Analysis of Entrepreneurial Strategies for the Orion Group

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of entrepreneurial strategies applied to the Orion Group, a UK-based recruitment firm. It begins with an executive summary and introduction, defining entrepreneurial strategy and its importance in a competitive market. The report then delves into the application and critical evaluation of various entrepreneurial strategies, including the BCG Matrix, the 7Ps of marketing, and Porter's Five Forces model. It also incorporates PIMS and SWOT, TOWS, and PESTEL analyses to assess the strategic situation, capabilities, and position of the Orion Group. The BCG Matrix is used to evaluate the company's brand portfolio, while the 7Ps of marketing are applied to develop effective marketing frameworks. Porter's Five Forces model assesses competitive intensity, and PIMS is used to analyze market structure, strategies, and performance. The report concludes with a detailed analysis of the Orion Group's strategic situation, capabilities, and market position, offering recommendations for improvement and strategic development. The report aims to provide insights into how the Orion Group can leverage these strategies for growth and sustained competitive advantage within the UK service sector, specifically in the recruitment industry.

Entrepreneurial Strategy
1

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Entrepreneurial strategy can be termed as the process of framing, developing or designing
new approaches and products or services in cut throat competitive market. This report includes
includes BCG matrix, 7ps of marketing, SWOT analysis as well as SMART objectives are
designed. Smart objectives are made in order to achieve them in the near future.
2

Table of Contents
Entrepreneurial Strategy..................................................................................................................1
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.............................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................5
TASK...............................................................................................................................................6
B. Develop and critically evaluate a range of entrepreneurial strategies ...................................6
C. Analyse of Orion Group’s strategic situation, capability and position................................13
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................17
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................19
3

INTRODUCTION
Entrepreneurial strategy can be termed as the process of framing, developing or designing
new approaches and products or services in cut throat competitive market. Here, entrepreneurs
are those individuals who are ready to take risk at their own level to build something new in the
marketplace so as to satisfy customers. It is important to develop entrepreneurial strategies to
manage, develop and organize a business venture by facing risk in order to generate profit.
There are many sectors in the UK, for example, education, health care, restaurants, service,
fashion, etc. Orion group is a recruiting firm and provides contract staff across the globe and
indirectly contribute to the economy of the country. There are 310 employees working in the
organization. The revenue generation is 36 cores GBP. However, this report will focus on service
sector in the UK, specially recruitment related service. Orion Group is a medium sized in-service
sector recruitment company in UK as it is carrying entrepreneurial strategies in their business so
that growth and development can be done.
This report includes entrepreneurial strategies such as: BCG Matrix, 7P’s of Marketing,
Porter's five force model and PIMS is used by the company so that growth can be done. Through
these strategies this report will show Orion Group strategic situations. This research also focuses
on different models for examples, SWOT, TOWS, and PESTEL analysis (Ahmetoglu and et.al.,
2018). SWOT and TOWS will apply to understand current situation of Orion Group whilst
PESTEL analysis will show current market situation of the company. This research has
developed five objectives and each objective will analyse using SMART concept. Finally, this
research will clearly show how to implement above mentioned strategies and models to the
Orion Group. Also, this report will provide several recommendations with justification and
applications to the selected company of Orion Group.
4

TASK
B. Develop and critically evaluate a range of entrepreneurial strategies
Entrepreneurial strategies mean designing or developing new approaches or product in
the market. Here, entrepreneurship can be stated as creating businesses while scaling it to
generate profits. Small size business is more focusing on generating profits and operates on small
scale to serve a local community.
Although there are many entrepreneurial strategies; however, l will apply BCG, McKinney’s 7P
and PESTEL analysis.
BCG Matrix:
BCG Matrix can be stated as business firm planning tool which is widely used to
represent organization's brand portfolio along with market share. The other name of the BCG
matrix is growth share matrix (Guerrero and et. al., 2016). The main purpose of using this model
is to better understand which brands the business associates should invest in and which one
should not be used or divested in the marketplace (Brown, 2016). The four quadrants of the BCG
Matrix are, question marks, stars, poor dogs and cash cows. Which are explained as follows:
 Dogs clutches low market ratio as compared to its competitors and functions in a
slowly growing competitive market. In other words, it can be said that they
generate negative cash returned from the market in most of the cases. So, it is
5

