Strategic Analysis for Business - NewsWhip

Main analysis

Origins and approaches to strategy

NewsWhip Company used to have issues with high cost of materials and not being able to compete with rivals. Because of this they took on a few management strategies. There are five basic strategies in strategic management which are Competitive, Corporate, Business, Functional and Operational.

Relationship between organisation and its environment

Relationships of the employees with an organisation can be said to be type of interpersonal relationship which is based on the concept of leader member relationship and employers interactions.. Relationship of the employers with the organisation can be considered as major issue for any company because if employees are well versed with the association they can work well together. Complexities arise when the employees are not comfortable with the organisation and its environment. Relationship of the employees with the organisation directly affects the productivity of that firm (Frynas and Mellahi, 2015, p.53). It has been noted that the positive relationship of the employees of this company has influenced a market growth of 10% with respect to its potential market competitors. Sometimes due to the complexities in the relationship of the employees and the organisation work of the firm is affected as the management of the firm becomes unable to implement the decisions that have been taken for the growth of associations. NewsWhip Company believes in maintaining very friendly and delightful work environment. They believe in robust work life balance. They do compensate their employees fairly for their hard work. NewsWhip spike discovers the sparkling stories over the web and Social Medias in real time. Chief key of this product is it tracks the fastest spreading stories and gives a prediction of what will be extensive today (Morden, 2016, p.54). This has come into the influence that the relationship of the NewsWhip Company with its employees has affected its productivity by 30% when compared to the Iceland Ltd firm of United Kingdom. Compared with the IPMG Company of United Kingdom the market value of NewsWhip company has grown up by 20% and an increase in its stakeholders has taken place because of the better relationships of the company with its employees.

International and Global strategic thinking

Global Strategy thinking includes the thinking process in an integrated way about all the features of business and its suppliers, markets, site of production and also about competition. It includes the evaluation of every product or the services in both the prospect of international and domestic standards of markets. Global strategy can be said to ba process of inflating and competing in the markets globally. NewsWhip Company also follows the global strategic thinking for the growth of its industry globally (Goetsch and Davis, 2014, p.51). According to M.E. Porter's competitive strategies theory a firms relative position in its industry can be determined by the considering the profits of the firm whether it’s below or above of the average of the industry. Above average profit of the firm is the fundamental basis of its long run advantage of sustainable competition. According to this theory there are two types competitive advantage that can be possessed by the firms which are low cost or differentiation (Certo et al. 2016, p.2640). According to the theory there are three generic strategies for achieving above average profitability by an industry which are

Cost leadership. According to this genery a firm sets itself to become a producer of low cost in its industry. Since the sources of advantage of cost are various and rely on the industry structure so industries can include proprietary technology, selected access of organic materials (McKiernan, 2017, p.52).

Differentiation. In this strategy the firm pursues to be unique in its industry within some dimensions which can be extensively valued by the buyers. According to this generic the firm chooses some attributes that are being thought as important by many buyers and positions itself for fulfilling those needs (Durand et al. 2017, p.5).

Focus. This generic strategy gives focus on the choice of restricted scope of competition in an industry. In this generic one segment or a group of segments are used in an industry and that are practiced for serving to them the embargo of others (Chen et al. 2015, p.20).

Application of strategic ideas in practice skills

Every business has to practice the strategies in order to withstand in the market and make progress with its industry (Trigeorgis and Reuer, 2017, p.43). NewsWhip Company following the competitive strategy has gained its position in the market over its competitors. NewsWhip Company following the corporate strategy has able to fulfil its objectives. Through the help of functional strategy the company has gained competitive advantage and has made this strategy as the key strategy for the industry. Through the process of operating strategy the company has been able in completing its immediate objectives. NewsWhip company has applied these strategies in order to achieve its withstand position in the market and to sustain it as long as possible. These strategies have also helped the industry in achieving its growth of industry. Following these strategies this company has been uploading various tweaks and stories in order to keep themselves updated with the emerging interests of its customers.

The ability to analyse the complexity of organisations and their environments

According to Hill, Jones,and Schilling (2014, p.76), Organisational complexity is the quantity of human and non-human resources involved in an organisational project or a team. This includes the number of people working and the number of activities or steps required in order to complete a project. It also deals with the number of requirements in the functional and applicational department and the number of data items taken into account in order to make the decisions.

Levels of Complexity in Smaller Companies

Employees at NewsWhip work together on their publishing goals. They use printed media and social media as their information delivery system. They also help customers find stories and content by different publishers all over the social media. They also developed two great products that can help readers find new content. The activities taken in order to complete their publishing goals are mainly digitized and have no effect on the environment. Print media are used in smaller quantities but they have an impact on the environment. Paper is produced from tree stems and repurposed wood. That can lead to deforestation and loss of habitats. Also printed newspapers have been known to contribute to land pollution due to their non-biodegradable and slow compostable nature (Moutinho and Vargas-Sanchez, 2018, p.24).

There are four layers of organisational complexity - Imposed, Designed, Dysfunctional and Inherent complexities (Ginter, 2018, p.81). Imposed complexity is the complexity type set by an administrator or a high ranking member of the organisation. Designed complexity is the one that occur due to complex designs of a project and thus requiring more resources. Dysfunctional complexity occurs when a certain functional device or equipment integral to the project does not function according to expectations and requirements (Wheelen et al, 2017, p.201). Inherent complexities occur when a number of different complex interconnected parts of a project face issues and one of the parts are unable to work due to another.

