Questions:
Discuss about the following points..
1. Effectiveness of using various techniques using for developing strategic business plan.
2. Strategic positioning of Virgin Atlantic by carrying the organizational audit.
3. Environmental Audit for Virgin Atlantic.
4. Role of personnel charged with strategic implementation .
5. Discussing on the estimated resource that is required for implementing a new strategy for Virgin Atlantic.
Answers:
1.Effectiveness of using various techniques using for developing strategic business plan
Strategic business plan primarily helps the organization to fix its target, direction aims and objectives. Virgin Atlanta is one of the well-known British airlines headquartered in UK. In order to develop the rhythmic process of business, Virgin Atlanta should make an effective strategic plan or technique for achieving the business success. BCG Growth Share Matrix is one of the most effective techniques with the assistance of which the company can make an effective strategic plan (Ackermannand and Audretsch 2013). Bruce Henderson has established the concept of BCG Growth Share Matrix. This particular model or technique is completely based on the combination of both market growth and market share. Market growth has been used as a proxy for showing the industry attractive. On the other hand, market share acts as a proxy for the competitive advantage (Basili et al. 2013). As per this particular framework, it is evident that market growth requires a sound investment in the assets in order to enhance the business capacity. This particular technique is highly effectively that helps the organization to plan a suitable strategy for the growth of business.
Directional policy matrix is another effective technique, which primarily directs the organization about the future investment (Bharadwaj et al. 2013). Directional policy matrix is primarily divided into four categories including invest, grow, harvest and divest. As per this framework, the organization like Virgin Atlanta would be able to invest capital in their business only when the business strength and the market both are high. Despite having strong market attractiveness, the business organizations have to face difficulties to plan an effective business strategy for low internal business strength. Harvest implies that company like Virgin Atlanta should invest more money for the betterment of business if the internal strength of this organization remains strong. Divest implies if the business strength and the market average both remains below average, the company should not definitely invest more money for these products. However, directional policy matrix policy is also very important in order to develop the entire process of business. For making an effective business strategy using the techniques like directional policy matrix and BCG Growth Share Matrix.
2. Strategic positioning of Virgin Atlantic by carrying the organizational audit
Strategic positioning primarily reflects how a particular company would be able to create a market value and how the value would be able to create a market demand. Strategic positioning primarily aims to deal with two main factors that include premium price and low cost price. Stakeholder analysis is one of the major parts of using strategic positioning (Chenet al. 2012). Stakeholder analysis one of the most effective ways to develop a useful engagement plans. Stakeholders can be identified against two variables that include the level of stake and the resources. While conducting the stakeholder analyzing strategy, the business experts of Virgin Atlantic have intended to divide four categories such as A, B, C and D of stakeholders as per the priority level.
Senior officials, management, suppliers, government have been considered in the category of A. Stakeholders who are treated with high priority for the success of a business process are called category B. Employees of the organization like Virgin Atlantic have been considered in this category. Customers may be considered in the category of C because they are not associated directly for the betterment of company’s development (Connor and Lande2012). At the same time, it is undeniable that customers play a major role for the success of a business. Stakeholders of D category are those who have a low priority to reach the business goal of a business.
3. Environmental Audit for Virgin Atlantic
Business organization like Virgin Atlantic likes to follow environmental audit in order to identify which external and internal factors primarily affects for running the business organization systematically. However, the factors that primarily affect various activities of business organizations include political factors, economic factors, Socio-cultural factors and technological factors. s
Political environmental factors:
Business organization like Virgin Atlantic has to maintain some major important rules and regulations inside the organization. Some of the regulations and acts such as data protection act, right to information, health and safety act and so many. Local taxation acts have to be adhered in order to maintain the business process (Oestreicher-Singerand and Zalmanson 2012). If the organization like Virgin Atlantic fails to maintain these kinds of legal and political factors, it entirely hampers on the reputation of the company.
Economic environmental factors:
Economic factor is the primary concern for running a business organization successfully. In last few years, Virgin Atlantic had to suffer in currency fluctuation immensely. As a result, the company failed to create a market demand. In addition, employees’ performance is highly dependent on the economic strength of the organization.
Socio cultural environmental factors:
UK is out-an-out a developed country. Therefore, the products and services that have been designed for the customers are based on the social and cultural factors of the country. The target market of Virgin Atlantic is for premium customers. Therefore, as per the socio cultural background, the business experts takes care more on the quality of product rather than the services.
