Assignment briefing ? See the assignment briefing for details Exercise Split into groups of between 3 and 5 Discuss how you will carry out the assignment. Focus on understanding the assignment brief,...

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Assignment briefing
? See the assignment briefing for details
Exercise
Split into groups of between 3 and 5
Discuss how you will carry out the assignment.
Focus on understanding the assignment brief, selection of an organisation, use of the tools, how to draw conclusions.
Assignment Brief:
? Conduct a thorough strategic analysis of your organisation’s external environment and critically evaluate how the identified issues might impact on the organisation’s business strategy.
? (If you are not currently working, then you can use an
organisation with which you are familiar.)
Format
? 2500 words
? Report format recommended but this is an academic report and so arguments MUST be underpinned by evidence and academic sources
? Suggested structure on assignment briefing
? Fully referenced using Harvard referencing style
? Proof read and spell check – if it doesn’t make sense I
cannot mark it!
? Conduct a thorough strategic analysis of
your organisation’s external environment
and critically evaluate how the identified
issues might impact on the organisation’s
business strategy.
? Conduct a thorough strategic analysis of your
organisation’s external environment and
critically evaluate how the identified issues
might impact on the organisation’s business
strategy.
Over to you...
How will you tackle the assignment? Which organisation will you use? Which models will you use and why?
Stages
? Identify organisation
? This may take some time – you might start to investigate the organisation and then decide to change due to lack of information
? Consider models you wish to use
? Support their choice with academic evidence
? Undertake further research on the organisation
? Apply the models to the company
? Write the report
Session 3 – Generating and evaluating strategic
options
Learning objectives
After studying this topic you should be able to:
1. Understand the key influences on an organisations available
strategy options;
2. Apply the Ansoff matrix to evaluate the strategic options
available to an organisation
3. Use a range of concepts to evaluate the relative merits of one strategy option against another to determine the most appropriate choice for an organisation at a given time.
Determinants of Strategy
? Industry life cycle stage
? Industry structure
? Competitive position
? Competitor behaviour
? Company innovation
? Organisational resources
? Customer needs
Business strategy
Johnson et al (2011:197)
Th
Johnson et al (2011:199)
Source: Adapted with the permission of The Free Press, a Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc., from Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance
by Michael E. Porter. Copyright © 1985, 1998 by Michael E. Porter. All rights reserved
Strategy clock
Johnson et al (2011:208)
Source: Adapted from D. Faulkner and C. Bowman, The Essence of Competitive Strategy, Prentice Hall, 1995
Other Strategies
? Strategic Lock In
? users become dependent on a supplier and are unable to use another
supplier without substantial switching costs.
? Controlling complementary products or services.
? Creating a proprietary industry standard.
? Hypercompetition
? No longer able to plan for sustainable positions for competitive
advantage – need to act faster than competitors
? Co-operating with rivals
? Collaboration can provide advantage (but be careful of legal
considerations ie collusion)
Strategy and Life Cycle Stage1
EMERGENCE GROWTH
STRATEGIC
ISSUES
MARKETING
TASKS
? Market definition
? Technology uncertain
? Low entry barriers
? Financing R&D
? First mover advantages
? Research the market
? Raise awareness/interest
? Induce consumers to try/buy
? Develop channel relationships
? Educate targeted segments
? Financing expansion
? Experience effects
? New entrants
? Technology alliances
? Improve product quality
? Extend product line
? Enter new segments
? Access wider channels
? Build the brand
? Cut prices at right time
1. Adapted from Kotler, Marketing Management – chapter on Marketing strategies for Different Stages of the PLC.
Strategy and Life Cycle Stage
MATURITY DECLINE
STRATEGIC
ISSUES
MARKETING
TASKS
• Rivalry intensifies
• Profitability declines
• Innovation declines
• Consolidation
• Cost reduction
• Expand customer base
• Increase usage rate
• Introduce new brands
• Product modification
• Adjust marketing mix
• Rate of decline
• Differential advantages
• Attractiveness/position
• Exit barriers
• Diversification potential
• Evaluate portfolio
• Invest in cash cows
• Withdraw weak products
• Promote benefits
Impact of Competitive Position on Strategic
Choice
? Market Leaders
? key issues: how to expand the market and protect share
? Market Challengers
? key issues: costs, risks and gains from attacking leader and
how to attack
? Market Followers
? key issues: co-existence and imitation
? Market Nichers
? key issues: segmentation and specialisation (focus strategy)
Ansoff Matrix
Johnson et al (2011:232)
Source: Adapted from H.I. Ansoff, Corporate Strategy, Penguin, 1988, Chapter 6. Ansoff originally had a matrix with four separate boxes, but in practice strategic directions involve
more continuous axes. The Ansoff matrix itself was later developed – see Reference 1
TOWS (Weihrich, 1982)
? TOWS Analysis is a variant of the classic business tool, SWOT Analysis.
