MAN302 - PWC's Offshore Strategy: A Strategic Business Report

This report provides a strategic analysis of PWC's decision to move jobs offshore, examining the external and internal factors that influenced this decision. The analysis includes a PESTEL analysis of the macro-environment, a SWOT analysis of PWC's internal capabilities, and an identification of key stakeholders and the impact of offshore activities on them. Porter's Five Forces are used to assess PWC's competitive advantage in expanding offshore. The report also evaluates the risks, cost savings, revenue increases, and strategic implications associated with this strategy, ultimately concluding on the importance of strategic management in ensuring the success of offshore operations. Desklib provides access to similar solved assignments and study tools for students.

Strategic Business Management
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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
1. Evaluate the external issues that are affecting the company and have driven it to employ
a strategy that has resulted in moving jobs offshore..................................................................3
2. Analyse the internal issues that are making the company consider moving jobs offshore
as part of its strategy..................................................................................................................4
3. Identify the stakeholders in this company and discuss how the shift of offshore activities
will affect these stakeholders.....................................................................................................5
4. Explain what is the competitive advantage for the company in moving in either
expanding offshore and/or moving some jobs offshore.............................................................6
5. List and assess the issues of this strategy, including risks, cost savings and/or revenue
increase. Evaluate any other issues that you see are relevant to its success or otherwise. What
are the strategic implications?....................................................................................................7
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................8
Reference List............................................................................................................................9
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Introduction
To ensure the proper implementation of the business strategic management it is important to
implicate the idea of strategic and diverse thinking. The idea of strategic thinking initiates the
idea of generation and application of unique and uncommon business insights that allows in
the development of a competitive advantage for the organisation. This report contains some
of the common and prominent analytical tools that allow in the better identification of the
strategies used by the organisation PWC (Price Waterhouse Coopers). The report also intends
to cover some of the prominent issues to identify if the company would be successful in
gaining competitive advantage for their business expansion. The primary idea behind this
assessment is to consider if offshore activities would enhance the business capability of an
organisation or ensure that they are better performers in their home nation. The business
expansion does not have to be necessary on an international level but might be considered on
a domestic level as well. However, this assessment would only cover the aspect of
international business expansion.
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1. Evaluate the external issues that are affecting the company and have driven it to
employ a strategy that has resulted in moving jobs offshore.
For the identification of the external issues influencing the operations of the company, it is
essential to take in account the macro-environmental factors that eventually motivated the
company to employ a strategy to move offshore.
Macro-Environmental Elements Analysis
Political The company has to ensure that they are
able to maintain their compliance with the
political figures and regulations of the
country. Due to Brexit, the political
situation of the country has complicated the
operations of some of the prominent
companies (Moran, 2015). Most businesses
are confused as to which would be
appropriate for them to follow.
Economical The economic chaos caused by the
unfavourable political situation has tend to
influence the functioning of multiple
companies. Majority of the companies are
suffering from maintaining compliance with
the employment laws and the wage laws
initiated by the country. The regulations
have also restricted their business operations
in some European countries.
Social The company requires the compliance of
highly skilled employees, implying that it is
necessary to hire experienced professionals.
This apparently results in the conflict and
slightly degrades the potential of a fresher.
However, the experiences professional
allows in the better understanding of the
market trends (Jammalamadaka and Dinar,
2018).
Technological In the recent scenario, every organisation is
opting for technological and digital
innovation. Thus, this provides the company
with a competitive edge to operate
conveniently. However, frequent changes
also cause disruption in their business
performance.
Legal It is essential for the company to ensure that
they have been successful in procuring their
intellectual property. The UK legislature has
substantial amount of patent and copyright
laws that protects the individuality and
uniqueness of an organisation (Arrowsmith
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and Craven, 2016).
Environmental It is also important for the company to
comply with the environmental standards
initiated by the country. It is also essential
that they are able to instigate their
consumers in taking actions for the
protection of the environment.
