Challenges In Recruiting And Effectively Managing Cross Cultural Teams

BCG Analysis

The organizational management activity which is being used so as to set the priorities, focus on the energy and the resources, strengthen the operations, assuring that the employees and the other stakeholders are working towards the common goals, establishing the agreement around the intended outcomes/results and assess and adjust the organization according to the market requirements and the situations of the same. Developing strategies is one of the most important aspects because with the help of strategic planning only organization could compete with the competitors and could move further. There are various set of aspects which re reuired to be focused upon so as to develop the strategic plans like selecting the vision and mission for the company, indentifying and engaging the stakeholders, conducting the SWOT analysis and the environmental scan this will help in gaining the information related with internal as well as external environment, synthesizing data with the help of which accuracy and quality will be maintained, developing and approving the draft direction on the path of which the business is moving, then it is required that the research for the best practices should be done in which all the best practices for the businesses should be researched and chosen and then finally it is required that the development and the implementation and tracking should be done on the tracking plans. It is required that these aspects should be taken into consideration so s to ensure that the strategic planning for the business could be done in an appropriate way.

The report is developed considering all the aspects related with the strategies of the business. With the help of this report a trail is being done to provide better as well as effective set of framework to the business with the effect of which it will sustain. The report will provide a direction to the business so that it could attain competitive advantage in the market in which it is trading and serving the people available in the same. The aim of the report is to provide a strategic blueprint for the organizations doing business in the competitive environment.

BCG Analysis also known as Boston Matrix is the process which helps in evaluating the strategic position of the business brand portfolio and its potential (Mohammad Arabzad an, 2012). There are four categories in which the business portfolios are being classified which show the industry attractiveness as well as its competitive position. It is a corporate planning tool which is being used to portray the market share axis of the business (Salmani, et. al., 2014). The two tools which are being mentioned reveals all set of likely business portfolio in terms of the cash which is required to support the unit of the business. BCG matrix helps the organization in developing the understanding with the fact that in which type of brand the organization should make the investment and from which it should disinvest. More understanding with BCG matrix will be developed by taking the company example in which Woolworth is the company which is being taken into consideration (Taghian, 2010).

Product Life Cycle

Relative Market Share: One of the dimension which is being used so as to evaluate portfolio of the business is relative market share. It is being studied that the market share of the higher corporate share results in the higher cash returns. The reason behind this aspect is that the business which are dealing in the big market and are producing higher amount of benefits from the higher economies of scale and experience curve which provides the higher profits (Agarwal, 2012).

Market Growth Rate: Higher market growth rate is the aspects which means the higher earnings for the company and also sometimes provides higher rate of profit but it is required that to gather the higher amount of profit organization should invest the high amount of cash (Toledo, et. al., 2014). Hence, it could be said that the business units which makes the higher amount of the investments in the market tends to earn higher amount of the profit from the market. In the same manner Woolworth is the company which has a focus upon generating higher amount of profit due to which it prefers to invest more in the market and ensures that it could earn more (T. S., 2012).

The brands of the firms are classified into four quadrants with the help of which BCG analysis is being done:

DOGS: Dogs is the section which holds the low market shares as compared with the competitors and the organizations which operates in the slowly growing market falls under this quadrant. In general it could be said that these organizations are not much effective for the investment purposes (Treiger, 2015). Due to low market share and low capacity it becomes hard for the investor to invest in such type of company as they do not get effective set of returns by investing in such type of organizations or the markets. The strategic choices that are made for this quadrant are Retrenchment, Divestiture and Liquidation.

CASH COWS: Cash Cows are termed as the most profitable market in which the brands which are powerful are prefers to invest as they get effective set of profit (Valentinov, 2015). It is required that the market should be milked so as to provide more and more cash. It is required that the cash which is being generated from the “cows” should be invested into the “stars” so that the business could grow. It is being suggested that the businesses should not invest into the cows for the purpose of generate profit rather they should invest so as to ensure that the business could move towards the growth (Valentinov, 2015). In case of Woolworth is planning to invest in cow then it should make the strategy to move towards the stars so that it could grow and succeed into the market. The strategic choices which could be adopted by Woolworth are Product Development, Diversification, Divestiture and Retrenchment (Mpinganjira, 2014).

STARS: Stars is the quadrant in which the business which is working in the high growth market deals. It is the situation in which high market shares are being maintained (Suki, 2011). This is the market situation in which both cash generators as well as cash users are available in the market. Star re termed as the primary units in which the money should be invested because in this situation stars are expected to become the cash cows. Hence, it could be said that organizations should try to enter cash cow and should work hard so as to enter into stars so that they could move towards the sustainability. The strategic choices which could be adopted are: Vertical Integrations, Horizontal Integrations, Market Penetrations, Market Development and Product Development (Y, & A, 2014).

