Individual Strategic Analysis
Q1/ Answer 1 - Porter’s Five Forces Analysis
The Japanese Anime Industry is one of the fastest growing animated industries in the world and thus, become the valuable contributor in the export of the company (Niracharapa 2257). However, it is being assumed that beyond the growth, the competition is the major concern for the companies in the industry; therefore, the industry analysis approach of Michael Porter is significant and going to use to determine the impacts and pressures of competition from different factors and sources in the market. The five major forces based on the porter’s five forces analysis include Threats of Rivals, threats from new entrants, bargaining power of buyers, bargaining power of suppliers and threats of substitutes.
The current Japanese Animation Market is very competitive, and around 430 companies are working within the industry. The intensity of competition from the rivals is high in Japan as many existing firms are performing outstandingly. The competition from rivalry is not only come from the domestic producers but from the international companies too. For instance, the Walt Disney Studios is very popular in Japan that is U.S. based Production Company. The animation production in other countries also impacts the competitiveness of Japan industry because it has already expanded into the international market (Jetro 7). Therefore, the growth of the rivals in the other countries can also impact the performance and success of Japan Animation Industry.
Substitute
Many Japanese animators and producers are providing the substitute products such as toys, games, and other merchandising products. The substitutes of such producers play a significant role in their revenue, but the threats for other competitors increase. Therefore, the threats from the substitute products are considered as both impactful and occurrence. The media and television industry is also considered as a substitute of animation, but it has medium impacts because it is already involved in animation in Japan industry.
Buyers
The power of the buyers is very high for the Japanese Animation companies. There is no cost of switching the TV program or animated film or add. The availability of the substitute also impacts on the bargaining power of the buyers. The wide range of the available programs from rivals and international competitors increases the bargaining power of the buyers.
Suppliers
The products are not supplied in animated industry and business but the production supplies. The contractors for the animation in Japan are divided into two categories i.e. prime contractors and sub-contractors. The threats from suppliers are high to medium in Japanese Animation industry because of the unique nature of the production. The studio that produces the anime is the major supplier of the content that is only paid for the cost. Furthermore, the human resource is also be counted in the suppliers as they are directly involved in the supply of their role in the production of animations. However, they are paid with low wages that directly impacts on the quality of the content. Therefore, the bargaining of suppliers is high as they can impact on the quality of the production such as the contractors.
The trend of outsourcing the production also emerges in Japan that also increases the threats from the suppliers and their bargaining power. Many markets such as China, South Korea, and the Philippines, etc. are popular for outsourcing that increases the production cost of the animators and production companies in Japan (Jetro 3).
New entrance
The new entrance barriers are high in Japanese animated industry because of various reasons. The industry allows the international production companies to enter in Japan. The Japanese industry allows the expansion of industry to the international level to increase the animations as compared to other industries. However, these barriers are low due to the cost challenges in the industry. The producers are facing the challenges in cutting the cost that is the barrier to the new entrance to enter the market. A short animated film of 30 minutes usually cost 10 million yen in the production. Therefore, the high cost of the production reduces the threats of a new entry in the market. The largest companies that produce the costly films or efficient in outsourcing the animations are only to survive in the Japanese Animation industry (Jetro 3). Already, 430 companies exist in the market, and it will be very difficult for the new network to gain a competitive place among few of the largest producers and animators.
The graph above shows the summary of the five forces analysis of Japan animation industry, where, each force is placed in the box according to the intensity of threats. It can be seen that the bargaining power of buyers and rivalry competitive threat are placed in high impacts while substitute and suppliers have medium impacts and occurrence. Only, the threats from new entrants are low.
Q2/Answer 2
Impacts of High Speed Broadband Internet Availability
The impacts and uses of broadband networks and their speed are widely studied in the context of the business world. According to the study, the export oriented industries and companies gain many benefits from the use of broadband. As the Japanese Animation industry is export oriented; it means that the benefits of the broadband network and availability of its speed across Japan to the animation companies are very important (Qiang et al. 37).
The use of the internet is very important in the animation industry these days. Many anime production companies and animators have started using the internet connection for the anime distribution in the market, mainly its titles. The study has found the role of broadband as very important in the animation industry as compared to the role in the traditional industries (OECD 23).
The development of the broadband networks is found as the key strategic action for the Japanese Animation industry because it is considered as very important to maintain the competitive advantage of the market in the global networks and remain the leader in the global animation industry. With the help of the broadband network and the available speed will help the animation companies to reduce the cost that is very high for now. The availability of the titles and content in the international market will become cheaper and less costly, and the access of the animation companies to the international markets will become easy (Qiang et al. 37).
