Me as a Product: A Professional Development Report and Analysis

This report presents a self-assessment, treating the individual as a product within the job market. It employs various business models such as Porter's Five Forces, BCG matrix, and generic strategies to analyze market position, competitive advantages, and potential for growth. The report explores strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats through a SWOT analysis, examines industry life cycles, and discusses ethical considerations and corporate social responsibility. It also delves into different leadership styles, evaluating their advantages and disadvantages. The analysis aims to provide insights for career development and strategic self-marketing, offering a framework for enhancing marketability and achieving professional goals.

Me as a product

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Porter five forces model ..............................................................................................................1
BCG matrix..................................................................................................................................1
Generic strategies.........................................................................................................................2
Vision/Mission/strategy...............................................................................................................3
SWOT analysis ...........................................................................................................................3
Industry life cycle........................................................................................................................3
Ethics and CSR............................................................................................................................4
Different leadership styles...........................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Product refers to an items that is offered for sale. Me as a product can be described as
individual entering into employment like workforce as a commodity where the level of
competition is very high. The Report will present myself as a product with the help of different
type of models like porter five forces, generic strategy etc.
MAIN BODY
Porter five forces model
Threat of new entrants :
It can be described as the entry of new candidates in the market for getting employment
in similar field in which I want to work. If there are large number of new entrants then, the
competition between me and other candidates will be high. If, I am having better skills as
compared with other people in that case, I will be able to compete with them in better way.
Threat of substitute :
It refers to the substitutes that are available in the market. In case when large number of
workers are available in the market then there will be great chances that employer will give
employment to other candidates (Mathooko and Ogutu, 2015).
Bargaining power of buyer :
Bargaining power means, the individual or firm that are buying the product. If, my
previous work record is better then, I will be able to better bargain with employer.
Bargaining power of supplier :
It means bargaining power of people that are supplying the product. When people that are
promoting me as a product has high bargaining power in that case, it will be helpful for me to get
employment.
Competitive rivalry :
It means the level of competition that is existing between candidates for getting
employment in the firm.
BCG matrix
It refers to the tool developed by Boston Consulting Group to evaluate strategic position
and potential of self or business. BCG matrix of self as a product -
Question mark -
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Under this, the product is having low market share and high market growth. Me as a
product don't know how to grab the opportunities that are available in the market in respect of
available employment opportunities and I have decided to increase investment of training.
Stars -
The product having high growth in market with high market share are known as stars
(Mohajan, 2017). I am performing well in my current job as well as I am having other
opportunities also.
Dogs -
These are products that are having low market share and low growth. I am weak in
performing tasks as compared to other employees. As well as, it is difficult for me to contribute
to the profits of company.
Cash cows -
These are products that are having low market growth and high market share. I am
performing well and there are no or limited opportunities for growth.
I may be classified as cash cow because as I am performing well and if firm provides me
other growth opportunities in that case, I will contribute to make more profits.
Generic strategies
These strategies can be applied to any product, service in any industry.
Cost leadership:
It means the strategy that is available to firm to reduce the cost of operations. I possess
good skills and ability to work. Therefore, firm will have to invest less amount on me in terms of
training and development. This will help employer to become the lowest cost producer in
industry.
Differentiation:
It means differentiating the product so that, it will look different as compared to product
offered by other companies. I am having better knowledge of working in a particular field that
will help to differentiate me as a product from other employees that are working in other
companies (Emam, 2019).
Focus:
It refers to focussing on cost or on differentiation. Under this, my skills, abilities and
knowledge of working in the firm will help employer to lower the expenses on me in the form of
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training programs. These skills will also help me to differentiate myself from other employees.
Therefore, my efforts will help employer to gain competitive advantage over other firms.
Vision/Mission/strategy
Vision: To become a world class leader where I will be working and my commitment is
to reach excellence in providing reliable services to others.
Mission: To enhance my production level and outlook for managing an individuals to
make a firm great.
Strategy: To manage my time schedule and opt the leadership style as per situation
demand.
SWOT analysis
It is the model that is used to determine my strength, weaknesses, opportunity and threats
(Phadermrod, Crowder and Wills, 2019). Therefore, these are as mention below:
Strength: I have a good communication and interpersonal skills, further I have strong
time management skills and can work under pressure as well. Have strong confident and good in
presentation skill.
Weaknesses: I am a workaholic and I did not feel comfortable in long meeting.
Opportunity: I have strong interpersonal skills that further helps gain different
opportunities.
Threats: I face threat with the tough competition in market and also feel uncertainty in
market as well.
International Marketing: It is a direct low of a product to consumers in more than one nation.
For the current scenario, I as a product and I want to sell in a market that is why, I chooses 4 P's
of marketing. In which, Price i.e. cost of the product is minimal but as I want to sell in the market
and that is why, my rate is high because of high rivalry. Next is, product i.e. I want to sell in
market. Further, place i.e. working area where I want to be my career in. Last is Promotion, so to
sell the product in market, social media and different digital tools are used.
Industry life cycle
There are four stages involve in it that helps to make the product popular in market and
these are:
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Introduction: it is the first stage in which a unique product in offered and for this, the
new product Is I and as I have good interpersonal skills so that it will help me to offer best career
option in market and this further, help the firm to enhance their own productivity level.
