business positioning and innovation strategy

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The company is Sears,

See the requirements carefully from question 1-5. If the company does not have differentiated products or services, don’t need to answer question 1-5. But it must be real. And all answers must be related the book, (attached file). See page numbers to know how to write answers correct. Write more details, thinking deeply, don’t just write the concepts too broad. Carefully see bold front.

  1. To what extent does your company produce differentiated products or services? If your firm’s products/services are differentiated, what characteristics of the product/service cause customers to see them as better than rivals’? (Remember that “differentiation” means that the customer sees the products or services as different and better than those of competitors. If your firm has several different business units, it is possible that some sell differentiated products while others succeed mostly due to low prices. If that is the case for your firm, pick one or two of its businesses and answer questions 1-5 for that business.)
  2. Does your firm have a cost leadership position in this business? If so, can you identify which cost drivers (pp. 192-201) contribute to this position? Does it appear your firm can maintain its cost leadership position over the long term?
  3. Does your firm attempt to sell to most of the customers in the industry it serves? Or does it address a particular group (segment) within the market?
  4. Based on your answers to the questions above, identify which generic business strategy or strategies your firm is employing. (See Exhibit 6.10 on p. 207 for a summary of the alternatives and pp. 185-208 for a broader discussion.)
  5. What do you see as the positives and negatives of your firm’s chosen strategy? What suggestions do you have to improve the firm’s business strategy and strategic position?
  6. Where is your firm’s industry on the industry life cycle presented in Exhibit 7.4(Chapter 7) in the text? What are the strategic implications?
  7. Does your firm have an innovation strategy? Is it trying to carry out any incremental or radical innovations? Does its innovation strategy seem effective?
  8. Identify a recent innovation by your firm. What is your firm’s strategy for making the innovation profitable? Will network effects be important in the development of this innovation?
  9. Corporate strategy involves entering new businesses and exiting old ones. Has your firm made any corporate strategy moves recently?
  10. At the beginning of the term, we said a good strategy involves a) diagnosis of the competitive situation, b) a guiding policy for the firm overall, and c) a coherent set of actions to implement the policy. What do you think is your firm’s guiding policy?
  11. Do you think your firm is effectively creating and maintaining core competences and pursuing competitive advantage?