Strategic Management Report: Maxim's Caterers Ltd Analysis and Plan

This report offers a comprehensive strategic analysis of Maxim's Caterers Ltd, a food and beverage company operating in Hong Kong. It begins with an introduction to strategic management and then delves into a detailed analysis of the company's business and corporate-level strategies, focusing on its differentiation strategy. The report uses PESTLE and SWOT analyses to evaluate the external and internal environments, identifying strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. It then outlines a strategic plan for Maxim's Caterers, including mission, objectives, strategic direction, and resource implications. The plan emphasizes improving operational efficiency, brand equity, and profitability through innovation and market expansion. The report also discusses the importance of leadership strategies, transformational leadership, and customer analysis for achieving strategic goals. Finally, it addresses the allocation of resources, including technological advancements and employee training and development, to ensure the successful implementation of the strategic plan. The report concludes with an evaluation of the strategic control measures to be implemented.

Strategic Management:CW2

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
1. Strategic analysis of organisational data and information in supporting decision making.....1
2. Strategic plan for Maxim's Caterers Ltd.................................................................................4
3. Evaluating the strategic control through development of strategic implementation plan.......6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Strategic management is defined as the process of continuous planning, analysis,
assessment and monitoring of all the factors which are vital for the company to achieve it goals
and objectives (Rosenberg Hansen and Ferlie, 2016). It involves the process of formulation as
well as implementation of goals as well as initiatives which are taken by the top management of
the organisation on the behalf of owners which is totally based on the assessment of external and
internal environments of organisation. In this report Maxims Caterers Ltd is taken as an
organisation, which is a food and beverage food and beverage company that operates in Hong
Kong. Present report discusses strategic analysis of the organisational data and the information
which could help the company in taking decisions, also this report also includes the development
of the strategic plan in order to meet the objectives of the company. This report also includes the
strategic control of the plan implemented within the workplace.
MAIN BODY
1. Strategic analysis of organisational data and information in supporting decision making.
Business level and corporate level strategy:
Maxims Caterers Ltd is quick service and fine dining restaurant group which is operating
in Hong Kong. The product categories of the company includes the fast food shops and
restaurants, bakeries and Starbucks coffee shop licences. There are more than 1000 outlets of
Maxims Caterers Ltd across Hong Kong and more than 24,000 employees working in the
company. So, it is a well established company in Hong Kong and the business level and
corporate level strategy which adopted by Maxims Caterers Ltd is Differentiation strategy as the
value which is provided to customers consists of unique features and characteristics as compared
to its competitors rather than offering low price. Maxim's Caterers is continuously expanding its
network with its focus on fast Asian fast food and baker services. The main differentiation factor
of the company has been its high quality and healthy as well as wellness options which are
offered to its customers (Goldfarb and King, 2016). This is the business level strategy which has
been adopted by the company and has been successful to attract more and more customers across
Hong Kong. The business strategy adopted by the company even customers are willing to pay
more for such high quality food as people have become health conscious towards their diet.
Maxims Caterers Ltd has been able to offer high quality products to their customers which
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helped the company to attracted customers. But this strategy is enough to keep customers
attracted as there huge number of competitors available in the markets which can offer tough
competition to the company (Joyce, 2015). It can be analysed by conducting environmental
analysis of Maxim's Caterers Ltd.
Environmental Analysis:
External: External analysis of the company can be conducted by PESTLE analysis which is as
follows:
Political Factors: The political policies of Hong Kong are changing as there can be the
transition of government in the future can have a strong on the market and also there will be
change in the government resource allocation and time scale which can have strong impact on
the company's performance in the future.
Economic Factors: Hong Kong is facing downward pressure on consumer spending, even there
is a stability in consumer disposal income there has been growing instability within the society
which could impact consumer spending behaviour (Hong Kong: In-depth PESTLE Insights.
2018).
Social Factors: Changing social trend of the people have the positive impact on company as
customers have become more health conscious which is a positive sign for the company.
Technological factors: Latest development in technological innovations provides an opportunity
for the company to make innovations within their products and services offered by Maxims
Caterers Ltd (Uhse and et.al., 2019).
Legal Factors: Changes in the employment laws can impact the business model of the company
also has been emergence of data protection law which could also impact their customer security
protocols.
Environmental Factors: The environmental norms of the country can alter the priorities of the
product innovation.
Internal Analysis:
Internal analysis of Maxim's Caterers can be analysed by conducting SWOT analysis of
the company which is explained below:
Strengths Weaknesses
 High quality food is one of the major
strength of the company.
 Company struggles to build a strong
brand equity.
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 Fast service and delivery system.
 Highly skilled employees.
 Limited marketing strategy (Hoang,
Hoshino and Hashimoto, 2015).
 Lack of technological innovations in
the business.
 Miscalculations on their business plan.
Opportunities Threats
 Expansion of food industry.
 Increase in customer health
consciousness.
 Development in technology.
 Strong market competition in food
industry.
 Change in political policies.
 Frequent changes in consumer lifestyles
and preferences.
 Protests against selling of Shark Fins.
