St. Jude Medical 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 St. Jude Medical to do better resource allocation and build a defensible value and supply chain.

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What is a Valuable Resource for St. Jude Medical? Defining Valuable in VRIO

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

What are Rare Resources for St. Jude Medical? Defining Rare in VRIO

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

What is a Inimitable (Difficult to Immitate) Resource for St. Jude Medical? Defining Inimitable in VRIO

A valuable and rare resource can provide a competitive advantage to St. Jude Medical 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. St. Jude Medical 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 St. Jude Medical

What is a Organization for St. Jude Medical? Defining Organization in VRIO

Even if the St. Jude Medical 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 St. Jude Medical 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
Financial Resources of St. Jude Medical	Yes	No	Financial instruments and market liquidity are available to all the nearest competitors	St. Jude Medical has reasonably sound financial position	St. Jude Medical has relatively sustainable Competitive Advantage
Sales Force and Channel Management of St. Jude Medical	Yes	No	Can be imitated by competitors	Still there is lot of potential to utilize the excellent sales force	Can provide St. Jude Medical sustainable competitive advantage. Potential is certainly there.
Access to Cheap Capital for St. Jude Medical	Yes, as a leading player in the industry and current macro economic conditions, St. Jude Medical has access to cheap capital	No	Can be imitated by the competitors of St. Jude Medical	Not been totally exploited	Not significant in creating competitive advantage
Global and Local Presence of St. Jude Medical	Yes, as it diversify the revenue streams and isolate company's balance sheet from economic cycles	Yes	Can be imitated by competitors of St. Jude Medical 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 E-Commerce Space for St. Jude Medical - using Present IT Capabilities	Yes, the e-commerce space is rapidly growing and St. Jude Medical 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
Talent to Manage Regulatory and Legal Obligations	Yes	No	Can be imitated by competitors	Yes	Not critical factor
Pricing Strategies of St. Jude Medical	Yes, St. Jude Medical has sound pricing strategies	No	Pricing strategies are regularly imitated in the industry	Yes, firm has a pricing analytics engine	It can only provide St. Jude Medical with a Temporary Competitive Advantage
Opportunities in the Adjacent Industries that St. Jude Medical 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
Supply Chain Network Flexibility of St. Jude Medical	Yes	Yes	Near competitors also have flexible supply chain and share some of the suppliers	Fully utilized by St. Jude Medical organizational structure and capabilities	Keeps the business running
Customer Community of St. Jude Medical	Yes, as customers are co-creating products	Yes, the St. Jude Medical has able to build a special relationship with its customers	It is very difficult for St. Jude Medical competitors to imitate the culture and community dedication	Going by the data, there is still a lot of upside in building on St. Jude Medical customers community ecosystem	Providing Strong Competitive Advantage
Intellectual Property Rights, Copyrights, and Trademarks	Yes, they are extremely valuable for St. Jude Medical to thwart competition	Yes, IPR and other rights are rare and competition of St. Jude Medical will find it extremely difficult to copy	Risk of imitation is low but given the margins in the industry disruption chances are high	So far the firm has not utilized the full extent of its IPR & other properties	Providing Strong Competitive Advantage
St. Jude Medical 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 St. Jude Medical	St. Jude Medical is leveraging the customer loyalty to good effect	Provide St. Jude Medical medium term competitive advantage
Opportunities for Brand Extensions for St. Jude Medical 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 St. Jude Medical 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

St. Jude Medical 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