Business Finance Homework Help

please respond to the two peers below to the following question:Choose ONE of the following discussion question options to respond to:

Using Adverse Conditions to a Company’s Advantage

• Chakravorti discusses four methods that corporate innovators use to turn adverse conditions to their advantage. These methods include: (1) Matching Unneeded Resources to Unmet Needs; (2) Rounding Up the Usual Suspects; (3) Finding Small Solutions to Big Problems; and (4) Thinking Platform, Not Just Product.
• Examine an organization of your choice and briefly discuss how the organization might use one of these methods to capitalize on the opportunity found in adversity.

-OR-

Assessing Risk and Reward

• Locate and post a link to an article from The Wall Street Journal or other reputable source, published within the last year, about an organization whose business strategy was upended by a crisis, but was able to reinvent itself and capitalize on new opportunities in the face of adversity.
• Drawing on insights presented in Chapter 5 of Sherman, explain what techniques they leveraged to find a way forward
• 1. Nkechinyere Adegboyega COLLAPSE
  

  Chakravorti discusses four methods that corporate innovators use to turn adverse conditions to their advantage. These methods include (1) Matching Unneeded Resources to Unmet Needs; (2) Rounding Up the Usual Suspects; (3) Finding Small Solutions to Big Problems; and (4) Thinking Platform, Not Just Product.Examine an organization of your choice and briefly discuss how the organization might use one of these methods to capitalize on the opportunity found in adversity.Several companies ceased to exist because of the financial impact that the pandemic had on their business activities and finances. Over the last eighteen months in Nigeria, we continue to hear news of one company after another closing business for good or shutting down their operations in the country. One such organization is Shoprite, a multinational retail giant that decided to leave Nigeria in August 2020 after fifteen years of doing business in the country (Madubela, 1).I heard of Niccolò Machiavelli for the first time in a 90’s rap song, and I never thought of him again until I read an interesting quote of his in this week’s course material that resonated with me, “never waste the opportunities offered by a good crisis” (Chakravorti, 2). Of course, I have since read as much as I can this week about the ‘notorious’ Machiavelli online.Shoprite cited that the coronavirus pandemic and the attending lockdown restrictions as one of the primary reasons for their decision to close shop in Nigeria, as the limits stifled their business to a point where recovery became impossible (BBC, 3). Several Nigerians lost their jobs during the pandemic, which added to Shoprite’s distress as many customers could no longer afford their premium-priced goods (3). However, where Shoprite seems to have failed, another retail giant called FoodCo Nigeria Limited applied the statement I quoted earlier from Machiavelli to the letter and came out a real winner. FoodCo emerged as the Retailer of Year in November 2020 and is the fastest-growing retail chain in Nigeria (Vanguard, 4). The company took advantage of the pandemic by finding small solutions to massive problems (2). In the same environment where Shoprite seemed to have failed, FoodCo continues to thrive.Every other problem Shoprite faced in Nigeria, such as currency-induced inflation surges, did not interfere too much with the retail giant’s record success in the past until the advent of the pandemic. Using one of Chakravorti’s methods for turning adversity into opportunity, the big problems during the pandemic for Shoprite were the lockdowns, curfews, and rising levels of unemployment in Nigeria. The small solutions to these problems that FoodCo could take advantage of, but Shoprite could not, were Omni-channeling strategies and effective home deliveries.I classify these solutions as small because FoodCo could achieve a kind of local Omni-channeling network by giving customers the option to order via Whatsapp and not necessarily through their website, which they understood may be difficult for some people to navigate. Providing some employees with Whatsapp capability to respond to customers and take their orders is not a capital-expensive endeavor, neither is it complicated. Many people have smartphones, so this method of shopping has proven to be cheap and stress-free for customers. Engaging a dispatch company to deliver customers’ orders during the lockdown would negatively impact Shoprite; delivery of food and other essential items was allowed even during the lockdown and curfew periods. Shoprite did not employ any of these methods during the pandemic but rather continued to erroneously look inwards for ways to cut costs instead of finding new ways to reinvent itself in the face of the new normal strategically.References

  1. Shoprite exits Nigeria: Is the Nigerian market impenetrable? Anathi Madubela. Shoprite exits Nigeria: Is the Nigerian market impenetrable? | Fin24 (news24.com)
  2. Finding Competitive Advantage in Adversity. Bhaskar Chakravorti. Harvard Business Review.
  3. Shoprite: Africa’s biggest supermarket considers pulling out of Nigeria. BBC News. August 2020.
  4. FoodCo emerges retailer of the Year. Vanguard. November 2020. FoodCo emerges retailer of the Year (vanguardngr.com)
• 2..Pablo Alvarado Salinas
• RE: Week 4 Discussion COLLAPSE
  

  Hi Professor Sturtevant and Class,Reading Chakovarti this week, Amazon sprang to mind.Amazon’s history touches on Chakovartis’ 4 methods (1).Amazon started in 1994 selling books online (McFaden, 2). Jeff Bezos had read that the internet had grown 2300% in one year, and he saw the opportunity to sell online to deliver to a new growing market, thinking platform, and selected books as the starting point for products. He already knew he wanted the platform to not only a be retailer but a tech company simplifying online transactions for its customers (McFaden, 2). He used the internet to deliver convenience to the client, matching unneeded resources to unmet needs (Chakovarti, 1). He was thinking platform, not just product (Chakovarti, 1). He found a simple solution for the client to communicate through the internet and delivery service to save time for their purchases (Chakovarti, 1). The post office could be considered an unusual suspect in this case (Chakovarti, 1).Looking at the port sector, they are implementing Port Community Systems in the USA (Salles, 3). Port of America could benefit from a needed improvement in performance. PCS has been driving efficiencies in Europe for a long time through a platform approach to communication (Portbase, 4). The dutch expanded PCS nationwide. (Maritime Street, 5).In this case, the platform is the product. It is a product that Port Authorities use to reduce bureaucracy and manage information sharing.It’s a product providing solutions to many things. Online payment, tracking cargo movement, manage cargo flow and appointment systems, customs documentation and tracking, port client transactions. You link all the processes you can find in the port and logistical chain up to the system.I would call it an initial small solution to a big communication problem between port operators, suppliers, clients, and authorities. It has grown complex over time as it has expanded.Port of Rotterdam had a yearly value of 245 million Euros, including 30 million Euros by reducing the number of phone calls, 100 million Euros by reducing email traffic, and 10 million Euros by lowering the volume of road freight miles (Maritime Street, 5).Regards,PabloReference.

  1. Chakovarti, Bhaskar. (November 2010). Harvard Business Review. Finding Competitive Advantage in Adversity.
  2. McFaden, Christopher. (February 21^st, 2021). Interesting Engineering. A Very Brief History of Amazon: The Everything Store. https://interestingengineering.com/a-very-brief-history-of-amazon-the-everything-store
  3. Salles, Philippe. (January 31^st, 2019). American Shipper. Tech Connections: The rise of port community systems. https://www.freightwaves.com/news/tech-connections-the-rise-of-port-community-systems
  4. Portbase. (n.d.). Portbase. The central gateway for your digital port logistics. https://www.portbase.com/en/
  5. Maritime Street. (n.d.). Maritime Street. Port Community Systems. https://maritimestreet.fr/port-community-syste