Strategic Essay: Expanding Autospares - Gaining Competitive Advantage.

You are required to prepare a strategic plan for an organization that does not have a strategic plan. Usually, large organizations have strategic plans but medium and small organizations do not have strategic plans.

Sample strategic plans can be found on the following links:

http://www.denverfoundation.org/Portals/0/Uploads/Documents/FINAL_STRATEGIC_PLAN .pdf

Background of All Make Autospares Limited

This is a report which will develop a strategic plan for a small sale organization having limited workforce. The smaller organization do not have enough resources to spent their efforts on strategic reports as they are focused on achieving economies of scale for long-term sustainability and profitability. The strategic report will be developed for an organization named All Make Autospares Limited which has commenced their business and operations since the year of 2006 (Allmake.com.fj 2018). The business initially was a family oriented business and limited to growth but the efforts from the staffs and the owners have significantly grown the business. This has been possible solely because of the understanding of the company regarding the existing Autospares market and their dedication towards their work.  The organization is still very small and consists of only 12 staffs but they have managed to effectively use the available resources to provide the best possible experience to their consumers.

The organization has two branches, one is in Lot 6 Jai Hanuman Road, Vatuwaqa Industrial, Suva and the other one is in Lot 2 Kings Road, Nakasi. However, they are a new branch in Lautoka very soon.  All Make Autospares Limited source their products from Taiwan, Japan, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore and has been searching for more options to cheaply export best quality parts (Allmake.com.fj 2018). The organization has developed a healthy relationship with big brands as they acquire the second vehicle parts from companies like Madza, Mitsubishi, Nissan and Toyota. The company has already developed a large consumer base consisting of highly reputed clients. The majority of the organizations client are Asco Motors, carpenters, Niranjans, CDP, Eskay Motors, Mineral Resources, Queensland insurance, New India insurance, Palas, Shreedhar and Domninion Insurance The organization specializes in supplying parts of Japanese cars of all types along with selling second hand devices (Allmake.com.fj 2018). The second hand car industry is highly booming in the market and as the price of the products are low there is immense demand of parts for Japanese cars.

The strategic report will be developed based on the current market opportunities in Fiji along with expansion opportunities to both local and global market. The report will conduct strategic environment analysis of both the macro and micro environment, and develop strategic action plan for increasing the profit margin and taking the organization to the next level. The strategic report will enable All Make Autospares Limited for developing long term goals and work their way accordingly to expanding their business effectively.

Market Opportunities and Expansion

All Make Autospares Limited has commenced in the year of 2006 in the month of August. The organization deals in automotive parts both new and second hand. The organization started as a family oriented business but have expanded their business market to multi million dollars due to their dedication, honesty, market understanding and hard work.  All Make Autospares Limited is outsourcing their products from different countries such as Thailand, Japan, Australia, Singapore, New Zealand and Taiwan (Allmake.com.fj 2018). The organization has only 12 staffs which is quite limited when compared to the magnitude of business they are dealing with (Allmake.com.fj 2018). However, they have able to provide the consumers with good experience even with such limited human resources. The organization has mainly two branches, one in Lot 6 Jai Hanuman Road, Vatuwaqa Industrial, Suva and another in Lot 2 Kings Road, Nakasi. However, they are planning to launch another branch in Lautoka in the upcoming months to come (Allmake.com.fj 2018). The organization is specialist in providing the consumers with parts of Japanese cars and they acquire majority of their second hand products for the consumers such as Toyota, Ranger, Madza, Mitsuibishi, Toyota and Nissan.

Strategic plan will be developed in order to develop a systematic process of developing the goals and objectives of All Make Autospares Limited.  The report will develop the vision, mission and the plan where the vision will describe what is the company trying to achieve, the mission statement will define the specific purpose of the organization and the plan will define the methods and strategies implemented to achieve the mission and vision (Bryson 2018). Currently, the second hand market in the automotive industry is booming due to the cheaper prices and they have gained considerable amount of consumer based on Fiji. However, they still have limited resources and need to develop an effective plan of 3-5 years which will consists of the tasks, activity and milestones. All Make Autospares Limited needs to take their business to the next level and make rapid expansion to increase their market share. Therefore, the strategic plan is aimed to improve their presence in the market and gain competitive advantage.

The goals of All Make Autospares Limited is to increase their market share and gain competitive advantage by improving their service quality and product offerings.  Moreover, they are aiming to open new branches all across Fiji so that they can reach more consumers.

