Discuss about the Expansion of Toksoz into Egypt and Ukraine.
To start with, within this era of cut-throat marketplace competition and augmenting trend of conducting business practices in a different manner, several companies have begun investing substantial resources in implementing worldwide approaches (Bruton et al., 2004). The companies within developed countries like USA, Europe are continuously rushing in the race of making available worldwide branded products with the aim of attaining long term competitive edge and sustainability (Hollis, 2008). The incorporation strategies could involve uniform packing, or might be region particular customized packing or an exceptional sequence of brand names or it can also be a related advertising drift. Nevertheless, the success could just be ascertained in case if there is in place a well-matched balance amid the standardization, regional and adaption issues taking in politics, culture, economy and others (Morrison, 2009). Few companies believe in advertising by appointing local celebs whereas others invest towards customization of the product traits. For example, the European laundry marketplace has established preferences for both Southern as well as Northern Europe. For Northern Europe, there are hot water provisions with no additional bleach along with small packaging whereas for Southern Europe region, washing is scheduled according to lower temperature and accessibility of bigger packaging (Bruton et al., 2004).
Moving ahead, over the period of last few years, international operations have fundamentally redefined the manner in which consumer goods are produced, distributed as well as marketed in a global environment (Autio et. al., 2000). With rapid advent of globalization, entrepreneurs and retailers all across the globe are fighting hard to establish themselves as global market players and develop a strong influence over the market (Eckhardt and Shane, 2003). This strong level of power and influence is desired both within the market environment as well as in the supply chain. The concept of internationalization can be defined as an approach of expansion of business into the global international markets in order to attain long term competitive edge. According to Oviatt and McDougall (2005), internationalization can also be explained as the study combining the theory of international business and entrepreneurship. Internationalization includes discovery, analysis and exploration of the global market opportunities. It focuses upon both the internationalization and comparative stream. Eckhardt and Shane (2003) state that internationalization includes how, when, why and where companies can internationalize their business operations while comparative stream deals with why and how business operations vary from a nation to nation along with implications of these specific variances. In simple words, internationalization can be explained as the process of investigation, evaluation and exploration of the market opportunities that take place across cross-national firms as well as global boundaries (Oviatt and McDougall, 2005). Further, taking the above discussion into consideration this particular paper attempts to examine several factors affecting Toksoz expansion into Egypt and Ukraine. The company has decided to make available chocolates and juices in these new international markets.
To start with, Toksoz Group at present functions, like a parent corporation (Toksoz Group, 2018). The company through its subsidiaries offers services related to pharmaceutical distribution as well as prepares a wide range of food items. Toksöz Group performs business within the pharmaceutical, customer products and energy sector and within the spheres of baby nutrition, care products for babies-mothers, wine cultivation, OTC products and ornamental plant manufacturing with more than 3,000 staff members (Toksoz Group, 2018). Further, there are several reasons behind company’s decision to expand its chocolates and juices in Egypt and Ukraine. These factors include:
To begin with, there exist a large number of internal and external factors motivating the firm to internationalize and enter Egypt and Ukraine marketplace (George and Prabhu, 2000). Internal factors primarily comprise of profit advantage, managerial urge, economies of scale, marketing advantage, unique product/service competence, risk diversification, over production capabilities as well as extended sales of a seasonal product. External factors of motivation include opportunities of rapid growth in foreign market, extreme competitive pressure, saturation in domestic market as well as stagnant or declining residential sector. Besides all the above mentioned motivating forces, tremendous technological opportunities in foreign nations like the Egypt and Ukraine along with strong competitive environment have also encouraging Toksoz to expand internationally (Kunovich and Hodson, 2002).
Further, technology acts as a major enabling factor due to improvements as well as cost reductions in the FMCG sector (Autio et. al., 2000). This makes it possible to pursue opportunities on an international scale. Availability of efficient transportation system also acts as an enabling factor for Toksoz.
Moving ahead, there are also other factors that play a significant role in the process of internationalization such as geographic location, linguist barrier, cultural and political issues etc. However, according to Autio et. al. (2000), a firm gradually increases commitment and investment based upon increasing international market experience and knowledge.
