American Tower 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 American Tower to do better resource allocation and build a defensible value and supply chain.

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What is a Valuable Resource for American Tower? Defining Valuable in VRIO

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

What are Rare Resources for American Tower? Defining Rare in VRIO

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

What is a Inimitable (Difficult to Immitate) Resource for American Tower? Defining Inimitable in VRIO

A valuable and rare resource can provide a competitive advantage to American Tower 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. American Tower 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 American Tower

What is a Organization for American Tower? Defining Organization in VRIO

Even if the American Tower 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 American Tower 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 American Tower	Yes	No	Can be imitated by competitors	Still there is lot of potential to utilize the excellent sales force	Can provide American Tower sustainable competitive advantage. Potential is certainly there.
Opportunities in the Adjacent Industries that American Tower 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 American Tower	Not based on information provided in the case	Can Lead to Strong Competitive Advantage
Financial Resources of American Tower	Yes	No	Financial instruments and market liquidity are available to all the nearest competitors	American Tower has reasonably sound financial position	American Tower has relatively sustainable Competitive Advantage
Access to Cheap Capital for American Tower	Yes, as a leading player in the industry and current macro economic conditions, American Tower has access to cheap capital	No	Can be imitated by the competitors of American Tower	Not been totally exploited	Not significant in creating competitive advantage
Brand awareness of American Tower products and services	Yes, the brand awareness of American Tower products are high	Yes, American Tower has one of the leading brand in the industry	No	American Tower has utilized its leading brand position in various segments	Sustainable Competitive Advantage
Access to Critical Raw Material for Successful Execution	Yes	Yes, as other competitors have to come to terms with American Tower dominant market position	Can be imitated by competitors	Yes	Providing Sustainable Competitive Advantage
Global and Local Presence of American Tower	Yes, as it diversify the revenue streams and isolate company's balance sheet from economic cycles	Yes	Can be imitated by competitors of American Tower but at a relatively high cost	Yes, it is one of the most diversified companies in its industry	Providing Strong Competitive Advantage
Talent to Manage Regulatory and Legal Obligations	Yes	No	Can be imitated by competitors	Yes	Not critical factor
Position among Retailers and Wholesalers – American Tower retail strategy	Yes, American Tower has strong relationship with retailers and wholesalers	Yes, American Tower has dedicated channel partners	Difficult to imitate though not impossible	Yes, over the years company has used it successfully	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 American Tower operates in	No, none of the competitors so far has able to imitate this expertise	Yes, American Tower is successful at it	Providing Strong Competitive Advantage
Supply Chain Network Flexibility of American Tower	Yes	Yes	Near competitors also have flexible supply chain and share some of the suppliers	Fully utilized by American Tower organizational structure and capabilities	Keeps the business running
Marketing Expertise within American Tower	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 American Tower are often matched by competitors	Yes, American Tower is leveraging both its inhouse marketing department and external expertise	Temporary Competitive Advantage
Intellectual Property Rights, Copyrights, and Trademarks	Yes, they are extremely valuable for American Tower to thwart competition	Yes, IPR and other rights are rare and competition of American Tower 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

American Tower 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