Business Simulation Report: iTech's Strategy and Performance Analysis

This report analyzes iTech, a smartphone manufacturing company, within a business simulation. It begins with a strategy paper outlining the company's vision, values, targets, and HR structure. The report then delves into a review of each year's progress, including a competitor analysis using Porter's Five Forces, market share assessment, and product/price analysis. The strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) are evaluated, along with the company's financial performance, including loan decisions and profit margins. The report concludes with future plans, recommendations, and a reflection on professional development, discussing key decisions, changes to the current strategy, and potential growth avenues. The report covers various aspects including competitor analysis, market share, product pricing, and financial results to determine the success of iTech's strategies.

Business Simulation

Table of Contents
PART A: STRATEGY PAPER.......................................................................................................3
VISION AND STRATEGY............................................................................................................3
Vision...........................................................................................................................................3
Values..........................................................................................................................................3
Targets and Mission.....................................................................................................................3
HR................................................................................................................................................4
REVIEW OF EACH YEAR’S PROGRESS...................................................................................5
Competitor analysis.....................................................................................................................5
Performance results.....................................................................................................................7
FUTURE PLANS AND RECOMMENDATIONS.........................................................................9
Key decisions...............................................................................................................................9
Changes to current strategy.........................................................................................................9
Recommendations......................................................................................................................10
Potential growth.........................................................................................................................10
PART B: PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT REFLECTION REPORT..................................11
Executive Summary...................................................................................................................11
Introduction................................................................................................................................11
Identified Events........................................................................................................................12
Review of Relevant Theories and Concepts..............................................................................12
Review of Industry Practices.....................................................................................................12
Application of Theories and Practices.......................................................................................12
Discussion..................................................................................................................................12
Recommendations......................................................................................................................12

PART A: STRATEGY PAPER
VISION AND STRATEGY
The company which has been focused in this strategy paper is iTech, this company is a
smartphone manufacturing company that is operating in technology industry for last 11 years.
The headquarters of this country are in United Kingdom and this countries operates in multiple
countries includes UK, Canada, Indi, United States of America and others. The slogan of this
company is “empowering people” as this company aim to satisfy the requirements of consumers
and attain their fullest satisfaction. Vision and various strategies of this company are analysed
below:
Vision
Vision refers to the future direction which an organisation aims to achieve (Bindon, 2017).
This vision statement of an organisation is directly linked with their values and targets that
company aims to acquire. The vision of iTech includes being innovative while facilitating
consumers with high reliability and securing their privacy. The features of iTech smartphones are
designed in such a way that they can direct their operations towards their vision. The
smartphones manufactured by iTech ensures that it secures the privacy of their consumers and
every smartphone model of this company is based on an innovative technology.
Values
Values are the beliefs of an organisation which they intend to use throughout the life cycle
of organisation. The values of an organisation are developed so that they can be reflected in their
manufactured products and served services. The values of iTech include enabling a strong and
lasting relationship with customers. iTech believes in equality due to which every employee of
this company gain bonus for their contribution in the organisation.
Targets and Mission
Mission of an organisation is slightly different from the targets of that organisation. The
mission statement of ITech Company is to centralise the focus of the organisation towards

customers and offer them high quality smartphones which can fulfil their requirements. On the
other hand, the targets of this company include:
The first target of iTech is related to their profit margin, this company aims to acquire
22% net profit margin against their total revenue. Such profit margin can only be acquired when
the prices of smartphones is higher in the market.
Another target of this company is related to the return which a company acquires against
their invested equity in the operations of business. According to the target sheet of iTech, this
company objectifies to gain 23% if return on equity. These higher returns will help this company
to gain the interest and confidence of their shareholders.
Another target of this company is related to the market share of this company. iTech aims
to be at the top of price oriented markets by providing low priced smartphones to their
consumers. Another target which is related to the market segment is that not only in price
segment, iTech also aims to be at top of quality oriented market by providing high quality goods.
This target is based on a complex strategy where company aims to provide high quality goods at
low prices which cut the profit margin of organisations.
Finally, the last target of iTech is related to the educational level of staff. This company
purposes to spend high amount on the learning and growth of their employees. This objective
will result into enhanced motivation level of employees and increased productivity that will
ultimately will lead towards the achievement of above mentioned goals.
HR
HR stands for Human resource of an organisation (Creemers, Kyriakides and Antoniou,
2012). The operations of iTech reflect that this company employs hundreds of people in the
nations in which they operate. In additional to all these employees, iTech has six managing
officers that are responsible for every activities of this organisation. These officers also combine
together as the Board members of this company.
These officers of iTech includes a chief executive officer, who is responsible for the all the
operations of iTech in general. A management director, who is responsible to develop strategies
for effective management of the company, a HR manager who is responsible for hiring, training
and development of all the employees of this organisation, a marketing director who is
responsible for all the marketing events and strategies, a finance manager who is responsible to