After having discussed, the internationalization enabling factors, the next section will now highlight the challenges associated with approaching Egypt and Ukraine as potential markets with respect to Toksoz.
According to Mullins (2006), entering a foreign market is based upon a system of interactive relationships that are formed between a number of players including competitors, suppliers, customers, third party agencies as well as family and friends. However, networks do not always emerge without considerable efforts and there exist numerous risks of entering new markets blindly.
To begin with, Puffer et. al. (2010) state that Ukraine is an emerging nation and thus, offers excellent business opportunities due to extremely huge market as well as rapid economic growth. However, there are also certain challenges associated such as availability of inadequate market data, lack of entry access to sales channels, significant cultural differences, inappropriate market entry strategy, extremely challenging to search the right partners etc. Further, other business related challenges in Ukraine include unfair procurement practices, constant business disputes, rapidly increasing competition, lack of maturity in market, high corruption and fraud rate etc.
Further, coming over to the case of the Egypt, it is recognized as the globe’s largest economy and offers tremendous potential to foreign businesses that wish to expand in Egypt. However, succeeding in Egypt is an extremely challenging task as it requires both individuals and businesses to be highly competitive at different levels. This even includes ability to appropriately handle dynamics of the business culture in Egypt. But besides this, Egypt offers much advanced technology as well as business environment from which foreign businesses can leverage from.
To start with, Toksoz Group at present functions, like a parent corporation (Toksoz Group, 2018). The company through its subsidiaries offers services related to pharmaceutical distribution as well as prepares a wide range of food items. Toksöz Group performs business within the pharmaceutical, customer products and energy sector and within the spheres of baby nutrition, care products for babies-mothers, wine cultivation, OTC products and ornamental plant manufacturing with more than 3,000 staff members (Toksoz Group, 2018). Italian chocolate along with ice cream brand Pernigotti that was taken over during the year 2013 and Spanish fruit juice brand i.e. Zumosol are Group corporations performing business within the global sphere (Toksoz Group, 2018). Toksöz Group corporations have been devised for enabling them to manufacture, market and sell taking into consideration the global standards. Moreover, with its vibrant structure open for progress it is turning out to be highly popular within the domestic and global marketplaces within diverse sectors and it grows its business scope daily (Toksoz Group, 2018). For being a company that adopts quality like a way of life, the company performs business with the maximum respect for the atmosphere, that is open for modification and dependable, lays great significance upon client satisfaction and lastly, whose chief purpose is contributing towards human health. Additionally, the company carries out all the procedures, business operations and relationships within the set codes of conduct. It feels proud to continue growing with its employees that adopt company’s understanding regarding ethics (Toksoz Group, 2018).
At Toksoz, it is highly believed that the understanding about quality isn’t restricted with its products nevertheless it is in effect for management, for the employees as well as for the corporate culture entirely. The company aims at making its understanding regarding the quality become a life example for all the employees (Toksoz Group, 2018). The company holds the view that being reliable is the fundamental and the highly significant feature. It lays significance towards building relations based upon mutual trust with the employees and all corporations and individuals it does business with. Additionally, the company considers respect towards the surroundings and human life as being the highly important and fundamental task and invests in manufacturing approaches in accordance to such understanding. Toksoz aims to operate within a setting as per the human dignity (Toksoz Group, 2018). Moving ahead, all throughout the selection and placement procedures, for organizing a happy functioning atmosphere, the company follows a highly effective recruitment procedure, performing competence based interviews with applicants holding the needed understanding and skills for the particular position, who are appropriate for the business culture. Based upon the requirements of the task during the recruitment procedure the company requires English proficiency tests, general ability tests, personality tests and lastly, group interviews (Toksoz Group, 2018). At Toksoz, capabilities making a difference in work results and personal performance are established for individual task and job position. For the staff members to effectively satisfy the requirements and devise abilities anticipated from their job positions they are every so often evaluated and development plans are employed (Toksoz Group, 2018). All the fundamental abilities estimated from any job position in the corporation take in will to succeed, customer orientation, quality orientation and organizational commitment. Further, the company has now made a decision of expanding its chocolates and juices to new markets i.e. Egypt and Ukraine.
