Business strategy

Technology was designed to make our lives easier? This Is what we are being led to believe. But Is It truly the case? In today’s society many people are finding It harder to concentrate on the Job, at home or school because of the constant information flow. We are now required to continuously educate ourselves with the latest technological tools making it more challenging to focus on accomplishing the mission. Module 1 Case states, “Information overload!

The phrase alone is enough to strike terror into the hardiest of managers; it presages the breakdown of society as e know it and the failure of management to cope with change. ” During this module I will discuss information overload and how it has become a problem requiring additional time and energy to research information that may not be necessary. I will also discuss how we people should deal with information overload by limiting the amount of time they spend on information tools learning to organize what they learn. ANALYSIS Search Engines provide us with a wealth of Information. Information that we need and Information we don’t need.

This causes us to become Inundated with more information than we can use. Networked Information should simplify and expedite our research time. For some this is not always true. The information available on the internet is overwhelming. Blair, A. States, “It takes only one or two pages of Google hits to overwhelm the average reader. ” This is true in so many ways. For example, someone searching for a particular subject will first be bombarded with many links relating to his subject. The user will also receive unrelated pop-ups for advertisements causing other window browsers to open for viewing.

These castrations are preventing you from focusing on initial search results. Next thing you know there Is Information coming at you through numerous open links and you find yourself closing pop-ups as quickly as new ones appear. This unnecessary work can be very stressful and overwhelming. D. E. Broadband states “The Filter Model suggests that human senses have a limited “channel capacity” and that people easily become “overwhelmed” by too much information. ” People are being overloaded with information at work, school, and even the safe haven of home.

It’s not healthy for the mind and can lead to stress and anxiety.. Benjamin Ellis states, “Being overwhelmed leads to high levels of stress, resulting in the fight or flight response. ” E-mail is the perfect example of information overload in my office. It is constantly filling co-worker’s in-boxes. Checking e-mail throughout the day takes your focus away from the Job. Dry. Glen Wilson said “The human brain finds it difficult to cope with Juggling lots of tasks at once and that constantly breaking off from tasks to check e-mail slowed the brain down. Stress Is then added on top of this because we are required to put In over-time to make up for the lack of productively. Gregory Northeast states “Technology has made us much more efficient, but much less effective. Time is being gained but Quality of relationships is states, “Information overload was experienced long before the appearance of today’s digital gadgets. ” People can become overwhelmed when starting a new Job. They come into the Job expecting to impress but find them self struggling to learn the basics. If they researched the information needed to do the Job things will run more smoothly.

People have not forgotten how to research information, but they may require help I organizing what they have learned. Networked information will continue to grow at a fast pace, and it’s up to us to keep up with it. Being organized and wanting to learn more should not be a problem for anyone. You will become more knowledgeable when practicing organizing. It starts with a little organization in knowing where you place those reference notes. We are fortunate to have developed continuity binders in my unit. They come in handy when there is no overlap in a position or someone has taken extended emergency leave.

Staying organized can save a lot of time in a society that depends heavily on the internet. Oliver Mark states, “Data in a computer is like having a continuity book; it’s only in existence when you make something of it. ” The information on the internet had to be entered by someone. And these people had to make this information available to the World Wide Web so that others may refer back to it. There is Just so much of the same information out there. People learn from one another and we learn by doing. Just like the social learning theory, the cognitive theory is similar.

The cognitive theory states, “A cognitive theory of multimedia learning based on three main assumptions: there are two separate channels (auditory and visual) for processing information; there is limited channel capacity; and that learning is an active process of filtering, selecting, organizing, and integrating information. ” It is important to create your own preservation of notes, by sorting, selecting and summarizing to help overcome being overwhelmed by networked information. Blair, A. Describes to sort and keep notes of what you want to know.

She states, “Today search engines can track the keywords chosen by individual users and writers, but e still need library cataloger and indexers who can identify relevant category terms that do not appear explicitly in the text and who can group related topics under consistent subject headings. Subject and index headings perforce change over time, as do the categories by which we remember and manage our own notes; they remain a uniquely powerful tool. ” Next she describes to select only what you need to know and summarize it. With all the information out on the network you can sometimes have pages of information that you really don’t need.

Blair, A. States, “Keyword earaches and data mining offer tempting alternatives to earlier methods used by readers and authors to select the “best bits” to store and later refer to. ” Time management is part of being organized; Individuals that are organized will have less stress dealing with information overload, one really good network tool is outlook. In outlook you can create folders to help organize incoming emails. Above I stated that many individuals are overwhelmed or stressed because they have too many e-mail coming all at once. Outlook can synchronize them so that they can come back and read them later.

Knowing how to use networked tools should make your life easier; however you must be willing to want to learn the new technology. Marks, O. State, “Machines communicate at ever more sophisticated levels with each other in bombarding us with information your time commitment can be significant. The flow of networked information into and through organization can be overwhelming, however, individuals must learn how to Just deal with what is coming their way and show initiative that they are willing to learn how these networked tools work to help them be organized, save time and be less overwhelmed.

