Case Study Essay on Business Strategy for British Red Cross

This case study essay analyses the business strategy of British Red Cross by implementing various models and concepts. It covers internal and external strategic analysis, industry, competitive situation, and current strategy of the firm. The report also provides recommendations and alternatives for implementing the chosen strategy.

Case study essay

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
PART 2 A: (A Strategy Report of the Organisation).......................................................................3
Internal and External Strategic Analysis................................................................................3
Industry in which firm’s operates...........................................................................................5
Competitive Situation and Current Strategy of firm..............................................................5
Performance of Firm...............................................................................................................7
Part 2 B: (Potential Alternatives and Strategy Recommendations).................................................8
Identify strategic alternatives.................................................................................................8
Recommendation....................................................................................................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
The case study is based on business strategy by implementing some models and concepts in
order to analyse the strategy of organisation. This report is divided onto two parts, first part
includes the internal and external strategic analysis, industry in which firm operates, competitive
situation and current strategy of firm and also the qualitative and quantitative assessment of
performance of company is discussed (Anokhina, Maksimov and Seredina, 2019). The second
part covers strategic options which must need to address issues and recommendation for
implementing the chosen strategy. Organisation can run their business in effective and efficient
manner by developing strategy as it provides a direction to achieve long term success in market.
In order to accomplish this report, the chosen non profit organisation is British Red Cross, it is a
neutral and impartial humanitarian network that provide help to people in their tough time in UK
and overseas. The non-profit organisation is committed towards helping people without any
ethnic origin, political beliefs, discrimination, religion and nationality. The main motive of
British Red Cross is to mobilise the power of humanity in order prepare individual and
communities to recover from crisis. Few principles of International Red Cross and Red Crescent
Movement are humanity, independence, impartiality, neutrality, voluntary service, unity and
universality.
PART 2 A: (A Strategy Report of the Organisation)
Internal and External Strategic Analysis
In order to analyses internal strategic analysis the suitable model which can be used by
company is SWOT analysis whereas for conducting external strategic analysis, the best tool is
pestle analysis.
VRIO Framework of British Red Cross:
Resources Valuable Rare Inimitable Organized Sustainable
competitive
advantage
Financial
Resources
✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Human ✓ ✓ ❌ ✓ ✓

Resources
Patents ✓ ✓ ✓ ❌ ✓
Distribution
Network
✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
It is being analysed from the above information that the valuable resources of
organisation are financial resources, human resources, distribution network and patents. The rare
resources of British Red cross are financial resources, human resources, distribution network and
patents. Inimitable resources of organisation are financial resources, patents and distribution
network whereas organized resources of company is financial resources, human resources and
distribution network.
Internal analysis- SWOT Analysis
Strength:
The strength of British Red Cross is that they have strong brand recognition in market
due to which they gain popularity and attract large number of needy people. British Red Cross
has strong brand equity due to which people only prefer company if any disaster occurs that
demands humanitarian assistance (Novikov, 2018). The nonprofit organisation has won the trust
and awareness of people by branding itself with slogan “Together, we can save a life”.
Weakness:
The weakness which influences the performance and efficiency of Brutish Red Cross are
lack of online presence, poor labor relations, negative publicity die to its use of funds, limited
funds and lack of innovation. British Red Cross doesn’t have online presence due to which they
fail to connect and reach to large number of audience who need help. They also face criticism
due to poor labor relations as they are not able to maintain good and healthy relations with their
staff due to which they don’t contribute their best efforts.
Opportunities:
The opportunities which can be faced by British Red Cross firm is to from strategic
alliance with one of the reputed nonprofit organisation so that they can provide more help to
people who face problem due to any crisis. Other opportunity which can be grabbed by
organisation is to enhance their social media presence as it helps in reaching to maximum
number of people and also create awareness among audience.

Threat:
The threat which can create a huge impact on the performance and growth of non-profit
organisation are competition and government policies. These are the threats which influence the
performance of British Red Cross. Organisation must keep their eye on competitor’s move and
action by developing effective strategy that fulfils the aim and objective of non-profit company
(Clarkson, 2019).
External strategic analysis- Pestle analysis
Political Factor:
The political factor also creates an influence on international federation of Red Cross and
Red Crescent Societies. Performance of British Red Cross can influence by rules and regulations
of local government. UK government frames various policies, amendments and regulations
which must be followed by British Red Cross in order to run the business in effective and
smooth manner.
Economic Factor:
The economic factors which create an impact on British Red Cross are inequality index,
employment rate, inflation rate, consumer disposal income, workforce productivity and
government spending. If in UK, there is a huge income inequality it increases the conflicts and
crime. The strategy must be framed by keeping in mind these factors.
Social Factor:
The social factor which influences the British Red Cross is power structure in society,
education level in society, attitude towards health and demographic trend. Organisation must
focus on understanding the education level in society so that they can offer quality of jobs and
level of income (Bonaccorsi and et. al., 202).
Technological Factor:
It mainly includes the latest technology which must be implemented by British Red Cross
in order to stay competitive in business environment and attracting large number of people
towards the non-profit organisation. They must focus on creating strong presence on various
social media platforms in order to reach maximum number of people.
Legal Factors:
The legal factors generally includes the laws and legislation which is imposed by
government, it also influences the performance of British Red Cross. Organisation must ensure

