Strategic Agility: Evaluating Options for Oak Tree Inn, Loch Lomond

This report assesses the strategic agility of Oak Tree Inn, a small to medium-sized enterprise in Scotland's hospitality industry, focusing on its ability to adapt to market changes. It provides an overview of the firm, including its history, services (restaurant, pub, accommodation, village shop), and values. The report includes a SWOT analysis identifying the company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, followed by a critical evaluation of two potential strategic options: promotional strategies and pricing strategies. These options are further evaluated using a Suitability, Acceptability, and Feasibility (SAF) analysis to determine the most viable strategy for Oak Tree Inn. The report concludes with recommendations for the company to enhance its business operations and achieve sustainable growth.

Strategic agility
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
Overview of the firm..................................................................................................................3
SWOT Analysis of The Oak Tree Inn:....................................................................................5
Critical assessment of TWO potential strategic options........................................................6
Critical evaluation of strategic options through application of theory and
recommendations to Oak Tree Inn:.........................................................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10
APPENDICES...............................................................................................................................11
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INTRODUCTION
Strategic agility is an ability to sense the changes within the condition of market along
with it implementing new strategies in a quick way and takes correct decisions whenever
required. This is the ability to remain flexible in facing new developments for regularly adjusting
the strategic directions of the company as well as developing innovative methods for creating the
value. Within the present report, Oak Tree Inn is taken into consideration for creating some
strategic options for the firm (Asseraf, Lages and Shoham, 2019). The respective organisation is
a small medium enterprise of Scotland in the hospitality industry deals in offering services that
are associated with bar, restaurants, accommodation and many more. This report also includes an
overview of the firm with the internal and external analysis of the firm. Along with it,
competitive analysis will also be conducted in this portfolio. Furthermore, two strategic options
are also going to be taken into consideration among which one will be selected as a preferred
strategy for the firm to adopt.
MAIN BODY
Overview of the firm
Within this report, Oak Tree Inn is taken into consideration which is a small medium enterprise
in Scotland in the hospitality industry. The Oak Tree Inn is a restaurant, pub, café as well as
village shop on the West Highland Way at Balmaha, Loch Lomond. This business was
established in 1997 and is having twice been named Scotland’s best pub. The organisation is
roasting its own coffee and making its own ice-cream, both on site. The Oak Tree Inn involving
accommodation in rooms above inn as well as in a series of on-site cottages (Demir and et.al,
2021). The organisation is also having a restaurant and a bar, coffee shop along with the ice-
cream parlour and village shop.
Sitting next to the 500 years old tree from which it takes its name The Oak Tree Inn is an award
winning bar and restaurant. There is B&B accommodation both above the Inn an at the cottages
that have views towards the loch. Serving traditional Scottish food from its popular menu The
Oak Tree also offers locally brewed beers and cider and addition to it an extensive whisky bar.
Ice cream is homemade as well as served both in the Oak Tree and St. Mocha, its coffee shop
along with the ice cream parlour (Giacosa, Culasso and Crocco, 2021). The Village Shop is
operated by The Oak Tree, selling a wide variety of packed lunches, groceries as well as gifts.
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The Oak Tree is the perfect ground for a visit to Loch Lomond, with the most beautiful scenery
surrounded by it and good access to activities and attractions, not only in Loch Lomond but in
nearby Glasgow as well as Sterling. There are 35 employees working within the organisation and
is a private enterprise. The competitors of Oak Tree Inn are Catnip Inn, Inn On The River LLC,
Azalea Inn Bed and Breakfast, Deluxe Inn and Suites, Saline Creek Farm (Grand and Bartl,
2019). The enterprise is facing the growth challenges because of ineffective workforce and
strategies.
The Oak Tree Inn is a Private Limited Company with Share Capital. The cash within the
organisation is £ 168K and the Net Worth is £ 1.7M. The enterprise is having total current assets
of £ 899.6K and total current liabilities of £ 675.5K (Oak Tree Loch Lomond Limted, 2021).
