Case study

In this subject we have analyze six cases that related to the strategic management. We utilizing what we had learn during lecture to analyze the cases like UMW Holdings case, Gloria Jean's Coffee, Robin Hood, KPJ Healthcare and The Problem Solver. The case study make me more clear about what we had studied for instance Porter's Five Forces, SWOT Analysis, Corporate Level Strategies and more. Besides, we knows a lot about the industry in Malaysia.

For example Gloria Jean's Coffee case. We need to analyze whether GJC should continue to expand their business in Malaysia or not. We utilizing Porter's 5 Forces to know more about the coffee shop industry in Malaysia. We analyze GJC competitors like Starbucks and Old Town that obviously very known by the Malaysian, supplier of coffee shop especially coffee beans and barista that surely very little in Malaysia, the hard difficulties in new entrants because of the big capital for starting up a coffee shop but coffee shop can make a high profitability if GJC can choose a strategic places to open the coffee shop and lastly Malaysia buyer that normally will not buy a coffee drink from coffee shop because the price is quiet expensive and they prefer made it by themselves more.

Our group decide that GJC should continue since they have their own suppliers, they should choose a strategic places like Kuala Lumpur and Shah Alam, make their own uniqueness that Starbucks does not offer, learn more about Malaysian buying behavior and we think that coffee shop will be a trend for Malaysian in the future.

Strategy Level

Business Level Strategy

The company utilize business strategy level for their company to make their companies different and unique than other company that offer the same business as they are. There were three business strategy level that the company can utilize which are:-

Cost leadership strategy where the company offer prices that lower than their competitor like Mydin, Air Asia, KFC and more. 

In order to compete in the industry plus attract customer to buy their products, the company must create products/services that have their own uniqueness and valued than their competitors like Apple, Nokia, and more. The company that want to offer unique products/services utilizing strategy called differentiation strategy.

The company that utilize the focus strategy will focus on the segment market or the business that the competitor select not to serve them. There were two variants which is cost focus and differentiation focus.

Functional Level Strategy

Functional level strategy consists of activities that create value and costs for the company like financing, human resources, operation and marketing. The company will make a department to each of the activities to make the company become more effective and focus. Usually this strategy use by the lower-level managers to handle the activities of the company.

Internal Analysis

Internal Analysis

( Evaluate the strength and the weaknesses within the company)

Four Major Functional Areas That Should be Evaluate

 

 Consist of  five basic functions which is PLANNING (establish vision, mission, objectives, strategies, policies and forecasting), ORGANIZING (determine or delegate the job scope, job descriptions or authority of the employees), MOTIVATING (motivate the workers to be more efficient in their work by rewards, advice or praise), STAFFING (recruiting and training the staff according to what the company most needed) and CONTROLLING (evaluating or measuring the companies workers actual performances).

The most use formula in marketing is 4Ps which means PRODUCT (what products should the company offer), PRICE (how much should the company sell the products, the company should consider the customer buying pattern and their own profit), PLACE (where the company want to distribute the products by considering the folks demand of the products) and PROMOTION ( how the company attract the customer to buy the products).

The company should measure/manage their liquidity ratio (the firm’s ability to meet its maturing short-term obligations), leverage ratio (the extent to which the firm has been financed by debt), activity ratio (how effectively the firm uses its resources), profitability ratio (measures the management’s overall effectiveness as shown by the returns generated on sales and investment) and the growth ratio (the firm’s ability to maintain its economic position in the growth of the economy and industry).

 

Operations means the process of transforming the input to the output that are of the higher value to the buyer. Break-even analysis (BEP) is frequently use in analyzing the link between production and finance.

8 Steps in Evaluating the Company Strengths and Weaknesses

List all the internal factors in the company

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Assign an important score to each of the internal factors (1-10)

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Determine the weighted average of the internal factors (Important score/Sum of important score)

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Assign the capability score to each of the internal factors (1-10)

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Determine the weighted capability ((Weighted average x Capability score)/Sum of the important score)

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Select 5 factors with highest score of weighted capability (STRENGTHS) 

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Determine the difference gap between the importance score and the capability score for the internal factors that are left to be chosen (those factors with low scores of weighted capability)

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Select 5 factors with largest positive difference gap (WEAKNESSES)

  

PEST Analysis

Political- we must know the regulatory or the policies of the places because each country have a different policies, the opportunities that we will get from the country policies or that been given by the government of the country, the politic environment at that place because as we know unhealthy politic or  chaos politic like Middle East will not attract many investor to invest at that places.

Economical- take note what are the economical trends at the places, a marketing plan that surely will attract customer to buy the products, market industry cycle, taxation, inflation rate, exchange rate and more.

Technological- should consider the rate of the technology change at the places, R&D, associated and replacement technology, intellectual property issues, technology legislation, innovation potential and more.

Social- the populations of the places, their lifestyle trends, consumer behavior of the folks/citizens, the most views or use media, ethical issues and more that related to the social.

Why we need to do this analysis?

PEST is a factor that will help the company in understand the ground of the environment that the company  would like to venture. Therefore, the company can strategize their business by taking the opportunities, reducing the risk and more.  

SWOT Analysis

SWOT Analysis also one of the tools to analyze the industry or the company. This tools can help the company to build the strategy that really relevant with what the industry need.

S&W= Strength and Weaknesses analyze the internal origin of the company
O&T= Opportunities and Threats analyze the external factor of the company

Combine all we can know the company strength and grab all the opportunities that we have listed that eventually can help the company to grow up and make high return while improving some of the weaknesses and find a way to reduce the risks that we may faces in the future.

Porter's 5 Forces

The video showed  what I am understood about Porter's 5 Forces. My first try converting a PPT to a video. Correct me if what I wrote was wrong. We learn together.
Cr to thesecession for Happy Piano Music.

External Analysis

Robin Hood

Who does not know the tale of Robin Hood and his Merry-men. They rob the rich to help the poor because during that time it is all about power. People that does not have power will be conquer by the people that rich and have a more power.

However, there were a lot of problems happen between Robin Hood and his Merry-men such as the growing number of band that bring out the scarcity in food supplying, camp, and discipline control, their networking with the powerful people, their organization strength that seems decline, and the most important thing is the mentality of Robin Hood and the Merry-men. Robin Hood and his Merry-men have a different objectives where the Merry-men still want to stay with their way to rob the rich and Robin Hood want to take down the Sheriff. The mismatch of the objective can bring down Robin Hood and his Merry-men anytime.

Thus, how Robin Hood will overcome the problems within himself and the Merry-men? First and foremost, Robin Hood should change the mentality of the Merry-men. They should have the same and clear objectives within them that they can follow. Then, he should restructure again the organization since the number of the band growing day by day. He must delegate a task to the person in the organization. Make them understand and clear their job scope. Better organization will make a better plan and strategy in the future. Robin Hood also should consider to establish a regulation that the Merry-men should follow so that there will not any violation and discrimination among them and the last but not least Robin Hood must grab the opportunities to work with the barons in order for him to widen his networking among the barons.

In any organization or even a small group, they should introduce a clear mission, choose a leader that have good influence toward the members, have a negotiation skills where we can achieve what we want and satisfied the others, and leader that can manage and delegate all the task in the organization. Contingency plan if the main plan fail. All of these things very important for the organization to work efficiently and productively.