I hope this is not against any rules. but i couldn't send the paper so i just copied and pasted it here. I erased the name of the company (so it just says company) and keep in mind that the company makes vacuum cleaners.
I like how the writer says "The company also has the opportunity of diversification into other sectors, particularly nuclear and related industries."
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Company is operating in the diversified machinery industry. The key economic factors about the industry include: the price of fuels, including oil, the strength of the dollar against other currencies, and the wage differences among the locations in which the company operates. Company is now in its maturity stage. In the maturity stage, the business organization would experience stability in its operations and activity. At this stage, the organization's growth rate would become almost constant, which means that the growth becomes almost linear. In addition, the organization would also have established itself properly such that the introduction of new products or services would be considerably easy because of (a) vast resources and (b) well-established reputation and corporate image. The company can readily develop and introduce new products without having to worry too much about the market's acceptance of the products.
The organizational life cycle concept helps in understanding the need for a balance in organizational energies. The organizational life cycle concept helps in considering the expectable future (e.g. the maturity of the organization) into present-day plans to ensure that the organization progresses fruitfully. For instance, in the maturity stage, the business organization would experience stability in its operations and activity. At this stage, the organization's growth rate would become almost constant, which means that the growth becomes almost linear. In addition, the organization would also have established itself properly such that the introduction of new products or services would be considerably easy because of (a) vast resources and (b) well-established reputation and corporate image. Through the organizational life cycle concept, there is a better understanding of this current position of the organization, and of the things to come. For instance, the organizational life cycle concept can help guide the organization in maintaining a balance in energies so that it can maintain the optimum share of the market. It should be noted that the product at this stage would have been effectively introduced to the market, and bought by a significant share of the market. At this stage, marketing effort focuses on maintaining that share, and aims at making improvements to customers' perception of the product to prevent losing them. By considering the future stage, i.e. the decline stage, the company is able to adopt appropriate strategies that balance organizational energies that can help streamline its progress.
The business has the advantage of having easily accessible and highly visible locations and brand recognition. Many of the players in the industry are not easily accessible. Aside from this, the company is able to provide incentives and extras to its customers. The company also focuses on making an effort to minimize the effects and issues associated with the high dependence suppliers (i.e. governments and other organizations controlling natural resources), and on supporting its objectives of discovering and exploiting new business opportunities. Local government agencies as well as national ones, and the media ensure the company's awareness of local issues, national and international issues that are linked to local, state and national policies that have significant impact on the company's business operations. The company also has a strong resource base. Its local facilities are versatile and strategically placed to compete at high levels.
A wide variety of businesses in engineering, manufacturing, service and construction are available to support the industry and are geographically dispersed. The company also boasts of a highly-skilled and well-trained workforce that has a high degree of transferable skills and a lot of experience in the industry - something that could be easily exploited when it comes to new ventures and actions on new business opportunities.
Because of the nature of the industry and the products that it sells, it suffers from a limited supply of indigenous materials, and has to depend significantly on overseas operations in countries that are rich in resources. Production may slowly decline, thereby emphasizing a possibly increasing dependence on imports. Even though the industry has a lot of advantage in the form of highly skilled and well trained workforce, it can suffer from lack of innovation, which is partially due to the nature of the business itself, where the product requires just little or no tinkering and the industry and market has become mature and quite saturated. Along with the lack of innovation is the lack of emerging technologies that can be used for better or more efficient production. This is also mainly due to the nature of the industry. There is only little that can be done on the product and therefore only a limited amount of innovation on it is seen from major technology institutions. Another weakness is that the supply chain is not optimally visible, especially in an increasingly global market. Business effort must be implemented to help maintain the remaining oil & gas supply chain more visible.
Eastern Construction has the opportunity to boost the economy, particularly in the rural and suburban areas. The business has the ability to expand their operations and employment in the near future, and make use of labor resource available from more locations. The company also has the opportunity of having alternative uses of existing facilities, to use them on new ventures or new business operations and initiatives, and other operations. For instance, the company's facilities could be used for alternative operations, such as material handling, repair and maintenance. Offshore marine and wind power are two of presently growing sectors, and will provide opportunities for new business ventures and operations. Another opportunity that presents itself to the company (as well as the industry) is geographical diversification (). It can make use of expertise gained to further expand into new markets, including in South America and overseas. The company also has the opportunity of diversification into other sectors, particularly nuclear and related industries. Nuclear decommissioning is worth billions of dollars (NDA, 2008) and will provide for the opportunity to transfer or incorporate skills into the emerging industry.
Destabilization and wars in major source countries have a great impact on the company and the industry. Another threat is the increasingly strengthening global competition. Local products are generally less competitive against imported ones due to the strong GBP and low production costs overseas, particularly in Asia and some parts of South America. The business suffers from the lack of local market control. Foreign companies maintain claims on a large percentage of sales from manufacturing and production companies, thereby making local operations vulnerable to external factors.
This study suggests that Eastern Construction has been always competitive and in an advantageous position compared to other players, despite the weaknesses and threats identified. In order to further improve the company's position in the industry, it is recommended that continuous improvement should be implemented. Nowadays, the focus of business is shifting towards continuous improvement, which is an improvement strategy that involves a series of small steps, each of which showcases an increase in improvement standards, limits, etc. In an organization that has a culture of continuously having big innovational changes, it can be argued that this culture can serve the business better if it is complemented with continuing small changes that emphasize the big ones and make such innovations more effective and significant. When properly used, continuous improvement could not cause any major internal organizational agitation. In fact, it could be considered as part of the organization's culture, where all employees would feel that they are making a contribution to overall improvement through small actions of improvement. It complements innovative leaps. Continuous improvement is significant strategy for Eastern Construction. The ISO promotes continuous improvement as an integral part of business (Pearch, 2000). Also, Quality Control can be made as just a part of Continuous Improvement. Continuous improvement entails changes that ensure quality, and to do this "ensuring", there must be a way of implementing standard changes that result from small-step improvements, and quality control can be used for this implementation. It is also recommended that the company maintain its position in diversification of products, suppliers and operations. It should be noted that diversification serves as a means through which the company can ensure the sustainability of its business in the long term. The company needs to continue with its efforts to explore and develop new business operations.
An important consideration in Eastern Construction's business is technology. It is important to note that technological implementations have now become an essential aspect of business and strategic planning. For instance, entire strategic plans may be built around a specific technology that is used to maintain the organization's competitiveness. A main consideration in implementing IT solutions in Eastern Construction is the proper alignment between IT strategy and business strategy. It is important to note that the IT strategy refers to the strategy used in developing and implementing information technology for the organization's use, and this is an entirely different strategy from business strategy. In this regard, the issue of integrated and collaborative intelligence can be considered as an issue of proper alignment between the technology used and the business strategies of Company.
