Unit 7 Business Strategy Sample Assignment
Unit 7 Business Strategy Sample Assignment
Task 1
You are required to select a business organization which you are familiar with preferably listed in London stock market or stock market in your country of origin and research its business activities before writing a preliminary report based on following:
Barclays is a global banking and financial services corporation headquartered at One Churchill Place, London, United Kingdom. The corporation primarily engages in the wholesale and retail sectors, offering services such as wealth management, financing, and credit cards. The firm has a global presence in over 50 countries. The firm has been in operation for over 300 years, having been founded in 1690 by John Freame and Thomas Gould (Ackrill, 2001). The organisation has been successful throughout the years due to its excellent knowledge of the industry and business strategy. The corporation presently serves more than 48 million clients worldwide. Barclays was named “Brand of the Year” in the UK Banking category of World Branding in 2014.
Statement of Mission and Vision
A mission statement is one that describes the scope of an organization’s operations. It defines the organization’s mission.
Barclays’ goal statement is to be creative and customer-centric by assuring high-quality products and providing great service, ensuring that workers have outstanding career opportunities, and contributing to the advancement of the company’s many communities and stakeholders.
A vision statement tells others what the organisation aspires to be. Thus, the vision statement reveals the organization’s future objectives, which may be theoretical or impracticable yet drive the company to work hard.
Goals and Objectives
Objectives are long-term goals established by the firm in order to accomplish its mission statement. The company’s existence is justified by its objectives. Goals, on the other hand, are short-term objectives established for personnel, teams, groups, or the business as a whole in order to assess the company’s success.
Barclays’ primary goal is to develop long-term relationships with its shareholders. Capital Funding, Returns, Income Growth, and Citizenship are the company’s four execution goals. The organisation believes in developing long-term strategies to foster healthy relationships with all of its stakeholders, while managing its resources in the most efficient and risk-averse manner possible.
According to the 2011 Report, Barclay’s key priority was to grow lending to companies, particularly in the United Kingdom. In addition, the corporation aimed to lend more money to government and public sector companies, institutions, and individuals.
Core Competencies
Core competences are the values that distinguish a firm from its competitors in the market. Core competencies are the foundation of any organisation around which the firm bases its strategy and operations.
The company’s core values are to respect each and every employee, to work with fairness and integrity, to be customer focused at all times by understanding his or her needs and being proactive in solving them, to deliver excellent performance on a consistent basis, to be innovative at all times, and to protect the company’s reputation and brand value gained over the years.
Analyze the aspects that must be taken into account while developing strategic plans. How can Ansoff’s matrix assist your selected organisation in managing the strategic choice to examine business plan?
According to Ansoff Matrix analysis, Barclays may analyse many elements that the firm must consider while developing new products and market expansion via business strategy. These are detailed more below (Mbewa, 2010):
Market Penetration: Market penetration refers to the sale of existing goods and services in an existing market. Barclays’ present level of service and banking facilities should be maintained without change in order to sustain the company’s brand reputation earned over many years.
Market Development: Selling current goods and services to new markets is referred to as market development. Barclays is actively targeting minors under the age of 18 who can register an account and have it managed by their parents.
Product Development: During Product Development, the firm seeks to create new products or improve existing products or services for the present market. Continuous innovation is critical for Barclays to deliver something fresh in terms of current technology each and every time to ensure its customers’ loyalty.
Diversification entails offering new products and services in new markets. This method is extremely hazardous, but if successful, it might yield significant benefits to the organisation.
Evaluate the effectiveness of strategic planning techniques to be used when developing strategic business plan.
BCG Matrix: The BCG growth share matrix divides a company’s business units into four groups based on the company’s growth rate and market share value. BCG study on Barclays I will be described more below (Muzi, 2014):
The question mark: Investing in Asian nations is a question mark for Barclays since the corporation predicts significant growth rates but the country’s market share will be low in these regions due to its bad reputation among Asian people.
Star: The bakery and finance sectors of Barclays in African nations are the company’s star businesses, with both a strong growth rate and a high value on market share. Because the firm is fresh to these regions, it has a strong potential for rapid growth.
Cow:Because Barclays has been in business in the United Kingdom and other European nations for a long time, the corporation has a strong brand value among these individuals; yet, the growth rate has become stable and does not provide particularly high growth. According to the BCG matrix, these units are known as Cows.
Dogs: These are the business units that have a poor growth rate and market share. Since Barclays is an old player in the worldwide market, the corporation presently does not have any units in this category. However, if the corporation grows its operation in Asian nations and does not get the intended results, the company can label it as a failure and should sell all assets and reinvest the proceeds.
