Strategic Management And Organisational Development Of Omniyat Properties - An Essay.

Clear statement of the work that students are expected to undertake:

Choosing an organisation with which you are familiar (ideally the organisation for which you work) and using strategic management and organisational development theories write a report that:

• Identifies the key factors in your organisation’s current operating environment and evaluates their impact on your chosen organisation;
• Critically analyses the organisation’s current strategic position;
• Identifies and evaluates two strategic options before stating your preferred strategic option:
• Critically analyses the key principles of successful change programmes that underpin the effective implementation of your chosen strategic option.

This assignment assess the whole module. It has been designed to provide you with an opportunity to not only develop your understanding of strategic management and organisational development but also your ability for critical evaluation and report writing. It assesses the following learning outcomes:

• Critically apply strategic management and organisational development theories, concepts and techniques in order to determine the future strategic direction of an organisation;
• Critically evaluate and appraise the interaction of strategic and organisational development theories in relation to the creation of successful organisations in complex environments;
• Critically analyse information, identify solutions, demonstrate judgement and communicate findings;
• Demonstrate the capacity for independent, evidence based thinking and decision making.

Omniyat Properties is a real estate company situated in Saudi Arabia. It is considered to be one of the largest and fast expanding companies in the real estate marketing. The company aims to provide regional and international clients opportunity for real estate needs for both residential and commercial purposes. In the past years the company has seen high demand for real estate services due to increasing rate of population and growing number of international investments. Omniyat Properties carries out its business activates and operations in the Middle East since the year 2016 (Oliveira and E.H.D.S. 2015). It has wide range of extensive client portfolio including major multinational corporations, government institutions and other financial institutions. The range of portfolio continues to expand every passing year.  The company offers tailored advice and has highly supportive and caring customer care department. Omniyat Properties is known for its unique art of work, its unique designing and development. The meticulous department of the business organization aims to attain high standards of quality and gain customer satisfaction (Oliveira and E.H.D.S. 2015). The interior designs of the organization and artists can enabled the business organization to gain beautiful environments. They focus on proving wide range of property needs and services. This has enabled the business organization to build trust and confidence among its customers. The purpose of this report is to identify the key factors in the business organization, evaluates the current operating environment, and evaluates the impact of the external and internal environment on the activities and operations of the business organization. It identifies the current strategic position of the business organization. It evaluates the strategic positions of the business organization stating its preferred strategic position. Moreover, it critically analyzes the key principles of successful change programs in the business organization to underpin effective implementation of the chosen strategic option. Lastly, the report sums up the main points and concludes the report.

The real estate sector has been one of the fastest growing industries in the entire world due to increase in globalization and increase in population. The scenario has attracted the real estate developers like Omniyat Properties as well as foreign investors. The main factors for increase in demand are due to increase in globalization, rapid increase in the level of income among the consumers and rapid rate of urbanization along with large population in the world. There are various external and internal factors which influence the operations and activities of the organization (Cadle,  Paul and Turner 2014). With the help of PESTLE analysis, the factors affecting Omniyat Properties will be identified.

Internal Environment Analysis

The external environment analysis helps to identify the opportunities and threats of the business organization. The pestle analysis identifies the political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal threats that affect the activities and operations of the business organization (Rastogi, N.I.T.A.N.K. and Trivedi 2016). It must identify and monitor external environment and respond to the changes in the macro business environment.

Political factors affecting Omniyat Properties:

The political factors determine the governmental policies and regulatory polices formulated by the government which may directly or indirectly impact the operations of the business organization in the real estate industry (Ho, J.K.K. 2014). There are huge disparity and instability in the political environment of Omniyat Properties. The government policies and procedures towards ‘Buy-To-Let markets’, the standards and frequent legislative changes threats the profitability and revenue generation of the business organization. However, the healthy trade relations of the country with the other countries all across the globe provide additional opportunity for the business organization. Hence the political factors impact the smooth running of the business organization (Team and F.M.E. 2013). Frequent changes in the laws and regulations of the government affect the profitability of the business.