that they must follow the laws of country in order to stay away from any legal conflicts and
issues.
Environmental Factors:
Environmental factors include recycle policies, environmental standards and regulations and
waste management practices. Organisation must focus on preventing environment from any
damage so that people can live their life without influencing their health and safety.
Industry in which firm’s operates
The industry in which British Red Cross is working is non-profit sector also known as third
sector or voluntary sector. Main motive of this sector is to help needy people without
discrimination, nationality, religion and political beliefs. British Red Cross mainly focuses on
four values such as compassionate, courageous, inclusive and dynamic. The International Red
Cross and Red Crescent Movement mainly focus on helping people in crisis and offer them first
aid and ambulance, fire and emergency support, medical equipment loan, humanitarian education
and health and social care (Krylov, 2019).
Competitive Situation and Current Strategy of firm
The current strategy of British Red Cross is to help people in crisis by focusing on the
impact and reducing the risk of crisis. There are various competitors of British Red Cross such as
World Vision, United way Silicon Valley, Way Finders and Goodwill Industries of East Texas.
British Red Cross mainly focuses on emergency assistance and disaster belief. There are various
issues which is handled by organisation such as protection and support of people affected by
situations of protracted conflict, protection of safety and dignity of people displaced, migrants
and refugees and also they are dealing with hunger and chronic food insecurity (Garnett, 2021).
The other challenge which is faced by nonprofit organisation are managing fund, build strong
relationship with labor, competitor’s action and fulfilling the need of people who face crisis
situation. The model which helps in analysing the competitive situation is porter’s five forces,
through this model company can evaluate their competitive position and strength.
Threat of new entrant:
If a new entrant enters into this industry they require huge resource investment and
substantial capital in order to compete with existing non-profit organisation. British Red Cross
faced low threat of new entrant as it is one of the recognized non-profit organisations that have
created strong presence in market. In order to tackle the threat of new entrant, British Red Cross

must develop long term contractual relationships with distributors and also invest in research and
development in order to offer new services.
Threat of substitute product or services:
The threat of substitute services is low for British Red Cross as customers cannot drive
same utility from substitute product as they get from British Red Cross. In order to tackle the
threat of substitute product it is important to provide better services to people and also raise
switching cost by working on loyalty.
Rivalry among existing firm:
Rivalry among existing firm represents the number of competitors that can compete with
British Red Cross. The rivalry among existing firm can be high for British Red Cross as there are
various competitors which deals in same and different services (Rajagopal, 2019). It is important
for organisation to meet the needs and expectation of people and providing them better services
in crisis situation. They must also focus on creating strong relationship with people by helping
them in effective and efficient manner.
Bargaining power of Buyers:
Bargaining power of buyers generally determines the level of pressure which is created
by people on non profit organisation. The strong bargaining power lowers the profitability and
also makes competitive industry. It is necessary for Red Cross to manage the bargaining power
by diversifying and increasing the customer base. They must effective services to needy people
so that a strong connection can be formed between people and organisation.
Bargaining power of Suppliers:
The bargaining power of suppliers generally reflects the pressure which is given by
supplier on non profit organisation by increasing the price of equipments, reducing product
availability and decreasing quality of tools and equipments require at the time of handling crisis
situation. High bargaining power of supplier can increase the competition in industry and also
reduces their chances to grow business (Suri, 2016). In order to overcome the issues of
bargaining power of supplier it is necessary to develop strong relations with suppliers which
helps in lowering their bargaining power.
Performance of Firm
For assessing the performance of firm, qualitative assessment is conducted in order to
avail the right and genuine information of British Red Cross.

