BUSINESS STRATEGY
Business Strategy
Introduction
A business strategy is a means to which a firm uses to achieve its set goals and objectives. It involves the long-term planning of an organization. The plan is referred to as long term because it covers a period more than three years to accomplish results. The resources that a company holds are the primary concern for the form of strategic planning for the enterprise. The resources are mainly finances. For instance, the management plans on which project to invest in. For a production plan, business strategy occurs when the company encounters a business scenario like an increased demand for its products. The company has the option to either construct a new plant to produce more; it can also acquire other companies to provide products on its behalf or merging with other enterprises in the same industry to increase production because synergy value helps reduce cost while enhancing outputs. The decision that the management will adopt is a strategy that is long term. The key thing to consider during this decision-making process on what option to go for involves weighing the project that will use the least resources possible while bring increased outputs.
Jessops is a photographic company in Europe that is based in Britain. The main business it deals in is the retailing the photographic materials like digital cameras, stands, frames and any other thing relating to photography. The mission of Jessops states that the company is geared towards creating lasting memories full of enthusiasm and passion. This statement is short and precise to very body thus the company is indeed attracting many customers hiring them to offer them services during weddings and important functions. The vision of Jessops Company is a dedication to remain focused to utilizing technologies for quality in service and product delivery. The key objectives of the company include implementing an integrated platform for all the company products. This will lead to service fast delivery and respond to customer quests. The other objective is to have a full integration of Jessops sales and the reporting platform. The goal of these objectives is offering the best service in the most convenient way to their customers. The company needs to keep the truck on the sales that the corporation is making hence the paramount goal is transparency in their business both internally and externally. The competencies that the company has are the team of experts working for the enterprise.
Factors to Consider when formulating strategies for Jessops Company
The top-level management of Jessops Company needs to consider three main factors when they meet to make plans for the company. These include customer intimacy, innovation and the quality of the company’s work. All factors that are related to the client including satisfaction is collectively termed as customer intimacy (Soliman and Spooner, 2010, p. 339). Understanding the company’s customers helps the management to know them better thus while making decisions; they will consider their likes and dislikes as far as the company product are concerned. The management needs to invest resources in market research so that they can understand the customers better. Market research gives the management an insight on the trends in the market, customer satisfaction, or dissatisfaction through feedbacks from customer interactions.
Innovation as the second factor to consider is key when it comes to strategies. Customers want to see new things in all sectors thus when they are buying any company’s products; innovation will make them loyal as they will find that the firm is dynamic in what is offering for them. Companies are surviving in the market due to innovation as Bill Gates, and Tom Peters put it that innovate or die. For Jessops to develop and attain its goal, all the departments need to be innovative in their day-to-day operations. In photography, new instruments with more focus and can take clear photographs are preferred. Quality is paramount to customers today. With the information, they have acquired from the internet and other sources, they remain informed leading to a change in their tastes and preferences. What does our customer want and how do they want it? This helps management to produce products as per the needs of clients.
Effectiveness of techniques used when developing strategic business plans
Strategic Positioning of Jessop (Organizational Audit)
Strategic positioning is a competitive advantage that a company gains so that it keeps serving customers in the most efficient manner possible. For strategic positioning, the company needs to bond with their clients to ensure the product and services it is offering best fit the needs of customers. Jessops has achieved this strategic positioning through the online marketing through the social media. They have social media pages on Facebook, Twitter, and ads on Google. Through these platforms, they can meet their customers better. SWOT analysis has proved to be effective not only to Jessops but also to many other businesses. It defines the strengths that the company has and its weaknesses. It goes further to discuss external factors affecting the business that is either a threat to business or opportunities where the company can invest (Teece, 2010, p. 173). It helps the management to understand the business surrounding so that it work on its weaknesses and make them strengths. Jessops makes four strategies that help it to continue with business. For instance, the company is in a position to specialize in working on strengths to develop better products and deliver high-quality services. Jessops has the advantages of modern technology utilization, which has led to a competitive advantage.
The manufacturing of the modern digital cameras with high focus lens helps all companies in need of this equipment to contract Jessops for supply. Jessops no longer sells cameras but engages in expertise and training to customers. They offer after sales service on how to make best through their products. The passionate employees at Jessops are a strength to the company. The weakness is the store outlets have not been entirely established in most parts of the globe. The company can collaborate with mobile phone manufacturers so that it supplies them with camera hardware. The threat that the company is currently facing is the competition where some mobile manufactures a making better cameras and incorporating them in mobile phone gadgets thus people are using cameras on their phones rather than buying digital cameras.
