VRIO Analysis of The Gold Story

Posted by Zachary Edwards on Mar-22-2018

The VRIO Analysis of The Gold Story will look at each of its internal resources one by one to assess whether these provide sustained competitive advantage. The The Gold Story VRIO Analysis also mentions at each stage whether these resources could be improved to provide a greater competitive advantage. Lastly, the resources analysed are summarised as to whether they offer sustained competitive advantage, has an unused competitive advantage, temporary competitive advantage, competitive parity or competitive disadvantage.

Valuable

• The The Gold Story VRIO Analysis shows that the financial resources of The Gold Story are highly valuable as these help in investing into external opportunities that arise. These also help The Gold Story in combating external threats.
• According to the VRIO Analysis of The Gold Story, its local food products are a valuable resource as these are highly differentiated. This makes the perceived value for these by customers high. These are also valued more than the competition by customers due to the differentiation in these products.
• The The Gold Story VRIO Analysis shows that The Gold Story's employees are a valuable resource to the firm. A significant portion of the workforce is highly trained, and this leads to more productive output for the organisation. The employees are also loyal, and retention levels for the organisation are high. All of this translates into greater value for the end consumers of The Gold Story's products.
• According to the VRIO Analysis of The Gold Story, its patents are a valuable resource as these allow the firm to sell its products without competitive interference. This results in greater revenue for The Gold Story. These patents also provide The Gold Story with licensing revenue when it licenses these patents out to other manufacturers.
• The The Gold Story VRIO Analysis shows that The Gold Story’s distribution network is a valuable resource. This helps it in reaching out to more and more customers. This ensures greater revenues for The Gold Story. It also ensures that promotion activities translate into sales as the products are easily available.
• According to the VRIO Analysis of The Gold Story, its cost structure is not a valuable resource. This is because the methods of production lead to greater costs than that of competition, which affects the overall profits of the firm. Therefore, its cost structure is a competitive disadvantage that needs to be worked on.
• The The Gold Story VRIO Analysis shows that the research and development at The Gold Story is not a valuable resource. This is because research and development are costing more than the benefits it provides in the form of innovation. There have been very few innovative features and breakthrough products in the past few years. Therefore, research and development are a competitive disadvantage for The Gold Story. It is recommended that the research and development teams are improved, and costs are cut for these.

Rare

• The financial resources of The Gold Story are found to be rare according to the VRIO Analysis of The Gold Story. Strong financial resources are only possessed by a few companies in the industry.
• The local food products are found to be not rare as identified by The Gold Story VRIO Analysis. These are easily provided in the market by other competitors. This means that competitors can use these resources in the same way as The Gold Story and inhibit competitive advantage. This means that the local food products result in competitive parity for The Gold Story. As this resource is valuable, The Gold Story can still make use of this resource.
• The employees of The Gold Story are a rare resource as identified by the VRIO Analysis of The Gold Story. These employees are highly trained and skilled, which is not the case with employees in other firms. The better compensation and work environment ensure that these employees do not leave for other firms.
• The patents of The Gold Story are a rare resource as identified by the The Gold Story VRIO Analysis. These patents are not easily available and are not possessed by competitors. This allows The Gold Story to use them without interference from the competition.
• The distribution network of The Gold Story is a rare resource as identified by the VRIO Analysis of The Gold Story. This is because competitors would require a lot of investment and time to come up with a better distribution network than that of The Gold Story. These are also possessed by very few firms in the industry.

Imitable

• The financial resources of The Gold Story are costly to imitate as identified by the The Gold Story VRIO Analysis. These resources have been acquired by the company through prolonged profits over the years. New entrants and competitors would require similar profits for a long period of time to accumulate these amounts of financial resources.
• The local food products are not that costly to imitate as identified by the VRIO Analysis of The Gold Story. These can be acquired by competitors as well if they invest a significant amount in research and development. These also do not require years long experience. Therefore, the local food products by The Gold Story provide it with a temporary competitive advantage that competitors can too acquire in the long run.
• The employees of The Gold Story are also not costly to imitate as identified by the The Gold Story VRIO Analysis. This is because other firms can also train their employees to improve their skills. These companies can also hire employees from The Gold Story by offering better compensation packages, work environment, benefits, growth opportunities etc. This makes the employees of The Gold Story a resource that provides a temporary competitive advantage. Competition can acquire these in the future.
• The patents of The Gold Story are very difficult to imitate as identified by the VRIO Analysis of The Gold Story. This is because it is not legally allowed to imitate a patented product. Similar resources to be developed and getting a patent for them is also a costly process.
• The distribution network of The Gold Story is also very costly to imitate by competition as identified by the The Gold Story VRIO Analysis. This has been developed over the years gradually by The Gold Story. Competitors would have to invest a significant amount if they are to imitate a similar distribution system.

Organisation

• The financial resources of The Gold Story are organised to capture value as identified by the VRIO Analysis of The Gold Story. These resources are used strategically to invest in the right places; making use of opportunities and combatting threats. Therefore, these resources prove to be a source of sustained competitive advantage for The Gold Story.
• The Patents of The Gold Story are not well organised as identified by the The Gold Story VRIO Analysis. This means that the organisation is not using these patents to their full potential. An unused competitive advantage exists that can be changed into a sustainable competitive advantage if The Gold Story starts selling patented products before the patents expire.
• The distribution network of The Gold Story is organised as identified by the VRIO Analysis of The Gold Story. The Gold Story uses this network to reach out to its customers by ensuring that products are available on all of its outlets. Therefore, these resources prove to be a source of sustained competitive advantage for The Gold Story.

From the VRIO Analysis of The Gold Story, it was identified that the financial resources and distribution network provide a sustained competitive advantage. The patents are a source of unused competitive advantage. There exists a temporary competitive advantage for employees. There exists a competitive parity for local food products. Lastly, the cost structure of The Gold Story is a competitive disadvantage. Research and Development is also a competitive disadvantage.