Competitive Advantage: The "Five Forces" diagram illustrates the main concept of Michael Porter's theory of competitive advantage. It defines the rules of competition within any business. IVY Consulting Group's competitive strategy will only grow from a refined comprehension of the rules surrounding competition that regulate an industry's appeal. Porter states, the ultimate goal of competitive strategy is to manage and, ideally, to alter rules within the company's behavior. Acquisitions in Australia and Asia have resulted in a mismanagement and miscommunication within the company and the offices. The five forces define industry profitability, as well as how some industries can be more appealing than others are. IVY Consulting Group needs to alter its structure in order to compete and vie for the attention of its consumers. The critical question in defining profitability is how much value businesses can generate for their buyers, as well as how much of said value will be competed or captured away. Industry arrangement determines who will seize the value. If the arrangement is poor, it leads to decreased profitability. However, a firm is not a whole prisoner of industry structure - businesses may influence the five forces via their own approaches. The five-forces basis highlights what is significant, and guides in this case, IVY towards those features most significant to long-term benefit. If IVY specializes in management, it should promote effective management within the company. Poor handling of the business' structure in international offices shows lack of competency overall.

2. Competitive advantage 100 words

At the most basic level, IVY generate competitive advantage through its ability to provide consultancy services in management, information and technology. The fact that it operates in over 36 locations also gives customers easy accessibility. Innovations come easy to the over 2,000 employees of IVY as their capabilities are wide-ranging. However, their competitive advantage may shift if cannot or are unwilling to respond to rival behaviors. If IVY cannot come together to communicate effectively on a global scale, regional and local consultancy groups in the areas IVY is not so established may take over, regardless of IVY's advance staff and service offerings.

Part B: Connectivity: Discuss

3. The post-dotcom decade brought many businesses from established to startup into the age of technology. IVY is no different. Because one of the areas the company specializes in is technology, it allows the company to transmit information via technological tools like computers, smartphones, faxes, and tablets. However, this technology has not been used effectively within the organization. Recently opened offices in Australia for example, have not had much communication with main offices leading to turmoil and mismanagement of resources and staff. This is a chance for IVY to bring technology in order to connect with the overseas offices, especially the ones recently acquired.

4. The principal business functions within a corporate firm are:

1. Marketing and sales

2. Manufacture

3. Accounting and finance

4. Human resources

Information systems allow IVY to perform functions in a way that is convenient and fast. This is especially true for marketing, sales, and human resources. Marketing undertakings are focused toward planning, sponsoring, and selling services and goods to satisfy the wants of customers as well as the aims of the organization. Information systems provide the ability for businesses to catalog information, create databases, and perform market research to understand better what their customers need. It also allows information coming and going from the company to be managed well.

5. Computers, phones, and storage devices act as enablers of input/output processes. They provide users with the ability to send an email that a person can receive within seconds. If IVY has problems mainly within its IT department and handling and managing information, the company need to set aside resources to train its employees to use things like computers more effectively. Applications like Skype for example, give users a chance to call people and video chat all within the comfort of their office or home. This kind of technology promotes growth and connectivity in areas that were often hard to communicate. Technology offers the ability for IVY to reach out in a way that was never possible before.

Part C: Info. Systems development and management:

6. Websites may have trouble delivering information in an efficient manner. This could cause problems for businesses like IVY that may rely heavily on website to get customers' business. As the Internet has become a main source for information and commerce, businesses need to keep with the demands of being online. Daily maintenance is necessary along with appropriate staff to handle any potential problems that occur running a website. Aside from threats caused by hackers, other...

Therefore, IVY must equip an IT skilled staff in order to handle customer service and help with any website dilemmas that other employees within the company may have.
Part D: Data, information and business intelligences:

7. Conjoint analysis cogitates a service in relation to bundle of attributes, or features. Through an interview, information is collected from participants to capture the adjustments they make amid attributes. This information is processed to guesstimate a utility function that articulates each respondent's assessment for product characteristics. These utility values become used within a market model/simulator to make guesses about how customers would select among new, existing, and modified services. Conjoint analysis permits analysis of future market scenarios from primary market research in today's market. This concept can be applied to IVY in order to help determine what customers want within the regions IVY recently acquired. Consumers may not want the same consultancy services if they are in Hong Kong than if they were in North America.

8. Databases provide a place to store private customer information. They act as the area of interest for business to acquire and to safeguard information. Things like inventory and customer profile information are all contained in databases. Market research and other business related activities rely on the information found in databases. Because there are so many processes handled from information derived from databases, it is a vital part to any function within a business. If IVY does not maintain their databases and keep information up-to-date, they may risk issues in the future. This is because trends and other things may alter information stored. Miscommunication in this area could result in mismanagement of sensitive data.

Part E: Strategic initiatives:

9. Supply chain technology uses support a (SCM) supply chain management business approach that brings into line supply with demand in order to guarantee the delivery to the appropriate place at the appropriate time and expense. Gartner's demand-driven value network or DDVN, is a model that defines the most progressive stage of SCM, which can expressively reduce inventory as well as other expenses along with increasing sustainability and efficiency, supply-related risks, and accelerating time to market. As SCM progresses to a DDVN, it may also augment customer service, assisting an establishing a group as an industry front-runner. Organizations that cultivate an incorporated end-to-end supply chain affiliated with their business plan maximizes business significance for themselves as well as for their customers.

10. The purpose of a strategic initiative like IT Alignment is to enhance the value that IT gives to the initiative. In order to determine what such an initiative undergoes, it is important to identify the steps. An organization has fruitfully linked IT strategy to business strategy under these conditions:

1. A mutual understanding of how IT technologies, applications and services will give to business goals-- presently as well as in the future.

2. A mutual focus on where to spend scarce resources, money and time; the tradeoffs the business is prepared to make.

3. A reliable working relationship amongst the IT organization as well as the rest of the business demonstrated by dependable daily operations, receptive problem management and foreseeable, innovative solution distribution.

Business -- IT Alignment can be achieved through the accomplishment of four key steps:

1. Set Circumstances to Achieve Alignment

2. Probe for Potentially Aiding Technologies

3. Determine IT Worth Imperatives

4. Cultivate IT Mission and Vision

Part F: Global issues: Ethics, privacy and security:

11. Terrorist attacks are a common occurrence in certain parts of the world. Things like security, ethics, and privacy are important things to consider within any business setting. Other things like hackers and people wishing to obtain information illegally are also part of a growing problem of identity theft and should be managed effectively in all businesses. Confidential data like credit cards, state ID information, go through businesses all the time and need to be kept confidential. Without anything to safeguard the private information of others as well as the personal safety of those in and around a company, a business like IVY that has 36 locations worldwide may collapse.

12. There is an increasing interest when it comes to businesses acquiring offices in nonwestern nations like China, Japan, and India. IVY has locations now in Japan and Hong Kong. Due to the recent acquisitions, the company must attempt to prioritize cross-cultural issues in order to gain a competitive advantage. Interactions between academics of Western as well…