? By analysing the external environment and your
internal environment you can use these techniques to think about the strategy of your whole organization, a department or a team.
?? E.g. Use strengths to develop strategies to exploit opportunities
the matrix below:
TOWS Strategic Alternatives Matrix
TOWS
External Opportunities
(O)
1.
2.
3.
4.
External Threats
(T)
1.
2.
3.
4.
Internal Strengths
(S)
1.
2.
3.
4.
SO
"Maxi-Maxi" Strategy
Strategies that use strengths to
maximize opportunities.
ST
"Maxi-Mini" Strategy
Strategies that use strengths
to minimize threats.
Internal Weaknesses
(W)
1.
2.
3.
4.
WO
"Mini-Maxi" Strategy
Strategies that minimize
weaknesses by taking
advantage of opportunities.
WT
"Mini-Mini" Strategy
Strategies that minimize
weaknesses and avoid
threats.
Translating Strategy into Action
The 4 general strategies identified above in the Ansoff
matrix can each be pursued in a variety of ways. These
include:
INTERNAL EXTERNAL
? Organic growth
? Exporting
? Overseas office
? Overseas manufacture
? Multinational operation
? Global organisation
? Merger
? Acquisition
? Joint venture
? Alliance
? Franchising
? Licensing
? Turnkey
Strategy Evaluation1
Consistency
Will the strategy present mutually
inconsistent goals and policies?
Is the strategy realistic given available resources?
Feasibility
Rumelt’s
criteria
Consonance
Is the strategy an adaptive response to critical environmental changes?
Does the strategy create or
enhance competitive advantage?
Advantage
Session 3 - Summary
? Organisations are not working with a blank piece of paper when choosing their strategy. The available options are partly determined by existing external factors, company factors and managerial characteristics.
? The Ansoff matrix offers a simple way to examine possible market growth strategies but only focuses on external market opportunities.
? The TOWS matrix seeks to base strategy development in the reality of strategic analysis and integrates both the external and internal perspectives.
? Having generated a range of strategic options, it is vital to screen them rigorously against key selection criteria. Rumelt suggested consonance, consistency, advantage and feasibility.
? Thompson further pointed out that there is no perfect choice and that a compromise is often required to balance environmental, resource and values perspectives.

Answered Same DayDec 21, 2021

Answer To: Assignment briefing ? See the assignment briefing for details Exercise Split into groups of between...

David answered on Dec 21 2021
125 Votes
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Report – Toyota in China
student’s name
professor’s name
course title
date
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Table of contents
1. Introduction……………………………………………………………………………..3
2. About the company ……………………………………………………………………..3
3. Industry analysis ………………………………………………………………………...4
4. External environment analysis: PESTEL analysis ……………………………………...5
5. Competitive analysis of Toyota: Porter five forces model………………………………7
6. Impact of external environment factors on the organisation’s business strategy……………..9
6.1 Key influences on an organisations available strategy options…………………………9
7. Generating and evaluating strategic options……………………………………………10
7.1 Ansoff matrix ……………………………………………………………
…………..11
7.2 Evaluation and choice of strategic option for the company………………………..12
8. Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………..12
References………………………………………………………………………………14
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1. Introduction
With faster transportation and communication, the world is shrinking day by day. With
globalization companies are spreading their customer base and penetrating through the untapped
markets. To succeed in setting up international business, the companies conduct external
environment analysis and develop several global marketing strategies to suit their business needs
and respond to the environmental factors prevailing in the particular country. For the purpose of
the assignment, let us consider the company in concern is Toyota. The report is written with an
objective of conducting a thorough strategic analysis of Toyota’s external environment and
critically evaluates how the identified issues might impact on the organisation’s business strategy.
