VRIN Framework (by Birger Wernerfelt)

(To identify resources that give firms a competitive advantage)

Certain resources give the business a competitive advantage. These have the VRIN
characteristics, which can be discovered by focusing on four essential qualities:
● Value: Resources that can bring value can be a source of competitive advantage. Keep
in mind that not all resources are equally easy to obtain.
● Rareness: Resources that are available to all competitors rarely provide any significant
competitive advantage.
● Imitability: An ideal resource cannot be obtained by competing businesses.
● Non-substitutable: An ideal resource cannot be substituted by any other resource.
Explanation:
● In 1984, Birger Wernerfelt came up with the resource-based view (RBV) as “a basis for
the competitive advantage of a firm that lies primarily in the application of a bundle of
valuable tangible or intangible resources at the firm’s disposal.” This influential theory
has become the basis of several frameworks, including VRIO.
● According to Wernerfelt’s theory, a business is a bundle of resources. Businesses differ
depending on what these resources are and how they are combined with one another.
Resources include but are not limited to processes, capabilities, assets, attributes,
information, and knowledge. Together, they allow businesses to execute their relevant
activities.

McFarlan’s strategic grid

Explains the relationship between potential strategic impact and the impact of IT on core operations.
Gartner’s strategic alignment grid
Change Management framework
DELTA framework for maturity of BA
model
Data: What is unique abt the data that I have?

Enterprise: How well is it integrated with data and analytics?

Leadership: How involved is the leader in the process?

Target: What are you trying to measure? Which functions or processes eg: KPIs etc?

Analyst: people who are working have what skillsets and how can they be used?

Consulting firms have added 2 new dimensions to this as techniques and technologies used to
implement and sustain the analytics.
Techniques for data analysis & OTD
model
Output Techniques  Data

Techniques:

1. Clustering technique: data reduction technique to cluster data into segments based on
some behaviours and patterns. Generally data is not labelled and hence, is unsupervised
learning. Similarity within segment is high and b/w different segments, its low.
2. Classification: the data is labelled and classified based on the labels. Like credit score of
customer can be one classification metric. Called supervised learning
3. CLV: The lifetime value that a customer generates for the company. NPV of all expected
future cash flow from the customer based on their cluster.
4. Decision tree: used to classify and predict in which data set the customer falls. Generally a
set of if-else statements that can categorise a customer.
5. Logistic regression: Run a regression model on data to figure out a person’ future behaviour
based on past trends and available metrics

Data:

1. Cross-sectional: the values at a particular timepoint for all people. Not useful in real-life
2. Time series data: data for one person over a long span of time.
3. Panel data: combination of both above. Very useful

Davenport’s classification of data analytics:

1. Descriptive: data about past trends and occurrences

2. Predictive: Inferneces/predictions about the future trends
3. Prescriptive: business actions and recommendations
Choosing CRM strategy
Bucketize customers and how to focus on target strategy.
Supply Chain Traceability
Before zeroing in on a technology to use, What is the traceability of the supply chain?

Supply chain traceability is the process of tracking the provenance and  journey of products and their
inputs, from the very start of the supply chain through to end-use. There are many reasons to
pursue traceability, and some sectors have been chasing it for many years—for example in food and
pharmaceuticals, where safety is critical. Traceability provides opportunities to find supply chain
efficiencies, meet regulatory requirements, to connect with and understand the actors in the
upstream supply chain, and of course, to story-tell to consumers about the provenance and journey
of products, often utilizing pictures or scannable QR codes on packaging.

Factors to consider while selecting system for traceability

1. Breadth: Breadth describes the amount of information(attributes) the traceability system

records.
2. Depth: The depth of a traceability system is how far back or forward the system tracks (till
which end does it track? One step back or all the way back?)
3. Precision reflects the degree of assurance with which the tracing system can pinpoint a
particular product’s movement or characteristics. Granularity level.
4. Access: The access refers to the speed with which traced information can be communicated
to supply chain members.
Blockchain solves problems at an industry level more than at an organisations level.
Discontinuities between technologies: Needs to force the hand of companies to adapt new
technologies.

