STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT

Answer to Question 1.

IT industry is a fast cycle market. IBM is the best example of fast-cycle market firm. It has been continuously taking the strategic actions in order to compete with its giant rivals like Dell. For instance, in the year 2001 IBM bought the Informix and in the following years IBM incorporated the technology of Informix into the DB2 product suite. IBM has continuously been increasing its product range in the areas of Transaction processing, Query processing, parallel processing, and optimization. Than in the year 2007 IBM formed a joint venture with a Japanese company Ricoh and the venture was named as InfoPrint Solutions Company. There was a 51 percent ownership of the venture was held by Ricoh and IBM's printing system division was involved in that particular venture (EIRMA, 2003).

As far as the internet technology is concerned I.T industry is totally based on internet. However, if we look critically at IBM and the internet use, than it is clear that the internet has affected the firm in a number of ways. For instance, selling of IBM products through internet, online customer services, technical support, and online downloads. So there is a major positive impact of internet on IBM operations.

Answer to Question 2.

When a company is willing to compete with its rivals in the competitive market by applying its most of the resources on core products and services than the strategy of spin off are appropriate for it. For instance, if company A two product lines let's say x and y and its core product is x which is facing a stiff competition from the rivals in the same industry than it is better for the company to spin off its product y. It will enable the company to apply its core competencies towards its core ...