Environmental Audit for Jessops (PEST Analysis)
Jessops Company faces external factors that favor or affect the company negatively like all other firms. For the PEST, the management gets to understand all the external forces that are affecting the business. These effects help the enterprise to remain updated regarding policies and any external factor that influence the business. Jessop (2011, p.1215) states that they comprise the political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental factors that are affecting the business. For the case for Jessops PEST helps the management to see how external forces are affecting the business.
The political factors are the laws that govern business. The electronic products are affected by laws made to govern recycling of goods like the waste electrical and equipment law that regulate the amount of electronics going to the public sites. The economic situation affects how business operates. Considering the economic conditions on the market is good. When the UK economy was in recession between 2008 and 2009, all the people felt it thus strategizing on how to operate at such economic situations (Bryson and Alston, 2011 p. 33). A multi-channel strategy helps Jessops to continue with business in difficult economic conditions. The modern society is dynamic, and the same should be businesses. The youths are the primary market for cameras because they are highly advanced in technology and its use. They always demand products that are incorporating technologies in their products. Segmenting the business based on age helps Jessops to meet customers better. Technology is at the forefront in the shape that photography business is taking. The quality of photographs and images by digital cameras help customers feel lively as the technology is helping them to have quality photos. Technologies help customers to print pictures that they have taken in social media.
Significant of Stakeholders Analysis when formulating strategies for Jessops
All stakeholders to Jessops are relevant to business as the owner wants to get returns from investment while other stakeholders like employees want salaries. Every stakeholder remains paramount to the firm. The stakeholders are the reason for the continued operation of the business. Keeping in mind the interest of every stakeholder helps management to make decisions in line with their interest. The importance of employees is that they are the business and need a reward, so they remain committed to their job. Happy employees are loyal and create customer loyalty to the firm (Wheelen and Hunger, 2011, p. 36). The investors want returns from their investment thus; decisions by management should be geared towards creating more profits to the business. Analysis of stakeholders helps group them and hence serving their needs becomes an easy task. Identification and satisfying the need of every stakeholder keeps them happy and ready to continue doing business with the company.
All the people involved in business may have either a positive or a negative attitude towards the firm. This analysis helps the management to understand them better. The stakeholders are classified as primary, secondary, and key stakeholders. The primary are the key stakeholders as any decision affects them directly (Olson, Slater, and Hult, 2005, p.54). For the success of any business, team members need to cooperate with one another. The purpose of identifying different stakeholders helps management to understand their role in making achieving the goals of the company.
New Strategy for Jessops
The strategy that I propose for Jessops that will help it grow and reach its maturity is focusing on mobile users. Over years, the price of smartphones is declining and many people especially the youths who are lovers of photography can now access the internet. Therefore, the management need to ensure the website for the company is mobile friendly and all the platforms where the company is marketing its products remain accessible to mobile users. With many users of mobile phones, the company needs to become innovative and start to offer software that provides services of their products they are manufacturing. Collaborating with Google play store to make mobile friendly software will help the company prioritize mobile users. Before going forward, the company needs to put the mobile users in the forefront. Designing software cameras that will help the company to increase sales as smartphone users will use this software.
Analysis of possible alternative strategies for Jessops substantive growth
An approach may make a company continue growing, remain stagnant, or start declining in its operations and performance. Therefore, the alternatives that may arise include limited growth, decline, or substantive growth. Widening the market that the company is serving helps the company to increase its share. If a company penetrates very well in the market, they have to experience substantive growth. Through market analysis and the analysis of competitors, the management can invest in projects that led to a growth of the company. Investing in opportunities that will pay the company most incomes assures growth. The key strategies for Jessops include the formation of mergers, acquisition, and takeovers. When companies come together and work as one big company, the costs that are involved are reduced and at the same time, profits are increased. A takeover includes hostile purchase where the company goes ahead and buys another company with the agenda of reducing completion.
Based on the theories of strategy and evaluation, a justification of future strategy for Jessops
The objective of marketing for Jessops is to create awareness among the customers of the company. Through the database of Jessops, the company has vast information about the market and the customers. It helps them to serve their customers better as per their specific needs (Ward, 2011, p.46). Through social media, the company is in a position to reach many customers because many of its target customers are fans of the different social media platforms. Forming collaborations with mobile phone manufacturers will offer a ready market for the company’s products. A continued product positioning will help that company to expand its market and increase its market share. Through social media, the products that the company is offering are reaching many customers all over the world. The youths are lovers of photographs, and whenever they see lovely photos, they will prefer purchasing such cameras or phones makes with such cameras.