Networked information is like the news it reports what people want to hear and what the individual chooses to listen to, what people decide to take in is up to the individual to control how they are going to react. Blair, A. States, “It’s important to remember that information overload is not unique to our time, lest we fall into doom saying. At the same time, we need to proceed carefully in the transition to electronic media. ” EVALUATION I think technology is great, however it can be overwhelming. Many of us don’t know how to research what we need or use because we always want to learn more.

We overwhelm ourselves because we can’t Just focus on a single thing. We would rather multi-task. But it is important that we learn how to take notes because someday our children may want the same information we have learned. Blair, A. States, “Like generations before us, we need all the tools for gathering and assessing information that we can muster?some inherited from the past, others new to the present. Many of our technologies will no doubt rapidly seem obsolete, but, we can hope, not human attention and Judgment, which should continue to be the central components of thoughtful information management.

Also it helps to expand he business with more likely to use the resources more effectively (2011). In the coming paragraphs I will evaluate the business strategies for COCA Cola Company working as a consultant in I-J headquarters. Within the UK market the company has observed a range of down fall In Its sales for fizzy drinks like coca cola, diet coke and coke zero brand products. Company background The multinational American beverages and food manufacturing company COCA cola was founded In 1892 by AS grids, actually formulated by John In 1886, the company manufactures to over 200 countries and operate under 500 brands.

The company has turnover of $ 48. 21 billion each year. The I-J headquarter is in Hammerheads London.

Explain strategic contexts and terminology – missions, visions, objectives, goals and core competencies

According to Linda Alicia the mission statement of Coca Cola Company is “to refresh the world to inspire moments of optimism and happiness and create value for making difference” (2009). The mission statement of an organization shows what the company is going to do in the future and how they are going to do (Arizona, 2012).

As the vision statement helps the firm to provide a path on which It can lead to achieve the mission, the vision tenement of Coca Cola Company is divided five different parts known as the six as these are people:

• to provide people the best place to work where they can prove their talent, portfolio;
• to give people the quality food and beverages In accordance to their needs, partners;
• to provide an excellent network for the stakeholders, planet;
• building a clean and sustainable environment as a responsible citizen, profit;
• being responsible and taking care of maximizing profits for shareholders, productivity;
• productive and fast moving organization.

After knowing the mission and vision tenement of the company it’s important to know what are the objectives of the company. The mall objectives and goals of Coca Cola Company Is to be globally known for its business globally ethically and responsibly with a goal to maintain and accelerate the business for future growth. The core competencies of the coca cola company are the strong network with Its bottlers and the brand name which gives the company a competitive advantage of bargaining power and leverage.

Review the issues involved in strategic planning

According to mike sterile the beverages companies Like Coca cola, Pepsi and Dry upper Snapped group, that the second half of the last year the company’s products sales started to decline in the US market, setter power who is a beverage analysts toys increased more in the late 2012, also the articles describes that it was affecting the consumer health very badly resulting in diseases like diabetes and obesity. The sales growth fell down by 0. 6% in 2012, as people are turning into the substitutes, like energy drinks and coffee and water, and thus the company is focusing more on providing a more selective range of water and energy drinks (2013). In another article y Stephanie storm told that the company sales went up in the beginning of 2013 but it shares fell down, the sales were around $ 1. 7 billion dollars with a rise 4% revenue as comparison to the last year, but the shares for the company market fell down by 2. 7 percent, “within the Europe market the sales were down more than the expected rate” said by Jack Russo a stock analyst. Now as we studied earlier that the company wants to become a worldwide brand of beverages and accelerate in the future, these are some of the recent strategic problems the company is facing this year.

Explain different planning techniques

The COCA cola company vision and mission for the year 2020 is to stay ahead in the future by following new trends and forces that will affect the business and prepare for the outcome. Read about network level strategy

Now in order to achieve these plans there are set of techniques used in each business, some of these are; BCC -growth share matrix: this matrix was developed by Boston consulting group in sass’s, this framework makes the companies to give priority and the resources distributed among the business. The matrix consist categories named as cash cow, star, dog and question mark. Cash cow represent the companies with high market share similarly like the stars but it also present companies with high growth prospects, while on the other hand the dog shows low on both prospects, and the question mark shows high growth but low market share.

Directional policies matrices: in such framework the company is able to compare its performance and take decisions of producing products to the market. SPACE; PIMPS matrices: to stay competitive in the market the company utilizes this matrix for the formulations of strategies for the organization. It stands for the strategic position and action evaluation matrix. While as the PIMPS strategy stands profit impact of marketing strategy, in which the company is able to analyze the relationship between the key strategic decisions and its results.

Produce an organizational audit for a given organization

The organizational audit comprise of several tools that enables individuals to know more about the culture and the recent situation of the organization.

