Strategic Analysis of Core Management Logistics (CML)

This article provides a strategic analysis of Core Management Logistics (CML), including its position in the market, internal and external environment, and recommendations for improvement. The analysis includes the McKinsey 7s Framework, Porter's five forces, and PEST analysis. The article also discusses the company's strategy, structure, skills and styles, staff, system, and shared values. The recommendations include increasing innovation, actively controlling issues of stakeholders, engaging modes and processes of behaviors, and acknowledging possible conflicts.

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Table of content
Table of content..........................................................................................................................................2
Section 1......................................................................................................................................................4
The analysis of the strategic company’s position....................................................................................4
Identify and apply appropriate tools and techniques to analyze.............................................................4
The internal environment of the Core Management Logistics (CML)......................................................4
McKinsey 7s Framework..........................................................................................................................4
Strategy...............................................................................................................................................5
Structure..............................................................................................................................................5
Skills and styles....................................................................................................................................5
The staff...............................................................................................................................................6
System.................................................................................................................................................6
The shared values................................................................................................................................6
The external environment of the Core Management Logistics................................................................6
Leadership and communication..........................................................................................................6
The culture of the CML........................................................................................................................7
The position of the Core Management Logistics in the sector.................................................................7
The strengths and limitations of the Porter's five forces.....................................................................8
The client needs...................................................................................................................................8
Identify the main issues that you could advise the company to address.................................................8
Section 2....................................................................................................................................................10
Recommendations to the CML organization.........................................................................................10
Section 3....................................................................................................................................................11
Implementation of Recommendations..................................................................................................11
Leadership style.................................................................................................................................11
Communicating the vision to the key stakeholders...........................................................................12
Leadership strategy and the impact on organizational direction.......................................................12
Section 4....................................................................................................................................................13
Critical reflection...............................................................................................................................13
References.................................................................................................................................................15
Appendix...................................................................................................................................................17

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Appendix 1.............................................................................................................................................17
Appendix 2.............................................................................................................................................17

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Section 1
The analysis of the strategic company’s position
The Rebecca Jenkins. Director, Core Management Logistics (CML) is the case
summary chosen for this analysis. CML (core management logistics) boosts many
different portfolios of about 35 clients overwhelming spencer & marks and the LK
Bennet. The company traces its origin to the Meller group which is an accessory, beauty
and home suppliers within the United Kingdom. The Meller group initially established
the organization in the year 1990 as part of the Marks and Spencer consolidation
initiative (‘Strategic analysis,' 2017). The Core management logistics supported the
M&S (Marks and Spencer) by decreasing the collection by the suppliers' point in the
United Kingdom although the company has increased the services which resulted to it
recognition in the year 2007 by the M&S consolidation business. The CML is based
within Lutterworth and its as well providing distribution services and the warehouse to
some different brands and in the year 2004, it incorporated other common names like
CAT, Millets, Blacks Leisure and the Hush Puppies. In the year 2008, it was able to
create the international freight the client brokerage functions which either work directly
with the partners to offer its clients with a continuous chain solution. The company is
enjoying a turnover of about 16 million euros in the past financial year and is also giving
a wide range of options to the customers like e-commerce, the pre-retail, and other
value-added services. Core management logistics has also boasted a huge number of
international and retail clients like the Triumph cosmetics. Building from the previous
success, core management logistics is continuously focusing on every individual
customer's requirements to ensure the services are all flexible to its customers (Liu and
Ko, 2011).
Identify and apply appropriate tools and techniques to analyze
It’s important for any business organization to master some of the forces that influence
its operations and handle them with care. These forces can be found within or outside
the business premises, and the extent to which the organization treats such factors is
different from the other organizations.
The internal environment of the Core Management Logistics (CML)
McKinsey 7s Framework
The McKinsey 7s technique is used by business organizations when their effectiveness
and design is in question. The main objective of the framework is showing the 7 internal
factors with an organization which overwhelm the strategy, skills, structure, style, staff,
the shared values and the systems (Appendix 2). The seven elements are often

