Contemporary Issues in Strategic Management Assignment

Contemporary Issues in Strategic Management - Assignment Example Vodafone reached this enviable position through a series of alliances, joint ventures and acquisitions. Section 2 of this paper analyzes Vodafone’s value chain and elucidates its capabilities and core competencies. The Porter’s generic strategies have been discussed and an explanation of which type of strategy Vodafone pursued has been detailed in Section 3 of the paper. Section 4 of the paper discusses in depth the acquisition strategies of Vodafone. An in-depth analysis of pre-acquisition rationale and steps involved therein like analysis of strategic fit, valuation methods and due diligence has been done. The post integration efforts have also been detailed in this section. An attempt has been made to apply the Haspeslagh and Jemison Framework in the post integration efforts. The discussion in this section extends to gauging the overall effectiveness of the acquisition strategy. Any organization with a global footprint can pursue a global strategy, a multi-domestic strategy or a transnational strategy. Vodafone’s choice of International strategy has been discussed in Section 5 of this paper. An organization is able to compete successfully in the marketplace if it can deliver superior value to its customer vis-Ã  -vis the rival firms. The creation of this value entails a series of activities which have been referred to as the value chain by Michael Porter. The arrangement and completion of various activities and their linkages determine whether the firm will be able to manufacture a product for which the customer is willing to pay a price that is higher than the cost of producing the product. The activities in the value chain are divided into two broad categories namely primary activities and support activities (Grant, 2010, Pg 111) . The primary activities enable the manufacturing of the product that the organization intends to sell in the market. This offering may be goods (tangible products) like