The organisation is working with different values such as integrity, customer focus,
respect, communication, leadership and team working (Mandal and Saravanan, 2019).
Vision of the organisation: “We will work together with all our communities to continually
improve the quality and value in all that we do.”
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Mission of the enterprise: To achieve value for money mow and in the future by providing best
possible services to customer-base.
Objectives of enterprise: To provide the best quality affordable housing and is committed to
customer-case.
SWOT Analysis of The Oak Tree Inn:
A framework which is used to analyse the internal strengths as well as weaknesses along
with the external opportunities and threats is defined as SWOT Analysis (Manurung and
Kurniawan, 2021). It helps the administration of Oak Tree Inn in making better business
decisions.
Strengths Weaknesses
Glance location: The location of Oak Tree Inn
is on the West Highland Way at Balmaha that
facilitating the visitors to take stay in hotel. It
is a strength for the organisation as there is
greater profitability level.
Availability of feasible facilities: The
organisation is providing feasible facilities like
air conditioned rooms, restaurants, kitchen,
lodging and boarding, bar and many more that
impress the visitors and helps the Oak Tree Inn
in maximising the level of productivity.
Flexible business: The business of Oak Tree
Inn is flexible that handles the changes
relatively easy and becomes the strength of the
organisation.
Increased production cost: Within Oak Tree
Inn, the cost of production is high and
increasing in the costs expenditures will
commensurate to revenue recognition from
daily business operations. Therefore, it
becomes a weakness for organisation.
Ineffective workforce: It becomes a weakness
for the organisation that it is having ineffective
manpower which increases the cost of the
enterprise and reduces the profits within the
workplace (Panda and Rath, 2017).
Dependency on tourists and seasons: The
business of Oak Tree Inn is totally depended
on tourists and seasons. High dependency on
tourists that are highly sensitive to political
events and becomes the weakness within the
organisation.
Opportunities Threats
Business expansion: It is an opportunity for
Oak Tree Inn to expand its business at global
level also. It will help the organisation in
High competition: The scope of
hospitalisation is quite more in Scotland and
because of which many hotels are used to
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increasing the level of its business operation
that will help in increasing the level of
profitability (Panda and Rath, 2018).
Research and development: Another
opportunity for the respective organisation is to
make a research on the market to know the
perceptions as well as taste and preferences of
the customer-base. This will assists the
enterprise in enhancing its sales volume by
satisfying the needs and requirements of the
market share.
operate within the city and creates a threat for
Oak Tree Inn.
Government interventions: It will be a threat
for the respective organisation if it does not
adhere the changing interventions, rules and
policies of the government. As it can be
penalised for not doing so and its brand value
also can be hampered.
Critical assessment of TWO potential strategic options
On the basis of SWOT analysis, it is critically evaluated that there are two potential strategic
options that helps the Oak Tree Inn in mitigating the threats, exploring the opportunities as well
as helps in making the strength of the organisation (Sanasi, Manotti and Ghezzi, 2021). These
strategic options are described as under:
Promotional strategies: These are the strategies that are designed to persuade, remind or
inform the targeted-audience about the particular product or service within the market. It is an
approach that is used by the organisations in advertising, promoting and selling their
commodities or services in the market place. An organisation makes selection of its promotional
strategy on the basis of the factors such as product or service type, marketing budget, target
audience and many more. This is a critical activity for increasing the awareness of the product or
service and therefore, also helps in enhancing the volume of sales of the organisation.