Blyton et al. (2001) state that the term Globalization is basically a multidimensional concept that enables companies to expand and perform operations within various different nations and regions around the globe with the aim of increasing and enhancing their profitability level, sustainability, worldwide existence and economies of scale. Globalization basically provides a platform for buyers as well as companies for assisting them in fulfilling their needs globally. According to Marquardt & Berger (2003), trade, travel, technology and television are regarded as being the chief four progressions that have resulted in Globalization. Additionally, the four T’s of global progressions stated above are the results of human intellect along with its imaginative innovations (Bruton et al., 2004). Such developments have further promoted and also, made possible continuous exchange of perspectives, information and acquaintance amongst human resources by eliminating the impediments of distance. Moreover, Globalization is a global evolution of political union, social economies and national beliefs where space, government and duration are given high importance (Bratton & Gold, 2007). The global trend can affect the business of Toksoz due to the existence of competitors all over the world. There is no doubt in the fact that there are a large number of small and large companies offering a wide range of chocolates and juices across the world. This makes survival of Toksoz in such highly competitive environment quite difficult and complex.
The regional business threats the company due to the existence of similar companies and less demand of the people. There is no doubt in the fact that there are a large number of small and large companies offering a wide range of chocolates and juices across the world. This makes survival of Toksoz in such highly competitive environment quite difficult and complex. Also, the number of customers for chocolates and juices are less in contrast to number of prevailing brands and companies offering these products.
The domestic trend highlights the choice that the customers make based on the emerging domestic markets. The sale of Toksoz products greatly depends on the buyers. It is highly believed that the customers can anytime switch to other brands they feel is offering better value for money and superior quality products. So the company needs to always make sure that the customers are fully satisfied and regularly offering new and exceptional products.
The industry trend incline on innovation of products. Companies like Toksoz have expanded beyond the influence of Western culture and have brought about new trends in the market related to FMCG. The FMCG market revolution has been ongoing within both developed and developing nations ever since the beginning stages of 1990s. FMCG sector including every modern retail i.e. chain outlets of several formats taking in supermarkets, expediency and locality outlets and hypermarkets) have currently reached well ahead of the primary upper as well as middle-class clients in number of nations in order to connect with the huge marketplace (Jones, 2005). In the FMCG structure, the upshots of this pattern effect not just customary vendors, but the wholesale, farm and processing segments too. Moreover, the FMCG revolution is considered to be a “two-edged sword.” On one side, it could bring down food costs for customers and generate prospects for cultivators along with processors to obtain admittance to quality-distinguished product marketplaces and perk up income levels. While on the other side, it could build challenges for small scale vendors, processors and cultivators who are unequipped to deal with the latest competition and needs from prevailing giants. Governments of developing-nation could set up several guidelines so as to aid both small cultivators and customary retailers to follow competitiveness with completeness” during the period of the retail revolution. A number of nations are already taking similar steps which are also being followed by other retail giants in the race.
FMCG sales level in the third-wave countries are increasing at a great speed, faster than those countries’ high enlargement rates in GDP (gross domestic product) like the United Kingdom, United States as well as European nations. Additionally, the subsequent wave is also hardly visible in the deprived countries such as Bangladesh, Cambodia and West Africa, nevertheless it’s projected to take time of at least a decade before it flourishes completely. Although, urbanization and incremented earnings levels have been quite vital for the development of FMCG segment, however other factors also carried out important tasks. In addition, high level of competition, multinationalization along with consolidation in the marketplace has augmented the level of company’s network for enhancing competitive position (Reardon and Gulati, 2008). Additionally, the domestic guidelines have time and again incorporated tax rewards for stores and cleanliness and position policies for wet markets. Further, the modernization of store attainment structures have trimmed down expenses and made them highly spirited with customary vendors.
The customer trend basically involves the buyers’ choice. The majority of time, it has been observed that the buyers stay loyal towards globalized and established FMCG brands. FMCG companies have started charging buyers lower costs and offer wide range of products that to of good quality than the traditional suppliers. Nevertheless, such competitive benefits make possible for these companies to expand rapidly, winning buyer market portion. Several FMCG companies offer products at lower prices in the start in the semi-processed and processed food segments. Taking the case of developed countries in particular, the customers’ spending have increased, outlets are highly concerned about promoting a wider array of FMCG products and that too at higher cost. Consumers have become more health cautious as compared to before and thus, don’t mind spending few extra pounds to purchase best food items and thus, retailers make sure that food stored is instantaneously replaced on expiration. The sale of Toksov products i.e. chocolates and juices greatly depends on the buyers. It is highly believed that the customers can anytime switch to other brands they feel is offering better value for money and superior quality products. So the company needs to always make sure that the customers are fully satisfied and regularly offering new and exceptional products.