Growth: It is the next stage of an industry life cycle in which the main goal is to
differentiate the firm offering from their competitor. FProduct refers to an items that is offered
for sale. Me as a product can be described as individual entering into employment like workforce
as a commodity where the level of competition is very high. The Report will present myself as a
product with the help of different type of models like porter five forces, generic strategy etc. or
this, I am a product and I posses skills as a strength that clearly helps to differentiate me from
other competitors. Thus, as the market share is high and the product also have high growth but
the key finding in this stage is market rivalry, which affect the introduction of new product in
negative way (Golnaraghi, 2018).
Maturity: In this, the product maturity phase begin and for this, the company faces
different up and downs such that they have to invest in training and development programs for
the new product so that they can easily enhance the productivity level and also face competition
in better way.
Decline: It is the end phase which state that if the product innovation has not kept pace
with other competing product then it leads towards decline stage. As per the case, the mentioned
product have good knowledge as well as strong interpersonal skills so that it will not rely in the
decline stage.
Ethics and CSR
Ethics: As a product I follow all the laws which bind the company to run smoothly and
also I safeguarding the company's reputation as well. Further, as a product and in order to sustain
in this competitive era, I will try to also promote the ethics program so that there will be no
discrimination at working place (Constantinescu and Kaptein, 2019).
CSR: It is defined as a self regulation in which a part of the corporation's business model
and strategic plan. That is why, for me as a product, the CSR should be relied to meet the social
needs of a society.
Return on investment
It helps the business to measure the return on investment made by firm. It helps to
measure performance of company. Return on investment made by employer on me is -
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Return on investment on myself for the company can be defined as revenue earned by firm less
operating expenses incurred by the employer less the amount of compensation paid by employer
to me like salary etc. Then the amount is divided by compensation.
Investment to improve the product.
To improve my current skills and knowledge, employer will have to invest funds on
providing training and opportunities to me. Further, employer will have to provide incentives to
improve my level of motivation for performing better in the future.
Market share: For introducing new product i.e. me the market share is as quite high because
there is a high demand of buyers as specified in the Porter five force model.
Different leadership styles
Transformational leadership
In transformational leadership style leaders inspire , encourage and also motivate employees of
companies for innovating and creating change which would help Sainsbury to grow and to shape
its future success. This is achieved by setting examples at executive levels with strong corporate
culture , independence at workplace and employee involvement. The leaders and managers
inspire people by giving proper trainings and than giving them responsibility for different tasks
and jobs (Ghasabeh, Soosay and Reaiche, 2015). It give employees more the freedom to come
out with new creative ideas. Through constant training and mentoring skills of the employees
are enhanced.
Autocratic Leadership
This leadership is also recognised as authoritarian style leadership. Choices of leaders are based
on ideas and judgements and these leaders rarely accept suggestions of their subordinates. It is
generally seen in departments having less skilled workers. The leadership style is beneficial for
companies involving strict compliance procedures and employees are not trained enough to
suggest other alternatives or suggestion that could benefit the company (Ahmad, Malik and
Batool, 2017).
Transformational leadership style
This style refers to motivate, encouraging and inspiring employees for adopting changes
that has been made to sell the product in market.
Advantages
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This style of leadership help in lowering turnover cost of the company. Through this
employees can be retained as by satisfying their needs and wants in the organization. It also
helps in achieving higher levels of productivity into the company as employees are motivated to
do work effectively and efficiently (Holten and Brenner, 2015). By using this style of leadership
company can improve its brand image in the market.
Disadvantages
The main disadvantage of this style is it provide negative outcome as most of the time
employees are not able to accept change easily so that will impact on productivity as well as
profitability of the company. In this risk that has been taken by leader sometimes lead to
disruption as well.
Autocratic Leadership style
Advantages
This leadership style help in taking fast decision so that help in achieving objective and
goals of company in the future course of action. Secondly, it also help in improving
communication between employees as employees have to deal with different levels. Through this
style crisis can be effectively handled by leader that will reduce chances of getting failure in the
future.
Disadvantages
The biggest disadvantage of this is in this leader do not involve its subordinates in taking
decision for the company. Work culture is also decided by leader as there is no involvement of
subordinate into it. Through there is lack of trust among leader and its subordinate as it is not
cooperative while taking decision for betterment. As subordinates have to depend on leader for
doing any work in the company that lead to wastage of time.
CONCLUSION
By summing up above report it has been concluded that for introducing the new product
in market, it is quite necessary to use model that helps to identify the effectiveness. Further, it is
also concluded that adopting effective leadership style will help to lead towards success as
concluded in this current study. Therefore, by analysing the internal and external environment,
the company has to develop the strategy that helps to face tough competition in market.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Ch, A. H., Ahmad, S., Malik, M. and Batool, A., 2017. Principals' Leadership Styles and
Teachers' Job Satisfaction: A Correlation Study at Secondary Level. Bulletin of Education
and Research. 39(3). pp.45-56.
Constantinescu, M. and Kaptein, M., 2019. Virtue Ethics and CSR: the two sides of Sustainable
Organizational Performance. In Intrinsic CSR and Competition (pp. 119-132). Palgrave
Macmillan, Cham.
Emam, H. E., 2019. Generic strategies for functionalization of cellulosic textiles with metal
salts. Cellulose. 26(3). pp.1431-1447.
Ghasabeh, M. S., Soosay, C. and Reaiche, C., 2015. The emerging role of transformational
leadership. The Journal of Developing Areas. 49(6). pp.459-467.
Golnaraghi, M., 2018. Climate change and the insurance industry: taking action as risk managers
and investors. Geneva Association, Talstrasse.70.
Holten, A. L. and Brenner, S. O., 2015. Leadership style and the process of organizational
change. Leadership & Organization Development Journal.36(1). pp.2-16.
Mathooko, F. M. and Ogutu, M., 2015. Porter’s five competitive forces framework and other
factors that influence the choice of response strategies adopted by public universities in
Kenya. International Journal of Educational Management. 29(3). pp.334-354.
Mohajan, H., 2017. An analysis on BCG Growth sharing matrix.
Phadermrod, B., Crowder, R. M. and Wills, G. B., 2019. Importance-performance analysis based
SWOT analysis. International Journal of Information Management.44. pp.194-203.
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