very necessary for the Orion group to evaluate each brand or SBU in order to
decide whether to invest in it or need to be divested by using strategic choices
like, liquidation, retrenchment etc. Examples: Orion group should not invest in
cash cows as it does provide positive outcomes. As it is recruiting company and is
hiring staff for other organization this Dogs are not appropriate for them.
 In modern world Cash cows’ quadrants are more profitable brands and render as
much cash possible. The generated cash from cash cows should be used by the
Orion Group to invest into Stars in order to aid their upcoming growth in the
market.
 But if there is no financial support to Cash cows, they will not be able to innovate
new product in the market. The strategic choices used by cash cows are,
diversification, product development, divestiture etc.
 Stars functions in high growth industries and hold out high market ratio in the
global village. Here, it is cash users and cash generators in the market
(Hernández-Perlines and Ibarra Cisneros, 2018).
The strategic choices used are, market development, horizontal integration, product development
etc.
This holds low market ratio in rapidly growing competitive market. It takes huge amount
of cash in question mark and incur losses.
Even though they are having huge amount of cash still they struggle in the market to capture
market ratio and turn out to be dogs in the end. The strategic choices used by the them are,
product development, divestiture, market penetration etc.
7 P’s of Marketing Mix:
6

In Orion Group, which is a recruitment company, marketing frameworks are necessary in
order to plan out organize work.
7Ps of Marketing Mix lays down effective base before implementing marketing activities in the
marketplace. When there is strong or effective and efficient strategy then the chances of success
of business associates increases and further expansion can be done.
The 7P’s of Marketing Mix are explained as follows:
 Product: Innovative product or services should meet the emerging needs of the
customers in the global market. Business need to figure out potential customers so
that potential staff can be hired in another Orion Group. Hiring right candidate for
right company at a right place helps the business to maximize profits.
 Place: The new product should be easily available to the customers to the nearby
areas or stores so that they can be benefited by the product. When product or
services is easily assessable the sales volume raises tremendously in the market.
 Price: The prices pattern of the product should be affordable for the consumers so
that every section of the people can enjoy the new product accordingly. The prices
should be designed in such a way that customers can easily purchase it and quality
and quantity of the services or the product should be matched with it (Hu and
Hafsi, 2015). Examples: Orion group should design prices which would be
7

affordable to the client while recruiting them in the organization so that loyal
customers remain with them for longer time duration.
 Promotion: The promotion activities should be effective so that large number of
employees can be attracted towards it and sales volume can be raised easily. To
raise the product selling ratio social media platforms should be used so that
potential customers can be pulled.
 People: Orion Group hiring right people at right place is important so that
effective results can be found out in the market. Right candidates lead to effective
results and ineffective results to closing of the company.
 Processes: As the Orion Group grow the processes of the organization also
increases gradually. To carry out effective and fast processes huge investments is
required, and more time is consumed eventually to implement it.
 Physical evidence: Product should have physical evidence so that customers can
touch and feel the product before purchasing it from the market. It assures the
customers that product is reliable and indirectly sales volume raises, and further
growth and expansion can be done.
Porter's Five Forces:
Porter's Five Forces model is a tool which is used to determine the intensity of
competition and its profitability level. The five key competitive forces affecting an industry are
explained as follows:
8

 Threat of entry: If the Orion Group is earning profits in the market then there is
no threat to enter into the market but if the firm is lacking in funds then there is
great threat to bit the exiting compositors in the competitive market. The level or
degree of entrance is high in this case as it is small firm (Muchiri and McMurray,
2015). Example: Orion group should make certain strategies so that gradually the
firm can garbed huge market ratio in the market and profits can be maximized
accordingly.
 Bargaining power of suppliers: Their degree is high when supplier has more
authority. The bargaining power of recruiting firm Orion Group raise in the
market as efficient staffs are required by other organization to meet the goals.
Here suppliers hold scarce resources in the competitive marketplace. Whereas, very few
substitutes of recruiting are available in the market. If customers switch to some other firm
recruiting firm the switching cost is high.
 Bargaining power of buyers: If Orion Group is having bargaining power of buyers
is more. Here, the switching to other business associates which is recruiting firm
is low as very few hire efficient staff for other organization. In this case buyers
are price sensitive in nature and many other substitutes are available in the
marketplace.
9

 Rivalry among existing competitors: Here, rivalry among competitors is high
when there are many competitors are prevailing in the market. In this firm has
more exit barriers. Whereas, low customers loyalty can be seen towards the Orion
Group. New firm growth is slow in the marketplace.
PIMS
PIMS competitive strategy paradigm output solid evidence in support of counter-intuitive
principles and common sense to sustain in competitive advantages (Johnson and Van de, 2017).
The PIMS can be explained as follows:
 Market structure: In PIMS it includes market structure where, entry conditions,
market growth rate, purchase amount, capital intensity etc. In this all market
structure is included so that business can be expanded at a large scale. It indirectly
helps the organization to capture huge market ratio and huge profit maximization
can be done.
 Strategy and tactics: In this recruitment firm frames certain strategies and tactics
like, research and development, new product development, distribution channel,
relative vertical integration, marketing expenses etc. this helps the Orion
organization to capture huge market ratio and can bit its competitors in the market
place. Example:Orion group should adopt certain strategies so that firm grow
10

