Hardy Aqua: Strategic Plan for Flavored Water Business in Australia

This essay outlines a business plan for Hardy Aqua, a new company in Australia's flavored water industry. It details strategies like competitive pricing, product differentiation, and marketing. The functional organizational structure is chosen for efficiency. The essay analyzes internal factors like mission, resources, and culture, and external factors including suppliers and competitors. It identifies potential risks such as product, financial, and market risks, and proposes business practices like resource management, market research, and technological advancements. The essay also examines key management functions like R&D, production, marketing, sales, HR, finance, customer service, distribution, and administration, highlighting their impact on performance. The document provides a comprehensive overview of the business environment and strategic planning for Hardy Aqua.

RUNNING HEAD: Management and Business context
Management and Business context Essay

Management and Business context 1
The business environment is dynamic and changes are taking place at a very fast speed which
affects the products and services offered. Innovations have resulted in a rise in the level of
competition prevailing in the business environment. A shift has been analysed in the Bottled
water industry towards the Flavoured water. There is a potential market available for this
product. Plans have been formulated for starting a new company and name of the company
will be “Hardy Aqua” which will offer flavoured water. Hardy aqua will be operating in the
bottled water industry of Australia. For establishing Hardy Aqua in the market of Australia
few strategies will be adopted. These strategies include competitive pricing strategy, seeking
advice, product differentiation and marketing strategies (Cohan, 2012). Hardy Aqua will set
the prices after analysing the prices of existing companies in the industry. This will help in
attracting the customers. Advice will be taken from the experts so as to gain knowledge of the
industry and support from the expert (Isaksson, 2015). It is vital to differentiate the products
from the others in the industry. Effective marketing strategies will be selected for the
promotion of the products offered. The promotion will be done of the products with the help
of print media, advertising and social media platforms (D’Avino, et. al., 2015). In this
dynamic environment, people are more concern about their health. The vision of Hardy Aqua
is to offer quality products for enhancing the health of the customers by ensuring safety.
Flavoured water will be offered at a competitive price for meeting the needs of the customers.
Hardy Aqua is planning to use advanced technology so as to provide quality products and
covering the market. Hardy Aqua will operate at a medium level.
Different organisational structures are available which can be used according to the
need of the business. Hardy Aqua has analysed different organisational structures for
analysing the advantages and disadvantages associated with the organisational structures.
Hardy Aqua will adopt the functional organisational structure as it will offer a single product
in different flavours. Different departments will be divided into different functions for

Management and Business context 2
executing the operations of the different functions in an effective manner (Morgeson, et. al.,
2012). The functional organisational structure will provide specialisation and focus on the
product in a better manner (Stare, 2011). Different departments will be specialised in the
work assigned to them which will enhance the productivity of the company. Every
department will have the idea of the job or of the roles and responsibilities which it has to
perform (Lam, 2011).
Hardy aqua will be offering flavoured water with different flavours which will
improve the health of the people. Hardy Aqua needs to analyse the factors of the internal and
external environment. There are various factors present in the internal and external
environment of the business which creates an impact on the operations and performance of
the business. Internal factors include mission and objectives of the company, availability of
resources, communication, support from the internal stakeholders of the business and culture
of the business (Dragnić, 2014). Missions and objectives of Hardy Aqua provide guidance to
the operations of the business. Different resources are required for conducting operations of
the business including human resource, financial resources and knowledge. Support from the
internal stakeholders enhances the quality of the operations. Hardy Aqua needs to manage its
employees in an effective manner for the attainment of the long term goals (Shiamwama, et.
al., 2014). Employees will help in performing the different operations of the company in a
better manner and will perform the roles and responsibilities by applying their skills and
knowledge. Effective communication channels need to be developed which promotes the
flow of information in an effective manner. A delegation of the tasks of operations of Hardy
Aqua is required and healthy relations need to be maintained with the employees. Another
crucial factor of the internal environment of business is culture. Hardy Aqua must ensure that
safe workplace is maintained and policies and values are followed by the employees (Yu &
Zhang, 2010). External environmental factors of the business include suppliers, competitors,

