Competitive Strategies Of Pizza Club: A Strategic Management Essay.

Question:

Discuss about the Competitive Strategies being involved by Pizza Club in their Business Operation.

Identifying and describing the strategies and plans which can be adopted by the management and the senior level in an organization for the attainment of the goals and targets is the mechanism of strategic management (Pearce and Robinson, 2013). The concept can be implemented within the organizational structure for maintaining a high level of performance and also attainment of competitive advantage. The company is said to be at the competitive advantage when the profitability is more than it average profitability in the industry. The term can also be defined as the acts or the decisions which are to be taken by the managerial staff on the basis of the outcomes of the performance of the entity. Right and appropriate decisions are required to be taken by the managers and for that, the entity should a thorough knowledge and analysis of competitive environment within the industry. SWOT analysis can be proven as a great option for analyzing the business environment for the entity. The concept can also be considered as a preparation or planning for predictable and unfeasible contingencies. Strategic management offers the employees with a broader point-of-view which will enable them to understand about their job and how it suits to the organizational plans and also related with the other employees. The below-executed analysis has been made focused on Pizza club which has been ranked as one of the leading organizations. The business corporation is into offering the diverse range of pizza in the regions of New Zealand. They entity have total 10 branches in the New Zealand, eight branches in Auckland one in Hamilton and one in Tauranga. The below-presented report has been focusing on the strategic management plan. 

Leadership and culture have been considered as an integral component in the concept of strategic planning and also plays a crucial role in the same process. The organizational culture includes the beliefs, thoughts, norms, and regulations of the Pizza Club. The basic requirement for a successful strategic plan is to be a well-coordinated alignment with the organizational culture followed in the Pizza Club. It has also been seen that the company has to adopt team culture within the organization. It not only reduces the efforts of each individual but it also enhances the productivity of the firm. Teamwork reduces the error generation chances and hence the goals of the firm can be achieved in a better way. It is the role of the leader to make sure that they implement team culture within the organization (Vogel and Güttel, 2013). Culture is built up by the existing workers of the firm by their activities and till the time, present stakeholders will not follow the basic regulations and policies. It also assists in making professional decorum in the workplace. Apart from this, it is a role of the management to motivate their employees at various time intervals. This is also due to the fact that enthusiasm of stakeholders also helps in building positive and effective working culture. Better leadership always helps in managing a human resource in the appropriate manner. Since the leaders have a very important role in arranging resources as per the requirement of the firm. The below mentioned are some of the characteristics of the organizational culture of Pizza club which can be considered as very much significant for developing a successful strategic plan:

Leadership and Organizational Culture in Strategic Planning

Flexibility and adaptability: The organizational culture should be flexible in nature as this will embrace and develop an environment which will enable high productivity and open communication amongst the employees. This will be proven very much beneficial for the success of the strategic plan. It is also important for the firm to adopt changes as per the requirement of the strategic management. It can only be possible if the management monitors the whole process that on a regular basis.

Goal unification: Strong, flexible and unified culture will develop a positive approach towards strategic implementation and this will also affect the process of implementation in a positive manner, by the alignment of goals (Merkert and Hensher, 2011). When the focus is on productivity and accomplishment of a primary mission then goals can come into alignment. It will help a company in achieving the goals and objectives at a much faster rate.

And the same is with leadership, as an implementation of strategic plans and corporate strategy requires team efforts. Team efforts can be obtained in an effective manner if there is a provision of appropriate leadership. For motivating the employees the leaders should have involvement in the team and the tasks performed. Leadership has to make sure that they improve the performance of the firm by enhancing the skills of their employees. For proper implementation of the firm’s strategic management leadership needs to be strong. If the company leadership is weak then they may not handle all the operations. The management has the role of making good relationship with the employees of the firm which it can utilize in the time when an issue arises. 

The concept of strategic management has been described by making use of a number of approaches and theories. By making utilization of the approaches the business organization can make fulfillment of the requirements of the stakeholder in a systematic manner. Management and the allocation of the resources amongst the stakeholders are the two significant operations which are executed by the adoption of the mechanisms of strategic management.

