Brickworks Australia: Strategic Analysis of Business Operations Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Brickworks Australia's business operations, focusing on its strategic initiatives and stakeholder engagement. It begins with an introduction to Brickworks Limited, its market position, and its commitment to sustainability. The discussion secti...Read More

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Discussion..................................................................................................................................2
Stakeholder Engagement Plan................................................................................................2
Business-level strategies adopted by Brickworks Australia..................................................4
Corporate-level strategic initiatives Brickworks Australia....................................................5
Recommendation........................................................................................................................7
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................7
References..................................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
Brickworks Limited established in the year 1934. The company deals in the
infrastructural industries in Australia and United States. The organization is currently the
largest supplier of products building, employing over 2500 worldwide. The company
provides bricks, concretes, tiles of roofing, timber products etc. The company not only
provides brick products in Australia and North America, it has diversified its corporate
structure in property and investments as well. The company has currently been focusing on
sustainability by manufacturing their products in a sustainability way caring for the
community. The company currently comprises of more than 40 plants and 17 brands,
generating enormous value of over 950 million AUD currently. The Brickworks leads the
market through the style, design, collaboration, innovation and sustainability. The company
states it builds beautiful products which last forever. The company established in the year
1934, enrolled in the Australian Stock Exchange in early 1960s. On the start of 2000s the
company conquering over Bowral Bricks followed by Bristile Limited and expanding to
united States with acquiring Glen-grey. The company focuses on the sustainability and view
of being the largest Building product worldwide (Shooshtarian et. al. 2020).
Discussion
Stakeholder Engagement Plan
Stakeholders are the individuals or group of individuals who are interested over the
company and are directly or indirectly affected by the business of the organization.
Stakeholder engagement is the process of the companies to interact and communicate with
the stakeholders (Tangestani et. al. 2020). Stakeholder engagement is an important part of the
organization, communication with the stakeholders result in knowledge of the aspects of the

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organization which helps in building future plans and strategies of the organization. The
stakeholders can be segmented into two, the internal stakeholders who work in the
organizations or are directly connected with the organization, external stakeholders are the
ones who are connected indirectly or have an interest on the organization without being
involved fully(Lane and Devin 2018).
Brickworks also share similar internal and external stake holder. The internal
stakeholders who are engaged with the company directly are Employees, investors, customers
while the external stakeholders who are not engaged directly but have a interest on the
organization are Government, industries community groups and sustainability organizations.
Employees Stakeholders consist of two interested group who work for the organization which
are the management and employees. The areas of interest of the group are business and
performance and the human resource of the organization as they are directly involved in it,
they also have a lookout for the corporate situation, the governance and work health safety of
the organization. The customers group of stakeholders refers to the partners like BKW
business Development, the managers on customer prospective and developers, customers and
architects their interests are on price, quality of the products, they also look after for
innovations, wellness, reputation and eco credentials. As the company specifies on
sustainability, The sustainable organizations are the outer organizations such as the World
business council for Sustainable Development, Sustainable business Australia they are more
focused on how the company deals with climate change, use of the materials as timber is a
prime raw material for the company they also eye for the social license of the company and
how the company operates according to it.
The Stakeholder engagement planning can be done through various ways to reach
these stake holders, The modes of communication to reach employees or the management is

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interacting through direct interaction with the employs, the survey of the materiality of the
business can be done or can be reached through newsletter and conferences, letting them be
knowledgeable about the company’s current situation. They can be engaged by team
meetings, rewards for performance and a review of their work is also a pathway to engage
them. The customer group can be engaged through event interactions, feedbacks to have a
survey of the customer satisfaction and continuity in professional development with its
presentation. They can be reached through modes like newsletters, websites, brochures
surveys. The sustainability organizations can also be engaged through surveys, webinars,
meetings and trainings , getting them knowledgeable about the sustainable measures of the
business through newsletter and subscriptions (Ray and Miller 2017).
Business-level strategies adopted by Brickworks Australia
Brickworks have unique set of strategies to have an advantage on the competitive
market. The position of a company in the industries is determined by the profitability
comparison of the industry. An organization's comparative position surrounded by its
industry establishes if a organization's profitability is over or under the industry standard. The
primary basis of profitability over average at extended run is competitive advantage of
sustainability. It consists of two fundamental type of competitive benefit an organization may
possess which differentiation or low cost. The 2 fundamental types of competitive benefit
collective with the extent of actions for which an organization seeks to accomplish them,
guide to 3 general plan or strategies for achievement higher than regular performance in the
industry are cost leadership, focus and differentiation. The focus strategy also has 2 variants,
differentiation focus and focus of cost (Hyginus and Maria 2019).
The cost leadership is obtained through when the company produces at the lowest
price. The cost advantage is reliable on the structure of the industry. The inclusions are thre

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technology of the company, the scale of economics, and preference of the access to the initial
materials used for production (Kurt and Zehir 2016). The low cost producer examines and
uses all the sources of low cost to the fullest. The achievement of cost leadership certain the
position of the company above average. In the strategy of differentiation the organization is
unique from the industry in some phenomenon It focuses on one or more attributes which the
buyers are more likely attracted to meeting the needs of the customers. The strategy of focus
can be said as narrow as it takes a group or segment of the market and builds up strategies as
per that. Focus also involves 2 variants which are cost focus and differential focus (Morgan
et. al. 2019). The cost focus looks out for the advantage of cost in the group or segment of
market, while differentiation focus refers to the differentiations in the targeted segment of
market. The focus cost or differentiation relies on the targeted segment of market, thus the
scope of the gets narrower.
Brickworks is organization which carries it’s a unique sense in lots of ways, the
company provides various designs and has a unique approach towards sustainability. These
unique features make it different from rest of the industry in the field. But as the company
targets just a segment, or a group of people it comes under the focus differentiation category,
lowering the profitability from the average of the similar companies of the industry sector
Corporate-level strategic initiatives Brickworks Australia
The strategy of corporate level is considered as the top of the pyramid in planning.
The main prospective of the business is corporate level strategy. The corporate level
strategies refer to moving of the business towards organizational goal and growth of the
business (Tan and Carrillo 2017). The strategies are made or the decisions are taken in
accordance to the moving of business towards corporate success. The business of Brickworks
be divided into four groups that is the building products at Australia, building products at

