Discuss the following questions.
1. What is a business-level strategy? How can having an effective business-level strategy help an organization gain an advantage over their competitors?
2. Who are competitors? How are competitive rivalry, competitive behavior, and competitive dynamics defined in the chapter? How do these items affect the strategic planning of your current workplace or think of a past employer?
3.The text discusses the five possible business-level strategies. What are they? Which strategy do you feel Wal-Mart is most closely following? Starbucks? Toyota Prius? Jaguar? Support your answers.
4.Analyzing your competitors is key to understanding them and in gaining a competitive advantage. What are market commonality and resource similarity? What does it mean to say that these concepts are the building blocks for a competitor analysis?
