BUS300: Strategic Management Report on National Express

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of National Express's strategic management, focusing on its competitive environment and strategic choices. It begins with an introduction to strategic management concepts, techniques, and principles, followed by an analysis of National Express's competitive situation. The report examines strategic alternatives for achieving competitive advantage, including price and differentiation strategies, and discusses the implementation of these strategies. It also includes an action plan with communication reasoning and applies Porter's Five Forces to National Express, analyzing its competitive advantages and disadvantages. The report identifies key competitors such as Go-Ahead Group PLC, StageCoach Group PLC and FirstGroup PLC and discusses how National Express attracts customers. The analysis highlights the importance of strategic management for the company's growth and success, especially in the context of its alliances and the UK market.

STRATEGIC MANAGMENT

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
1. The main concept, techniques and principles of strategic management......................................3
2. Conducting the strategic analysis in a difference of National Express and its competitive
situation............................................................................................................................................4
3. Examining carefully the strategic alternatives available in the situation for achieving the
competitive advantage, analysing the organisation strategy to achieving competitive advantage
and its alliance will also achieve it..................................................................................................4
4. Demonstrating how the implementation of a strategy would be brought...................................5
5. Communication reasoning and the action plan in professional and persuasive manner.............6
6. Applying the porters five forces to National Express with diagram...........................................6
7. The competitive advantage and disadvantage of the National Express.......................................7
8. According to the competitive strategy, who are its competitors and how it manage to attract its
customer...........................................................................................................................................8
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................9
Reference list.................................................................................................................................10
Appendices....................................................................................................................................12

Introduction
It is essential for any organisation to develop its strategic management for its company success
and growth in the society. In this assignment, the strategic management of National Express is
discussed briefly in context with its new alliance. In this assignment, important matters are
highlighted such as the technique, principles and concept of the strategic management. The
analysis is also done in this assignment based on the competitive situation of the National
Express, the company strategy for achieving the competitive advantage for its new alliance. It is
also found in this assignment the implementation of a strategy how to be brought it and the most
important part of the strategic management its action plan and communication criteria. The
porters five forces analysis is shown in this assignment. The competitive disadvantage and
advantage of the National Express and its competitive strategy and the way it attracts its
consumer is described briefly. The main purpose of this assignment is to highlight and enhance
the strategies of the company and it is for alliance successful growth in the UK.
1. The main concept, techniques and principles of strategic management
It is important that National Express must develop strong strategic management within its
organisation; the concept of the strategic management mainly focuses on the process of
achieving its goal, target and objectives through its strategies. According to Hill et al. (2014,
p.34), the procedure of strategic management changes instantly, when, the company make an
alliance with some other companies or change its company objectives and goal. The techniques
and tools of the strategic management are SWOT analysis, PESTEL analysis, Porters five and
balance sheet, these techniques and tools are frequently used to analysis the strategic
management of the company progress. The analyses give clear evidence about the company
growth and help to identify w the strategies, which, they are using, are beneficial or not.
It has been found that the fundamental principle strategic management is mainly comprised of
five important key points, which, is known as VOSIC. As stated by Edler et al. (2002, p.149), the
vision, objective, strategy, implementation and correction are collectively known as VOSIC. The
strategies of the company build the organisation with the help of the experts, this helps them to

attain its target, objective and goal. The vision of the company is achieved through its good
strategy and techniques used by the management team of the company. Hence, it is essential for
National Express to build up healthy strategic management skill for its successful relationship
with the alliance company.
2. Conducting the strategic analysis in a difference of National Express and its
competitive situation
The data of the National Express provided clear evidence about its growth in the society, the
financial record and the balance sheet of the company gives clear information that the strategies
of the company are giving a quiet positive outcome in the society. According to Pavitt (2010,
p.17), National Express is one of the well-known and reputed company in the UK and its
branches in North America and Spain. The bus service and train service of this company is well
known.
The company have developed many strategies to suppress its rival and maintain the top position
in the business. Henderson and Venkatraman (2013, p.472) stated that the competitive situation
in the society has inspired the company to build a flawless competitive strategy for the
organisation; the company has come to the alliance with the company and decided to launch
luxury bus service for its consumer. Therefore, strategic analysis of the competitive situation of
the company gives brief knowledge about its strategic management skill.
3. Examining carefully the strategic alternatives available in the situation for
achieving the competitive advantage, analysing the organisation strategy to
achieving competitive advantage and its alliance will also achieve it.
It has been clearly seen that the competitive advantage of the company can be achieved in two
ways price advantage and differentiation advantage. Michael Porter through its theory and
analysis has given important ways for an organisation for attaining its competitive advantage
against its compactors. Burgelman et al. (2006, p.43) commented that the price of the product
plays an important role in attracting the customer during the time of marketing and promotional
activities of the company. The low or standard price of the product will attract more customers,
increase their sale rate and the launch of the new product will be successful. Therefore, it is

