E-business Strategies Assignment

Running Head: E-business Strategies
E-business Strategies

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Executive Summary
The below mention report is prepared in continuation to the assignment one. The assignment one
provided information about the various competencies of the company Slices with the help of
which the can initiate strategic change in the organization. The part two of the report talks about
the current strategies implemented and the position of the company in the target market. Further,
it also talks about the strategies, its benefits and the business model canvas. The canvas with help
the organization in proper implementation of the plan, the action plan provides information about
the activities of the company which they should initiate in order to properly settle in different
environment. More details about the report are discussed below:

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Contents
Executive Summary.....................................................................................................................................1
Current Strategies Assessment....................................................................................................................2
New Strategies............................................................................................................................................3
Benefits.......................................................................................................................................................4
Recommendation........................................................................................................................................5
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................8
References...................................................................................................................................................9

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Current Strategies Assessment
Coming up from the introduction of assignment first it was noted that the company Slices is not
that famous in the country worldwide. The company is involved in the business of serving home
grown food and beverages. The part one of the assignment provided a detailed information about
the position and the activities of the company in the market of Abu Dhabi. The PESTEL analysis
describes the favorable and unfavorable conditions present in the environment that reflects the
activities of Slices in both positive and negative ways (Jabeen, Zamber, and Khan 2015). The
political factors of the country act as a risk for the organization, as there is presence of instability
in the governmental norms and regulation. This can hamper the growth of the company in long
term. Further the economic factors of the country says that the country is rich in terms of GDP,
there is high purchasing power in the hands of the customers that can provide advantage to the
sales of the company (Ribeiro, et. al., 2017). Further, the people of Abu Dhabi have a rich
heritage, also these people like to live a luxurious life as they have plenty cash in hand as well.
The country has advanced technology that acts as barriers as well as resource for the
organization. Thus, the company needs to remain in competence by using this technology.
Lastly, the legal and environmental laws state that the activities of the business should not affect
the government or nature under any case (Slices 2015).
Further, the five forces analysis explains the attributes of the industry in which the company
Slices is prevailing. There is high degree of competition in the industry as many restaurant chains
with appropriate supply chain are present in the industry. The suppliers of the industry have low
power in hand as few companies’ uses organic products as raw material (Vargas, Calva, and
Camacho 2015). There is high degree of power in the hands of buyers of the industry as all
companies offer products to the customer according to their demand, preferences and
expectations. Further, it should be noted that there are many companies present in the industry
that provide similar services or substitution of products that increase the threat of substitution for
the Slices. Lastly, the threat of new entry in this industry is high as it is easy for the companies to
enter in the industry and easy exit ways as well (Laeequddin, and Abdul Waheed 2016).
Further the core competencies of the company explain different aspects with the help of which
the organization can sustain their growth in the external market. The core competencies have

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four parts namely fill in the blanks, white space, premier plus ten and mega opportunities. The
company has adequate resources with the help of which they can easily make optimum profit in
the market, further company has the competency to recognize the profits and deliver in their
products and services so that the customers can gain greater level of satisfaction. The company
uses the organic products to provide healthy and tasty food to the students (Del Prado, and
Rosellon 2017). Under the premier plus ten stage, the company can expand their resources and
increase the cultivation of safe and healthy products under their surveillance. Lastly, mega
opportunities explain that the company has high potential to expand their customer based to
international customers by initiating activities in the international market (Manalili 2017).
So, from the above analysis done in part one of the assignment, it can be said that currently, the
company is involved in the local market but it has wide scope to expand its activities in the
international market. There is presence of high competition in the industry that makes it difficult
for the organization to sustain their competitive advantage in the market. However, Slices uses
organic raw material unlike organizations that helps the company in gaining identified position
in the market along with reputable goodwill as well. The company provides high quality
products and services in the market that positions the image of the company premium group
organizations (Luomi 2017). Along with the customers, the company adequately serves to the
employees of the company as well, due to which the employees create a good image of the
company in the eyes of the customers. The company is currently involved in the catering as well
as retail business, so they are learning to manage both the activities by interlinking its operations
and increasing satisfaction. The company has built their services of food with flare of community
services that makes them offer healthy and organic food to customers and philanthropic attitude
towards poor. Thus, company earns cost differentiation by providing superior products and
standard costs (Hui, and Leong 2016).
New Strategies
The below mentioned are new strategies that the companies should use to initiate competitive
advantage in the environment:
Diversification in product and services: In order to implement strategic changes in the
organization, the company Slices should diversify their products and services. The management