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interconnected and any transformation needed in certain area within the company must
change the rest of the organization for the model to be effective (Sammut-Bonnici and
Galea, 2015).
Strategy
The Main objective of the CML company is to establish a wide share within the industry.
The logistics company is based on the differentiation of their services which has mostly
focused on a high level of excellence. The intensive integration of the technological
innovation in the business is a key factor of the CML business strategy. From the
interview, the digitalization is one of the key component which will significantly impact
the future of the core management logistics with the autonomous and convoyed
vehicles in the next few years.
Structure
The core management logistics company possess a functional structure that include the
marketing and the human resource. Internationally, the company carry its activities
basically on the micro level, offering training services to the employees in the UK and as
a global supply chain provider. Due to the demand by their clients, the company has as
well teamed up with the industry partners in achieving the expectation from the
customers.
Skills and styles
Various companies have different management and cultural styles which include,
beliefs, norms and values. From the interview, Rebecca Jenkins suggest a number of
various skills and styles which are the problem solving, thinking strategically, emotional
intelligence, communication and the capability of involving other team members. For
instance, there situations which require transitional leadership styles for the purpose of
effective engagement. Rebecca demonstrate this by her involvement with the Body
shop in order to meet the agreed targets (KPIs) which she believes can only be
achieved through incorporating the ideas of the team.

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The staff
In Core management logistics, training is part of the company. This has been initiated
by the expansion of the organization around the globe. Thus, the company provides the
training in English language for the workers within the United Kingdom.
System
The core management logistics has some number elements within its system. The
major system is training the team which is one of the systems that has made the
company strong.
The shared values
All staff members of any company share common ideas around which the organization
is established. The main objective of this is to increase the income or attaining high
quality in certain field. Rebecca Jenkins has shown this by accepting the ideas from the
team in order to achieve the goals set by the CML company. The company has allowed
ideas from other members of the staff (Fassin, 2009).
The external environment of the Core Management Logistics
Many techniques can be used in the analysis of the external situation of the Core
Management Logistics. The method that will be used in the study of the external
environment for the CML is PEST (Political, social, economic and the technological).
Core Management Logistics has considered the political climate before establishing its
business strategies. For instance, the company has looked into the policies made by the
government and another risk that could occur due to political instabilities. Thus,
preventing the losses that could have resulted from the political dangers especially
during nationalization by the government. The economic aspects of CML are as well
variable and have profoundly influenced the way various customers spend money and
their purchase power. For example, during the promotion of different products the
company has always considered the additional financial information like taxes and the
current rates (Ebbers and Wijnberg, 2010)

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Leadership and communication
Digital technology is changing at a high standard especially in the way we share
information at the working place. The leaders of the Core Management Logistics have
recognized that for the growth and innovation of the company, they must change how
their workforce communicate. This has been achieved through fostering open sharing of
the information and engaging the individuals from the top officials to the first line
employees. In cases where workers are fully involved, companies have always
experienced improved workers' retention, the satisfaction of the clients, the overall
probability and sales metrics.
The culture of the CML
The ethical and lifestyle norms of the Core Management Logistics are the aspects of its
effectiveness and diversity. This has been enhanced by the leaders and the CEO and
other board directors who are able who can explain the ethics, values and the culture of
the company to other employees. The technique of the D&I is very critical when
controlling the culture and the ethics of such company in ensuring their vision and
mission is explicitly clear their workforce.
The position of the Core Management Logistics in the sector
The Porter's five forces technique will be used in analyzing the situation of the CML. It
will help in examining how the company has been positioned to counter its competitors.
Based on Porter's five forces, this piece will look into the consumers' bargaining power
and the competition within the market.
The size of the individuals who are receiving the services and the products for the CML
is significantly low hence the individual buyers have no adequate influence. This means
the power of bargaining of their consumers is moderately low. Their consumers are
quality sensitive and prefer paying for higher prices provided the services offered by the
company are of high quality and satisfy their needs.
The significant aspect that moderate the competitive nature for the Core Management
Logistics is its market share. The competitors willing to engage in the same services
and the exit barriers are very few. Therefore, considering this factor, the intensity of
competition within the CML company remains moderately low.