This is how; the industry will become more competitive in nature. The availability of the high speed of broadband throughout Japan will increase the interaction between the producers and customers within the context of reduction of the cost as well as time. This is how the efficiency of the companies will enhance and improve. Many studies have provided evidence about the impacts of broadband at industry and firm level and impacting competitiveness with the cost cutting benefits.
Recommendations
Based on the importance of broadband network and its speed availability throughout Japan in the competitiveness of the animation industry, there are some recommendations for the amine companies. The purpose is to make the companies aware of the best use of broadband internet network to achieve the competitive edge in the coming future of the Japan animation industry for the global competition will depend on the broadband internet availability.
The typical mid Size Company in Japan animated industry is needed to change the business strategy within the animation industry. With the access to the high speed broadband internet, the company will be able to outreach to the audience out of the casual market. The growth in the use of broadband internet throughout Japan will increase the competitive and competitive advantage of the largest animators to capture the largest market. Therefore, the company is required to deal with the high competitive impacts due to the broadband internet availability. The company should provide its anime productions and titles on the internet, and the nature of the production must be attractive for the larger market to deal with the internet audience. If the company avoids the growth of the internet in the high growth animation market, it will lose the market position and thus, will be failed in near future.
Q3/ Answer 3
Valuable Resources and Capabilities
Mayfair Flowers have various resources and capabilities for its success and growth and achieve the performance required.
Contacts
The contacts available for the operations and contracts are the major resource to the company. The work experience of Janet helped her to develop such contacts that resulted in developing the contracts for the beginning of the company. The management of contacts is considered as very important for the business, mainly for small and new firms. For the successful small business, the effective management of contact is essential (Taimur). Therefore, the contacts of Janet are considered as the major resource to Mayfair Flowers.
Knowledge of Manager
The knowledge of the management in the field of event organizing and dealing with the floral decoration is also accounted in the major list of resources. The knowledge is considered as the critical resource to the business in the competitive business world. The change and innovation are very important for the survival in the market. In this fact, the knowledge plays very important role in developing the changes and providing innovativeness in the market (Jelenic 33). The knowledge of Janet, working as a manager in the bank, helped her to come up with the innovative idea to bring changes in the market of flower decorations at events.
Wholesale Market
The access to the wholesale market of flowers, where, the manager easily finds all types of flowers according to her requirements and need is another important resource to the company that helps in achieving the purpose and objectives of providing satisfactory services to the clients. The flowers from all over the world are available in the market, thus, using the whole market resource, the manager easily manage the range of flowers for the decoration on wholesale prices. The wholesale prices help the reduction in the cost of the service and increase the profitability.
Word of Mouth Communication
Other than the contacts, the word of mouth communication is another major resource to the Mayfair Flowers. The word of mouth communication plays very important role in the success and growth of the company along with achieving the aims and objectives of the business. There are many businesses and companies are leading in the market because of the word of mouth communication such as Google Inc. The word of mouth communication works as a marketing communication tool that helps the company to find more customers and clients. Therefore, it is one of the major capabilities to Mayfair Flowers.
Unique flower arrangement
One of the major capabilities at the disposal of Mayfair Flowers is unique arrangements. Janet has its own ideas for the arrangements of flowers. She obtains only those flowers that can be fitted in her design for the arrangements of flowers in a unique design that must be attractive and according to the requirement of the client. The differentiation is very important for the success of the business, and it is not possible without the creativity and uniqueness. The capability helps Mayfair Flowers to get more contracts, once Janet has successfully completed her first contract.
Efforts of manager
The efforts of staff and workers for the successful business are very significant. However, being a small business, there is not much staff available to Mayfair Flowers. Despite of this, the own efforts of Janet is the major capability to the company that is the major factor in the success and growth of Mayfair Flowers. Janet does all possible hard work to facilitate the excellent and quality service to the clients such as visiting their locations, searching for the best flowers from shop to shop, etc. These efforts give the company strength of providing the excellent service to the clients.
Services
The idea of floral decoration is itself a capability for Mayfair Flowers. The direct services to the clients with unique decoration and arrangement of flowers to make their events attractive and memorable for them are the success factors to Mayfair Flowers. The nature of the business is unique, and the quality of the service is very high that are the major capabilities of the company. The quality of service is important because it directly results in the satisfaction of the customers. The clients of Janet are already satisfied with her services; it means that the quality is playing a significant role.
