Formulating a Business Strategy to Achieve Measurable and Achievable Objectives

The provided content highlights the importance of defining a business strategy for directing management and achieving company objectives. It emphasizes that having a clear direction or structure helps organizations achieve their mission and objectives. The report provides information on creating, structuring, and implementing strategies in an organization, which is beneficial for identifying best practices to increase sales and profitability.

BUSINESS STRATEGY

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................1
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................1
a. Possible alternative strategies relating to substantive growth, limited growth or
retrenchment................................................................................................................................1
b. Justification the selection........................................................................................................2
c. The roles and responsibilities of Sony staff (functions or individuals, as appropriate)
involved in strategy implementation...........................................................................................3
d. Level of resource requirements...............................................................................................4
e. The contribution of SMART objectives..................................................................................5
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Business strategy is termed as the action plan or a structural set of activities which is
planned and formulated by an organisation, for achieving the objectives and attain high profit
results. This strategy specifies the mission, vision, aim, objectives and core competencies of the
organisation that further facilitate the management in determining a perfect direction for the
business. It is beneficial for the company to identifying, evaluate and assess all the factors
responsible and addressable for influencing the working and the activities of the business (Teece,
2010). In that case, the report is providing information about the business strategies which can be
used by the Sony Mobile Communications for attracting the customers and expanding its market
in international countries.
TASK 2
a. Possible alternative strategies relating to substantive growth, limited growth or retrenchment
It is ascertained that Sony is one of the leading phone manufacturing company in their
market. They are highly focused on attracting the customers by providing them the new source of
innovation and advancement in the technology they use for communicating and entertaining
them (Montgomery, 2011). The aim of the company is to improve the customer relation by
supplying them with the best method of connecting as well as enjoying the gaming world.
The best alternative strategies which can be used by Sony Mobile Communications for
accomplishing their mission, vision and objectives are: Market entry – It is addressed that the mobile market is expanding its boundaries in all
over the world. This expansion is generating more customers for the telecommunication
sector. Hence, the company should take advantage of such opportunity to develop its
market and expand their business in overseas country as well. India and China is
determined as the new emerging market for mobile industries (Oltra and Luisa Flor,
2010). Most of the people are now adopting new technologies and showing interest in
imported products. This factor is highly beneficial for the company for achieving their
objectives. Substantive growth – This strategy directs the company's efforts on increasing their
market share and rising the growth among the customers, by engaging the company in
some new business.
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◦ Related and unrelated diversification – The management of the company could either
opt to diversify their business in some other products like software developing,
mobile accessories, etc. This is a related diversification as it is already dealing with
the mobile gadgets business (Haley and Haley, 2013).
◦ Horizontal and vertical integration – Sony could integrate their business by
introducing new range of products or by advancing a new technology in the existing
product. Limited growth -
◦ Market penetration – Sony can implement a strategy where its most of the focus is on
a particular market where the company can gain high market share and attain better
profits.
◦ Product development – It this strategy the company has to develop and bring changes
in their existing product by analysing the feedback or issues. The company needs to
relaunch the product with high advancement and innovative technologies.
 Retrenchment – The company can use choose the strategy for holding or reducing the
production level of some specific product/s, in order to cover the cost of production. This
saving will help the company to allocate some more amount of resources (Haley, Haley
and Tan, 2011).
b. Justification the selection
Concerning the market and condition of Sony, the best alternatives strategies have been
specified. They are advantageous for the company, has the potentiality to cover up all the losses
and achieve the set of specified objectives. The best strategy considering the market of SMC is
product development. It has been analysed that customers are facing lot of issues with the
existing mobile phones, thus the demand for the products among them are gradually decreasing.
This has resulted a reduction of production, rising expenditure for the firm, reluctant staff and
falling market growth (Wantao and et.al., 2012). Moreover, the reputation of the company, brand
image and value is also facing a decrease at a high level. It is all due to the technical issues and
low software development.
The identified reason can be overcome and defeated by the company by developing the
product as per the customer's needs and requirements. For this, the engineers and researchers of
the company are responsible, as they need to identify and introduce a new technique and upgrade
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the software. The technical staff should fix all the issues which are faced while using the product.