There are a number of tools used for auditing organization one of which is scoping out the organization which comprise of the following;

• Culture: Coca-cola Culture is work as a team of one team, one company tit a one goal to achieve to bring people closer, with a diverse environment. Rooney, 2011).
• Industry segments: coca cola uses three kinds of segments for its company, geographic, demographic and cryptographic segmentation, the company targets all age group people mostly families. Now to analyze what are the threats and opportunities that Coca cola will have in the market we will evaluate the SOOT analysis for the company
• Strength: customer loyalty, suppliers bargaining power, extensive distribution channel, power advertising and marketing, in terms of value coca cola is the world’s best brand and the company CARS strategies.
• Weaknesses: the main focus of the company is on carbonated and fizzy drinks, high level of debts,
• Opportunities: growth in the bottled water, demand for dietary and low fat beverages and foods and acquisitions growth possibilities.
• Threats: PepsiCo competitor, increasing demand change of consumer, saturated carbonated drinks market, gross and net profit decrease.

Carry out an environmental audit for a given organization

There are certain external and internal forces that impact the organizational activities; environment is one of those forces. For coca cola maintaining a good environment for its consumers and citizen is very important. As it is one of the company’s vision statement to contribute to build a safe and natural environment. As we know the main aim of the environmental auditing is to analyze the management’s activities towards the environment.

PEST analysis

• Political: as we know coca cola operates its business all around the world, so when entering a country for the distribution of the products they maintain the specific policies of each country, for example; like in Pakistan, Malaysia and Indonesia, they mention the word hall stamp on each of the products shipping to such countries.
• Economic: as a business its responsibility of the organization to maintain a business that is effective for the economy as well and thus Coca Cola has been able to achieve this challenge. In the year 2006 and onwards after the recession the company started innovative projects on a low cost basis.
• Social: health consciousness have more increased in this century than ever before and for such reasons coca cola demand for the fizzy and carbonated drinks have decreased thus to increase its value the many diversify its products into fruit Juices and low crabs drinks.
• Technological: the coca cola company have adapted various advancements in its technologies that have been both effective for the company, consumers and environment, like plastic bottles which can be recycled as its easy and safe to use, also increase the production for the company. Within Britain the company has six factories all using modern equipment.

Explain the significance of stakeholders analysis

Stakeholders are considered of major importance in coca cola Company, as these are the forces that impact the company operations both internally and externally. The main function of the stakeholders analysis is that it provides the level and range of impact the company and the stakeholders have on each other. The main stakeholders of Coca Cola Company are; civil society, government, customers, investors, employees and suppliers.

According to the coca cola company the story inside each bottle of their drink is written by consumers, customers, bottlers and non profit organizations and all those who have interest in our business. For further clarification and expansion in the stakeholders programmer from the last two years the company is working with the national government for the implementation of sports ND fitness programmer. The coca cola company helps to create value for its customers; also the company shows great response towards the social SIR community. While developing its marketing strategies for companies like coca cola it’s important to communicate and thus its company’s responsibility to be honest and fair.

In Coca-Cola Company the employees are considered as a great asset for the company and for such reason the company adopts such kind of environment which motivates employees. Growth or retrenchment. Realizing the current situation of the organization, for Coca Cola Company to accelerate on the path of growth there are various strategies to adopt some which are described below;

• Pricing: pricing the products properly may lead to the company increase in the sales revenues. For a firm it is important to analyze that the price should be fair, it should cover the cost and also keep a comparison with the competitors.
• Advertising: another major kind of strategy used in the marketing of the products, which enables the company to communicate its products with the consumers. With the help of an effective advertising strategy, the company is able to grow sales revenues and better remote its products features in the market. (Felicia, 2011). The reverent advertisements like style caster, Sammie video that got viral and the polar bear add.
• Customer relationship management (CRM): with the help of the CRM the company is able to know more about customer, as doing so will make the company to differentiate its customers according to their needs. STEP Segmentation, targeting and positioning strategy: one of the most major strategies in marketing products, coca cola company targets almost all age of consumer market, also coke segmentation strategy is based on the demand of customers. Raja et al, 2010).

Select an appropriate future strategy for a given organization

As we know that COCA cola company within the I-J market faced a downfall in fizzy drinks as people are becoming more health conscious and likes to drink more other forms of water, now for COCA cola company to increase its value of drinking water in the near future it is important to adopt certain strategies, as a consultant I would suggest the McKinney growth pyramid; For the attainment of the future growth McKinney growth strategy is an effective approach, according to this strategy there are four basic parameters hose are: operational skills, growth skills, privileged assets and special relationship.

As the operational goals of coca cola is to find new customers, attain new ones and to bring a discounted accounts, now in order to achieve all this the company can use operational skills as said in the McKinney strategy which will attain higher profits and future growth. (M. Delaware, 2010). Another step is recognizing the privileged assets of the organization with coca cola the privileged assets are its brand, patent and distribution network. Within the management the growth skills are required to lead Roth with the help of new product development, expanding into new region and increasing acquisitions. Increasing level of relationship with the government and social authorities help to easily attain the goals.