gradually in the market and profits can be maximized. Using proper strategies and
tactics helps the business to achieve goals on time.
 Performance: Business associates firms’ performance can be examined by cash
flow, growth, value enhancement, growth etc. so, that effective results can be seen
in the market. It indirectly helps the business to sustain in the market for longer
time duration. By measuring all this recruitment firm can motivates its staff
members to work effectively and efficiently so that set standards can be meet on
time.
 Competitive position: Recruiting firm Orion Group search out competitive
position in the market so that business can be carried for longer time duration. It
helps the firm to grab opportunities prevailing in the market at initial stage. This
indirectly leads to brand recognition in the eyes of the customers and profit
maximization can be done at large scale.
11

C. Analyse of Orion Group’s strategic situation, capability and position
Orion Group is an international recruitment business working across number of an
industry and sector. In current processing time, company provides permanent and contract
staff to an organisation across the world.
Strategic situation is a complete process, in which any firm needs to be put focus on situation
analysis, in which firm's operates or continuing their operation or level of business to
establish development of a future based business performance of an Orion Group.
In this placement firm, strategic situational analysis is consisting of two concepts such as
SWOT & TOWS and PESTEL analysis (Shepherd, Williams and Patzelt, 2015).
On this matter, critical analysis will be taken top know how this business entity can converts
their weakness into opportunities and understanding of a challenge such as political,
economic etc. An analysis of a strategic situational analysis is as follows:
SWOT Analysis
Strength Weakness
Orion Group have major strengths such as
wide variety of a services, providing services
into a multiple segment and having a wide
network to offer's customers at a fullest.
Also, Orion Group has focus on people-
oriented services.
As, Orion Group have major scarcity of the
resources, due to which they have faced
work shutdown. Also, business entities are
facing lack of commitment from their
candidates or clients.
Also, business have lack of funds or money
to carry out operation.
Opportunities Threats
Orion have an opportunity to diversify their
business into the training and also, they have
potential growth in HR sector. Orion Group
have an opportunity to build economy
strengths of the company.
For Orion Group, slowdown in the IT and
ITES sector, recession and competition.
Also, the increasing level of competition is
the major threat for the Orion Group.
12

TOWS model:
External/internal factors Strengths S Weaknesses W
Opportunities O Orion group have opportunities to
convert their strengths into final
outcomes to be accomplished
during the customer offerings.
In this, Orion Group also have
priority to rise strength with a
strategy to led development of
business functioning for a longer
period of time.
This will be an opportunity
for Orion Group to overcome
their weakness such as
scarcity of the resources with
a help of proper allocation of
the resources or info along
with they have opportunity
to develop HR process to led
future based regulation for a
longer period of time.
Threats T With help of strengths such as
wide variety of services, multiple
segments etc., Orion Group have
an opportunity to overcome their
threats such as slowdown of the
IT sector, increasing threats from
rivalries etc. This level of an
analysis will assist Orion to
become market leader in context
of a recruitment sector
Orion have an option to
convert their weakness into
their positive with support of
resource allocation to
optimised IT sector in an
effective manner to rise level
of business suitability.
For this, Orion have an option
to build operations for
optimised stages or operation.
PESTEL Analysis: Orion group products comprises of recruitment services as well as
training module to made employee's more perfect to work. For Orion Group, PESTEL
13

Analysis will be used to check out positioning of the firm into the market structure to get
access to firm strengths and also generates profit and also productivity reinforcements.
An explanation over the PESTEL analysis for Orion Group analysis is as follows:
 Political: In this factor, influence of a political regulations such as regulation
of political ups-downs, political crisis and legal regulation, which has impact
Orion Group to understand the regulation of customer into the recruitment
sector (Yu, Nguyen and Chen, 2016).
 Economical: Increase into client acquisition pricing, fluctuation into the
exchange rates has impacts Orion Group to go for development or structuring
of a policies or rules and procedure to realise negative impacts to Orion to
converts it in positive ones. Here, regulation of price and financial is necessary
to retain pricing for longer period.
 Social: Orion needs to have look on such as awareness of a people, client
choices and also their taste or preferences while go for getting engaged with
Orion Group to enhances their satisfaction level for longer period of time.In
Orion, societal culture is highly necessary to increase regulation and client
acquisition to enhances business regulation or operations at a greater or
optimised stage
 Technological: This will be prominent to check out the role of technology for
sector in recruitment or selection, in that technological advancement is pro-
14

