The rising regional and global competition has been the major concern for most local and international companies. Most companies have opted to going back to the drawing boards in a bid to improving the quality of their products so as to make them popular and preferred by consumers. As a result, the goal and objective of the businesses has been that of achieving sustainable competitive advantage.
Business strategies are therefore used in matching the resources of the organization as well as the capabilities to the external environment opportunities attained (Winter 982). Once this has been achieved, the company has the ability of being in the market for a longer period of time. This paper is therefore an in-depth analysis of the case of Almdudler which is a soft-drink company. The company’s capabilities
Case Analysis
From the case study of Almdudler, it can be seen that the company is doing well in terms of sustainable competitive advantage. This is clearly depicted by the good progress that the company is having as well as the good image it has.
The company is seen to have many capabilities as depicted from the cases study conducted. The first thing noted is that of the company indulging its employees in team building activities. The whole case study revolves around some of the company’s senior officials in playing golf in the field.
It is here that business ideas and strategies of the company are discussed. The issue of team building is can be classified as a valuable capability as it helps in improving the company’s performance in a number of ways.
It helps the workers be in a position to easily collude and work as a team, thinking together as one thus coming up with great ideas. Secondly, it helps the workers to take a break from work for some time thus making them perform better with less stress and fatigue.
Thirdly, team building activities are of great essentiality when it comes to reducing the gap between people in an organization. Again, the company is endorsed with qualified and highly experienced personnel starting from Erwin Klein who is the company founder’s son to the intern in the organization. All these people have great minds as depicted from their discussion.
This can be grouped as a rare resource and capability as it is not very common in most organizations. It is very area that an organization is endorsed with intelligent personnel who are able to come up with noble ideas in market venturing.
Another capability that Almdudler has as per the case study is that of wining the Austria’s market as well as venturing into the external market. This is depicted when the company’s CEO talks of a 5.4 percent to slightly over 80 million sales in the previous year. This is an indication that the company has effective marketing strategies, something that can be grouped as a valuable capability.
It is valuable as it helps the company to venture into many new markets and as a result increasing the sales turn over. The ability to expand is also another capability that is valuable as well as rare. The reason behind this is because there are many operating companies in most countries that are only local based with inability to venture into the external market attained (Winter 990).
Almdudler is also privileged to have managers who have a vision for the company. This is a rare capability and resource as depicted when Erwin Klein talks about his father, the founder of the company to be the only one with a vision among the 600 soda vendors at his time. This shows that the founder possessed ‘something’ that not every person had thus leading to the success of the company.
It is as a result of this that the company has managed to be the second best soda company after Coca-Cola in the Austria region. The other trick it used was that of convincing more than 350 bottlers to license the company’s product hence opening ways for a greater market.
The company has god marketing strategies in terms of advertising. The strategy campaign on “Almeli-dudeli-what?” tremendously improved their sales. This was because of the mare fact that this advert bridged the gap between the brand’s traditional, rustic flair and the modern, urban lifestyle that was appealing especially to the young people. This therefore made it possible for the brand to be used and applied in various places and scenes.
This is a costly-to- imitate capability as it is difficult for other businessmen to win and sustain the trust that consumers have for this brand. With that trend, Almdudler will be in a position to venture into many regions thus making it become famous just like Coca-Cola.
The other noble capability that is possessed by Almdudler is that of appreciating and incorporating ideas from the people around them. This is seen when the major part of the strategy to venture into the American market is bestowed in the hands of the intern who is referred to as the dreamy guy. The company is not only making use of new talent but also benefiting from the plan.
This shows that the company is focused and has a vision which must be attained by whatever means. The already existing members of the company’s management team can also be seen to have noble ideas with regard to branding of the drink produced.
When finding out the brand to be introduced into the western European market and America, they come up with a sugar free drink. This is in connection with the feeding habits of the people living in their prospective markets. This means positive feedback or response after the product is introduced. It is thus a non-substitutable capability.
In addition to this, the Almdudler Company is also very keen in their selection of market partners. In their search for a good business partner in terms of advertising they apply strict rules since they want to achieve the best in return.
Unlike other companies who just contract advertising firms to advertise for them then wait for the market response, Almdudler is keen to ensure that the company contracted is business oriented and willing to satisfy their needs.
This way, the company avoids wastage of funds as well as ensuring that the organizational objectives are fully attained (Winter 992). With this notion, the company has an upper hand over other companies operating in the same field.
In their plans, the company is pretty aware of its finical stand of being a medium-sized company with limited resources. With that in mind, the company avoids competing with big and established companies like Coca-Cola. In turn, frustrations are minimized which might affect the company’s functionality.
This is a non-substitutable capability due to the fact that there are no strategic equivalents involved. This issue of concern is also very rare in most companies especially in the food industry who will compete with established companies and in the long-run end up closing down.
Last but not least is the fact that the company has organizational strategy in the production unit to ensure that the product produced is consistent. They say consistency and tradition is what makes the brand special. This is a costly-to-imitate strategy since marinating the consistency of a product requires efficient and effective technical measures to be put in place. This capability has therefore resulted into the company gaining sustainable competitive advantage.
Conclusion
From the above case analysis of the Almdudler Company, it can be depicted that the company is doing fine when it comes to sustain its competitive advantage.
Ranging from advertising techniques, branding, packaging lines, personnel, proper resource allocation and talent utilization just to mention but a few are most of the capabilities that the company has been blessed with. Despite the nature of the resource or capability, the end result is market penetration of the brand thus increasing the sales turn-over.
With this trend, the company is doomed to go to greater heights and be in the same level with established companies such as Coca-Cola, Red Bull and Pepsi among others. As mentioned before, that the business strategy aims at matching capabilities with external opportunities, this has been wall achieved in the case of Almdudler Soda Company.
Works Cited
Winter, S. “The Satisficing Principle in Capability Learning,” Strategic Management Journal 21 (2000): 981–96;