Compare the roles and responsibilities for strategy implementation

After evaluating the strategies it’s important to analyses it with the company team members and staff for the implementation of the strategy. As the strategic goal of Coca cola company is to be globally known for its products and services and attain future growth, as a consultant manager the team I appoint are:

• Marketing manager: Within the team the marketing manager is responsible for the pricing, positioning, advertising and STEP strategies to achieve the substantial or limited growth. In the UK the coca cola company marketing director is shells McIntyre.
• Planning technician: The main responsibility of a planning technician is to gather data and convert it into information while planning, as Coca Cola Company is using techniques like BCC by the technician.
• Audit manager: The audit manager is external and internal the internal is responsible for comparing the audits with the annual audits plan, the person responsible for environmental audit is the environmental auditor manager whose main responsibilities is to coordinate the management activities with an effect on the environment.
• Operational managers: Richard Davies is the operational manager at the Coca cola London Headquarters, and is responsible for the data entry, managing organization HER, payroll and helping in creating budget.

Evaluate resource requirements to implement a new strategy for a given organization

For the implementation of the plan and strategies there a number of resources required to full fill the needs and the requirements. These sources can be physical, financial, and human and time resource.

In the financial resources the company would be able recover all the costs for the redevelopment of the products, as coca cola aim is to increase the production for the non – fizzy drinks and water. The financial resources can be both internal external and internal, the main sources for the company would be; bank, shareholders, company capital and investors. As long as the human resources is concerned the company employees highly skilled and knowledgeable employees, in 2009 the company was awarded for the best place to work. The company provides excellent employees development with training and rewards. For the physical resources the company is covering around 200 countries and manufacturing 400 brands of products.

The Strategy followed and the competitive forces affecting the automobile industry: The success of BMW was not an accident but a combined effort where in lots of discussions went into identifying which markets to enter, how should be the positioning of the products, the way a close touch has to be maintained with the suppliers, dealers and the manufacturers. This is a sequence of related and necessary events which needs to be implemented and this creates a drive to maintain a relationship and liaison between the firm and the environment.

Smart environmental awareness and reliability create an emotional quotient which creates and conveys an image of the “ultimate driving machine” that sets a model for general perceptions and the emotional associations related to the brand. There were three major issues which concerned the competitive strategies set by BMW that have been discussed below. The environmental issues which are addressed are with regards to the volume and the level of output planned by the organization which is required to create a niche for the purpose of brand identity that needs to be done profitable and handled globally.

Secondly the production aspect also requires some concern depending upon the high margins which are provided to the manufacturers, dealers and the suppliers. The premium price levels interested BMW to create a niche in generating higher profitable levels which helped new entrants clearing a way into the organization structure thus generating a competitive scenario by making the products price competitive. The final concern was that of quality which deals with the basic aspects and the issues of costs the concern for risk factors are bound to rise.

Success Story of BMW – Taking Porter’s Five Forces Model into consideration it is essential to understand the business strategy that helps in analyzing the customer needs and the wants. Speaking about the automobile industry which BMW is competitive in, it is evident that BMW is the largest company of Germany which is successful in its arena of car segment.

This model is known for its quality and the technological nature of the products which are proven for innovation and the model styling which is said to be traditional in consideration to the design of the cars which is presumed to be conventional in nature. BMW is also known to be strong in maintaining skilled labor force from Germany and hence the success factor of BMW is built over two important factors. The company generates and intends building up its quality based on the engineering aspect in the car production section while most of the car assembly sectors have been replaced by robots or the workers who charge lower wages there by meeting up with economies of scale.

The turning point and the breakthrough in this regard were in relation to the identification of the market which exploited its capabilities in its totality that was known for its high performance saloon cars. A brand was established in the European markets which was targeted and differentiated towards the young, affluent group and the European professionals where in an identity has been mounted in a distinctive manner. The key aspects which BMW emphasizes on is the system of production which allows the company to have its competitive edge in the given market segment specified above that highlights on the product quality and the aims and the aspirations of the customers which makes the automobile manufacturing industry a profitable one for BMW.

Another advantage for BMW car segment is the profit margins which are set relatively high for the strong distribution network channel partners that motivate them to promote the product more aggressively. This thus helps identification of the market segment and provides support and control for the brand image conceptualization. BMW is also known to be positive in its buyer-supplier relationships, pricing, advertising and branding strategies which facilitates in building recognition there by strongly adopting customer relationship management process. The environment on which BMW builds its network is on the ground of sound strength of the brand and the substance that persists in the product category.

 References:

Johnkay (1993), The Structure of Strategy, Business Strategy Review, Retrieved July 2, 2008 from http://www.johnkay.com/strategy/124

The corporate strategy of Adidas is to become the world leader in sporting goods manufacturing.

Mission statement for Adidas

The company’s mission statement is as follows; “The Adidas Group strives to be the leader in the sporting goods industry with sports brands built on a passion for sports and a sporting lifestyle” (Adidas). It carries a wide range of high-performance sporting goods based on a few key market segments. This was the core strategic approach to marketing Adidas sporting goods prior to 2005.