Technological factors:
UK is out-an-out advanced in technology. As a result, the customers of Virgin Atlanta get the opportunity to get online service. Before using the product and services, the customers get to know detailed information about the available products and services. Moreover, with the help of public forum, the both the customers and the service providers can directly communicate with the each other. Customers can provide an immediate feedback through this particular forum. On the other hand, as per the feedback of the customers the business managers intend to re-form the business strategy (Oestreicher-Singerand and Zalmanson 2012). In addition, advancement of technology is very helpful for maintaining the promotional activities as well. The marketing managers tend to use the popularity of social media. As a result, the organization is able to draw the attention of people from different geographical boundary.
4. Role of personnel charged with strategic implementation
In order to make an effective strategic planning the role of personnel is very much important. Communication plays a vital role for rendering the success of business process. UK being a developed country, allows Virgin Atlanta to use the popularity of new media prominently. With the help of new media, the organization can be able to draw the attention of a large number of people from various geographical areas. Apart from that, direct communication, personal selling, electronic media are another ways to create a market demand. Direct communication helps the marketing managers of an organization like Virgin Atlanta to get an immediate feedback from the customers. As per the needs and demands of the customers, the organizational managers like to change their business strategy.
While make an effective strategy planning the entire team of Virgin Atlanta has to play a major responsibility (Verbeke2013). Individual performance matters immensely for the success of a business. At the same time, individual employee should maintain unity within the team. By making a collective decision along with the employees, the business managers like to make a suitable business strategy.
Virgin Atlanta tends to follow participative leadership style at the workplace. By following this leadership style, both the managers and the employees intend to participate in making business plans and policies. As a result, employees get enthusiasm to provide their best effort in the services. Providing a good service is one of the most fruitful ways to satisfy the demand of the customers. Participative leadership helps the managers to get a collective decision while forming the business strategy. Furthermore, benchmark target is one of the most important personnel for business strategy and policy. Benchmarking is the systematic process, which is primarily endowed with three elements including quality, time and cost.
5. Discussing on the estimated resource that is required for implementing a new strategy for Virgin Atlantic
The resources those are the most important for the implementation of a new strategy in virgin Atlantic include finance resource, human resource, materials and infrastructure, time and image. Finance has been considered as one of the strongest resources for making the business strategy. In order to create a market demand of the product of Virgin Atlanta the organization has to conduct an effective promotional strategy for reaching the products to the doorsteps of the customers. While promoting the product with the help of various Medias the organization needs to invest a large number of capitals for the promotional purpose. In addition, for maintaining a systematic rhythm of business, the management has to make an effective workforce planning. For recruiting the employees and for satisfying their demand, Virgin Atlanta has to invest a huge capital for this particular purpose (Verbeke2013). Therefore, finance if one of the most essential resources without the assistance of which no company can run well.
After finance, the importance of human resource comes after that. Human resource managers primarily aim to recruit the employees. Therefore, they have to play a major role for rendering the success of a business. An organization like Virgin Atlanta would be able to achieve the business goal with the help of employees’ performance. Thus, human resource managers should hire those applicants for their business process who are skillful and competent enough in this particular field. For hiring the employee of Virgin Atlanta, the human resource managers should hire such kind of applicants who are having an excellent management skill to deal with the customers intellectually. Apart from making the recruitment process, the responsibility of the human resource manager is to provide an effective training to the new employees. With the help of training and guidance, the employees would become more efficient and competent for proving a good service to the customers. It is the part of business strategy as well.
Materials and infrastructure is also an important resource that immensely helps for making a good business strategy. Materials include products and services. As per the demands of target customers, the organization like Virgin Atlanta should design their product. The business experts of this particular organization have focused on the quality of the product in order to satisfy the demand of the premium customers. On the other hand, Virgin Atlanta has focused to maintain an effective customer service system. They have made the strategy to maintain a balance between demands and supply of the products. As a result, customers have showed their attention for using the service and products of this particular organization. In addition, time is also considered as the most important internal resource for the success of a business. Customers should get the service within time. Consequently, customers would show their interest for using the service of virgin Atlanta.
Reference List:
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Basili, V.R., Heidrich, J., Lindvall, M., Münch, J., Regardie, M., Rombach, D., Seaman, C. and Trendowicz, A., 2013.Linking software development and business strategy through measurement. arXiv preprint arXiv:1311.6224.
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