MGMT2998 Business Strategy Analysis Report: Morrison's Salon

This report analyzes the business strategy of Morrison's Salon, a hair and beauty salon specializing in hair styling and beauty services, with a focus on bridal make-up and hair-styling. The report examines the salon's background, key strategies, including cost leadership, strategic planning process, influences on strategic options, and the success of its strategy. It details the salon's mission, vision, and financial objectives, and the implementation of strategic planning. The analysis includes frameworks like SWOT, PESTLE, and Porter’s Five Forces. The report also reflects on entrepreneurship, discussing the author's initial understanding, the application of business strategies, similarities among entrepreneurs, and the learning experience gained. The salon's competitive advantage stems from its high-quality services at affordable prices. The report highlights the importance of aligning strategies with market demands and the overall goals of the business.

Running head: BUSINESS STRATEGY
Business Strategy
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Background Information............................................................................................................2
Key Strategies............................................................................................................................3
Strategic Planning Process and its Implementation...................................................................4
Influences on the Strategic options used by the firm.................................................................5
Success of the Strategy...............................................................................................................5
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................6
Reflection...................................................................................................................................7
My ideas about entrepreneurship before the interview..........................................................7
Entrepreneurs and Business Strategies...................................................................................7
Similarity of the entrepreneurs...............................................................................................8
My Learning Experience........................................................................................................8
References..................................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
As opined by Madsen and Walker (2015), the contemporary business world is starkly
different from that of the earlier times and the business firms in order to gain success within
the business markets are actively taking the help of different kinds of strategies. Thompson,
Strickland and Gamble (2015) are of the viewpoint that the change undergone by the business
world is not just limited to the limited to the innovative strategies used by the firms but also
the business models, products or services offered by them and other aspects of their business.
This paper will undertake an analysis of the business strategies used by the hair and beauty
salon, Morrison’s Salon and its related aspects.
Background Information
Morrison’s Salon specializes in hair styling and also offers various beauty services
face-wash, facials and others to customers from all age brackets. More importantly, the salon
is especially known for the bridal make-up and hair-styling that it offers and this as a matter
of fact is the major source of income of the concerned salon. However, the customers in order
to use the services offered by the concerned salon had to make prior appointments and the
customers have the option to pay for the services both in cash and also through the usage of
their credit cards and other kinds of cards. In this regard, it needs to be said that the major
value proposition of the services offered by the salon is the fact that the beauty and hair
styling services offered by it are not only comparatively cheaper but at the same time are of
high quality. It is pertinent to note that the salon in order to offer quality services to the
customers takes the help of products which are premium priced however through the
effective usage of the cost leadership the salon is being able to cater to a large number of
customers and this in turn compensates for the low profit that the salon on individual

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customers. This as a matter of fact is the profit formula that the concerned salon for earning a
higher amount of revenue as well as profitability.
The salon industry of Canada is a highly competitive one and as a matter of fact it is
seen that different salons had already monopolized the business market of the concerned
nation. On the score of this, it can be said that the firm faces a high level of competition from
other salons which are operational in the concerned nation. However, the concerned salon
had distinguished itself through the high quality diverse services that it offers to the
customers and that too at a comparatively lower cost than the other salons. This as a matter of
fact is the main factor which is likely to make the salon gain competitive advantage within
the salon market of Canada. The major values of the salon are ethics and quality and this gets
manifested within the marketing strategies which are being presently used by the salon. For
example, it is seen that the salon is taking the help of ethical and social marketing and thereby
focusing on the manner in which they are contributing towards the society and also the high
quality of services offered by them.
Key Strategies
The services offered by the salon under discussion here are designed as per the needs
or the requirements of the customers and also through the effective usage of the cost
leadership strategy the firm tries to address the needs or the requirements of the customers in
an effective manner. The net result of this is that the salon had attained a unique position
within the market in terms of the price charged by it through the effective usage of the cost
leadership strategy. More importantly, it is seen that one of the most important aspects that
had enabled the salon to gain competitive advantage within the market is the effectiveness
with which it utilizes the resources that it has. For example, the different resources and also
the employees are specially tailored to enhance the service quality which is being offered to

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the customers so as to gain competitive advantage (David & David, 2016). Furthermore, it is
seen that the different processes of the salon like HRM, supply chain, sales, marketing and
others are being interconnected so as to offer the best quality services to the customers.
Moreover, the primary focus of the salon is on the quality of the services which are being
offered to the customers and also the manner in which they are being treated and this as a
matter of fact had enabled the salon to achieve the performance targets that it had outlined for
itself.
Strategic Planning Process and its Implementation
The mission of the salon is to offer the best quality hair styling and beauty services to
the customers and that too at a very affordable price. On the other hand, the vision of the firm
is to become the largest salon of Canada on the basis of the high quality of services that it
offers to the customers. The financial objective of the salon for the upcoming one year is to
increase its profitability by 10% and for the achievement of this the strategic objectives that
the salon had outlined are the enhancement of its customer base by 5% and also the
improvement of the quality of the hair styling and beauty services which are being offered to
the customers. The salon takes the help of annual strategic planning meetings and also
regularly undertakes business market analysis so as to formulate the best possible strategies.
The salon for the execution of its strategies prioritizes them and also explains the different
employees the reasons for which they have been formulated and also the possible outcomes
the salon is trying to achieve through the usage of the same. The salon takes the help of
different key performance indicators and also regulatory measures to analyze their
performance and also for its improvement. In addition to this, the usage of the tool of gap
analysis is another important one which is being used by the concerned salon to identify the