Adidas has maintained its primary market presence in the athletic footwear, soccer kit and boots and golfing apparel markets. adidas also has developed a share in other sports footwear markets including cricket, basketball, rugby and tennis. Through the acquisition of Salomon, Adidas have also entered into the winter sporting goods market, and of Reebok, into the leisure footwear market.

Adidas business strategy

These brands will help Adidas challenge, Nike, to be the largest and most successful sports manufacturer in the world, and show a slight change in strategy since before the restructuring. Therefore there was a common strategic approach to the management of the company’s lineup of sporting goods prior to the restructuring based around the marketing of the company and its premium performance based sporting goods that have since diversified into other market segments.

The lineup of Adidas businesses in 2008 is very strong for the following reasons based on market segmentation. adidas now possesses a market share in the performance sporting goods market, the leisurewear market, to golf and winter sports markets. The presence in these markets along with the acquisitions of Saloman and Reebok have allowed Adidas to split its businesses around a few key segments, and to become leaders in each of these segments.

The business strategic fit between Adidas and the companies it has acquired recently is good. Both Saloman and Reebok present themselves as market leaders in their respective markets, the leisure shoe market and the mountain pursuits market. adidas is committed to becoming a leader across all segments of the sporting goods market and wants to be perceived as a high-performance manufacturer, and the purchase of these two companies will help Adidas with that aim.

‘Adidas’ business lineup exhibited a very good resource fit, as well as showing good market coverage. The marketing of superior quality and actual usage by the high-performance sports personalities who endorse these products has helped the three major areas of Adidas income. There is also potential for skills transfer, cost-sharing and brand sharing due to the similarity of all these markets and products. The cash cows are wholesale, retail and other businesses.

The wholesale and retail markets are combined here, under two major brands, Adidas and Reebok, which are then further split into Adidas Sport Performance, and Adidas Sport Style. Reebok is a separate brand that is further separated from the two Adidas brands. Reebok is aimed at the women’s fitness and style market, which the two Adidas brands do not cater to. The other area of the business deals with the markets that do not fall into the category of performance or style and may be considered cash hogs.

This area is dominated by TaylorMade, a golfing goods and club manufacturer that is the number 1 iron brand in the United States, however Adidas also controls Ashworth and Adidas golf, both of which contribute one-third of Adidas Group’s other business revenue. These markets still require investment in order to compete with the various other suppliers of golfing equipment.

The restructuring undertaken in 2005 has produced a very sensible and competitive company. The acquisition of Reebok may well improve shareholder returns due to the synergy achieved by this merger, and the market coverage Adidas now has over the sporting footwear market. The strategic actions needed are to consolidate Adidas position in all of these markets in order to attempt to challenge Nike as the worlds’ leading sportswear manufacturing company.

References

1. Adidas. Adidas Group Annual Report 2009 Corporate Mission Statement. 2009. 5 May 2010
2. http://adidas-group.corporate-publications.com/2009/gb/en/structure-and-strategy/corporate-mission-statement.html.

Examine approaches to strategr5y evaluation and selection Analyse possible alternative strategies relating to substantive growth, limited growth, and Market entry strategies, and disinvestment strategies IKEA has marketed its products well and has dealt with all the problems easily. But there have been some constraints that came in the way of IKEA and alternative strategies have to be developed for them. These strategies are as follows: Substantive growth: In any business strategy growth is the most important factor. To achieve substantive growth the firm needs to go through a lot of planning.

Some of the key advantages of substantive growth are:  Exponential Growth: Once IKEA achieves substantive growth in their business then they can be confident that it will lead to more growth in the future. There is a tendency of the growth of wealth at an exponential rate and the company can use these funds for other project to generate gains in future. While an organization achieves substantial growth the main benefit is that it helps in investing them for future benefits and achieving potential wealth gains. This is always a welcome consideration. Competition: Substantive growth of IKEA will help them to understand the strength of the competition and developing the business strategy accordingly. The faster a company achieves substantive growth the easier it is for them to beat the competition. The added wealth that IKEA gains from substantive growth can be utilized to gain the market share from different competitors. The best thing about substantive growth is that it acts as a motivator. Once a business starts gaining substantive growth it can be more than sure that it has gained advantage over the competition. Priorities: It is very important to decide the priorities in any business. Making clear strategies and deciding which goals need higher levels of importance will help the business in understanding the key priorities. Substantive growth acts as the best indicator and helps the strategists to make each and every step clear. It helps in rationally planning and deciding the goals that can be successful with time. Limited Growth: To achieve long term success and maximum growth IKEA needs to make sure that it is going through a period of limited growth.

Limited growth will reduce risk and financial problems. To achieve limited growth the firm should make sure that the business is not running ahead of the expected goals. There should be consistency in the growth of the business that can only be achieved through limited growth. Limited growth can be attained by monitoring the business continuously and responding well to each and every situation. Market entry strategies: Till date IKEA has entered most of the markets successfully and has been able to adapt with the local conditions.