The current trend in Toksoz is the fact that it operates in many industries that produces baby products, energy trade and real estate. In the future the group is looking to expand in the countries of Ukraine and Egypt to get similar success. This can be done by including a product placement strategy for the products its manufactures. Currently Toksoz, follows the classical strategic style that helps the company to maintain its business in the competing and predictable business environment of Turkey. The rationale for such a strategy is for the growth and expansion of the business in areas like Egypt and Ukraine. When the company operates within a sector whose surroundings are foreseeable nevertheless tough for the corporation like Toksov to transform, a classical strategic style holds the highest chance of success for Toksov. This style is familiar to the majority of business school graduates and managers—five forces, growth-share matrix and Blue Ocean analyses are all its manifestations. Toksov establishes an objective, targeting the highly constructive marketplace standing it could achieve through capitalizing upon its specific abilities and available resources and after that, attempts to develop and strengthen that standing via methodical, sequential rounds of planning, making use of quantitative predictive techniques, which enable it to project effectively into the future. Additionally, once these plans have been set, the company tends to remain in place for many years. Classical strategic planning works effectively for Toksov like a stand-alone function for the reason that it needs exceptional analytic and quantitative abilities and things move gradually for allowing information to pass across different departments.
Moving ahead, FMCG company like Toksov, just as those within several other mature sectors, efficiently adopt the classical approach. At a FMCG company such as Toksoz, for instance, extremely skilled analysts placed at corporate strategic-planning office spend good amount of time and resources for developing thorough outlooks regarding long-term economic forces associated with demand along with technical forces associated with supply. Such analyses make possible for Toksov to develop upstream plans, which might last for 10 years and downstream production plans that last for around five years. It can barely be otherwise, provided the time required for finding and exploiting new products sources, to building production units and keeping them functional at optimal capability. Such plans, in return, update multiyear financial predictions that decide yearly targets, which are focused towards honing the competences needed for maintaining and bolstering the corporation’s marketplace standing and outcome.
Moving ahead, the strategic style that Toksoz could follow is the visionary strategic style. This is because the managers of the company can envision an attractive future that can help in the growth of the company. The reason for choosing this strategy is because the company needs to focus on defensive moves in a challenging environment of Ukraine and Egypt. The company can even adopt a survival strategy during recession. At times, not just does a corporation holds the power of shaping the future, but it is possible for knowing that future and predicting the course for realizing that. Such situations require effective strategies—the type that entrepreneurs employ for creating completely new marketplaces or corporate leaders adopt for revitalizing a corporation with an exclusively fresh vision. These are the big bets, the build-it-and-they-will-come strategies.
Additionally, just as a shaping tacticians, the visionary regards the business setting not as provided but as something, which could be modified to benefit. Even so, the visionary style holds more in common with a classical approach. For the reason that the aim is clear, Toksov could undertake deliberate steps for reaching it without having to consider several other available options. It is quite vital for Toksov to take the time they require for marshalling resources, planning systematically and implementing appropriately so that the vision does not fall victim of poor implementation. Being a visionary strategist, Toksov would require courage for remaining on course and will for committing the required resources.
The present vision of the company and in the new markets i.e. Egypt and Ukraine has been stated below.
The present mission of the company and in the new markets i.e. Egypt and Ukraine indicates that the company wants to build a good relation with the customers
The company has always aimed at offering superior and good quality products to the customers and offers them maximum satisfaction. This would continue in the new markets i.e. Egypt and Ukraine as well where the company has decided to provide its juices and chocolates.
The company has always aimed at offering environmentally friendly products to the customers. This would continue in the new markets i.e. Egypt and Ukraine as well where the company has decided to provide its juices and chocolates.
The company has always aimed at offering healthy and safe products to the customers. This would continue in the new markets i.e. Egypt and Ukraine as well where the company has decided to provide its juices and chocolates.