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of the company should increase the customer base by providing differentiated products and
services to the customers. Apart from serving healthy food, the company should innovate their
food by providing fast food to students made up of healthy products. Students love eating food
that is tasty and delicious, so the company should improvise the products served in such a way
that the students instantly gets attracted towards the company. Further, the company should also
inaugurate their outlets in different parts of the country so as to provide better intraday services
to the customers (Geldenhuys 2015).
Expansion strategies: As discussed above that the company initiates their business in the
boundaries of local market only. But the intangible and tangible competencies of the company
say that the company has wide scope to expand their activities in the international market. The
company can place themselves in the market of UAE. Also it should be noted that in Abu Dhabi,
Slices faces high degree of competition but they will not face the threat of competition on
expanding their scope of business. Not much people know about the business of school food
expert due to which the company can easily penetrate the market by increasing their international
customer base (Ab Talib 2017).
Online sales: The Company should initiate the strategic change activity by initiating physical as
well as online sales of the products offered by the company. As the organization wants to
improve the eating habit of the students, so they should start selling organic and healthy fast food
online. This will create two impacts on the activities of the company, firstly, this will initiate
sales of the company through online mode and it will also promote the company’s name in
digital media platforms as well. This process will also help the company in diversifying its
customer base in the target market. Online sales of the product will add another way through
which the company can develop revenue (Sawaya 2017).
Competitive strategy: Competitive strategy is one of the most important strategic changes that
Slices should consider in their business. The company as efficient management that adequately
supports them in creating advantage, also the tangible and intangible resources of the company
helps them in increasing the quality of the product. So, the organization should aim to implement
a competitive strategy that eliminates competition from the society and decreases the scope of
risks for them as well. The company can gain competitive advantage in the market by
categorizing the different customer segments in the market (Sheth, Sinha, and Shah 2016). The

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target market can be divided in two bases that are premium customers and middle and lower
income level customers. So, the company provides products according to the expectations of the
customer, this segregation on the basis of price will help the company to deliver satisfaction to
the target market on a whole. As now they can easily provide premium services to the high
income level people and normal products to the lower income level people at standard rates. The
company should also aim to provide differentiation in their products and services (al-Muttahida
2016).
Benefits
The benefits of strategic changes in the organization Slices are discussed below:
With the help of diversification in the products and services strategy, the company the company
aimed to introduce new products and services in activities of retail and catering business of the
company. The company wants to introduce products that are customers pocket friendly. Through
this diversification process, the company should target the students that are emigrants and are
living in Abu Dhabi to study. Further, this process will help the company to penetrate the market
capabilities and initiate the sales for the company as well. Diversification in products will also
help the company to enter in new product segment and increase the sales of the company with
time (Miller, et. al., 2015). Also, with the inauguration with the outlet, Slices can easily increase
the sales through retail department of the company. Also, the customers will prefer their products
over other companies products because Slices provides rich, healthy and organic products to the
customers in the market.
With the use of expansion strategies, the company gains the benefit to increase the market sales
by entering in international target market. The expansion strategy will benefit the company to
create goodwill in the international market; Slices can expand their business by using Greenfield
Investment strategies. This strategy will also help the organization to use the resource of
international market improve the brand image of the company in the local market as well.
Further the company should further expand in the city where many international students come
for further education. This will help them in initiating better expansion strategies (Göbel, et. al.,
2015).