Strategic management is a wider scope that has multi-dimensional aspect and has to be taken care off. It is necessary for the firm to make continuous improvement in this strategy so that it helps in gaining the competitive advantage over other competitors. Since in the fast food industry the number of the company is increasing at much faster rate and hence it is important for the company to make the most effective business strategy.

Identification of Organizational Culture of Pizza Club

Implementation of sustainability and CSR approach has been done by Pizza Club for attracting the investors and making them invest in the entity and this will aid and assist the firm in expanding the business in the global grounds (Molina-Azorin, 2012). Corporate social responsibility is one of the basic things that company has to manage. It helps in making the good image of the company. This kind of strategy helps in expanding to many other parts of the world as well as retaining the base customers.

Stakeholders are those people who are directly or indirectly connected with the functionalities of the firm like employees, customers, directors etc. These all people are an integral part of the organization and its business. They all have the distinct role in the success of the organization. They help in fostering the growth of the firm. Any strategy made inside the firm must be based on their consent as well as they must be involved in strategic management procedure in order to make it strong, innovative and smooth. It is also important for the firm to take all stakeholders in the process of making decisions as well as in making of the strategic management (Priem, Li and Carr, 2012). Stakeholders have to make sure that add value to the consumers.

Strategic management is the procedure using which plans and policies for achieving the goals and objectives set by the firm. It is also known as the blueprint of the plan that will be implemented for performing the operations of the firm so as to achieve desired targets which were pre-set. Decisions like setting up the targets, availing useful resources that will be used in the operations, planning and implementing strategies so as to gain competitive advantage etc. procedures are done under the strategic management concept.

At present time business, it has become important for the firms to take immediate as well as crucial actions. It is necessary if the firm has to achieve its goals in a smoothly. Sometimes it happens that management fails to take decisions that are effective. It increases the chance of failure and in order to reduce the chances it, decisions must be taken by stakeholder management, strategic management concept is developed (Gumerov et al., 2015).  For enhancing the efficiency of firm concept related with strategic management plays the crucial role. Some of the elements of strategic management that defines the relevance of strategic management concept in regards to Pizza Club New Zealand:

Significance of Stakeholders in Strategic Management

The external analysis has been considered as one of the integral concept for the strategic management. The analysis of external analysis aids the concept of strategic management on various grounds. This analysis provides the entity with the detailed information and knowledge of competitive environment and the competitors, the perceptions and consumers behavior, the political and economic stability of the region in which the business is operated etc. These all are the components which can be used by the entity while developing the strategic plans. And hence the external analysis has been considered as very much relevant in strategic management. In order to conduct external analysis the most widely used tool is Porter’s five forces. For this company it is as follows:

• The threat of new entrants: In the fast food industry, this remains one of the serious issues as new entrants also have the capacity to influence the business of the firms that are well established in the industry (Keupp, Palmié and Gassmann, 2012). To counter this in effective ways firms require to develop and adopt some strategies. The cited organization is focusing on making the brand image by serving best quality foods in the industry in New Zealand.
• The threat of substitute: There are several substitutes for Pizza Club like burger, French fries, and other food products which are available at other fast food chains. In order to increase the sale of the product delivered by the cited company, they need to add extra flavors to them which will also assist in gaining competitive advantage.
• Bargaining power of suppliers: There is a very high competition in between suppliers. They play very crucial role in making the business successful (Goetsch & Davis, 2014). Every organization tries to set up powerful relations with their suppliers. It is necessary for attaining the requirement of the firm. Change of suppliers may lead to the reduction in the cost but assuring quality can be a question mark. Since there are many suppliers in for Pizza Club hence it is not the matter of concern for the firm.
• Bargaining power of buyers: Due to the presence of a large amount of options with consumers it has raised the power of buyers (Ackermann and Eden, 2011). Their decision generally changes the effect the product prices. In order to maintain its base customers and attract new ones, this company needs to enhance the quality of Pizza it serves.
• Industry Rivalry: There are many big companies that are operating in the business of fast food industry. Some of the bigger brand names are like Dominos, Burger kind, Pizza Hut, McDonald's etc. They all are multinational firms and have made their names in the industry and have the power to influence the taste of the consumers (Gamble & Thompson, 2014). Since the cited company is placed in only two places and for enhancing business in other parts of New Zealand company needs to make more effective business plans.

