Failed Strategies - Kodak Questions
Question 1
a. Kodak’s failure is explained by management’s inability to see digital photography as a disruptive technology. According to Mui, during its 10-year window of opportunity, Kodak did little to prepare for the later technological disruption, even though the study’s conclusions regarding digital photography were remarkably accurate.
b. Heaton distinguished good digital marketing practices from poor ones, using the examples of Boo.com, Pets.com, Joost, and Ecomom. The common mistakes derived from a mismanagement of key metrics and ecommerce levers such as conversion rates, customer acquisition costs and required visitor numbers (Heaton).
Question 2
Slim studies the merger between two banking giants Emirates Bank and NBD in UAE (246). The study, first, focuses on the reasons behind this merger; second, identifies the major strategic initiatives that the merged
companies had to do to make the merger happen with more benefits for profits (Slim 246). According to Slim, an initiated proactive change management plan, workshops, human deployment decisions, system integration
decisions and finally rebranding did make their merger story a success in terms of Profit (255).
Question 3
According to Murray, Walmart tends to implement new initiatives on the tenants of the three principles: “Save Money, Live Better”, “Win, Play, Show”, and “Fast, Friendly, Clean”. Responsibility for new initiatives derives from Walmart’s commitment to corporate social responsibility. Walmart monitor and track success by critically assessing key financial metrics and figures related to the target areas of incentives. Murray states that it is vital for Walmart to track the results of its incentives, as it is the only way to prove whether or not the company has been successful in carrying off its commitments and pledges.
The horizontal alignment is considered to be an appropriate alignment of strategies for Walmart, considering the scope and global nature of its activities. Such an alignment ensures that strategies conducted in one area
are not accidentally and improperly impacting the ability to achieve strategies in another area of Walmart activities.
Works Cited
Beena, Salim. “A Study on Strategic Initiatives and Actions Taken during a Banking Merger.” International Journal of Emerging Sciences, vol. 1, no. 3, 2011., pp. 246-256.
Heaton, Alex. “Examples of digital marketing strategy failures.” Smart Insights, 2014, http://www.smartinsights.com/digital-marketing-strategy/digital-strategy-development/digital-marketing-failure-examples/
Kotler, Philip and Nancy Lee. Corporate Social Responsibility. John Wiley & Sons, 2005.
Mui, Chunka. “How Kodak Failed.” Forbes.com, 2012, http://www.forbes.com/sites/chunkamui/2012/01/18/how-kodak-failed/#660a9d68bd6a
Murray, Martin. “Walmart's Strategic Initiatives.” The Balance, 23 July 2016, …