Vision and Mission

The organization will aim to provide high quality services to their consumers by providing them with products unavailable in the local market. The organization will deliver the products in minimum time as possible, provide greater consumer service with proper interaction, increase their inventory, offer products at cheaper prices than in the market and offer variety of products.

The organization will train their employees effective and increase their human resources capabilities to deal with a greater number of consumers at a time.

The organization will use their resources effectively to gain competitive advantage in the market. This will consist of improving their service quality, decrease delivery time and improve on their product line.

The strategic plan for All Make Autospares Limited will be a tool for identifying the current macro environment and micro environment factors (Wolf and Floyd 2017). The organization will be able examine, the threats and opportunities in the market and they can develop strategy based on the identified factors.

The vision of All Make Autospares Limited is to be the market leader in automotive parts dealing in Fiji (Allmake.com.fj 2018).  The organization aims to develop expertise in this field and provide the consumers with best quality and service.

20 years from now, the organization will be the leading spare parts company in Fiji having monopoly in all kinds of spare parts both new and second hand. The company will expand their business all around Fiji but in other parts of the world also. This will increase the number of workforce and the organization will reach a greater technological superiority to expand their warehouses and improve on their supply chain processes.

The organization provides the consumers with the required products in given amount of time and affordable prices. 

The mission of the organization to provide the consumers with best quality products at reasonable prices. The organization wants to expand their business all around Fiji and enter into the overseas market (Allmake.com.fj 2018). All Make Autospares Limited has been focused on making continuous improvement of their organizational policies by adding innovation into their process.  The organization is also aiming to create a sustainable development by contributing to the society and using adequate corporate governance.

The core operation value of All Make Autospares Limited are as follows:

Value:  All Make Autospares Limited aims to create value for money for their consumers by providing best products at competitive pricing.

Local and international expansion: All Make Autospares Limited aims to expand their business into the overseas market as well as the local market. They want to develop an effective distribution channel so that they can reach all the target consumers in the market (Haines 2016).

Goals and Objectives

Commitment: The organization is committed on delivering product part on time without comprising the quality of the product and help out the consumer with all their possible queries. The consumer concerns are of utmost priority to the organization and are eager to solve all the challenges faced by the employees (Ziegler et al. 2018). 

Alliance:  The organization works effectively by collaborating other companies both local and global to provide service of highest quality to their consumers. The organization to collaborate with more business partners to expand their market to distant lands (Haines 2016).

Safety:  The organization is concerned about the safety of the consumers and they provide best possible products and provides safety guidelines to the consumers.

Sustainability:  The organization provides quality products at affordable prices according to needs and wants of the consumers. The organization also provides discounts to their loyal consumers and achieving sustainability financially and operationally (Ziegler et al. 2018).

Customer Satisfaction: The organization respects the decision taken by the consumers and helps them with parts selection at times they need it.  The organization tries to be proactive in addressing and solving the query of the consumers.

The underlying assumptions comprises of the value sources and justifications for various action within an organization.  These assumptions are not documented and consists of the beliefs, feelings, perceptions and thoughts. However, as they are not documented changes in the service assumptions can be made when the problems within the organization arise (Whittington 2017).  The service assumptions provides a clear idea of the approach taken by the organization for catering to an issue or developing action plans for the future.  The primary underlying assumptions for All Make Autospares Limited are as follows:

• Increasing the profit margin of the organization by improving the organizational and employee productivity. This has to be done by motivating the employees and developing effective process and policies
• Maintaining a good relationship with the customers and the business partners to improve the long term sustainability of All Make Autospares Limited
• Inventory control and management in an effective way to avoid stock out  and use of just in time to improve supply chain efficiency
• Providing the consumers with lucrative deal and offers to increase the footfalls in the stores. This also includes implementing value for money for the consumers and reducing operational cost to provide the consumers at lowest possible price in the market
• Managing the lead time of each of the products to develop an effective stock program by determining the parts that are high in demand or the parts that have the highest possibility of getting damaged.

The primary customers of the organization are automobile companies requiring supply of parts both new and second hand.  However, the clients are not limited to the automotive sector and companies various other sectors such as insurance sectors are regular consumers of the products delivered by All Make Autospares Limited (Allmake.com.fj 2018). However, the company’s business is not limited to business to business sector and deals with individual clients requiring spare for their automobiles.  The major clients of the organization are as follows:

• Asco Motors
• Dominion Insurance
• Carpenters
• Niranjans
• Eskay Motors
• Mineral Resources
• Queensland Insurance
• Shreedhar
• Palas
• CDP
• Fiji Police
• New India Insurance

This organizations are the premium clients and have established a healthy relationship due to the quality of the products and services they have received form the employees. However, there are numerous other consumers of the organization which has helped them to turn their business to a multi-millionaire scale.

