North Australian Pastoral Company: Strategy and Change Analysis

This case study provides an analysis of the North Australian Pastoral Company (NAPCO), focusing on the internal and external factors influencing its business operations in the Australian cattle industry. It identifies political, economic, social, and technological forces impacting NAPCO, such as stringent import regulations, fluctuating global beef demand, and technological advancements. The report evaluates NAPCO's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, highlighting its brand value and extensive business capabilities alongside its dependence on the Australian economy and lack of foreign bases. The analysis assesses the effectiveness of NAPCO's internal environment in coping with external factors, noting its ability to leverage its cattle stations to meet changing market demands but also its vulnerability to currency fluctuations. The study concludes that NAPCO possesses significant internal capabilities to address external challenges but needs improvements to effectively manage issues like currency valuation to maintain competitiveness in the global market. This assignment solution is available on Desklib for students.

Running head: STRATEGY AND CHANGE
Strategy and change
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

1STRATEGY AND CHANGE
Executive summary
The aim of this report is to discuss about the external and internal factors for North Australian
Pastoral Company in their global business scenario. In addition, this report also discussed about
the major challenges and opportunities for them in operating in the Australian industry. There are
various positive and negative factors identified for North Australian Pastoral Company. It is also
concluded that that they are having internal organizational capability in coping up with the
change in the external factors. On the other hand, some negative factors are also being identified
for them in this report.

2STRATEGY AND CHANGE
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Identification of the external forces.................................................................................................3
Evaluation of the external factors................................................................................................4
Identification of the internal factors................................................................................................5
Evaluation of the internal factors.................................................................................................6
Effectiveness of the internal environment in coping up with the external factors..........................6
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7
Reference.........................................................................................................................................8

3STRATEGY AND CHANGE
Introduction
Cattle farming and meat industry is one of the major revenue earning industry in
Australia. Moreover, the cattle farming industry of Australia is mainly export oriented and thus it
is one of the major sources for gaining foreign reserves. North Australian Pastoral Company is
one of the leading players in the Australian cattle industry. Moreover, they are also one of the
oldest companies in the Australian cattle industry. Currently, they are having 13 cattle stations
with having more than 200,000 cattle making the largest private player in the industry. The
major product for them is beef that sold in both the domestic and international market.
However, in the current time, Australian cattle industry is facing number of challenges in
terms of different environmental factors. Moreover, due to the fact that this industry is mainly
depended on exports, emergence of external issues is more (Zhang et al., 2014). This is also
leading to the increase in the business challenges for North Australian Pastoral Company. They
are in the need of having effective strategies and internal factors to deal with these issues.
This report will discuss about the internal and external factors influencing their business
operation. In addition, the effectiveness of the internal factors of the organization in coping up
with the external change will also be discussed.
Identification of the external forces
Political factors  One of the major political factors is the diplomatic
relationship with the importing counties.
 In the current time, political turbulence is going on in the
international market scenario. Thus, it is affecting the export
trend of beef from Australia.
 More stringent legislations and regulations are being
initiated by the governments of the importing countries
regarding the food standard (Cohen et al., 2014).
Economical factors  Emergence of the issues such as Asian economic crisis and
recent American crisis is influencing the market (Aizenman,
Jinjarak & Park, 2013).
 Changes in the valuation of the Australian dollar against the

4STRATEGY AND CHANGE
American dollar also posing challenges keep up the revenue
stream.
 Competition is increasing in the global market and it is
affecting the sales revenue of North Australian Pastoral
Company.
Social factors  Demand of beef in the global market is fluctuating and it is
affecting the business growth of the Australian cattle
industry (Davalos et al., 2014).
 Demand for beef is steadily reducing in the importing
countries due to less public consumption.
 Trend of demand for beef is shifting from the bigger
markets such as United States and Canada to the smaller
countries such as Taiwan and Hong Kong.
Technological factors  Technology is rapidly developing in global cattle farming
industry.
 It is becoming more important for the Australian firms to
initiate newer technologies in order to stay competitive.
 Cost of production is rapidly increasing and thus it is
important for the Australian firms to have latest
technologies for enhancing the efficiencies.
Evaluation of the external factors
Thus, from the above discussion, it can be concluded that North Australian Pastoral
Company is facing number of challenges in terms of different perspectives. One of the major
challenges identified for them is introduction of the stringent regulations by different
governments regarding the food safety. Countries such as the United States are initiating stricter
rules and standards in importing beef (Lo et al., 2015). This is mainly due to the reason that trend
of counterfeiting is rapidly increasing in the food items and it is becoming more important for the
governments to have strict standards and regulations. This is becoming difficult for North
Australian Pastoral Company to set and enhance their product quality according to the different

5STRATEGY AND CHANGE
benchmarking of the governments. Another major external factor or issue for North Australian
Pastoral Company is the reduction in the global demand for beef (Centner, Alvey & Stelzleni,
2014). This is mainly due to the reason that customers are less likely preferring beef and opting
for other alternatives. Thus, it is reducing the business potentiality for North Australian Pastoral
Company in their global operation.
Identification of the internal factors
Strengths  North Australian Pastoral Company is the oldest and largest
private sector firm in the Australian market. This helps them
to hold a positive brand image in the market.
 Having number of stations helps them to cater to more
number of markets in different regions.
 Capabilities in the breeding program development in order
to have more drought resistant process.
Weaknesses  They are not having the access to the government subsidies
like the private players in some other countries.
 Average cost of production of North Australian Pastoral
Company is higher compared to some of their competitors.
 They do not have any foreign bases, which increase their
dependency on the Australian economy.
Opportunities  More new markets are emerging for beef. This is increasing
the market exposure for North Australian Pastoral
Company.
 Initiation of the new technologies will enhance the
organizational efficacy and will reduce the cost of operation.
 Opportunities of supplying live cattle to the North African
markets.
Threats  Stringent regulations restricting the Australian beef for
importing.
 Emergence of bovine diseases in different countries such as
Japan.