The best marketing strategies that can be adapted to enter the markets successfully is to understand the wants of the locals and promote the product through different mediums. If the company uses an effective marketing mix in the markets of different countries then the market entry will be very easy for them. Disinvestment strategies: Disinvestment means liquidation of stock that leads to some policy change. Disinvestment can be used as an effective strategy by IKEA to liquidate its assets and build good relations with the local government. This strategy can be used to bring in positive changes and make the decision making process easier.

To develop a strong disinvestment strategy the firm should analyse all its investments properly and focus on increased profitability. P8 Select an appropriate future strategy for a given organisation o Examine the approaches to strategy evaluation and selection and select an appropriate future strategy for the chosen organisation IKEA is one of the top furnishing companies in the world. They provide well designed home furnishing products at cost effective rates. The business model created by IKEA has helped them enter new markets and get to the nerves of the consumers.

The strategies of IKEA involve competitor analysis, market analysis, environmental analysis, customer analysis, etc. The company continuously evaluates the strategies and plans their action according to the research made. The best part is that IKEA has been very good when it comes to successful implementation of its policies. One of the future strategy that can help reach out to its customers easily is the internet marketing strategy. Among all the marketing strategies used by IKEA the change in socio-cultural trend should be properly analysed and they should use the internet marketing technique effectively.

Internet is acting as the best way to reach out to the customers and there are many social networking sites where prospective customers can be found. IKEA already has its website and it just needs to use the social networking websites effectively to promote its products. Since effective promotion acts as the best way to reach out to the consumers IKEA should look out for this option to increase its reach. This is better than any other medium as it is not limited to one specific location and helps the firm to reach out to whole world.

Since IKEA operates in different parts of the world this is the most effective advertising tool for them. Understand how to implement a chosen strategy Compare the roles and responsibilities for strategy implementation in two different organisations The roles and responsibilities of for proper strategy implementation differ in different organizations. For example the strategy implementation in IKEA would be completely different to the roles in companies like NIKE. The roles of the people in NIKE need to be different from that of IKEA. In NIKE the managers need to know the footwear and the apparel that is in trend.

While conducting the market research the team in NIKE needs to understand what people like to wear and the wants of the people in different markets all over the world. Since NIKE has been developing its footwear since its inception everything in their R&D would be related to shoes and mainly sports apparel. Innovation is required in different fields and developing new things would surely catch the consumer’s eye. But before developing an effective strategy and implementing it the organization needs to understand itself and the product that it is selling.

They need to understand whether their plans and policies will be effective enough. While developing the plans NIKE needs to understand the trends in the footwear market and develop the footwear according to the response of the consumers. The company needs to conduct the process in a cost effective manner but many times they are likely to face loss. If the new footwear range developed by NIKE does not go down well with the consumers then that range would go to waste and they will suffer loss over there. As compared to NIKE the roles in IKEA are totally different.

IKEA is involved in furnishing and designing modern furniture for different places. So the roles totally change in the strategy planning and implementation here. IKEA needs to have a look at the furnishings that are in trend and that are loved by different customers. They can be more flexible with the innovation of their products. If the new product launched by them is not liked by one consumer then there are chances that it can be sold to other customer, as compared to NIKE where the whole footwear range can go to waste if there is a negative response.

NIKE designs footwear for humans whereas IKEA has to focus on the look of the house. So the strategy is totally different. As you need to make the place look as beautiful as possible IKEA would need to understand the place much better and make the strategies according to that. Evaluate resource requirements to implement a new strategy for a given organisation The resources required for the implementation of a new strategy are:

• Action planning: The organization needs to have a team that can develop a good plan of action. This will help in detailing the strategy and assigning responsibilities to every individual in the organization. The planning stage decides the future steps and provides a direction to the goal of the strategy. The planning phase needs to have experienced professionals and people who can design proper goals for the future of the organization. The strategy can be successful if the action planning phase is successful.
• Organizational Structure: The strategy should be favourable to the current organizational structure. If the strategy developed is conducted in an organized way then it will surely be successful. The R&D team should convey the required information to the respective teams and develop a proper structure.
• Human Resource Factors: Human resource is an important factor when it comes to successful implantation of plans. Every individual needs to understand their responsibilities and there should be good communication among individuals. Whenever there is a need to implement a new strategy the goals should be made clear to every team. In human resource the team leader and the managers have huge role to play. They need to guide the team and motivate them to implement the strategy effectively.

Discuss targets and timescales for achievement in a given organisation to monitor a given strategy As discussed above IKEA has been constantly aiming to expand its market size and provide a range of products to its customers. However for any company of the size of IKEA to grow and reach newer heights it is very important that they have a set target and are aware of when these need to be achieved. Some of the targets with timescales which would help them achieve the following objectives:

