Strategic Management Paper Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Strategic Management Paper - Assignment Example The value discipline approach was created by Michael Tracy and Fred Wiersema. The three value disciplines are operational excellence, product leadership, and customer intimacy. Operational excellence deals with having superb operations and executions and execution quality at a reasonable price (Valuebasedmanagement, 2011). This strategy is not aligned with the objectives of Auxilium Pharmaceutical. The company has two patented product one of them, Xiaflex, was introduced in 2011. The company must implement a retail price strategy for its drugs, thus selling cheap or at discounted price is not a possibility. Product leadership is associated with innovation and brand marketing in dynamic marketplaces. This approach would be very suitable for Auxilium Pharmaceutical. The company already has build up some brand value due to its 13 years of existence in the marketplace. The third value discipline is customer intimacy. This approach is achieved by providing superb customer service and cust omer attention. The use of this value discipline can help the company achieve long term growth. The second strategy that the company can consider to achieve growth is the use of a generic strategy. The generic growth strategy approach was developed by Michael Porter. The three generic strategies are cost leadership, differentiation, and focus strategy. Cost leadership implies attempting to become the market leader in terms of prices in your industry. A cost leadership strategy is not well suited for a pharmaceutical company that sells patented drugs. Drug companies have to invest at least $1.2 billion to develop a new drug. Pharmaceutical companies such as Auxilium Pharmaceutical are given 20 years of patent protection to be able to recover their investment and to obtain a reasonable profit. Auxilium Pharmaceutical should not pursue a cost leadership strategy. The second generic strategy is called differentiation. â€Å"A differentiation strategy calls for the development of a prod uct or service that offers unique attributes that are valued by customers and that customers perceive to be better than or different from the products of the competition† ( Mcraigh, 2011). This growth strategy is aligned with the mission, vision, and objectives of Auxilium Pharmaceutical. The third generic strategy is focus. Focus is a hybrid strategy that attempts to achieve both cost and differentiation. Such a strategy is suitable for large companies with multiple products. Auxilium Pharmaceutical only has two products the company is aggressively marketing. The third strategy that Auxilium Pharmaceutical may pursue is a grand strategy. A grand strategy can be defined as a comprehensive long term plan of actions by which a firm plans to change its long term objectives (Businessdictionary, 2011). Some of the ways a company can implement a grand strategy to achieve business growth are joint ventures, acquisition, strategic alliances, divesture and diversification. A joint vent ure occurs when went two or more companies unite forces to form a new single entity. Prior to China’s acceptance into the WTO in 2001 the only way for foreign companies to penetrate the Chinese market was to form joint ventures with Chinese state owned companies. Strategic alliances occur when two or more companies participate together in a project or business function. For instance in the airline industry it is common for companies to form strategic alliance