Strategy and Planning Essay free essay sample

The maximum exploitation of our resources is the key to advantage over the competitors. Marketing is one of the main areas in which a well versed strategic plan can make the organisation to attract customers here the way in which we describe the organizations motives, goals and the dedication to the customers reflect in our adverts. So, cleverly placing the right factors in the right place is a challenge in the strategic planning decision making. In this ever changing business environment the only way of survival of an organisation depends upon the decisions it makes. Thus strategic planning is the key factor to success. In this research we will briefly discuss about the tools of strategy and the outcomes of implementing these tools in an organisation. We will discuss about SWOT analysis, PESTEL analysis and Potters Five Force. 3 (b). SWOT Analysis SWOT analysis is one of the tools in strategic planning and decision making. This tool helps us to judge the organizations position in the business environment. SWOT stands for Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats. Strength The organizations factors which are most influential with respect to customers, market share, and brand value and so on. The strength of an organisation maybe its good will, an excellent customer relationship management and many other sensitive factors which lies on the organizations side. Weakness The things which are an advantage of the competitor and a disadvantage to our organisation. The weakness factor may depend upon our organizations own business policies and or work ethics which binds us to a corner, the competitors takes advantage of this issue and exploit the opportunity but fine tuning our strategy and decision making will bring in a drastic change. Opportunities The chance in which all the things fall in line for our organisation to exploit and to make a profit of it is the definition for opportunities. Opportunities can occur due to a change in trend of customers, brand switching an so on. It is wise for an organisation to make use of such opportunities. Threats The main and most important factor is the threats from rivals and competitors. If an organisation fails to with stand the threats from the competitors then it will surely end up in bankruptcy, the competition may come up with innovative ways of marketing and attracting customers so it is our bounded duty to over come the competitors by creating innovative ways of marketing through strategic planning. Example for SWOT analysis Soft drink giant: Coca-Cola Strengths One of the most successful organisations of all time. The brand value of Coca-Cola is worth more than $68 million in 2009. the company manages its products over 200 countries with over 700 products which is a gigantic goal to achieve but maintaining it as the leader of its kind is still another battle. People tend to be faithful to the Coca-Cola brand because of its one main product the cola drink. So a wide variety of different products from the company with the same brand name tends to market the products for itself. (www. interbrand. com) Weaknesses The Coca-ColaCompany products are beverages so the main weakness for them is that they have this lobby of beverage segment and this is might be their weakness because in the long run they might hit the ground if any other company produces a better beverage. And nowadays people tend to make choices more often than in the past so it is a vulnerable area to be looked upon! Opportunities People are concerned about their health now more than ever so the introduction of Coke Zero a new product from the Coca-ColaCompany is catching up a considerable amount of market share because of its new distinct taste without added sugar in some countries but basically its a new drink with zero calories, the company claims!. The company is exploiting the current trend of health criteria. Threats The main competitor of Coca-ColaCompany is the PepsiCo Inc, the Pepsi Cola Company introduces new products in response to the Coca-ColaCompany. The Coca-ColaCompany is trying very hard to cope up with the situation. During 998 the PepsiCo Inc managed to out smart the company. So without the proper strategic planning PepsiCo will soon go beyond the Cokes victory 3(c). The PESTLE Analysis The most important tool of strategic planning is the PESTEL analysis. The PESTEL analysis is a tool which helps us to judge our position in the market with respect to the macro environment. PESTLE stands for P Political Forces, E Economical Forces, S -Social Forces, T -Technological Forces, L Legislative Forces and E Environmental Forces. These forces influence the overall performance, market value, finance and customer relationship of the company. We will briefly discuss about the PESTEL forces one by one by implementing into an organisation. Example : Integrated Electronics (INTEL) Semiconductors. The Intel Semiconductors are the producers of the famous Intel microchips which literally runs the computer industry but with some rivals such as AMD Inc (Advanced Micro devices). Here we will apply the PESTEL analysis to know the factors that are influencing the Intel semiconductors. Political : The implementation of new taxes and the internationalism of the products tends to make the company to adhere to strict rules in each country which the company is ventured on. So Intel is focusing upon its new products onto buyers and not on further research and development because of the political pressure around the organisation. Economic: The semiconductor industry is in rise. So, the financial status of the company is rising due