On the basis of SWOT Analysis, promotional strategies will help the organisation in
creating the opportunities for the expansion of the business. With the help of this strategy, an
enterprise can aware its customer base about the existence as well as positioning of the products
or services (Škare and Soriano, 2021). The organisations can promote its products by persuading
its targeted audience about the features and benefits that are associated with the product or
service. There are several ways that helps an organisation in promoting its products and some of
them are advertising, direct marketing, personal selling, sales promotion, public relations and
many more. There are some another methods of promoting a product or service and they are
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online and offline advertising. Examples of online advertising are digital marketing, social media
such as Facebook, Instagram, etc., email marketing, video marketing. Examples of offline
advertising are creating pamphlets and flyers, business cards, publishing book, offer coupons,
cross-promotion, advertising in newspapers, magazines and many more (Thrassou, Vrontis and
Bresciani, 2018). With the help of these methods, an organisation can promote its products in an
effective manner and can persuade its customer base to buy the product or services. This helps
the organisation in expanding its business operations and also facilitates in increasing the volume
of the sales of the enterprise.
When The Oak Tree Inn will make use of these promotional strategies, then it will help
the organisation in enhancing its business operations throughout the world. The respective
organisation can promote its food products, accommodation facilities, village shop, coffee shop,
etc through social media such as Instagram, Facebook. The enterprise can also promote its
products through its websites by offering special discounts and perks for capturing more of the
target base. This will help the organisation in its business expansion and overall growth of the
enterprise can be improved.
Pricing strategies: These strategies are defined as the methods that are used by the
organisations in pricing their products or services (Tooranloo and Saghafi, 2019). The pricing
strategies take into account segments, market condition, trade margins, ability to pay, competitor
actions, input costs and many other. There are various pricing strategies that are used by
organisations in pricing their commodities or services such as value-based pricing strategy,
competitive pricing strategy, cost-plus pricing strategy, penetration pricing, economy pricing,
dynamic pricing and price skimming. Some of these pricing strategies are discussed below:
 Value-based pricing: With this type of pricing strategy, an organisation can set the
prices of its products or services according to what market share think the worth of
product.
 Competitive pricing: According to this pricing strategy, an organisation set its
prices on the basis of what competitors are charging. This pricing strategy is very
helpful for new start-ups who are not having much room to grow.
 Cost-plus pricing: It is one of the simplest pricing strategy and according to this
pricing strategy, the production cost of the product is involved and addition to it a
certain percentage is also included in it to make the specific price of the product.
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 Penetration pricing: In highly competitive markets, it can be hard for any new
organisation for getting foothold. One way some enterprises attempt to push new
products or services by offering prices that are much lower than the competition.
This will help the organisation in getting new customer base and decent sales
volume.
When the Oak Tree Inn will use these pricing strategies, then it will help the
organisation in gaining competitive advantage by maintaining customer loyalty through
offering the food products and related services of the hotel at a price which is less than
the competitors.
Critical evaluation of strategic options through application of theory and recommendations
to Oak Tree Inn:
For critical evaluation of the two strategic options that are mentioned above, a SAFe
Analysis is used as below:
SAFe Analysis stands for suitability, acceptability and feasibility analysis. Suitability is
concerned with whether an alternative addresses the key issues relating to the strategic position
of the organisation or not. Acceptability refers to the expected performance outcomes of a
strategic option (Vaishnavi, Suresh and Dutta, 2019). Feasibility is associated with whether an
organisation has the resources and capabilities to deliver a strategy. Performing a SAF Analysis
for strategic options has three steps. In this first step, the criteria which is important to business is
decide in the suitability, acceptability and feasibility. In next step, the strategic options are
decided for the business. And in last step, scoring for each strategy is there against the criteria.
SFA Matrix Strategic options
Option 1 Option 2 Option 3
Suitability 5 8 4
Acceptability 2 1 3
Feasibility 4 3 2
Total 11 12 9
Recommendation:
From above analysis, it has been analysed that there are two strategic options for the Oak
Tree Inn to gain competitive advantage. These two strategic options are promotional strategies
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and pricing strategies. The Directors of the Oak Tree Inn are recommended to use the effective
pricing strategies. The Cost-plus pricing strategy will help the organisation in making effective
sales within the business and will also facilitates in creating customer-loyalty. In this type of
pricing strategy, the administration of the organisation will have to price its products such as
food and services related to the hotels in such a way that the products and services involved the
cost of production plus a certain percentage of profit. It will help the organisation in capturing of
its target base and also provides assistance in gaining competitive advantage as prices of the
products and services are relatively less than those of the competitors within the market place.