Economic factors affecting Omniyat Properties:

According to Paul, Yeates and Cadle (2014), the economic factors such as changes in the income rate of the people, the foreign exchange rates, the interest rates and the current stage of the country in the economic cycle determines the profitability and functioning of the business organization. These factors impact on the aggregate demand, investment of the company and the climate of the business. The GDP rate of the country is expected to grow in the future, and it provides opportunity to the company (Paul, Yeates and Cadle 2014). The interest rates of the country enable the clients to borrow and invest in the real estate. This provides an opportunity to the business organization. The increase in GDP rate and increase in the flow of income of the people provides an opportunity to the business organization. Hence it positively impacts the business organization. However, it needs to take actions and steps to grab the opportunity (Gillam and Siriwardena 2013).  

Social factors affecting Omniyat Properties:

The direct reflection of the society impacts the real estate companies such as the culture, attitudes and values of the community. It was mentioned by Marmol and Feys (2015), it impacts the operational aspects of Omniyat Properties. Considering the class distribution of the business organization, it needs to rely on niche marketing. Since, Omniyat Properties also targets the international clients, differences in the cultural and economic backgrounds of the consumers are difficult for the company to relate and operate efficiently (Marmol and Feys 2015). Different class people undertake different considerations for making a purchase which negatively or positively impacts the profitability and smooth running of the business organization.

SWOT Analysis of Omniyat Properties

Technological factors affecting Omniyat Properties

Technology is advancing at a rapid rate along with the increase in the competitive landscape. Hence it is highly essential for the business organizations to constantly innovate its services in order to maximize its profits (Paul, Yeates and Cadle 2014). The advancement of technology has given rise to various hybrid and online agencies which decreases the profitability and decrease the customer base of the business organization. The online real estate agencies invest and capitalize on the growth and advancement of technologies, interest and evolution of e-commerce. This creates a hypercompetitive environment in the external business environment. This situation in the external business environment negatively or positively impacts the business organization. Hence, it needs to invest in technological improvements in the organization to boost its performance and profitability (Gillam and Siriwardena 2013).

Environmental factors affecting Omniyat Properties:

There are various environmental conditions that impact the operations and profitability of the business organization. There are various standards of environmental protections that the companies must comply with in order to avoid being under the pressure groups sue to lack of environmental concerns (Marmol and Feys 2015). This negatively impacts the operations of the business due to bad publicity and reputation. It needs to consider the environmental concerns in the activities and operations.

Legal factors affecting Omniyat Properties:

There are various laws and regulations of real estate sector which ensures the sale and designing of buildings and real estate projects in a transparent manner so as it increase the protection of consumer’s interest in the real estate sector (Rumanti and Syauta 2013). Legislative steps such as introduction of CMP (Client money protection) impact the smooth functioning of the business organization and reduce the profitability of the business organization.

There are various internal and external threats that affect the business organization. The strengths, weakness, opportunity and threats of the company will be described below:

Strengths: The flat structure of the business organization is one of the major strength of the company (Rothaermel 2017). This characteristic of the company enables it to undertake quick decision in the organization. Moreover, the company has been able to maintain string relationship with the customers. It provides high quality services to the customers at a comparatively lower cost and the string customer relationship enables the business organization to focus on personalization. These are some of the strong points of the company which contributes to the success and profitability of the business organization.

Conclusion

Weakness: Omniyat Properties lacks in proper marketing and advertising techniques and strategies. The resources and talent of the company remains underutilized. The company also faces deficiency in majority of its process and planning (Rothaermel 2017). The sales and marketing department of the company is not capability to build good reputation and image of the company.

Opportunity: As per marketing research and industry analysis, it has been identified that there are technological improvements and advanced technology, which is an opportunity for the company. Moreover, as mentioned by Ansoff et al. (2018), there is an increase in the demand of the real estate services due to increase in the flow of income of the people and increase in the rate of GDP of the country. There has been increase in demand for estate agency services especially in residential sales. These are some of the opportunities and scope for growth and investment.