• “Last mile delivery” is a drawback of blockchain – doesn’t solve upstream/downstream trace

• Digitization of the record depends on the trust on the channel partners
• Stake-holder buy in helps solve this problem. How do you convince grape grower to mark
with barcode/QR code?
• Economics of Integrating Block Chain – Cost is centralized vs Benefits are decentralized
(Deep pockets preferred when inter-organizational stakeholders are involved)
• Last Mile Problem is lesser in services rather than physical products because of problems like
how do you recall your existing products in the market
• Need to interact for industry implementation
• Degree of control is important as intra-organization integration is easier than inter-
organization
Managing Advanced Technologies
AI for recruitment:

1. Cheating: Identifies micro-expressions/traits to catch cheaters and hence, reduce cheating.

2. Bias: Fair and standardized. Data fed during learning phase very important to avoid bias
creeping in.

AI Implication grid
Acquiring Information Sys &
Applications
Waterfall model: The waterfall model is a linear project management approach, where
stakeholder and customer requirements are gathered at the beginning of the project, and
then a sequential project plan is created to accommodate those requirements.

Agile (scrum): The development process happens in small milestones or sprints rather than
sequentially. The ‘releases’ happen in pieces rather than complete deployment.
Agile Method focuses more on the core functionality, it is more flexible, and debugging
is comparatively easier, higher customer involvement in development process. Widely accepted
industry standard in most software/hardware roles.

Agile (Kanban): More focussed towards operations(DevOps). Live-tracking and capacity tracking
in real-time. Easier to identify bottlenecks in the process. Generally has a dashboard display to
track processes and progress.

Agile is more flexible than waterfall method and adapts to changes better.
Cost saving in Agile is more due to lesser debugging effort
required
Milestones/releases provide real-time tracking in Agile

Model View Controller

Primarily used in GUI development and web interface

development. Model is the database of the application. Manages
data, logic and rules of the application. View is a visual
representation of the data. Controller accepts input from users
and converts it to commands for model.

Content management Systems(CMS)

Modules of underlying code available widely which can be integrated to form your own content. Less
customisation and less costs.

Implementing IT/IS in org & IoT

Risks associated with implementation:

1. Size: Can organisation recover from any risk that the implementation poses? Eg: Venso at
high risk due to very small size. If any issues arise, don’t have spare capacity to use.
2. Requirement: underlying profit making/ success mapping principles are same. As an IS
vendor how do you assess risks?
3. Volatility: How to resolve timeline overshooting issues etc.? Is your method of
implementation upto the task of handling volatility?  negotiation, emphasis on
organisational changes, both structural and procedural
4. Familiarity with tech: Do u have a project champion or a technology expert in your team?
Core competencies of the team? Client side familiarity with tech and buy-in?

IoT: Inter-connected devices/sensors in the system communicating with each other continuously
with a database running analytics to constantly improve something like energy consumption.

4 basic layers:

1. Sensor Layer (like RFID, Bar code, movement sensor)

2. Network Layer: Where the data transfer happens among devices
3. Service Layer: Software interface between hardware and IoT applications which can provide
a rich set of data related functions
4. Application Layer: Interface between the consumer and the device network. Eg: the GUI of a
power grid.
Benefits/Negatives of IoT:
1. Economies of scale not very good. Maintenance costs etc very high. Cost per device added
2. JIT enabling
3. Forward looking technology
4. Removes some basic manual interventions
5. Supplier focussed
Look beyond the shine of new tech to understand the future potential

Cloud Computing: alternative to managing own data on ur own.

Organisational perspective
As organisations look at digital transformation (industry 4.0), and create platforms for their own
industry, some of the competencies that need to be looked at are:

1. Selling IoT enabled devices vs just hardware requires much more insight into customer
business
2. Good idea to let new technologies and ideas grow from ground-up rather than top-down.
Best people to ideate are the ones who work on things day-to-day.
3. Need to create platform ecosystem for partner buy-in.

What does GE need?

1. Downstream capabilities: selling to external customer

2. Higher collaboration with internal customers
3. Partners (tech companies who can manage this network)
4. Component manufacturers
5. Functionality developers