The term mission is powerful in itself, which helps the realistic growth of any organization. Every action should have a mission to achieve anything in this competitive environment, without this mission it is very difficult to put up a good performance. Their key organizational objective is to exceed the expectations of the customers with maximum quality of products with lowest costs of services.
Analysis
The analysis defines" where the company stands now" in the business environment and how much is it effective to the world of business. It analyses the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and treats of the organization by which the organization is being affected.
Objectives
The objectives of any strategic plan would explain the strategic organizational objectives of the organization. It will be clear from the objective the strength of the strategic planning of the organization. This will handle both the long term and short term objectives.
Implementation
The implementation is an important area where the organization needs to give attention. Without an implementation nothing is going to happen in the organization, so the planning should be implemented for a better progress. This describes the methodology to implement the plan and sets out the standards to evaluate and monitor the implementation of the strategic plan.
D)
To gain success each and every organization should have the marketing plans which are very essential. It mainly used to segment the current and prospective markets, identify the current position of the company's market, forecast the future market size, and plan target market share in each market segment (John Westwood, (1996).
To make an excellent plan the company needs to use several range of tools, techniques, and models. Let us analyze some of the tools, techniques, and models used to develop marketing plans.
Marketing Auditing
The auditing is also called situational analysis. In marketing audit, the company analyzes the competitors in the market and the economic status of the region where the company operates. Also, in the marketing audit, allows the company to analyze the political situation of the market. The market audit will enable the company to get a complete picture about the overall market environment.
Internal Marketing Analysis
Companies will have to get lots of information about the existing customers and their past marketing efforts. This information will help the marketing team to for effective marketing plans and execution. The details of any customers will help the marketing team to make a better marketing plan.
Market Segmentation
Market segmentation is the process of dividing the market into small specific sections based on geographic location, demography, cultural, social, income, etc. The market segmentation technique will help the company to reach to the customer effectively and penetrate the market easily.
SWOT Analysis
Various business analysis techniques can be used in strategic planning, including SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats ), SWOT Analysis is an important process of analyzing the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats for the company in the market. Through SWOT analysis, the company will get to know which strengths to focus on, which opportunities to target, which weaknesses to eliminate, and which threats to tackle.
Task 2
A)
The marketing strategic options are mainly the value propositions that company uses to support its marketing activities to promote its products or services. In order to determine where it is going, the organization needs to know exactly where it stands, then determine where it wants to go and how it will get there. The resulting document is called the "strategic plan."
High Quality Products
According to this, Reliance communication has focused on providing high quality products to its customers, as a value proposition for their marketing strategic option. This will help the company to be in the top of the competition in the retail market.
Innovative Product
Reliance communication offers most of the communication under their own brand for much reduced price when compared to other communication agencies. This offers the customers the value for their security. This strategically provides Reliance a competitive edge over other retail players.
Increased Product Line
Reliance communication has a wide range of communication media, furnished in their retail sector. It provides so many varieties in each of their product categories. By provide a variety of products, Reliance communication could attract most of the customers to their developing sector and this will increase their customer loyalty.
B)
The stakeholders are the pillars, who influence the company in all their decisions. Any decision taken by the company will affect the stakeholders directly or indirectly. Stakeholders can be categorized in to internal stakeholders and external stakeholders.
Internal Stakeholders
Employees: The Reliance communication considers its employees as their precious pillars. The employees of Reliance have an important role in the everyday functioning of the retail stores across the globe.
Managers: The managers of Reliance communication have a major role in the decision processes of the company.
Top Management/Directors: The top management at Reliance communication is responsible for providing direction to the company. The top management focuses on the decision making process and the future direction of the company.
External Stakeholders
Suppliers: Reliance communication's suppliers are very important to achieve Reliance organizational object. They consider their suppliers as their strategic partners. Their business strategies are closely tied with the suppliers. For example, Reliance aims to offer high quality products. To achieve this, Reliance needs complete cooperation from their suppliers.
Customers: Customers are the main stone of a company. In this changing economic environment, the competitive behavior of the customers also changes quickly. The business strategy of Reliance communication has been developed in keeping with the changing buying behavior of the customers.
Government: Sometimes government legislations can have an influence on the business strategies. Therefore, Reliance communication continuously keeps track of the legislative changes in the countries where they operate.
C)
If there is no benefit for the stakeholders in the new strategies implemented in the company, the stakeholders will not participate in the development of the company. Any company which is gained success has a history of well planned and executed team work and more over the supports from the stakeholders.
Involve the Stakeholders
The preparation of the organizational strategy, it is important to involve the stakeholders of the company in the process. One of a common fact for the failure of organizational strategies is to ignoring the participation of the stakeholders in the development of organizational strategies. If the stakeholders are not the part of the design and implementation of the organizational strategies, they may resist the developmental plans. For example, the management must ensure the full participation of the employees, otherwise they may resist the strategies.