This type of pricing strategy will help The Oak Tree Inn in enjoying the competitive benefits
over the rivalries in the market. Through the cost plus pricing strategy, the enterprise will gain
more profits within the business and can make its business operations more effective. This type
of pricing strategy will provide full coverage of cost and a consistent rate of return to the
respective organisation.
CONCLUSION
From above explanation of the report, it has been concluded that strategic agility helps an
organisation in identifying and responding the changes in a faster way that the competitors or
new entrants. Within this existing report, the Oak Tree Inn, Scotland has been taken into
consideration and the overview of the organisation has been explained in detail. Along with it,
SWOT analysis of the organisation has been also conducted in this portfolio which is based on
the Porter’s five forces and VRIO model. Furthermore, two strategic options are assessed and
among them, one is recommended to the director of the Oak Tree Inn on the basis of SAFe
theory for gaining competitive advantages.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Asseraf, Y., Lages, L. F. and Shoham, A., 2019. Assessing the drivers and impact of
international marketing agility. International Marketing Review.
Demir and et.al, 2021. Building Agility in Service SMEs for Post-pandemic Era. In The Future
of Service Post-COVID-19 Pandemic, Volume 2 (pp. 135-173). Springer, Singapore.
Giacosa, E., Culasso, F. and Crocco, E., 2021. Customer agility in the modern automotive sector:
how lead management shapes agile digital companies. Technological Forecasting and
Social Change, p.121362.
Grand, S. and Bartl, D., 2019. Making new strategic moves possible: How executive
management enacts strategizing routines to strengthen entrepreneurial agility. In Routine
Dynamics in Action: replication and transformation. Emerald Publishing Limited.
Mandal, S. and Saravanan, D., 2019. Exploring the influence of strategic orientations on tourism
supply chain agility and resilience: An empirical investigation. Tourism Planning &
Development. 16(6). pp.612-636.
Manurung, A. H. and Kurniawan, R., 2021. Organizational agility: do agile project management
and networking capability require market orientation?. International Journal of
Managing Projects in Business.
Panda, S. and Rath, S.K., 2017. The effect of human IT capability on organizational agility: an
empirical analysis. Management Research Review.
Panda, S. and Rath, S. K., 2018. Strategic IT-business alignment and organizational agility: from
a developing country perspective. Journal of Asia Business Studies.
Sanasi, S., Manotti, J. and Ghezzi, A., 2021. Achieving Agility in High-Reputation Firms: Agile
Experimentation Revisited. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management.
Škare, M. and Soriano, D. R., 2021. A dynamic panel study on digitalization and firm's agility:
What drives agility in advanced economies 2009–2018. Technological Forecasting and
Social Change. 163. p.120418.
Thrassou, A., Vrontis, D. and Bresciani, S., 2018. The agile innovation pendulum: A strategic
marketing multicultural model for family businesses. International Studies of
Management & Organization. 48(1). pp.105-120.
Tooranloo, H. S. and Saghafi, S., 2019. Investigating the impact of using knowledge
management on organisational agility through competitive intelligence and strategic
thinking. Journal of Information & Knowledge Management. 18(02). p.1950016
Vaishnavi, V., Suresh, M. and Dutta, P., 2019. Modelling the readiness factors for agility in
healthcare organization: a TISM approach. Benchmarking: An International Journal.