Management and Business context 3
government policies, technological changes, economic conditions and cultural factors
(Soriano, 2010). These external factors can affect the functioning of Hardy Aqua at large.
Hardy Aqua needs to analyse these factors for coping with the changing needs and
eliminating the impact of these factors on the functioning of the company. It is vital to
analyse these factors and cope with them for gaining competitive advantage (Fereidouni, et.
al., 2010).
A newly started business may face various risks which can affect the operations and
existence of the business. These risks must be analysed and dealt in an effective manner for
ensuring that the operations are managed properly. Hardy Aqua is planning to launch the
products offered by it in the market of Australia. Hardy Aqua may face certain risks which
can lead to failure of the business. These risks which can affect the operations of Hardy Aqua
include risk related to the product, risk related to finance, risk related to market, risk related
to execution, risk related to the team, the risk of planning failure and strategic risk (Schick, et.
al., 2010). Hardy Aqua is launching flavoured water which is launched with a motive to
enhance the health condition of people and promote healthy habits among the people of
Australia. Product selection has been made by analysing the risk related to product failure.
Funds are required for the execution of the operations of business and lack of availability of
funds can result in risk related to finance. Hardy Aqua must analyse the sources of finance for
coping with this risk. Business must analyse the needs of the customers and trends of the
market for avoiding risk related to the market. Management of different operations of the
business by an individual can result in failure of the execution process. A team must be
developed by Hardy Aqua as lack of proper techniques for team management can result in an
increase in the chances of team risk. Planning failure and failure of a business plan can also
act as a risk as these can affect the existence of the company (Parker & Praag, 2010).

Management and Business context 4
Hardy Aqua needs to adopt business practices which will help in coping with the risks
as well as enhancing the performance of the business. Various business practices and
strategies can be followed by Hardy Aqua for improving its performance. These business
practices include effective management of the resources, market research, use of forecasting
tools, use of technological advancements and following a constant improvement approach.
Hardy Aqua needs to utilise the available resources including human resource, financial
resource and technology optimally (Richardson, 2014). This will contribute towards the
chances of success of the business. Optimal utilisation of the resources results in generating
the expected outcomes. Market research is an important aspect and Hardy Aqua must analyse
the market trends and needs of the customers. This analysis will help in coping with the
changing trend and meeting the expectations of the customers. Market research will help in
dealing with the rising competition in the market (Soriano, 2010). Forecasts will help in
deciding the future strategies and feasibility of these strategies for the future period. Constant
improvements need to be made in the products for ensuring the satisfaction level of the
customers. Technology plays a vital role as changes taking place in the business environment
affects the operations of the business. Hardy Aqua must use technological advancement and
innovations for improving the quality of its products (Čalopa, et. al., 2014).
Execution of the operations of the business is dependent on the functioning of
different functions. These different functions can affect the performance of the organisation.
These different functions of Hardy Aqua are research and development, production,
marketing, sales, human resource, finance, customer service, distribution and administration
function. All these functions must be managed properly for eliminating their impact on the
performance. Research and development function can enhance the performance by using
innovations and advanced technology (Hezam, 2015). Production function ensures that the
demand for the product in the market is met. Shortage of products offered by the company in

Management and Business context 5
the market will affect its profitability and performance. The marketing function is responsible
for the promotion and advertisement of the products so as to attract the customers towards the
product. The sales function is responsible for developing a sales plan and maintaining records
of sales. Malfunctioning of this function will affect the sales of the company. Human
resource performs the operations of the company and support must be gained from the human
resource for improving the performance of the business. Finance is required for funding the
operations of the company. The shortfall of the financial resource will result in
malfunctioning of the functioning of the company. Customer service function ensures that
customers are satisfied with the products offered and analysis is done of needs of the
customers. This help in meeting the needs of the customers and contributing to the overall
performance of the company (Self, et. al., 2014). The distribution function is responsible for
the distribution of the products offered by Hardy Aqua in Australia. This function ensures the
supply of products at different locations in the right quantity. Administration function ensures
that the management of different functions is taking place as per the plans formulated.
Malfunctioning of these functions will directly create an impact on the performance of Hardy
aqua. For ensuring that these functions are executed in an effective manner, Hardy Aqua
needs to monitor the performance of every function and adopt use business practices and
strategies (Hezam, 2015).

Management and Business context 6
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