Strategic Management: Analysis of DHL's Performance and Strategic Plan

This report provides an analysis of strategic management in the context of DHL, a global courier services company. It discusses the company's performance evaluation, competitive strength, market position, and strategic plan. The report also explores strategic models such as Ansoff Matrix and Porter's Generic Model. It includes an action plan and emphasizes the importance of controlling and monitoring resources. The report concludes with a reflection on the strategic view of the company and its impact on career development.

Strategic Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................3
PART A(1).......................................................................................................................................3
PART A (2)......................................................................................................................................4
PART B............................................................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9
Books and Journals.....................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Strategic planning is the process of directing the path of the enterprise towards the
implementation of strategy across the company. This process involves integrating the different
departments and coordinating their efforts towards the accomplishment of desired goals.
Strategic planning deals with the company's long term goals and objective which defines the
mission and vision of the company. This process involves setting the priorities and completing
them with efficient planning and utilisation of effective resources. To carry forward, this report
deals with the strategic planning and implantation of this across the DHL (Barca, 2017). Dalsey,
Hillblom and Lynn (DHL) is a German based company which offer courier services to the public
in return of maintaining their profit margin. The company has founded in 1969 which aims at
offshore and international deliveries which enhance their level of operations. In context with this
report, it evaluates the performance of DHL in the external environment and also describe the
strategic plan adopted by the company. Moreover, it depicts the reflection of strategic tools in
sustaining the competitive advantage. Lastly, it reflects the online learning activities with an
innovative view in the strategic market.
MAIN BODY
TASK 2
PART A(1)
Performance Evaluation of DHL
DHL aims at providing value added services to their customers to make their experience
memorable. The company is facing the challenges in the competitive environment which causes
due to external factors. The company tries to sustain a unique competitive edge which will build
a strong customer base. Also the company serves more than 200 companies across the globe with
effective services. In relation to this, the company's effective performance can be explained as
follows:
Competitive Strength: It depicts the strength of the company which is developed offer a
period of time by serving the customers in the best possible manner (Coen and Vannoni, 2020).
The company has maintained a strong customer base at global level with the help of effective
customer relationship. This will enhance their level of productivity and enables to achieve their

targeted goals. The another way is the use of effective advertisements and branding techniques
that will attract the prospective customers to avail their services. Along with this, DHL tries to
bring feasibility and consistency in their working by opting the cost cutting strategies. This will
increase their profit margin and convert the brand into a market leader in the industry.
Market position and Areas: DHL is an effective brand who opts the strategies which
will increase their chances for expanding the operations of the company. The company maintains
a separate image by offering the value added services to their customers for achieving the goals
of the company. The company offers its services in 220 areas across the globe and for that they
have to maintain a strong communication network (Ethiraj, Gambardella and Helfat, 2018). The
effective marketing channel will help in reaching the customers across these areas and increase
their level of productivity. The company is affected by different external environment factors
which majorly involves the different political situations prevailing across the areas. This will also
help in creation of opportunities and taking the corrective actions to take advantage of that
opportunity. This will enhance the customer satisfaction which the company achieve by
effective coordinated efforts of the management.
Hence, the company has a strong brand value which helps in managing the supply chain
of the company effectively. For this the company have to invest their funds in maintenance of
effective workforce which will use the technology in a precise manner towards the achievement
of goals of the company (Garzella and aele Fiorentino, 2017). The company uses the value chain
for delivering their services and maintaining the efficiency of the company at the global level. In
relation to this, the company can use various strategic resources such as human resources that
will help in effective utilisation of value chain network.
PART A (2)
Strategic Plan of Company
Strategic planning involves planning the vision, mission and values which will help in
achieving the long term goals of the company. An effective strategic plan play a pivot role in
enhancing the growth of the company. In regards to DHL, the company focuses on enhancing its
digital presence with the help of change management across the company. In terms of this DHL
has opted for the strategic plan which be can be explained as follows:
Mission: The mission Statement of the company is “ To connect the people across the
globe by satisfying them with their efficient services and contribute to making our world better.”

the company also tends to achieve high productivity level by valuing their employees, customers
and investors.
Vision: The vision of the company is” To become the world's largest logistic company
by utilising the opportunities and maintaining the competitive advantage.” The company wants
to create a benchmark for the industry in this competitive industry (O’Boyle, 2017).
Strategic Objectives:
 To enhance the customer base of the company by 15% in the next two months. To increase the revenue and sales of the company by 15% to 20% in the next 12 months.
Strategic Models for the Company.
There are some of the strategic models in relation to DHL that the company can apply in
their working environment.
Ansoff Matrix: For analysing the growth prospects and accomplishments of DHL, the company
have to use Ansoff matrix to draw effective conclusion for the attainment of growth in the
market.
 Market Penetration: In accordance with this strategy, the company undertakes low price
policy to attract a large customer base. This strategy is opted by the company for
enhancing their revenue and sales generation with the help of effective advertising and
promotions. This strategy is considered as the less risky due to involvement of high
promotional strategies. In context with DHL, the company aim for improving the current
services which will enhance their customer base.
 Market Development: In this strategy, the company offers effective and efficient
products to their customers which will attract the large number of customers towards
their brand. This strategy involves gaining the economies of scale by attracting maximum
number of customers in order to improve the company's global image (Pan, Sivo and
Goldsmith, 2016). In context with DHL, the company focuses on attracting and retaining
large number of potential customers for leading the market.
 Product Development: As per this strategy, the company offers new product to their
customers in the existing marketplace. This strategy is opted by company by undertaking
proper research on customer preferences to make improvement in their offerings. In
relation with DHL, the company can opt for different strategy to build their competitive
advantage across the industry as a leading brand.

