Write a Strategy Recommendation Report For E-Business Strategy.
Slices Company has successfully been able to revolutionize the food industry amongst the UAE countries through their unique brands which seek to provide healthy foods to their market segments. The company significant operations and supplies are amongst the young generation as well as the top executives, and therefore these groups form the company top consumers segments (Withers et al. 2018, p. 76). To achieve their goals and help the company remain competitive in the industry the company must have laid a well-developed strategy. From our analysis in the first assignment, we identified various critical competencies of the company which forms the company key strategies employed to achieve their goals.
One of the significant current strategies employed by the company is its resource capability. Easy access to capital has enabled the company to scale up their operations to offer quality services to their clients. Such a strategy is very critical as it allows for the company to invest heavily by focusing on developing customer focus which is significant in the development of the food industry (Wheelen et al. 2017, p. 52). It also gives the company a competitive edge since most companies struggle to deliver quality services due to lack of enough capital resources.
The company has also been able to deploy the strategy of using the intangible resources of the company such as its extensive knowledge from its human resource base in developing quality brands. The company was able to attract quality and skilled employees who produce food and beverage products of nutritious and societal value. Such strategy has been effective in providing the company with a unique brand in the market and increasing their competitiveness (Fleisher & Bensoussan, 2015, p. 8). The ability to understand societal needs is an added advantage to the company as it helps the company deliver quality products which will help meet their needs.
The strategic location of Slices stores and business has also given the company a competitive advantage by increasing their convenience to deliver services to various market segments. The company has been able to locate or establish their stores near their target markets to reduce the cost of acquiring the goods which are very vital in influencing consumer behavior (Cavusgil et al. 2014, p. 16). Also, the philanthropic nature of the company has enabled it enjoyed continued growth and support from the community through increased social corporate sustainability which is essential in determining the future viability of the company. Lastly, the company has deployed a strategy of using an organic product from the local farmers in the production of their food delicacies and also provided employment opportunities to the local populations (Laudon & Laudon, 2015, p. 1080. Such a strategy is advantageous as it helps the company develop an effective supply chain and enhance its business support by contributing to local economic development by improving the living standards of the people.
Despite the current strategies which have been used in contributing to increased business growth and sustainability there is a significant concern on expanding the company operations to other international markets or increase its customer base to other markets outside UAE (Veit et al. 2014, p. 47). To achieve this company recommended entering into business franchise orientation with the aim of increasing its revenue. There is also a need to improve partnerships with other stakeholders in the retail, food and beverage industry as well as the local dealers and farmers. Addressing such concerns will help the company, therefore, to achieve its expansion goals and increase their efficiency in service provision. However, for effectiveness in expansion strategy, there is a need to develop an electronic business strategy as a startup plan to open up new markets and understand the different needs of consumers (Spieth et al. 2014, p. 241). Such a strategy will, therefore, be necessary for improving the existing services of the company as well as conducting market research through analysis of customer behavior and needs in different markets segmentation.
The current positioning of the company in the market can be said to average in that the company has not adequately maximized their potential in developing new business ventures and increased revenue growth. With increased competition in the industry resulting from technological advancements, the priority of the company would be to create a strategy that will enhance value creation to their customers. This is because the future sustainability and profitability of the company operations will be determined by its ability create value to their customers (Galliers & Leidner, 2014, p. 31). Development of e-business strategy will, therefore, be useful in achieving value creation through building relationships with different customer segments and other stakeholders i the industry.
The effectiveness of this model can be best understood through the analysis of external business environment, the value creation strategies as well as the internal business environment. The external environment aims at providing an understanding of who the company needs to compete with while the value creation strategies seek to understand the value by which the company wants to create to their customers (Carayannis et al. 2015, p. 92). Lastly, the strategy aims at understanding how the company will be organized internally to help them achieve the value creation objectives. The roadmap model will, therefore, assist us in understanding both external and internal environment strategies as well as the value creation strategies for the company
The company has the vision to influence the eating habits of the young generation positively. Its business mission is to provide education to the next generation which is the young generation of healthy eating, and this will be done by providing access to nutritious foods through a service provision initiative that enables them to have a different perspective on food.
