Flash Smartphone: Business Simulation Report, Strategy, and Review

This report is a comprehensive analysis of a business simulation focused on Flash Smartphones, a company operating in the smartphone industry. The report begins by outlining the company's vision, values, mission, HR structure, and key performance indicators (KPIs), establishing the foundation for its strategic direction. It then delves into a detailed review of the company's performance over multiple years, including a competitor analysis using models such as Porter's Five Forces, market share analysis, and product/price analysis. A SWOT analysis is conducted to identify Flash's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, alongside a comparison with key competitors. The financial performance is evaluated through income statements, assessing sales revenue and profitability. The report also includes a reflection on professional development, reviewing relevant theories, industry practices, and the application of these concepts within the simulation. Key decisions made during the simulation, changes to the current strategy, and recommendations for future growth are also discussed, providing insights into the company's potential for expansion and market leadership in the competitive smartphone industry. The report concludes with a reflection on the application of the concepts and practices within the simulation.

Business Simulation with
Professional Development
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Contents
VISION AND STRATEGY............................................................................................................3
Vision...........................................................................................................................................3
Values..........................................................................................................................................3
Mission........................................................................................................................................4
HR................................................................................................................................................4
Targets.........................................................................................................................................4
REVIEW OF EACH YEAR’S PROGRESS...................................................................................5
Competitor analysis.....................................................................................................................5
Performance results.....................................................................................................................9
Performance analysis.................................................................................................................10
FUTURE PLANS AND RECOMMENDATIONS.......................................................................11
Key decisions.............................................................................................................................12
Changes to current strategy.......................................................................................................12
Recommendations......................................................................................................................12
Potential growth.........................................................................................................................13
PART B: PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT REFLECTION REPORT..................................13
Executive Summary...................................................................................................................13
Introduction................................................................................................................................14
Identified Events........................................................................................................................14
Review of Relevant Theories and Concepts..............................................................................15
Review of Industry Practices.....................................................................................................18
Application of Theories and Practices.......................................................................................19
Discussion..................................................................................................................................21
Recommendations......................................................................................................................21
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................22
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PART A: STRATEGY PAPER
VISION AND STRATEGY
Flash is a smartphone company which operates in multiple countries such as United
Kingdom, Belgium, China and many more. This company is established with the aim of target
large market and earn high revenues. Flash has a tag line stating “Feel the speed” which
represents the working speed of smartphones of this company and the quick service which is
delivered by this company. The smartphones are not produced by Flash, but they produced in
Asia according to the quality demands and features. Vision and strategy of this company
includes Vision, values, mission, HR and targets. All these attributes for Flash are defined and
analysed below:
Vision
Vision of an organisation is their future direction which the aim to acquire (Blandford,
2012). A vision statement is developed by a company by considering the main aim of conducting
business operations. Vision of Flash includes transforming the human experience by providing
them quality smartphones, to be a leading designer in smartphone industry and to shape the
future of technology.
Values
Values of an organisation are the corporate values which are developed by considering the
core beliefs of a company upon which operations of that company are based. Values of Flash
states they will acquire satisfaction of their customer by providing them quality products which
can fulfil their requirements and demands.
Mission
A mission is a main target of a company which needs to be fulfilled by conducting all the
operations. The mission of Flash states that this company aim to earn reliable profits with highest
quality so that their customers can be satisfied.
HR
HR refers to human resource of a company which are responsible for all the affairs in a
company (Bocciardi and et.al, 2017). Human resource in Flash comprises of 5 key personnel
members. These members of Flash are Mr. Mishra who is the Chief executive officer of this
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company, Mr. Paleti, who is the Chief financial officer of this company, Ms. Fatima who is the
Chief technical officer of this company, Ms. Mehta who is the chief marketing officer of this
company and then lastly Ms. Manek who is the Chief operating officer of this company. All the
key personnel members who are introduced above are responsible to manage their department
and are answerable for their actions, so that a clear relationship of authority and responsibility
can be maintained in the organisation.
Targets
Targets are the goals and objectives of a company which they aim to fulfil by effectively
operate in market and my making reliable decisions (Creemers, Kyriakides and Antoniou, 2012).
For Flash which is a smartphone company, few targets and Key performance indicator are
maintained which they aim to satisfy. These targets and KPIs are stated as follows:
 The first target of this company is to earn a profit of 7% against their overall sales
revenue earned in a financial year. This target is also a KPI of this company which acts as
a benchmark for their growth.