review pricing strategy and control finances in the organisation and a project and distribution
manager who is responsible for all production affairs of the organisation.
REVIEW OF EACH YEAR’S PROGRESS
Competitor analysis
The aim of conducting this competitor analysis is to assess the success of the strategies of
iTech Company by comparing them with the strategies of their competitors in the industry. In
order to conduct an effective competitor analysis, industry in which iTech is operating has been
also analysed through the way of below frameworks:
Porter’s five forces
This framework is a combination of five forces that impacts the growth and success of
organisations working in a specific industry (Draijer, 2020). The major operations of ITech
Company are in United Kingdom due to which analysis has been made for the smartphone
industry of UK and global context.
Threat of new entrants – The global smartphone industry requires high capital investment
and includes huge manufacturing costs due to which threat of a new entrant in this industry is
low. The iTech’s strategy to protect their organisation from new entrants is to build customer
their brand’s loyalty and this strategy of iTech is more successful than their competitor’s
strategies.
Threat of substitute products – The threat of introduction of substitute products in global
smartphone industry is moderate as the products offer in this industry are based on technology
and technology in current scenario is continuously upgrading. To fight with this moderate risk,
iTech has included innovation as their vision that directs the operations of this company to
continuously upgrading their offerings and this strategy is also successful than their competitors.
Power of buyers – Global and multinational smartphone industry is quite competitive
where every organisation aims to acquire larger share of market and in such situation this
industry is in position where the bargaining power of buyers is high. The strategy of iTech to
tackle this issue is to satisfy customers from high quality products but this strategy of iTech is
weaker than its competitors.
Power of suppliers – The Global smartphone industry has low supplier power as the
companies in this industry have access to the suppliers of entire world that can easily be

replaced. This opportunity is handled by iTech effective as they use their effective logistics
strategy that is more reliable than their competitors.
Competitive rivalry – As mentioned above, there are various companies in this simulation
smartphone industry which are competing each other for market share. The strategy that is used
by iTech for tacking this issue is to provide high quality products at low prices but this strategy is
not successful as the competitors of this company are more successful than iTech in this industry.
Market share
This is a framework which helps to compare the organisations competing against each
other in an industry on the basis of market share (Lefoe and et.al 2011). In global smartphone
industry, the major market share is acquired by the local competition. Apart from the local
competition, there are organisations which compete globally to acquire high market share. The
high percentage of market share can be accounted as the high number of people who uses the
product offered by that specific company.
iTech operates in multiple countries and in every country iTech has different market
share. In the case of United Kingdom, total market share of iTech is 136.08 which is higher from
most of its competitors but also is lower than few markets leaders. The maximum market share
of smartphone industry is gained by G mobiles, then COMMUNICO and then iTech. Despite of
having high market share in United Kingdom, the overall market share of iTech is at 5th position.
This lower market position of this company is because of the high quality and low cost product
strategy of this company. This strategy of acquiring market share of iTech is inefficient than the
strategies of this competitors.
Product/ price analysis
This framework allows analysing the product / pricing strategy of an organisation (Palloff
and Pratt, 2011). For iTech, the pricing strategy decision of this company is to keep their prices
low. On the scale of 1 to 5; being 1 the lowest, iTech has set their price at 2 point. On the other
hand, the product strategy of an organisation refers to the strategy which has been set for the
quality level of the product. On the scale of 1 to 5; 1 being the highest quality, iTech has set the
quality of their product at 2 point.
Overall, the product /price strategy of this company is to provide low priced products
with high quality. This strategy has been set in such a way, so that the competitive strategy of
this company can be satisfied that is customer focus. This strategy of iTech is different from its

competitors but it is not as successful as it was intend to be as due to satisfying the customers,
iTech leads to low profits and market share.
Competitors
iTech operates in a smartphone industry and in this industry, the most important
competition with highest market share is the local organisations of each nation. Besides this,
there are four direct competitors of this company which are The Shield, INNO8 Mobiles, G
Mobiles and Communico.
Competencies and capabilities
In order to analyse the competencies and capabilities of iTech, the framework that can
used is SWOT analysis.
Strengths – Strengths are the competencies and capabilities of iTech which distinguishes this
company and its strategies from its competitors (Pande, 2019). The capabilities of iTech include
effective rapid innovative, strong brand image and customer relations. All these capabilities of
iTech are aligned with their competitive strategy of customer focus but these competencies will
not help iTech in gaining high market share or high profits due to which the success of such
strategies is lower than their competitors.
Weaknesses – These are the in competencies of iTech which includes high selling prices
than the prices of competitors, limited distribution network due to which high expenses are paid
for logistics and dependence on high end market segments.
Opportunities – These are events that can be acquired by this company using effective
strengths. These opportunities include development of new products lines using innovation and
expansion of distribution network.
Threats – These are the threats which iTech face due to their poor decisions of strategies
which are not successful or less successful than their competitors. These threats include imitation
and rising labour cost.
Performance results
In this section all the pre developed strategies and decision will be evaluated by comparing
the performance results of iTech from the targets and also by analysing the decisions and
strategies of iTech by comparing them with their competitors.
Financial

