Characterise The Development Of Greg Stamboulidis Corporate Venturing Business Essay
Greg's success in the taxing fishing industry in Australia is characterized by a high level of innovation of new products that included quality and ready-prepared products. This amplified customer expectations and forced competitors with issues of pricing parity and supply to compete with Stambos on quality and packaging, as well reliability and speed (Osborne, 2002). Besides, the development of greater customer value directly affected the level and range of activities at the procurement and production segments of the value chain. All these characterized the remarkable performance of Stambos through the years as a result of Greg's insight into value added supply chain (Volkmann, Tokarski & Grünhagen, 2010).
Stambos 'growth was accompanied by an aspect of delicate risk as the amplified demand from its expanding clientele put more pressure on the company's procurement and supply chain procedures (Blanchard, 2007). Greg's tactically placed procurement related activities made sure that Stambos had developed a sustainable competitive advantage that totally transformed its entire value chain and assured a product advantage. Therefore, Stambos is an example of a corporate venturing activity that productively took it through a turbulent, hypercompetitive, and unforgiving business landscape. Greg Stamboulidis realized that his corporation wanted competitive procurement strategies. This was the best sector for Grey to have a competitive edge over its competitors in Australia (Gaule & Spinks, 2007).
Explain how and why he might have needed to separate his corporate venturing efforts from his larger traditional organization.
As his competitors were ranting of the hostile market conditions and cutting their supplies, Greg was still making profits in spite of the drawbacks that were experienced in 1995 when the South African and New Zealand suppliers cut short their supplies and the business was adversely affected. In the process of pursuing his corporate venturing efforts, a separation from the larger traditional organization could have been further achieved through specific time framed objectives that he would have worked towards achieving. This should be separated from the organizational objectives (Ireland, Hoskisson & Hitt, 2008). Additionally, by involving professionals, Stambos stood a better chance of averting any supplier challenge because the professional advice in terms of supply chain management could have separated the firm's traditions from the efforts to have the corporate venturing a success story.
Greg could have became more successful in separating the two by going out of his way in just more than going to South Africa and looking for cheap, reliable and high quality shark suppliers during the country's apartheid since to separate his corporate venturing efforts from his larger traditional organization was productive. This is because he needed to see the big picture in terms of the organization's future as opposed to following the traditions of Stambos (Cohen & Roussel, 2005).
Question 3: Provide your perceptions as to the major obstacles and problems Greg Stamboulidis faced in creating successful corporate venturing. Explain how these were overcome.
Some of the obstacles faced by Greg were in the form of the declining supply of sharks, the government's restrictions of sharks that could be fished and the voracious suppliers who could peculiarly raises price to take advantage of the company's position (McGovern & Norton, 2002). Others could supply poor quality sharks that were not acceptable in the Australian market, whereas other suppliers were not ready to label their containers on the origin of the fish because of being involved in illegal fishing. Stambos overcame all these obstacles by negotiating new terms with new suppliers who had been identified and investigated long before the company could be forced to switch suppliers therefore, in the process of Greg's corporate venturing, various challenges presented themselves (Davis & Spekman, 2004).
One of the most reflective obstacles presented itself in 1998, when there was a massive decline in supply when the South African and New Zealand supplies suddenly ceased. This forced the firm to desperately even share supplies with its competitors so as to serve its clients. The challenge was overcome through the looking for reliable and quality suppliers in Chile and Guyana by 2000 (Vannuccini & FAO, 1999). This continued to force out its competitors as a result of its reputation for price, quality and reliability. A further challenge was the fire that razed down Stambos 'entire processing plant and brought its operations to a sudden halt in 2000. Such a calamity did not kill Greg's spirit. He effectively overcame it by quickly rebuilding the company's facilities and expanded the processing capabilities with growth rather than misfortune at the forefront of his thoughts (Mentzer, 2001).