A value creation strategy for customers will seek to determine or evaluate what drives consumer benefits or costs. Since the e-business strategy is aimed at value creation, then the company will need to focus on understanding the economic benefits which consumers can derive from their goods and how they can reduce costs to maximize their utility (Ahson & Ilyas, 2017, p. 43). One of the drivers of consumer benefits would be the convenience to obtain goods and services. The strategy, therefore, aims to develop an internet platform where consumers can interact with various company products and make the necessary orders for delivery. By establishing a cost leadership strategy, the company will be able to offer the best services at the best prices in the market and therefore give them a competitive advantage (Turban et al. 2017, p. 14). Product differentiation strategies which can be achieved through quality food packaging can contribute to increased value creation to the consumers.
One of the critical factors in successful marketing strategies is the ability to identify the potential customer targets or market segments. Developing a customer target segment helps in understanding the different needs of specific groups of customers to enhance service delivery to the groups. Useful customer segments are developed through analysis of the various customer differentiation characteristics such as age, gender, and income. Planning for service delivery should be focused on these characteristics for increased efficiency (Sharma & Lijuan, 2014, p. 422). Therefore the company significant target segment is the young generation and is most dependent on their parent’s income since most are students. The strategy, therefore, aims at utilizing the social activeness opportunity of the young generation to develop a plan that will build relationships which will contribute increased service provision by understanding their needs. The company has also focused on delivery of services to the top executives who may be in this case the high-income earners. However, the strategy also aims at including another customer segment to fill the gap between the middle-income earners. This will help in increasing company revenue and also assist it in achieving its growth and expansion strategy.
The development of the e-business strategy is likely to encounter privacy, ethical and legal related issues. The internet has been subject to cybersecurity issues in the recent past which have increased the risks of conducting business operations through the internet (Gunarto, 2014, p. 24). However, business has developed various control, regulation and protection mechanisms aimed at securing their business websites and other internet social platforms in a move to increase business credulity and protect their consumers. Privacy issues related to e-business strategy are mainly concerned with the personal information protection (Ginter et al. 2014, p. 751). The development of the e-business strategy will require the customers to provide personal information to the company willingly such as the customer names, contact information as well as the credit card numbers to facilitate online transactions. Hackers can use the customer’s information such as the credit card number to have access to customer’s accounts.
The ethical issues likely to be encountered include the theft of customer’s information as well as reduced service delivery where the customers may order some services through the internet, and then the company takes to take in delivering. Poor service army also occurs when the products promoted on the platform are not the quality that the customers wanted (Acquisti et al. 2015, p.511). Baits and switches form another category of ethical issues prevalent in electronic commerce and have deceived many customers who end up losing their money. The legal problems likely to be experienced include the intellectual property rights, lack of company trademark protection as well as the legal issues relating to the security of company websites and domains (Grama, 2014, p. 7). The company should, therefore, partner with relevant regulation and legislation bodies to enhance consumer protection as well as protect the business internet platforms from possible attacks or inappropriate uses.
Effective implementation of the e-business strategy will require a collective effort of different business stakeholders. The company will, therefore, be expected to develop partnerships with other external stakeholders in the business. Partnerships with the relevant information and technology companies will help the company in protecting the company (Gerow et al. 2015, p. 471). There is also a need to partner with the government regulation and legislation bodies to help in protecting the company trademarks as well as protection of intellectual property rights. Lastly, the company will also be needed to partner with company suppliers, dealers as well as the customer through a memorandum of understanding since they play a significant role in company brand development.
There are different e-business strategy business models, and their application depends on the nature of the business. Since one of the objectives of the strategy is to reduce costs of acquiring goods for the students and other market segments, then the best business model to apply in developing an e-business strategy would be the Freemium Model (Wu et al. 2015, p. 503). The model is commonly used by most Internet-based businesses. The model will allow the customer’s services from the company at no cost and is aimed at building strong relationships with the company for the future sustainability of the business.
The useful revenue and cost model for the development of the e-business model would be the one that will allow company increase their revenue and on the other hand reduce costs for both the company and the consumers (Slack, 2015, p. 327). The best model, in this case, would be collecting revenue from every subscription access to the company. Secondly, the company can also use the income from cost per click which means that advertisers on the company electronic platforms will not only be charged for the number of ads displayed but also according to the number of clicks on the site.
The development of the e-business strategy is aligned to the company physical strategy in that it helps the company enhance its service provision to the students in high schools by developing and building relationships which will enhance service provision and increased convenience of their products from their stores through online delivery systems (Akter et al. 2016, p. 122). The strategy will also help the company in enhancing their expansion strategies to other international markets through conducting online consumer surveys and analyzing the consumption behaviors.