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Online sales are one of the best ways to increase the revenue for the organization. With the help
of ecommerce business, an organization can easily increase the satisfaction level of customers
present in the market. Slices with the help of supply chain shall deliver the products to the
customers at their places; this can help them in increasing their sales at the time of exams. Also,
as the organization provides 24*7 services so they can help students to order food online at night
when they are studying with their friends. Thus, this will also help the organization in initiating
competitive advantage in the local as well as international market (Jahn, et. al., 2018).
Recommendation
The business model canvas for the value creation of the company is discussed below:
Key Partners
 Suppliers
 Produce and
supply health
food
 Suppliers
 Farmers
 Subsidiaries
 Online
application
developer
 Channels of
distribution
Key Activities
 Producing
 Raw material
 Advertisements
and Marketing
 Online selling
 Feedback
 Quality check
 Innovation
 Distribution
Value Proposition
 Manufacture
good and
healthy
products
 Add quality in
products and
services
 Provides food
products that
are fit to eat
 Tasty food
Customer
Relationships
 Personal
contacts
with the
customers
(schools,
students
etc.)
 Easy and
feasible
Customer-
friendly and
self-services at
outlets
 Pocket friendly
products
 Direct
selling
 Trust and
loyalty
 Brand
Managem
ent
 Mobile
applicatio
Customer
Segments
 Distributors
 Suppliers
 Farmers

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n for
product
delivery
Key Resources
 Farms
 Brand portfolio
 Open innovation
 Farmers
 Delivery trucks
 Supplementary
food items
 Diversified open
minded people
Channels
 Online site of
Slice.com
 Advertisements
 Pamphlets and
advertisements
 Referrals
 Social media
websites
 Distributors
 E-mail
marketing
 Authorized
distributors
Cost Structure
 Raw material
 Mobile application and website
developers
 Raw material production
 Selling expenses
 Maintenance cost
 Transport cost
 Taxes
 Employee salaries
 Production and supply costs
 Employees
 R&D expense
 Logistics and supply chain
Revenue Streams
 Tasty and healthy food for students
 Pockets Friendly prices
 Franchises and licensing
 Component
 Online revenue
 Direct sales final products
 Credit/debit cards
The business model canvas provides the details about the resources and capabilities of the
company that they can efficiently use to help the company to gain competitive advantage in the
target market. The company Slices should effectively evaluate their business model canvas in
order to initiate effectiveness in diverse environment (Vandevijvere, et. al., 2015). The company
should work their action plan according to the business model canvas for next 6-12 months and
initiate effective strategies to gain success in international environment.

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Activity Time Period
(in months)
Manager Growth
Objective
Concerned
Department
Initiation of
Business Plan
May - July Marketing Head Increase in outlets
of company in
international
market
Marketing
Division
Office set-up May - July Administration and
HR head
Reduction in
wastage
Owners
Website
Development
May - July Creative and
Designing
managers
Initiate sales 30%
Sales online.
Information
Technology
department
Advertisement and
promotion
May - January PR manager Promotion of
company in target
market
Marketing
Recruitment of
experts
June- November HR manager Hiring of experts
for new outlet
Human
resource
department
Allocation of
resources
May-April Operations Allocation of raw
material at
feasible prices
COO
The above mentioned action plan will properly help the company in introducing their outlet in
international market as well. The company should start the initiation of the business plan as soon
as they enter in the diverse environment. The business plan will help them in taking up action
that can help them organizing the business activities for Slices. This activity should be followed
by the organization for initial three months. Then the company should focus on setting up their
headquarter in the different city (Dudin, et. al., 2015). The company should set-up the office
when three months. Furthermore, as the organization also wants to expand their sales by the way
of online selling so they should ask the engineers of the company to develop the website; the
website should be developed and improved within months from the initiation of the business
plan. When all the above mentioned actions are implemented then the company start the
advertisement and promotion activities to attract the target customer present in the different
market. The advertisement will help the company in recruitment process as well. Lastly, when all
activities are implemented then the company should allocate the resource and raw material with

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the help of which they should produce products and serve it to the customers accordingly (Kiel
2014).
Conclusion
Thus, in the limelight of above mentioned events, it should be noted that the company Slices can
easily attain success the adequately using the business model canvas and implementation
strategies of the business. By using their resources and capabilities, the company can easily attain
success strategically.