Table 1: External Issues affecting the company
(Source: Created by the learner)
2. Analyse the internal issues that are making the company consider moving jobs
offshore as part of its strategy.
The international issues of an organisation act as a flagbearer of their capabilities that allow
them to function conveniently in a particular market. The identification of the strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities and threats would allow in gaining an insight for the company’s
performance.
Strengths Weaknesses
 The company has a strong brand
portfolio that allows them to gain a
competitive edge
 The company has the reputation of
performing extremely well in new
markets (Angulo Cuentas et al.,
2015)
 The company has a strong supply
chain management because of the
involvement of reliable suppliers
 They have a less amount of
investment for the research and
development department
 Their organisational structure is
considered compatible with their
present business model
 The company has not been
considered successful in integrating
firms with diverse work cultures
Opportunities Threats
 The lower inflation rate of their
home country allows them to
function effectively
 The increase in the customer
spending and new trends in their
behaviour allows them to maintain
their effective functioning
 The newly formulated
environmental regulations poses as a
threat for the action that are required
to be undertaken by them (Andriof
et al., 2017)
 The increasing prices of the raw
materials is also a threat to the
organisation
Table 2: SWOT Analysis of PWC
(Source: Created by the learner)
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3. Identify the stakeholders in this company and discuss how the shift of offshore
activities will affect these stakeholders.
The company considers it of vital importance to engage their stakeholders in their integral
business operations. The key stakeholders of PWC comprise of the following:
 Partners, their people, potential recruits and alumni
 Customers
 Government body
 Suppliers
 Local communities and NGOs
 Media
The shift of offshore activities might have a negative implication on some of the stakeholders
but there is a possibility that there would be substantial amount of benefits on ensuring that
the organisation also incurs some amount of benefits. For instance, the potential recruits or
the partners would be considered of great assistance if they are able to formulate an effective
talent strategy and build professional personal networks (Esmail, Moore and Rein, 2015).
Meanwhile, the customers would be completely aware of the challenges that are about to
come and recognise the role of corporate sustainability as well. However, the organisation
might have difficulty in complying with the regulations that are different from their
operational headquarters regulations. Also, the suppliers might not be collaborative enough to
make sure that they are economically benefited. The local communities and NGOs would
mainly be concerned with the social responsibility of the organisation and transparency that
can be gained with public engagement (Forsythe et al., 2016). Lastly, the media plays a role
of conveying the strategies and ideas of the company to the customers implying that there
might be a possibility of them gaining substantial amount of benefits from them.
4. Explain what is the competitive advantage for the company in moving in either
expanding offshore and/or moving some jobs offshore
The use of Porter’s five forces would be considered applicable for the identification of the
competitive advantage that the company has. Given below is the Porter’s five analysis of the
company for expanding their operations offshore:
Bargaining Power of the Suppliers
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The company has established a cohesive relationship with their suppliers and but their
bargaining power cannot be considered high (Fleisher and Bensoussan, 2015). The
bargaining power of the suppliers is always low allowing the company to gain a dominance
over the supply chain management and allowing the suppliers to be associated with a reputed
company.
Bargaining Power of the Buyers
Here, the bargaining power of the buyers can be considered high because the company has to
permit their functioning according to the choice of the clients. Customer satisfaction is of
primal importance to the company.
Threat of New Entrants
The company is the leading player in its respective industry, thus, it can be said that the threat
of new entrants is low because it would be a barrier for them to compete with such a reputed
company (Rothaermel, 2015). Further, it would require them to have loyal clients and huge
amount of customer base.
Threat of Substitute Products
There is an intensive amount of competition in the industry that the company operates,
implying that the consumers are provided with the ability to ensure that they can go for the
services of the substitute companies if not satisfied with the services of PWC.
Competitive Rivalry
As mentioned earlier, the competitive rivalry in this industry is extremely high implying that
the company would be subjected to being replaced by the customers. Some of the prominent
competitors of the company are Deloitte, EY, KPMG and many others (Téguia, Chambost
and Stuart, 2018).