 Another target of this company is to earn a profit of 3050000 euros and this profit must
be achieved after paying all interest and taxes. This target is also a KPI of this
organisation.
 Flash has also pre determined targets for their customer segments which states this
company aims to offer highest quality products and objectifies to be on top in the quality
suppliers list.
 Flash also aims to be the market leader in smartphone industry by offering highest quality
oriented products in the market.
 Another target of Flash is associated with their internal operational optimising process
according to which this company aims to the average age of their inventory as zero. This
company wants that there must be no delay between the period of manufacturing and the
period of sell.
All targets which are set by Flash are also their key performance indicator which means each
of the target satisfaction will result in a significant impact on the growth of the company.
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REVIEW OF EACH YEAR’S PROGRESS
Competitor analysis
Competitor’s analysis is the technique of comparing a business from its competitors
(Dochy and et.al., 2012). These competitors have to be in the same industry and the size and
scale of these businesses must be similar to the native company. For the purpose of comparing
this company’s performance from its competitors, various models are used such as Porter’s five
forces, Market share, product/ price analysis and competencies & capabilities analysis. It is
essential to identify the direct competitors of this company which are SKYCOMM, AlphaCom,
Grek and Grel. Competitor’s analysis using all the companies is conducted below:
Porter’s five forces
This model is a powerful tool which helps in understanding the position of a company in
the market by analysing the five forces of the markets (Draijer, 2020).
Competitive rivalry – The competitive rivalry is the extent of competition in a market.
According to the total scores in United Kingdom’s market segment, it has been analysed that
there is high competition in market. The biggest threat to Flash is Grel which has high scores in
every country in which Flash operates. In the case of United Kingdom, Grel has a score of 474
due to which it provides competition to Flash.
Supplier power – Flash operates in a smartphone industry in which they do not sell
manufacture their products but procure products from an Asian company. In absence of other
suppliers, the supplier power in the industry of smartphone is high.
Buyer power – In the smartphone industry, there are numerous buyers and sellers due to
which power of buyers are usually moderate. But in this case, where the competition is high,
every company is developing new schemes to attract loyal customers due to which buyer’s
power in this industry has become high due to which they are in the position of bargaining.
Threat of Substitution – Smartphone industry runs according to the technology up
gradation in market due to which every company in this market offers similar products with few
distinct features and prices. In an industry, where products offered by every company are so
similar, there is high threat of substitution due to which companies such as Flash should make
sure that they offer distinct features in their smartphone and ensure high quality assurance and
customer service.
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Threat of new entry – In the industry in which Flash operates, there are specific
competitors and entry of any other competitor is not permissible. But there is a way of local
competition using which new companies can enter in this market and grab existing market share.
So, it has been concluded that threat of new entrants in this market are from low to moderate.
Market share
Market share is a model in which a company can compare their market share with market
share of other competitors (Esteve-González, Cela-Ranilla and Gisbert-Cervera, 2013). By using
this model, a company can review their position in a market and then analysing their share, they
can develop appropriate strategies.
Market share in the market of United Kingdom is being analysed from which it is clear
that Flash has the market share or score of 220 in United Kingdom’s market but on the other
hand Grek has 136, Eyecom ltd has 1717 and SKYCOMM has 3545 scores. This means Flash
has to strategize their activities so that they can enhance their sales.
Product/ price analysis
Product price analysis refers to the analysis of product and price strategy which a
company is following (Fritzsche and et.al., 2014). The product strategy followed by this
company states that Flash will differentiate their products from their competitors and will
provide highest quality smartphones to their customers. In the products strategy of this company,
innovation is the key and the research and development department of this company is engaged
in continuously developing new features through innovating their products.
The price strategy of this company is cost leadership which states that Flash will provide
smartphones to their customers for the prices which are lowest in the market by which they will
acquire operational excellence. The pricing strategy of Flash states that the aim is to offer
affordable products in the market and cut cost wherever possible.
Competencies and capabilities
In order to identify the competencies and capabilities of Flash, SWOT model is used
which helps in assess the abilities of this company. Along with SWOT, comparative analysis
between competitors is also done
SWOT analysis
Strengths – Flash is Smartphone Company focuses on customer satisfaction rather than
profit maximisation. This company has strong brand image due to their affordable and quality
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products. Flash company has the competency to stand out in the market as they belief in
continuous innovation due to which their products are unique. This company also has the
capability of effective design due to which Flash products are attractive for the prospective
customers. Another strength or capability of this company is their high quality products which
fulfils the need of their customers.