•  Lower prices and provide better quality by 30% by the end of 2015: Here the objective is pretty clear. The specified target for the company is to better the quality of products they have on offer along with the prices they offer. In order to do so the company needs to analyse about the possible ways to cut costs so that it could be passed on to the customers. With the view to 2015 being the target year the company should check if they have achieved at least half of what they expect by the year 2015. At the end of 2013 and 2014 the company would need to analyse the prices, costs, and the quality of its products which would be clear from the increased/decreased sales. This should be compared with the data for the earlier year and company would need to take the right measures in the way forward.
• Enhance customer service by 25% by the end of 2013: Customer Service cannot be measured but service coverage and the number of people serviced can be. So the company needs to keep a record as well as ensure taking feedback from the customers they service. Comparing it in the mid of 2013 would be ideal to check whether customers were much happier than the year before. Here the company can know about its weaknesses and work upon the possible solutions so that their target of 25% could be achieved.
• Increase awareness of the product: This could be done only through advertisements Here the company should prepare an advertising strategy to implement it while putting up ads on various media sources. It needs to be backed up by adequate availability of the products advertised. Seasonal discounts are the recommended ways to increase awareness and sales.
•  Add several of new products by 2014: A phased out strategic implementation for rolling out new products seems ideal.

Here the company should not bring out new products all at once rather should plan out launching products at regular intervals. Probably a product each month till 2014 should be the best way to go ahead and expand on its portfolio. Therefore a planned strategic move seems to be the answer for IKEA so that it could achieve the targets it has and expand across its markets. With planned implementation and scheduled operations things would be way easier as compared to an unplanned approach for marketing as well as promoting the company’s products.

Overview Looking back over the last 5 weeks of the Business Strategy Game there were several areas where Company Emergent could have improved and did very well. This paper will provide an in-depth analysis of Emergent’s approach to managing their Emergent footwear company, the growth experienced through the process, and lessons learned. In addition, recommendations for improvement are provided should the game be played again. Strategic vision of Emergent “Always move forward “. Emergent exists to create value for our shareowners on a long term basis by building a business that enhances Emergent footprints.

Usability The first week of the simulation game was the first point where Emergent suffered in comparison to the competition. From a human factors perspective, the game presents a significant amount of information overload that is difficult for any human to process all at once with minimal to no training. The fact that the game comes with a 34 page manual speaks volumes to this point, and it is difficult to absorb all of the complex information presented in this manual. There should have been a quick tips and key points of interest to get the students started and that was nowhere to be found.

In addition, it was not obvious that there were video tours for each and every page of decision points; this wasn’t realized until week 2. Again, this is a symptom of too much information bombarding a new user. This analysis is not provided to place blame on the game for some of Emergent’s issues, but rather to provide a human factors analysis of usability considerations (one group member is a certified human factors professional) to help improve future uses of this game and help provide students with the tools to succeed given the design drawbacks of the game interface and the human error impacts associated with the design.

Recommendation: Create a quick tips and facts sheet to assist the first time user with functionality. Consider a more comprehensive overview of the site and a more representative demo of a few years of mock operation to illustrate how the software works. In addition, understanding the value of the video tours and the industry reports earlier in the process is critical for a team to be able to fully utilize the industry reports effectively from the start. Learning Curve

It took 3 years of decision entries, Y11-Y13, to fully understand how all of the decision elements interacted with one another to drive or negatively impact profits, which caused some decrements in company performance initially. In addition, it also took 3 years to fully understand what the industry and the counterintelligence data was indicating and how to effectively apply it to Emergent’s competitive advantage. However, once the data was better understood and applied effectively the company was able to be turned around from a negative profit and credit rating situation.

Recommendation: Understanding that some of the importance of the game is learning how things work and how decisions impact a company’s bottom line, it would be beneficial to have a few practice trials to initially understand the game better than just trial and error. Capacity After consulting the players guide, the decision in year 3 was made to invest in increased capacity to meet the projected future growth demand in the Asia Pacific and Latin American region. This decision early in the game, without sufficient equity available from profits, caused Emergent to temporarily plunge in credit rating and profitability.

Recommendation: Ensure current capacity is utilized effectively and earning sufficient revenue to justify purchase of additional capacity based on projected growth data. Demand, Production and Inventory Understanding the interplay between the sales forecast for the coming year, warehouse costs for inventory, required production distribution and impact of reject costs was critical for ensuring that the company was able to deliver and meet the market demands and achieve profitability.

Unfortunately, it took several years before it was clear how to manage distribution effectively and more time should have been spent entering decisions more carefully for the first 3 years. In addition, more aggressive investment in facility upgrades would have improved costs incurred with facility inefficiencies, worker productivity and rejected product costs. Recommendation: Invest more time in the analysis of the market and the decision making process to ensure decisions are complimentary.

This is critical in order to attain adequate production levels to meet market demands, achieve minimum surplus and no inventory shortfalls to reduce costs incurred from inefficient warehouse usage, and invest in facility upgrades early on to reduce reject costs and increase net revenues with more sellable products for increased long term earning potential. Pricing, Model Availability, and S/Q rating The ability to effectively price the product at a level to reach the widest possible market is heavily dependent of differentiation from the market with quality and model availability.

Initially, the team favored focusing on fewer model generated in favor of differentiating via higher quality models and creating a niche market. This tactic worked initially, however it allowed the competition to gain a competitive advantage through larger variation of product offerings at lower quality. Recommendation: Invest early on in product model availability to increase competitive edge. The ability to offer more product choices coupled with Emergent’s focused on higher quality products could have increased the return on equity achievable in the later years.