 Diversification: This strategy involves diversifying the current operations of the country
into a new working environment. It is a risky strategy which involves the uncertainty of
involvement of new product and new market area. In relation with DHL, this strategy ca
offers diverse services to their potential customers to retain strong customer base for
longer duration.
DHL can apply these strategies effectively in order to maintain their quality of services
and enhance their base of loyal customers. DHL can use product differentiation for development
of their services by assessing the customer needs.
Porter's Generic Model
this framework is used to analyse the company's strategy for approaching the target
market and targeted audience (Parayitam and Papenhausen, 2018). DHL opt different strategies
to attract the customers and enhance the competitive advantage for the company. For, the
company can use the following prominent strategies:
 Cost Leadership: This strategy is used by the company in order to lead the industry by
satisfying the customer with their effecti9ve service offerings. The company can adopt
this strategy to analyse their growth prospects in the competitive market. DHL use this
strategy as a way to attract the customers for increasing their sales. This can be done by
offering them discounts, vouchers, festival offer and many more.
 Cost Focus: This strategy emphasises on the cost of the product and attract the customer
by offering them at their budgeted prices. DHL opt this strategy by setting the prices of
the products in an economical way for both the company and customers. The company
implements this strategy to ensure the high profitability and growth in the external
environment (Petrova, 2017).
 Differentiation Leadership: This strategy involves the diversified nature of leadership
in the industry. This explains that a company can achieve the market leadership by
offering different and effective products to their customers. DHL uses this strategy by
considering the customers preference in order to maintain the competitive advantage. Differentiation Focus: As per this strategy, the company considers the primary
expectations of the customers from their brand which will make the brand quite
competitive in order to achieve high profitability. DHL opt this strategy in order to
provide the customer with valuable product choices to achieve their highest satisfaction

level. Hence, DHL can opt the differentiation leadership strategy to become the market
leader with the help of their innovative offerings for the customer. Also, the company
keep its focus on external environment factors that ca harness the growth of the company.
Action Plan for the Company
Budget is a strategy opted with the purpose of allocation of resources and funds of the
company efficiently. For the execution of the strategy, the company focuses on preparation of
budget to avoid the wastage of scarce resources (Shanley, 2017). DHL company prepares the
budget to maintain the desired level of efficiency in their working environment of the company.
For enhancing their online services DHL is undertaking the following budget to ensure the
precise use of resources and funds of the company.
Particulars Amount (£)
Marketing 5000
Human resources 12000
Technological advancements (Considering
the delivery on stipulated period of time)
250000
Raw materials 40000
Controlling and Monitoring
It is important for the company to control and monitor the resources and funds of the
company to ensure the effectiveness. The desired goals can be achieved only if there is no
deficiency in the implementation of the strategy. With the help of benchmarking techniques the
company will be able to meet their standards timely which ensure smooth working of the
operations of the company.
PART B
Reflection of the strategic view of the company.
By undertaking this module I will be able to learn the working environment of the
industry. Also, I get to know the strategic viewpoint of the company and how a company
implements the strategy to maintain the competitiveness. Not this but I also understands that how
a company is meeting their targets by achieving the benchmarks with effective use of resources
in the external environment. This modules also provides the understanding of how a company
maintains their profitability level and their strategies for the customers retention. I also got to

know the strategic plan and how a company coordinate the efforts of different departments
towards the achievement of the organisational goals ( Toma, Marinescu and Grădinaru, 2016).
By completing this module, my personal skills also gets developed and I have analysed the
progress of different sectors in the industry.
This module has contributed towards the career development for my future targeted
goals,. Furthermore, it also defines the skills that I have to learn in order to make my career in
this sector. Skills play an important role and this module helped me a better understanding of the
learning techniques required for analysing the customer preferences. This model also helped in
enhancing my written communication skills which will contribute towards the achievement of
my career goals.
CONCLUSION
The above mentioned report provides a brief analysis of strategic management and its
significant role for maintaining a company's competitive edge. It also ensures the development of
company's strategies for facing the external environment. Respective company is well known for
its effective service across the globe which builds the competitive advantage for it. This report
also provides the understanding of strength and weaknesses of the company which ensure the
effective management of the workforce of the company. Hence, it is important to build a
strategic plan for ensuring smooth working of operations of the company.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Barca, M., 2017.Economic foundations of strategic management. Routledge.
Coen, D. and Vannoni, M., 2020. The strategic management of government affairs in
Brussels.Business & Society,59(4), pp.612-641.
Ethiraj, S.K., Gambardella, A. and Helfat, C.E., 2018. Theory in strategic management.Strategic
management journal,39(6), pp.1529-1529.
Garzella, S. and aele Fiorentino, R., 2017.Synergy Value and Strategic Management. Springer
International Publishing Switzerland.
O’Boyle, I., 2017. Strategic management in non-profit sport.Understanding Sport Management:
International perspectives, p.116.
Pan, C.C., Sivo, S.A. and Goldsmith, C., 2016. A prelude to strategic management of an online
enterprise.TechTrends,60(3), pp.226-232.
Parayitam, S. and Papenhausen, C., 2018. Strategic decision-making.Management Research
Review.
Petrova, E., 2017. Genesis of strategic management.
Shanley, M., 2017. Fragmentation in strategic management.The Oxford Handbook of
Management, pp.293-324.
Toma, S.G., Marinescu, P. and Grădinaru, C., 2016. Strategic planning and strategic
thinking.Revista Economică,68(5), pp.168-175.