Evaluating Strategic Directions for Aston Martin: A Detailed Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Aston Martin's business strategies, examining both its internal and external environments. It begins with an overview of Aston Martin's mission, vision, and objectives, followed by a PESTEL analysis to assess the impact of macro-environmental factors and a stakeholder analysis to understand the influence of various stakeholders. The report then delves into the organization's internal environment using McKinsey's 7S model and a VRIO analysis to identify resources and capabilities that provide a competitive advantage. Furthermore, it employs tools like the balanced scorecard, Porter's five forces model, and the Ansoff Matrix to understand and interpret strategic directions available to the organization. The analysis considers strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, concluding with insights into Aston Martin's strategic challenges and potential pathways for future growth. Desklib provides access to similar reports and study resources for students.

Business Strategy

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Task 1...............................................................................................................................................3
Analyse the impact and influence which the macro environment has on an organisation and its
business strategies.......................................................................................................................3
Task 2...............................................................................................................................................7
Assess an organisation’s internal environment and capabilities Organisational internal
environment.................................................................................................................................7
VRIO analysis of the Aston Martin............................................................................................8
TASK 3..........................................................................................................................................10
Balance scorecard to align organisation vision and strategy. .................................................10
Porter's five force model...........................................................................................................11
Ansoff Matrix............................................................................................................................12
Task 4.............................................................................................................................................14
Apply models, theories and concepts to assist with the understanding and interpretation of
strategic directions available to an organisation.......................................................................14
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................16
REFERNCES:................................................................................................................................17
Books and Journals:..................................................................................................................17

Introduction
Strategies are made to achieve organisational objectives because it help to made those
plans which help to show a appropriate direction to workforce that what should be done and how
it should be done to achieve to complete their daily task (Farrukh and et. al., 2020). It is essential
for every company to prepare strategies for them self to gain competitive advantage, to build
good reputation in market, to gain more customers and many others. Aston Martin Lagonda
Global Holdings PLC is luxury sports car manufacturing company which was founded in 1913
by Lionel Martin and Robert Bamford. It is headquartered in England, UK. The following file
covers internal and external business environment analysis to examine the organisational
strategies to handle such factors. It also include competitive analysis of given organisation and
some models and theories to implement the plan.
Task 1
Analyse the impact and influence which the macro environment has on an organisation and its
business strategiesThe strategic content-
Mission
- Aston Martin's mission statement is 'to become British best car manufacturing company
which will gain the customer satisfaction by providing them most beautiful car in looks and
quality both.'
Vision- Aston Martin's vision is to generate higher profit and become world's best company by
leading the industry at global level.
Objectives- few objectives of Aston Martin are given below-
 To lead the high luxury sports car market at global level.
 To manufacture those cars which attract the attention of racers or sport's car lovers.
 To adopt innovations on regular basis in the products to satisfy customers.
Strategy is defines as the plan of action for workforce of a company which is set to
achieve a log tern as well as short term goals (Park and Mithas, 2020). Strategy plays an
important role to achieve business objectives, mission, vision and many others. In context of
Aston Martin, their strategies to check the quality of their products on regular basis will help
them to capture bigger market. Hence, this will help them to achieve their mission and vision.

Beside this, they also adopt new ideas for new car designs and development of the power of their
engines which help them to to cover their objective for innovation. Analytical frameworks of the macro environment-
PESTEL analysis is used to analyse how external factors of business impacted upon
company and in what ways company respond to such factors. PESTEL analysis of Aston Martin
is given below-
Political factors- Government of UK help their companies to expand well by reducing the
restrictions on trading for UK based companies. This will help Aston Martin to manufacture their
cars and export them to other countries easily (Pan, Chen and Zhan, 2019).
Economical factors- Economical growth of UK is good which help companies to grow
well. On the other hand, raw material of UK is expensive as compared to many other countries.
This will impact negative upon Aston Martin by spending more expenses on purchasing raw
materials.
Social factors- Population of UK consist of having high purchasing habit and they focus
to purchase quality products whether they have to spend little more on it. This will help Aston
Martin to manufacture good quality of cars and attract their targeted customers.
Technological factor- Aston Martin is an auto mobile company where the quality of
product is mostly depend on their technological factor that which kind of technology they used.
It is essential for them to use highly advanced and modern machines and tools for booth
manufacturing as well as for testing the quality of their cars.

