Strategic Management: Analysis, Recommendations, and Models

STRATEGIC
MANAGEMENT
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN ANALYSIS..........................................................................................................................1
Background..................................................................................................................................1
SWOT..........................................................................................................................................1
PESTLE.......................................................................................................................................3
Porter’s five force........................................................................................................................4
Ansoff matrix...............................................................................................................................6
RECOMMENDATIONS.................................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9
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INTRODUCTION
Strategic management can be defined as management process with the help of which
organizations set their objectives, analyse competitive market in which they deal, analyse all
macro and micro factors that can affect an organization (Ansoff and et.al., 2018). It is quite
important to work on strategic management process as t helps them to evaluate their vision,
mission, goals as well as their future plans. Retail sector is a sector which is evolving
continuously. So, it is important for all the organization within this sector to continuously bring
changes within their current strategies, products, services etc. in order to attain sustainability.
This assignment will lay emphasis on strategic management models, process or strategies that
can be used by organizations to evaluate the industry in which they operate and strategies that
can be used by them to expand or grow in the industry they operate. This assignment will focus
on Sports Direct British Sports Retail organization.
MAIN ANALYSIS
Background
Sports Direct International Plc is a British Retail Organization which was established by
Mike Ashley in 1982 with its main headquarter in England. It is UK’s largest Sports Goods
retailer that have approximately 670 stores present all over the world. They majorly deal in
Sports goods and sell all sports products such as clothes, shoes etc. They have various sports
brands that mainly trade under the name of Sports Direct. They have employed approximately
17,500 employees working with them. Their overall £3,359.5 million. They have huge list of
renowned subsidiaries such as USC, Slazenger, Lilywhites and many more.
SWOT
SWOT analysis is a strategic tool that can be used for Situational analysis in order to detect
strengths, opportunities, threats and weakness of an organization (David and David, 2019)(Hitt
and Duane, 2017). With the help of this analysis Sports Direct can focus on their internal
operations in order to focus on their progress and come up with new ideas. SWOT analysis of
Sports Direct is as follows:
Strengths: One of the main strength of Sports Direct is their global network of stores
worldwide. They are UK’s number one sports retailers with more than 470 stores. They also
have tie-up with top brands such as Adidas, Nike and many more. They also have built their
expertise in entering successfully into new market. They also have strong online presence with
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24*7 home delivery which gives their customers a chance to get their products delivered to their
home. Another one of their main strength is that their employee turnover is quite low as they pay
high amount of bonus to their employees and other managers other than this, they also provide
various other benefits to their customers. They also have a huge list of renowned subsidiaries
such as USC, Slazenger, Lilywhites and many more. Sports direct have their own variety of
range of intellectual property including various patents and trademark. This helps them in
protecting their products and increases their exclusivity of their products. This also helps them in
making sure that their products are not being copied by any of their competitors.
Weakness: One of the top most, most prominent weakness of Sports Direct is their slow
growth in market share. They have always been working with low profit margin from many
years that can affect future probability of the company (Lasserre, 2017). Their employees also
lack skills that are required to deal with the customers due to which organization can face huge
loss in terms of competitive advantage and profitability. Another one of their weakness is that
they have not been able to tackle their current challenges that they have been facing because of
new entrants in this segment and because of this reason they have lost a small amount of market
share in niche category. They also need to invest more on new technology in order to integrate
their process all across the board. There is huge gap within the product range of the company that
are sold by them due to these gaps their competitors can get a hold of their market. Their
investment in research and development is quite low as compared to the fastest growing players
within this industry.
Opportunities: the company is focusing on acquiring various brands present across
Europe. It is one of the great opportunities for them in order to expand their customer base.
Due to continuous growing economic problems in Europe, has increased growth opportunities
for Sports Direct to expand their business in Eastern and Western Europe as well. New
environmental policies have increased opportunities for Sports Direct to bring innovation and
improvement within their products or introduce new product category to their customers. This
will help the company to gain competitive advantage as compared to their competitors. Stability
of free cash flow has also provided Sports direct with an opportunity invest in other product
categories as well. This free cash flow can also increase opportunity for the company to invest
more in new technologies.
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