iTech company had taken a financial decision in which they acquired a loan with 9.50%
interest rate. This loan was acquired for the purpose of increasing operational efficiency. The
amount which has remained unpaid is 3 million euros. This decision of iTech resulted into heavy
debts for this company. iTech and hence, this strategy of acquiring loan for iTech is
unsuccessful. The financial target of this company was to acquire a profit margin of 22% which
has also not attained by iTech and even the company is facing heavy losses.
In addition, it is important to conduct a financial analysis for which financial statements
of income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statement is used (Pellas and Boumpa, 2016).
By analysing the income statement of this company, it has been observed that in its initial
years, sales revenue of iTech was 96 million euros with loss of 43 million. And after 10 years of
operations, the sales revenue of this company increased to 341 million but the losses also
increase to 928 million. This analysis clears that there target of 22% profit margin is not acquired
by this company and also the strategy of low prices and high quality resultant to be unsuccessful.
The competitors of this company at least managed to gain profit due to which they have acquired
larger market share (Tiwari, Nafees and Krishnan, 2014).
The balance sheet is the statement of financial position of an organisation. This
statement shows that in the initial year long term assets of iTech was 1.7 million which were
lower than the fixed liabilities of this company as 8 million. The equity of this company was
reported as 512 million. These values changed after 10 years of operations and resulted in no
long term liabilities but 14 million euros recorded as fixed assets. Even after high value of assets,
iTech was unable to achieve their target of 23% return on equity. Even after having high amount
of equity, iTech faced immense losses.
Inventory
The smartphone of this company are manufactured in Asian countries and then supplied
to warehouses. These manufactured products use the raw material procured from only one
country due to which high logistics expenses are required to be paid. This strategy of iTech is
different from its competitors as they procure the material for different locations that are near to
manufacturing units and hence, the inventory strategy of this company is not successful. Also,
there is a vast difference between the planned target and actual inventory results as the demand
of iTech smartphones is not fulfilled by the low inventory capacity of this country.
Marketing

iTech have made various decisions for their marketing department which includes
development of a campaign where iTech will sponsor a World cup and television shows. Along
with this, iTech has also decided to that their intended brand campaign effect will be brand
awareness and this company has invested basic on SEO and social media. These strategies are
successful at an extend as sponsoring a World cup resulted into brand awareness of this company
but spending basic on SEO and social media is lesser successful strategy than its competitors as
social media is the cheapest yet most effective way to promote.
For this department, iTech has not made any targets but the results of shows that this
company has lower market share even in United Kingdom.
Human resource
iTech has made various decisions for their human resources. The first decision is to not to
provide maximum workload to employees so that their satisfaction could be acquired. Another
decision was to provide low bonus to employees on above target performance and spending low
revenue for employee education. These decisions and strategies of spending low value on
employees are not successful as they do not align with the target of proving high education to
employees. Hence, it can be said that HR decisions and strategies of iTech were only successful
to an extend as they were not successful to acquire their target of educating employees as the
employee retention of this organisation is high (Xiang-chao, 2012).
FUTURE PLANS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Key decisions
There are various decisions which are necessary for iTech to take in next 5 years so that
current issues of this company can be resolved. Some of these key decisions are:
 iTech should decide to change their competitive strategy from customer focus to cost
leadership so that they gain the benefit of selling lowest price products that will
ultimately lead towards higher market share.
 Another key decision of this company is to decide whether they should keep expanding
their business in multiple countries or not.
Changes to current strategy
By observing the various issues which iTech is currently facing, it has been concluded that
there are various changes that iTech must make in their strategies.

