Strategic Management Report: Evaluating Alshaya Group's Strategy

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the Alshaya Group's strategic management practices. It begins with an introduction to the company and its business operations, including its vision, mission, and strategic goals. The report then delves into the core components of strategic management, such as vision, mission, strategy, and business plans, and their interrelationships. It examines the external factors influencing the organization, including political, economic, social, and technological aspects, as well as the expectations of various stakeholders. The report further explores the importance of reviewing and evaluating organizational strategies and business plans, highlighting the tools used for this purpose, such as SWOT and PEST analyses. Finally, it discusses strategy options for the chosen organization, utilizing modeling tools and strategic logistics planning, and concludes with an analysis of how to align logistics goals with broader business objectives. The report aims to offer insights into the strategic decision-making processes within the Alshaya Group, providing a detailed overview of the company's approach to business development and management.

Strategic Management Assignment
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Table of Contents
Introduction----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------3
Task-1 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------4-5
Task-2 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6
Task-3 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------7-8-
9
Task-4 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------10-11-12
Task-5 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 13-14-
15
Reference--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------16
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Introduction
ALSHAYA Group is a dynamic multinational business and family-owned enterprise. First
established was in 1890 in Kuwait.
Alshaya brings a rich choice of world-leading brands, services and experiences to millions of
customers across the Middle East & North Africa, Russia, Turkey, Europe and beyond.
Alshaya’s portfolio extends across retail, food, leisure and hospitality, through to property
investment, interior solutions, joint ventures and mall developments – delivered by combined
team of 60,000 people.
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Task 1
Vision
When we speak about Vision, It’s something related to the future and to be planned at early
stages at any organization in order to be achieved. Each person or company should have his own
vision to work on it during a specific time. And to draw a clear picture where I should be after
that time frame.
Mission
It’s the road map we draw to reach to our vision. It will include all needed actions which we have
to do to achieve our target. And what special products or service we will provide to our
customers which will be the steps towards our vision.
Strategy
It’s a management plan or direction to attain the goals by using all possible resources and utilize
the opportunities
Business Plan
It’s the actual steps describe in details how the business is going to achieve the goals. It will
highlight all the operational activities and cost related to the business. Also It will include the
relevant internal and external elements involved in this plan.
Relation
Normally any organization will specify the vision then will decide the mission to achieve this
vision by setting a clear strategy which include a suitable business plan.
So It will start from where I’m now and where I should be in future and how to use a successful
strategy by implementing the correct business plan.
External factors:
The external factors consists of the below which affect from outside the organization.
1- Political : Country stability, change in regulation, Several aspects of government policy.
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2- Economic : income of customers, competition, recessions,
3- Social : Cultural behavior, population changes, users attitude.
4- Technology : The fast in technology improvement will need an ability to react quickly.
Stakeholder expectations influence organizations:
Stakeholder has a very important affect at any organization whether internal or external
stakeholder.
Internal Stakeholder : Owner, Managers & Employees.
External Stakeholder : Customers, Suppliers, shareholders, creditors, government & society.
Each stakeholder can have different expectations which can be in opposite directions. For
example the employees will always expect salary increase and incentives but from Owner point
of view he wants to see figures and profit first.
Customers are also an important stakeholder in any organization. We need to keep them satisfied
all the time to maintain continuous business.
So stakeholder management need to be planned in advance to avoid conflict. And balancing the
influence will take us to the success. Also managing stakeholder expectations is the process of
communicating and working with stakeholders to meet their needs and addressing issues as they
occur.
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Task 2
ALSHAYA ENTERPRISES
VISION :
To be the leading brand, providing customer-driven solutions for residence and projects.
MISSION:
To deliver an excellent customer experience by providing innovative solutions from our professional
team.
ALSHAYA believes in providing a comprehensive solutions to the customers not just only a product
suppliers. They serve large and diverse customer base by providing only the top of the line brands.
Not only high quality brands but also a professional team supported by in house design, logistic and
service team. They take a pride in representing the most reputed international brands.
To become the leading brand providing customer driven solution will need to select the suitable products
matching the customer needs and provide the best solution to the customer which will keep him always
satisfied. Customer should have the confident on the company staff and their proposals in order to
nominate ALSHAYA for most of the selections.
ALSHAYA professional team will have the ability to provide an innovative solutions and to deliver the
excellent customer experience.
In order to reach to this type of service the company has created an individual sectors and
divisions to work independently and to concentrate on their experience and professionalism in
order to provide the best results.
The company strategy was to divert from a classic trading company into solutions providers
within a period of 4 years then to be a fully integrated design & build consultants within 3 years.
In my opinion the concept was unique but the implementation for this kind of diversion will need
a lot of manpower and managers which leads to have a huge overhead impact where the
company did not provide. So the company goals was not achieved within the specified time
frame.
The company will be forced to re structure the sectors and divisions in economical way to
achieve the target.
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Beside the above, the company has faced a major obstacle which was the different affect in
branches in each country. When they applied the same procedures and decisions in all branches
in different locations and regions, the results were not the same. They succeed in one or two
counties and failed in others.
Task 3
The importance of review in developing organizational strategy and business plans.
One of the most essential bases for any company is to review the strategy in annual basis and to
see how the current business plan is moving in correct direction.
Continuous evaluation is a very important step to assess the organization performance and to
know how much we are far from our goals. And In case we found out our goals can’t be
achieved then we need to develop or amend our strategy or business plan and to avoid the same
mistakes in order to convert the failure to success.
Also, by reviewing the strategy & business plan we will know how much we are align with our
vision and mission then we can adjust.
