Marathon Petroleum 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 Marathon Petroleum to do better resource allocation and build a defensible value and supply chain.

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What is a Valuable Resource for Marathon Petroleum? Defining Valuable in VRIO

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

What are Rare Resources for Marathon Petroleum? Defining Rare in VRIO

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

What is a Inimitable (Difficult to Immitate) Resource for Marathon Petroleum? Defining Inimitable in VRIO

A valuable and rare resource can provide a competitive advantage to Marathon Petroleum 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. Marathon Petroleum 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 Marathon Petroleum

What is a Organization for Marathon Petroleum? Defining Organization in VRIO

Even if the Marathon Petroleum 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 Marathon Petroleum 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
Track Record of Project Execution	Yes, especially in an industry where there are frequent cost overun	Yes, especially in the segment that Marathon Petroleum operates in	No, none of the competitors so far has able to imitate this expertise	Yes, Marathon Petroleum is successful at it	Providing Strong Competitive Advantage
Track Record of Leadership Team at Marathon Petroleum	Yes	Yes	Can't be imitated by competitors	Yes	Providing Strong Competitive Advantage
Brand awareness of Marathon Petroleum products and services	Yes, the brand awareness of Marathon Petroleum products are high	Yes, Marathon Petroleum has one of the leading brand in the industry	No	Marathon Petroleum has utilized its leading brand position in various segments	Sustainable Competitive Advantage
Position among Retailers and Wholesalers – Marathon Petroleum retail strategy	Yes, Marathon Petroleum has strong relationship with retailers and wholesalers	Yes, Marathon Petroleum has dedicated channel partners	Difficult to imitate though not impossible	Yes, over the years company has used it successfully	Sustainable Competitive Advantage
Financial Resources of Marathon Petroleum	Yes	No	Financial instruments and market liquidity are available to all the nearest competitors	Marathon Petroleum has reasonably sound financial position	Marathon Petroleum has relatively sustainable Competitive Advantage
Opportunities for Brand Extensions for Marathon Petroleum 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
Alignment of Activities with Marathon Petroleum 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
Marathon Petroleum 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 Marathon Petroleum	Marathon Petroleum is leveraging the customer loyalty to good effect	Provide Marathon Petroleum medium term competitive advantage
Access to Cheap Capital for Marathon Petroleum	Yes, as a leading player in the industry and current macro economic conditions, Marathon Petroleum has access to cheap capital	No	Can be imitated by the competitors of Marathon Petroleum	Not been totally exploited	Not significant in creating competitive advantage
Sales Force and Channel Management of Marathon Petroleum	Yes	No	Can be imitated by competitors	Still there is lot of potential to utilize the excellent sales force	Can provide Marathon Petroleum sustainable competitive advantage. Potential is certainly there.
Vision of the Leadership for Next Set of Challenges	Yes	No	Can't be imitated by competitors of Marathon Petroleum	Not based on information provided in the case	Can Lead to Strong Competitive Advantage
Brand Positioning of Marathon Petroleum 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
Marketing Expertise within Marathon Petroleum	Yes, firms are competing based on differentiation in the industry	No, as most of the competitors also have good marketing departments and expertise	Pricing strategies of Marathon Petroleum are often matched by competitors	Yes, Marathon Petroleum is leveraging both its inhouse marketing department and external expertise	Temporary Competitive Advantage
Ability to Attract Talent in Various Local & Global Markets	Yes, Marathon Petroleum strategy is built on successful innovation and localization of products	Yes, as talent is critical to firm's growth	Difficult to imitate for the current competitors of Marathon Petroleum	To a large extent yes	Providing Strong Competitive Advantage

Marathon Petroleum 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