QUESTIONS MARKS: Question marks are the brands which required much closer considerations (Munir, et. al., 2011). These are the brands which hold low market shares in the consumer markets which are growing rapidly and consumes large amount of cash and incurs the losses. This quadrant has the potential to grow in the market and move towards the star. Focusing upon the growth these brands then get transferred to cash cows which keep in running in the competitive market and move on the path of success as well as sustainability. The strategic choices which could be adopted in such a situation are Market Penetration, Market Development, Product Development and Divestiture (Walker and Mullins, 2013).

Product lifecycle is the aspect which provides the information related with the stages from which the product passes through in its lifecycle (Wittman & Reuter, 2008). There are four stages which occur in product lifecycle these stages are introduction, growth, maturity and decline. These sequences provide the information related with the changes which occurs in the market. It is required that the organizations in present scenario should focus upon all the sequences and should ensure to develop the strategies according to the stage at which the product has reached (Srdjevic, et. al., 2012). Developing effective set of strategies is the main aim of product lifecycle with the help of which organization could deal with the market situation and could keep on moving in the market in which it is dealing in. It is a well known aspect that if product is being introduced in the market then people will prefer to purchase the same with the help of which it will move towards the growth stage, and when it grows and develops the brand value in market more and more people gets attracted towards the same with the help of which it reaches to the maturity stage (Gupta, & Mishra, 2016). This is the ultimate stage to which a product can reach after this the value of the product starts to decline in the market because taste and preferences of the people changes with the change in time. Due to change in the trends, choices and preferences of the people value of the product in the market starts declining which affects the brand. Hence, it is required that various set of strategies should be used by the organizations so as to ensure that it should stay in the competitive market and could remain in the run (Harrell, 2013).

Introduction Stage: It is the stage at which the product is being introduced or launched to the market. It is the initial phase of the product and there are very less people who can recognize the product or the brand (Oana, & Marioara, 2014). It is required that marketing of the product should be done in an effective manner at this stage. Marketing will help in attracting more and more people towards the product and services which are being launched by the organization in the market. Likewise CISCO has launched its flip camera into the market, at that stage there were very few people who preferred to use the cameras and people were not getting attracted towards the camera. This was the initial time for CISCO flip camera in which it was required that the organization should do effective marketing so that people could get attracted towards the products and services and help the organization to grow. It is the situation in which price of the products are kept low by the company so that more people could get attracted towards the same (Radulescu, 2012).

Growth Stage: It is the stage at which people starts getting attracted towards the products and services which are launched by the organization (Whitted, 2012). With the help of effective marketing strategies more and more people gets attracted towards the products and services and prefers to use the same. In the case of CISCO FLIP camera same thing happened with the help of which people starts getting attracted towards the product of the company. CISCO FLIP preferred to maintain the quality of the product and also added certain support services so that more people could get attracted towards the product. At this stage CISCO preferred to maintain the price of the product and started enjoyed the demand of the camera into the market. More people started getting attracted towards the product which is being provided by CISCO into the market. Company started to indulge in more promotional activities with the help of which it was able to attract more and more customers towards its products (Bishop, 2013).

Maturity Stage: After the growth stage company moved toward the maturity stage in which CISCO FLIP Camera was being started to be recognized by each and every individual present in the market. More and more people started getting attracted towards the product of CISCO (Salmani, et. al., 2014). It was the stage at which only the camera of CISCO FLIP was being purchased by many of the people. It is the stage at which high competition was there due to which CISCO has kept the prices relatively competitive. It was required at this state various strategies should be used by CISCO so as to ensure that it could remain in the market and could continue to provide effective set of services to the people available in the market (Taghian, 2010).

Decline Stage: It is the last stage at which the demand of the products starts declining and people prefers to choose other products and services and prefer to purchase the new technology. In this market situation it is required that the price of the products is set to the lowest and product should b continued to be offered on the same price (Toledo, et. al., 2014). In the matter of CISCO the demand for its FLIP camera declined as company did not made any changes in the products or the market due to which interest of the people reduced and they started attracting towards the cameras of other brands.

It could be suggested that in this condition in which organization should have used the strategy either to diversify, or develop the product, or to penetrate or should have worked towards to develop the market because these are the aspects which would have helped the organization to sustain and remain in the competition (Agarwal, 2012).

SWOT Analysis is another aspect which will help in the strategic planning of the organization. SWOT analysis is the technique which is being used by the organizations so as to gather the information related with the internal environment (Balasubramanian, n.d.). It is the aspects with the effect of which effective set of strategies could be developed by the organizations so that they could sustain and ensure their success in the competitive market. SWOT analysis provides the information related with the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the company. Evaluating all the four aspects of the company provides a set direction to the same. Direction as well as guidance is being provided to the company regarding where it stands in the present time and what are the techniques or strategies it could use so as to compete with the competitors available in the market (Chen et al., 2015).

