Fluent Essays

I want you to reply to my one of my classmates and response to three other posts reply_to_my_post.docx Unformatted Attachment Preview Reply to my post: I think you made some great points and I agree that the three value disciplines are still relevant today. Amazon, however, I feel demonstrates operational excellence more than product leadership. They have managed to establish a massive online market for several different types of products and a market place for independent sellers. Doing so they have changed the entire operational focus of retailers such as Walmart and Target. The changes they have made tie into your points on prime and ease of customers not having to leave their home. Amazon is always expending adjusting to have a competitive edge, but in this their main focus is the operation of getting any products products from their warehouses to the seller in a convenient and timely manner. Post1: Customer Intimacy and Other Value Disciplines discusses how companies become a leader within their market by the type of value they provide their customers. They performed a three-year study on 40 companies on their value disciplines. For a company to be successful it must choose and perfect at least one value of discipline; operational excellence, customer intimacy, or product leadership. To master a value discipline the company must fully understand the product or service they offer and the target market they are selling to. To maintain value leadership, it is important for a company to focus on continuous improvement in this value discipline. For example, it is not enough to have the best product; the product developers need to be constantly looking forward for creative new ideas, pursue new solutions, and quickly implement updates or new products. Chick-Fil-a is a fast food company that focuses on the value discipline of customer intimacy, and is successful at it. Unlike McDonalds or Taco Bell, a customer doesn’t go to Chick-Fil-A for the cheapest options. A customer goes to Chick-Fil-a for the outstanding customer service and good quality food. Having excellent customer service allows them to have a competitive advantage. A customer knows they will be treated well, and properly compensated for any inconvenience. According to Business Insider Chick-Fil-A was number one on American Customer Satisfaction Indexs annual restaurant report in 2019 for the fourth year in a row. At chick-Fil-A for example, a customer can ask for extra sauces with no problem, while at McDonalds they will charge you extra. If McDonalds messes up your order, a customer knows they will not receive as prompt of a proper and happy response for the inconvenience. Customer service is executed so well at Chick- Fil-A there are several videos and photos on socially media joking about the difference in customer service at McDonalds versus Chick-Fil-A. The three value disciplines are still relevant today. It shows companies know their customer, although it is more important for all companies to practice a form of operational excellence. Customers today expect their products or services always within a timely manner and have more access than ever to reach out for other options. Some companies can be difficult to tell what value discipline they are focusing on. It is easy for a company to attempt to spread themselves too thin, focusing on all values and losing sight of their target market and the value most important to the customer. It is possible for a company to be successful in more than one value, however, this takes a well-structured company, with well-defined goals, and support to accomplish them. A company that has a defined value discipline easily identifiable shows knowledge of their customer, and the ability to keep up with their needs within that product or service. It also helps the consumer to know what to expect from the company and if it fits their own values. Consumers can use this to distinguish between competitors. Post2: In your own words, summarize the article in no more than five sentences. HBR article “Customer Intimacy and Other Value Disciplines” discusses three value disciplines that that allow companies to find value in products within their industry in a different manner, namely, operational excellence, customer intimacy, and product leadership. Furthermore, the article explains that along with redefining value for consumers, company leaders also build business infrastructure to cater to customers values and thus create higher consumer expectations. Moreover, companies must be a leader in one of the three value disciplines and meet the industry standards in the other two, in order to succeed, like Dell Computer, Home Depot, and Nike. In some instances, companies like Toyota, USAA, and Staples have become a master of two of the value disciplines, all of which have achieved operational excellence. Name a company that you are familiar with or are interested in. Discuss what its likely sources of competitive advantage. Be sure to provide some rationale as to why you think so and associated sources of information (provide at least one). Describe its customer value proposition. A company that I am familiar with is Amazon. It’s source of competitive advantage is likely, its being a master of two, possibly even all three of the value disciplines. Firstly, the Company has certainly changed what customers value, how it is delivered to them, and boosted consumer expectations. Like Dell, Amazon, sells products directly to customers, typically at the lowest cost, in an