Strategic Planning for Hemp and Company's Expansion in China

This paper provides an analysis of the business situation of Hemp and Company in Canada and recommendations for expanding its business in China. It discusses the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the company and suggests SMART goals for strategic planning. The paper also explores various tools and techniques for effective strategic planning.

Running Head: MGMT 157
Management
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Assignment
Introduction
The paper will provide an understanding of the business situation of Hemp and Company in
Canada. It will provide an analysis of the opportunities the company would get by expanding its
business in a new region. Therefore, the paper will provide recommendations for the company to
develop a strategic plan by setting new goals.
Background of Hemp and Company
Hemp and Company is a small specialty shop founded in 1999, in New Denver, British
Columbia (BC). Currently, it is one of the oldest eco-friendly stores in North America. The
beautiful shops of the company are located in Victoria and Granville Island in Vancouver. The
shops are easily accessible to visitors and local customers (It's Only Natural i.O.N Clothing
featuring Hemp & Company . 2019). Presently, the company carries out 50 different brands of
eco-friendly and organic clothing, accessories lines and body care.
Although the company has a successful business in the local market of BC, Vancouver, and
Victoria, still it wants to expand its business by selling its products in the new regions. The
company must expand its business in China as it provides various profitable business
opportunities for Hemp and Company to sell their natural clothing. The consumers in China
prefer western clothing brands which is a big advantage for Hemp and Company to market their
fashionable products in China. On the other hand, Chinese women spend a lot of money on body
care and cosmetics products.

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Assignment
Analysis (SWOT Analysis)
Strengths Weaknesses
 A varied portfolio of clothing products
 China comprised of skilled labors
 Possess capability to cater for a large
order
 Chinese consumers are health
consciousness
 China possesses the most advanced
technology that encourages trading
platforms and online businesses
(Verbeke & Kano, 2016)
 The Chinese produce lower costs
products
 Limited awareness of the brand
 Shortage of classic luxury style
 Low presence of social media
 The difference in the cost of
shipping a product
 Lack of proven or developed
competencies (Wolf & Floyd,
2017)
 Unproven or weak innovation
Opportunities Threats
 Chinese expansion will help in
enhancing the company's growth
 Rather than just brand name the
customers are increasing valuing brand
quality
 Less commercial restrictions and an
open source for import and export of
 Huge competition with luxury
brands
 Higher tax on luxury products
 Change in the political climate
 Difficult to find a factory in China
 Impact of political and economic
factors (Elbanna, Andrews &

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Assignment
clothing products
 Can reach an entirely new market by
obtaining lower price and cheaper labor
force (Hübner, Kuhn & Wollenburg,
2016)
 Develop a web store and sell the
products to Chinese people
Pollanen, 2016)
 Decreasing demand and slower
growth of the market
SMART goals
Hemp and Company must plan its strategic marketing plan by developing SMART goals. Before
establishing a strategic plan, the company must know its desired target and outcome.
Specific
The goal set by the company to sell its product in China is specific where specificity gives focus.
It helps the company to execute the strategic things appropriately. Hemp and Company must
articulate its business goals in a simple format by achieving broad aspirations.
Measure
The company possesses the capability to measure the specific levels of success sufficiently
which is determined to be a critical element of achieving better outcomes (Gelbmann &
Hammerl, 2015). Quantifying the performance outcomes becomes easier for the managers to
make relevant decisions regarding selling its products in the Chinese market.