Resource and competence analysis:
Resources forms a major part of any organisation especially for food and beverages
company, Maxim's Caterers operating in food and beverages industry should be full of resources
in order to meet the needs of the customers across the country. Maxim's Caterers is resource full
organisation which runs a series of restaurants in Hong Kong which serve various of products
and services in these restaurants which is the strength of the organisation. There are
approximately 24000 employees working in the organisation with more than 1,000 outlets in the
country and generate more than $3.5 billion. So, this shows that Maxim's Caterers is full of
resources and competencies. Maxim's Caterers have been expanding across the country and has
been successful in opening new outlets and launching new products in the markets. Due to its
growth rate and launching of new products like Shark Finning has brought recent protests to
against the company which may decrease the competency of the company to certain level. This
could affect the brand image of the company, but on the other hand company possess some
characteristics and qualities which could help the company to compete in the market.
On the basis of above analysis there are some weaknesses and threats which are faced by
the organisation and it is important for the company to overcome them in order to remain
competitive in the market. It is important for the company to build a strong brand image in the
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markets and should try to avoid selling of Shark Fins as it could further company's brand image.
Also, company should try to improve its marketing strategies with the advancement in
technologies in order to attract the modern customers which could also help the company to face
the tough competition. Maxim's Caterers should make a proper market research in order to
analyse the changing lifestyles and tends of the customers across the country.
2. Strategic plan for Maxim's Caterers Ltd
It is important for any organisation to develop a strategic plan in order to overcome its
weaknesses and face the challenges of the market in order to gain the competitive advantage and
to survive in the market. It is important for Maxim's Caterers to develop a strategic plan in order
to improve its efficiency and operations across Hong Kong which can be explained below:
Mission: To improve the operational efficiency and expand to wider networks of the country
through high level of customer satisfaction.
Objectives:
 To improve the brand equity through market expansion.
 To make innovations in the products and services offered by company.
 To achieve high profitability through customer satisfaction.
Strategic Direction:
In order to achieve the objectives it is important for the company to develop a strategic
direction which could help the company in achieving the mission and objectives of the
organisation easily and could result in the success of the strategic plan. To achieve these
objectives a company should establish a proper structure for their internal responsibilities of each
department and the employees working in the organisation. In order to improve the brand equity
of the organisation through expansion, company should make some important changes in system
of the company (Johnston and et.al., 2016). A company should consider the appropriate
entrepreneurship which is crucial for the company. As it will enable the Maxim's Caterers to
encourage innovations in the workplace, also will drive the leaders as well as team members of
the company to increase their performance level which in turn will result in the rise in level of
corporate enterprising. For this it is important for the company to set a proper leadership
strategies in order to lead the organisation towards these objectives. In order to build a strong
brand make innovations it is vital for the leaders of the company to adopt transformational
leadership style as it will help Maxim's Caterers to make changes in their workplace which will
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encourage innovations that will result in high profits for the organisation. In order to achieve
high profits it is important for the company to analyse the customer trends and desire which can
be done by proper market research. This will allow the company to analyse the customer need
and preferences and also should analyse it competitors offerings and develop the product which
has the capability to attract customer which will satisfy them. This is how Maxim's Caterers can
satisfy its customers and achieve higher profitability. In order to achieve its mission and
objectives it is essential for the organisation to make innovations within the business and is
important for achieving company's strategic mission. Company should try make innovations in
their services although it offers the best service and products but innovations could help the
company in achieving the competitive advantage (Noble and Nwanekezie, 2017). For example
company should offer e-commerce service to its customer and can offer home delivery service to
their customer. This can help the company to achieve loyal customer which could also increase
the brand equity for the company. In order to achieve the objectives Maxim's Caterers should set
broad directions of achievements and re-evaluating them periodically for gathering more
information regarding the changes in the business environment. It may also include the
competitor products and proper analysis of the market in which company operates. Also,
company should reinforce the efforts across the workplace in order to coincide with the plan for
achievement. In this situation leaders and manager has to play an important role and have to
continuously promote the strategy across the organisation in order to achieve the mission.
Resource implications:
In order to achieve the mission and objectives, Maxim's Caterers should have appropriate
resources available in workplace. Appropriate allocation of the resources is the key feature of
well directed plan. To achieve the objectives it is essential for the company that employees has
essential tools, right equipments and training and development programs for carrying out their
newly assigned roles. With the help of training and development programs company can increase
skills and knowledge of employees which will in turn increase the efficiency of workplace. Also,
employees should be provided with the resources in order make innovations for this Maxim's
Caterers should develop their technological standards of the organisation which help the
employees to implement the innovative strategies (Noe and et.al ., 2015). In order to allocate the
appropriate resources for achieving the mission managers need to develop and set adequate
budgets for various departmental function of the organisation and should set proper collaboration
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between the department and among the teams. By developing the proper budget employees can
easily carry out their tasks for example marketing functions, sales function, production functions,
etc. Also, it it is important for the managers and leaders to make effective utilisation of resources
as well as employees in the organisation which can help the company to meet the objectives of
the organisation. Also, Maxim's Caterers should properly evaluate the employee and
departmental goals and need to make the proper adjustments if necessary for achieving the
mission and objectives of company.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Key performance indicators (KPIs) is a tool which can allow Maxim's Caterers to
measure the performance of the company towards the business objectives. Company can make
use KPIs at various levels in order to evaluate the success of strategic management objectives
and high level KPIs can allow the company to focus on the overall performance of Maxim's
Caterers within the business. Various KPIs of the company towards the set mission and
objectives are as follows:
Marketing KPIs: In order to check the success of brand equity objective, Maxim's Caterers can
check the performance of the marketing department how much successful it has been in
promoting the brand within the country (Kalra, Thakur and Pabla, 2018). For this company can
measure the market qualified leads, sales qualified leads, employee retention rate, traffic from
organic research, returning vs new visitors, pages per visit, etc.
