Radic8™ Case Study: Strategic Management and Competitive Advantage

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STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................................3
Overview of the organization (Radic8™).....................................................................................................5
LITERATURE REVIEW....................................................................................................................................6
APPLICATION OF THEORY IN THE RADIC8™...............................................................................................11
CONCLUSION.............................................................................................................................................14
REFLECTIVE ASSESSMENT..........................................................................................................................16
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................................17
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INTRODUCTION
In this report, the emphasis will be laid upon the strategic management and different theories and
models of strategic management that can be used in the analysis. The analysis report will be focusing on
the various challenges that have been faced by the company Radic8 in development and introduction of
the technology and their competitors and their strategic plans.
This report will include the evaluation of the key factors critically and how different models and theories
of strategic management applied and helped the organization such as radiac8 to provide their services
and products to the customers. There are two parts in the report, in the 1st part, the strategic planning
and models related to the company will be discussed and in the 2nd part, how those models helped I the
development of the technology and company. And also at last conclusion is derived from strategy has
changed to practice in the organizational context.
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Overview of the organization (Radic8™)
The company Radic8™ was founded by the person named Richard Greenwood, he analyzed the problem
and need for the purified air for the society and customers and thus decided to introduce the product.
The Radic8™ was launched in the year 2017, after the lots of research on the new technological
development, the company was started with the partnership of the INBair Company which is situated in
South Korea and was already started the air purifying process or technology called PCO process
(Greenwood, 2018).
The developments of the company in bringing innovations and giving competition to its competitors are,
the latest product development that is VK Medi, and after that many new products has been launched
by the company, hexito is the latest innovation from the company’s products (Greenwood, 2018). The
markets that are being targeted by the company are government hospitals, schools, colleges, corporate
houses, healthcare centres etc.
Radic8™ is about to capture the larger market share, there are many opportunities available to the air
purifier market and till 2021 it is expected to cross about $59 billion. In real sense, the company is trying
hard and putting many efforts to attract more customers by providing better technology for the
betterment of society and the world (Greenwood, 2018).
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LITERATURE REVIEW
Strategic management
According to David and David (2016), strategic management has been explained as the process in which
analysis of the situations has been done so that to plan the future activities for achieving the goals and
objectives.
David and David (2016), has also stated that strategic management is the using all the available
resources of the organization in the correct manner so as to gain the competitive advantage and to
reframe all the activities which result in achieving objectives.
The strategy has also been defined by David and David (2016), as the direction or method that has to be
followed by all the members in the changing conditions and environment by using all the resources
available to achieve the goals and objectives of the organization.
Models of strategic analysis
There are always various situations that affect the business operations, those situations may be internal
or external based on the market conditions and other factors, some of the factors that influence the
business operations are competitor's growth, technology boom, various situations of economic
condition etc. Schaltegger et al (2016) mentioned. The performance of the business is also affected by
the various other factors like financial factors, and situations when it disturbs the whole condition of the
business. Therefore for resolving these problems and to respond to the changing environment of the
business forces, different models related to strategic management has been defined here as cited and
described by different authors Schaltegger et al (2016) explained.
SWOT Analysis
As stated by the Bull et al (2016), SWOT analysis is the framework that is used for analyzing the different
internal aspects of business, it provides the clear understanding of the strengths, opportunities, threats
and weaknesses of the business forces. The Bull et al (2016), also argued that SWOT analysis is the
model that explains the planning of the strategic management and also emphasize on the capabilities
that are available in the organizational context. The major benefit of the SWOT analysis to the company
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is that it promotes and explains all the aspects such as positive as well as negative and according to
those strategies for taking the competitive advantage in the market is taken place.
Bull et al (2016) explained the following disadvantages of the SWOT analysis that can also be taken into
account while drawing and formulating strategies for the business operations. The analysis that is being
made is based on the subjective facts and figures and other sources that are provided by individuals that
may not be helpful in preparing conclusions for the organization. Another drawback that is stated by the
Bull et al (2016), is that when an organization focuses on using opportunities, in that case, they can miss
or can skip the important factors that relate to the strength of the organization.