6STRATEGY AND CHANGE
 Natural calamities such as inadequate rainfall and drought.
Evaluation of the internal factors
The above discussion and analysis of the internal factors identified number of weakness
and strengths for North Australian Pastoral Company. One of the major positive factors
identified is the brand value and extensive business capabilities of the organizations. It is
reported that North Australian Pastoral Company is the oldest and largest private player in the
cattle farming industry in Australia. Thus, having huge and positive brand values is helping them
to have more financial access in competing in the market (Hsu, Wang & Chen, 2013). Moreover,
their huge operation is also helping them in having competitive edge over its competitors. On the
other hand, the major negative factor for them is not having foreign bases for them. This is
forcing them to be more dependent on the Australian economy. Having foreign bases should help
them to reduce the issues in the international business.
Effectiveness of the internal environment in coping up with the external factors
Thus, from the above analysis of the internal and external factors of North Australian
Pastoral Company there are different negative as well as positive factors are being identified.
According to the case study given, the traditional market for beef is reducing in the global
scenario while new markets are emerging. Thus, it is important for North Australian Pastoral
Company to have enhanced capabilities in order to target the new markets as well as catering to
the existing ones (Juan Ding et al., 2014). It is earlier discussed that they are having 13 cattle
stations across Australia. Having such number of cattle station can help North Australian
Pastoral Company to cater to more number of markets. This internal capability of North
Australian Pastoral Company can also be termed as their competitive advantage in having
enough capabilities and resources to meet the changing demand scenario. It is also to be noted
that having the capability of catering to newer markets will further help North Australian
Pastoral Company to face the economic crisis as they have faced during Asian economic crisis.
However, on the other hand, the internal factor for North Australian Pastoral Company is
not well effective in dealing with the issues such as fluctuation in the currency valuation (Patel,
Patel & Patel, 2014). In the case study, it is reported that North Australian Pastoral Company is

7STRATEGY AND CHANGE
facing the issue in exporting their products due to the currency fluctuations. However, it is
discussed in this report that North Australian Pastoral Company is not having any foreign bases
outside Australia. Thus, they will have to depend on direct exporting of their products, which is
vulnerable to global currency fluctuations. There internal environment is not well adjusted in this
case for North Australian Pastoral Company.
According to Sodeyfi (2016), access to finance is important for the business
organizations to have the scope for technology development. This is due to the reason that the
more will be the access to finance, the more will be the capability of the organization to develop
latest technology. In the case of North Australian Pastoral Company, they are operating in the
cattle farming industry for long years and thus they are having the access to large source of
capital. In the internal analysis also, it is identified that North Australian Pastoral Company can
initiate development of latest technology. This will help them to reduce the cost of operation and
they can offer their products in more competitive prices.
Conclusion
Thus, it can be concluded that North Australian Pastoral Company is having number of
positive and negative factors to be faced in operating in the global business scenario. In addition,
this report also discussed about the internal factors of them and to the extent they are effective in
coping up with the external threats and challenges. It is concluded that North Australian Pastoral
Company is having major number of factors that are capable enough to cope up with the external
change. However, there are some factors being identified that are in the need of improvement
and development in order to be more effective in dealing with the external environments.

8STRATEGY AND CHANGE
Reference
Aizenman, J., Jinjarak, Y., & Park, D. (2013). Capital flows and economic growth in the era of
financial integration and crisis, 1990–2010. Open Economies Review, 24(3), 371-396.
Centner, T. J., Alvey, J. C., & Stelzleni, A. M. (2014). Beta agonists in livestock feed: Status,
health concerns, and international trade. Journal of animal science, 92(9), 4234-4240.
Cohen, J. F., Richardson, S., Parker, E., Catalano, P. J., & Rimm, E. B. (2014). Impact of the
new US Department of Agriculture school meal standards on food selection,
consumption, and waste. American journal of preventive medicine, 46(4), 388-394.
Dávalos, L. M., Holmes, J. S., Rodríguez, N., & Armenteras, D. (2014). Demand for beef is
unrelated to pasture expansion in northwestern Amazonia. Biological conservation, 170,
64-73.
Hsu, F. J., Wang, T. Y., & Chen, M. Y. (2013). The impact of brand value on financial
performance. Advances in Management and Applied Economics, 3(6), 129.
Juan Ding, M., Jie, F., A. Parton, K., & J. Matanda, M. (2014). Relationships between quality of
information sharing and supply chain food quality in the Australian beef processing
industry. The international journal of logistics management, 25(1), 85-108.
Lo, V. H., Wei, R., Lu, H. Y., & Hou, H. Y. (2015). Perceived issue importance, information
processing, and third-person effect of news about the imported US beef
controversy. International Journal of Public Opinion Research, 27(3), 341-360.
Patel, P. J., Patel, N. J., & Patel, A. R. (2014). Factors affecting currency exchange rate,
economical formulas and prediction models. International Journal of Application or
Innovation in Engineering & Management (IJAIEM), 3(3), 53-56.
Sodeyfi, S. (2016). Review of literature on the nexus of financial leverage, product quality, &
business conditions. International Journal of Economic Perspectives, 10(2), 146-150.

9STRATEGY AND CHANGE
Zhang, Y. D., Johnston, D. J., Bolormaa, S., Hawken, R. J., & Tier, B. (2014). Genomic
selection for female reproduction in Australian tropically adapted beef cattle. Animal
Production Science, 54(1), 16-24.