Advertising and Celebrity Appeal Emergent’s initial investments in advertising and celebrity contracts were very conservative and minimal in terms of celebrity contracts for the first few years. It took several years of activity to fully appreciate the gains realized by competitors from more aggressive advertising tactics and celebrity endorsements. More aggressive contract biding and advertising was attempted for years 15-18, but the profit potential was not as great had this been a strategy used from the very beginning.

In many cases, Emergent lost out on a number of contracts for low bids. Recommendation: To increase Emergent’s market share and selling point of its product lines, Emergent should increase the number of celebrity contract bids and the associated bid amounts to attain a larger market share and increased revenues. Summary Successful and innovative businesses are built on strong and cohesive teams, effective strategies and the ability to recognize and seize opportunities before the competition. Emergent could have benefitted from stronger team interaction and communication.

The inability to work cohesively as a team decreased Emergent’s ability to maximize the company’s performance profits by leveraging the skills of each player effectively and strategically. The more eyes on the problem the better and more innovative the solution and the higher the likelihood you will identify strategic opportunities to increase performance and long term success. Had there been stronger and greater team interaction, certain opportunities for Emergent may have been more obvious or recognized earlier in the game simulation helping to create a greater competitive edge.

General Environment The fastest growing sports organization in the world, the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), started in 1993 as a professional mix martial arts (MMA) organization. Once the UFC brand was launched, MMA popularity surged in Brazil, followed by immense interest in Japan where these bouts became major events. The most recent fight in April, UFC sold 55,000 tickets in minutes, became the largest paid audience in North American to witness a mix martial arts event.

They delivered top rating in male 18-34 and 18-49 demographics. Globally, UFC programming is broadcast in over 149 countries and territories, reaching a half a billion homes worldwide, in 20 different languages. Response to the UFC brand of MMA has been tremendous, resulting in a growing fan base that has grown exponentially through the years. So, UFC is very popular to the whole world. Porter’s Five Forces: Threat of New Entrants Threat of new entrants is low because everyone in the world is watching UFC.

UFC is the only mixed martial arts industry in the world, but it is part of fighting sports industry. Power of Suppliers I would say that power of suppliers is high because the whole world is selling UFC’s stuffs. Suppliers are selling UFC apparels, shorts, DVDs, equipments and gears. Some of the suppliers including Affliction are selling UFC’s apparel. Others (Clear Vision) are selling DVD such as work-out or copies of UFC fights. UFC spends a lot on advertisement because they’re one of the most recognizable by the whole world.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship has partnered with Fox for a seven-year broadcast deal through the Fox Sports subsidiary, effectively ending the UFC’s Spike TV and Versus (now NBC Sports Network) partnership. I believe fighters are one of the suppliers because they are paid per fight, with amounts depending on how well-known the fighters are and how well sponsored a fighter and an event is. Fighters will typically get paid money to fight with an additional bonus if they win. Power of Buyers Buyers’ power is really high because UFC is very popular to the world.

The UFC brand completely restructured MMA into a highly organized and controlled compact sports. Now, UFC produces over twelve live Pay-Per-View events annually that are distributed residentially through North American cable and satellite providers including iNDEMAND Networks, DIRECTv, DISH Network, TVN Entertainment, Shaw Pay-Per-View, BellTv, Viewers Choice, SaskTel Max and via the Internet worldwide on UFC. com and Yahoo! , commercially through Joe Hand Promotions. It is very expensive because you have to order Pay-Per-View or DIRECTv to watch UFC.

Substitute I don’t believe there is a substitute because UFC is wrestling, martial art mixed. UFC is a very unique sport, but it is part of fighting sports. So, I believe substitute is very low. There are wrestling, boxing, martial arts mixed, and other fighting sports. Competitor Analysis: Boxing Boxing is a martial art and combat sport in which two people engage in a contest of strength, reflexes, and endurance by throwing punches at an opponent with gloved hands. They can get two most popular, best and recognizable boxers to fight each other.

They have so many passionate fans. They’ve partnered with HBO and SHOWTIME. They are focused on the best fighters from all over the world and give the best show for the world. Internal Industry: Strength UFC is one of the most popular sports, not in just United States, but in the whole world. They have surpassed the boxing on fans’ popularity. They are really high on suppliers’ and buyers’ power. They have sold out their tickets within minutes, not hours or days. Weakness It is not for younger kids to watch UFC because it is a bad image and bad influence for them.

You don’t want to have bullies at schools. UFC are worrying about what the fighters say or do because Advocacy groups have criticized the fighters’ comments as sexist and homophobic. The incidents cited by National Center on Domestic and Sexual Violence include an undated video linked on unfitforchildren. org, in which UFC fighter Quinton “Rampage” Jackson urges a Japanese-speaking fan to say nasty words. Also, people are complained about their advertisement because they showed a half nude woman in one of their commercial with Bud Light Lime. Recommendation