Production KPIs: Company can measure the performance of the innovation in products and
services by measuring the percentage of service requests resolves, minimising the cost of
production without compromising the quality of products and services, reduction in the
production cycles, etc.
Sales KPIs: Maxim's Caterers in order to measure the success of its profitability objectives,
company can check its sales performance like by checking the monthly sales growth of the
company (Arena, Azzone and Bengo, 2015). Also company can review its monthly sales of the
sales team, checking the number of qualified leads, lead to sale conversion rate, etc.
3. Evaluating the strategic control through development of strategic implementation plan
Developing a strategic plan is a complex process and is a challenging task, organisation
should be able to develop appropriate strategic plan in order to achieve its mission and
objectives. It is to be noted the strategic plan developed should be kept under control by
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developing proper strategic control process. Strategic control can be referred as the process of
managing the execution of company's strategic plan for Maxim's Caterers objectives. It is
important for the company to handle the ambiguities of the strategic plan which may arise during
its implementation. Strategic implementation strategy of Maxim's Caterers involves the
following steps which can be explained in the following steps:
Step 1-Evaluation and communication: It is the first step of implementation strategy of
Maxim's Caterers, as it is important for the organisation to first evaluate the strategic effectively
before its implementation and communication. Entire plan should be properly evaluated by
checking its shortcomings and possibilities. Once the plan becomes feasible it should
communicated effectively across the organisation with internal and external stakeholders. Proper
communication methods should be used to communicate with stakeholders.
In order to implement the plan Maxim's Caterers need to set proper communication with
its internal and external stakeholders. In order to communicate with internal stakeholder
company can produce bi-lingual weekly new letter to employees which can help in providing
spreading of strategic plan among the employees (Jost and et.al., 2017). In order to inform the
manager and leaders of the organisation Maxim's Caterers can organise the face to face meetings
in order to inform them. Similarly in order to communicate with external stakeholder, company
can make use of range of media in order to communicate with external stakeholders.
Communication strategies may include sharing of marketing materials such as newsletters,
brochures, face to face meetings, etc. Also, company can communicate with external stakeholder
by using the social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.
It is to be noted that communicating with both types of stakeholders should be done
timely and accurately.
Step 2-Implementation structure: Maxim's Caterers should develop a proper implementation
structure of the strategic plan. The way the strategic plan is implemented within the organisation
should implemented with the proper structure. For example it should follow top to bottom
structure where the plan moves form higher management level to lower management. But the
information and success of the plan should down to top structure.
Step 3-Support policies and programs: In this step Maxim's Caterers should develop support
policies and programs of implementation of the plan in order to achieve the objectives of the
organisation (Erica, 2019). The policies and programs developed should encourage the
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employees to goals of the organisation for example training and development programs,
development in technologies, etc. Such policies and program can result in the progress towards
success of the strategic plan.
Step 4-Budgeting and allocation of resources: In order to implement the strategic plan
successfully finance team of Maxim's Caterers has to set proper budget for carrying out various
business operation that can help in achieving the mission and objectives of the organisation.
Budget should be developed and resources should be allocated in such way that there should not
be excess or shortage of money and resources within the organisation.
Step 5-Assigning roles and responsibilities: It is the most important step in strategic which can
result in success. Roles and responsibilities should be clearly defined within the workplace which
can help the employees to achieve their set targets easily.
Step 6-Evaluation and monitoring: It is important for Maxim's Caterers to evaluate monitor
their strategic plan which can be done by setting monitoring and evaluation systems. Company
should establish effective key performance indicators which can help the company to analyse the
success of strategic plan (Martiny-Huenger and et.al., 2016). For example company can set
marketing targets such as to what extent marketing campaigns have proved to be successful for
the company. Similarly, company can monitor the success of production process by checking to
what extent company has minimised the cost of production without decease in quality. Also,
company set sales targets for the sales team in order to measure the performance of the sales
team in the organisation.
CONCLUSION
It can be summarised from the report that strategic management forms an important for
the organisation and it is essential for the company to develop an effective strategic plan in order
to achieve the goals and objectives for the long term. Present report also concludes that before
developing a strategic plan a company should properly analyse it its internal and external
business environment which can help in successful development of a strategic plan. For an
effective strategic plan proper mission and objectives should be set which can help employees to
direct their action towards objectives. It can also be concluded that it is important for the
organisation to keep strategic under control by establishing proper evaluation and monitoring
systems.
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