Concept of ‘fit’ Strategic fit can be defined as a grade or degree to which a business organization matches its competencies and resources with the requisites of external environment. Concept of ‘fit’ is considered as effort to assess the prospects available in the business environment of an organization and then strategy of the organization are altered in order to capitalize on the identified prospects (Gilbert, 2015).

Concept of stretch refers to innovation and development with the help of which new opportunities could be found by the business. It is the strategy with the help of which business could sustain in finding the new opportunities in the market with the help of which assurance could be made that it will be able to overcome from all the threats and move on the path of success as well as sustainability (Haltofová and Št?pánková, 2014).

Michael Porter was born in the year 1947. He has propounded several theories such as- competitive advantage theory and strategic generic theory (Hill, 2012). Porter has an innovative thinking and also possessed capability to exemplify complex concepts in comparatively easily manageable formats. In the competitive theory, Five Forces model was notified by Porter, through which market factors could be analyzed in order to make a planned valuation of the competitive situation of a specified supplier in a particular market.
There are number of examples which can state the application of Porter`s Five force model in an industry. Here, Porter`s Five Force Model is described below with example i.e. how Under Armor apt into apparel industry and athletic footwear (Hung, 2013).

• Threats of new entrants-:One of the forces of five models is threats of new entrants. This force observes how difficult or easy it can be for the competitors to get in connection with the marketplace in the particular industry being observed (Kone?ný and Zinecker, 2015). When it is easy for the competitor to join the marketplace then the extent of risk also become vast as it depletes the market share of business. There are some barriers to entry which includes – economies of scale, absolute cost advantages, brands which are well-organized and access to inputs. As per the Under Armor situation which is taken as an example, there is requirement of large capital costs for advertising, creating demand for products and branding. Therefore it limits the entry of new competitor in sports apparel market (Mazza, 2013).
• Competitive rivalry-Another force of the Porter`s model is competitive rivalry, it observes the extreme level of competition, that can be determined by the existing number of competitors (Michaux, Cadiat and Probert, 2015). In addition to this, it also determines the capability of the competitors. Rivalry competition can become high in situation where the business are few and they sell a service or product in equal terms; in such case consumers may switch to other competitors easily which offers that product or service at low price. Price wars and advertising can arise when there is high rivalry competition and this can hurt the bottom line of business. Example, Intense competition is faced by Under Armor from Adidas Nike and newer players; Fabric and process patents are not hold by Under Armor and therefore the portfolio of product could be copied in the upcoming period (Mohammad Arabzad an, 2012).
• Bargaining power of suppliers-This force lays emphasis on suppliers of the business; as how capable they are and what intensity their activities can affect the profitability of business (Nguyen, 2017). This force also analyze the number of suppliers in the market as when there are few suppliers then they will possess more power and they can charge for the supplies by their interests. On the other hand, when there is more number of suppliers then it is beneficial for the business. Example, bargaining power is limited by different supplier base, as there is large number of supplier available for Under Armor (Robert et al., 2016).
• Bargaining power of customers-This force of the model analyzes the customer`s power or capability that can affect the quality and pricing aspects (Roosa, 2016). Customers hold power when there are lots of customers and less customers in the market as they can switch to other competitive business`s service or products. Consumers power of purchasing becomes low when products are purchased at low quantity as well as the products are different in comparison to others competitors. Example, customer of Under Armor`s are both end customers as well as wholesale customers such as- Sports Authority and Dick`s Sporting Goods. These wholesale customers enjoy bargaining leverage at certain degree. Under Armor provides this benefit to the wholesale customers as they can switch to other competitor`s brand in order to get higher margins (Ry?ca, 2016).
• Threat of substitute services or products-This force lays emphasis on situation in which customers can switch to the competitor`s service or products. This force concentrates on number of competitors available, comparison of business`s products or service price to the competitors’ products and services price, in addition to the amount of profits use to be earn by the competitors. As when the competitor`s products or services are offered at lower price the customer can switch to that brand (Sawant, 2010). These aspects are observed to determine the ability possess by the business to lower its costs in order to draw attention of customers. Factors which informs about threat of substitutes are long term an immediate switching costs and inclination of buyer`s to change. Example- In the upcoming time period, Under Armor would not be threatened through this force as the demand for sports accessories, footwear and performance apparel will increase in future (????? and ???????, 2016).

Conclusion

Understanding the concept of strategic planning a conclusion could be developed that business is full of uncertainties and it is required that appropriate set of strategies should be developed by the business so as to sustain in the market. It is necessary that the focus of the business should remain with analyzing its internal as well as external environment. It will help in analyzing the actual position of the business itself as well as the market in which the business is planning to enter. It could also be concluded that proper market research should be done by the organization and decisions to enter in the same should be made accordingly.

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