extremely convenient manner. By exclusively being an online retailer and striking a lot of tax abatement deals, Amazon has managed to have lower overhead costs than many of its retail competitors. Additionally, the Company provides customer intimacy, like Home Depot because it provides customers with access to information about produces, comparisons amongst different products, and reviews from buyers. Like Staples, Amazon as well as the consumer are able to track all of the orders he or she makes, allowing one to purchase something again very easy. Furthermore, Amazon certainly exemplifies product leadership because it is constantly offering more products and services such as two-hour shipping for purchases made at Whole Foods. Moreover, Amazon has tried to sustain its leadership by expanding its business. This is certainly the case when it comes to the Company’s transportation division. At first, Amazon heavily relied on third party carriers such as UPS, FedEX, and USPS. However, it has expanded into having its own trucks, vans, and airplanes to keep up with all of its orders. This is an article titled “The discipline of Amazon” From Medium on 06/29/2015 https://medium.com/@albluca/the-discipline-of-amazon-a6dcb1d3a6e1 This is an article titled “The Amazon Effect on the U.S. Economy” From Investopedia on 03/31/2020 https://www.investopedia.com/insights/amazon-effect-us-economy/ This is an article titled “How Amazon Changed Whole Foods” From Forbes on 06/25/2019 https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevebanker/2019/06/25/how-amazon-changed-wholefoods/#7753ea0978dd Application: Can you think of a successful firm whose success could not be fit into the three paths discussed by Treacy and Wiersema? In other words, should the three-paths be updated or does it still apply to modern businesses, in your opinion? I believe the three-paths should remain the same because for the most part they are still applicable to modern business. The only exception that I can think of is Amazon. In some ways it could be said that Amazon goes far beyond the three disciplines we learned about because it has completely revolutionized people’s expectations, even outside of its “industry.” Personally, Amazon has completely changed my expectations when it comes to making purchases, obtaining them quickly, in a convenient manner. It was has moved me away from purchasing clothes that need to be dry cleaned for work, to subscribing to Rent the Runway. I personally, can’t think of any other business that has revolutionized consumers expectations outside of the three value disciplines. Thus, it would be best to keep them the same. Post3: 1. In your own words, briefly summarize the article in no more than five sentences. The article details how leading companies have changed how they have viewed customer values and narrowed their focus to one of three value areas: operational excellence, customer intimacy, or product leadership. Operational excellence focuses on providing reliable products or services at competitive prices with minimal difficulty to customers; the article names Dell, GE, and Wal-Mart as examples. Customer intimacy targets precise markets and fine tunes products or services to match exactly what the customer wants; examples include Home Depot, Kraft, and Nordstrom. Product leadership provides customers with state-of-the-art products or services with constant enhancements to remain “leading-edge.” Nike and Johnson & Johnson fit into this path. 2. Name a company that you are familiar with or are interested in. Discuss what its likely sources of competitive advantage. Be sure to provide some rationale as to why you think so and associated sources of information (provide at least one). Describe its customer value proposition. For this part of the discussion, I chose Dollar Shave Club. Aside from great commercials, Dollar Shave Club’s competitive advantage certainly comes from a focus on operational excellence. Dollar Shave Club provides razors directly to consumers via mail through subscriptions. This keeps prices low while keeping things extremely convenient for consumers (the definition of operational excellence). Gillette is still the juggernaut in the shaving industry, but direct to consumer services are clearly disrupting the market. Gillette’s market share has decreased from 70\% to less than 50\% in the last decade (CNBC, 2018). Dollar Shave Club has grown to 8\% since its inception in 2011 (CNBC, 2018). Startups shook up the sleezy razor market. (2018, September 26). Retrieved from https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/26/startups-shook-up-the-sleepy-razor-market-whats-next.html 3. Application: Can you think of a successful firm whose success could not be fit into the three paths discussed by Treacy and Wiersema? In other words, should the three-paths be updated or does it still apply to modern businesses, in your opinion? One firm that does not fit perfectly into the 3 paths discussed in the article is Aldi. Of the three paths, Aldi most closely resembles an operational excellence focus but has some differences. Aldi carries reliable products, but shopping at Aldi is not as convenient as other grocery stores. For example, customers must bag their own groceries, and product selection is not as vast as other stores. Many concepts in the article apply to modern business, but I think that there should be updates. Just as businesses are constantly changing, so should the way we categorize customer value paths. ... Purchase answer to see full attachment