Kaplan MBA501: Facebook Stakeholder Strategy and Portfolio Analysis

This assignment analyzes Facebook's stakeholders, including users, marketers, competitors, and top management, categorizing them as swing, defensive, offensive, and hold stakeholders. It proposes strategic options and recommendations for each group, such as improving user privacy, enhancing the interface, increasing incentives, and simplifying posting for marketers. The assignment also includes a portfolio analysis of D&H Food Group using BCG, GE-McKinsey, and Synergy matrices to evaluate business units like Munchy Biscuits, Pure Juice, Funville Chocolates, Burgers R Us, and Home Fresh, providing recommendations for investment and divestment. The analysis covers strategy implementation and concludes with insights on stakeholder management and long-term competitive advantage.

Stakeholder Strategy Development and Implementation
Facebook
[Student Name] – [Student Number]

Introduction
• The stakeholders form an integral part of the organization.
• The activities of a business have a strong impact on the overall
opportunities of the stakeholders.
• In the previous assessment, Facebook had been chosen for the
purpose of Stakeholder analysis (Ansoff et al. 2019)
• The primary aim of the presentation is to identify the
stakeholders, categorize them and provide recommendations
for each category.

Stakeholder Analysis (summary)
• Facebook has a large number of stakeholders.
• These comprise of the users, competitors, social communities,
marketers and top management.
• The stakeholder analysis was undertaken and the four most
important stakeholders were selected for the strategic
operations (Ethiraj, Gambardella & Helfat 2017).
• The four stakeholders which have been identified are as
follows: Facebook users
Marketers
Competitors
Shareholders & Top Management

Stakeholder Analysis (summary)
• Having discussed the different stakeholders which have been
prioritized for the purpose of analysis, the stakeholders are
required to be categorized and the different categories are as
follows:
Swing
• Shareholders
Defensive
• Competitors
Offensive
• Shareholders
and Top
Management
Hold
• Marketers

Swing Stakeholder: strategic options
• The Facebook users have been identified as
the Swing Stakeholders.
• In order to ensure that the firm is
successfully able to meet with the needs of
these groups, the following options exist:
• Improved privacy and safety of users
(Ansoff et al. 2019).
• Providing useful content
• Engaging in improving profile settings

Swing Stakeholder: recommendations
• After reviewing the strategic options, the option which has been
adopted for the recommendation can be understood to be as
follows:
• Improving safety and privacy of the users
• The safety and privacy of the Facebook users can be
understood to be the top most priority of the firm and hence,
Facebook should engage in security setting and ensure that
they are successfully able to engage in free communication
and profile display without being worried about the
consequences (Ethiraj, Gambardella & Helfat 2018). The
Facebook users form an essential part of the organization
and they must always be kept in priority.

Defensive Stakeholder: strategic
options
• The competitors have been identified as
the Defensive Stakeholders in the case
of the Facebook.
• The different strategic options which are
available to tackle the competitors can
be stated to be as follows:
• Monitoring their existing offerings
• Guard the firm against any changes
• Improving the interface
(Ethiraj, Gambardella & Helfat 2018).

Defensive Stakeholder:
recommendations
• Hence, having identified the various strategic options which are
largely available to Facebook, to tackle the different
stakeholders, the various options which are widely available
with the firm, can be understood to be as follows:
• The firm needs to improve its own interface. In line of this, once
Facebook tends to improve its personal interface, it will be
successfully able to attract more users and thereby improve its
overall shareholder positioning in the market (Hanson et al.
2016).

Offensive Stakeholder: strategic
options
• The Offensive Stakeholders for the firm have
been defined as the Shareholders and Top
Management. The different strategic options
which are available for this group can be
understood to be as follows:
• Increasing the incentives and returns
• Improving the brand name (Michael,
Storey & Thomas 2017).
• Ensuring increase in brand segments

Offensive Stakeholder:
recommendations
• Having identified the various strategic options which are
available for the Shareholders and top management, the
following section will engage in the discussion of the
justification of one of the recommendations.
• The best strategic option which is available to Facebook can
be understood to be the increase in the returns and the
incentives (Michael, Storey & Thomas 2017). This shall
motivate them and encourage them to perform in the right
manner.