essential for National Express to keep the fare price of the bus nominal and standard for
achieving the success of its new launch.
Differentiation advantage also plays important role in the competitive strategy of the company,
when the company uses this kind of process it successfully manages to attain its goal. Slack et al.
(2009, p.20) mentioned that differentiation advantages occur when the company deliver good
quality of goods and service to its competitors. Therefore, this process will help the National
Express and its alliance partner go gain economic support and successfully manages to suppress
their rivals.
4. Demonstrating how the implementation of a strategy would be brought
It is essential to use various kinds of strategies in the company like National Express to achieve
its goal and objective successfully. The important strategies of this company are financial,
marketing strategy and competitive strategy and much more; to implicate these strategies
successfully it is essential to look after all the important criteria before implicating it. According
to Teece (2002, p.87), the organisation have to pros and cons of the strategies before implicating
it financial strategy of the company is extremely essential, without its support the company will
not be able to achieve its goal. The manager has to be conscious and check the budget of the
project does not overlap and build a strong competitive strategy for suppressing its rival
strategies.
It is essential for the company to implicate these strategies in their workplace, before implicating
it the company have to analysis it is previous data record based on sale and customer purchasing
behaviour and latest market trends in the business. These strategies will help in bringing
important changes in the workplace and will help the organisation to achieve its objective and
goal accurately. As commented by Covin et al. (2000, p.56), before starting marketing strategy
the company have to study and analysis it previous marketing strategy and fulfil their drawbacks
before building its new strategy and implicate in the workplace.

5. Communication reasoning and the action plan in professional and
persuasive manner
Action plan Acquired Time bound
The company have to maintain
customer’s loyalty.
The company like National
Express have to provide
beneficial and quick service to
its customer.
6 months
Reduce or make the price of
their commodity nominal pr
standard.
It is essential for an
organisation to reduce the
price of their fare for
attracting more and more
customers. They can provide
offers and discount to its
customer.
2 months
Infusing innovative and
creative ideas in the
workplace is essential.
This will help the company to
launch new products based on
the demand of customers.
6 months
Building new strategies
for the company
development is essential.
This will enhance the financial
growth of the company and
helps in successful growth in
the society.
3 months
6. Applying the porters five forces to National Express with diagram
Michael Porter has introduced Porters five forces method for the companies like National
Express for its success, growth, and to suppress its competitors in the business world. According
to Bracker (2008, p.219), this theory has helped in the development of the business strategies and
provides an important strategy to suppress its rival. The important aspect of the Porter five forces
mainly comprises of few aspects such as a threat of new entrants, bargaining power of
customers, a threat of substitute, industry rivalry and bargaining power of suppliers.

Threat of new entrants:
It has been that the threat of new entrants will create trouble in the organisation growth and
successful outcome; this will decrease the capital of the company considerably. The product
differentiation, government law and policy, brand equity and access to distribution will be
considered as new threat to the company growth and progress.
Bargaining power of customers:
It has been noticed when, the customers bargains, the company have to change the price of its
commodity. It is impossible for an organisation to ignore the voice of the consumer and they
have no other options than to reduce the price of the goods (Wernerfelt, 2005, p.171).
Threat of substitute:
Several verities of the product are available in the market of different brands; the customers are
now getting many options hence the threat arises for the company that their customers can switch
to another brand product (Wheelen and Hunger, 2004, p.80).
Industry rivalry:
Competition are rising day by day, many industries are launching the same products as their
competitors to give tough competition in the business. It is seen the company in the marketing
process of the company to enhance its sale rate and suppress its rival invests huge amount of
capital (Jauch and Glueck, 2000, p.21).
Bargaining power of suppliers:
It has been found that the suppliers often change its policy towards its company and switch to its
competitors for good opportunity and money. This will create negative impact on the business of
the company and its workflow will be hampered. (Refer to appendix 1)
7. The competitive advantage and disadvantage of the National Express
The competitive advantages of the National Express are as follows, the company successfully
manages to create a positive impact on its consumers and build a strong and influential name in

