Analysis of Hertfordshire Chamber of Commerce

The provided assignment is a comprehensive analysis of the Hertfordshire Chamber of Commerce. It includes a PESTLE analysis to identify political, economic, social, technological, legislative, and environmental factors affecting the organization. Additionally, it employs Porter's five forces framework to assess the threat of new entrants, industry rivalry, supplier power, buyer power, and threat of substitutes. The value chain analysis breaks down primary and support activities, highlighting inbound logistics, operations, outbound logistics, marketing and sales, and support activities such as firm infrastructure, human resource management, procurement, and technology. This analysis aims to provide insights into the chamber's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, making it a valuable resource for stakeholders.

Running head: STRATEGY FOR GAINING COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES
STRATEGY FOR GAINING COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES
Name of the student:
Name of University:
Author Note:
Introduction:

1STRATEGY FOR GAINING COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES
Table of Contents
Introduction:...............................................................................................................................1
Strategic issues:..........................................................................................................................2
Allocation of necessary financial and human resources............................................................2
Improvement of information system:.........................................................................................5
Threat to specific powers:..........................................................................................................8
Conclusion:..............................................................................................................................10
References:...............................................................................................................................11
Appendices:..............................................................................................................................14

2STRATEGY FOR GAINING COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES
Introduction:
This coursework analyses the strategies for one of the most popular and successful
organisation of the United Kingdom, namely Hertfordshire Chamber of Commerce. This
organisation has been serving the national and international customers for more than 90 years
(Hwchamber.co.uk, 2018). This particular company provides a high class business support to
the local, national and international companies of all sizes. The organisation provides
assistance to its clients through a wide range of networking opportunities as well as
membership benefits. the chief operation of Hertfordshire Chamber of Commerce id to
influence the core decision makers of both the local as well as national government. These
clients regularly consult with the organisation for feedbacks from all the business
communities after any policy is being established. Hertfordshire Chamber of Commerce has
been accredited by the British Chamber of Commerce hence the organisation gets benefit of
opening doors for forging new business relationships. It brings together people from diverse
business sectors and assists them for connecting, collaborating then prosper (Albrecht et al.
2015). This particular organisation works to support the members and develop an
environment where every member can grow. The clients of the organisation can be local or
global who can be benefitted by the vast knowledge as well as expertise of the organisation
(Schaltegger, Hansen and Lüdeke-Freund 2016). Hertfordshire Chamber of Commerce
creates an economic environment where the clients can get services such as business benefits,
lobbying and policy, events, trainings and other international services like export
documentation. Despite the fact that the company has been serving its local clients very
efficiently, there are some problems within the company’s policies as well as changing
external environments, which are proved to be potential problems for the growth of
Hertfordshire Chamber of Commerce

3STRATEGY FOR GAINING COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES
This reports aims to analyse the chief strategic issues that Hertfordshire Chamber of
Commerce need to follow in gaining more competitive advantage. These strategies include,
allocation of required financial as well as human resources, threat to specific powers and
proper handing and usage of improved information systems.
Strategic issues:
Allocation of necessary financial and human resources
Broad environment:
Increased inflation rate is one of the major negative economic effect that has
influenced the internal ambience of the institution greatly (Sparrow, Brewster and Chung
2016). It has been working since 1924, there is a need of change in the financial structure of
the institution (Chambers 2018). In addition to this, devaluation of money has a great impact
on the financial system of the institution. As it deals with the various sizes of companies and
aid them for flourishing, these economic changes in the country has an adverse effect on the
institution. The company is completely privet and runs with the profit acquired from aiding
the small, medium and large companies. These companies include local firms, national and
international companies of any size. Due to the economic slowdown of the country, the
businesses with these firms has been creating tremendous pressure on the financial structure
of the institution (Stone et al. 2016). In addition to this, the economic problem in the country,
has prevented the initiatives of opening new start-ups in the local or national basis because of
which the process of having new clients or mission to enhance more market reach has been
totally closed for this institution. Hertfordshire Chamber of Commerce is expected to pay the
tax of more than 20% to the government but suffers hugely due to inflation. In one hand the
pressure of taxes and lack of new client organisation on the other, have seriously hampered
the operation of Hertfordshire Chamber of Commerce.