However, in the above statements of the SWOT analysis, there is still the opportunities and chances
available and apart from disadvantages available for the SWOT analysis, this is still be known as the best
and an important tool for analyzing the working conditions of the business. This analysis is still useful for
analyzing the different aspects of the company and to gather the information related to the analysis of
the situations and help in formulating strategies to take the organization to its heights of success.
Analysis of the value chain
Another model that is being used by the organizations for their strategic planning process is the analysis
of the value chain. According to Rosales et al (2017), the analysis of the value chain focus on the
different aspects of the business and it helps in at various levels even starting from the level of raw
materials to the level of the final or finished products. It has been argued by the different famous
authors that to give the value to the shareholder's and to gain the competitive advantage in the market,
it is very important to spill the big operations into smaller activities that create the value for the
organization and for that value chain analysis has been used by the organizations. In various books and
articles, M. porter stated that activities of the value chain analysis are distributed into two sections
these are primary activities and support activities. The activities that come under the category of the
primary care sales & marketing, outbound and inbound logistics, services and the operations, and then
these activities that need the support and are supported by the following are the development of the
technology and its procurement, management of the human resource department and firm's
infrastructure. The terms and method that is explained above are very important because it supports
the organization by satisfying the needs of the customer's beyond their expectations and they also cross
the level of cost and thus helps in creating profit in the business operations. Thus this has been stated by
the Rosales et al (2017) the firm has to pay more attention to the activities that are involved in the
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process of the value chain that helps in satisfying customers above cost. Thus this strategy can useful
tool for the business strategies as it helps in creating g the value of the products through having the
deep knowledge and understanding of the cost and differentiation that is required by customers can be
done through focusing on the core or basic competencies that can help to defeat the competitors in the
business rivalry.
However this tool also has some drawbacks as explained by Rosales et al (2017), in the process of the
business operations, when organization focus splitting the activities and trying to create value from
those activities, they can forget or skip the core competencies or vision of the organization and stuck in
this part. This can be a dangerous situation for any organization's current and future performance.
Balanced scorecard model
Another model stated by Drs. Robert Kaplan and David Norton (1990), is balanced scorecard model that
explains that in this balance score card financial terms are being used to assess the final results of the
strategies chosen and adopted by the organization. In this tool different aspects of the stakeholders are
taken into account and are measured on the specific four areas related to the business operations and
then analyze the results of the strategy chosen in the organizational context. According to the Hakkak
and Ghodsi, (2015). The four key areas on which reports are formed for the assessment are a customer,
finance, processes of internal business and the growth and learning outcomes. The organizations can get
many benefits after using the tool of the balanced scorecard method; it can help in the improvement of
the analysis of the performance measurement.
Besides the various advantages and the benefits of this strategic tool for the organization, there are also
disadvantages and drawbacks to this method or model. The drawbacks of this model are it only focuses
on four major aspects and neglects the other aspects of the business analysis, and this tool does not
focus on the long term analysis and thus foresightedness is required for making conclusions for future
planning process of the business strategies. But this model still can be used in a situation where those
four areas need to be selected and focused.
PESTLE analysis
According to Fozer et al (2017), PESTLE analysis is another strategic management theory that can be
used to analyze the external environment for the proper functioning of the business tasks. The PESTLE
analysis is the tool that is used to measure the forces of the external environment of the business; this
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model includes the following factors such as Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal, and
Environmental. This analysis is often done with the SWOT analysis because with the help of SWOT
analysis, company or business come to know about internal factors and internal environment of the
business and for formulating strategies it is also important to analyze the external environment of the
business. It is defined by Fozer et al (2017) that, political factors explain the role of government in
encouraging and hindering the economic growth and they also explain that to what extent these factors
affect the business factors. The various terms that are to be considered in political factors are country's
labour laws, the laws for the environment, policies for taxation, various tariffs, the stability of the
political parties in the country etc. these factors affect the business functioning.
