1. Strategic Management BUSM 3200
These guidelines are provided to help in your preparations for the group assignment. They do
NOT represent in any way “model answers” or a correct approach. Rather they provide
suggestions as to how to proceed with data collection and analysis leading to the completion of
your report. Make sure you read the guidelines provided by the RMIT course coordinator carefully.
BUSM 3200- Strategic Management (JAN 2013) GDS 2-1

2. The next section (4)-internal aspects
Section 4 of the report:
Identify those resources and competences of the
firm (or SBU) that are likely to provide sustainable
competitive advantage.
Justify why these resources and competences can
be regarded as strategic capabilities using the four
criteria covered in the textbook.
BUSM 3200- Strategic Management (July 2012) GDS 2-2

3. Internal analysis
Read up Lecture Three AND Chapter Three of the
text
Understand the unique nature of your SBU or
company and its main resources
Not all resources are equally important to all
firms- so DON’T do a long list of internal factors
that have NO bearing to your analysis
For example in Service Operations, staff may be a
key resource capability
Identify those resources that give the company its
key capabilities which translate to its competitive
advantage
BUSM 3200- Strategic Management (July 2012) GDS 2-3

4. Listing the resources
Here you need to be selective and discriminating
Why are the resources important?
Are they distinctive capabilities?
And what is the core competence/s of the firm?
Which areas of the business are these
competences found in? Marketing? HR?
Operations? Others?
How are they sustainable (explain?)
BUSM 3200- Strategic Management (July 2012) GDS 2-4

5. You can even apply the Value Chain to comment
You can selectively discuss WHERE in the VALUE CHAIN of your
firm does the capability exist and why it is strategically important for
your firm
BUSM 3200- Strategic Management (July 2012) GDS 2-5

6. Perhaps your capabilities are ‘leveraged’ by your networks
with value chains OUTSIDE your business
The value network (discussed in Chapter 3)
Give specific examples as to where (whose supplier or
distributor VC) your company can benefit from and how
Also read slides 32-39 in my Lecture 3 Slides
BUSM 3200- Strategic Management (July 2012) GDS 2-6

7. Strategic capabilities and
competitive advantage
The four key criteria by which capabilities can be
assessed in terms of providing a basis for achieving
sustainable competitive advantage are:
value,
rarity,
VRIN
inimitability and
non-substitutability READ UP and APPLY
Source: Jay Barney: ‘Firm resources and sustained competitive advantage’, Journal of Management, vol. 17 (1991), no.
1, pp. 99–120 .
BUSM 3200- Strategic Management (July 2012) GDS 3-7

8. You can comment using a table
Type of Comments
resource/
VRIN Criteria as to how
capability the
of the firm Valuable Rare Inimitable Non-Sub resource
creates
competitive
advantages
for the firm
1. x x
2. x
3. x
4. x
5. x x
6. x
X: mark according to whether the resource meets the
relevant criteria
BUSM 3200- Strategic Management (July 2012) GDS 2-8