4STRATEGY FOR GAINING COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES
Industry environment:
In addition to this, the institution is greatly suffering from human resource problem.
Due to financial problem it has not been able to recruit as manty employees as required in
this firm. As the inflation has hit its highest in these last few years, the organisation could not
pay incentives to the employees and had a great issue with the supply chains. This institution
has been trying to adopt cost leadership strategies but facing a tremendous monetary pressure.
Due to this reason many of the experienced employees have left the institution and it is not
being able to recruit fresh people (Zhao et al. 2016). Lack of clients has decreased the
popularity of the firm which has ultimately demoralised the institution’s human resource. The
employee turnover has been increasing greatly especially the executives. This is mainly
because of the fact that this institution has been losing its market position as it cannot take
any preventive measures to survive these problems. It has very limited power because the
institution works under BCC hence cannot form any new policies but depend upon the
command of the higher authorities.
Internal analysis:
Hertfordshire Chamber of Commerce is insufficient of its own income due to
increased competition and the loss of assets. Moreover, the employee and other costs have
increased greatly. Due to financial instability and absence of assurance employee turnover
has been increasing. The traditional method of guiding the clients have reduced its
competency and consistency of the firm. With the changing economy, the industry is not
being able to cope up both from the economic as well as human resource aspects. On the
other hand, the competitors of Hertfordshire Chamber of Commerce are autonomous hence

5STRATEGY FOR GAINING COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES
can change their policies with the change of time and need (Anitha 2014). The institution has
been High turnover rate of the expert and specialised employees which has affected the
operation of the institution greatly. It is one of the chief reasons why the institution has been
losing it ground in the competitive market.
Discussion:
Since the company has been serving the small and medium sector companies for more
than 90 years it has great experience in dealing with the old firms and has been able to build a
brand loyalty among its clients. The institution’s competitive advantage can be built through
the quality of its service which will provide differentiation from the other chamber of
commerce. It works under the UK’s most popular British chamber of commerce hence it has
a huge scope for developing national as well as international business participation.
Moreover, the company has core capabilities of market research which is the need of this
situation. As the country’s economy has been suffering from economic slowdown, it is the
best time to understand the market requirement.
Strategic options:
Hertfordshire Chamber of Commerce enjoys a great popularity as well as huge
experience due to the fact that it has been working in this field of guiding the local, national
and international firms for more than 80 years. It has undergone many rough roads to
development hence the institution must find strategies to overcome this economic pressure.
There are many scopes for the institution most import of which it the opportunity to influence
and grab new start-ups. The government of the UK has decided to decrease the corporate tax
by 17% within 2020 which will definitely create scope for the new small or medium
companies to start business. This step by the UK government will act as an incentive for fresh
initiatives which will increase the number of client of the institution. In addition to this,

6STRATEGY FOR GAINING COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES
initiatives to have a better collaboration with the employees is vital. Through proper research
the institution will be able to motivate the employees and prevent the high turnover rate.
Hertfordshire Chamber of Commerce need to bring changes in the management so that some
policies for proper operation can be changed (Bair and Palpacuer 2015). The institution can
take assistance from other professional associations as well as other related organisations so
that it can gain a competitive advantage in the competitive market of the UK.
Improvement of information system:
Broad environment:
More than three out of five institution of the UK has been suffering from the problems
regarding technological advancements. Their concerns are basically to correct identify their
clients and provide them more security and proper service. In this regard, the institutions of
the UK have been lagged from their counterparts in the USA, China, Singapore and
Australia. These companies are adopting new approaches for customer authentication and
then include them in the business (Brewster et al. 2016). As the research done by numerous
data intelligence firms, these institutions like Hertfordshire Chamber of Commerce, are less
focused on the new and advanced technologies but more on the cost control. These firms are
less likely to take interest in the utilisation of automatic electronic data capture in their
business. These institutions are seriously lagged behind the competitors of the other
countries. The researchers have found out that the UK is currently behind in the usage of
digital approach which can be their promising sing for future upgradation and developments
(Kavanagh and Johnson 2017). Most of the institutions are more focussed in adopting newer
approaches and planning to enhance investments to overcome the economic slowdown or
inflation which has greatly affected the structure of the small and large firms situated in the
UK. In fetching new investors from the foreign countries will be easily for the institutions if
they use digital platforms for marketing.