Environmental factor- Aston Martin is trying to opt the method for manufacturing
electrical cars which is Eco- friendly for environment (Kara, 2018). They also adopt targeted to
release less harmful gasses in their environment while manufacturing their cars and engines to
save protect their air pollution.
Legal factors- Due to the compliances with specific vehicle safety norms may restrict
Aston Martin to manufacture their cars according to their will (Tsangas and et. al., 2019). In UK,
it is illegal to remove headrests from their cars and there are many other laws which will restrict
companies to remove safety items like air bags and many others from their cars.
Stakeholder analysis is used identify those factors which impacted a company from
shareholder's side. Stakeholders are those individuals which have interest in the company and
can gain the control over a company. Stakeholder analysis of Aston Martin is explained below- I N T E R E S T L E V E L
P
O
W
E
R
High
Low
High Customers Government
Low Employees Suppliers
Customers- They are the stakeholder which have high interest and high power within the
company because they are the one who knows well that what reputation that company gained in
market and the customers are demanding high for their products. This directly indicates that the
company will grow higher in future.
Government- They are having high power but less interest within a company to take
control because government takes care that no company will work for those aims which will
harm their society (Raum, 2018). Hence, due to monitoring activities they are having larger
power.
Employees- They are having larger interest in the company but have less power because
they also know that company is gaining profit by noticing the amount of car manufactured and
delivered to customers. They are given less power because higher authorities did not allow them

to take decisions due to the factor that they will take decisions for their personal benefit instead
of organisational benefit.
Suppliers- They are having low power as well as low interest within the company
because they are not the part of company and they are unaware about manufacturing quantity of
company and revenue generation of company and many others. Hence, they are given less power
and they do not have much interest (Schmidt, Drews and Schirmer, 2017).
Organisational audit: SWOT analysis-
Strength-
Their technological feature help them to
grow high by introducing new features in
their cars which further help them to gain
their targeted customers satisfaction.
Weakness-
They are depending on limited number of
suppliers which will harm their company in
case their suppliers switch to other brand.
This is also impacting recently because
suppliers decide prices of their raw material
according to them self as they know that
company is fully depends upon their raw
material only.
Opportunity-
It is a good opportunity for Aston Martin to
manufacture electric cars because it is
Threat-
High competition can cause greater threat for
Aston Martin. Bentley Motors, Jaguar,

demanding more in market. Ferrari and many others are competitors of
Aston Martin which is having good brand
image in their specific market.
Task 2
Assess an organisation’s internal environment and capabilities Organisational internal
environment
McKinsey's 7S model is used to analyse effectiveness of their internal factors. McKinsey's 7S
model of Aston Martin is given below-
Skills- It include the skills and talents of employees which help Aston Martin to achieve
their goals. Innovative skills of employees help the most to grow well for Aston Martin.
Staff- it consist of employees and their general capabilities. Aston Martin is well skilled
employees who is capable to perform their roles and duties in such a way which will help their
company to manage their culture and achieve their daily task appropriately (Razmi, Mehrvar and
Hassani, 2020).

Style- Aston Martin is having participative leadership style where they allow their
employees to take decision and also to suggest some innovative ideas to senior authority for
company's growth.
Shared values- Aston Martin have good working culture and there employees work as a
team to achieve their organisational goal. In context of any issue of company all employees work
together and help each other to resolve the issue as soon as possible.
System- Aston Martin analyse their daily task to their employees and provide them the
deadline top complete their task. They are also given appropriate roles and responsibilities to
achieve which further help them to work effectively and efficiently.
Structure- Aston Martin is having different departments which is having different
operational works to do like manufacturing department is responsible to manufacture cars, sales
department if responsible to increase the sales of company and many others.
Strategy- Aston Martin basically focuses on their quality and prices to gain competitive
advantage (Cox, Pinfield and Rutter, 2019). They check the quality of their each car which they
manufacture so that their customers will gain actual product which they expected. This will help
them to achieve customer's satisfaction level as well as help them to become leader of their
market.
VRIO analysis of the Aston Martin
The VRIO framework is a strategic tool used by the organisation in order to recognise
their resources and capabilities that provide them a sustained competitive edge. The Aston
Martin is the car manufacturing organisation with huge amount of resources and capabilities that
are analysed below using the VRIO framework:
Resources
Valuable
Reliable
Inimitable Organized
Financial
Resources
Yes No No No
Technology &
Equipments
Yes Yes No No
Brand
Recognition and
Yes Yes Yes

