Individual Assignment - British American Tobacco South

Individual Assignment - British American Tobacco South

Africa: Evaluating the role and substance of its strategy in achieving sustainable competitive advantage

WITS Business School – MBA FT - Author: Marco Cavadini - Date: July 23th 2014, Course: Strategy BUSA 7378 - Supervisor: Anton Roodt – Words: 3825 (9 1/2 A4 norm pages à 400 words)

British American Tobacco South Africa: Evaluating the role and substance of its strategy in achieving sustainable competitive advantage

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Executive Summary

During past decades, much attention has been focused on how firms would define new strategies for viable advantages. In this assignment on strategy, the substance and role of British American Tobacco South Africa (BATSA) will be critically examined. BATSA created a durable competitive advantage within the global tobacco group by effectively controlling the majority of the supply chain (sourcing, production and distribution) within South Africa. Not only is it one of the company’s largest profit center, with a privileged domestic market stake of more than 85%, it is also confirms an example of successful cultural and structural advancement which creates the emergence of a world class manufacturing operation. British American tobacco group is running a transnational strategy which means to build a strong international reputation for high quality tobacco brands to meet the consumer’s needs that vary from location to location and aims to achieve location economies of scale and exploit experience curve effects (BAT, 2013). To make the vision become true, BATSA strategy is driven by marketing its global drive brands (GDB’s) effectively and consists of four pillars which include growth, productivity, responsibility and winning firm. BATSA has relied on this strategy for approximately nine years and has achieved great success due to its proven track record. The management of BATSA demonstrated the ability to deliver growth despite a challenging external environment and...