7STRATEGY FOR GAINING COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES
Industry environment:
The institution Hertfordshire Chamber of Commerce has a tremendous rivalry among
the competitors operating in the same industry. This is due to the fact that all of these
institutions work under one particular institution that is British Chamber of commerce. There
are six more branches of the BCC in the West midlands which offer the same facilities to
their clients as this institution provides. All of these institutions are filled with experts who
have great knowledge of the business environment of this kind of institutions as well as the
effective regulations (Buckley, Burton and Mirza 2016). These regulations mainly focus on
the Intellectual property that are chief forces of innovation and creation within industry. This
industry needs to have innovative skills among its labours and high expertise as well as
experience in dealing with the information technology. This is the chief drivers of this
industry as they work with the national and international clients. In case they themselves do
not have authentic information about the situation or economic data of the investors, they will
not be able to research om this matter and consequently will not be able to provide data to
their clients (Koc and Bozdag 2017). Thus the institutions need to have sound technological
advancement in their workplaces.
Internal analysis:
Hertfordshire Chamber of Commerce conducts trainings so that the clients have
opportunities to measure their skill gaps and solve these gaps immediately. In doing so they
provide 50 courses in essential business skills. It has 1400 members within one directory. All
of these members are deeply connected with each other. They have easy access to the
institution directory and promote member to member trading thus gain exclusive member
discounts. The chief aim of the institution is to increase collaboration between the education
providers and the clients so that they gain exposure to their business both nationally as well

8STRATEGY FOR GAINING COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES
as internationally. In doing all these the institution needs to have a strong and well-furnished
technological support system (Albrecht et al. 2015). However, the institution needs to have
proper telecommunication infrastructure which will provide them scope for capture authentic
data from the international clients and assist the local business firms (Jackson, Schuler and
Jiang 2014).
Discussion:
The government have been trying to deliver all the needs tools, standers ad resources
which will help all the firms to gain advantages. On the other hand, the institutions such as
Hertfordshire Chamber of Commerce will be able to work more effectively for collaborating
the educator with the clients as well as deliver user focussed services. The institution mainly
focuses on the international trading services, which need proper information from the
governmental department of international trade that is great.gov.uk (Schaltegger and Wagner
2017). Following these the institution can take advantages of digital marketing of its survives
such as ‘exporting is great’ and ‘selling online overseas’. These are designed, developed as
well as delivered in no time (Chrisman et al. 2016). From these portals, the small local firms
can get assistance through the institutional notifications and track their growth.
Strategic options:
Within this hypercompetitive environment, the institution needs to have Proper
infrastructure and communication facilities through digital medium so that the institution can
reach their clients easily. The main focus of the company is to create a platform where the
business educators and the clients lacking knowledge of one particular field meet. Therefore,
technological improvement is a vital fact to collaborate and provide assistant to the client
forms (De Jong and van Dijk 2015). As the innovation and creativity are major issues, this
institution needs proper investment in the technological development within the institution.

