonates with the right audience and differentiates a brand from
competitors.
1. Define a customer and a market: Segmentation involves dividing the
broader market into smaller, more manageable segments based on shared
characteristics, needs, and behaviors. The goal of segmentation is to
identify distinct groups of potential customers with similar interests and
preferences.
2. Identify your customers through segmentation: Targeting involves
selecting one or more segments that align with a business's strategic goals
and have the greatest potential for profitability. It's about prioritizing
which customer groups to invest marketing resources in.
3. Find your target customer
4. Positioning is the process of creating a distinct image or perception of a
brand or product in the minds of the target audience. It involves crafting a
unique value proposition and communicating it effectively to customers.
5. Differentiation through physical and emotional differences. A way to
differentiate your organization is to build your brand identity, which
means establishing a recognizable and reputable image and personality
for your organization that reflects your values, mission, and vision. You
can use elements such as your name, logo, slogan, color, tone, and style
to create your brand identity. You can also communicate your brand story,
purpose, and promise to connect with your customers on an emotional
level.
6. Promotion
Are Social entrepreneurs actually driving positive social change or harms?
In a global business world replete with economically oriented announcements,
social entrepreneurs bring another perspective to social trends, highlighting key
factors that promote social welfare or launching initiatives that improve living
conditions in specific areas, Social entreprenuers can drive positive social
change for some reasons:
- They create economic value: By creating jobs, producing income, and
nurturing an entire network of business partners—suppliers, shipping
companies, lenders, and utility companies—social entrepreneurs contribute
to the economic renewal of the region or country where they live and
operate. Add to that the multiplier effect, in which employees of socially
oriented organizations also have the opportunity to spend their income and
grow the local economy
- They generate social value: “Social value” is the general improvement you
see in a society, typically across the board. In addition to impact on people,
other advantageous influences include sustainable environmental practices,
high literacy for the underprivileged, a free flow of information among
citizens, reduced health hazards, and increased innovation from educated and
healthy citizens.
- They create unique opportunities: Social entrepreneurs, by their very
actions and initiatives, can provide unique opportunities for millions of
individuals around the world.
- They reshape corporate social responsibility: Corporate social
responsibility (CSR) has gained momentum in the business world recently,
but some social entrepreneurs want to make sure companies don’t use CSR
simply as a public relations ploy.
Social entrepreneurship is a dynamic and impactful force that bridges the gap
between business innovation and societal well-being. It showcases the immense
potential of individuals and organizations to create positive change while
achieving sustainable growth. By embracing the principles of innovation,
sustainability, and social impact, social entrepreneurs are shaping a brighter and
more inclusive future for us all. However, Social enterprises are seen as
innovative towards solving societal problems, but little research exists on
possible negative aspects, the so-called dark sides. Dark sides of social
entrepreneurship can take many forms, like unethical or insincere motives and
unintended outcomes like the negative impact on the well-being of founders and
employees, but they are also a call for a critical reflection on the role of the
government in society and the economic system social enterprises have to
operate in. The dark sides of social enterprises manifest itself mostly in the form
of trade-offs and financial, business, and management related issues. Taking
over the habits of profit-oriented companies emerged as a new dark side
element.
What are the dark side of Effective advertising?
The ethical and social implications of advertising activities have been a
“perpetual” topic for many fierce debates. The controversy revolved mainly
around using advertising tactics only to "sell", negatively affecting social values
and user behavior. Among them, the promotion of consumerism, materialism,
pattern-shaping and manipulation of the media are the most widely opposed
aspects. One of the most common reasons for criticising advertising is
advertising that encourages consumerism, psychological manipulation to get
people to buy things they don't really need. Ethical advertising is an important
criterion in building a corporate image in a market economy. But when the rules
of ethics in marketing are violated, there's a dark side behind successful
advertising campaigns. Advertising behavior violates ethics in business,
adversely affects consumers, society and negative impact on image, corporate
brand
Reputation: Three schools of thought that are in current use within the
reputation paradigm: evaluative, impressional and relational. The differences
between them relate more to which stakehold- ers are taken as the focal point,
rather than their subject area or epistemological base. In the evaluative school,
reputation is assessed from its financial value or from the short-term financial
performance of the organ- ization. in the impressional school, reputation is
assessed in terms of the relevant stakeholders’ perceptions or impression of the
organization rather than any financial figure or performance. On te other hands,
Corporate reputation is ‘a perceptual represen- tation of a company’s past
actions and future prospects that describe the firm’s appeal to all of its key
constituents’

