A strategy can be defined as a method used in order to attain a desired outcome. In business it means professional planning and its implementation, undertaken so as to accomplish the business goal. Strategy usually requires regular monitoring and despite of a good strategy being efficiently executed there are possibilities that a business may not make any substantial profits. Therefore, along with a powerful strategy, a business also requires a have business intelligence providing a competitive edge to a business which will help to fulfil the goals and bring in profits. However the most important part of executing a strategy is bringing in the “change” and the success of change is not how good is the strategy but how well is the change implemented (Ford et al; 2000). The change can be of various types, it can be a transformation in a firm’s strategy, system, structure, culture and process, depending on the need of an organisation. In this essay I am looking at Kashmir Watan food store; a food store specialising in Asian and continental groceries where I have worked for 6 years. It is basically a retail business falling in the private sector. It is estimated that UK’s grocery market accounts for approximately £175 billion according to the statistics of April 2014. The global food and consumer goods experts (IGD) forecast suggest that the grocery market by 2019 will be worth £203 billion. It thus becomes logical that the different channels within the grocery
Strategy is a set of complicated tactics formulated by the executives of a company directed towards the achievement of company’s goal (Salmela, 2002). It is about all the path ways that a company would follow to reach its ultimate goal. It is a company’s strategy which helps to identify what it does better than the other companies in the industries, which may be different from what it does best. For successful strategy formulation and implementation, a company should know the needs of customers and should have knowledge of its competitors. Through a good strategy a company would identify that opportunity which makes it different from the others (Thompson, 2005).
There are a gazillion companies out there, but some stand out. Whether it is because of their popularity, affiliations, history, profile or service, one factor simply makes or breaks a company; it’s strategy management process.
When a business forms a strategy they are producing a large scale plan with plans to achieve one or more goals set by the business. The factors that affect the plan, in both negative and positive ways, are uncertain. So when making a strategic plan a business will have to take into account all factors and plan for them. Strategy is imperative for a business as not only does it give them a sense of direction and some goals to achieve, but also resources are usually limited so you have to a strategy will help to guide the business and make the best use of the resources that they have. Strategy give the business direction, it helps them to see whether they are over achieving/under achieving and meeting the goals they have set themselves. If a
“If you do not know where you are going, you will likely end up somewhere else” – Yogi Berra. Every organization, no matter what industry that they are in encounters an environment that is rapidly changing and evolving. Organizations must deal with and address rapidly changing technological capabilities, competition from rivals, and the changing tastes and needs of consumers. In order to effectively respond and adapt to the competitive business environment organizations need to have a clearly defined understanding of where the firm currently is as well as an understanding of where they want to be in the future. An organization’s business strategy provides the backdrop and context for the decisions an organization makes in response to the challenges and opportunities encountered within the business environment. Without a defined strategy an organization is forced to make decisions blindly and will most likely end up in a position where it is very difficult for them to continue to maintain their competitive advantage. Therefore, successful organizations must dedicate the time and resources needed to develop, define and clearly communicate their strategy throughout the organization.
Strategy does not end with formulation and implementation. It is constantly evolving and being analyzed for effectiveness and measured to ensure it is continuing to meet the original intent of the organization. Some of the means used to measure strategy include financial ratios, market analysis, and balance scorecards. (Strategy as Work-in-Progress: Keep Looking Ahead) Of these, financial ratios are important but tend to review strategy in a historical sense whereas the balanced score card has the ability to look at how the customer perceives you and what must be done to excel in the industry. (Strategy as Work-in-Progress: Keep Looking Ahead)
The supermarket has carried out an excellent strategic positioning in its channel of distribution. The distribution channel has provided the company with the leverage of creating a strategic advantage over its rivals.Despite the fact that firms such as Wal-mart tend to have
Other UK grocery store chains incorporate Cooperatives, Waitrose, M&s, Iceland, etc. Outlets of this industry in the UK are isolated into four segments, to be specific, Convenience store; Traditional retail; Hypermarket, grocery stores & superstore; and Online channel. Hypermarket, general stores & superstore and the Convenience retail are the initial two biggest areas among all the four parts.3 Notwithstanding the climbing instabilities and recessionary condition in the late years, the business has possessed the capacity to secure their fancied incomes and achieve sensible development.4
An organisation’s strategy plays an important role of providing direction of where company wants to be and how best to allocate the company’s resources to meet its objectives. The formulation of business strategies has evolved over the years and has been made more difficult in recent by the uncertain operating environments and global financial crises.
Based on my observations of the grocery stores and knowledge of the market structure, the question is raised, “to what extent does Asian
Organisations today find themselves operating in an environment that is changing rapidly. The process of analysing the implications of these changes and modifying the way that the organisation reacts to them is known as business strategy.
A strategy is said to be a plan that is made for the long term success of a product or brand. It is extremely important to have a strategy in order to figure out a direction towards which any company is able to focus all its resources efficiently and achieve desired outcomes. Formulating effective strategies is a considerably long process in itself that combines analysing several factors, situations and issues that are already present in a company and looking to improve on them alongside trying to implement various innovations and ideas to collectively create a direction towards which they can move and direct the resources available to them.
Alfred Chandler(1963) defines strategy as ‘ the determination of the long-run goals and objectives of an enterprise and the adoption of courses of action of an enterprise and the adoption of courses of action and the allocation of resources necessary for carrying out these goals’. And Michael porter(1996) sees it as ‘Competitive strategy is about being different. It means deliberately choosing different set of activities to deliver a unique mix of value’.
I will analyse the United Kingdom 's grocery industry, involving a P.E.S.T. analysis, which is a way of evaluating different parts of a business. (Political, Economical, Social, and Technological.)
Strategy-as-practice (S-a-P) is an approach to strategy concerned about what strategic actors actually do and the kinds of activities they do when they strategize (Jarzabkowski, 2003; Johnson, Melin & Whittington, 2003; Whittington, 1996, 2002). Strategy is complex, to illustrate the complexity of the concept of strategy table 1.1 is offered with selected definitions of strategy (Louw & Venter, 2013:9). According to Ehlers and Lazenby (2010:3), “A strategy can therefore be defined as an effort or deliberate action that an organisation implements to outperform its rivals” According to the history, the concept of strategy was in its origin associated with the military (Louw & Venter, 2013:11). “The word strategy has been handed down from the
Strategy consultants tackle a wide array of management issues and questions, all in the name of increasing efficiency. Historically this job has not involved the level of business analytics that it utilizes today, but thanks to the developments in technology, it has become a cornerstone in the profession. The ability of modern computing systems to absorb and account for the variables present in a human oriented working space has enabled vast improvements in efficiency. This is where the skillset of business analytics has come into play. Being able to evaluate and understand the information being provided from those systems is necessary to make proper advising decisions.