9STRATEGY FOR GAINING COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES
Including this, the company can take advantage of the digital platforms which will help it to
get a perfect scope for the commutation with the international clients. For achieving these, the
institution must have high internet connection in its branches (Martinez-Simarro, Devece and
Llopis-Albert 2015). Providing the clients with proper information and secure their own
information, the constitution must have a high quality digital security system. This will assist
the institution to manage the highly secured data to handle and guarantee to provide all-
inclusive support to all the clients.
Threat to specific powers:
Broad environment:
Specific powers are the powers that enable individual to have a law making control in
his hands. This enumerated powers are entirely enjoyed by the topmost hierarchy (Lazaroiu
2015). As mentioned before, Hertfordshire Chamber of Commerce operates under the BCC.
It has more than 50 accredited Chambers of Commerce in the various parts of the UK. It
represents more than 70 thousand business and help more than five million people across the
globe. The chief aim of Hertfordshire Chamber of Commerce is to maintain collaboration
between the clients and the resources. Its members range from growth-oriented start-ups to
local and regional subsidiaries of multinational companies. These companies are basically
from the commercial as well as industrial sectors (Grover 2016). The British Chamber of
Commerce conducts independent business survey across the UK which defines their policies
within the subordinate intuitions as well as maintaining relations with their client companies.
Industry environment:
All the policies or regulations are being laid by the top authority hence the chamber of
commerce’s do not need to form any rule for the appropriate operation but only follow these
structures of management. This however, has proved to be problematic for these chambers of

10STRATEGY FOR GAINING COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES
commerce. The authorities have duties to maintain but very limited power to execute. Hence
they cannot alter any outdated rules or recruit new employees independently.
Internal analysis:
Hertfordshire Chamber of Commerce is a subsidiary of the BCC hence like all other
subsidiaries, it cannot change the policies but follow them accordingly. The specific power
that empowers the company heads, is not acceptable by the structure of the institution
(Hedman, Sarker and Veit 2016). This is the reason why the institution cannot introduce
newer technologies for assisting the clients as well as apply new methods of education and
training to the small businessmen for starting successfully. There has been a huge financial
problem that ultimately leads to the employee turnover. In addition to this, without any
specific power, the managers of the institution cannot provide benefits to their employees and
the employees are leaving the organisation for when they get more options and benefits in
other institutions (Albrecht et al. 2015).
Discussion:
The chief aim of the Chamber of Commerce in any country is a form of business
framework that aims to further the interests of the businesses (Prajogo, Oke and Olhager
2016). The small to large companies gather and advocate on behalf of the business
communities. These have members form the board of directors who create policies and
legislation to guide the clients successfully. For this reason, the director of the head Chamber
of Commerce enjoy supreme power as well as authority to build the whole organisation and
fulfil all the needs of the employees and the clients (Dobbs 2014). One the other hand, the
subsidiaries of the head institution do not have much power to execute. They all follow the
same rules and policies. They cannot follow new upgraded marketing strategies to attract
members and increase the number.

11STRATEGY FOR GAINING COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES
Strategic options:
For breaking into the large and lucrative new markets the institution can introduce attractive
new programs for empowering the clients. Through these the institution can share their hard
earned expertise, knowledge and experience and gain competitive advantage (Gulati and Soni
2015). They can advise and guide their tailored experiences individually to the clients’
needs. The chief aim of the institution needs to make the local businesses more visible, gain
more reach in the overseas market by accessing proper routes.
Conclusion:
Therefore, it can be concluded that there are diverse problems lumbering around the
business environment of Hertfordshire Chamber of Commerce. There are financial issues that
have transformed the business of the small and medium industries to operate in the free
market. The main project of this institution is to provide guidance to the small, medium and
large firm located in the country as well as in the foreign countries. The institution has
acquired a good reputation in its felid and enjoy great popularity in the area where it is
situated. However, these are some issues which have been affecting the institution for last
few years especially since the inflation in the UK along with other economic and
technological problems. The problems regarding the employee turnover has affected the
institution greatly. Despite the fact that the country has a large human resource that can
provide cheap skilled labours. However, the institution does not have any power to recruited
employees or change policies, it cannot introduce any new norm but has to work under
specific principalities. The clients are provided with facilities to grow in both the national as
well as international environment. These are the reasons why the institution must follow
some strategies to cope up with the changing time and client needs.