Internal analysis: Internal analysis is the approach or the methodology which can be executed for developing an understanding over the strength and weakness of the business entity. The analysis also provides a detailed knowledge about the threats present in the business environment and also about the upcoming opportunities which are required to be grabbed by the b8usiness organization for growth and development of the business. Knowing the strength and weakness will enable the entity in development of the strategic management plans. These plans will bring developments and boost the growth rate of the entity. Moreover, getting aware of the threats will aid the Pizza Club to develop strategic plans for tackling the barriers and competitors. And thus internal analysis has been considered as very much relevant for strategic management. For doing internal analysis SWOT tool can be highly effective.

Strengths

• In the local market, it has created a well-deserved brand value.
• Quality of the food it serves (Eden & Ackermann, 2013).
• It has the wide range of food to offer so as to lure the taste of different consumers. Like they separate sections for vegetarian and non-vegetarian customers.

Weakness

• Low brand value as compared to other multinational competitors.
• Lesser years of experience in the industry as competitors in the industry.
• A lesser amount of resources is available with Pizza Club.

Opportunities

• Expansion of the country (Hair and et. al., 2012).
• Can expand its business outside New-Zealand with the help of joint ventures.

Threats

• New Zealand has the aggressive competitive environment where a large number of companies are serving not a very dense population (Dobbs, 2014).
• Continuous innovation is needed as people taste is changing very fastly. Due to limited resources, this can be a threat to the firm.

By performing internal and external analysis it has been observed that there is cut throat completion in the industry and it is important for the Pizza club to make sure that they apply capable strategies for coming into the business.

Figure 1Role of strategic management

There are several tools that are used in Strategic Management. For Pizza Club concept to strategic management for achieving competitive advantage in a global market is as follows:

Goals and Objectives: It is one of the first likely performed tasks in strategic management concept. It involves setting up of goals and objectives in regards to the value of the firm (Hill and Jones, 2013). Other than this it also involves the processes using which goals and objectives can be achieved. From the views of Pizza Club, Their main aim is to achieve more market share in the industry of fast food in New Zealand (Bull et al., 2016). Apart from this they also aim to increase their customer base by creating the positive image in the minds of a target market.

External and Internal Analysis in Strategic Management

These two are the statements that act as baseline using which company can achieve its business goals. Both of them have almost similar flavors but are the distinct expectation of the firm (Bohari, Hin & Fuad, 2017). Here in regards to Pizza Club mission statement will define the functionality that is required to be performed by the firm for achieving their target. On the other hand, Vision statements describe the actions that will perform in near future. For example promotional and advertisement strategies which will increase the demand for the product (Biancamaria, Lettenmaier, & Pavelsky, 2016).

• Strategic Options: There are alternative choices of the firm which helps in encountering various arisen issue due to the change of taste and preferences as well as altering marketing environment (Wheelen and Hunger, 2011). This company has various strategic options for performing its operations in various situations of the market. For achieving competitive advantage, Pizza Club has taken use of strategies such as pricing, differentiation for achieving its goals and objectives.
• Chosen Strategy: In order to achieve competitive advantage cited company needs to adopt differentiation strategy. It is a formula for adding unique features to their food that differs from that of its competitors. This strategy also suggests that the product must be able to attract number of consumers towards its outlets (Peppard and Ward, 2016). This is an important factor that plays the crucial role in selecting pricing for the products which must be less than its competitors. It will enhance the demand for the product in the market which is necessary for achieving targets of the firm.
• Implementation: Strategy of diversification has been adopted by the firm for enhancing the performance of the firm and creating the image in the market. Pizza Club requires implementing this strategy in relevance to a condition of marketing. This will also improve the firm's chance of achieving goals that it has set. Differentiation and pricing strategy has been selected for Pizza Club (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014). Their implementation has to be done after evaluating and analyzing the external factors that impact fast food industry.