Question 4: List the key success factors and/or the failure components of Greg Stamboulidis' corporate venturing efforts
Just like any corporate venturing project, Greg's endeavour had its fair share of successes and failures. Notably, the company realized a lot of success in its operations in the fish market in Australia.
Success components
Increasing its profits by 20 percent once a year since 1985 in a highly explosive and potentially endangered industry.
Developing of an international market network that provided procurement advantage
Building of process innovation, surge capacity, and speed to market
Relative stability as compared to its competitors' failed partnership arrangements
Giving rapid response to customers' needs by supplying filled and frozen portions of fish rather than supplying fish that still needed processing as the majority of its competitors.
Achieving of a competitive advantage through its supply chain
Failure elements
The company's laxity in expanding its services outside Australia
Scarcity in supply in 1998 when the South African and New Zealand suppliers stopped their suppliers, hence inconveniencing the consumers.
Insufficient preparedness in terms of the fire that guttered down its entire processing capability in 2000.
Therefore, the success factor are more than the failure components because of Greg's strategy on value added services to its customers, but above all, its strategic and efficient supply chain.
Question 5: Comment on what Greg Stamboulidis hoped to gain from the corporate venturing effort and provide examples.
Greg's corporate venturing was meant to position Stambos robustly as the market leader through its innovativeness and new product introductions in the market. For example, Stambos started offering high quality ready-prepared and frozen fish to the delight of its customers. This is a pace that its competitors could not march. Also, Greg sought to develop a culture of success driven by the company's history of overcoming obstacles. Such culture of confidence through past experiences and the successful handling of externally generated turmoil toward the firm provided a culture of internal security and safety for its employees (Evans, 2002).
In fact, Greg hoped to gain a lot from his corporate venturing attempt. To start with, the company recognized itself securely in the market as a result if its capability to learn and act more swiftly than its competitors with a particular spotlight on defending and convalescing vulnerable segments within its value chain. Stambos further wanted to gain competitive advantage in the competitive fishing industry in Australia and stay cost-effective despite the exigent market circumstances (McGovern & Norton, 2002, p.234). Case in point, Stambos' consumers improved progressively from 1985 to 2005 out of this strategy. Greg endeavoured to drive the company through severe vagueness and stress by proactively controlling stressors that had claimed the businesses of Stambos competitors. For instance, the organization achieved an impressive growth of 20 percent yearly since 1985.
Question 6: Link the organisation's actions to the theories and concepts learned in lectures and from readings, journals and texts
The theorizing of corporate venturing was best explained by Mars, Weber and Leetz. Their model of the Adventurist entrepreneur, theorizes corporate venturing in the way high growth organizations intentionally recognize and react to new market opportunities through product diversification; closely related to existing activities (Elfring, 2005). Consequently, Greg started offering calamari rings, hotdogs, and many other fish related products. Remarkably, he swayed his South American suppliers to fillet and batter their shark product, thus reducing the need to carry out these tasks in Australia. This further reduced the costs of filleting and battering the shark products in Australia. The application of these theories and concepts, and many others, led to the informed actions of the firm and its ensuing striking performance (Nooteboom, 2004).
Therefore, corporate venturing can be defined as the entrepreneurial efforts that lead to the creation of new business firms within the corporate organization (García, Ribeiro & Roig, p. 94). In addition, such venturing efforts may or may not cause the creation of innovative organizational units that are different from existing ones in a structural aspect. Stambos is an excellent example of a firm that fits into this definition. Through various corporate venturing theories and concepts, the company successfully became the envy of its competitors. On the other hand, Porter theorizes the procurement concept (Fande, 2004). He says that supply chain management should be emphasized in a business organization like Stambos for it to gain competitive advantage in a given industry. Hence, Stambos used this concept of corporate venturing and through the perfecting of its supply chain relationships with its suppliers; it maintained a 20 percent growth since 1985 (De Jong, Vanhaverbeke & Kalvet, 2005).