Weaknesses – Along with various strengths and competencies discussed above, there are
few weakness of this company as well due to which they can face various issues. Working in an
industry which has high competitive rivalry acts as a weakness for this organisation. Another
weakness of this company is their low pricing strategy due to which company can face the issue
of low profitability than their competitors.
Opportunities – The biggest and most influential opportunity for Flash is the scope of
improvement and up gradation. Flash works in a smartphone company which is continuously
expanding in new customer segments due to which Flash can expand their market and can
upgrade their products.
Threats – For the case of Flash, aggressive competition is their biggest threat which can
further result in replication of their business model.
Using competencies identified from above analysis, competencies and capabilities of
Flash are compared with their competitors below as this model assists an organisation to
compare their competences and market position.
Competencies
and
capabilities
Flash Grel Grek Eyecom SKYCOMM
Large revenue
streams
✓ ✓
High profits ✓ ✓ ✓
Competitive
pricing
✓ ✓
Design
capabilities
✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
High quality ✓
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products
Strong brand
image
✓ ✓ ✓
A competitive analysis is conducted in above image according to which Flash Company
has maximum competencies when compared to their direct competitors. This competency
comparison analysis presents that Flash has the ability to be the market leader by using their high
quality product and high brand image in the market.
Performance results
Financial Performance of an organisation can be assessed by analysing their financial
statements includes income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statement (Johnson and
Golombek, 2011). For the case of Flash, only income statement and inventory statement
analysed below year wise in order to identify whether the targets of this company were fulfilled
or not.
Income statement
Income statement of a company represents its profit and losses which are incurred by an
organisation in an accounting year (Levine and et.al., 2013). For the case of Flash, this company
has accounted sales of 569 million in year 2020 which is their first accounting year. Due to high
expenses in this year, the company was only able to gain profit of 74 million this year which is
13% of the sales which implies in this year company was successful to acquire at least target of
7% profit. As the company’s market efforts were enhancing continuously, it even reflected upon
their sales revenues and in 2021, the sales of this company were million with profit of 85 million.
In every successive year, flash’s sales were increasing. But after 2023, sales and profits of this
company starts to decline as a result in 2029 “last year”, sales of this company were 345 million
with loss of 79 million. The reason behind this decline in revenue and profit was the declining in
innovation in the products of this company and enhancement of competitive level by other
companies in this industry. This shows that the company was unable to fulfil their target of
maintaining 7% profit of the total sales revenue.
Inventory statement
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From the inventory level of Flash for the region of United Kingdom in 2020, it has been
clear that the company has failed to maintain their inventory age priod as zero as in various
months the there is a large difference between the purchase and sale of the smartphones.
Performance analysis
In this section of the report, performance of Flash will be analysed by evaluating their
strategies and decisions which have been taken for marketing, human resource and product.
The strategies of Flash include their competitive and growth strategies. The competitive
strategy of this company is the combination of three strategies which are cost leadership,
customer focus and product leadership. This competitive strategy of this company is different
from their competitors, as the competitors of Flash have only adopted one of the strategies. This
strategy of this company has been a successful strategy as company has successfully maintains
minimum prices in the market along with which they have provided quality products to ensure
customer focus. But this strategy has resulted into low profits and sales of this company.
Another organisational strategy of this company is their growth strategy which states the
mode of entry is market penetration. Using this strategy, Flash has successfully first established
in few countries and then this company sell their existing products in existing market. The
growth strategy of flash is different from its competitors as most of their competitors have
adopted product differentiation strategy. This strategy of this company has resulted in decline in
sales and profit of this company. Due to continuous penetrating the market, the innovation of the
company lacked due to which market share of this company started to decline. The performance
of this company is worse than few of its competitors and that is because of their strategies which
restrict their efforts of innovation (Palloff and Pratt, 2011).
The decisions which were taken by Flash are assessed below:
Marketing
The Chief marketing officer of Flash decided to invest 2.5 million for their marketing
campaign. By investing this much amount the logo of Flash was marketed at the sports shirt of a
world class football team. This decision of Flash has helped them in building their strength of
high brand image. Besides offline marketing, Flash has also invested in SEO and pay per click.
By these marketing decisions, Flash has successfully earned high revenues in its initial years.