Hold Stakeholder: strategic options
• The Marketers have been identified as
the Hold Stakeholders for Facebook.
• The different strategic options which are
available for the marketers can be
understood to be as follows:
• Allow easy posting
• Assist the marketers with the advertising
(Hill, Jones & Schilling 2014).
• Encourage local sellers and buyers

Hold Stakeholder: recommendations
• After having analysed the strategic options which are available
to the firm, the recommendation which has been adopted can
be understood to be as follows:
• The company should allow easy posting like Instagram. There
are various formalities which are required to be fulfilled by any
marketer and hence, Facebook should focus on making the
procedure easier for any of the marketers and allow easy
posting (Jurevicius 2014).

Strategy implementation
• Strategy Implementation forms an integral part of the
organization`s strategic management.
• Hence, in this scenario, Facebook would be required to ensure
that it is successfully being able to carry out the implementation
of the procedure and be able to see to it that, the firm is being
able to engage in a long term association with the different
stakeholders and engage in considerable success.
• The framework for the strategy implementation can be taken to
be as follows:
Evaluation
Interaction
Commitment
Resource Allocation

Swing stakeholder; strategy
implementation
Facebook Users
Resource Allocation New task forces would be required to be build up
which would assist the firm in ensuring that they
are able to improve the safety aspects of the
various users.
Commitment The participation of various employees and
suggested task force would be required for the
success for the strategy.
Interaction Public relations approach needs to be undertaken
whereby the public needs to be informed with
respect to the new strategy.
Evaluation The increase in the usage of the users or their
login time needs to be assessed to determine the
right track for the firm.

Offensive stakeholder; strategy
implementation
Shareholders and Top Management
Resource Allocation The resources which are required to be allocated
can be understood to be the restructuring so as
to ensure that the firm is successfully able to
engage in planning regarding the increased
investments to them.
Commitment The commitment which is required for the firm can
be understood to be relating to the incentives and
participation.
Interaction The stakeholder cannot be ignored in such a case
because, they need to be communicated with the
positive strategy which is to be implemented.
Evaluation Implementing control is critical because it assists
in ensuring that the top management and the
shareholders need to remain engaged with the
firm and their overall assessment is necessary.

Defensive stakeholder; strategy
implementation
Competitors
Resource Allocation To deal with the competitors, it was decided that a
new taskforce would be formulated which shall
assist the firm in ensuring that it is being able to
assist in creation of the strategy.
Commitment The participants need to be the various
departments and additionally the shared values
need to be inculcated (Bryce 2017).
Interaction The implicit negotiation with the various
participants need to be undertaken.
Evaluation The control of strategic direction needs to be
understand so as to check the path of the firm.

Hold stakeholder; strategy
implementation
Marketers
Resource Allocation To assist the different marketers, the firm would
be required to engage in an association and form
a new taskforce who would be able to deal with
the scenario adequately.
Commitment The shared values and participation would be
essentially required from the side of the
management (Michael, Storey and Thomas
2017).
Interaction The public relations approach would be required
to ensure that the firm is successfully being able
to engage with the participants.
Evaluation Lastly, control measures to check the success of
the participants needs to be measured.

Conclusion
• The above analysis of the different Stakeholders of Facebook
helped in understanding the manner in which the firm will be
able to benefit from the initiatives.
• Stakeholder management forms an integral part of the
organization and hence, all the firms as present would be
required to engage in the stakeholder analysis to ensure long
term success with respect to the same.
• The presentation highlighted the four crucial stakeholders of the
business and analysed the strategic recommendations and
implementation plans for the same.

Portfolio Analysis
D&H Food Group

Introduction
• D&H Business Portfolio
The Delicious Food Group begun its operations 50 years back
and changed its name to the Delicious and Healthy Foods
recently. The firm can be understood to be a food and
beverage industry with five business units.
The different business units of the company can be taken to be
as follows:
Munchy
Biscuits Pure Juice Funville
Chocolates
Burgers R
Us
Home
Fresh

BCG Matrix
?
Relative Market Share
Market Growth Rate
Munchy
Biscuits
Pure Juice
Funville
Chocolates
Burgers R us
Home Fresh