Urgency of Implementation
It is very much required that make sure that the stakeholders are aware of the urgency of the implementation of the strategy. Therefore, the company must discuss the strategy with all the stakeholders and make the aware of the benefits of and the importance of the strategy.
D)
Introduce Incentives for Participation
To achieve the organizational objectives it is important to motivate the stakeholders, especially the employees. Reliance communication is introduced incentive based programs to encourage the employees to achieve the organizational objectives.
Discuss the Benefits of Achieving Organizational Objectives
Organizational objectives aim to achieve business growth for the company at any cost. When the business grows, it is beneficial to all the stakeholders as well, especially the employees and the shareholders. Therefore, companies must discuss the possible benefits of achieving the organizational objectives to the stakeholders.
Task 3
A)
Vision Statement
Vision statement expresses, what the company wants to become in future and also gives a clear cut idea about what to next. Vision statement offers a long term view of the company. It clearly states how the company wants to be perceived in the world or the market. A vision statement aims to inspire the stakeholders of the company. Vision statement will have the values and beliefs of the organization and its stakeholders. This will have to look into the following facts;
Clarity & Understanding
Plan the activities for the future
Well oriented plan
Realistic aspirations
Vision & Mission
Mission Statement
Mission statement expresses the main purpose of the company. It clearly states what the organizational objectives the company wants to achieve are. Typically, a mission statement defines the target market or customers and the critical processes.
An effective mission statement will have SMART attributes (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time bound).
Specifying the mission statement will provide clarity to the objectives.
Assessable mission statements must be measurable with its results.
Achievable mission statements must not have any objectives that cannot be achieved by the company.
Relevant mission statement must have only the objectives related to the business function of the company.
The mission statement must provide the timeline of the objectives so that the company can track the objectives.
B)
Vision Statement of Reliance communication
"Keep the world in your palm (Karlo Dunia apni mutti pe)".
With the customers.
Meet their all aspirations.
Responsible for the work.
Imbibe the heart of Market.
Achieve the maximum from the market.
(Source: http://www.reliancecommunication.com - /home/about-us/visions-and-values/living-the-values)
C)
Organizational Culture
Organizational culture refers to the attitudes, beliefs, experiences, and values of an organization. The culture of an organization is the shared value of the employees and the stakeholders. Organizational culture is very crucial in ensuring the success of an organization. According to the CEO of CompUSA, the success of an organization depends heavily on the organizational culture they create in the company. Organizations continue to exist because of the common shared culture among the employees. It is the culture that connects and keeps all the stakeholders focused on the organizational vision and mission (Smircich, 1985).
Ethical Values
Ethical values are the gate and face of any organization which provides a guideline to the individual employees in conducting everyday activities related to work and the interpersonal relations. The ethical values and the organizational culture influence the performance of the employees in a company. Also, the values in an organization have direct connection with the employee commitment, job satisfaction, and employee turnover (Sims and Kroeck, 1994).
D)
To achieve the objective of becoming the number one company in the world, Reliance needs to take some important initiatives steps in the strategic planning. The following are some of the core competencies that Reliance needs to cultivate to achieve its organizational objectives.
Diversification of Products
Reliance products should not be limited to the high sector. It has several huge competitors such as Vodaphone, BSNL, and Hutch etc. Some of the retail giants have diversified their products and their markets, for example Marks and Spencer which sells clothing also. Reliance can diversify its product offerings to capture more customers. Customers prefer to shop from a single point. They prefer shopping centers where they can buy most of their requirements. Reliance can diversify into apparels, pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics. The diversification of the products and markets will spread the risks of Reliance.
Market Segmentation
Reliance attracts high-class business customers who can establish segmented markets and have specialized products for those segments.
Task 4
A)
Even though the global financial crisis has affected all the businesses very badly, including the retail sector. This has forced Reliance to modify its business strategies. The business strategy of Cost Leadership has gained much importance in the current market situation. Reliance continues to introduce innovative marketing techniques and production techniques to keep the prices of their products under control.
Cost Leadership Strategy
Cost Leadership strategy refers to business strategy that focuses on capturing the market by offering the products for low price. One of the objectives of Reliance is to help the customers spend less money and get more. This is very important in the current business environment. Customers are very sensitive to the price of the products. The economic crisis has resulted in price conscious customers across the world. By introducing cost leadership strategy,
Reliance has prepared itself to face the current and future market changes.