Key elements of reputation:

- Image: ‘How customers See the company’

- Identity: ‘How the company see itself’
- Desired Identity: ‘How the company say it ist’

Measurement of Corporate Reputation : One of the most established

measures of repu- tation is that of ranking by media. Respondents are asked to
rate a competitor’s reputation in terms of eight key attributes of reputation: (1)
Financial soundness; (2) Long-term investment value; (3) Use of corporate
assets; (4) Innovativeness; (5) Quality of the company’s management; (6)
Quality of its products and services; (7) Ability to attract, develop and keep
talented people; and (8) Acknowledgement of social responsibility. Other ways
can be : Brand Equity Scales ; Image Measures ; Identity Measures.

What are the differences between start-ups and large companies.

Startup refers to a newly established business venture, usually characterized by

its innovative approach, focus on a unique product or service, and potential for
rapid growth.

Big Company, on the other hand, is a well-established, large-scale organization

with a significant market presence. Big companies have a stable business
model, a broad customer base, and are often leaders in their respective
industries.

Reputable brands ( Large companies)

 Identify the key character dimension: Transform reputation around

Adventure (imaginative, innovative, exciting, up to date) –through
rebranding or joint venture.
 Make sure to get internal reputation right first: Adventure is embedded in the
corporate culture, before launching any marketing.
 Assess the reputation gaps to make sure employee perception of Adventure
exceeds customer perception of reputation.

Start-ups

 Identify the key character dimension: Build reputation of Integrity (honest,

sincere and trustworthy)
 Make sure to get the CEO reputation right first: that the CEO has earned
reputation for integrity before launching any PR for the company.
 Make sure the investor’s reputation has positive spillover effect.
 Assess the reputation gaps to make sure ‘the desired reputation’ is aligned
with actual customer/investor perception of reputation

How the opportunities led by Industry 4.0 should be managed differently

In the Old Industry (3.0), Reputable brands considered Reputation as an

intangible asset which creates competitive advantage. Reputation lowers the
risk. Reputation is built on evaluation of past performance through

• Selling quality product/services

• Facts and numbers (Financial records)
• Customer preference (sales)
• Strong brand awareness (logo, history, heritage)
• Strong brand value, ranking
In the New Industry (4.0), Start ups, SPACs, New entrants considered
Reputation as a burden. Reputation increases risk. Reputation is built on
evaluation of future performance through
• Selling dreams (potentials)
• News, Social media and Rumors
• Investor preference (stock price)
• Strong CEO’s vision and personality
• Reputable partners such as industry recommendation, famous
investors
How entrepreneurial leaders affect corporate culture, and ultimately
success and failure of the organization.
Organisational culture is the ‘basic assumptions and beliefs that are shared by
members of an organisation, that operate unconsciously and define in a basic
taken-forgranted fashion an organisation’s view of itself and its environment’.

The cultural web shows the behavioural, physical and symbolic manifestations
of a culture that inform and are informed by the taken-forgranted assumptions,
or paradigm.

Does strong culture lead to a success, if not when?

Typically, companies with a strong culture tend to produce superior results as
compared to those with weaker cultures. When a culture is strong, it leads to
motivated employees and high performing managers.

Companies with strong cultures tend to be more successful and exhibit higher
levels of productivity. Research highlights that happy workers are 13% more
productive than their unhappy counterparts. When employees sense appreciation
and receive support, they are empowered to take up tasks out of their comfort
zones, leading to more work dedication and optimal performances. This, in turn,
results in enhanced efficiency, innovation, and overall organizational
performance.

Retention of employees remains a persistent concern, particularly in the

competitive job market. Companies that do not prioritize their culture often face
challenges in retaining their top talent. A positive and engaging work culture, on
the other hand, can contribute to higher job satisfaction and loyalty among
employees, fostering a sense of commitment that goes beyond salary
considerations.