5. List and assess the issues of this strategy, including risks, cost savings and/or
revenue increase. Evaluate any other issues that you see are relevant to its
success or otherwise. What are the strategic implications?
The external and internal analysis led to the identification of various factors that would
impact the functioning of a prominent organisation like PWC. It has also been identified that
the organisation would be accustomed to certain amount of risks because of the external
environment of an offshore country. Also, it can be said that the company would be
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accustomed to the almost similar threats that would possibility result in the decline in their
cost revenues or labour costs (Farrell and Gallagher, 2015). The primary risks involved
comprise of extreme amount of political obligation, recession or inflation rate in the emerging
countries. That has the best possible tendency to ensure that the company would be instigated
to take a drastic step, eventually leading to cause a huge loss in their business operations
(Lwin et al., 2018). A formation of a proper risk management strategy is essential for PWC to
make sure that their offshore operations do not suffer much as their existing operations in
their home country. It might also be difficult for the company to cope with the numerous
legal and the socio-cultural differences that would hamper their functioning.
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Conclusion
The report intended to focus on some of the integral aspects associated with the strategic
management ideas persuaded by the organisation named PWC. The assessment also led to the
use of various analytical tools that permitted in the identification of the internal capabilities of
an organisation and the extent of competition that lies in the offshore market. The assessment
led to the identification of the external factors that might impact the functioning of an
organisation and at the same time focused on the intensity of the choices initiated by the
stakeholders of the company. Thus, it can be said that the stakeholders play an essential role
in the decision making process of an organisation. The assessment also led to the
identification of the strategic implications of the existing methods considered applicable by
an organisation.
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Reference List
Andriof, J., Waddock, S., Husted, B. and Rahman, S.S., 2017. Unfolding stakeholder
engagement. In Unfolding stakeholder thinking (pp. 19-42). Routledge.
Angulo Cuentas, G.L., Camacho Pico, J.A. and Jaime Arias, A., 2015. Frameworks to
identify best practices at the organization level: An analysis. Journal of Business Economics
and Management, 16(4), pp.861-875.
Arrowsmith, S. and Craven, C., 2016. Public procurement and access to justice: a legal and
empirical study of the UK system.
Esmail, L., Moore, E. and Rein, A., 2015. Evaluating patient and stakeholder engagement in
research: moving from theory to practice. Journal of comparative effectiveness research, 4(2),
pp.133-145.
Farrell, M. and Gallagher, R., 2015. The valuation implications of enterprise risk
management maturity. Journal of Risk and Insurance, 82(3), pp.625-657.
Fleisher, C.S. and Bensoussan, B.E., 2015. Business and competitive analysis: effective
application of new and classic methods. FT Press.
Forsythe, L.P., Ellis, L.E., Edmundson, L., Sabharwal, R., Rein, A., Konopka, K. and Frank,
L., 2016. Patient and stakeholder engagement in the PCORI pilot projects: description and
lessons learned. Journal of general internal medicine, 31(1), pp.13-21.
Jammalamadaka, U.K. and Dinar, A., 2018. Managing water resources under scarcity: the
role of social norms. Journal of Environmental Economics and Policy, 7(1), pp.16-40.
Lwin, M., Lu, J., Sheldenkar, A. and Schulz, P., 2018. Strategic Uses of Facebook in Zika
Outbreak Communication: Implications for the Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication
Model. International journal of environmental research and public health, 15(9), p.1974.
Moran, M., 2015. Politics and Governance in the UK. Macmillan International Higher
Education.
Rothaermel, F.T., 2015. Strategic management. McGraw-Hill Education,.
Téguia, C.D., Chambost, V. and Stuart, P.R., 2018. Systematic assessment of triticale based‐
biorefinery strategies: market competitive analysis for business model development. Biofuels,
Bioproducts and Biorefining, 12, pp.S35-S45.
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