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North America, the Property sector and the investment sector. The sales and profitability has
decreased in the recent times as a competition from the competitive companies. The
profitability of the organization remains low than the average of the industry, there are
several such concerns and threats for the company in the modern era, so it can adopt few
strategies as to earn more revenue and develop in a faster manner. The company focuses on
the targeted market; it can expand its market through diversifying the business. As the
customers are highly satisfied with the products provided by the organization it can focus on
the cost to gain more customer and target different sectors of the market (Canales and Caldart
2017).
The company comprises of strong cash flow, it can help the company to diversify and
penetrate new markets. It must strength the dealer community which will give a hike for the
up gradation of the business and engage more customers. The company has an expertization
in entering new markets, thus the company must further focus on stability in the market
through cost measures. The company must focus on forecasting the products to be liked by
the customer or the trend which the current market is looking for, doing so will help them to
invade the market with innovative products, more likely to be bought by the customer.
Brickworks may be the leader in infrastructural business but lacks while moving to other
segments of products, this can be made up by getting a better knowledge of the new product
market and produce accordance to the same. The current asset ratio is not proportional to
liquidity asset ratio which shows the company can work on it and efficiency can be
conquered in it, which will result in increase of profitability of Brickworks (Ball et. al 2016).
With the up gradation in technology the company may conquer new markets with its cost
ability. The new environmental policies can be used as strength as the company has been
supporting sustainability from the past. The company must also focus on innovative products
as the company has been stagnant with the product type.

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Recommendation
The company is currently expanding its base all over the world and should pay
attentive focus to strategize the product placement in suitable business environment to obtain
competitive advantage in terms of products and reception. The innovative line of
infrastructural inclusion needs to be continually developed and strengthened to be ahead of its
competitors. The sustainable approach needs to be carried and developed to increase demand
of the quality materials that the company offers. In terms of cost efficiency in relation to
unique products, an effort needs to be considered to bring down the manufacturing
expenditure which shall further accentuate the company’s hold in new markets and help in
the promotion of the materials in the existing market. The slow growth rate of the company
needs to be addressed appropriately with the inclusion of products that can target a wider
market segment. An additional line of more traditional products could be rolled out.
Conclusion
The company Brickworks Ltd. is seen to steadily grow and expand with cutting edge
technology of providing quality infrastructural materials. The company through its solid
foothold has expanded to the United States acquiring various companies. The trend of
expansion is increasing. The diversification of the company into investment and property
sector draws in a credible amount of business diversification. The company’s innovation,
collaboration and unique design with the added policy of a sustainable approach give it an
competitive edge and sets it apart from similar companies. The steady and sure growth looks
promising in terms of its reception. The company offers unique products and services in
unique prices with a goal to create beautiful things that could have extendible longevity.
However in terms of business growth, the progress is slow as the company targets a very

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specific range of people and this could be starefgically addressed in order to accentuate its
growth.

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References
Ball, R., Gerakos, J., Linnainmaa, J.T. and Nikolaev, V., 2016. Accruals, cash flows, and
operating profitability in the cross section of stock returns. Journal of Financial
Economics, 121(1), pp.28-45.
Canales, J.I. and Caldart, A., 2017. Encouraging emergence of cross-business strategic
initiatives. European Management Journal, 35(3), pp.300-313.
Hyginus, O.O. and Maria, O.O., 2019. Generic Business Strategy as Driver of
Competitiveness in Organizations: A Study of Selected Mobile Telecommunication
Companies in Lagos, Nigeria. Journal of Business and Economic Development, 3(3), pp.86-
96.
Kurt, A. and Zehir, C., 2016. The relationship between cost leadership strategy, total quality
management applications and financial performance.
Lane, A.B. and Devin, B., 2018. Operationalizing stakeholder engagement in CSR: A process
approach. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 25(3), pp.267-
280.
Morgan, N.A., Whitler, K.A., Feng, H. and Chari, S., 2019. Research in marketing
strategy. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 47(1), pp.4-29.
Ray, K.N. and Miller, E., 2017. Strengthening stakeholder-engaged research and research on
stakeholder engagement. Journal of comparative effectiveness research, 6(4), pp.375-389.

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Shooshtarian, S., Maqsood, T., Barrett, C., Wong, S.P.P., Yang, J.R. and Khalfan, M., 2020.
Opportunities to reduce brick waste disposal. In Imaginable Futures: Design Thinking, and
the Scientific Method. 54th International Conference of the Architectural Science
Association.
Tan, Y. and Carrillo, J.E., 2017. Strategic analysis of the agency model for digital
goods. Production and Operations Management, 26(4), pp.724-741.
Tangestani, A., Feizi, K., Bamdad Soufi, J., Tangestani, M. and Khatami Firouzabadi,
S.M.A., 2020. A Pattern for Sustainable Development from Perspective of Stakeholders
Theory. Journal of Industrial Engineering, International, 16(2), pp.57-67.