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References
Ab Talib, M.S., 2017. Motivations and benefits of halal food safety certification. Journal of
Islamic Marketing, 8(4), pp.605-624.
al-Muttahida, I.A.A., 2016. United Arab Emirates.
Del Prado, F.L. and Rosellon, M.A.D., 2017. Technology and knowledge transfers in production
networks: Case study on Philippine food manufacturing firms (No. 2017-08). PIDS Discussion
Paper Series.
Dudin, M., Kucuri, G., Fedorova, I., Dzusova, S. and Namitulina, A., 2015. The innovative
business model canvas in the system of effective budgeting.
Geldenhuys, N., 2015. A world of wider options: colours & flavours. Food Manufacturing
Africa, 2(4), pp.16-18.
Göbel, C., Langen, N., Blumenthal, A., Teitscheid, P. and Ritter, G., 2015. Cutting food waste
through cooperation along the food supply chain. Sustainability, 7(2), pp.1429-1445.
Hui, L.C. and Leong, Y.C., 2016. Critical Success Factors of Food and Beverages Manufacturing
Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises: A Case Study Approach. INNOVATION AND
MANAGEMENT, p.1215.
Jabeen, F., Zamber, S. and Khan, K 2015, Slices: what is next? Emerald Emerging Markets Case
Studies, 5(4), 1-9
Jahn, J.L., Cohen, J.F., Gorski-Findling, M.T., Hoffman, J.A., Rosenfeld, L., Chaffee, R., Smith,
L. and Rimm, E.B., 2018. Product reformulation and nutritional improvements after new
competitive food standards in schools. Public health nutrition, 21(5), pp.1011-1018.
Kiel, I.H., 2014. Entrepreneurial marketing.
Laeequddin, M. and Abdul Waheed, K., 2016. Strategic management in cartelized environment:
case of Hisham Packaging, Dubai. Emerald Emerging Markets Case Studies, 6(2), pp.1-16.

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Luomi, M., 2017. Food and Foreign Policy: Options for the UAE and Other Import-Dependent
Countries.
Manalili, N.M., 2017. Scoping Study on Reducing Unnecessary Regulatory Burdens in the
Philippine Food Manufacturing Industry.
Miller, P.E., Reedy, J., Kirkpatrick, S.I. and Krebs-Smith, S.M., 2015. The United States food
supply is not consistent with dietary guidance: evidence from an evaluation using the Healthy
Eating Index-2010. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 115(1), pp.95-100.
Ribeiro, I., Sobral, P., Peças, P. and Henriques, E., 2017. A sustainable business model to fight
food waste. Journal of Cleaner Production.
Sawaya, W.N., 2017. Impact of Food Losses and Waste on Food Security. In Water, Energy &
Food Sustainability in the Middle East (pp. 361-388). Springer, Cham.
Sheth, J.N., Sinha, M. and Shah, R., 2016. Breakout strategies for emerging markets: Business
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Slices 2015, Healthy and Fresh Food for Student, Slice, retrieved 11 April 2018, http://slices.ae/
Vandevijvere, S., Chow, C.C., Hall, K.D., Umali, E. and Swinburn, B.A., 2015. Increased food
energy supply as a major driver of the obesity epidemic: a global analysis. Bulletin of the World
Health Organization, 93(7), pp.446-456.
Vargas, I.S., Calva, A.L.G. and Camacho, J.H., 2015. Business model canvas. Ciencia Huasteca
Boletín Científico de la Escuela Superior de Huejutla, 3(5).