Making sure that the offered products are healthy and safe for the customers is considered as being the chief priority of Toksoz. It ensures that all the ingredients and constituents of the offered product are completely healthy for the people consuming them. In Italy and Ukraine also, the company would intend to offer juices and chocolates that are healthy and of good quality.
There is no doubt in the fact that Toksoz has made great success in terms of profits and revenue ever since the time of its establishment. It makes available a wide range of products through its several subsidiaries all across the globe. Expanding to new regions is always one of the top priorities of the company. Like other regions, Toksoz has made a decision of expanding to Italy and Ukraine by offering wide range of juices and chocolates there.
Company intends to continuously capture new market segments and customer groups. Same is plan for Italy and Ukraine.
Turkish companies can have global success by gaining an entrepreneurial spirit and an ownership mindset. The managers need to be able to manage market complexities. They need to encourage culture that is more performance oriented
As a concluding remark, the Toksoz should invest in training its sales force about the FMCG industry and how the sales are affected due to changes in the external environment. Taking this into consideration, the section below will now detail the benefits of training the salespersons.
According to the Index, it is seen that Ukraine has a composite score of 4.65. It is ranked 88 and has economic fundamentals of 5.86. The composite score of Egypt is 4.10. The country is ranked 110. Economic fundamentals of 3.91. The overall analysis suggests that Ukraine can provide strategic advantage to Toksoz. The CAGE and PESTEL analysis indicates superiority of Ukraine over Egypt. In terms of composite score, Ukraine is ahead than Egypt
The conventional strategy to follow includes Porter’s differentiation model. In this model the angle of attack focuses on the strategies that are required to penetrate the international market. This includes the cost differentiation strategy of business. Toksoz would follow cost differentiation approach in Egypt and Ukraine. This would involve offering wide range of superior quality juices as well as chocolates at a cost that is comparatively lower than the cost of similar products offered by the competitors.
In this case, Christensen’s model can be used. Toksoz can implement the disruptive innovation process as the target market in Ukraine and Egypt are different than in Turkey.
This use of digitalisation can help in analysing the current planning activities in a business. It helps in the problem solving process of an organization. In the case of Toksoz, the company can use the digital platform to deal with issues related to sustainability.
Selling ability and confidence go hand-in-hand. Developing confidence could prove to be difficult, however holding a sound understanding about the product, competition and highly efficient sales approaches could aid in building that desired level of confidence (Jobber and Lancaster, 2009). As a result, it is very important to have a holistic view of training, both as part of the sales techniques and new product knowledge transfer. Continuing and practical sales training is considered as being one amongst the most advantageous things thatcan be done for the sales staff (Jobber and Lancaster, 2009). According to Porter (1985), it can easily help attain the desired output as well as keep the workforce motivated. Taking into consideration, the desired objective of the new product launch, it is essential for sales force and management to completely understand the UK pharmaceutical industry as well as unique selling points of the product and this is where training is essential. Also, training should be regular but not necessarily conducted everyday (Porter, 1985). It could be held weekly or even, monthly, depending upon the need and allocated budget. Also, it needs to be well-planned and in complete alignment with the product launch deadlines.
The paragraphs below highlight some of the key benefits of training associated with the new product launch.
Sales team could gain needed knowledge and skills through right level of training to easily estimate and accomplish sales level (Cichelli, 2004). Planning is extremely important for this process and through making use of the available information, sales team will be able to predict how much a product or business would grow on weekly, monthly and annual basis. The sales figures should be inspirational, however must also be reasonablesince they would feed into the company’s overall budget (Jobber and Lancaster, 2009). According to Jobber and Lancaster (2009), offering training to sales wouldhelp strengthen employees’capabilityfor interpreting and creating forecasts and throughenhancingoutcome of sales team, attainset objectives.
Sales team would learn important skills of converting time available into new business, sales and improved associations with the customers and clients (Cichelli, 2004).
Through modelling and teaching efficient sales abilities, sales team would be educated enough as well as the confidence level would also perk up with respect to closing sales and building strong links with buyers (Cichelli, 2004). The sales team will also benefit from the unique selling and marketing strategies that are needed to impress the buyers.