Threats: The frequent changes in the laws and legislations in the real estate. The vast change in technology and limited resources of the company threats the operations of the company. Moreover, there are pressures from the customers in terms of low price (Johnson 2016). The huge market uncertainties in the real estate industry might also threat the profitability and operations of the business organization.  

According to Grant (2016), considering the internal strengths and weakness of the business organization, the company has been mainly focusing on transaction based operations and reducing short term unit costs. The main focus on the company has been on cost minimization and short term results. Therefore, the company has been facing many weakness and threats (Ceptureanu 2016). Considering the vast and dynamic business environment and changes in consumer references, the company needs to pay more attention to other non-core operations. As mentioned by Marques-Mendes and Santos (2016), the operations of the company are driven by the demands and preferences of the customers and the quality service. In other words, the quality service and addressing the needs and preferences of the customers are strategically imperative for the business organization. As stated by Ibraimi (2014), the company is particularly responsive to the customer’s requirements and the change in the needs and requirements. This strategy enables the organization to gain loyal customers and improve the customer relationship with the company. It offers premium service to the customers and provides value to the customers (Oliveira and E.H.D.S. 2015). Property management and related services are the core areas of the business organization. The company uses the available resources in the business organization and implements decisions quickly due to its flat structure. As mentioned by Cameron and Green (2019), having a flat structure, enables the business organization to undertake decisions and positive influences the operations of the business directed to meet the needs and preferences of the clients. However, according to Kuipers et al. (2014), limited financial resources, ineffective marketing, and sales department of the business organization impact its core operations. The company analyzes the needs and requirements of the company and then provides personalized services. These weaknesses are detrimental to the success and market position of the company. In the opinion of McCarthy and Eastman (2013), the present strategy of the company is to minimize the operational cost of the company and provide personalized services to the customers and clients. However, as per Lines et al. (2015), in the highly competitive business environment, the strategy of company is not enough to maintain its market position. Further, the current portfolio of the company is limited; therefore, it needs to effectively enhance the portfolio range of the company. However, in the opinion of Alvesson and Sveningsson (2015), the company has a top performing team, there is high level of integration between investment structuring and effective development of the company. The asset management and the product management of the company is also a strategic advantage to Omniyat Properties. This encourages the team and enables them to retain their own resources and assets. However, as per Cameron and Green (2019), it needs to focus on the portfolio for the future. It has been criticized to be over capitalizing.

There are various strategic options that are available to the company in order to address the weakness and threats. As per company analysis, it has been identified that the Omniyat Properties is incompetent to address the ongoing challenges faced by the company from external and internal environment. Since the past years, Omniyat Properties has been focusing on short term results and cost minimization rather than long term business strategy. It needs to identify the outward pressures of the company and the needs and requirements of the business environment (Kuipers et al. 2014). Apart from focusing on the core operations of the business organization, it also needs to focus on supporting activities. This in turn will help the business organization to provide other forms of value to the clients and the customers of the business organization (Kuipers et al. 2014). The strategic options of the company will be explained below:

Omniyat Properties can consider increasing the portfolio of the business by introducing new services in the new market. It can consider product expansion in terms of sectors, risks profiles as well as geographies. According to McCarthy and Eastman (2013), this will enable the business organization to offer the investors, clients or customers to have wide range of options and broad range of services. This in turn will help the business organization to increase the customer base and gain competitive advantage. As stated by Lines et al. (2015), it can consider moving from residential sales and capitalize on the opportunities prevailing in the market. It needs to consider diversifying its products and service offerings to the customers. The advantage of this strategy is that it will expand the investor base which in turn will facilitate growth and expansion of the company.

In the opinion of Alvesson and Sveningsson (2015), it can consider internationalization of the company by expanding the range of service and product portfolio to various types of investors. Moreover, according to Hord and Hall (2014), it will enable the organization to gain competitive advantage while taking advantage of the prevailing opportunities in the external market situations. It can target wide range of customers and clients apart from commercial and residential investors. By widening the product portfolio, it can steadily increase the real estate assets managed by the company. According to Hord and Hall (2014), by implementing optimally structured product offerings of the company it can gain attractive return of investment on all the property types. This will also enable the company the offer its clients and customers the best possible value creation (Chang 2016). The product performance and quality of service fees can be gained through top performance as well as superior returns.  By expanding the product portfolio to the target customer segment, it can efficient utilize all the assets and resources of the company starting from residential to office, from hotel to care properties. This in turn will help the business organization to remain faithful to the customer base and influence the core competency of Omniyat Properties.

