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

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

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

What are Rare Resources for Gannett? Defining Rare in VRIO

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

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

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

What is a Organization for Gannett? Defining Organization in VRIO

Even if the Gannett 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 Gannett 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
Distribution and Logistics Costs Competitiveness	Yes, as it helps Gannett in delivering lower costs	No	Can be imitated by competitors of Gannett but it is difficult	Yes	Medium to Long Term Competitive Advantage
Position among Retailers and Wholesalers – Gannett retail strategy	Yes, Gannett has strong relationship with retailers and wholesalers	Yes, Gannett has dedicated channel partners	Difficult to imitate though not impossible	Yes, over the years company has used it successfully	Sustainable Competitive Advantage
Product Portfolio and Synergy among Various Product Lines of Gannett	Yes, it is valuable in the industry given the various segmentations & consumer preferences.	Most of the competitors are trying to enter the lucrative segments	Can be imitated by the competitors	The firm has used it to good effect, details can be found in case exhibit	Provide short term competitive advantage but requires constant innovation to sustain
Opportunities in the Adjacent Industries that Gannett 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
Talent to Manage Regulatory and Legal Obligations	Yes	No	Can be imitated by competitors	Yes	Not critical factor
Ability to Attract Talent in Various Local & Global Markets	Yes, Gannett 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 Gannett	To a large extent yes	Providing Strong Competitive Advantage
Global and Local Presence of Gannett	Yes, as it diversify the revenue streams and isolate company's balance sheet from economic cycles	Yes	Can be imitated by competitors of Gannett 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 Gannett 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
Access to Critical Raw Material for Successful Execution	Yes	Yes, as other competitors have to come to terms with Gannett dominant market position	Can be imitated by competitors	Yes	Providing Sustainable Competitive Advantage
Intellectual Property Rights, Copyrights, and Trademarks	Yes, they are extremely valuable for Gannett to thwart competition	Yes, IPR and other rights are rare and competition of Gannett 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
Sales Force and Channel Management of Gannett	Yes	No	Can be imitated by competitors	Still there is lot of potential to utilize the excellent sales force	Can provide Gannett sustainable competitive advantage. Potential is certainly there.
Brand Positioning of Gannett 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
Pricing Strategies of Gannett	Yes, Gannett has sound pricing strategies	No	Pricing strategies are regularly imitated in the industry	Yes, firm has a pricing analytics engine	It can only provide Gannett with a Temporary Competitive Advantage
Gannett 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 Gannett	Gannett is leveraging the customer loyalty to good effect	Provide Gannett medium term competitive advantage

Gannett 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