Fozer et al (2017) stated that other factors of the PESTLE analysis that affect the day to day activities and
also impact on the strategic planning and framework of the company or business are economic factors
that positions the condition of inflation or deflation in the economy, rates of exchange and interests
rates, the situations of recession and depressions and the status of the growth of economy. These
economic factors help in the decision-making process of strategic planning for the business affairs. Fozer
et al (2017) also explain the other factors considered in the PESTLE analysis that makes the discussion
more clear and understandable. The demand for the products of the company is affected by the
different social factors such as cultural aspects of the economy, distribution of age in the country, the
growth rate of the population of the country etc. There are also technological factors that support in
deciding the cost of the products in the production process, change in technology affect the quality and
efficiency of the products and for that this factor plays an important role in the strategic decision-
making process of the business and also analyzing this technological factor help in taking the
competitive advantage through bringing innovation in the business activities.
Marques-Mendes, and Santos, (2016), further take the discussion forward by explaining other factors of
this strategic analysis model, the factors such as legal and environment also affect the business forces,
legal factors support the business operations and also the demand of the company's product whereas
environmental factors explains the change in business operations due to the change in the climatic
conditions of the country or the world. It also explains how the company respond to the environmental
forces and how to safeguard and take care of environmental issues while offering products and services
to its customers. The environmental factors include the following terms in the strategic decision-making
process of the company such as preservation or conservation of the environment, changes in climatic
conditions, pollution etc.
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Porter's explains the generic strategies to support the discussion and to help the company such as
Radic8 in the process of their visional strategic development of the business. In this strategy, the major
three factors are taken into account and these are a focus on differentiation, cost and leadership in
business. He explains that when a customer's get the differentiated product or services, they often
ignore the higher prices incurred by the manufacturer in the production process and when customers
are ready to pay extra for the differentiated product, the company or business gets a release from
competitiveness in the market. The marketers also try to attract customers through reducing prices of
the services and products, they try to make the market environment by using their cost leadership
strategy, even though this strategy does not help in the long run becau8se reducing prices may affect
the functioning of the marketer or business. Porter also states that in the model of generic strategies,
the focus is not on the limited target market or audience, rather customers are given the advantage of
the goods and services so that they can use the inputs used in all the stages of the process of
production. Also, the theory of porter is very common among all the business groups for achieving the
goals and objectives of the company by taking a competitive advantage in the market. It also helps in
maintaining the sustainability of the company and also helps in the development of the performance of
business operations.
Thus the following authors and scholars explained with the different theories, the importance of the
strategic planning process in the business, according to Wheelen et al (2017), the planning of the
strategic management is the process that helps and support the decision making of the activities and
plans formulated in the business operations for the growth and success of the company. Strategic
planning is done with the aim of achieving the long term goals and for that long-term planning, it is
important to analyze the external and internal environment of the business with the help of the theories
explained above.
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APPLICATION OF THEORY IN THE RADIC8™
In the context of Radiac8, various theories of strategic management will be used to take competitive
advantages and to find solutions for the different challenges that company radiac8 is going to face in
introducing fresh air technology.
In the above section, various models to the strategic management and theories were discussed and now
we will be discussing the how the company will use these theories and models to cope up with the
challenges that are stopping the company to take this strategy forward (Wicker et al., 2015). The biggest
challenge that was faced by the company is non-acceptance of the technology by the customers, the
customers were not able to adopt the new technology and were not able to accept how it works and
how it will be beneficial for them (Wicker et al., 2015). And to cope up with this situation, the porter’s
generic strategies will be used and they will help the company to take the competitive advantage in the
market.
In the porter's generic strategies it is stated that business will focus on highlighting the differentiating
factors to the customers so that they understand and find the value of that product. In the context of
the company radsiac8 they will be using this strategy to show their customers, the valu7e of new
technology in their daily lifestyle (Wicker et al., 2015). The company will also try to use the cost
leadership strategy focused on porter's generic strategy model. Radiac8 will try to cut down the prices to
attract customers and to gain their trust so that they can get help in introducing and getting success in
their business plan (Wicker et al., 2015). Radiac8 is the new technology that is unknown to the
customer's so it is useful for the manager of the company to use various strategic models to support
their planning and development process.
