On December 9th, 2013 the two airlines, US Airways and American Airlines merged to form the American Airline Group that turn out to be the major airline in the world. This merger was structured by the enlarged competition that airlines are countenancing in the business at present. The merger offered a prospect for both airlines to make use of the benefits of an extensive network that would effect subsequent to merging as countered to when each one operates separately. One of the foremost circumstances that encircled the merger was the imminent insolvency of American Airlines. The company in 2011 had filed for bankruptcy even though it relapsed to profitability the same year in July.… Read the rest
Business Strategies
Case Study: Kraft’s Takeover of Cadbury
Cadbury’s origins date back to almost two centuries when it was founded by John Cadbury who started the business by selling cocoa and tea in Birmingham, UK. Later he expanded by starting a line of beverages after a merger with Indian Schweppes changing the company name to Cadbury Schweppes. Successful product developments and launches have enabled Cadbury to boast of an extensive confectionery line consisting of Cocoa Essence, Easter Eggs, Milk Chocolate, Cadbury Fingers, Dairy Milk, Bourneville Chocolate, Milk Tray, Flake Creme Egg, Crunchie, Picnic, Curly windy, Wispa boost, Twirl and Time Out.
Kraft, on the other hand, is a US company about a century old, which started off as a door to door cheese business but expanded into other confectionery items through many takeovers previously such as Ritz Crackers, Nabisco (Oreos) and Phenix Cheese Corporation (Philadelphia Cheese) to achieve success.… Read the rest
Resource-Based View (RBV) Strategy Formulation
The resource-based view (RBV) is a tool to determine strategic resources and how it affects the performance of the firm based solely on reviewing its internal environment while the external environment remains fixed. Firms using RBV competes in terms of their resources and capabilities. The aim of this article is to study the factors that influence a firm’s performance. The RBV emphasizes the firm’s resources as the essential elements of competitive advantage and performance. It assumes two assumptions in examining sources of a competitive advantage which are that the firms are heterogeneous in terms of the resources they control and that resource heterogeneity can continue over a period as the resources used to implement their strategies are not easily portable across firms.… Read the rest
Strategy Formulation and Stakeholder Influence
Strategy is defined as the direction and scope of an organization over the long term, which achieves advantage for the organization through its configuration of resources within a changing environment and to fulfil stakeholder expectations. A strategic plan is therefore large scale future oriented activities that allow interaction with the competitive environment in order to achieve company objectives. It follows that strategic management is the process whereby a strategy is formulated, evaluated, and continuously improved. Strategic planning flows from the definition of an organization’s vision, mission and objectives and subsequent environmental scanning, to understand the organization’s strategic position with respect to the macro external environment, its industry, competitors, internal resources, competencies and expectations and influence of stakeholders.… Read the rest
Business Strategy Case Study: Relaunch of Fiat 500
On 4th July 2007, Fiat Auto the Flagship division of Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino (FIAT) re-launched its heritage brand the Fiat 500. It was exactly 50yrs after the launch of Fiat 500 on 4th July 1957, which not only helped Fiat in post World War-II recovery but also provided mass motorization to Italians. Luca De Meo, CEO, Fiat Auto, on the re-launch occasion stated that “This is the car that gave ordinary Italians four wheels for the first time; that transformed a country and a company.” In its 18yrs of career between 1957 and 1975, 3,893,294 Fiat 500s were built & sold, which provided millions of Italians and Europeans individual mobility.… Read the rest
The Role of Human Resources in Mergers and Acquisitions
Mergers and acquisitions represent ways for companies to grow, develop strategic positioning, acquire technologies and talents and develop synergies. However, more than 80% of the mergers and acquisitions done failed to produce any benefits while half of them led to a reduction of the value of the companies. This figure is really surprising when we consider the number of mergers and acquisitions occurring in a year. Nevertheless, a merger or an acquisition can also represent an opportunity. Indeed, one case out of eight represents a successful merger (or acquisition) where both companies come out stronger (such as the merger of Glaxo Wellcome and SmithKline in 2000).… Read the rest