Northern Trust 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 Northern Trust to do better resource allocation and build a defensible value and supply chain.

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What is a Valuable Resource for Northern Trust? Defining Valuable in VRIO

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

What are Rare Resources for Northern Trust? Defining Rare in VRIO

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

What is a Inimitable (Difficult to Immitate) Resource for Northern Trust? Defining Inimitable in VRIO

A valuable and rare resource can provide a competitive advantage to Northern Trust 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. Northern Trust 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 Northern Trust

What is a Organization for Northern Trust? Defining Organization in VRIO

Even if the Northern Trust 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 Northern Trust 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
Sales Force and Channel Management of Northern Trust	Yes	No	Can be imitated by competitors	Still there is lot of potential to utilize the excellent sales force	Can provide Northern Trust sustainable competitive advantage. Potential is certainly there.
Track Record of Project Execution	Yes, especially in an industry where there are frequent cost overun	Yes, especially in the segment that Northern Trust operates in	No, none of the competitors so far has able to imitate this expertise	Yes, Northern Trust is successful at it	Providing Strong Competitive Advantage
Intellectual Property Rights, Copyrights, and Trademarks	Yes, they are extremely valuable for Northern Trust to thwart competition	Yes, IPR and other rights are rare and competition of Northern Trust 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
Northern Trust 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 Northern Trust	Northern Trust is leveraging the customer loyalty to good effect	Provide Northern Trust medium term competitive advantage
Ability to Attract Talent in Various Local & Global Markets	Yes, Northern Trust 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 Northern Trust	To a large extent yes	Providing Strong Competitive Advantage
Access to Cheap Capital for Northern Trust	Yes, as a leading player in the industry and current macro economic conditions, Northern Trust has access to cheap capital	No	Can be imitated by the competitors of Northern Trust	Not been totally exploited	Not significant in creating competitive advantage
Opportunities for Brand Extensions for Northern Trust 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
Successful Implementation of Digital Strategy at Northern Trust	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
Distribution and Logistics Costs Competitiveness	Yes, as it helps Northern Trust in delivering lower costs	No	Can be imitated by competitors of Northern Trust but it is difficult	Yes	Medium to Long Term Competitive Advantage
Marketing Expertise within Northern Trust	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 Northern Trust are often matched by competitors	Yes, Northern Trust is leveraging both its inhouse marketing department and external expertise	Temporary Competitive Advantage
Vision of the Leadership for Next Set of Challenges	Yes	No	Can't be imitated by competitors of Northern Trust	Not based on information provided in the case	Can Lead to Strong Competitive Advantage
Financial Resources of Northern Trust	Yes	No	Financial instruments and market liquidity are available to all the nearest competitors	Northern Trust has reasonably sound financial position	Northern Trust has relatively sustainable Competitive Advantage
Opportunities in the Adjacent Industries that Northern Trust 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 Northern Trust 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

Northern Trust 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