active. Also, it is necessary to analyse the usage of technological in
recruitment & selection-based sector.
 Environmental: This is one most important factors of a pestle analysis, in
which effects of the environmental measurements such as course of business
sustainability, use of a legal protection such as environmental awareness in
order to protect the regulation of business in an effective manner or way.
 Legal: Legal factors such as use of an intellectual property such as
Trademarks, patent, copyrights etc., are some of legal or legislation-based
regulation which are necessary for Orion to build and retain brand image.
Strategic objectives
For the Orion Group, this will be suitable for them to set SMART based group which
includes Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely.
Orion group is to raise sales by 5% it's objective is particular as it clearly defines to
increase sales in the market. The objectives can be measured by Orion group because it has
mentioned that sales will be raised by 5% and can be achieved by the help of BCG matrix
strategy. The set objectives are realistic in nature as they are based on percentage and data
figures. Hence, SMART techniques is used to clearly define the set goals in the market.
BCG matrix strategy is executed in the organization so that it helps in identifying
what product should be made, what are the areas etc. it can be examined with the help of this
matrix. In the first 4 month 5% sales can be increased by focusing and investing on STAR
product. So, If Orion Group adopt this strategy sales can be raised by 5% in the competitive
market.
15

These objectives are necessary to be undertaken, in which specific objectives such as
percentage of business needs to be accomplished within given period of time.
For Orion Group, listed SMART objectives are as follows:
 Increment in client acquisition by 5 % for Quarter period of 2019.This goal is
measurable in which Orion have major option to attract client acquisition by 5 %
within first two quarter of 2019 to increase profitability at an optimised position.
 Increase customer satisfaction by 100 % with purpose to rise revenue for Orion: In
this objective intention is to rise build structure where customer satisfaction level will
also be entertained and also ensure 100 % quality assurance. This objective has been
measured after analysing current customer's of the Orion group and ascertaining the
future customer's.
 Build revenue market by 4 % in a coming three years: As, this objective is time
specific, in Orion Group needs to encourage revenue sharing within three financial
years to build strong brand position for Orion Group to build client satisfaction and
service delivery in given point of time. This objective has been implemented after
watch out current market share of the Orion in response to profit has been achieved.
 Acquire customer's market by 3 percent in two years: This objective is time specific
and also measurable in term of particular entity in definite period of time. This
objective has been decided after overviewing current and past customer base along
with analysing business performance.
 Profit rising by 4 percent: In this objective, Orion group is focused on building profit
of the business operation by 4 percent. This objective is achievable and measurable in
terms of numerical analysis along with growth of business position in the market.
Recommendation: It has been recommended to the Orion Group to analyse market
situation which can be possible onoy throug conducting PESTLE analysis. To evaluate the
competitiveness in the market, Porter fiver Forces are beneficial to adopt which clearly
identifies the rivalry strategies which makes easy to make corrective actions to achieve
competitive advantage.
CONCLUSION
It has been concluded from the above report that it is important for the management of
an organisation to make suitable and profitable strategies with the help of taking support from
various marketing theories such as PESTLE. SWOT, Porter five forces etc. For this, SMART
16

objective should be framed which brings motivation among employees to work hard and
contribute their efforts in achievement of desired goals and objectives.
17

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Ahmetoglu, G. and et.al., 2018. The entrepreneurial organization: The effects of
organizational culture on innovation output. Consulting Psychology Journal:
Practice and Research. 70(4). p.318.
Guerrero, M. and et.al., 2016. Entrepreneurial universities: emerging models in the new
social and economic landscape. Small Business Economics. 47(3). pp.551-563.
Hernández-Perlines, F. and Ibarra Cisneros, M., 2018. The Role of Environment in
Sustainable Entrepreneurial Orientation. The Case of Family
Firms. Sustainability, 10(6), p.2037.
Hu, H. and Hafsi, T., 2015. Entrepreneurial social capital and reciprocal dependence effects
on strategy: an empirical study of CROs in China. International Journal of
Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 24(2), pp.208-232.
Muchiri, M. and McMurray, A., 2015. Entrepreneurial orientation within small firms: A
critical review of why leadership and contextual factors matter. Small Enterprise
Research. 22(1). pp.17-31.
Shepherd, D. A., Williams, T. A. and Patzelt, H., 2015. Thinking about entrepreneurial
decision making: Review and research agenda. Journal of management. 41(1).
pp.11-46.
Yu, X., Nguyen, B. and Chen, Y., 2016. Internet of things capability and alliance:
entrepreneurial orientation, market orientation and product and process
innovation. Internet Research. 26(2). pp.402-434.
18