GE-McKinsey Matrix
Growth
Competitive strength of
business unit
High Med Low
Industry
attractivenessHigh
Med
Low
Growth
Harvest
Selective Harvest
HarvestSelective
SelectiveGrowth
HomeFresh
Burgers R Us and
Pure Juice
Funville
Munchy Biscuits

Synergy Matrix
Threshold of acceptance
Misfits
Incoming:
Benefits from belonging
to portfolio
+-
Fits
+
-
Outgoing:
Benefit to portfolio
Altruists
Givers
Parasites
Takers

Business categorisation
BCG
Matrix
GE-
McKinsey
Matrix
Synergy
Matrix
Munchy
Biscuits Question
Mark Growth Fit
Pure Juice Question
Mark Selective Misfit
Funville Dog Harvest Parasites
Burgers R
Us Cow Selective Takers
Home
Fresh Star Growth Misfit

Munchy Biscuits
• Analysis
From the analysis, it can be rightfully understood that Munchy
Biscuit although has capacity, it has not been performing very
well. However, from the GE Matrix it was analysed that it could
be utilised well and grown. Moreover, it is a fit into the portfolios.
• Recommendations
It is recommended that, the company maintains its investment
into the portfolio so that it can be grown well and is able to
provide adequate returns to the firm (Michael, Storey & Thomas
2017).

Pure Juice
• Analysis
From the analysis, it can be rightfully understood that the
business is not performing well and is a misfit in the portfolio of
the company. In addition to this, a strict decision is required to
be undertaken with respect to the overall development.
• Recommendations
It can be stated that, a strict revaluation of the firm is required
because the firm has not been performing well and hence, it
can be harvested if it continues to perform poorly.

Funville
• Analysis
The chocolate company has not been performing well at all
and is a Dog in the industry. Moreover, it has been taking up a
majority of the resources of the firm and with respect to this,
the firm needs to be harvested (Hanson et al. 2016).
• Recommendations
The Funville chocolates has been performing very poorly and it
is with respect to this that the firm needs to get rid of the
portfolio as it is performing very poorly.

Burgers R Us
• Analysis
• The Burgers R us can be taken as a cow in the portfolio as
per the BCG Matrix. In line with this, it is a taker but lies
above the line of threshold.
• Recommendations
It is recommended that the portfolio is kept in the firm and
strategic steps are undertaken to improve the scenario (Bryce
2017).

Home Fresh
• Analysis
The firm as per the BCG matrix is a star of the portfolio and is
performing very well based on the GE matrix as well, however,
it is a misfit as per the Synergy Matrix (Doz 2017).
• Recommendations
It is recommended that more investment is made into the
portfolio so that it is able to perform considerably well.

Conclusion
• D&H Business Portfolio
Hence, through the analysis, it can be rightfully understood that
the firm has been performing well and the performances of the
different portfolios an be understood to be varied in nature.
The Home fresh, Munchy chocolates and Burgers R US are the
portfolios which have been performing the best and the others
need to be disinvested in, if the firm wants to ensure long term
competitive advantage.

References
• Ansoff, H.I., Kipley, D., Lewis, A.O., Helm-Stevens, R. & Ansoff, R., 2019. Implanting strategic management. Springer.
• Bryce, H.J., 2017. Financial and strategic management for nonprofit organizations. Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG.
• Doz, Y.L., 2017. Strategic management in multinational companies. In International Business (pp. 229-248). Routledge.
• Ethiraj, S.K., Gambardella, A. & Helfat, C.E., 2017. Reviews of strategic management research. Strategic Management Journal, Volume 38 No. 1, pp.3-3.
• Ethiraj, S.K., Gambardella, A. & Helfat, C.E., 2018. Theory in strategic management. Strategic Management Journal, Volume 39 No.6, pp.1529-1529.
• Hanson, D., Hitt, M.A., Ireland, R.D. & Hoskisson, R.E., 2016. Strategic management: Competitiveness and globalisation. Cengage AU.
• Hill, C.W., Jones, G.R. & Schilling, M.A., 2014. Strategic management: theory: an integrated approach. Cengage Learning.
• Jurevicius, O., 2014. GE McKinsey Matrix.
• Michael, S., Storey, D.& Thomas, H., 2017. Discovery and coordination in strategic management and entrepreneurship. Strategic entrepreneurship: Creating a new
mindset, pp.45-65.