Task:
Your task now is to build on Part A and analyze the remaining 5C's; company, competitors, customers and collaborators. To synthesize all this information you will do a SWOT, and then a TOWS before deciding which particular business strategy your company should adopt. You will conclude with recommendations and an implementation plan.
Structure your assignment as follows:
- Company's history, development, and growth.
Add the adjusted Part A here. - External environment.
Add the adjusted work you did on the PESTLE and 5 forces here and continue the external analysis by focusing on competitors and customers here. After you have collected, synthesized and analyzed this information you can complete your list of opportunities and threats. Again, make sure you include current and credible information from our databases and industry reports. - Internal environment
The next step is to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the company you are focusing on. Some companies have strong research and development capabilities while others may be particularly good in sales and marketing. To guide your company analysis you should use Porter’s Value Chain and the VIRO model. You should also consider partnership / collaborative arrangements. As always, make sure you include current and credible information from RMIT databases and industry reports. You can use tables to organize your information, but you should also critically evaluate your findings to justify the strengths and weaknesses you identified. - SWOT and TOWS.
Having identified all of the company's external opportunities and threats as well as its internal strengths and weaknesses (SWOT), you need to start thinking about what your findings mean. This is an extremely important part of the strategic planning process and to sort and prioritize your findings you will use a TOWS matrix. A word of caution- make sure all of your S, W, O and T’s come from the 5C's analysis. Do not get to this stage and invent new things. Remember, a good TOWS analysis is the key to all the analyses that follow. - Generic strategy selection and justification
It is now time to decide which particular strategy you believe Hemp Foods should adopt. This is a big decision because it will guide the company's direction for the next 3 to 5 years, and specify how it will achieve a competitive advantage. You should start with a brief overview of the company's current strategy before introducing and discussing your strategy. You should clearly state the key reasons that influenced your decision, and consider the implications of your strategy for the company. For example, if the company is currently a focus cost-leader, and you are suggesting they adopt a broad differentiation strategy, then you should discuss how this will impact on their R&D, HR and production capabilities etc. If you believe that their current strategy is appropriate with some enhancements and modifications, then you must justify this decision and discuss how the changes will impact on the company. - Recommendations
This is where creativity and deep thinking kicks in. Your strategic plan spans 3 to 5 years so you may need to consider short-term, mid-term and longer-term objectives. You also need to provide business level recommendations, and any issues or obstacles the company may encounter when implementing the strategy. You should also include functional recommendations for product, price, placement, promotion etc. - Implementation
This is where you will use the BSC to map out the internal departments or functions that will be essential for the success of your strategy, and specify relevant metrics that can be used for monitoring purposes.
Sample Solution