They require identifying the factors that cause such issues and bring some changes in that
context. Further, the company should relaunch the product or introduce the product in the
market. They should advertise and promote the elements and development made in the products
which would facilitate the management in attracting the customers towards the product
(Stonehouse and Houston, 2013).
The product development is the best method for acquiring high market share and increase
the growth of the company. It is beneficial for SMC also, if managed and utilise properly. It is
examined that the structuring and development of the product should be in immense form and
unique in nature. The differentiation in the product characteristics would support the company in
marketing and advertising. However, as per the current market, it has been evident that company
needs to regularly develop the product and implement changes like innovation, new applications,
software up-gradation, etc. which would help the company in remaining constant at the position,
attain high profits and hold up the market share (Omar and Sawy, 2013). This advances the
company's ability to maintain the level of customers attraction, interest and value for the brand
name and image.
c. The roles and responsibilities of Sony staff (functions or individuals, as appropriate) involved
in strategy implementation
It has been examined that the company needs to specify and divide all the business
operations and the activities which are to be accomplished by their operational and technical
department. The staff of both the department are responsible to overcome all the roles and
responsibilities determined under their context. It is ascertained that the strategy adopted by the
company needs high level of efficiency and skills from the employees, engineers, technician and
researchers. They need to comply the structure of the strategy within their aspects and working.
For this, they require identifying their duties and responsibilities based on the strategy and
functions assigned to them (Murthy, 2012). The staff that are highly responsible in implementing
and executing the strategies are: Engineers – Their main purpose id identify a new level of technology and bring changes
in the current technology for introducing the advancements. They are extremely liable for
sorting all the issues related with the products and fix them in the best way that it could
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not affect the customers. For this, they must properly utilise all the available resources
and attain the best results by implementing it in the research and development. Employees – It is determined that the main set of responsibilities lies under all the high
level of employees and managers employed in the company (Mama and Kruger, 2012).
They posses the liability to formulate the best product development strategy and to
monitor it till the execution. It is necessary for them to consider all the factors while
implementing a strategy and formulating a set of action plan. Along with this, it is also
essential that all the actions are timely planned and executed within the specified period.
 Marketing – It is addressed that the company's marketing team is highly responsible for
promoting the new product developed in the targeted market. For this, the team needs to
identify the factors and areas that are developed by the engineers and researchers.
Further, the team should use that set of changes in advertisement and marketing
processes. This will help the company to attract the customers and mark a presence in the
mobile market.
d. Level of resource requirements
It is evident that an organization requires high amount of resources for implementing a
new strategy. The set of resources can be different as per the type of strategy selected by the
organisation (Demir and Gocer, 2011). In that case, the required set of resources as per the
strategy chosen by SMC specifies that the company needs to attain a lot of new resources that are
required to facilitate them in executing the operations of the strategy. SMC require following
resources for getting the best results from the strategy of product development, and that are: Human Resource – The company must have high level and number of efficient staff to
overcome all the operations and action plan specified in the strategy. For this. SMC
needs to implement some structure of proper recruiting and selecting the appropriate
level of employees which has high-performance skills and expertise knowledge in
technical sector (Brunsman, DeVore and Houston, 2011). Sony has to recruit highly
talented and skilled technical individuals so that each specified objective can be
addressed in better manner. In addition to this, marketing and promotional activities also
requires high level of human resource for properly executing all the operations of
promoting the products.
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 Financial Resource: It is contributed that in a strategical planning, finance is one of the
main key element or resource that is highly required in excessive amount. It would be
helpful for the company to overcome all the aspects of strategical implementation.