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gap between their present performance and expected performance and this in turn enables
them to improve their performance in an effective manner.
Influences on the Strategic options used by the firm
The salon actively takes the help of different analysis frameworks like SWOT,
PESTLE, VRIO, Porter’s Five Forces model and others to get an idea regarding its key
competencies and also the threats or the opportunities presented by the business market. This
is important since it enables the salon to formulate strategies which are intended to effectively
utilize the business opportunities and also to mitigate the threats (Leonidou et al., 2015).
More importantly, the salon also takes the help of the framework of competitor analysis not
only to analyze the business competition faced by it but also to formulate effective strategies
for the mitigation of the same.
Success of the Strategy
Strategic Fit The cost leadership strategy fits well within the overall mission and
vision of the salon to offer the best quality hair styling and beauty
services to the customers and that too at very affordable prices and
also to become the largest salon of Canada by way of enabling it to
offer best quality services at comparatively affordable prices.
Competitive
Advantage
The cost leadership strategy is likely to enable the salon to attain
competitive advantage because of the fact that the prices charged by
other salon are comparatively higher and the use of this strategy is
likely to help it to enhance its customer base and thereby to earn a
higher amount of profit.
Performance The salon by using this strategy had enhanced its customer base and

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have been able to earn the loyalty or the satisfaction of the
customers and this in turn had enabled it to improve its performance
Conclusion
To conclude, the strategies that the contemporary firms are intended to not only
enhance their performance but also to enhance their profitability as well. In addition to this,
the firms need to formulate their strategies on the basis of the analysis of the business market
in which they are operational so as to maximize their chances of gaining competitive
advantage within the business market. These aspects become clear from the above analysis of
the salon, Morrison’s Salon and the strategies used by it.

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Reflection
My ideas about entrepreneurship before the interview
I would like to say that before the interview I had rudimentary knowledge about the
entrepreneurship and as a matter of fact I held the idea that the entrepreneurs are the
individuals who establish new business venture. However, the interview enabled me to gain
the insight that the business venture that the different entrepreneurs develop are of the basis
of the processes of opportunity identification, analyzing the key business trends, the threats
and the opportunities presented by the concerned business market, future prospects of the
business idea and others. More importantly, before the interview I was also unfamiliar with
the idea that the entrepreneurs needed to chalk out the detailed plans of the different
departments of the concerned venture firm like operations, management, marketing and
others. Furthermore, I was also unware about the fact that the effectiveness of the business
ventures established by the entrepreneurs greatly depended on the kind of business
opportunities on the basis of which they established their business ventures, the effectiveness
of the planning undertaken by them and others.
Entrepreneurs and Business Strategies
The interview clearly reveals the fact that the different strategies formulated by the
entrepreneurs needs to be in synchronicity with the requirements of the business
environments in which their business firms operated. More importantly, the entrepreneurs
need to formulate the kind of strategies which will enable them to maximize the benefits from
the business opportunities presented by the business market and also to mitigate the adverse
effects of the threats presented by the same. In addition to this, the interview, in a succinct
manner also revealed the fact the entrepreneurs need to align the strategies that they are using
with the overall goals or the vision or the mission of their business venture.

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Similarity of the entrepreneurs
The interview in a succinct manner revealed the fact that a common aspect among the
different entrepreneurs of the world is the fact that the business ventures established by them
were on the basis of the effective usage of the process of business opportunity identification.
More importantly, it is seen that the business ventures established by the entrepreneurs not
only took into account the present demand of the customers for the products or services that
they offered but also the likely future demand as well. However, the major point of difference
between the diverse entrepreneurs lies in the approaches taken by them, for there are some
who take the help of innovative approaches whereas there are others who take the help of
charismatic approach and so on.
My Learning Experience
I would like to say that the interview was a great learning experience for me and also
offered me an insight into the manner in which the different theories as well as the models of
entrepreneurship are being used in the professional business world. For example, I was
surprised to find that there is a very wide gulf between the theories or the models of
entrepreneurship which were being taught to us in the class and their actual manner of
implementation or usage in the business world. However, at the same time I would like to say
that the interview helped me to understand that the majority of the concepts that the
entrepreneurs use for the purpose of their business ventures are the modified versions of the
theories or models which have been taught to us in the class like opportunity identification,
business planning and others.

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References
David, F. R., & David, F. R. (2016). Strategic management: A competitive advantage
approach, concepts and cases. Pearson.
Leonidou, L. C., Fotiadis, T. A., Christodoulides, P., Spyropoulou, S., & Katsikeas, C. S.
(2015). Environmentally friendly export business strategy: Its determinants and
effects on competitive advantage and performance. International Business
Review, 24(5), 798-811.
Madsen, T. L., & Walker, G. (2015). Modern competitive strategy. McGraw Hill.
Thompson, A., Strickland, A. J., & Gamble, J. (2015). Crafting and executing strategy:
Concepts and readings. McGraw-Hill Education.