Western & Southern Financial Group 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 Western & Southern Financial Group to do better resource allocation and build a defensible value and supply chain.

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What is a Valuable Resource for Western & Southern Financial Group? Defining Valuable in VRIO

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

What are Rare Resources for Western & Southern Financial Group? Defining Rare in VRIO

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

What is a Inimitable (Difficult to Immitate) Resource for Western & Southern Financial Group? Defining Inimitable in VRIO

A valuable and rare resource can provide a competitive advantage to Western & Southern Financial Group 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. Western & Southern Financial Group 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 Western & Southern Financial Group

What is a Organization for Western & Southern Financial Group? Defining Organization in VRIO

Even if the Western & Southern Financial Group 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 Western & Southern Financial Group 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
Vision of the Leadership for Next Set of Challenges	Yes	No	Can't be imitated by competitors of Western & Southern Financial Group	Not based on information provided in the case	Can Lead to Strong Competitive Advantage
Supply Chain Network Flexibility of Western & Southern Financial Group	Yes	Yes	Near competitors also have flexible supply chain and share some of the suppliers	Fully utilized by Western & Southern Financial Group organizational structure and capabilities	Keeps the business running
Customer Community of Western & Southern Financial Group	Yes, as customers are co-creating products	Yes, the Western & Southern Financial Group has able to build a special relationship with its customers	It is very difficult for Western & Southern Financial Group competitors to imitate the culture and community dedication	Going by the data, there is still a lot of upside in building on Western & Southern Financial Group customers community ecosystem	Providing Strong Competitive Advantage
Western & Southern Financial Group 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 Western & Southern Financial Group	Western & Southern Financial Group is leveraging the customer loyalty to good effect	Provide Western & Southern Financial Group medium term competitive advantage
Talent to Manage Regulatory and Legal Obligations	Yes	No	Can be imitated by competitors	Yes	Not critical factor
Global and Local Presence of Western & Southern Financial Group	Yes, as it diversify the revenue streams and isolate company's balance sheet from economic cycles	Yes	Can be imitated by competitors of Western & Southern Financial Group but at a relatively high cost	Yes, it is one of the most diversified companies in its industry	Providing Strong Competitive Advantage
Alignment of Activities with Western & Southern Financial Group 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
Successful Implementation of Digital Strategy at Western & Southern Financial Group	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
Opportunities in the Adjacent Industries that Western & Southern Financial Group 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
Brand Positioning of Western & Southern Financial Group 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 Cheap Capital for Western & Southern Financial Group	Yes, as a leading player in the industry and current macro economic conditions, Western & Southern Financial Group has access to cheap capital	No	Can be imitated by the competitors of Western & Southern Financial Group	Not been totally exploited	Not significant in creating competitive advantage
Access to Critical Raw Material for Successful Execution	Yes	Yes, as other competitors have to come to terms with Western & Southern Financial Group dominant market position	Can be imitated by competitors	Yes	Providing Sustainable Competitive Advantage
Track Record of Project Execution	Yes, especially in an industry where there are frequent cost overun	Yes, especially in the segment that Western & Southern Financial Group operates in	No, none of the competitors so far has able to imitate this expertise	Yes, Western & Southern Financial Group is successful at it	Providing Strong Competitive Advantage
Track Record of Leadership Team at Western & Southern Financial Group	Yes	Yes	Can't be imitated by competitors	Yes	Providing Strong Competitive Advantage

Western & Southern Financial Group SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, Weighted SWOT Case Study Solution & Analysis

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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

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