Analysing that case, Sony also require adequate amount of finance for proper innovation
and product development activity (Cockayne and Mears, 2011). For which, Sony has to
consider a new and different source for collecting and summing up a high amount of
capital. In this regard, company can take help of shareholders, investors, bankers and
other related parties for raising their level of funds.
e. The contribution of SMART objectives
The necessary that an organization should assess and monitor their strategy on periodical
basis so that difference or variation in the structure and results can be examined by the top level
management. For accomplishing this task, the management can select any of the approaches that
are present in the scenario from which they can attain information for betterment and monitoring
can be properly executed. In that context, Sony can incorporate the method of balanced card
approach so that they are able to gain information over every level and aspects of strategy. This
would facilitate them in attaining better results and mark the changes after implementing the
strategy in the business (Loorbach and et.al., 2010). By using this, Sony can also track the
direction of the strategy and either they are incorporating innovation in their products or the
strategy is still lacking the opportunity.
Further, the method will also help in gaining idea about the changes which are to be
implemented in the product development. This method will moreover assist in identifying the
issues which are faced by the customers while using the company's products. On the other hand,
the process of defining the SMART objectives will highly improve the working of the company's
management and identifying the new operational techniques for product development. The main
purpose of setting the SMART objectives is to define an objective or a set of goals which is to be
achieved by the company in a particular duration. It promotes the efficiency of the company to
practice at greater level and implement various approaches in accomplishing the desired
objectives (Althonayan and Sharif, 2010). It provides a specific direction to the company where
the company has to work and attain results.
All the stated objectives are measurable and achievable from the business operations and
activities that are performed by the management team. The company is highly focused on
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achieving the determined set of objectives within the specified duration. They work accordingly
and in a way to reach the level which is proposed by the company.
CONCLUSION
From the report, it has been articulated that defining a business strategy is very important
and significant to direct the working of the management. It determines a direction or a structure
which has to be followed by the company for achieving their mission and objectives. It is
evaluated that the report is providing a specific information about the method of creation,
structuring and implementing the strategy in an organisation. It is highly beneficial to the
company in identifying the best method of increasing the sales and profitability level.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Althonayan, A. and Sharif, A.M., 2010. Aligning business and technology strategy within the
airline industry. International Journal of Business Information Systems. 6(1). pp.79-94.
Brunsman, B., DeVore, S. and Houston, A., 2011. The corporate strategy function: improving its
value and effectiveness. Journal of Business Strategy. 32(5). pp.43 – 50.
Cockayne. J. and Mears, S. E., 2011. Beyond market forces: regulating the global security
industry. International Peace Institute.
Demir, H. M. and Gocer, A., 2011. Assess your business model strategy to sustain. Emerald
Emerald Emerging Markets Case Studies.
Haley, G. T., Haley, U. C. and Tan, C., 2011. The Chinese Tao of business: The logic of
successful business strategy. John Wiley & Sons.
Haley, U. C. and Haley, G. T., 2013. Subsidies to Chinese Industry: State Capitalism, Business
Strategy, and Trade Policy. Oxford University Press.
Loorbach, D. and et.al., 2010. Business strategies for transitions towards sustainable systems.
Business Strategy and the Environment. 19(2). pp.133-146.
Mama, M. and Kruger, C., 2012. Incorporating business strategy formulation with identity
management strategy formulation. Information Management & Computer Security. 20(3).
pp.152–169.
Montgomery, C. A. ed., 2011. Resource-based and evolutionary theories of the firm: towards a
synthesis. Springer Science & Business Media.
Murthy, P. V., 2012. Integrating corporate sustainability and strategy for business performance.
World Journal of Entrepreneurship. Management and Sustainable Development. 8(1).
pp.5-17.
Oltra, M. J. and Luisa Flor, M., 2010. The moderating effect of business strategy on the
relationship between operations strategy and firms' results. International Journal of
Operations & Production Management. 30(6). pp.612-638.
Omar, P. Y. and Sawy, E. A. O., 2013. Chapter 9 The Value of Configurational Approaches for
Studying Digital Business Strategy. Emerald Group Publishing Limited, pp.205-224.
Stonehouse, G. and Houston, B., 2013. Business Strategy. Routledge.
Teece, D. J., 2010. Business models, business strategy and innovation. Long range planning.
43(2). pp.172-194.
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Wantao, Yu and et.al., 2012. Effects of business environment on international retail operations:
case study evidence from China. International Journal of Retail & Distribution
Management. 40(3). pp.218 – 234.
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