The roles and responsibilities of the staff implementing the plan for Jessops
The personnel mandated to apply the strategy at Jessops remain critical in making the policy is attained in the future for better service delivery. This is because the human resource is paramount to the success of strategy implementation. The communication needs are first addressed before deciding on the team to undertake strategy implementation. The impact of a policy on different stakeholders is crucial to analyze the change the plan would bring to the company employees (Johnson, Scholes, and Whittington, 2008, p. 70). If the implementing team can state the changes that will occur because of strategy implementation, they make decisions that will positively influence the company operations. The management needs to analyze the requirement for the plan so that when it comes to implementation, they offer training to employees so that they adapt to the changes brought by strategy implementation.
Analysis of estimated resource requirement for the implementation of the new business strategy
Strategies, as earlier mentioned when defining corporate strategy, requires finances to implement. The planning team needs to do an analysis that will allow implementation process possible. The new plan that the company needs to focus on is that of mobile phone users. Customer’s attitude and tastes are the key drivers here. Hence, proper resource allocation will allow the execution of the company strategy smoothly. The resources needed for this approach include finances, and technology. Efficiency in resource use assures the company better returns from investment in projects (Schwartz, and Davis, 2011, p. 34). The amount that Jessops need to invest in this new strategy is in the production based on demand. Other resources will go to marketing department so that it advertises the company products on as many sites as possible.
Evaluation of the contribution of SMART targets to achieve the strategy implementation on Jessops
Evaluation helps management to gauge the far the process has gone. It seeks the part that has been completed, and that is yet to undertake so that the strategy is fully implemented into the company system. Jessops remains the leading company in the photography industry regarding revenues and asset ownership. It is imperative to put into consideration the short-term strategies that the corporation has established to achieve long-term goals. The use of SMART tool when defining the goals for the enterprise helps achieve set goals. Specific goals are clear and easy to understand. The HR should be in a position to measure in metrics the performance of employees towards achieving company goals and objectives (Thompson, and Martin, 2010, p. 238). The goal is achievable if after some time the management measures progress and sees what has been done and what is remaining. The time that the company will take to achieve its objective and strategies is critical. It is important to set a period of one year so that the company can check if the plan is achievable or not. The time that Jessops will take to implement the new strategy is two years, but measurement of progress will be done semi-annually.
Conclusion
Business strategy is necessary to tell where the company will be in the future. It defines the growth of the firm to achieve its goals and objectives. The achievement of a business strategy is affected by factors like leadership, company structure and the personnel working for the enterprise. The tools that will help any organization to develop best strategies include SWOT, which analyzes the internal environment of the company, PESTLE that examines the external context of the firm together with the Porter’s five force model. A thorough market research gives the company a clear picture of the business both internally and externally. The success of the firm depends more on the formulation and implementation of strategies. Marketing of products on social media helps the company reach many people around the globe as media like Facebook reach the entire world.
References
Bryson, J.M. and Alston, F.K., 2011. Creating your strategic plan: A workbook for public and nonprofit organizations (Vol. 3). John Wiley & Sons, pp. 24-47.
Jessop, B., 2011. Institutional re (turns) and the strategic–relational approach. Environment and Planning A, 33(7), pp.1213-1235.
Johnson, G., Scholes, K., and Whittington, R., 2008. Exploring Corporate Strategy: Text and Cases. Pearson Education, pp. 67-81.
Olson, E.M., Slater, S.F. and Hult, G.T.M., 2005. The performance implications of fit among business strategy, marketing organization structure, and strategic behavior. Journal of Marketing, 69(3), pp.49-65.
Schwartz, H. and Davis, S.M., 2011. Matching corporate culture and business strategy. Organizational Dynamics, 10(1), pp.30-48.
Soliman, F. and Spooner, K., 2010. Strategies for implementing knowledge management: the role of human resources management. Journal of knowledge management, 4(4), pp.337-345.
Teece, D.J., 2010. Business models, business strategy, and innovation. Long range planning, 43(2), pp.172-194.
Thompson, J.L. and Martin, F., 2010. Strategic management: awareness & change. Cengage Learning EMEA, pp.235-256.
Ward, J.L., 2011. Keeping the family business healthy: How to plan for continuing growth, profitability, and family leadership. Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 45-59.
Wheelen, T.L. and Hunger, J.D., 2011. Concepts in Strategic management and business policy. Pearson Education India, pp. 34-39.