the society. The advantages of the competitive strategies play the important role, in the
development of its company growth and economically deliver good and beneficial service to its
customers. According to Bettis et al. (2015, p.627), the company keeps the price of the product
nominal and according to the quality standard of the product. Competitive advantage also
encourages the company to launch new products, provide good salary and incentive to its
employees for its retention, as the employees are the backbone of the company growth and
success. The companies always implicate new strategies and infused new and innovative ideas to
suppress its rival and uses porter five-force theory to get success in the competitive strategy of an
organisation.
The disadvantage of the competitive strategies is that the sale rate, profit and revenue collection
of an organisation are decreasing. Rothaermel (2015, p.40) commented that customers and
suppliers are switching into another company, customers loyalties towards its brand are reducing
day by day. The company is also suffering financial loss and recession issues in their respective
companies.
8. According to the competitive strategy, who are its competitors and how it
manage to attract its customer
The competitors of National Express are Go-Ahead Group PLC, StageCoach Group PLC and
FirstGroup PLC, they provide tough competitions to National Express in terms of business and
sale rate. According to Barney and Hesterly (2015, p.55), StageCoach is one the leading
competitors of the National Express, StageCoach is also launching luxurious bus service for its
customer and comparatively keeping price rate of the ticket fare low than National Express. It
has been seen that Go-head PLC company provides more comfortable and luxurious service to
its consumer at a very reasonable price. The competitors of National Express takes various steps
to attract its customer and maintain its loyalty, some of the important steps taken by the
competitors are they keep the price of the fare reasonable and standard, provide discount and
offers to its customer, special bus and coaches are build for old age people and small children.
Hence, these are the few important ways that the competitors of National Express attract the
customers for its efficient flow and growth in the society.

Conclusion
Strategic management is an integral part of an organisation, without its correct implication
incorrect time company, as National Express will not be able to achieve its goal and objective. In
this assignment, the importance of strategic management and its positive outcome in the business
is shown briefly. The competitive strategies and its advantage and disadvantage related to
National Express are clearly depicted hence, the importance of competitive advantage helps the
company to increase its revenue collection, sale and succeed in maintaining the customer’s
loyalty. The competitors like StageCoach, Go-Ahead Group PLC and FirstGroup PLC provide
tough competition to National Express in terms of price and luxury and attract more and more
consumers towards it. Hence, this assignment gives vivid knowledge, information and
description about the strategic management.

Reference list
Barney, J.B. and Hesterly, W., (2015). Strategic management and competitive advantage
concepts and cases.London: Pearson.
Bettis, R.A., Gambardella, A., Helfat, C. and Mitchell, W., (2015). Qualitative empirical
research in strategic management. Strategic Management Journal, 36(5), pp.637-639.
Bracker, J., (2008). The historical development of the strategic management concept. Academy
of management review, 5(2), pp.219-224.
Burgelman, R.A., Maidique, M.A. and Wheelwright, S.C., (2006). Strategic management of
technology and innovation. Chicago: Irwin.
Covin, Jeffrey G., and Dennis P. Slevin., (2000). "Strategic management of small firms in hostile
and benign environments." Strategic management journal (2000). 56(40), pp.75-87.
Edler, J., Meyer‐Krahmer, F. and Reger, G., (2002). Changes in the strategic management of
technology: results of a global benchmarking study. R&D Management, 32(2), pp.149-164.
Henderson, J.C. and Venkatraman, H., (2013). Strategic alignment: Leveraging information
technology for transforming organizations. IBM systems journal, 32(1), pp.472-484.
Hill, C.W., Jones, G.R. and Schilling, M.A., (2014). Strategic management: theory: an
integrated approach. United States: Cengage Learning.
Jauch, L.R. and Glueck, W.F., (2000). Business policy and strategic management (5th ed.). New
York, New York: McGraw-Hill.
Pavitt, K., (2010). What we know about the strategic management of technology. California
management review, 32(3), pp.17-26.
Rothaermel, F.T., (2015). Strategic management. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Slack, N., Chambers, S. and Johnston, R., (2009). Operations and process management:
principles and practice for strategic impact. London: Pearson Education.

Teece, D.J., (2002). Economic analysis and strategic management. California Management
Review, 26(3), pp.87-110.
Wernerfelt, B., (2005). The resource‐based view of the firm: Ten years after. Strategic
management journal, 16(3), pp.171-174.
Wheelen, T.L. and Hunger, J.D., (2004). Strategic management and business policy. London:
Pearson

Appendices
Appendix 1: (Porters five forces)