12STRATEGY FOR GAINING COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES
References:
Albrecht, S.L., Bakker, A.B., Gruman, J.A., Macey, W.H. and Saks, A.M., 2015. Employee
engagement, human resource management practices and competitive advantage: An
integrated approach. Journal of Organizational Effectiveness: People and Performance, 2(1),
pp.7-35.
Anitha, J., 2014. Determinants of employee engagement and their impact on employee
performance. International journal of productivity and performance management, 63(3),
p.308.
Bair, J. and Palpacuer, F., 2015. CSR beyond the corporation: contested governance in global
value chains. Global Networks, 15(s1).
Brewster, C., Houldsworth, E., Sparrow, P. and Vernon, G., 2016. International human
resource management. Kogan Page Publishers.
Buckley, P.J., Burton, F. and Mirza, H. eds., 2016. The strategy and organization of
international business. Springer.
Chambers, H. (2018). About the Chamber of Commerce. [online] Hertschamber.com.
Available at: http://www.hertschamber.com/about-us [Accessed 15 Mar. 2018].
Chrisman, J.J., Chua, J.H., De Massis, A., Minola, T. and Vismara, S., 2016. Management
processes and strategy execution in family firms: from “what” to “how”. Small Business
Economics, 47(3), pp.719-734.
De Jong, M. and van Dijk, M., 2015. Disrupting beliefs: A new approach to business-model
innovation. McKinsey Quarterly, 3, pp.66-75.
E. Dobbs, M., 2014. Guidelines for applying Porter's five forces framework: a set of industry
analysis templates. Competitiveness Review, 24(1), pp.32-45.

13STRATEGY FOR GAINING COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES
Grover, V.M., 2016. Alignment of Business Strategy and Innovation Strategy: Strategic
Benefits. Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research, 3(1).
Gulati, R. and Soni, T., 2015. Digitization: A strategic key to business. Journal of Advances
in Business Management, 1(2), pp.60-67.
Hedman, J., Sarker, S. and Veit, D., 2016. Digitization in business models and
entrepreneurship. Information Systems Journal, 26(5), pp.419-420.
Hwchamber.co.uk (2018). Marketing & PR | Herefordshire & Worcestershire Chamber of
Commerce. [online] Hwchamber.co.uk. Available at:
https://hwchamber.co.uk/support/marketing-pr [Accessed 15 Mar. 2018].
Jackson, S.E., Schuler, R.S. and Jiang, K., 2014. An aspirational framework for strategic
human resource management. The Academy of Management Annals, 8(1), pp.1-56.
Kavanagh, M.J. and Johnson, R.D. eds., 2017. Human resource information systems: Basics,
applications, and future directions. Sage Publications.
Koc, T. and Bozdag, E., 2017. Measuring the degree of novelty of innovation based on
Porter's value chain approach. European Journal of Operational Research, 257(2), pp.559-
567.
Lazaroiu, G., 2015. Employee motivation and job performance. Linguistic and Philosophical
Investigations, 14, p.97.
Martinez-Simarro, D., Devece, C. and Llopis-Albert, C., 2015. How information systems
strategy moderates the relationship between business strategy and performance. Journal of
Business Research, 68(7), pp.1592-1594.

14STRATEGY FOR GAINING COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES
Prajogo, D., Oke, A. and Olhager, J., 2016. Supply chain processes: Linking supply logistics
integration, supply performance, lean processes and competitive performance. International
Journal of Operations & Production Management, 36(2), pp.220-238.
Schaltegger, S. and Wagner, M. eds., 2017. Managing the business case for sustainability:
The integration of social, environmental and economic performance. Routledge.
Schaltegger, S., Hansen, E.G. and Lüdeke-Freund, F., 2016. Business models for
sustainability: Origins, present research, and future avenues.
Sparrow, P., Brewster, C. and Chung, C., 2016. Globalizing human resource management.
Routledge.
Stone, D.L., Deadrick, D.L., Lukaszewski, K.M. and Johnson, R., 2015. The influence of
technology on the future of human resource management. Human Resource Management
Review, 25(2), pp.216-231.
Zhao, Y., Morgan-Thomas, A., Von Delft, S. and Buck, T., 2016. Survival Through Digital
Innovation: How Digitization Accelerates Business Model Evolution.