Q4/ Answer 4
Strategic Recommendations for the Growth of Mayfair Flowers
Based on the above resources and capabilities, Mayfair Flowers has been forced towards the fast growth and progress of the business. Although the business growth is considered as very important, however, without strategic management, the growth can be immense and out of control. The nonstrategic management of the company or business growth can lead the business towards the greater challenges and failure. Therefore, to cope up with the fastest growth of Mayfair Flowers, there are some strategic recommendations for Janet to take strategic decisions and actions to deal with the growth. These recommendations are as follows:
Financial Planning and Implications
With the fastest growth of Mayfair Flowers, Janet is now needed to properly plan for financials of the company in terms of cash inflows and outflows of the company for the successful operations. As Janet has already focused on opening a florist shop for the walk-in customers, therefore, the expenses, cost and budget must also be planned. The financial planning is very important for the emerging and fastest growing companies to maintain their growth with dealing the challenges come across. Janet, therefore, is required to develop a financial plan for Mayfair Flowers.
Improve quality
The quality of the service of Mayfair Flowers is already satisfactory, though but continues improvement and enhancement is very important for the fastest growing business. The companies grow with fast pace are required to improve their service or product quality for the high satisfaction of the customers as well to attract more customers.
The companies grow because of the high demand in the market, and the demand directly results in the high expectations from customers. Therefore, the company if failed to facilitate the expected quality, it will lose its position in the marketplace. Therefore, to cope up with these types of challenges, Janet is recommended to improve the quality of its service continuously either by controlling cost or developing training for more unique and new ideas. With the high demand and expectations, the customer might demand service in less time. Therefore, Janet rather than working alone is needed to develop a team to work on multiple projects of flower decoration and arrangement for the clients. The team must be based on the train and knowledgeable individuals that can help Janet to offer the best quality service to the customers. Otherwise, with the growth of the company, Janet alone might be failed to meet the expectations of the customers.
Continuous satisfaction of customers
The continuous satisfaction of the customers is very important for the businesses, mainly for the fast growing companies. Therefore, it is very important for the companies to understand the needs and demands of the customers. The demands and needs of the customers result in the changing trends in the market, for that, it is very important to understand the changing needs. Therefore, it is recommended to Janet that rather than relying simply on the current strategy, it should focus on the change based on the changes in the needs and desires of the customers. It will help Mayfair Flowers to achieve the high customer satisfaction on a continuous basis rather than for limited time.
Hiring employees and train them
As it is already mentioned above that some more professionals and team workers are required by Janet to deal with the business growth. Therefore, Janet having managerial background should hire personnel that must be given with the basic training of floral arrangement, decoration, designs, and ideas. It will help Janet to deal with the growth of the company. Training is also important for the customer satisfaction as it will help Janet in maintaining the quality of the service. The service quality is the major factor in the customer satisfaction and training gives the skills to the employees to provide the service quality. Therefore, the new employees and staff must be properly trained to maintain the quality and customer satisfaction of Mayfair Flowers.
Works Cited
Jelenic, Danijela. "The importance of knowledge management in Organizations–with emphasis on the balanced scorecard learning and growth Perspective." Management, Knowledge and Learning, International Conference. 2011.
Jetro. “Japan Animation Industry Trends.” Industrial Report. 2005. Online. 23 Apr. 2016. <https://www.jetro.go.jp/ext_images/en/reports/market/pdf/2005_35_r.pdf>
Niracharapa, T. "Competitiveness of Animation Industry: The Case of Thailand." World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology, International Journal of Social, Behavioral, Educational, Economic, Business and Industrial Engineering 8.7 (2014): 2248-2253.
OECD. “Broadband and The Economy.” Ministrial Background Report DSTI/ICCP/IE(2007) 3/Final. 2007. Online. 23 Apr. 2016. <https://www.oecd.org/sti/ieconomy/40781696.pdf>
Qiang, Christine Zhen-Wei, Carlo M. Rossotto, and Kaoru Kimura. "Economic impacts of broadband." Information and communications for development 2009: Extending reach and increasing impact 3 (2009): 35-50.
Taimur. “The Importance of Contact Management for any Business.” 2010. Online. 23 Apr. 2016. <https://skylightit.com/2010/11/the-importance-of-contact-management-for-any-business/>
