The strategy defines the planning and management of a business. It is about how a business is run, what it aims to do, where it stands in the market, and where it sees itself in the future.
The stages involved in strategic management commence with assessing the firm’s current position in the market, comparing it 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 business’s current situation 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 the evolution of the business’s current position, different departments and activities are coordinated toward 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. First, we analyzed the business’s current situation and position in the market. We highlighted the firm’s strengths and recognized its weaknesses and areas for improvement.
The concept of a new campus was given attention and was analyzed through different strategic analysis tools. We looked into the market for the new campus, the people’s requirements, how we could beat our competitors, and where we should begin. The following includes all the critical parts of a strategic business plan that every organization must comprehend 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 of 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 the business was built or how we plan to build it, where 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 firm’s background information and highlights its services in the education industry. We’ve discussed the business’s achievements and size, including the number of students studying. We also discussed the locations where the Group operates and how it stands in the market against its competitors.
In organizational details, we always emphasize the basic information of the firm, including its name, objectives, products, services, organizational structure, importance in the market, demand and supply, history of the firm, and plans. The firm’s contribution to the community is significant when describing the business. This attracts your investors and customers.
When discussing Academies Australasia’s organization details, we used positive language and highlighted 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, is 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 organized plan to use different tactics and tools to achieve the firm’s ultimate goal.
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.
Strengths and capabilities are important factors that influence a business’s strategy. A business should focus on the areas where it has achieved expertise and leads 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 lags behind 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 competitors’ innovations and develop something better. The domestic market for Academies Australasia is very competitive, incentivizing them to develop new business strategies to deal with the competition.
The business objectives are another factor that affects the kind of corporate strategy a business adopts. They show businesses the ultimate goals they have to work towards and let them allocate resources accordingly. Academies Australasia’s objectives are to be one of the leading education providers and attract students from around the globe. Therefore, they have developed a strategy to cater to 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 business’s plan 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 or niche level. It also considers whether the firm should target one market or extend into other markets and whether the business should stick to producing 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. This analysis 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 with proper market knowledge beforehand.
When Academies Australasia introduced the idea of a new campus, it conducted market research through secondary data and questionnaires to determine 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 who 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 also require that the whole human resource department be given a clear path analysis about how to commence operations and how they will be followed step by step (Sabri & Beamon, 2000).
Financial Plan
The most significant step of a strategic business plan is planning for future finances and expenditures, which 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 planning 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 setup. The managing team arranges these 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 decide whether to pursue the idea (“SWOT_Analysis_Houben_et_al.pdf,” n.d.).
Conclusion:
Every business requires a strategic plan in order to succeed in the market. There will be confusion and chaos without a sense of direction and the right goals. 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