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The strengths and limitations of the Porter's five forces
The technique has been instrumental in examining the market structures of various
companies like the CML. This is because the structures had new entries and remained
static for a very long time and the supply chain may be transformed to a certain degree
hence the business organization may change quickly in adjusting its market positions.
The next advantage of the technique is that it can provide a suggestion where you can
locate various threats and difficulties in your business organization by analyzing the
substitutes.
On the other hand, the tool cannot fully offer meaningful data on to best conduct the
preventive measures. Hence with no regular updates, the knowledge acquired from
Porter's five forces technique could not be valid. Lastly, the model is only designed to
offer a snapshot of the organization.
The client needs
Understanding the needs of the client is one of the factors in the business organization.
Without uncovering the needs of the client, especially the desires, ambitions and hope
the company can never grow. The first thing which the CML company catered for in
satisfying the need of their customers is asking the clients insightful questions. By doing
this, they can dig deep in customers' needs hence offering the right services to their
customers. Secondly, the core management logistics listens keenly to their clients which
is never looking to get the clues on how they can improve their products to satisfy the
need of the consumers. Thirdly, the company has created a habit of providing the
clients with additional data which is built on what they had said initially.
Identify the main issues that you could advise the company to address.
Sustaining the growth of an organization is one of the biggest difficulties but it’s a
problem that can be experienced by any other big company. Even if the problem for
different companies, the CML may apply the following to improve as well sustain some
of the achieved goals.
1. The CML need to pin down the reason for implementing some of the new
strategies and give directions on how they should be implemented by various

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stakeholders. This can be achieved through recruiting the clients’ management
team to develop the products and the sales.
2. Establish a scalable organization by ensuring every individual within the
organization understands how important it is to establish emotional links with
consumers and the stakeholders. Establishing these links will give customers
opportunities to interact with their products and services.
3. Receiving new clients can be very costly to Core Management Logistics when
compared to retaining the current clients. The company should consider
decreasing the cost of their services and products to attract new customers as
well retain the current clients.
4. Establishing unique services and products and implement sales strategies that
can be deployed to break repeatable sales.

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Section 2
Recommendations to the CML organization
The Core Management Logistics organization has the capability in remaining as the
best in the market. The firm associate of their services with the trademarks and positive
externalities are among the key contributors to their current market position. However,
the company can apply the following recommendation to improve their position in the
market.
The Core management logistic organization should increase the innovation to develop
the services and products not vulnerable to their customers.
The company can perform as well its operations to boost its growth and development.
This could be achieved by actively control the issues of the legitimate stakeholders
within the organization, and the leadership can incorporate their views while making the
decisions for the organization (Bromiley and Rau, 2014).
The management team should always take their time in listening and communicating
openly with different stakeholders concerning their contributions within the company.
They should never assume anything because this could be a considerable risk because
of failing to involve sthem (Cinquini and Tenucci, 2010).
The management can engage the modes and the processes of the behaviors that are
critical to the issues and abilities of every stakeholder
The company's leadership and the managers should always identify the efforts of their
employees and reward them. They should as well distribute the benefits accrued by the
company equally among the shareholders considering their risk and vulnerability
(Academy and Review, 2012).
The board of directors and respectful managers must acknowledge possible conflicts
that could exist within the line of their duties as the corporate shareholders, moral and
legal responsibilities.

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Lastly, the leadership should cooperate with other private and public organizations in
ensuring the harms and the risks coming up from the corporate events are reduced and
compensated in case they happen (Gates, 2010).
Section 3
Implementation of Recommendations
Implementation is a procedure that transforms the plans and the strategies to
accomplish the strategic goals and the objectives of an organization. Implementing the
above approach is very important for the better growth and development of the CML.
Proper implementation of the strategic plans allows the business to map it needs to
meet specific performance directions and to provide its customers with quality values.
Implementing these recommendations might disrupt the process of information and
decision making in Core Management logistics (Leavy, 2010).
Leadership style
Leadership style is one of the techniques that can be utilized by the Core Management
Logistics to improve communication among workers and the top officials. This is one of
the first step and aspects that can be used to determine the leadership styles of various
managers within the organizations. For example, leadership style can be used in
determining the personality of the manager concerning skills, education, experience,
and the working environment. The leadership style can as well be useful to CML in
examining the characters of the employees usually shaped by the aspects like the level
of their official positions, skills, experiences, and competence. Concerning the
personalities of the employees, the manager will have no difficulties when
communicating with the workers and other stakeholders. Lastly, the leadership style
incorporates organizational polices values and the traditions which offer a guideline on
the running and innovations within the organization.
According to (Dikmen, Birgonul and Budayan, 2009) the link between the culture and
the business organization explains that the technique of any leaders in managing other
individuals is as the result of the kind of the management towards the stakeholders and
the employees. If the control of the CML embraces positive perception towards their
employees and the stakeholders, they are likely to use the lessee-fare and the