image
Human resources Yes Yes Yes Yes
Valuable: The resources under this category are valuable as they provide Aston Martin a
sustainable competitive advantage. These resources of the Aston Martin are useful in exploiting
the opportunities and also mitigate the threats (Miethlich and Oldenburg, 2019). The Aston
Martin has strong financial resources that are useful to company in fostering innovation and also
to expand itself in new market. The technology and equipments of the Aston martin is highly
valuable as through this company is able to deliver the highly advanced vehicles with best engine
and fuel efficient technology. The Brand recognition and image of the Aston Martin is positive
and is trusted globally that give a company success in market. The company has outstandingly
qualified, skilled and talented workforce with engineers, designers etc. that give company a
competitive advantage as through this Aston Martin give their customers best services.
Rare: these resources are rare in the market in which the Aston Martin operates. The
technology and equipments of the Aston Martin by which company develop the best cars and
vehicles that are efficient in working and also unique in designs. The brand image and brand
recognition of the organisations are rare as they are unique from others. The brand image and
recognition of the Aston Martin is rare as the background of the company is based on the long
history. The human resource of the company are unique and also their skills are polished and
updated with the latest techniques of manufacturing which demonstrates that they are rare.
Inimitable: the resources and capabilities of Aston Martin that cannot be copied or
imitated by any other business or individual are placed in this category (Buzatu and et. al.,
2019). The company's brand image is protected with unique logo and name that re safeguard by
intellectual property rights and cannot be copied by any one else. The human resource of the
Aston Martin are not easily imitable as they are diversified and all have learnt their techniques
and skills from different places. This makes them differentiable and also unapproachable to be
imitated.
Organised: the category that defines that which resources of the company are organised
means those who support or back up the other resources of the firm. These resources are not
competitive advantage of the organisation. Using the human resource company is able to backup
all its other resources systematically at right place.

Benchmarking is comparison tool for companies where companies compare their
performance with the performance of those company which is leading the market (Plotz and
Roth, 2017). Aston Martin compare their performance by comparing their sales, their
manufacturing, their revenue generating and many others. It help them to analyse how they are
performing and what additional things are required to achieve their target to lead the market.
Cost benefit analysis is the procedure where companies measure the benefits and
advantages of decisions which they decided minus the cost which is associated in making those
decisions. It is one of the best way to analyse the efficiency of decisions taken by a company.
TASK 3
Balance scorecard to align organisation vision and strategy.
The balance score card is the strategic tool that can help the manager of the Aston Martin
to analyse the business performance from the four perspectives i.e. customer viewpoint, internal
viewpoint, innovation and learning viewpoint and financial viewpoint.
The vision and organisational strategy of the Aston Martin are required to be aligned together in
order to attain the best performance and also to maintain the high performance in company. The
balance scorecard is used to align vision and strategy of the Aston Martin at one track in order to
achieve best results that can help the company in gaining competitive advantage. Porter's five force model

This model focus on analysing the competitive edge of the Aston Martin in the
automotive industry of UK in which the company operates and has a relative competitive
position. The five factors associated with this model are discussed below in context of Aston
Martin:
Bargaining power of suppliers: Aston Martin operates in automotive industry where the
suppliers of technology, engines and other essential parts used for the manufacturing of an
vehicles have high bargaining power. The industry is operates in high prices of vehicles and to
gain competitive edge the company require best supplies of technology therefore, this makes
there suppliers powerful to demand high prices (Grebenshchikova and Yakushev, 2017).
Bargaining power of Buyers: In Aston Martin customer 's perspective is very valuable
and also their wants and needs are recognised effectively. But, as the products provided by
company are unique. Latest in technology, has high durability and relatability therefore,
customers have low bargaining power over the company. The customers in this industry holds
less power.
Threat of new entrants: In order to enter the UK automotive industry there is requirement
of high amount of financial resources and unique idea. The Aston martin is high in financial
capabilities an innovations which brings no threat of new entrants to the company. Also with the

growing environmental concern the new entrant must come up with sustainable and ecological
friendly vehicles in order to sustain.
Threat of substitutes: The UK automotive industry has many organisations and vehicle
manufacturers in all price and quality segment (Irfan and et. al., 2019). The Aston Martin sells
the luxury cars and sports cars but the consumers do have the substitutes in similar prices ad
quality this is threat to the owner of the company. As, this can reduce the competitiveness and
also reduce company's sales and profitability.
Competitive rivalry: the Aston Martin operates in the highly competitive environment as
the UK automotive industry is full of rivals. The company has competitors such as Mitsubishi,
Rolls Royce, Jaguar in the UK market that sells the luxury cars and sports cars. All these
company's give neck to neck fight to the Aston Martin. Ansoff Matrix
This analytical framework is useful for the Aston Martin in analysing and planning for
the growth by developing the strategic development plans. This frame work is also referred as a
product/market expansion matrix as the organisation build their strategy in terms of market
expansion or product expansion.
Market Penetration: this strategy simply refers to the usage of the same product and
service into the same market with new tactic in order to expand the demand to draw high market