Conclusion

From the above-based report, it can be concluded that Fast food industry is changing at very faster rate due the changing habits of the people. This has attracted many customers in the country like New Zealand. For the smaller companies such as Pizza Club, it is important to make effective strategies so as to make sure that they achieve growth at the expected speed. It is also important for the firm to have strategic management plan so as to ensure that made strategy is implemented in a better way. It helps in achieving the goals and objectives of the firm in smoother ways. In this regards role of leader and culture becomes very crucial. Culture helps in dealing with the various issues that arise in the strategic management process. On the other hand, strong leadership helps to handle all these in a better way.

References

Ackermann, F. and Eden, C., (2011). Strategic management of stakeholders: Theory and practice. Long range planning, 44(3), pp.179-196.

Armstrong, M., & Taylor, S. (2014). Armstrong's handbook of human resource management practice. Kogan Page Publishers.

Biancamaria, S., Lettenmaier, D. P., & Pavelsky, T. M. (2016). The SWOT mission and its capabilities for land hydrology. Surveys in Geophysics, 37(2), 307-337.

Bohari, A. M., Hin, C. W., & Fuad, N. (2017). The competitiveness of halal food industry in Malaysia: A SWOT-ICT analysis. Geografia-Malaysian Journal of Society and Space, 9(1).

Bull, J. W., Jobstvogt, N., Böhnke-Henrichs, A., Mascarenhas, A., Sitas, N., Baulcomb, C., ... & Carter-Silk, E. (2016). Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats: A SWOT analysis of the ecosystem services framework. Ecosystem services, 17, 99-111.

Dobbs, M. (2014). Guidelines for applying Porter's five forces framework: a set of industry analysis templates. Competitiveness Review, 24(1), 32-45.

Eden, C., & Ackermann, F. (2013). Making strategy: The journey of strategic management. Sage.

Gamble, J. E., & Thompson, A. A. (2014). Essentials of strategic management. Irwin Mcgraw-Hill.

Goetsch, D. L., & Davis, S. B. (2014). Quality management for organizational excellence. Upper Saddle River, NJ: pearson.

Gumerov, A. V., Kharisova, R. R., Pavlova, A. V., Litvin, I. Y., Nabiullina, K. R., Schepkina, N. K., & Sabirov, I. T. (2015). Improving strategic management of the business entities. Review of European Studies, 7(1), 23.

Hair, J.F. and et. al., (2012). The use of partial least squares structural equation modeling in strategic management research: a review of past practices and recommendations for future applications. Long range planning, 45(5), pp.320-340.

Hill, C.W. and Jones, G.R., (2013). Strategic management theory. South-Western/Cengage Learning.

Keupp, M.M., Palmié, M. and Gassmann, O., (2012) The strategic management of innovation: A systematic review and paths for future research. International Journal of Management Reviews, 14(4), pp.367-390.

Merkert, R. and Hensher, D.A., (2011). The impact of strategic management and fleet planning on airline efficiency–A random effects Tobit model based on DEA efficiency scores. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 45(7), pp.686-695.

Molina-Azorin, J.F., (2012). Mixed methods research in strategic management: Impact and applications. Organizational Research Methods, 15(1), pp.33-56.

Pearce, J.A. and Robinson, R.B., (2013). Strategic management: Planning for domestic & global competition. McGraw-Hill/Irwin.

Peppard, J. and Ward, J., (2016). The strategic management of information systems: Building a digital strategy. John Wiley & Sons.

Priem, R.L., Li, S. and Carr, J.C., (2012). Insights and new directions from demand-side approaches to technology innovation, entrepreneurship, and strategic management research. Journal of management, 38(1), pp.346-374.

Vogel, R. and Güttel, W.H., (2013). The dynamic capability view in strategic management: A bibliometric review. International Journal of Management Reviews, 15(4), pp.426-446.

Wheelen, T.L. and Hunger, J.D., (2011). Concepts in strategic management and business policy. Pearson Education India.