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democratic tools. These tools will always place more trust in the stakeholders and the
employees. Negative management is considered to be more predisposed to fit
authoritative styles of leadership that uses strict measures to achieve the motivation and
cooperation of the employee. The direction is, therefore, a structure that needs
consideration in ensuring the needs of the stakeholders and the workforce are fully met.
Any leader should be aware of the way the workers or the cooperate stakeholders are
well treated they are more likely to discharge their duties appropriately — the other
technique that can be employed by the leaders in CML increasing the tasks and
rewarding the output per the employee. This might be the only way management will be
able to measure the performance of their workers.
Communicating the vision to the key stakeholders
Leaders with the right personality and vision will inspire other workers through personal
attention and motivation. Hence, helping to win the sympathies of various individuals
who will then focus on meeting the objectives of the company. This strategy is excellent
when working with a system which needs some changes to increase the efforts of the
employees although it calls for the understanding of the environment in which the
business organization is operating on. Core Management Logistic organization should
share these strategies clearly with the workers. Then the management must
demonstrate the excellent relationship between the above approach and the decisions
with the front-line officials to encourage them to think strategically as well. That calls for
informal talk for both the employees and the team involved in the implementation of the
above strategies and sharing the plans inform of a written document with all the
workers.
Leadership strategy and the impact on organizational direction
According to (Phillips, 2011) changing the strategies of an organization can be
compared with an iceberg who half of it is under the surface of the water. That means in
the Core Management Logistics organization, every individual focus on what is
contained in the recommendation document. So, the big problem is to identify what
should be done at a given time. Therefore, the management should ensure the

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employees are well equipped with these changes to avoid any failure in implementing
the recommendations provided.
The other step in the implementation of these strategies is measuring their progress
during the deployment. The implementation team may measure the progress through
indicators like gross sales, the revenues and the level of customers. Some of the things
which should be measured in the case of core management logistics are; the total
number of the new clients, the percentage margin, satisfaction of the customers, return
on the investments, returns from the assets and the market share.
The last thing is tracking the performance. The company may develop a technique to
test the performance of the new recommendations on a weekly basis. This technique
could be like the performance metrics which will enable the team to meet and discuss
some of the discrepancies linked with the new strategies every specific selected day
within the week.
Section 4
Critical reflection
For the practices of personal development, there are some models which can help in
critical thinking. Gibbs reflective cycle is recognized as one of the best and easiest way
of following and implementing reflective practices. For instance, the practical and
technical reflection which be extended to the health practitioners as well concerning
ethical, moral their social-historical contexts. In the beginning, the concept was created
with the aim of presenting experiences that involve thinking in a critical manner
concerning personal choices and actions. The technique has facilitated active thoughts
as needed by the stipulated rationales in promoting the change. During the workshop, I
was able to see critical reflection as one of the contributors in doing the thing overtly to
give the expected outcome.
According to (Sammut-Bonnici and Galea, 2015) the tool has suggested more reflection
was needed in making decisions while at their workplace. From the workshop, there
was a lot learn. One of them is when the incidence occurs at the working place where
as an employee you're required to equip yourself with the right details. There is a need

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to maintain the confidence of the other employees, and one should not judge or draw
the conclusion when the real information has not yet been established. When the
incidence is discovered those concerned should admit for the mistakes and take the
responsibility of what has occurred. I was able to see my mistakes and choose to be
open during the training and learn from the experiences as well. From the workshop, I
was able to determine that in case the problem occurs, it’s good to find the solution but
to blame whoever did the wrong thing. Lastly, I also realized that during the incident, I
should take the break when am not able to make the right decision (Appendix 1).

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doi: 10.1057/jors.2010.127.

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Appendix
Appendix 1
The Gibbs cycle
Appendix 2
The McKinsey 7s Framework