Internal Analysis
Blackmores is Australia’s one of the leading natural health company. They offer a range of good quality vitamins, minerals, herbal and nutritional and supplements. Blackmores have supported the community and the environment, which has made the company one of the most trusted brand in natural health. A naturopath Maurice Blackmore founded the company more than 80 years ago, the founder of Blackmores was Maurice Blackmore. The company offers a more than 250 vitamins, minerals, herbal and nutritional supplements which the in-house experts of Blackmores develop. Through the usage of best quality of ingredients from all around the world, according to the standards set by the International Pharmaceutical Inspection convention and Pharmaceutical Inspection Co-operation Scheme of the “Good manufacturing practice”. Blackmores also offer a wide variety of innovative services that includes free Naturopathic Advisory services, used by more than 36,000 people in the year 2016. The website of Blackmores provides information about healthcare and wellbeing, for which it has received an award. Blackmores train and educate the retailers as well about their products and the dosage so that the same information can be communicated to the consumers (Stock and Brickell 2013).
Blackmores is publicly listed ASX 200 Company. It employs more than 1000 people in Australia, New Zealand and Asia. The products and services of Blackmores limited is offered across 17 countries. It also offers a wide range of pet health care products under the campaign “Pet Animals Well being”. Christine Holgate is the CEO and Managing Director of Blackmores (Stock and Brickell 2013). Blackmores have efficient Research and Development department and it has appointed a Research Manager for product development. The company believes that three factors that leads to the success of firm Product, People and Passion.
The resources and the capabilities of Blackmores have contributed in making the company a leader in the industry from more than 70 years. The resources and the capabilities of the Blackmores that make the company gain a competitive advantage are given below:
The quality of products provided by the company, providing the best quality is one of the top priorities of the company, they get their resources from all around the world. Marcus Blackmore just like his father, does not believe in growth by compromising at the quality of the product (Anwar and Hasnu 2016).
Blackmores has an organizational culture that has good employee and employer relationships, this quality is realized through both tangible and intangible rewards. They believe in the philosophy that an organization cannot have an effective organization if there is no employee engagement and employee satisfaction. Another capability of the organization is that it empowers its employees and motivates them to work in teams, everything in the Blackmores, is done with teamwork and the employees takes ownership in the projects of the organization. It is the well-trained employees of the organization, which helps the organization to grow. As per the mission of the Blackmores the training and development of the workforce is very important. It believes in recruiting good quality of workforce and highly qualified experts. The organization gives the community information that is very reliable, by training their staffs, and the retailers. With an aim to give the consumers, appropriate information about the products. The CEO of Blackmores is the most valuable resource of the organization. His father Maurice Blackmores gave importance to the health and well-being much more than the competitors in his time. This became the strategy to manage the huge business. Marcus also has a strong political tie that gives him the power to lobby the legislative reforms of the Government two days per week, they have shifted from large confrontational approach to industry in to a single collaboration and consultation (Smith 2015).
Unmatched Quality
Blackmores has a very large market share in Australia, it is alos growing in Asia, Blackmores has a very strong buying power. The company has maintained a quality of products through bargaining power, simultaneously maintaining the cost effectiveness. Blackmores offer products in 20 different health care aspects, which range from weight management and muscular pains to infections. This helps the company in extending its brand equity in the industry (Lord 2015).
Blackmores also is a leader in the research and development in the field of complementary health care. The company refines its seasonal products and new products are developed. Blackmore has a joint venture with the research team of Southern Cross University makes the company the leader in research and development as well. Blackmores have a research manager that gives them a competitive advantage over the other companies in the market. These innovative ideas will give them competitive advantages for long term (Foster, Petocz, and Samman 2013).
It is very important for any company to have a brand image and goodwill in the market to succeed in long run, after some of the failures of companies in terms of quality management, it has created a need for providing a quality that is unmatched and cannot be replicated by other companies. It was found in the research that Blackmores is a trusted brand in the healthcare industry. This goodwill and brand equity has been established over the years and its difficult for the competitors to replicate it, because it is the result of the hardwork and dedication of the whole company that has worked as a team. Health care market is one such market that needs utmost quality (Jackson, Hussainy and Kirkpatrick, 2016).
