Technology& Strategygest

Technology & Strategy

GEST-D-484 Manuel Hensmans

1

Last week

• Lessons from the past for company

• Sources, types/patterns, standards, timing • Emphasise more in case-study

2

This class

• Part III: Setting the strategic direction

– Importance strategic capability – Analyse internal resources and competences

• Apply VRIN framework

– Quiz! – If we have the time…

• Fit external position and internal capability

– 5 steps

3

Google: customer-led vs resources and competences

• Customer-led mission?

- ―to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful‖ - ―Don’t be evil‖

- Do all products map on this mission?

- Original search engine, Google Book Search / Maps / Scholar - Yet: sales advertising space, GoogleDocs, Gmail, Android, Chrome,…

4

Customer-led in fast changing environment?

• Why has Google been playing catch up with display/banner ads?

– Although it owns the biggest information database of all internet players

• Mission vs resources & competences!

• Founders’ distrust of cookies • CEO Schmidt less coy about exploiting resources & competencies indiscriminately

5

When are internal resources and competences most important?

• When the external environment is subject to rapid change, internal resources and competences offer a more secure basis for strategy than market focus. • In such cases, internal resources and competences are the primary sources of profitability

6

Resources and competences

• Resources are the assets that organisations have or can call upon (e.g. from partners or suppliers),that is, ‘what we have’

– tangible and intangible assets of a firm

• tangible: factories, products • intangible: reputation

Four Categories of Resources

• Financial (cash, retained earnings)

• Physical (plant & equipment, geographic location)

• Human-intellectual (skills & abilities, patents…)

• Organizational (culture and reputation; collective experience through...