 The first change that iTech must make is in their growth strategy which is product
development. Instead of this strategy, iTech must adopt diversification so that they gain
benefits of both product and market development. This strategy will not only result into
higher revenues but will also result into high profits by which target of gaining 22% net
profit margin will be acquired.
 Another change which is essential for iTech to implement is to change their HR spending
strategy. iTech spend low value on training and learning of their employees and then
expect high employee skill. In order to align the strategy and target, iTech must increase
their HR spending level, so that employees of this company can effectively be trained.
Recommendations
It has been seen that few changes and decisions can change the current position of iTech,
in order to ensure the profitability of iTech, few suggestions are pinned below:
 iTech is recommended to focus on selling their products at lower prices as in the
competitive environment, the preference of iTech products is low. By selling products at
lower prices, the scope of target market will be increased that will ultimately result into
higher market share.
 Another recommendation for iTech is that this company must grab the opportunity of
enhancing their supply chain management as in current scenario, iTech is spending a lot
to acquire raw material which is increasing the overall cost of the products. By gaining
effective supply chain and logistics management, iTech will be able to gain operational
efficiency.
 From analysing the weak financial position of iTech, it has been also suggested that they
should decrease the spending in marketing campaign and focus to acquire market share
through social media as it is the best and less expensive way to promote the brand.
Potential growth
There are various options which are available to iTech for future potential growth and these
options are acquisition and merger with an existent market leader, internationalisation and
diversification. Among all these options, diversification is the most suitable option of iTech as by
this company can overcome their challenges and can also earn high revenues and profit.

PART B: PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT REFLECTION REPORT
Executive Summary
Professional Development describes the procedures and steps which associations and
people attempt considering guaranteeing advancement and improvement in abilities, just as
capacities to upgrade the individual and expert flourishing. Subsequently, this area would cover a
point by point reflection on how the above movement occurred which would be upheld by
different practices and utilization of applicable hypotheses all through the business recreations.
The reason for the report underneath is to think about the encounters of the colleagues while
doing different exercises inside the business reproduction (Butzke and Alberton, 2018).
Henceforth, for this reason, there are sure occasions that were thus distinguished and broke
down.
Besides another fitting reason for the report is to survey the pertinent hypotheses and ideas
which were received and actualized inside the business reproduction. Along these lines,
concerning this, specific group building, dynamic and authority speculations have been checked
on and reflected upon inside the report. In addition, the accompanying report additionally
required reflection upon the audit of industry practice, for which, various practices from different
organizations inside the reproduction were assessed to decide how they have utilized the
speculations to achieve their own plans. Additionally, this reflection report additionally attempts
utilization of speculations and practices, alongside a detailed conversation and conceivable
suggestion for more development in future practices.
Introduction
Reflection is a basic action which permits people to consider their past encounters and
assess a similar which permits them to fittingly and successfully set up steps to enhance their
capabilities in future. Subsequently, with respect to this, beneath is a comprehensive reflection
which would be oppressed towards investigating the business recreation action performed
previously. The report would be incorporated recognizable proof of certain urgent and basic
occasions which are related with the movement and that are basic occurrences to be
distinguished. Alongside this, few speculations with respect to group building, dynamic and
authority have been successfully looked into just as talked about (Buil, Catalán and Martínez,
2020). Moreover, the report additionally includes an investigation upon the mechanical practices,

which covers the use of the speculations and ideas by different players inside re-enactments.
Besides, suitable conversations and proposals have additionally been given as for the
organization, just as for the colleagues to guarantee that future execution of the colleagues, just
as the association could viably extemporize.
Identified Events
All through the simulation occurred, there were different occasions which were
experienced by me, just as the colleagues in an extremely point by point and evaluative way.
Additionally, a portion of these occasions were very basic and contributed towards upgrading the
learning and experience which every one of the colleague has. Furthermore, these are basic
episodes which took care of business how the organization has acted in right on time, just as the
coming years. Accordingly, a portion of these occasions are fittingly talked about beneath:
Event 1- Marketing of iTech brand by sponsoring world cups and global television shows
One of the biggest events that happened at the time of simulation was the marketing of
the brand which is done by sponsoring the television shows and world cups at the various stages
of simulation activity. Along with this, it is due because of the fact that the roles are significantly
defined and also in order to enhance the overall performance of an organisation which is useful
in increasing the market image and reputation (Lainema, Islam and Lainema, 2018). In terms of
this, company need huge amount of capital to sponsor all these events by giving them significant
vision and target. Therefore, because of the sponsorship towards the various events company can
leads to increase its market image and reputation within the business environment.
Event 2- Acquisition of a loan at 9.50% interest rate
Another event that could be identified from the above part is the acquisition of the loan of
company regarding the future growth and success which is useful for the survival in the market.
It is considered as the biggest event that helps the company in beating its competitors that give
tough competition within the market. Along with this, it is quite complex as it leads to generate
lot of paper work and various other members that are involves within the simulation (Gresch and
Rawls, 2017). Moreover, this event is quite appropriate regarding the brainstorming is involved
that allows the groups of iTech to come up with significant cost leadership in which company
can expand itself with significant procedure and also helps in achieving significant success and
growth in its future. Along with this, company need to put emphasis on the suitable marketing