Communication skills will also be built and improved as anoutcome of the sales training process (Simpkins, 2004). These skills are important, not just with respect to nurturing open and effectual associations with the consumers but also in offering response and dealing with the staff members. Training would support sales manager to develop intoeffective leaders, individuals who undertake initiative and are impartial and creditable of admiration (Simpkins, 2004).
By way of sales training, the sales manager would gain appropriate knowledge about means of encouraging the sales team (Jobber and Lancaster, 2009). The division of theseabilities is highlysignificantin case if sales managers wish tomotivate their team for increasing sales and improving the service level offered to the consumers.ngths and weaknesses (Jobber and Lancaster, 2009). These strengths and weaknesses associate with those of sales team, the sales manager and the business as a whole. Such examination could also highlight approaches for improving strengths and carrying out changes for improving the weak areas.
Moving ahead, with strategic goal to expand the company’s sales operations and to maximise revenue from the new product launch, the following section will present a detailed recruitment and training program for the company.
Execution of the recruitment and training program would have a direct impact based upon whether the practice is up and operating or needed to be developed or re-developed (Simpkins, 2004). Recruitment and training are chief execution activities for any expansions or even, new start-ups. It is very important to have right individuals as part of the sales and management process to promote and sell the product in the best possible manner. This involves both effective recruiting of new hires and training of existing employees (Jobber and Lancaster, 2009).
Recruiting sales team normally needs comprehension about the consumers as well as the marketplace and not only the physical resources, time required for reaching targeted customers, and the kind of selling drawn in. Expert sales executives normally bring in all these abilities (Simpkins, 2004). Further, there are several ways through which the right candidate can be searched. These include advertising, company sources, campus recruitment as well as external employment agencies. Other outstanding source for finding best sales people is through other salespeople. Within this sphere, to be one basically involves knowing one. Sales recruitment involves special traits which are hard to be outlined in an analytical respect, particularly within small business surroundings where associationsare likely to be close (Simpkins, 2004). However, indeed, within all sphere of sales, managers depend greatly on their existing sales experience in order to find individuals who hold exceptional abilities. Moreover, generalisations are unsafe, however superior sales people hold sound communications abilities, are disciplined, could accept rejection with superior humour, react to incentives and hold a great amount of energy—frequently required since sales task can be tiring, require several hours of standing, and at times physical endeavours for demonstrating services and products. Likewise, for selling the new pharmaceutical product also, salespersons need to have a good understanding of the market and where to best target the product.
After recruitment of an appropriate sales team, the manager needs to decide what type and how much training to offer. The majority of sales training lays focus on product, corporation and market understanding. Just around 25% of the average training initiative of the company, in actuality, deals with selling strategies (Calvin, 2001). Due to the high cost, several companies try to restrict the level of training they make available. Sales managers could attain several advantages with proficient training initiatives. For instance, research studies highlight that training trims down staff turnover, thus decreasing the efficient cost associated with appointing new employees. In addition, effective training could also enhance consumer relations, augment staff morale, and increase overall sales (Calvin, 2001). Widespread training techniques take in lectures, role playing, on-the-job training and demonstrations. Preferably, training should be a continuing procedure, which repeatedly reinforces the organisation’s objectives.
The figure below presents the recruitment and training plan for the sales stuff for expanding the sales operations and maximise revenue from new product launch.
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Recruitment and Training Program |
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Activity |
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Studying the UK pharmaceutical industry |
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Identify sales’ needs |
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Assessing capabilities of the existing staff |
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Preparing a training plan for existing staff |
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Preparing a training plan for new hires |
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Approaching external recruitment agencies |
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Advertising job vacancies |
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Interview, confirmation and hiring |
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Training of new hires and existing staff |
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Go-live and selling of product starts |
The overall recruitment and training program is spread over a period of six weeks focusing upon a number of activities including, studying and analysing the UK pharmaceuticals industry, identifying sales’ needs, assessing capabilities of the existing staff, preparing a training plan for existing staff and new hires, approaching external recruitment agencies, advertising job vacancies, interview, confirmation and hiring, training of new hires and existing staff as well as taking the product into market.
Moving ahead, the next section will now describe the likely barriers to the successful implementation of such a recruitment and training program.
