0:05
Welcome to the debrief discussion for the case about Piaggio.
I hope you've had a chance to read the case, carefully.
I hope you've also had a chance to think it over, and especially think over
the questions that we wanted you to consider as you read the case?
And I hope you've had a chance to discuss the case, either online or in person.
With a colleague or two to gain some other insights into maybe how other people might
have read the case and what stood out to them.
0:30
Now, my intent here is to not give so called answers about the case, or
tell you what the right or the wrong thing is.
But rather, it's to give you some things to think about.
Oftentimes in cases like this, they aren't necessarily right or
wrong answers per say.
Just like in real life, there are rarely perfect strategies,
but that's not to say that some strategies aren't better than others.
So again, the idea here is for you to be able to use your tools and frameworks and
your toolkit, and to analyze the strategic situation that Piaggio
finds itself in and that might give you some insight on
what advice you would give them at the decision point thats laid out in the case.
So, again, the larger goal here is to
help refine your ability to conduct a strategic analysis.
Not just about Piaggio but about any case.
And to gain some facility with using the tools and frameworks together.
So with that, let's jump in to some interesting aspects of the Piaggio case.
First of all, the case kind of sets itself up around a specific decision.
And the decision is, should Piaggio build this green engine plant.
1:40
So as an aside, is this an important decision, or
is it not that important a decision?
What makes a decision a strategic decision?
What makes a decision strategically important?
I think that's an interesting thing for
you to consider, as you think about the case.
So you know, strategic decisions are often decisions that have wide implications for
what the firm is going to be able to do in the future.
They often involve a big commitment.
So the stakes are high.
There's a lot of money involved potentially.
2:10
Strategic decisions can tend to involve
how you might distinguish yourself from the competition.
So again in the context of this case, is this an important decision for Piaggio?
It might be, right?
So when we think about that specific decision that is
highlighted in the case, one of the challenges here is, how to
connect that to the kind of analytical tools you can bring to bear on the case.
Because again,you've got opportunity to use your tools here, or
frameworks to learn something about Piaggio and
Piaggio's situation and it's position in the industry.
So for instance, you could use a five forces analysis,
that would tell you something about the dynamics of the industry, and
the makeup of the competitive environment.
Is this a tough industry to be in or not so tough?
And why or why not?
That might be a useful tool to use.
You might conduct an environmental analysis that will tell you something
about trends in the industry and how things are likely to change in the future.
But I think the challenge here is to figure out how to put those things
together, how can you connect the decision,
there's a specific decision in this case to the kinds of analytical tools in
analysis you might do with those tools, right.
So I had one student observe once after reading and discussing and
thinking about this case, the student said,
you know when I first read the case I thought that what the case was really
about was should they build this green engine plant, but this student told me,
after I really carefully considered the case and had conducted a lot of analysis,
I came to the conclusion that whether we had to build the green engine plant or
not, if we're Piaggio, may not be the key question in the case, and
I think that idea sort of evokes something that we often see in consulting.
Consultants often talk about how, in a given situation or case,
there's a presenting problem and then there's a real, or a fundamental problem.
And I think we might see that a little bit in this Piaggio case.
There's a presenting problem, the question you're given in the case explicitly is
should Piaggio build this green engine plant.
But as you do some analysis, it might lead you to think that well,
there's maybe more of a fundamental or a real issue that needs to be considered.
And I think you might decide that a key issue in this case involves Piaggio's
competitive position.
What position do they occupy and
how does that compare to their competitors positions?
And that might be sort of a key area of focus.
So you know as you start to do your analysis, a fundamental you might
as yourself is if you're Piaggio, what competitive position do you want?
And there's some tools that you can use to help you figure that out, right?
You could think about generic, competitive positions in a market segment.
4:54
What position does Piaggio occupy?
It may be useful to think about Piaggio's competitors
that might arise out of a competitor analysis.
Piaggo's competitors, I think, occupy some pretty clear strategic positions.
Apria, the other European competitor, they compete directly with,
sort of occupies a kind of differentiation position.
They offer lots of models.
They have a quick turnaround.
They compete based on style.
On the other hand, Yamaha, or the other Japanese manufacturers,
might occupy more of a cost leadership position,
where it's about mass production, they're highly vertically integrated.
So, as you think about all of those things,
one of the things you're trying to figure out is,
well, what's the best competitive position to be in if you're in this industry?
And so, again, thinking about these generic positions might help.
Might be helpful to do a strategy map.
And think about all of these competitors and
what are the dimensions you wanna analyze.
I don't think there are right or wrong dimensions to analyze but
as you experiment around and try some things and
put some strategy maps together, I hope that you sort of
arrive at some insights about what Piazzio's position is in the market.
And as you do some of those things,
you may come to the conclusion that Piaggio was in a challenging position.
One might even say they're sort of stuck in the middle, they're getting squeezed on
both sides, on one side by a competitor that's a high differentiator,
on another side by a competitor that's highly vertically integrated and
has a better cost structure.
And Piaggio is trying to do in some ways for those things.
Now that can be a challenging place to be.
But in theory, ideally your analysis should give you enough information for
you to begin to formulate some recommendations for Piaggio which they do.
Why? What analysis have you done to back up
recommendations might be.
So these are some of the interesting things that I hope you can consider,
as you think about and discuss and ponder this case about Piaggio.
It's a fun case to consider and
it illustrates the usefulness of considering the power
of understanding competitive positions in an industry or market segment.
I look forward to hearing your responses.
Michael LenoxSenior Associate Dean and Chief Strategy Officer
Jared HarrisSamuel L. Slover Research Chair in Business Administration