Online
Oak Tree Loch Lomond Limted, 2021[Online]Available
through:<https://companycheck.co.uk/company/SC367249/OAK-TREE-LOCH-LOMOND-
LIMITED/financials>
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APPENDICES
Micro-environmental Analysis for analysing industry structure and nature of competition:
Porter’s five forces is the framework of analysing the competition in the industry and to see
how other organisations are working at different level of profit. Some strategy that assist in
understanding position of business in market and in the eye of customers are listed below:
COMPETITIVE RIVALRY- It describes the competition in the market. The Oak Tree Inn
is a very competitive organisation of UK in hospitality industry. This takes a benefit in long term
profitability of an organisation. How the firm tackle the rivalry attack, building a suitability, by
designing scale so that it can be compete well and collaboration with competitors to increase the
market size rather than competing from its rivalries.
THREATS OF NEW ENTRY- This force is based on entry of new business in the market.
The Oak Tree Inn has to manage all challenges that are concerned with the food products as well
as related services of the hotel and design effective barriers to safeguards its competitive edge. It
places a low price strategy, cost reduction and offering new values in market for consumers.
POWER OF SUPPLIER- This force identifies the numbers of supplier in the market. In
case of the Oak Tree Inn, the suppliers are in dominants positioning can decrease the margins
thus enterprise can earn from market. The whole effect of higher supplier bargaining power is
that if lowers the total profitability. It tackles the power by building effective supply chain,
developing dedicated suppliers whose business totally depended on the firm.
POWER OF BUYER- These forces determine that consumer can move to other seller
because they have multiple choices of hotels and restaurants. They don't want to compromise
with the cost. In extent of the Oak Tree Inn, the organisation provides the best offerings available
by paying the minimum cost as possible. The more powerful the customer-base of the enterprise
the higher the bargaining ability of the user. It tackles the ability by building a large customer
base, by innovating offer at a rapid rate, etc.
THREATS OF SUBSTITUTES- It determines that customer is moving to other substitute
or product. This depends on the various factors like product differentiation, competitors profit
and so on. It is high threat if the Oak Tree Inn offers a services proposition that is uniquely
different from present offerings of the industry. It tackles the threat as by being service oriented,
by understanding a need and requirements and increasing the switching cost.
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From the study of above five forces, the organisation can gain complete picture of what
impacts the lucrativeness of the organization in the hospitality industry. This can determine the
changing trend early. By understanding the forces of the firm can build an industry in favour.
Internal environmental analysis for identifying strengths and weaknesses:
VRIO Model is a tool that assists in evaluation of the capabilities and resources of an
organisation. This framework is complement to a PESTLE Analysis and is used to know the
condition of competitive implication and resources within the workplace. It is a model of
strategic planning that is used by the organisations for making their business decisions more
effective. This Vrio Analysis gives information about the internal environment of the business
and the results associated to it helps in gaining competitive benefits. Managers of the Oak Tree
Inn use this tool because it facilitates them in displaying the protection of resources and
capabilities through which their business can achieve competitive advantage for long-run. The
Vrio model for respective organisation is explained as follows:
Value: In context to Vrio model, resources or capabilities are said to be valuable it they
allow the company to explore opportunities or limit the threats in environment. If any resource of
the organisation is not helping in reducing risks or exploring opportunities within the business,
then it does not facilitate in increasing the competitive position of company. However, resources
of the Oak Tree Inn are providing assistance in reducing the threats and are helpful in enhancing
effectiveness and efficiency within the business.
Rarity: Resources are considered as rare when they are not possessed by the competitors
in the market. Among all components of Vrio model, this is the easiest component to judge.
When an organisation is using valuable resources and are not rare, then they are not in a position
to offer competitive advantage to the company. Instead, those valuable resources that are
commonly held by the competitors help in allowing the business to be at par along with the
rivalries. The Oak Tree Inn is having extent amount of rare as well as valuable resources and are
constantly gaining competitive advantage over rivalries in the market.
Inimitable: Valuable as well as rare resources help the organisation in engaging in the
strategies that other companies cannot pursue. However, this component is not giving the
guarantee for gaining the competitive advantage for long-run. Resources can be imperfectly
imitable because of unique historical condition, casual ambiguity and social complexity. Those
resources that are difficult and costly to substitute or imitate are more valuable resources. This
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