We are doing a company analysis on Raymond James company ( this is their website : https://www.raymondjames.com/ )
the assignment is to Identify resources and capabilities of the firm and evaluate them using the VRIO analysis. You have two basic approaches you can use to analyze resources and capabilities:
a. One approach is to categorize resources and capabilities into four categories (physical, human, organizational, and financial) and assess each of these four resources and capabilities on each of the VRIO dimensions (value, rareness, imitability, organization).
If you use this approach, you do not repeat the financial analysis in this section. For financial resources focus more whether the financial resources that the firm has at is disposal (cash flow, equity/retained earnings, debt, outside investors for example) are sufficient to develop/pursue opportunities and sustain operating performance.
By applying these dimensions to various resources and capabilities, strengths and weaknesses should become obvious. Core competencies that lead to a competitive advantage are those resources and capabilities that meet all four VRIO criteria
See the Barney (1995) article for additional information on this approach.
b. An alternative approach is to utilize a value chain approach to classify strengths and weaknesses. To do this you will need to first identify what this company’s value chain looks like and then evaluate firm performance at each stage in the value chain (organizational infrastructure, human resource management, technology development, procurement, inbound logistics, operations, outbound logistics, marketing and sales, and service). If the traditional value chain does not reflect the activities of your company, you may have to redefine the value chain to reflect what your company does.
For each stage, decide whether this value chain activity represents strength or weaknesses by applying the VRIOdimensions(
Regardless of whether you use resources and capabilities or the value chain approach, youmust make sure that you demonstrate how performance is affected. Demonstrate how a resource, capability, or value chain activity is a strength or weakness.
For example, does the resource/capability/value chain activity hurt or help performance? Does it hurt or help efficiency? Does it strengthen or weaken corporate culture? How does your company compare to competitors?
In other words, you need to support your assertion that something is a strength or weakness. Be specific about how you know this is a strength or weakness.
Attached is previous papers example on how I want be written