Human resource
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This company has taken few efforts for their human resource using which they have not
provided any extra work load to their workers due to which the amount of overtime as been
saved. This company has also decided to not provide any rewards due to which by every passing
year, motivation of this company declined and it results in low innovation in the products of this
organisation. Along with reward, there is no bonus scheme developed by this company due to
which employees were discouraged to provide their fullest contribution for the activities of this
company.
Product
For the products of this company, the chief operating officer of this company has decided to
only invest 10% in the research and development department. This department is responsible to
continuously make innovations in the product of the company and due to low budget in this
department; the innovation level of this company has been reduced.
FUTURE PLANS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
From the performance evaluation, results and analysis, it has been seen that Flash Company
was successful in its initial years but after 2013, this company starts to decline their sales and
profits due to which their primary targets are KPIs were not fulfilled. In order to ensure effective
operations of this company in future, few future plans and recommendations are provided below:
Key decisions
Future decisions of this company should include initiating Human resource reward and
bonus scheme in which every employee will gain a monetary reward for their extra work done.
Along with this, a target work scheme will also be introduced and any worker passing that
scheme will gain high reward. Besides this, every employee will be eligible to gain an annual
bonus which can be from 5 to 10% of their salaries.
The budget of research and development is suggested to be enhanced so that innovation
can be laid on track.
Changes to current strategy
The current competition strategy of Flash includes three strategies of cost leadership,
product leadership and customer focus. These three strategies have put a lot of pressure on the
operations of this company due to which company is unable to gain relevant profits. This
strategy needs to be changed and for the new strategy it is suggested that company should
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consider product leadership as their primary strategy and cost leadership & customer focus as
their secondary strategies (Siewiorek and et.al., 2012).
Current growth strategy of Flash is market penetration, this strategy needs to be changed
and strategy of differentiation should be adopted according to which company is suggested to
expand in different markets with different products.
Recommendations
According to the performance of this company, there are various recommendations for this
company which are:
 Expand business in other European countries such as Netherlands and Belgium.
 To innovate their products by offering new features in their smartphones.
 Hire skilled and trained employees which can save the money of extensive training and
development.
 Marketing of Flash’s product through social media platforms such Facebook, Twitter and
Instagram.
 Re define the targets and values of the company so that a new direction of operations can
be gained.
Potential growth
Flash company is currently facing the issue of low revenue and profit and the reason behind
this is the growth strategy of market penetration which does not allows expanding in foreign
markets. In order to acquire potential growth, Flash must use the strategy of diversification in
which they must expand into new markets and countries (Tiwari, Nafees and Krishnan, 2014).
PART B: PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT REFLECTION REPORT
Executive Summary
Professional Development refers to the processes and steps which organisations and
individuals undertake in light of ensuring betterment and improvement in skills, as well as
capabilities to enhance the personal and professional prosperity (Kamerilova and et. al., 2019).
Hence, this section would be covering a detailed reflection on how the above activity took place
which would be supported by various practices and application of relevant theories throughout
the business simulations.
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The purpose of the report below is to reflect upon the experiences of the team members
while carrying out various activities within the business simulation. Hence, for this purpose,
there are certain events that were hence identified and analysed.
Furthermore another appropriate purpose of the report is to review the relevant theories
and concepts which were adopted and implemented within the business simulation. Therefore, in
regards to this, certain team building, decision making and leadership theories have been
reviewed and reflected upon within the report.
Moreover, the following report also required reflection upon the review of industry
practice, for which, different practices from other companies within the simulation were
evaluated to determine how they have used the theories to accomplish their own agendas.
In addition to this, this reflection report also undertakes application of theories and
practices, along with a detailed discussion and possible recommendation for improvisation in
future practices.
Introduction
Reflection is an imperative activity which allows individuals to reflect upon their past
experiences and evaluate the same which allows them to appropriately and effectively set up
steps to improvise their competencies in future. Hence, in regards to this, below is a detailed
reflection which would be subjected towards analysing the business simulation activity
performed above (Lynch, 2017). The report would be included identification of certain crucial
and imperative events which are associated with the activity and that are critical incidents to be
identified. Along with this, several theories in regards to team building, decision making and
leadership have been effectively reviewed as well as discussed. Additionally, the report also
involves an analysis upon the industrial practices, which covers the application of the theories
and concepts by the other players within simulations. Moreover, appropriate discussions and
recommendations have also been given with respect to the company, as well as for the team
members to ensure that future performance of the team members, as well as the organisation
could effectively improvise.
Identified Events
Throughout the simulation took place, there were various events which were experienced
by me, as well as the team members in a very detailed and evaluative way. Moreover, some of
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