Another model that was discussed above is PESTLE analysis, this model helps the businesses to analyze
the external market forces, and at the introduction stage, this model is very necessary and useful for the
progress and development 0f the company (Aithal, 2017). PESTLE analysis will help the company to
know to examine all external factors such as political, economic, social, technological, legal and
environmental factors. As stated above these factors will help to analyze the demand of the customers
for the product, through this strategy business will also come to know about the cultural and social
aspects of the population, and how taste and preferences of the customer's changes according to the
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various situations (Aithal, 2017). PESTLE analysis will also help in getting the idea of the political and
economic condition and whether these factors are in support or favour of the company or not.
Favorable interest’s rates, tax rates, various policies, situations of the political stability, economic growth
rate etc. these factors will help in the strategic planning process of the company because apart from the
customers there are other important aspects that need to be understood properly before introduction
of any product or service in the market (Aithal, 2017). These factors will help in analyzing whether the
following political conditions of the country will support new technology, whether the economic
condition is favourable for introducing radiac8 a new technology for fresh air. Thus it is also stated in the
above section as well as in this section that Radiac8 can get support in the planning process, and can
find solutions to the various challenges that are coming in their way. PESTLE analysis will give a clear
picture of all the external forces and will benefit the company in improving its performance and taking
competitive advantage in the market (Aithal, 2017).
Along with the external environmental factors, a company can also examine the internal environmental
factors with the help of SWOT analysis. The SWOT analysis is another tool for measuring business
aspects, it helps in examining the internal factors of business with the support of strengths, weaknesses
and various opportunities and threats (Phadermrod et al., 2019). These aspects that are considered in
the SWOT analysis explain the negative as well the positive aspect of the business. In the context of
Radiac8, the company staff will be able to analyze their strengths and weaknesses, the information
gathered through this analysis will help in formulating strategies for marketing and promotion. When
launching or introducing the new product in the market, it is very important that you highlight your
strengths so that strong trust can build between company and customers and also they come to know
about the value of the product (Phadermrod et al., 2019).
A SWOT analysis will also help the Radiac8 to take the competitive advantage in the market and to
compete with other strong competitors in the market by giving the information of the opportunities
available, Radiac8 can make further changes in their business strategies (Phadermrod et al., 2019).
Raqdiac8 also faces the challenge of deciding prices, at which they can offer their product to the
customers; it is already known that SWOT analysis is compulsory for any firm who is at its initial stage.
When introducing a new business in the new market it is important to know what your business can
perform perfectly and on what aspects business has to improve. Forgiving tough competition to your
competitors it is important to analyze threats and opportunities, as these factors will help in managing
other things and will help in planning to set the business goals and objectives (Phadermrod et al., 2019).
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In the literature review discussed above many other models and theories of strategic management has
also been discussed, those models and theories can also be used in other critical situations for taking
decisions. As strategic management is the term that helps in making things simplified and clear and thus
those other models can also be used as follows.
The model of balanced scorecard method can also be used in situations when company Radic8 wants to
manage the feedbacks of the customers as well as feedback from other sources for the improvement of
the organizational performance (Anjomshoae et al., 2017). This model also helps in providing
information regarding the strategy that is used by the business organization and also helps in converting
and changing the vision and mission of the company into reality, so that Radiac8 can achieve its targets
(Anjomshoae et al., 2017). The balanced scorecard basically shows the different 4 aspects, these are the
processes of internal business, the perspective of the customer, financial viewpoint and the aspects of
the growth and learning of the business (Anjomshoae et al., 2017).
And another model that Radiac8 can make use of in its operations is the value chain method, after
introduction of the business Radiac8 can choose to apply value chain analysis as this analysis helps in the
recognition of all the internal activities of business that will help in analyzing which activity is helpful and
more valuable and which activity needs improvement for achieving the goals and objectives of the
company (Mudambi, and Puck, 2016). The use of value chain can also help in gaining a competitive
advantage in the market as it focuses on the key activities that support the business organizational
growth (Mudambi, and Puck, 2016).
Thus by applying these strategic management strategies Radiac8 is able to face all the difficulties and
challenges in the new market and could be able to manage their customer base. The Radiac8 finally
decided and planned its strategies for competing with the other famous brands. The strategic
management models and theories also support in gathering information and findings for the decision
making and planning process of the company’s operations.
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