Introduction
CEMEX is a global cement company from Mexico that dates back to 1906. It was formally established in 1931 through a merger between Cementos Hildago and Cementos Portland Monterrey. Although initially it operated on a domestic level, various factors within its operating environment forced it to expand internationally. Before venturing into other markets, the company opted to capitalize on the ideal environment created the Mexican Government. Nevertheless, the Mexico 1982 economic crisis forced the Government to liberalize the Mexican market thus attracting foreign competitors. To counter the new competition, CEMEX opted to first divest its business, which was diversified across hotel management, engineering, petrochemicals, to focus on its core cement production business. It opted to avoid a hostile take over by foreign companies through consolidating its position in the domestic Market. Acquiring Cementos Anahuac and Cementos Tolteca was a strategic move that enabled it control 60% of Mexican market, becoming the world tenth biggest cement company. Probably motivated by the success of this strategy and the new acquired competitive scale, the company opted to internationalize. Acquisition was the preferred strategy of expansion. This strategy undoubtedly yielded unprecedented success over the years. By 2004, CEMEX had grown to be the 3rd largest building material company in the world, experienced an 18% annual growth rate in sales, and enjoyed a revenue of US$ 7.1 billion, just to mention a few.
Competitive Advantage Acquired by CEMEX
It is as a result of acquiring distinct competitive advantages that CEMEX was able ...
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.... It has used this strategy to overcome various challenges (such as avoiding hostile takeover by foreign companies) while at the same time developing competitive advantages. Examples of the competitive advantages CEMEX has enjoyed over the years include ability to operate in volatile markets, integrate successfully with its acquired firms, and easy acquisition of funds. However with its level of debt increasing increasing, CEMEX should know consider expanding through an organic growth strategy.
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Exxon Mobil meanwhile continues to focus on core fundamental such as reduction in operating costs and capital expenditure. For instance, the company achieved approximately $11.5 billion in capital and cash operating costs reductions. Also, the company’s ongoing asset management program, yielded $5.1 billion of cash flow from operations and asset
On August 12, 1998, Citibank took full ownership and control of the medium-sized Mexican banking group, Confía, dropping the latter's name and logo from the 280 branches throughout Mexico, and from that point on operating it as part of Citibank Mexico. The road that led to this outcome was rocky to say the least, and the fit of the Mexican bank into Citicorp's global organization and strategy was quite different from what would have been expected only months earlier. This discussion describes the sequence of events involved and the ways in which the process was linked to the organizations and people involved. Before starting into the banks' situations and characteristics, an orientation to the time and place is useful.
...ll help the company in selling generic drugs and provide affordable medications to its customer base.
Cementos Mexicanos (CMEX) is a Mexican cement company with origins tracing back to 1906 with the opening of Cementos Hidalgo. And in 1931, it merged with Cementos Portland Monterrey, founded by Lorenzo Zambrano who becomes the CEO of CMEX. The company globalized its market internationally and became one of the largest cement companies in the
Threat of new entrants is relatively high. Companies forming alliances are potential rivals. Even if earlier such company was not considered to be a threat, after merging with some research and development company or forming alliance with another pharmaceutical company it would become a rival to Eli Lilly. The threat is however weakened by significant research and development costs necessary to successfully enter the business. Eli Lilly’s focus on a relatively narrow market of sedatives and antidepressants weakens the threat of new entrants, but other products that form lesser part of company’s sales such as insulin and others are exposed to high threat of new entrants. The need of obtaining certificates and licenses also weakens the threat of new entrants. Discussed above leads to the conclusion that threat of new entrants is medium.
As a result, the number of foreign companies established in Mexico has risen to more than 16,000. The opportunities for investors are numerous, particularly in sectors such as automotive, electronics, information and communication technology, agribusiness, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, financial services, water and power generation. As part of the Mexican government’s campaign to attract FDI, the 44 overseas offices of the Mexican Bank for Foreign Trade (Bancomext) operate as trade commissions that offer advice and assistance to potential investors.
Researchers who work at Merck are also stakeholders who are affected by this decision. They could possible lose jobs if Merck does employ an open innovation strategy and finds it more successful than its current innovation strategy. However, it could also develop more for them to work with and create more success. Varying ideas may be brought which works well with current ideas set in motion my Merck researchers. With the help of external ideas, they may be able to improve or create new
of a firm to attain new forms of competitive advantage (Müller, 2011). It is due to these
...including their expiring patents and inefficiencies in their research and development practices. In the end, Novartis has a very strong internal environment. Their strategic direction, value chain, strengths, resources, and capabilities have allowed them to grow, develop, and truly become a global leader in the pharmaceutical industry.
Competitive advantage is the advantage for the competitors and gained by the offerings from the consumers that have the greater value either by the low prices of the products and by providing the benefits and services to the consumers that denotes the high price. It is a set of the innovative and different features of the company and the products and services sale to the consumers so that company can achieve the targets what they have decided and it is the betterment for the enterprise in the competitive market (Porter, 2011). There are three determinants which can be used in the competitive advantage that what the company produce for their consumers, their target market that what they have to achieved and the competition from the other entity
In choosing to narrow its focus on its core pharma business in the 1990s, Lilly appears to have either deliberately or inadvertently made a choice to funnel their efforts into the category of neuroscience with the patented products Prozac and Zyprexa, Lilly's top sellers. Its imbalanced portfolio and lagging international sales was the consequence of its dependence on just a few key products. This type of a strategy with a focus on neuroscience was not well suited to the more cost conscious international regions whose focus was treatment of disease. Other factors that played against them were the regulations in non-US developed countries on pricing and payment programs for pharmaceutical drugs through national health insurance programs. Due to this fact, Lilly wouldn't have earned as high of a profit margin on its blockbuster drugs, Prozac and Zyprexa, in Europe and Japan as ...
Competitive strategy is the approach that an organisation takes in order to gain advantage over its competitors. According to Porter, there are two major sources of competitive advantages: costs and differentiation. Cost-based competitive advantage involves reducing production costs so that an organisation can earn higher profit margin or offer products at lower price compared to competitors. Differentiation-based competitive advantage involves offering unique properties that are not offered by competitors’ products. Differentiation allows an organisation to charge a premium for their products because they offer additional benefits to buyers.
ACC Limited is India’s foremost manufacturer of cement and ready mixed concrete with a countrywide network of factories and sales offices. It is amongst the first companies in India to include environmental protection as a corporate commitment. It has been considered as a pioneer and leader in cement and concrete know-how, winning awards for best practices in environment management and for demonstrating good corporate citizenship. The quality of ACC’s products and customer centric services make it the most preferred cement brand in the industry and enjoys a high degree of brand equity in the Indian market. The Indian cement industry is the 2nd largest market after China accounting for about 8% of the total global production. The Indian housing
These capabilities have made companies successful in the strategy of continuously improving products for differentiated markets.
The cement industry is one of the main beneficiaries of the infrastructure boom. With robust demand and supply, the industry has bright future. The Indian Cement Industry with total capacity of 165 million tones is the second largest after China. Cement industry is dominated by 20 companies who account for over 70% of the market. Individually no company accounts for over 12% of the market.