The country chosen for the purpose of analysis is China. Growth of automobile industry,
increasing competition, shrinking of market share in internal markets made it compulsory for
Toyota to expand. In order to meet the overhead costs the company needs to sale more, borrow
more, manufacture more and expand or else it would perish. Hence it has to sell abroad. To be
competitive in the foreign market, the company needs to set up factories there, take advantage of
the local tariffs and regulations and exploit the low cost labour in the foreign country. This
assignment would assess the different external environmental factors - the cultural, political, and
legal environments of China - that affect international business of the company. To evaluate the
competitive environment for Toyota using Porter’s five forces model. TOWS analysis is
conducted to evaluate the external environment in relation to the internal environment. Impact of
external environment factors on the organization’s business strategy is assessed. Thereon it moves
on to generating and evaluates the strategies of Toyota.
2. About the company
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Toyota is a multinational Japanese organization. It has more than 300000 employees all
over the world and is consistently ranked among the top five car makers in the world. Toyota
Motor Corporation was founded in the year 1937 by Kiichiro Toyoda as an expansion plan to
manufacture cars from his father’s original company Toyota Industries (About the company
n.d.). Toyota Motor Company is part of the Toyota Group which is one of the largest
conglomerates in the world. Its headquarters are in Toyota City, Aichi, formerly known as
Koromo. Toyota Motor Corporation also includes other group companies such as Lexus, Hino
Motors and Daihatsu. From very humble beginnings, Toyota grew to become one of the largest
car manufacturers in the world and entered USA in the year 1957. Initially the response was
lukewarm and the rise in import taxes in USA made Toyota rethink its strategies. It went on to
build manufacturing plants in the USA along with a number of international players such as
Nissan and Honda to lower its manufacturing costs (About the company n.d.). It now has
manufacturing plants in a number of countries such as USA, Japan, India, U.K., France, Brazil
and Argentina among many more. Toyota has given the world a number of successful car brands,
such as the Land Cruiser, Highlander, Tundra range of trucks, Corolla, Camry and Prius (About
the company n.d.).
3. Industry analysis
The automobile industry in China is a rapidly growing industry. It is the world’s largest
producer of automobiles since the year 2008. There are a number of companies jostling for a
bigger part of market share in China. Many of these companies are local companies such as
Hafei, Geely and Chery. These local companies provide for more than half of the total
automobiles produced in China (IBM Business Consulting Services 2005). The rest are
manufactured in joint ventures with foreign makers such as Volkswagen, GM, Hyundai, Nissan,
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Honda and Toyota among others. Though most of the automobiles produced in China are for
local sales, however exports in the recent past have gone up. The industry in itself, through its
laws, practices and norms provides a competitive advantage and incentivizes automobile
makers, making China a favored nation in comparison to others, for a number of multinational
companies (IBM Business Consulting Services 2005).
China’s automobile industry has developed rapidly since the 1990’s and after China’s
entrance in the World Trade Organization it has grown at an even more rapid pace. China’s
technological advancement, cheap manpower and an investor friendly environment has helped it
in becoming the largest producer of automobiles. It also helps the foreign companies expand as
they set up operations in the world’s largest market place as the domestic demand is also
increasing exponentially. Since China joined the World Trade Organization it has made amends
to its import tariffs making it a more favorable nation for a lot of foreign companies to do
business with. Import taxes for whole vehicles have been slashed down to 25% from 80%,
whereas component import taxes have been brought down to 10% from 15% (IBM Business
Consulting Services 2005).
Presently the company is in maturity stage. China is also taking big steps in promoting
alternate energy automobiles by subsidizing the costs and incentivizing such automobile makers.
The Energy Saving and the New Energy Vehicle Devolvement Plan are two such policies which
will stimulate the growth of energy efficient automobiles in the near future (Harner 2011).
4. External environment analysis: PESTEL analysis
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The macro economic factors influencing competitiveness of international business
environment are explained by an analysis of political, legal, social, and cultural factors
influencing the company.
- Political environment
The political environment of a country is evaluated by analysing the nature and
competence of the government. China is a socialist state. It is a communist country. Chinese
communist parties and eight other smaller parties from the political form the base of the country.
The philosophy of Chinese politics is that resources should be owned and shared by people for
social...
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