Likely barriers to the successful implementation of recruitment and training program include:
In the absence of a comprehensive understanding about the sales procedure (or procedures), which makes possible for the salesperson to align with the purchasers, it is not feasible to decide the kind of skills needed for effective selling (Jobber and Lancaster, 2009). Thus, the majority of training initiatives neglect important training needs completely.
This needs to be addressed ensuring that sales needs are in alignment with the skills and the market.
Sales teams require well-defined frameworks for examining the skills and knowledge of sales experts as well as managers (Jobber and Lancaster, 2009). Without objective evaluation and measurement, it is not possible to establish where exactly the gaps exist and the way how training investments have an impact on the abilities and skills of the sales team.
Training plans must be layered with passing time, form fundamental conceptions to highly multifaceted subjects (Calvin, 2001). Trying to compel high level of learning content into a short time-period is unrealistic and results in low performance enhancement. Role based plans should outline staged, realistic learning and advancement paths for managers and sales team.
Several sales training initiatives lay emphasis on just one facet of selling like opportunity management and fail to deal with several vital abilities (such as account planning, targeting and accessing power) (Calvin, 2001). The training initiatives must involve sales planning, implementation as well as management disciplines (Jobber and Lancaster, 2009).
Reinforcement must be both on-demand and scheduled. Several companies offer on-demand learning as well as reinforcement assets, which get restricted use, since sales team is occupied with everyday practices. As other learners, sales team requires structured reinforcement, which is aligned well with the overall learning course.
The historical pricing framework designed for the purpose of salestraining has usually been a cost per class, per person concept (Jobber and Lancaster, 2009). Thus, several facets of constructive intellectual property and method are not offered to whole company due to cost element (Calvin, 2001).
Taking the various above described barriers into consideration, the company should follow a recruitment and training plan as described in the previous section. It can be customised as per the specific needs but on a broader note, it should be ensured that it is not very time restricted, or is not well aligned with changing market needs, is too focused or not able to meet business needs only.
It is a known fact that sales related job are extremely challenging as well as competitive. Not every technique can be successful and a complete understanding of the market and consumer needs is very important (Jobber and Lancaster, 2009). According to Jobber and Lancaster (2009), the sales strategy should not just be effective but should help enhance the company’s revenue. Some of the techniques that can be adopted to measure the success of its sales strategy include:
A SWOT analysis helps assess and recognise the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats faced by any company or a business (Ghazinooryet. al., 2007). The continuing paragraphs provide SWOT analysis of Toksoz in Ukraine and Egypt.
The strengths of the FMCG sector highlight some of the key internal sector factors, which include quality of services and goods, providing value and overall delivery superiority. Toksoz is already well established and possesses strong human capital, physical resources and developed R&D infrastructure. Other strengths of the Toksoz include low operating overhead, low staff turnover, modern laboratory equipment, low cost of expert manpower, admittance to huge pool of extremely competent scientists, powerful distribution and marketing network, high return on investment (ROI) and an expert research staff. Considering the highly developed market, it will be the top responsibility of the sales force to take the new launch to the market as soon as possible. The organization has earned a huge reputation in the domestic market. Good cost leadership strategy that can be an asset in the similar markets in foreign countries
The weaknesses associated with the Toksoz mirror the internal industry factors, which do not provide considerable added value or require enhancement. The weaknesses of Toksoz include poor branding, diseconomies of scale, low staff morale, stringent pricing policies, lack of data safety, highly competitive atmosphere, poor health insurance coverage and lastly, the formation of low quality products negatively impacts industry’s image. The company should try to convert weaknesses of the industry as a whole into its strengths (Jobber and Lancaster, 2009). For example, motivating its staff and sales force, selling the product on an affordable price as well as branding the product carefully. The product should also clearly have a label with component and dosage details on its cover. Other weaknesses include Lack of band awareness, Weak supply chain and Company in a developing phase
There are a number of opportunities associated with Toksoz including rise in per capita income, growing level of population with higher sedentary standard of living, growing health insurance segment, considerable investment from multinational companies, diverse clinical trials and lastly, worldwide outsourcing hub because of low cost competent staff. Further, other opportunities include the rise in health-conscious customers, augmented demand for FMCG services and products and modifications in standards of products and expansion into new markets like Ukraine and Egypt. All these factors can be advantageous for the company and sales force and management should take complete benefit of the same (Jobber and Lancaster, 2009). Other opportunities include Consumers are price sensitive; Less number of multinational companies and Opportunity to target lower income level customers
There are a number of threats also associated with the FMCG industry. These include increased government regulations, a decreasing economy, rising cost of research and development (R&D), fall in the level of population. Other threats include other low cost nations having an impact on demand, wage inflation, rise in the cost of raw material or resources, counterfeiting issues, emergence of new players, local competitors and low market entry barriers.