The ability to analyse these issues is an integral part of strategic management in NewsWhip. They have a high level of accountability and a long term focus. They have concerns over future growth and their financial competitive position. Their employees are highly strategy oriented at work.

The ability to synthesise earlier, diverse and possible piecemeal studies of the organisation and assimilate new theoretical models and offer solutions relative to strategic issues

NewsWhip is a small company and they can handle all aspects of their business on their own. The culture there is diverse which increases in cultural diversity of content. Functional strategies of NewsWhip have helped them develop competent business units with competitive advantages. Computers with high specifications and good maintenance are provided for the writers, editors and publishers in order to receive maximum output (Rothaermel, 2015, p.89). Other than that, it also focuses on the functional aspects of cost reduction like selecting low cost high output materials and marketing functions. NewsWhip had an issue when it comes to cost reduction and their prices have been pretty high according to the market value (Steinbach et al. 2017, p.1701). With the introduction of this strategy their product costs have greatly reduced. Their marketing plans include providing content along with various features for free. Two of their content finding programs Spyke and Analytics are also priced lower than various other rival companies and provide high results.

The Operating Strategy deals with completing immediate objectives. Managers of most companies like Tata, Wipro and Sprout Social have developed the use of this strategy for daily, monthly or yearly products. NewsWhip uses this strategy every single day to upload a specific number of new diverse content and tweaks the products in order to help their customers find more content.

NewsWhip uses the PEST Model to get the details of the internal issues along with the SWOT Analysis for the external issues. Though it is a very effective system, it has issues when market values are fluctuating. This problem does not occur when using the M.E. Porter’s Model of Competition. The Model of Competition can also chart out detailed information on performance of the organisation and rival companies. It also contributes to diversity of content by providing detailed information on content types that are underperforming (Michael, Storey and Thomas, 2017, p.46).

The ability to evaluate existing models and methodologies against observations of the practices of real organisations

Strategic planning models are used in order to make plans and take actions that strategic managers can modify according to their requirements to receive an advantage over other rival companies in the market. It focuses on product development, innovation and modernization. NewsWhip has used this strategy in launching its products - Spike and Analytics. The main strategic management models are as follows.

The SWOT Analysis is used to identify the locations an organisation works well and where it does not. It also helps to analyse the key organisational areas that they need to improve - Writing, Editing or Publishing. It is used to monitor external factor information of the organisation (Meyer, Neck and Meeks, 2017, p.18).

Swot Analysis

The PEST Model is used to look for the Political, Economic, Sociocultural and Technological aspects in an organisation. It is usually used to monitor internal information of the organisation. This model along with the SWOT analysis can be highly effective for detailed information on the shortcomings and strengths of the organisation.

PEST Analysis

M.E. Porter’s Model of Competition is used to find if any other company can take their place in the market or if they would face barriers (Gambardella et al, 2016, p.257). Another use is to find if buyers can easily replace the product and if the price is right. It also deals with making an ideal plan so that large retailers are unable to put pressure on the organisation and drive down the cost. It also deals with the loopholes that rival companies may exploit to take their place in the market.

Using the Model of Competition, NewsWhip can find out if they have to rethink their business strategy if a new rival company joins the market. They can create a strategy that can stop any other company’s ascent before it even happens (Threat of Entry). They can also use this model to find if their products are good enough for the market and to release necessary updates to make sure that no other company develops products that have more information than them and are more effective than them. This can prevent buyers from replacing their products with the products from rival companies (Threat of Substitutes). Using this model, high value content can be shared at lower prices. This pleases buyers and the cost is too low for them, thus leaving them with no power to bargain (Bargaining Power of Buyers). This in turn also decreases prices to such a point that suppliers don’t have power to bargain for the products either (Bargaining power of Suppliers). Sale rates are high and this leaves the other companies unable to compete (Industry Rivalry). Thus, M.E. Porter’s Model of Competition can be very helpful for the company. The SWOT Analysis can also be paired with that model, thus contributing to even more effective results and information on the strengths, weaknesses and what changes to make in business strategies (Bettis et al, 2014, p.951).

Conclusion

Through this report it can be concluded that strategic management is very crucial for any company as the decisions made through this management affect the industry a lot. In this report it has been explained that the how various approaches taken towards strategy can affect the industry in positive or negative way. The relationship of the industry has been discussed in this report and it has been mentioned that how relationship of employees and organisation puts influence over its working pattern. Through this report it is clear that NewsWhip Company gives effort in having good relation with its employees and rewards them fairly according to their work so that no complexity of relationship arises within its industry. NewsWhip Company has also taken steps towards global and international strategic thinking and has been trying to achieve its strategic goals so that the company gains extensive value by its buyers. This company has followed the M.E. Porter’s model for achieving the competition criteria globally. NewsWhip Company has brought its strategies into practice and has achieved good response from the market. It can be seen from this report that NewsWhip Company has made a significant approach towards its growth in the market.

Recommendation

It can recommend through this report that the NewsWhip Company has taken steps toward industry relationship with its employees and has been successful in having better results over its productivity. NewsWhip Company has also taken various steps towards the implementation of the strategy for the betterment of its organisation. This company can make some more strategies so that it can improve their working pattern and provide them with some more stakeholders. This company can improve their strategies so that they can withstand globally. NewsWhip Company can also adopt the global strategic thinking and develop their business plans so that the plans can provide them with above average cost productivity and increase the company reputation in the market. This company can work for achieving the profit level of above average and execute practices for the betterment of this company. This company can make good selection of its raw material which is essential for the industry.

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