15STRATEGY FOR GAINING COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES
Appendices:
Team reflection:
The group consisted of five people and each of them are from different cultures. The
situational analysis of the strategies that Hertfordshire Chamber of Commerce can follow to
gain competitive advantage needed a team work. Overall, to us, this task was very much
interesting because this analysis gave us an insight of the business environment of
Hertfordshire Chamber of Commerce that need to have a change.
As mentioned before, our team consisted of people from different backgrounds, with
different perspectives. It was quite new and exciting for use as we had to convey our thoughts
so that they can reach to all efficiently. Despite the fact that this also caused some
miscommunications as well as misunderstanding, we managed to work together finally.
There were different issues that emerged in doing this project, for instance some of the team
members found this assignment too difficult to understand as they had difficulties regarding
language. However, as most of had English as our first language, we assisted the international
students in understanding this project.
Initially the assignment was found to be complex as it has numerous facets to explore
but after creating the assignment structure, we found it extremity easy to follow. We also
used tutorials and asked many questions about the difficult segments. After assimilating all
these factors, we found our actions to be in the right track.
Overall, this topic seemed to be very interesting to us. This project has built a strong
understanding of business strategies and its importance in the operations of the organisations.
Despite the fact that we went through various problems like communication issues and absent
in the meetings problems, we were able to complete this assignment within the designated
time.

16STRATEGY FOR GAINING COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES

17STRATEGY FOR GAINING COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES
Team log:
Weak 1. Discussion of the topic, selection of the company
Weak 2. Analysis of the resources
Weak 3. Writing assignment based on research.

18STRATEGY FOR GAINING COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES
SWOT analysis:
Strengths weaknesses
- Well know and popular status
among the small and large size
companies along with the local and
central government.
- It works under the British Chamber
of Commerce hence maintain a
collaborative relation with other
chambers of commerce in European
bodies.
- Insufficiency of own income and
loss of assets
- Management deficiencies and no
preventive measures for
international economic crisis.
- Inadequate specific powers and
some economic prerogatives
preventing the path of income
generating activities.
- Many clients having small business
firms along with the micro-
businesses are facing economic
crisis
- Difficulty in accessing the economic
data of the international clients.
Opportunities risk
- location of the organisation is in the
business centre surrounded by SMEs
and big active companies
- It is the consulting body of the local
and state administration industries.
- Limitations of specific activities and
impossibilities to carry out
allocation of human and financial
resources.
- Threat of acquisition.

19STRATEGY FOR GAINING COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES
PESTLE analysis:
Political
Positive
 Being a constitutional monarchy, the
UK has a stable political condition.
 Prerogative and effective
government
 Split into national and local
government and maintain proper
connection in the hierarchy.
Negative
 Uncertainty regarding Brexit
problem
 Well-hidden corruption
Economic
Positive
 Fifth highest GDP in the world and
second in Europe
 Large population
 Diversification in the economy
 Scope for flourishment of both
public and private sectors
 Growing foreign direct investment
 Free market
 Positive changes in the interest rate
 Encouragement by the government
for opening new start ups
Negative
 Sluggish recovery from the
economic recession
 Fund draining due to free public
services along with divers financial
aids
 Increasing unemployment level

20STRATEGY FOR GAINING COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES
Social
Positive
 Free public serves and other
facilities
 Dense population with more than 60
million inhabitants that creates scope
for market and investment
 High level of income
 Open for migration to cosmopolitan
environment
 High standard of living
 Awareness regarding fund and asset
 Large, skilled yet cheap workforce.
Negative
 High dependency ratio which is
constantly increasing
 Social unrest due to the problems of
settlement of the immigration and
different ethnic groups
 Increasing cost for education and
training.
Technological
Positive
 High quality innovative skills of the
labours
 High expertise and experience in
information technology and science
sectors.
 Effective regulations with regard to
the IP
 High internet availability
 Telecommunication infrastructure
 A lot of internal competition that
stimulate the growth of the
companies
Negative
 Slow technological advancement in
comparison to the United States.
Legislative
 Strong labour law
 Legislative provisions for workplace
Environmental
 Strong environment policies
 excellent regulation in the