The company can follow an organic approach that can help in the expansion of business. This is mainly because the company can focus on customer base expansion. New products can be developed as well.
The product model can help in gaining a view of the products and services and the manner in which they look like. The area model provides an overview of the area and the target customers that reside in it. The matrix model helps in the separation of areas and determines the sale and purchase of products. To gain success, it is important for Toksoz to include the product model. The visualization of the things that need to be included can be done using the product model. Clarification can be made about the meaning of the product in other organizations.
Conclusion
To conclude, it can be clearly stated from the above discussion that the success of Toksoz can be attributed to the overall use of strategic model. It can help in the expansion of the company and gain global recognition. The mentality of the people in Egypt is similar to that in Turkey. Within this era of cut-throat marketplace competition and augmenting trend of conducting business practices in a different manner, several companies have begun investing substantial resources in implementing worldwide approaches (Bruton et al., 2004). The companies within developed countries like USA, Europe are continuously rushing in the race of making available worldwide branded products with the aim of attaining long term competitive edge and sustainability (Hollis, 2008). The incorporation strategies could involve uniform packing, or might be region particular customized packing or an exceptional sequence of brand names or it can also be a related advertising drift. Nevertheless, the success could just be ascertained in case if there is in place a well-matched balance amid the standardization, regional and adaption issues taking in politics, culture, economy and others (Morrison, 2009). Few companies believe in advertising by appointing local celebs whereas others invest towards customization of the product traits. For example, the European laundry marketplace has established preferences for both Southern as well as Northern Europe. For Northern Europe, there are hot water provisions with no additional bleach along with small packaging whereas for Southern Europe region, washing is scheduled according to lower temperature and accessibility of bigger packaging (Bruton et al., 2004).
Moving ahead, over the period of last few years, international operations have fundamentally redefined the manner in which consumer goods are produced, distributed as well as marketed in a global environment (Autio et. al., 2000). With rapid advent of globalization, entrepreneurs and retailers all across the globe are fighting hard to establish themselves as global market players and develop a strong influence over the market (Eckhardt and Shane, 2003). This strong level of power and influence is desired both within the market environment as well as in the supply chain. The concept of internationalization can be defined as an approach of expansion of business into the global international markets in order to attain long term competitive edge. According to Oviatt and McDougall (2005), internationalization can also be explained as the study combining the theory of international business and entrepreneurship. Internationalization includes discovery, analysis and exploration of the global market opportunities. It focuses upon both the internationalization and comparative stream. Eckhardt and Shane (2003) state that internationalization includes how, when, why and where companies can internationalize their business operations while comparative stream deals with why and how business operations vary from a nation to nation along with implications of these specific variances. In simple words, internationalization can be explained as the process of investigation, evaluation and exploration of the market opportunities that take place across cross-national firms as well as global boundaries (Oviatt and McDougall, 2005). Further, taking the above discussion into consideration this particular paper attempts to examine several factors affecting Toksoz expansion into Egypt and Ukraine. The company has decided to make available chocolates and juices in these new international markets.
References:
Autio, E., Sapienza, H. J. and Almeida, J. G. (2000). Effects of age at entry, knowledge intensity, and imitability on international growth. Academy of Management Journal, 43, 909-924
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Eckhardt, J. T. and Shane, S. A. (2003). Opportunities and entrepreneurship. Journal of Management, 29(3), 333–349
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Kunovich, R. M. and Hodson, R. (2002). Ethnic diversity, segregation, and inequality: a structural model of ethnic prejudice in Bosnia and Croatia. Sociological Quarterly, 43(2), 185–212
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