Using one strategic management tool, explain in your own words how to carry out an effective external environmental analysis on a firm.

A company achieves sustainable competitive advantage when:  Answer        D)    its strategy and its business model are well-matched and in sync.        C)      it is consistently able to achieve both its strategic and financial objectives.        B)    it has a profitable business model.           A)    an attractive number of buyers have a lasting preference for its products or services as compared to the offerings of competitors.

Competitive strategy aims to establish a profitable and sustainable position against the forces that determine industry competition” (Porter, 1985). Evaluate the five basic competitive strategies pursued by organizations in order to create sustainable competitive advantage

An industry's key success factors A) can be determined from studying the "winning" strategies of the industry leaders and ruling out as potential key success factors the strategy elements of those firms considered to have "losing" strategies.   B) depend on the relative competitive strengths of the industry leaders and how vulnerable they are to competitive attack.   C) are a function of market share, entry barriers, economies of scale, degree of vertical integration, and industry profitability.   D) can be determined through identifying an industry's dominant economic characteristics, assessing the five competitive forces,  and considering the impacts of the driving forces.   E) vary according to whether an industry has high or low long-term attractiveness.

Begin by selecting two functional strategies from the list below: Marketing Strategy Financial Strategy In your initial post, explain the overall goals of each of the strategies that you selected, generally speaking. Then, expand on your choices by describing how each functional strategy may work together to potentially achieve economies of scope.  Further develop your response by describing how the functional strategies that you selected operate either at your place or work, a place where you have worked in the past, or in a hypothetical “best” corporation scenario. Alternatively, you may research an actual corporation to further develop your response on your chosen functional strategies. Be sure to post at least 2 references

List and explain the most critical internal and external factors  with QVC INC (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) that strongly affect the corporation’s present and future performance.  List five to ten strategic factors in order of their importance.

Explain the difference between policies on external competitiveness from policies on internal alignment. Why is external competitiveness so important? What factors shape an organization's external competitiveness?

How can organizations develop comprehensive long-term strategic plans that effectively align with their mission, vision, and values while considering external environmental factors and internal capabilities?

How do the five competitive forces in Porter’s five forces model affect the average profitability of the industry? For example, in what way might weak forces increase industry profits, and in what way do strong forces reduce industry profits? Identify an industry in which many of the competitors seem to be having financial performance problems. Which of the five forces seem to be strongest?

What would be the skills, experience, subject-matter expertise, business acumen, team, innovations, industry connections, key advisors, and so on — that make an Air Cleaner Company the right ones to take advantage of a market opportunity?