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

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What is a Valuable Resource for NOW? Defining Valuable in VRIO

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

What are Rare Resources for NOW? Defining Rare in VRIO

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

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

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

What is a Organization for NOW? Defining Organization in VRIO

Even if the NOW 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 NOW 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
Customer Community of NOW	Yes, as customers are co-creating products	Yes, the NOW has able to build a special relationship with its customers	It is very difficult for NOW competitors to imitate the culture and community dedication	Going by the data, there is still a lot of upside in building on NOW customers community ecosystem	Providing Strong Competitive Advantage
Brand Positioning of NOW 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
Distribution and Logistics Costs Competitiveness	Yes, as it helps NOW in delivering lower costs	No	Can be imitated by competitors of NOW but it is difficult	Yes	Medium to Long Term Competitive Advantage
Access to Critical Raw Material for Successful Execution	Yes	Yes, as other competitors have to come to terms with NOW dominant market position	Can be imitated by competitors	Yes	Providing Sustainable Competitive Advantage
Financial Resources of NOW	Yes	No	Financial instruments and market liquidity are available to all the nearest competitors	NOW has reasonably sound financial position	NOW has relatively sustainable Competitive Advantage
Alignment of Activities with NOW 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
Opportunities in the Adjacent Industries that NOW 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
NOW 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 NOW	NOW is leveraging the customer loyalty to good effect	Provide NOW medium term competitive advantage
Access to Cheap Capital for NOW	Yes, as a leading player in the industry and current macro economic conditions, NOW has access to cheap capital	No	Can be imitated by the competitors of NOW	Not been totally exploited	Not significant in creating competitive advantage
Ability to Attract Talent in Various Local & Global Markets	Yes, NOW 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 NOW	To a large extent yes	Providing Strong Competitive Advantage
Marketing Expertise within NOW	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 NOW are often matched by competitors	Yes, NOW is leveraging both its inhouse marketing department and external expertise	Temporary Competitive Advantage
Opportunities in the E-Commerce Space for NOW - using Present IT Capabilities	Yes, the e-commerce space is rapidly growing and NOW 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
Intellectual Property Rights, Copyrights, and Trademarks	Yes, they are extremely valuable for NOW to thwart competition	Yes, IPR and other rights are rare and competition of NOW 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
Supply Chain Network Flexibility of NOW	Yes	Yes	Near competitors also have flexible supply chain and share some of the suppliers	Fully utilized by NOW organizational structure and capabilities	Keeps the business running

NOW 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