Value Proposition

The environmental analysis is the method of evaluating and analysing the current macro and micro environment which will identify and document trends and facts for better strategic development.  The macro environment analysis will consist of Pestle analysis that will evaluate the different factors in the external environment such as political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal (McLean 2018). The pestle analysis will determine the impact of these factors on the organization in the operating market.   The micro environment is analysed using the porter’s five forces which shows the impacts that are specific to the organization.  The last tool that is used is the SWOT analysis which depicts the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the organization.

                                                           Source: (Heritage.org 2018)

                                                                  Source: (Heritage.org 2018)

                                                                     Source: (As created by author)

Strategic direction is provides the structure of the internal responsibilities between the organization allocated to each of the departments. This enables the employees to be aware of their objectives and the role they will play in fulfilling the objectives of the organization.   The organization will be focused on expanding their business further in the market of Fiji and increase their capacity so that they can cater to more consumers in the market (Whittington 2017).  The organization will also focus on identifying the changing needs and wants of the consumers so that they can import products that is in current demand and manage their inventory effectively.

The company should now mainly focus on expanding their business in the local market and to the foreign market where the market is tax free and they can avail free trade. All Make Autospares Limited will also have to decrease their internal cost by introducing innovation into their supply chain process so that they can increase their profit margin (Bryson 2018). The organization should also aim big to become a transnational company and compete with the big players in the market. The organization will also have to improve the organizational structure so that they can be more flexible in dealing with the macro environment changes in the market.

Underlying Assumptions

The organization will aim to provide the best possible services to their consumers at all times. In order to achieve this, the organization will provide services to their consumers 7 days a week and will also provide personalised services if needed.

The organization will provide opportunities to people that are not qualified to help them develop skills as required for the job so that they can be used effectively. The organization will provide more job opportunities to the local population as they have been expanding their business in Fiji.

The company will make use of business data to analyse the needs of the consumers and manage their inventory effectively. This will enable them to maintain the optimum level of the inventory at all times.

The organization will be developing an effective workforce by proving them with adequate training and conducting review on their performance on a regular basis. This will enable the firm to make their workforce more effective. The objectives and goals of the company will be communicated to the employees so that they can understand the expectations from them.

The organization will have to develop the strategic plan based on the developed strategic. They will expand both locally and globally so they need to develop resources in accordance to this goal.  This will consist of increasing the workforce and developing effective relationships with foreign companies to enter the markets effectively. The organization will increase their product line and bring in other products as per the needs of the local market and similarly will develop inventory in the foreign markets based on the requirements of the target market.

References

Allmake.com.fj 2018. All Make Autospares - Fiji. [online] Allmake.com.fj. Available at: https://allmake.com.fj/ [Accessed 23 Aug. 2018].

Bryson, J.M., 2018. Strategic planning for public and nonprofit organizations: A guide to strengthening and sustaining organizational achievement. John Wiley & Sons.

Haines, S., 2016. The systems thinking approach to strategic planning and management. CRC Press.

Heritage.org 2018. Fiji Economy: Population, GDP, Inflation, Business, Trade, FDI, Corruption. [online] Heritage.org. Available at: https://www.heritage.org/index/country/fiji [Accessed 23 Aug. 2018].

McLean, M., 2018. Understanding your economy: Using analysis to guide local strategic planning. Routledge.

Whittington, R., 2017. Comments on ?Multinational Strategic Planning: Matching Central Expectations to Local Realities?, Theodore T. Herbert. Long Range Planning, Volume 32, Issue 1, 19 March 1999, Pages 81–87. Long Range Planning, 50(1), pp.33-35.

Wolf, C. and Floyd, S.W., 2017. Strategic planning research: Toward a theory-driven agenda. Journal of Management, 43(6), pp.1754-1788.

Ziegler, F., Groen, E.A., Hornborg, S., Bokkers, E.A., Karlsen, K.M. and de Boer, I.J., 2018. Assessing broad life cycle impacts of daily onboard decision-making, annual strategic planning, and fisheries management in a northeast Atlantic trawl fishery. The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, 23(7), pp.1357-1367.