to a smaller amount of competitors there is lower amount of threats so the economic factor of the company is in concrete position as of now. Social: The company is present in an ever changing dynamic business environment so it has to be sensitive to changes that occur in the environment and then adapt to the changes that takes place. Technological: The semiconductor industry is ever growing in rapidly increasing speed. So, the technological advancements of the industry must be up to date due to high growth ratio of processors which are used in computers across the globe. The research and development team comes up with new innovative ideas to integrate the previous processing unit into the new one with advanced technology so the computation power increases more than double the time the predecessor microchip used to compute. Legislative: The legal factors are important factors of the company because every country that the company venture into must strictly adhere to that particular countrys rules and regulations. Environment: Being a semiconductor company the company must look after environmental issues which affect the world so the semiconductor devices must be environmentally friendly and recycling of the devices plays a vital role in the environmental factor. The company has a good background of making environmentally friendly chips and recycling units so the environmental issue is under control. (http://ivythesis. typepad. com) 3(d). Porters Five Forces: The porters five forces is a business strategy tool which is used to analyse the position of a company and assessing its strength with respect to the competitors in this case new entrants and their impact in this ever changing environment. The porters five forces are: Existing rivalry among firms Threat of new entrants determinants of supplier power Determinants of buyer power Threat of substitute products Example: AIRBUS The porters five applied to the Airbus aviation company who have been the most influential carriers of all time apart from Boeing. These two major aircraft companies were literally in a fight for gaining the considerable mount of market share. Since the introduction of Airbus A380 the Boeing Company has lost lot of customers. The new entrant in our case the A380 is so much advanced than the legendary Boeing 747 which literally ruled the skies. The Boeing 747 was a fuel efficient and economically well versed passenger and good carrier aircraft but the major flaw in t he Boeing decision making is that it was not concentrating on the future of the aircraft but it produced a wide variant of Boeing 700 series but the cleverly devised strategic plan of Airbus was a nightmare to the Boeing corporation. The A380 has an excellent performance with regardless of its massive size the jumbo jet can people double the time the Boeing 747 used to carry. Since the aviation industry has only fewer concentrations of rivals the market share is huge compared to other industries. So with the new A380, Airbus has a considerable amount of stake in the airline industry. But Boeings answer to A380 is the new 787 dreamliner. Which is more fuel efficient but in the case of size the A380 outsmarts the Boeing. Importance of Change: The change management in an organisation is the most important factor which influences the future of an organisation. It describes an strategic approach in modifying or altering an organizations internal factors such as teams, individuals etc. there are different ways to achieve the change in an organisation by collaborative which is done by providing workshops and seminars explaining about the change to the people working in the organization. Consultative the people are informed about the change and the feedback of the change is taken into consideration. Directive the members of the staff are informed about the details of the change and the sensitivity of the change. Coercive the members are forced to follow the change. Example of Change: The acquisition of Iberia by British Airways The British Airways acquired the Iberia for $7 billion and it made the third largest airline in the world. The member of the staff was quickly adapted to the change in different management team. The Iberia staff members were given a change management session on order to cope up with the new acquisition. The acquisition made the stock holders value to increase and they were given a 55 percent of the new airlines share. 4. Conclusion: We have so far discussed about some of the Strategic planning tools and the ways in which they can be exploited. And in conclusion we can say that the way in which we approach the organisation with the necessary tools and strategic planning will make a gigantic impact on the organisation in the present and in the future. In this ever changing business environment the challenge for each organisation is to identify the needs of the customers and to create an appropriate strategic plan to approach the problem which will provide the optimum results which can benefit the customers as well as the organisation. . References SWOT Analysis, [online], Available http://www. marketingteacher. com/Lessons/lesson_swot. htm PESTLE Analysis, [online], Available http://rapidbi. com/pestle/Introduction-to-the-PESTLE-analysis-tool. html Coca-Cola Case Study, [Online], Available http://www. interbrand. com/best_global_brands. aspx http://finance. mapsofworld. com/brand/value/coca-cola. html Intel case S tudy, [Online], Available http://ivythesis. typepad. com/term_paper_topics/2009/09/intel-case-study. html Read more: http://www. americanessays. com/study-aids/free-essays/management/strategy-and-planning. php#ixzz2OPwRLxoO