Advantages

• It increases the investor base of the company and increases customer segments.
• It creates new market and increase competitiveness.
• It enables the business organization too effectively and efficient utilize all the available resources in the organization.
• Optimally structured product offerings enable the organization to gain effective return on investment
• This will facilitate growth and expansion of the company

Disadvantages

• Increasing product and service requires sufficient investment and availability of resources, which is limited.
• The market uncertainties might reduce the profitability and increase the level of risks.
• It lacks marketing and sales effectiveness in the business organization, which might increase the level of risks.

As per research and analysis, it has been identified that Omniyat Properties is lacking in marketing and sales department as well as ineffective utilization of the resources. Therefore it must concentrate on the non-core supporting activities of the organization along with the core activities and operations. As mentioned by Cameron and Green (2019), this will enable the business organization to increase the visibility of the product and service offerings to the customers and increase the reputation of the company. It needs to hire, place, and effective marketing department along with a customer service department. This will increase the customer base and investors of the company (Hayes 2018). This is highly essential in the competitive business environment and addresses the competitive pressures in the business organization. According to Kuipers et al. (2014), it can build a professional website and increase the visibility of the product offerings. It needs to master the mediums of online marketing. Through various online marketing activities such as popular blogs, social media presence and other marketing activities, the company will be able to gain wide customer base (McCarthy and Eastman 2013).

Advantages:

• The continued marketing efforts will increase the customer base and improve its competitiveness in the market.
• By creating detailed info graphics about the mortgage rates and other prices, the customers will be able to get essential details and information (Lines et al. 2015).
• It helps to reach potential clients and customers in various ways.
• It boost the brand exposure and visibility of the business organization
• This will help to forecasts the benefits of investing in Omniyat Properties.

Disadvantages

• It requires significant time and efforts
• Requires effective sales and marketing department, which is lacking in the company
• It requires significant among of financial resources and technologies

As mentioned by McCarthy and Eastman (2013), both the mentioned strategies are suitable and effective for the short term and long term profitability of the company. The preferred strategic option for the company has been selected considering the long term feasibility of the company, suitability to the company and its level of acceptability. All the strategies of the business organization are suitable for the business organization. However, option 1 is the preferred strategy, as it is mostly suitable for the business organization. According to Lines et al. (2015), increasing the portfolio of the company is mostly essential for the company as it increase the value in terms of market share. It will widen the customer segments and improve the competitiveness of the company. These factors are highly essential to sustain in the dynamic and competitive business environment as stated by Alvesson and Sveningsson 2015). Moreover, it is feasible to the company, the company is in a position to acquire loans and utilize the available resources in an effective manner. The operations and the management of the company are strong enough to implement the strategic choice. Further, the strategy is acceptable to the company, although it has high risks associated, but it can gain sufficient return on investment provided the strategy is implemented in an effective manner (Hord and Hall 2014). This strategy is acceptable to all the stakeholders of the business organization as it can gain sufficient return on investment and improve the profitability and position of the company. It will increase the customer base which in turn will improve the reputation of the company and improve its image in the market. Considering the risks involved in the strategy, it could be minimized by effective implementation and marketing.

As mentioned by Hord and Hall (2014), in order to attain long term success and profitability of the business organization, it needs to effectively implement the strategies in all the levels of the business organization. However, as per McCarthy and Eastman (2013), there are various challenges in the process of implementing change in the business organization such as resistance to change and transformation. It is believed by Lines et al. (2015), that the process of implementing change is very critical for the success of the business organization. The process and programs for implementing strategy in Omniyat Properties will be described below:

Stages of implementing change

Communicating change: The strategy to be implemented in the business organization requires certain level of changes in the organization. Therefore, the proposed strategy must be communicated to all the levels of the business organization and manage support for change. It is vital for the business organization to gain support from all the stakeholders for the changes while interacting and communicating with the staffs and employees of the organization as mentioned by Alvesson and Sveningsson (2015).

