Strategic Business Plan
The strategy defines planning and managing of a business. It is about how a business is run, what the business aims to do, where does the business stand in the market and where does it see itself in the future.
The stages involved in strategic management commences with assessing the current position of the firm in the market, comparisons with competitors and studying the surrounding environment and its effects on the business. This step is crucial because any decision made without proper knowledge of the current situation of the business will be ineffective. This step is followed by setting the business’s mission statement, future goals and objectives. When a business has proper objectives and mission statement it is given a sense of direction and aim towards which it can work.
After evolution of the business’s current position, different departments and activities are coordinated towards one goal of the firm. Resources are allocated according to the requirements of the firm’s objectives. Lastly, an evaluation is carried out to judge the success and performance of the business after certain changes and actions.
The strategic business plan for Academies Australasia’s new campus follows a similar pattern. Firstly, an analysis was made of the current situation of the business and where it stood in the market. We highlighted the strong points of the firm and recognized its weaknesses and where it required improvement.
The concept of a new campus is given attention and was analysed through different strategic analysis tools. We look into the market for the new campus, what were the requirements of the people, how could we beat our competitors and where should we begin. The following includes all the critical parts of a strategic business plan that every organisation requires to comprehend in order to avoid failure (“1._Auckland_The-Fall-and-Rise-of-Strategic-Planning.pdf,” n.d.)
Organizational Details
This comes under the first step towards business planning. It is one of the essential steps for the plan, to begin with. Organizational details define the basic information and backgrounds about the firm. We need to understand what the purpose of the business is, how it serves the community, the products it sells or the services it provides, how was the business built or how we plan to build it, where did the idea of the firm came from, and other important information for the plan to have a sense of direction.
Academies Australasia’s business plan begins with the background information of the firm and highlights its services in the education industry. We’ve discussed the achievements of the business, the size of the business when we mentioned the number of students studying, we also talked about the locations where the Group operates and how it stands in the market against its competitors.
In organisational details, we always emphasise on the basic information of the firm that includes its name, objectives, products, services, organisational structure, importance in the market, demand and supply, history of the firm, plans. The firm’s contribution towards the community holds a significant position when describing the business. This attracts your investors and customers.
When discussing the organisation details of Academies Australasia we used a positive language and gave prominence to its strengths, and benefits to the community. This creates a positive image of the firm in the market among investors and customers which will attract them to invest in the Group of Academies Australasia; hence, improving the business’s financial position.
Business Strategies
A business strategy, also known as cooperate strategy, is what in other words described as “how we achieve our future goals considering the current position.” A successful business plan will have a strategy and vision for the future. A strategy is an organised plan to use different tactics and tools to achieve the ultimate goal of the firm.
A business strategy is influenced by a few factors such as the availability of resources. A firm needs to establish a strategy that considers the resources they can use to achieve their goals. It is foolish to set unrealistic goals without considering the lack of resources.
The strengths and capabilities are important factors that influence its strategy. A business should focus on the areas where it has achieved expertise and lead the market in that field. Therefore, a business plan and strategy are developed considering the parts of the business where it has a competitive advantage over its competitors. A business requires removing the areas where it lacks behind from its competitors and projects that increase its overall costs. Succeeding with big weaknesses is impossible.
A competitive environment will push a business to set new standards and compete to be the best in the market. This affects the business strategy they adopt. The firm often finds it difficult to adjust to the innovations by competitors and to come up with something better. The domestic market for Academies Australasia is very competitive, which gives them the incentive to develop new business strategies to deal with the competition.
Objectives of the business is another factor that affects what kind of cooperate strategy a business adopts. It shows business the ultimate goals they have to work towards and lets them allocate resources accordingly. The objectives of Academies Australasia is to be one of the leading education providers and attract students from around the globe. Therefore, they have developed a strategy to cater these objectives with new campuses, experienced and excellent teachers and efficient marketing (“Cambridge International AS and A Level Business Coursebook.pdf,” n.d.).
Marketing Strategies and Analysis
A marketing strategy is a plan a business creates to achieve its marketing objectives. Marketing objects are set to meet the initial business objectives. A marketing strategy involves decisions like whether the business should approach the market on a mass level or a niche level. It also considers whether the firm should target one market or extend into other markets and whether the business should stick to the production of one product or experiment with other products to target different groups of people.
It is crucial to study the market before developing a marketing strategy. An analysis of the market is developed through tools such as primary and secondary research. The firm looks for different opportunities and potential customers in different groups of people. It determines the demand for the product. Only then can a new business idea succeed when there is proper knowledge of the market beforehand.
When Academies Australasia introduced the idea of a new campus, it carried out market research through secondary data, and questionnaires to know the market’s demand for new universities in that area. An online international survey also gave the marketing team an idea about the estimated number of international students that might join the new campus once it’s developed.
Operating Plan
A strategic business plan is incomplete without a proper operations plan. This plan helps with the idea of how each task will be completed and what resources will be required. This part of a strategic plan is crucial to manufacturing industries. However, service industries require it as well to give the whole human resource a clear path analysis about how to commence the operations and how they will be followed step by step (Sabri & Beamon, 2000).
Financial Plan
Planning for future finances and expenditures is the most significant step of a strategic business plan. Financial planning is also referred to as budgeting. Every new product or business idea requires finances which should be planned for before time. Even, existing businesses require to plan out a budget for the upcoming financial year which helps them meet their goals and judge their performance at the end of that year.
Academies Australasia is planning to build a new campus which will require major finances for construction, human resource employment, promotions, and setting up. The managing team has the task of arranging for theses finances through internal or external sources, while the finance team makes an operating budget for the new campus and an overall forecast of the financial statements for the upcoming year.
This also helps the managers estimate the return on investment and make the decision of going forward with the idea (“SWOT_Analysis_Houben_et_al.pdf,” n.d.).
Conclusion:
Every business requires a strategic plan in order to succeed in the market. Without a sense of direction and right goals, there will be confusion and chaos. Planning is also a motivating factor for employees, which increases their efficiency and makes the business more profitable.
References
1._Auckland_The-Fall-and-Rise-of-Strategic-Planning.pdf. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/45072183/1._Auckland_The-Fall-and-Rise-of-Strategic-Planning.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAIWOWYYGZ2Y53UL3A&Expires=1518687695&Signature=ehJIcqzpUpXs%2Fcx2ULrNRoJqMoc%3D&response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%3DThe_Fall_and_Rise_of_Strategic_Planning.pdf
Cambridge International AS and A Level Business Coursebook.pdf. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://gceguide.com/files/eBooks/Cambridge%20International%20AS%20and%20A%20Level%20Business%20Coursebook.pdf
Sabri, E. H., & Beamon, B. M. (2000). A multi-objective approach to simultaneous strategic and operational planning in supply chain design. Omega, 28, 581–598.
SWOT_Analysis_Houben_et_al.pdf. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://intra.tesaf.unipd.it/pettenella/Corsi/ReaserchMethodology/Documents/SWOT_Analysis_Houben_et_al.pdf
