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The second of four module notes for students taking an advanced course on competitive strategy. Presents concepts and techniques to help students understand the origins of effective strategies.

Convenience is a key competitive benefit retailers can offer: ways to save customers time and effort. Retailers employ various strategies, including location, layout, merchandise arrangement, transaction processing, hours and delivery, to differentiate themselves from competitors. This note explains each of these strategies, and explore the growing importance of shopping convenience.

This note is intended to elaborate on the many dimensions of retail location analysis and decisions. Location is a retail marketing decision that is typically difficult to change frequently, yet it determines access to customers, investments in building and equipment, and many operating costs such as rent, utilities and taxes. In short, it deserves careful attention. This note may be used with product 9B05A031, Note on Retail Convenience.

Every retailer faces competition, either directly or indirectly. This note examines how a retailer can systematically conceptualize and analyze his or her competition in order to make better retail marketing decisions. The two key topic areas are retail formats (a way to classify retail competitors) and competitive analysis. Every retailer needs to find some reason why customers should buy from him or her rather than from a competitor - in short, a competitive advantage. Gaining competitive advantage requires not only customer understanding, but also competitive understanding.

Assortment is generally the major element of the retail marketing offer and is central to any effective retail marketing strategy. A well-defined and executed assortment strategy can be powerful in differentiating the total retail offering from other retailers. This note is about the assortment choices that retailers face. Assortment is what the retailer manages; selection is what the customer perceives to be offered by the assortment provided. This note explores assortment strategies, ways of making assortment decisions, category management and more.

Value means much more than simply price, more than the money the customer pays and the money the retailer gets. Value is the perception that customers have (or may be convinced to have) of the total package of benefits received at a price from the retailer. Price from the customer's perspective then becomes an indicator, a measure of the promised value. If the benefits appear to be substantially higher than the cost (the price being asked), the customer perceives the retailer to be offering good value and a sale is likely. On the other hand, if the cost is perceived as higher than the benefits, the value is note there for the customer. When customers say the price is too high they also mean the value is too low. This note explores value and price from the retailer's perspective, including ways retailers set and change price.

A retail marketing strategy is intended to accomplish performance objectives. This note examines what performance dimensions retailers typically use, how one might assess retail performance, and most importantly, how a focus on performance can assist in making decisions about retail marketing strategy.

This note is intended to elaborate on the many dimensions of retail location analysis and decisions. Location is a retail marketing decision that is typically difficult to change frequently, yet it determines access to customers, investments in building and equipment, and many operating costs such as rent, utilities and taxes. In short, it deserves careful attention. This note may be used with product 9B05A031, Note on Retail Convenience.

Every retailer faces competition, either directly or indirectly. This note examines how a retailer can systematically conceptualize and analyze his or her competition in order to make better retail marketing decisions. The two key topic areas are retail formats (a way to classify retail competitors) and competitive analysis. Every retailer needs to find some reason why customers should buy from him or her rather than from a competitor - in short, a competitive advantage. Gaining competitive advantage requires not only customer understanding, but also competitive understanding.

The first of four module notes for students who are taking an advanced course on competitive strategy. Presents concepts and techniques to help students analyze the parts of a firm's strategy and understand how the parts fit together to form a coherent whole.

This note provides an introduction to financial ratios and financial forecasting. It examines principles in the art and science of thoughtful financial forecasting. In particular, it reviews the importance of understanding financial ratios.

A derivative is a financial instrument that's value, as its name suggests, is derived from the value of an underlying asset or security. There are many different derivative securities available, including: forwards, futures, options, rights, warrants, convertibles and swaps. This note introduces some of the key concepts, terminology and strategies associated with these derivatives.

When valuing the premium to be paid for put or call options, the underlying security is only one of several factors that can determine the option's value. By calculating the impact and value of all the determinants, an option's price more accurately reflects its value. This note examines the effects of various determinants on the price of an option and introduces two models that use options equivalents: the Black-Scholes Option Pricing Model and the Binomial Option Pricing Model.

The real options approach to capital budgeting uses an options-based analysis to evaluate the real (as opposed to the financial) potential of projects. By charting the options as a series of decision points and events, managers can understand the risks and rewards of the projects, and more fully assess their opportunities. This note introduces the real options approach and describes the four main categories: expansion and follow-on options, timing and delay options, abandonment options and options that introduce flexibility into production. The expansion option is discussed in detail, including sample calculations and decision trees.

In most organizations, the employee appraisal process causes more tension than any other aspect of personnel management. Despite the good intentions behind it, a 360º Feedback system does little to quell the fear that performance evaluation tends to instill. But is it possible to design a 360º Feedback system that is both comfortable and constructive for employees? This technical note discusses the challenges of and opportunities for creating a system that improves performance effectiveness and enhances career success.

This note provides a guide for exploring interfirm rivalry through the dyadic lens and for predicting competitive responses using the awareness-motivation-capability perspective, with the goal of expanding strategists' understanding and management of competitive engagements at the most basic level. Competitive dynamics is the analysis of competition at the action and response level to predict how a firm will act or react against opponents. Understanding engagements at this level is essential because this is where firms enact their strategies, test their opponents' mettle and capabilities, defend their reputations, and signal their toughness--that is, where business rivalry occurs. The dyadic or pair-wise approach of competitive dynamics makes possible focused analysis that complements Michael Porter's conventional industry structure and its extension, the strategic groups approach.

This note provides a guide to dealing with the President's administration from the perspective of the nuclear energy industry.

Describes the process, components, and detailed action steps involved in using scenario planning in any organization. Provides detailed examples that use the process.

Explores the concept of economic value added (EVA) and its practical applications as a management control system for performance measurement and incentive compensation. Explains how EVA is measured and explores some of the adjustments to financial statements that are required to measure EVA. Provides a fully worked example of a firm's measurement of its EVA, both before and after adjustments to its financial statements. Describes several types of EVA bonus schemes and discusses both the benefits and limitations of EVA.

Provides an overview of the second-year MBA elective course Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital in Healthcare.