Formulation short terms goals: The strategy implementation team must create a hierarchy of short term goals and objectives and allocate tasks to the people. The leader of the team must implement certain leadership styles to effectively handle change such as transformational leaders or innovative leaders (Cook 2015). The organization must ensure that there is vertical form of communication in all the departments.

Assess the readiness of the organization: The implementation team will analyze the impact of      the groups and the teams and the type of resistance that can be faced by the company. It will assess the strengths of change management, change sponsors in the organization, and take actions to enable them to effectively lead the process of change in the organization (Marques-Mendes and Santos 2016).

Implement activities and roadmaps: The implementation team and department play an important role in implementing change in the business organization (Ibraimi 2014). The change management needs to develop a plan for initiating change activities and roadmaps to carry out the planned programs and activities. The business organization can sponsor activities and roadmaps. This is one of the critical success factors of the company.

Training for managers and leaders: The organization needs to provide training and development programs to the leaders and the executives to influence employee motivation to accept change as they tend to resists change (Ibraimi 2014). They can be a source of resistance to change. Hence training and development programs are essential for successful implementation of the formulated strategy in the business organization. The change implementation team and other sponsors need to gain the support of the managers and the executives. The change activities and programs will help the managers through change process (Frankland et al. 2013).

Resistance management: During the process of implementing change, the organization might face various resistances to change which can impact successful implementation of strategy. Resistance from the managers and the executives can be managed by providing them opportunity for training and development, other tools and advanced technologies (Frankland et al. 2013. This will increase their knowledge and provide support to the team to manage employee resistance.

 Employee feedback and corrective action:  Employee feedback is considered as an integral part of managing change in the business organization. It is the key element for managing change in the organization. The assigned team must analyze the feedback received from the employees and undertake corrective action to ensure that there is full implementation of the changes (Frankland et al. 2013).

Monitoring and control procedures: The business organization must undertake various policies and procedures to measure the change implementation such as balanced scorecard and Key performance indicators (KPIs). As mentioned by Cameron and Green (2019), these tools will help to access the resource allocation and monitor the process and performance of the organization through feedback and analysis. The last stage involves evaluating the performance of the organization.

It has been stated by Kuipers et al. (2014), that there are certain key success factors for strategic fit. There are certain key strategic risks such as underestimating time requirement for strategy implementation, improper allocation of resources, incapability of the executives, lack of effective leadership styles and conflicting interests of the employees affects proper implementation of strategy. However, as mentioned by Matos Marques Simoes and Esposito (2014), there are certain models and theories such as Lewin’s change model theory on unfreezing and re-freezing attitudes of the people which helps to properly implement the change in the organization. The leaders can implement certain leadership styles such as transformational leadership or innovative leadership which helps to initiate specific change programme.

Conclusion

Therefore, from the above analysis, it can be concluded there are various threats and opportunities that are faced by Omniyat Properties by analyzing the external and internal environment analysis. There are various technological changes, frequent changes in the laws and regulations of the government, change in tastes and preferences and the presence of stiff competition in the market affects the operations and profitability of Omniyat Properties. Various changes in the internal and external business environment require Omniyat Properties to undertake certain change initiatives in the strategies to maintain it’s competitive and profitability of the company. The report suggests focusing on building long term goals apart from cost minimizing and product personalization. The report has analyzed the current strategic position of Omniyat Properties and evaluates strategic options for the company. Further it analyzes the successful changes programs and change implementation process for successful implementation of strategy in the organization.

References

Alvesson, M. and Sveningsson, S., 2015. Changing organizational culture: Cultural change work in progress. Routledge.

Ansoff, H.I., Kipley, D., Lewis, A.O., Helm-Stevens, R. and Ansoff, R., 2018. Implanting strategic management. Springer.

Cadle, J., Paul, D. and Turner, P., 2014. Business analysis techniques. Chartered Institute for IT.

