Independent University Bangladesh

School of Business
MBA Program, Fall 2020
Course: MBA 550 (Strategic Management)
Semester Final Examination
Part: 2
Marks: 15 Duration: 90 Minutes
Name: Antara Haque ID: 1930973

[Answer any three from the following where Q#4 is a must]

1. Suppose you are the head of business strategy at a newly formed Bangladeshi smartphone
manufacturing company, “ABC Technologies Ltd.” Now, from the viewpoint of Blue
Ocean Strategy, how are you going to create entry barriers to survive in competition?
Answer: Blue Ocean Strategy is a strategy for a product or service where the company
penetrates into a new marketplace and create new demands. There are a lot of Smartphone
manufacturing companies out there in the market cutting throats of one another in the Red
Ocean. Currently giants like Walton, Symphony, Vivo etc. are in this business in Bangladesh.
Due to the booming digital ecosystem in Bangladesh, there is a high demand for high quality
yet affordable smartphones. To meet this demand, both the local manufacturers and
Government has realized the importance of manufacturing and assembling smartphones
locally for which trade regulations have been revised to encourage highly incentivize
manufacturing and local assembling, which is attracting both local and foreign smartphone
manufacturers to set up manufacturing plants in Bangladesh.
So, as the head of business strategy at a newly formed Bangladeshi smartphone
manufacturing company “ABC Technologies Ltd.”, some entry barriers need to be created
from the viewpoint of Blue Ocean Strategy to survive in competition:
i. Utilize advanced information communication technologies through innovation to
create an uncontested market space
ii. Challenge the industry cost, try to achieve economies of scale
iii. Build a wide range of distribution network
iv. Exclusive sales right in local stores such as GP shop, Robi shop, Daraz etc.
v. Customer service can play a big role here as this is a newly formed company, so it
needs to reach customers first, and then retain the customer base through excellent
after sales services to a point where customers become loyal to the brand.

2. Suppose you are the Head of Marketing of “XYZ Automobiles Ltd.” which imports and
sells expensive German luxury cars in Bangladesh. The starting price is BDT 1.5 crore
 and above. Who will be your target market and why? How are you going to differentiate
your offer/product from that of your competitors?

3. “Grameen Phone” is the undoubted market leader of the telecommunications industry in

Bangladesh. Describe different possible defense mechanisms/strategies that can be
applied by GP to sustain with the leading position.
Answer: As a market leader of the telecommunications industry in Bangladesh, Grameen
Phone does not have anyone to challenge or follow. To stand in the position where they are
currently, only two basic strategies are to be followed: acquiring smaller firms or trying to
expand the overall market. When a leader tries to acquire or expand, it must also defend the
current business. So, Grameen Phone has to continuously and constantly maintain its guard
against Robi, Banglalink, Teletalk. To ensure that, Grameen Phone needs to apply some
defense mechanisms/strategies to sustain with the leading position:
i. Position Defense: Through position defense, Grameen Phone can cater the needs of
their customer base as currently Grameen Phone has occupied the most desirable
market space in consumers’ minds. They should focus on their excellence for which
they grabbed customer attention in the first place.
ii. Flank Defense: Grameen Phone should take proper action to take measures to protect
their weaker front.
iii. Preemptive Defense: Attacking the competitors before they attack is always a better
defense strategy. Using the strong side such as network, customer loyalty, Grameen
Phone can attack competitors here and there simultaneously instead of attacking only
one at a time i.e., in terms of price, market reach etc.
iv. Counteroffensive Defense: To protect the leading position, Grameen Phone can
attack the competitor’s weak points.
v. Mobile Defense: Grameen Phone has already penetrated into new territories through
market broadening and market diversification such as Skitto, GPAY. They can focus
on broadening the customer base there and use is as future offense as well as defense.

4. Write short notes on the following:

a) Strategic planning gap: As the name says, strategic planning gap is the gap between
the expected or desired sales and the projected sales. To bridge the gap, a company
can follow three ways- intensive growth (identifying further growth opportunities
within the existing businesses); integrative growth (building or acquiring businesses
related to current businesses); and diversification growth (adding businesses unrelated
to existing businesses).
b) Diversification strategy: Diversification strategy is a growth strategy where
companies develop new products for new markets. A company can go for
diversification strategy to achieve greater profitability by expanding into markets and
industries that haven’t explored yet by the company.
c) Flank attack: Flank attack means attacking the competitors in their weak points. The
market challengers try to determine he weak areas of the competitors such as areas
 where the competitors are underperforming, and then push its marketing strategies in
those areas.
d) Economies of scale: Economies of scale is a cost leadership strategy where the cost
per unit of output decreases as the output increases. Companies can achieve
economies of scale through increasing production and lowering costs.
e) VRIO: The VRIO Framework is an acronym for a four-question framework of value,
rarity, imitability, and organization. It explains and predicts at which level a
company’s competitive advantage is. A product or service that the company is
offering has to be valuable, rare, costly to imitate and organized so that sustainable
competitive advantage is achieved.