Questions:

1. What is the Diamond E best used for?

2. How do the key success factors impact a potential strategy?
3. How does Porter’s Five Forces give a better representation of the situation at hand?

Answers:

1. The Diamond E is best used to describe a company’s situation. It allows individuals to

understand the situation and use it as a steppingstone to create a plan because it lays
everything down. The Diamond E gives one the insight of the management style, resources,
organization, strategy, and environment. Each “section” provides a significant amount of
information that will influence the strategy used to solve the immediate issue. The management
style allows individuals to understand how the management is running the company at the
moment of the issue. This is important because it will help point out any management flaws that
are contributing to the immediate issue. The resources tell individuals what the company is
capable of providing. A great strategy is not useful if the company does not have the resources
to capacitate the plan. The organization of a company lets individuals know the culture,
capacity, and the overall structure of the company. Each company has their own unique culture,
it is important to adhere to their cultural norms when providing a strategy. The capacity people
know what the company can produce with the given resources. The overall structure of the
company lets consultants have a more complete picture of the organization and how the
company processes information and the day to day operating. The strategy in Diamond E
represents the action being taken to solve the immediate issue. The action is influenced by all of
the other categories of the diamond. The environment represents the external factors of the
business situation. Factors such as geography, population, demographics, etc.

Diamond E is best used for laying out all the facts to generate a realistic, effective strategy.

2. The key success factors such as financial resources, customers, employees, products and
services, innovation, and uniqueness will all define the success that a company will experience.
These factors define how to best compete within the industry from an internal and external
perspective. The factors should be seen more as a guide as how to maximize financial resources,
how to attract/keep customers, how to train/grow/attract high performing and loyal employees,
high quality products/services, leading innovation, and providing valuable uniqueness to the
marketplace. All of these factors must be geared towards serving the environment.

3. Porter’s five forces gives a better representation of the situation hand because it covers a lot of
factors that a company must consider in order to achieve a high amount of success. Companies
must face reality and realize that there is a high amount of risk and competition within their
respective industries. The factors of threat of new entrants, bargaining power from suppliers,
threat of substitute of products, and bargaining power of buyers all show a company where they
are vulnerable. The vulnerabilities show where growth must take place if the company desires
to stay in business. All of the factors being reviewed are to obtain a competitive edge over the
rest of the industry.