Cameron, E. and Green, M., 2019. Making sense of change management: A complete guide to the models, tools and techniques of organizational change. Kogan Page Publishers.

Ceptureanu, E.G., 2016. Competitive Intensity and Its Implication on Strategic Position of Companies. Journal Of Applied Quantitative Methods, 11(1), pp.57-62.

Chang, J.F., 2016. Business process management systems: strategy and implementation. Auerbach Publications.

Cook, N.D., 2015. Crisis management strategy: Competition and change in modern enterprises. Routledge.

Doppelt, B., 2017. Leading change toward sustainability: A change-management guide for business, government and civil society. Routledge.

El Namaki, M.S.S., 2013. Strategic thinking for turbulent times. Ivey Business Journal, 77(4), pp.1-4.

Frankland, R., Mitchell, C.M., Ferguson, J.D., Sziklai, A.T., Verma, A.K., Popowski, J.E. and Sturgeon, D.H., Applications in Internet Time LLC, 2013. Integrated change management unit. U.S. Patent 8,484,111.

Gillam, S. and Siriwardena, A.N., 2013. Leadership and management for quality. Quality in primary care, 21(4).

Grant, R.M., 2016. Contemporary strategy analysis: Text and cases edition. John Wiley & Sons.

Hayes, J., 2018. The theory and practice of change management. Palgrave.

Ho, J.K.K., 2014. Formulation of a systemic PEST analysis for strategic analysis. European academic research, 2(5), pp.6478-6492.

Hord, S.M. and Hall, G., 2014. Implementing change-Patterns, principles, and potholes. Pearson Education (us).

Ibraimi, S., 2014. Strategic planning and performance management: Theoretical frameworks analysis. International Journal of Academic Research in Economics and Management Sciences, 3(2), p.124.

Johnson, G., 2016. Exploring strategy: text and cases. Pearson Education.

Kuipers, B.S., Higgs, M., Kickert, W., Tummers, L., Grandia, J. and Van der Voet, J., 2014. The management of change in public organizations: A literature review. Public administration, 92(1), pp.1-20.

Lines, B.C., Sullivan, K.T., Smithwick, J.B. and Mischung, J., 2015. Overcoming resistance to change in engineering and construction: Change management factors for owner organizations. International Journal of Project Management, 33(5), pp.1170-1179.

Marmol, D.T. and Feys, B., 2015. PESTLE Analysis: Understand and Plan for Your Business Environment. Namur: Lemaitre Publishing. Accessed April, 28, p.2017.

Marques-Mendes, A. and Santos, M.J., 2016. Strategic CSR: an integrative model for analysis. Social Responsibility Journal, 12(2), pp.363-381.

Matos Marques Simoes, P. and Esposito, M., 2014. Improving change management: How communication nature influences resistance to change. Journal of Management Development, 33(4), pp.324-341.

McCarthy, C. and Eastman, D., 2013. Change management strategies for an effective EMR implementation. Himss.

Oliveira, E.H.D.S., 2015. Place branding in strategic spatial planning: A content analysis of development plans, strategic initiatives and policy documents for Portugal 2014-2020. Journal of Place Management and Development, 8(1), pp.23-50.

Paul, D., Yeates, D. and Cadle, J. eds., 2014. Business analysis. BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT.

Proctor, T., 2014. Strategic marketing: an introduction. Routledge.

Rastogi, N.I.T.A.N.K. and Trivedi, M.K., 2016. PESTLE technique–a tool to identify external risks in construction projects. International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET), 3(1), pp.384-388.

Rothaermel, F.T., 2017. Strategic management. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.

Rumanti, A.A. and Syauta, K.J., 2013. Determining strategies based on strategic position analysis in Small and Medium Enterprises. International Journal of Information and Education Technology, 3(4), pp.442-447.

Team, F.M.E., 2013. PESTLE analysis. Strategy Skills. www. free-management-ebooks. com.

Thomas, G.F. and Stephens, K.J., 2015. An introduction to strategic communication.

Wæraas, A., 2015. Making a difference: Strategic positioning in municipal reputation building. Local government studies, 41(2), pp.280-300.