Professional Documents
Culture Documents
10. Briefly describe two important recent changes in the remote environment of Malaysian
business in each of the following areas:
a. Economic.
b. Social.
c. Political.
d. Technological.
e. Ecological
Various sources can be used to identify changes in the above mentioned areas. Magazines
such as Malaysian Business and The Edge, newspapers such as The New Straits Times and
The Star, and various Internet sites are good sources.
2. Many firms neglect industry analysis. When does this hurt them? When does it not?
The section titled “Industry Analysis and Competitive Analysis” helps in answering this
question. According to the text, there are four reasons why industry analysis is important.
First, industry analysis helps in determining the competitive arena. It would hurt the
company if the competitive arena is not defined because the company would not really
know who its customers are and be able to evaluate relevant trends. Second, industry
analysis helps in defining a firm’s competitors. Neglecting industry analysis may lead to
ignoring important competitors and substitutes. Third, industry analysis helps identify the
key success factors in the industry and measures how the firm stacks up on these factors.
Finally, industry analysis helps executives evaluate the firm’s goals.
While the above four are typically reasons why identifying firm boundaries is important, it
also holds good for industry analysis in general. Neglecting industry analysis may not hurt a
firm in those rare cases when a particular industry is very stable with very few changes
either in products, customers, or competitors.
Typically, it should be the responsibility of the CEO or the top management team. Only
they are likely to have the broad enough perspective to define the industry correctly and
provide a model to gather trends and determine their impact. Of course, input from lower
level managers (particularly managers from the manufacturing and marketing functions) is
vital because they act as boundary spanners for the firm and may have access to key data.
1. Using the Porter’s five forces framework, analyse the attractiveness of the brewery &
distillery industry and briefly discuss Guinness’s competitive position.