Discussion questions

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Week 2 discussion   ·  Can any firm beat Amazon in the marketplace? If not, why not? If so, how can they best do so? How formidable a competitor is Google for Amazon? Please explain. What are Amazon’s major strengths? Does it have any weaknesses? Please explain. Is Jet.com a potential concern for Amazon? Why or why not? ·  Given the importance of understanding the external environment, why do some firms fail to do so? Provide examples of firms that did not understand their external environment. What were the implications of the firm’s failure to understand that environment? Week 3 discussion Many companies use their brand as a competitive advantage. Given your knowledge about the global economy, identify three brands you believe have the strongest likelihood of remaining a source of advantage in the 21st century and explain why. Explain the effects you believe the Internet’s capabilities will have on the brands you identified in the previous discussion and what the owner of the brand should do in light of them. Week 4 discussion ·  Assess your satisfaction with Aldi and make recommendations about how the company could modify its business-level strategy to both increase your overall level of satisfaction and to attract new customers. Provide specific examples to support your response. ·  Analyze the five business-level strategies discussed in Chapter 4 to determine which strategy most likely applies to Aldi. Determine how a shopper’s experience might change if it switched to one of the other four strategies (your choice). Explain your rationale Week 5 discussion ·  Evaluate the business-level strategy of either Starbucks or Lockheed Martin to determine whether you believe the strategy is appropriate to offset forces in the industry. Provide specific examples to support your response. ·  Make recommendations for improving this strategy as well as describing any challenges you foresee in executing those recommendations. Provide specific examples to support your response.