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Assignment
Achievable
Hemp and Company must break its goals into various pieces to make it achievable. It is because
when the goals become a manageable component that achieves the goals tangible and feasible.
Relevant
To sell its clothing products in China, the company must set relevant goals in a more strategic
and wider manner. It aligns with the vision and mission of the company, where the mission is to
provide natural fiber clothing to its customers by keeping synthetic particles out of the ecosystem
(Hiassat, Diabat & Rahwan, 2017). Whereas, the vision is to acquire the ability to consider the
impact of purchases.
Time-bound
The organization must set a time-bound goal that helps drive accountability. It is necessary for
Hemp and Company to create a timeline that eliminates the possibility of facing various
challenges based on marketing and selling its products in China (Gan, Pujawan & Widodo,
2017). It must consider both execution and accountability as strategic imperatives.
Personal discussion
It is highly recommended, that to sell its clothing products in China, Hemp and Company must
set new goals and strategic plans. The manager of the company must use various techniques and
tools such as process planning, benchmarking, scenario and contingency planning and
forecasting. This would help the company to increase the benefits of strategic planning. The tools
and techniques are as follows:

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Assignment
Forecasting
Forecasting will help the company to predict future trends related to management insights and
past events. The company must make use of two types of forecasting techniques such as
statistical analysis and expert opinions (Porter & Heppelmann, 2015). To plan their strategy
Hemp and Company must use the information provided by Canadian financial analysts.
Process planning
Hemp and company must make efficient use of process planning to execute and complete the
process effectively. To plan a process, the company must develop an objective, consider
resources, and determine assessment and tracking method.
Benchmarking
It includes the search for relevant practices between noncompetitors and competitors that results
in their outstanding performance. The basic idea of benchmarking would help the management to
improve quality by evaluating and implementing the methods in several fields.
Scenario planning
It is determined to be a type of contingency planning that includes a long-lasting time frame. It is
a process that would be helpful for the organization to create and analyze its strategic plans.
Hemp and Company may use these scenarios to develop better forecasting of the processes to
predict the overcapacity issue of selling its product in China (Baumgartner & Rauter, 2017).

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Assignment
Contingency planning
This will help the company to feature an alternative course of action if the preferred plan fails to
execute. The company must acknowledge that when uncertainty is high, the plans must be
flexible and specific.
Conclusion
The paper helped in identifying a new market for Hemp and Company to sell its product. It has
been observed that the company must sell its products in China as it provides various business
opportunities for the fashion industry. The paper provided recommendations that would be
helpful for the company to set goals and develop a strategic plan.

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Assignment
References
Baumgartner, R. J., & Rauter, R. (2017). Strategic perspectives of corporate sustainability
management to develop a sustainable organization. Journal of Cleaner Production, 140,
81-92.
Elbanna, S., Andrews, R., & Pollanen, R. (2016). Strategic planning and implementation success
in public service organizations: Evidence from Canada. Public Management
Review, 18(7), 1017-1042.
Gan, S. S., Pujawan, I. N., & Widodo, B. (2017). Pricing decision for new and remanufactured
product in a closed-loop supply chain with separate sales-channel. International Journal
of Production Economics, 190, 120-132.
Gelbmann, U., & Hammerl, B. (2015). Integrative re-use systems as innovative business models
for devising sustainable product–service-systems. Journal of Cleaner Production, 97, 50-
60.
Hiassat, A., Diabat, A., & Rahwan, I. (2017). A genetic algorithm approach for location-
inventory-routing problem with perishable products. Journal of Manufacturing
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Hübner, A., Kuhn, H., & Wollenburg, J. (2016). Last mile fulfilment and distribution in omni-
channel grocery retailing: a strategic planning framework. International Journal of Retail
& Distribution Management, 44(3), 228-247.
It's Only Natural i.O.N Clothing featuring Hemp & Company . (2019). Hempandcompany.com.
Retrieved 13 March 2019, from https://www.hempandcompany.com/

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Assignment
Porter, M. E., & Heppelmann, J. E. (2015). How smart, connected products are transforming
companies. Harvard Business Review, 93(10), 96-114.
Verbeke, A., & Kano, L. (2016). An internalization theory perspective on the global and regional
strategies of multinational enterprises. Journal of World Business, 51(1), 83-92.
Wolf, C., & Floyd, S. W. (2017). Strategic planning research: Toward a theory-driven
agenda. Journal of Management, 43(6), 1754-1788.