Victoria's Secret VRIO / VRIN Analysis | Assignment Help

What is VRIO / VRIN Analysis ?

VRIO stands for – Value of the resource, Rareness of the resource, Imitation Risk, and Organizational Competence.

VRIO is a resource focused strategic analysis tool. To build a sustainable competitive advantage the resources that –casename— needs to be valuable, rare, and difficult to imitate. Secondly the –casename— needs to possess capabilities, organizational structure, and culture to optimize the available resources usage. VRIO analysis can help organizations such as Victoria's Secret to do better resource allocation and build a defensible value and supply chain.

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What is a Valuable Resource for Victoria's Secret? Defining Valuable in VRIO

A resource or capability is considered valuable for Victoria's Secret , if it allows the Victoria's Secret to exploit opportunities or negate threats emerging out of both the micro business environment and the macro environment. If a resource does not allow Victoria's Secret to minimize threats or exploit opportunities, than it doesn't contribute signficantly to building a sustainable competitive advantage for Victoria's Secret.

What are Rare Resources for Victoria's Secret? Defining Rare in VRIO

In an industry that Victoria's Secret operates in, valuable resources are held by number of competitors. So valuable resources themselves don’t provide a sustainable competitive advantage. Victoria's Secret require rare resources to compete in the industry. If Victoria's Secret don’t have rare resources that are required to succeed in the industry then Victoria's Secret won’t be able to compete successfully in the marketplace. Secondly holding rare resources can provide Victoria's Secret competitive advantage against players that don’t have those rare resources. HBR Case Study Solution

What is a Inimitable (Difficult to Immitate) Resource for Victoria's Secret? Defining Inimitable in VRIO

A valuable and rare resource can provide a competitive advantage to Victoria's Secret for certain period of time as all the competitors are going to try to imitate or replicate that resource. A sustained competitive advantage emerges, if the resource is difficult to imitate by the competitors. Victoria's Secret can create inmitability by innovating on the product side, reducing pain points on service delivery, and having an effective post sales servicing strategy. Check out the SWOT analysis of Victoria's Secret

What is a Organization for Victoria's Secret? Defining Organization in VRIO

Even if the Victoria's Secret has all the valuable resources that are both rare and difficult to imitate, it won’t automatically result into a sustainable competitive advantage. The key to build the sustainable competitive advantage is to have organizational capabilities, expertise, and structure to exploit the resources. If Victoria's Secret is not organized based on its strengths then it won’t able to exploit all the resources that it possesses.

Resources	Value	Rare	Imitation	Organization	Competitive Advantage
Successful Implementation of Digital Strategy at Victoria's Secret	Yes, without a comprehensive digital strategy it is extremely difficult to compete	No, as most of the firms are investing into digitalizing operations	Can be imitated by competitors	One of the leading player in the industry	Digital strategy has become critical in the industry but it can't provide sustainable competitive advantage to
Global and Local Presence of Victoria's Secret	Yes, as it diversify the revenue streams and isolate company's balance sheet from economic cycles	Yes	Can be imitated by competitors of Victoria's Secret but at a relatively high cost	Yes, it is one of the most diversified companies in its industry	Providing Strong Competitive Advantage
Opportunities in the Adjacent Industries that Victoria's Secret can exploit & New Resources Required to Enter those Industries	Can be valuable as they will create new revenue streams	No	Can be imitated by competitors	All the capabilities of the organization are not fully utilized yet	Has potential
Vision of the Leadership for Next Set of Challenges	Yes	No	Can't be imitated by competitors of Victoria's Secret	Not based on information provided in the case	Can Lead to Strong Competitive Advantage
Track Record of Leadership Team at Victoria's Secret	Yes	Yes	Can't be imitated by competitors	Yes	Providing Strong Competitive Advantage
Distribution and Logistics Costs Competitiveness	Yes, as it helps Victoria's Secret in delivering lower costs	No	Can be imitated by competitors of Victoria's Secret but it is difficult	Yes	Medium to Long Term Competitive Advantage
Brand awareness of Victoria's Secret products and services	Yes, the brand awareness of Victoria's Secret products are high	Yes, Victoria's Secret has one of the leading brand in the industry	No	Victoria's Secret has utilized its leading brand position in various segments	Sustainable Competitive Advantage
Alignment of Activities with Victoria's Secret Corporate Strategy	Yes	No	Each of the firm has its own strategy	Yes, company has organizational skills to extract the maximum out of it.	Still lots of potential to build on it
Position among Retailers and Wholesalers – Victoria's Secret retail strategy	Yes, Victoria's Secret has strong relationship with retailers and wholesalers	Yes, Victoria's Secret has dedicated channel partners	Difficult to imitate though not impossible	Yes, over the years company has used it successfully	Sustainable Competitive Advantage
Opportunities for Brand Extensions for Victoria's Secret products	Yes, new niches are emerging in the market	No, as most of the competitors are also targeting those niches	Yes can be imitated by the competitors	Brand extensions will require higher marketing budget	Temporary Competitive Advantage
Brand Positioning of Victoria's Secret in Comparison to the Competitors	Yes	No	Can be imitated by competitors but it will require big marketing budget	Yes, the firm has positioned its brands based on consumer behavior	Temporary Competitive Advantage
Access to Critical Raw Material for Successful Execution	Yes	Yes, as other competitors have to come to terms with Victoria's Secret dominant market position	Can be imitated by competitors	Yes	Providing Sustainable Competitive Advantage
Opportunities in the E-Commerce Space for Victoria's Secret - using Present IT Capabilities	Yes, the e-commerce space is rapidly growing and Victoria's Secret can exploit the emerging opportunities	No, most of the competitors are investing in IT to enter the space	The AI and inhouse analytics can be difficult to imitate	It is just the start for the organization	In the long run it can provide sustainable competitive advantage
Victoria's Secret Customer Network and Loyalty	Yes, 23% of the customers contribute to more than 84% of the sales revenue	Yes, firm has invested to build a strong customer loyalty	Has been tried by competitors but none of them are as successful as Victoria's Secret	Victoria's Secret is leveraging the customer loyalty to good effect	Provide Victoria's Secret medium term competitive advantage

Victoria's Secret SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, Weighted SWOT Case Study Solution & Analysis

Books and References

Ahir Gopaldas and Anton Siebert (2022 July August) "What You’re Getting Wrong About Customer Journeys", Harvard Business Review , 92
Linda A. Hill, Emily Tedards, and Taran Swan (2021) "Drive Innovation with Better Decision-Making", Harvard Business Review 86
Dyer, J. H., & Hatch, N. (2004). Using Supplier Networks to Learn Faster. Sloan Management Review, 45(3), 57–63
Barney, J. B. (1991). Firm resources and sustained competitive advantage. Journal of Management, 17, 99–120
Dyer, J. H., Kale, P., & Singh, H. (2004, July–August). When to ally and when to acquire. Harvard Business Review, 109–115