B)
The business environment is constantly changing because of the technological advancements, new legislations, change of customer behavior, Reliance has responded to the changes in the external business environment by modifying its business strategies. According to the customers the high quality products and services what they look for, Reliance improved its quality controls in their business operations. Also, it improved its pre sales and post sales services to the customers. These measures are adopted across all their business units and the employees were given proper training on all the required skills to match the changing business environment. This will have a huge effect on their sales and marketing efforts. Reliance expects to increase its market share because of the quality improvements.
C)
Human Resource
Reliance considers the employees are the greatest thing what they have. The employees of Reliance are highly skilled in all their respective fields. Reliance offers periodical training and assists its employees to acquire new skills. This helps the company to be competitive and innovative.
Operations Team
The operations team is one of the best available in today's businesses. The operations team manages the production to supply of the best the across the globe. The operations team uses information systems very effectively to efficiently manage the operations at Reliance.
Quality Assurance Team
The quality assurance team of an organization takes care of ensuring that all the products and services offered by the company have high quality. This team promotes a quality culture at Reliance and trains the employees on the quality standards.
Board of Directors
The board of directors also plays an important role in the success of Reliance. They provide the future direction to the company which leads the company to gain its goal.
D)
Reliance recognizes that the employees are the greatest asset they have. Having highly skilled employees will give a competitive advantage to a company, because only the skilled employees will bring innovative ideas to the company. This will help the company in broaden their marketing line. Also, the quality assurance team constantly works to improve the quality of the services and products.. This will enable Reliance to gain brand loyalty and customer loyalty. In this highly competitive world which is affected by the global financial crisis, customers want the products to be priced low with high quality. This is what exactly Reliance's quality assurance team ensures.
Task 5
A)
Any strategic plan, to be successful must be time bound. This means, the strategy must have a time line for implementation. This will help the company to track the effectiveness of the strategy. Therefore, a timetable for the implementation of the strategy is very important. The time table must break down all the objectives into tasks or milestones and provide a specific time for their implementation. The strategy implementation time table can be prepared around the following tasks.
Discuss with Stakeholders
The first and foremost thing is to make sure the participation of stakeholders is very important for the success of the strategy. Therefore, as the first step, companies need to discuss the strategy with the stakeholders and take their feedback
Discuss with Employees
It is also very much important that all the employees are aware of the strategy and there is no misunderstanding among the employees. Any misunderstanding will lead to resistance among the employees which will lead to the failure of the strategy. Therefore, it is very crucial to take the employees along and make them actively participate in the implementation process.
Monitoring
The timely monitoring of any company will bring the success to its organization. This can also take the company to evaluate what exactly it need to do in the future.
Feedback
Again it is also important like monitoring, to collect feedback from the environment to a better implementation of the works.
Possible Outcomes
The timetable must have a section where it explains the possible outcomes of the tasks. This will be helpful for the participants to aware of the target outcome from each task.
B)
S/N
Task
Start Date
End Date
Task Owner
Possible Outcome
1
Plan for the attracting Advertisement
29/04/2010
05/05/2010
Director &Specialist
Getting innovative Ideas for new Advertisement
2
Implement new idea
10/05/2010
20/05/2010
Experts
To produce the new and energetic ideas which allows and attract the customers
C)
Strategy evaluation is not that easy rather it is very difficult. When developing a business strategy, nobody can ensure its success. The success of the strategy depends on many interrelated factors. However, it is very important to evaluate the strategy with certain criteria so that we can that it is an effective strategy. According to Mukesh Ambani ( Managing Director)
" The evaluation of the strategy should be made according to the feedback from the customers"
Consistency: The goals and objectives that the strategy tries to achieve must be consistent with the organizational objectives.
Feasibility: Most of the strategies fail mainly because of unfeasible strategies. Many companies incorporate their wishes in their strategies. It is very important to check whether the objectives are feasible or not. If they are not feasible, it is better to change the strategy than to waste time.
D)
Designing and implementing a business strategy is a continuous process. The business environment keeps on changing because of reasons such as changes of technologies; new economic developments; changing buyer behavior, organizations must be alert to the internal and external changes and take necessary steps to update their business strategies. Thus it is very relevant to adopt the new ideas and put it in the strategic planning to perform better and better to become number one in this challenging environment.
Conclusion
As a conclusion of my investigation on the Reliance communication, it was my pleasure to do this study on this matter and could learn and understand the difficulties of the business in this competitive environment.
The strategy has got a major role in the development and success of any organization. The new strategy is having an effect on the performance of the company. Sometimes, the newly introduced strategies can go wrong and produce opposite effects for the business. Also, if the implementation is not effective, the new strategy may not produce the targeted result. Therefore, it is very vital that an organization closely monitor the implemented strategy and take corrective measures whenever necessary. As the Reliance holds an impressive record levels of work in hand, significant growth and a robust balance sheet, it's an exciting time at Reliance .