Based on the above strategy recommendation the company is supposed to take specific steps within the next 6 to 12 months to facilitate effective implementation. Therefore it is recommended that the company should seek to establish the different IT Companies which will help in partnering to provide better solutions for the development of the strategy.
Due to increased competition in the industry and the need to differentiate company brands from the existing competitor brands the company also needs to conduct a market survey to establish the e-business strategies employed by her competitors to help the company develop a unique plan.
Lastly, it is also essential for the company to develop a pricing strategy for their products based on the market segment characteristics such as age, gender, and income. This will help the company reach out to diverse market segments and increase their revenue generation and profitability
List of References
Acquisti, A., Brandimarte, L. and Loewenstein, G., 2015. Privacy and human behavior in the age of information. Science, 347(6221), pp.509-514.
Ahson, S.A. and Ilyas, M., 2017. RFID handbook: applications, technology, security, and privacy. CRC press.pp. 35-47.
Akter, S., Wamba, S.F., Gunasekaran, A., Dubey, R. and Childe, S.J., 2016. How to improve firm performance using big data analytics capability and business strategy alignment? International Journal of Production Economics, 182, pp.113-131.
Carayannis, E.G., Sindakis, S. and Walter, C., 2015. Business model innovation as lever of organizational sustainability. The Journal of Technology Transfer, 40(1), pp.85-104.
Cavusgil, S.T., Knight, G., Riesenberger, J.R., Rammal, H.G. and Rose, E.L., 2014. International business. Pearson Australia.pp. 14-18.
Fleisher, C.S. and Bensoussan, B.E., 2015. Business and competitive analysis: effective application of new and classic methods. FT Press.pp. 8.
Galliers, R.D. and Leidner, D.E. eds., 2014. Strategic information management: challenges and strategies in managing information systems. Routledge.pp. 31.
Gerow, J.E., Thatcher, J.B. and Grover, V., 2015. Six types of IT-business strategic alignment: an investigation of the constructs and their measurement. European Journal of Information Systems, 24(5), pp.465-491.
Ginter, K.L., Shear, V.H., Spahn, F.J., Van Wie, D.M. and Weber, R.P., Intertrust Technologies Corp, 2014. Trusted infrastructure support systems, methods and techniques for secure electronic commerce transaction and rights management. U.S. Patent 8,751,793.
Grama, J.L., 2014. Legal issues in information security. Jones & Bartlett Publishers.pp. 7.
Gunarto, H., 2014. Ethical issues in cyberspace and IT society. Ritsumeika Asia Pacific University. Retrieved June, 24.
Laudon, K.C. and Laudon, J.P., 2015. Management Information Systems: Managing the Digital Firm Plus MyMISLab with Pearson eText–Access Card Package. Prentice Hall Press.pp. 102-114.
Sharma, G. and Lijuan, W., 2014. Ethical perspectives on e-commerce: an empirical investigation. Internet Research, 24(4), pp.414-435.
Slack, N., 2015. Operations strategy. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.pp. 321-333.
Spieth, P., Schneckenberg, D. and Ricart, J.E., 2014. Business model innovation–state of the art and future challenges for the field. R&d Management, 44(3), pp.237-247.
Turban, E., Outland, J., King, D., Lee, J.K., Liang, T.P. and Turban, D.C., 2017. Electronic Commerce 2018: A Managerial and Social Networks Perspective. Springer.pp. 14.
Veit, D., Clemons, E., Benlian, A., Buxmann, P., Hess, T., Kundisch, D., Leimeister, J.M., Loos, P. and Spann, M., 2014. Business models. Business & Information Systems Engineering, 6(1), pp.45-53.
Wheelen, T.L., Hunger, J.D., Hoffman, A.N. and Bamford, C.E., 2017. Strategic management and business policy. pearson.pp. 44-56.
Withers, M.C., Ireland, R.D., Miller, D., Harrison, J.S. and Boss, D., 2018. Competitive landscape shifts: The influence of strategic entrepreneurship on shifts in market commonality. Academy of Management Review, (ja).pp.76.
Wu, S.P.J., Straub, D.W. and Liang, T.P., 2015. How information technology governance mechanisms and strategic alignment influence organizational performance: Insights from a matched survey of business and IT managers. Mis Quarterly, 39(2), pp.497-518.
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