(Figure 1: Spending of British Red Cross, 2019)
From the above graph it is being clearly identified that British Red Cross has spend
£247.1 million. The support cost of British Red Cross was nine percent which mainly includes
human resources, IT, governance, central management and finance.
(Figure 2: Funds comes from, 2019)

British Red Cross raises their fund from many sources including donations, retail, legacies,
grants, contacts and many others.
Part 2 B: (Potential Alternatives and Strategy Recommendations)
Identify strategic alternatives
There are various issues which is faced by British Red Cross such as high competition,
lack of funds, developing healthy relationship with labor, people and supplier, identify
competitor’s moves and fulfilling the basic needs of people who face crisis. These are the issues
which can influence the performance and brand image of British Red Cross. In order to
overcome the issues, it is important to focus on cost leadership, differentiation, cost focus and
differentiation focus strategy (Morden, 2016). Through implementing porter’s generic strategies,
British Red Cross can gain competitive advantage across its chosen market scope.
Cost leadership strategy:
Cost leadership strategy is one of the elements of porter’s generic strategies in which
company must focus on reducing the cost of its services as it helps in attracting more people to
the services of British Red Cross and also they remain more profitable by gaining loyalty of
people. The cost leadership strategy is one of the effective strategy in which organization have to
focus on helping people more rather than earning profit. This strategy helps in creating strong
customer base and also attracts large number of audience to take help in any crisis or uncertain
situation.
Differentiation strategy:
It is another strategy which helps organisation to be different and more attractive from
other companies. British Red Cross can gain competitive advantage by providing different and
unique services to its people. It helps in increasing the brand image and reputation of non-profit
organisation due to which they can attract maximum number of people towards the brand (Hales
and Mclarney, 2017). In order to implement differentiation strategy, it is necessary to conduct
research and development, deliver high quality of services and understand the benefits which are
offered by non-profit organisation through differentiation strategy.
Focused strategy:
It is also a strategy which helps organisation to attract people and gain competitive
advantage in market. There are two focus strategy such as cost focus and differentiation focused.

For implementing this strategy, organisation have to choose the particular segment in order to
target and provide their services in terms of cost and differentiation (Soltanizadeh and et. al.,
2016).
The suitable strategy which must be implemented by British Red Cross is differentiation
focus strategy as it helps in attracting more and more people towards organisation by offering
unique services from its competitors (Anwar and Shah, 2021). There are various benefits which
are gained by organisation such as it helps reducing price competition, offer unique services,
provide better profit margins, increase consumer brand loyalty and gain no perceived substitutes.
Implementing this strategy helps in creating additional value and also develops brand loyalty of
British Red Cross in market. The differentiation focus strategy also allow organisation to
compete with their competitors in different ways and strain the resources.
Recommendation
In order to implement this strategy, it is important to identify the target market which is
heavily damaged by any crisis and uncertainty. Organisation must focus on attracting large
number of audience who faced any complex situation and uncertainty. British Red Cross can
implement differentiation focus strategy by decision what organisation want to be known for,
researching on target audience, developing differentiators and creating strong brand image.
Through implementing differentiation focus strategy, company can attract large number of
people and also provide better services to them that satisfy their need and demand during crisis.
It is the responsibility of British Red Cross to identify the people who face nay issues and solve
their problem in effective and efficient manner without harming their health and safety. But there
are also risk which must be determined by organisation while implementing differentiation
focused strategy such as people disappointment, resource misallocation, risk reduction and
distributor resistance. These issues can influence the benefits of strategy and also reduces the
chances to attract large number of people towards the brand. By implementing this strategy,
nonprofit organisation can fulfill desires of target market and also focus on efforts by
diversifying their services. It is essential to identify the opportunities in order to differentiate the
services from other competitors. It is necessary for organisation to focus on building strategy in
order to monitor and control the risk so that the business activities can be run in smooth and
effective manner.

CONCLUSION
It is being concluded from the above information that by analysis the competitive
position in market organisation can frame strategy accordingly and make changes in order to
gain competitive advantage. There are various strategies which help in improving the
performance, growth and productivity of business. By implementing the suitable strategy,
company can gain competitive edge over its competitors and also attract maximum number of
people towards the services of non-profit organisation. The non-profit organisation mainly
focuses on helping people so that they can cope up with the negative impact of crisis and
uncertainty. In order to implement the strategy, it is necessary to know about the target audience
so that they can attract large number of people and fulfill their needs and requirements.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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analysis.
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Clarkson, A., 2019. Toward effective strategic analysis: new applications of information
technology. Routledge.
Garnett, J., 2021. Strategic studies and its assumptions. In Contemporary Strategy (pp. 3-21).
Routledge.
Hales, G. and Mclarney, C., 2017. Uber's Competitive Advantage vis-à-vis Porter's Generic
Strategies. IUP Journal of Management Research. 16(4).
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Morden, T., 2016. Principles of strategic management. Routledge.
Novikov, S. V., 2018. Strategic analysis of the development of high-technology manufacturing
facilities. Russian Engineering Research. 38(3). pp.198-200.
Rajagopal, A., 2019. Relationship between employee mobility and organizational creativity to
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Suri, P .K., 2016. A strategic analysis of actor competencies and e-governance performance.
In Flexible Work Organizations (pp. 241-259). Springer, New Delhi.