It has been very important for Blackmores limited to have a very good structure for recruitment. The three important key factors that contribute to the success of Blackmores has been Product, people and passion, these three factors have contributed a lot towards the success of the company. Blackmores is now operational across 17 markets, in Asia-pacific region. Diversification of the business and establishing new sources of growth has been the strategies that are given most importance in the company. The other strategies of Blackmores are to connect with the customers to improve profits, improvement innovative concepts used in the organization and establishment of product leadership position with the help of Blackmores Institute, and continuous improvement in the cost effectiveness in the operations. All the strategic priorities are clearly communicated to the employees, 95% of the employees knows the goals and objectives of the company. HR of the company has played a very important role in engaging the workforce that has been employed as per the enterprise agreement (Forrester and Griffiths 2014).
Strengths – The Company offers a quality that none of the competitors offer, the organizational culture of the company is very good. The company has skilled man workforce that believes in working as team. Blackmores offers a wide range of products and services to not just Austalia but also in 17 other countries, including New Zealand and Asian countries. The company has an efficient Research and Development department, and a Research Manager this helps Blackmore to gain competitive advantage over other players in the market in the field of health care services, it also offers a range of well being and health care products for animals. The company has created a good will in the Market over the years, the brand image and the brand equity of the company is unmatched, good corporate governance, the company also offers a range of helath care products for animals as well under is campaign Pet animals welfare, PAW (Bloom et al. 2016).
Organizational Culture
Weakness- Manufacturing of health care products are very costly, the technological changes might owe to higher manufacturing costs. The marketing and advertisement strategies are not given that much priority (Crocombe et al. 2015).
Opportunities – The Company has scope to diversify further in other countries apart from the countries the company is now operating. There is a scope of new product and services development. There is a scope of collaboration among the health care organizations (Brownie, Muggleston, and Oliver 2015).
Threats- The Company faces competitions from health care companies like Baxter and Nature’s care. Apart from that, company has threats from online sites that offer healthcare products at cheaper rates, without shipping costs and with discounts. Changes in the market policies and other government sectioned regulations also pose threat to the company. Instability of the Government also at times poses a threat to the organizations (Betancourt et al. 2016).
Political |
There is always an uncertainty that there might be unknown changes from the government, with so much involvement of the Government, there might be changes in that might cause adverse market situations. |
Economic |
If there is depreciation in the Australian dollar, it would become easier for the international customers to buy the products of Blackmores. This scenario might make the products of the Blackmores competitive and it gives an opportunity to the company for further growth in terms of expansion globally. On the contrary, the weak Australian because of the mining boom will lead to recession and downturn of the economy hence it would result in reduction in the purchasing power of the people and the sales of Blackmores will fall. |
Social |
The increasing focus of the consumers towards health care has made them use more vitamins and supplements, and it is very beneficial for the company offering products in this area. The online shopping trend has made the consumers to choose the cheaper products, if the consumer finds cheaper vitamins and supplements they might choose to buy the |
Technological |
The online portals are offering a wide range of products and giving facilities to make the consumers buy products from their sites. They reduce the shipping charges and hence the price of the products becomes cheaper, the consumers often choose to buy from online sites, but technology has some good impacts as well, improvement in production technologies, equipments benefits the organization. |
Environmental |
If the environmental issues are considered and the organization proves itself to be an environmental friendly organization then there are opportunities for Blackmores to maintain a Goodwill in the market |
Legal |
The legal environment refers to the legal obligations of the organization, the organizations need to follow the laws implemented by the Government, these laws are are related to markets policies, advertising, and affect the organization. Compliance to Government sanctioned regulations is very important. |
Table: Lord 2015
Conclusion
Blackmores Limited is the leader in the area of health care in Australia, New Zealand and Asia. The company provides arrange of health and wellness products that includes, vitamins, minerals supplements herbal and nutritional products. The company has efficient workforce, well trained and very skillful. This is because of the company believes in hiring good quality of workforce. The company is also recognized because of the unmatched quality that it provides to its customers. Maurice Blackmore the founder of the company believes that one cannot compromise with the quality of the products in order to gain profits. He always gave priority to health over profits and this is the reason why the company has gained competitive advantage over its competitors like Baxter and Nature’s Care. Blackmores have efficient Research and Development department and it has appointed a Research Manager for product development. The company believes that three factors that leads to the success of firm Product, People and Passion. The Corporate Governance of the Organization is very good and its gives ethical considerations the top most priority. The Company trains and educates not only its employees but also its retailers so that they can give the right and accurate information regarding the products and services that it offers. The company is also planning to expand more in Asia as well other countries apart from the countries it is operational. “Pet Animal Wellbeing” (PAW). The company has further scope to grow owing to the technological changes, improvement in manufacturing. Changes in the lifestyle pattern of the people, the company can further develop new products and services that would fulfill the needs of the customers.
References
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