The organization may experience changes within the environment that disrupt the efficient and
effective achievement of its set objectives. In this case, the organization may need to revisit the
appropriateness of its direction and strategy. If a company that persistently falls short of its
performance targets or loses its market position, for example, there is need to probe the
possible causes; poorly formulated strategy, poor strategy execution or both. An organization has
to periodically evaluate the appropriateness of its strategic vision, direction, objectives and
strategy and these can be modified as and when external and/or internal conditions necessitate.
Evaluating the tools which can be used to review organizational strategy and business plan.
The success factors of any strategic planning process are:
- Continues development of vision & mission.
- The assessment of the internal and external factors affecting the organization.
The vision & mission are the fundamental basics of the strategic planning process. When we have a well-
defined vision & mission statement, It will direct us to the organization goals.
To evaluate the organization strategy, we can use the below tools:
1- SWOT Analysis:
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SWOT analysis is the most common tools used to understand the below important factors:
Strengths – Weakness – Opportunities - Threats
Strengths
• Company advantages
• Why customer choosing us.
• Products quality better than others.
• Company history & reliability.
• Best customer service.
Opportunities
• More markets to approach.
• New products to add.
• Increase the selling points.
• Adding a new innovation to the market
Weakness
• Shortage in technical support.
• Not covering all markets.
• No stock available.
• Limited manpower.
Threats
• Supplier high price.
• Expected additional VAT.
• Competitors expanding.
2- PEST Analysis:
PEST analysis is an important tool to understand how an organization functions in a political,
economic, social, and technical environment. This can be used to assess the company
position in the market, then decide the further steps.
Political
It’s the regulations of the government
such as law of labor, and taxation.
Trade restrictions and political stability
are other political factors.
Economic
It’s impacting the cost of a company's
capital and acquisition power. Includes
interest rates, economic growth, inflation,
and exchange-rate currencies.
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Social
It’s affecting the needs of the consumer
and the potential market size of the
services and goods of an organization.
Social factors include population
growth, population age and health
attitudes.
Technology
It’s affecting barriers, such as automation,
investment incentives and technological
change, in entry, decision making or purchase
and investment in innovation.
PEST can be expanded to PESTEL adding legal & environmental effects.
By analyzing our SWOT tools, we can find out that our company needs immediate action to
improve our service and maintenance staff and to add the enough manpower to provide a better
technical support to our customers.
Also we have to create an intelligent after sales department to will be able to handle our
expectations of market expanding.
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Task 4
Strategy options for a chosen organization, using modelling tools.
Strategy options enable traders to take advantage of market-based assets movements (i.e.,
bullish, bearish or neutral). The Greek letter sigma (σ) can also be classified as volatility bullish
for neutral strategies. And those who are volatility bearish. If the stock market has low volatility,
traders could also benefit from time decline as determined from the Greek uppercase letter theta
(Θ) The optional positions used in calls and calls can be long or short.
The three major aspects of strategic logistics planning include long-term goals and the means and
process for achieving those goals.
 Long-term goals: Long-term goals include customer satisfaction, your company’s
competitive advantage and supply chain management.
 Means: The means for achieving your long-term goals include delivering value and
customer service.
 Process: The process for achieving your company’s long-term goals includes how you’ll
execute your logistics strategy, as well as anticipating and managing change and relating
each element of your logistics strategy to the company’s overarching business objectives.
A strategic logistics plan typically covers five or more years. On a more granular level, a
strategic logistics plan should include the following elements:
 An overview of the logistics strategy in general terms and how it relates to other business
functions.
 Logistics objectives and how each relates to cost and service for the product and the
customer.
 Descriptions of each strategy that will support the overall strategic logistics plan. These
strategies should include inventory and warehousing, order processing and fulfillment,
transportation and customer service.
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 A breakdown of each logistic or operational plan including timing, costs for implementation
and their impact on other business functions and the business as a whole.
 Forecasts of requirements for the workforce, capital and any other necessary assets.
 A financial statement that describes capital requirements, operating costs and cash flow in
detail to paint a clear financial picture for executives and stakeholders.
 A business impacts analysis that details anticipated impacts on profits, customer service and
other business functions.
Aligning your logistics goals to broader business objectives is a crucial component of an
effective logistics strategy. According to Trissa Strategy Consulting, 63% of successful
companies have every business unit aligned to their overall corporate strategy, from IT and
human resources to marketing and supply chain management. Likewise, 64% of successful
companies build their budget around their strategy, making elements such as financial forecasts,
capital requirements and analysis of operating costs and cash flow vital to your company’s
success.
A SWOT analysis (or SWOT matrix) is a high-level model used at the beginning of an
organization’s strategic planning. It is an acronym for “strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and
threats.” Strengths and weaknesses are considered internal factors, and opportunities and threats
are considered external factors.
Each category of this SWOT analysis could be expanded. The business can then assess the
results to decide if they can use their strengths to take advantage of the opportunities and
introduce the new product. After assessing the results, they may decide that the weaknesses and
threats need to be addressed before they can make any changes to their existing product line.
Like SWOT, PEST is also an acronym—it stands for “political, economic, sociocultural, and
technological.” Each of these factors is used to look at an industry or business environment, and
determine what could affect an organization’s health. The PEST model is often used in
conjunction with the external factors of a SWOT analysis.
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Criteria for reviewing the potential strategy options.
The five main qualitative areas should be considered when considering strategic options:
coherence, validity, feasibility, company risk and flexibility. It should examine each strategic
option under each heading and it can assist in measuring every criterion to 1 to 5. Analysis can
be further developed to assess the short-, medium- and long-term efficiency of the strategy. This
simple technique can contribute to the early elimination of inappropriate policies.
1) Consistency
Strategic alternatives should be compatible with the mission, vision, and goals of the company.
Any option cannot be removed. But if all options are incompatible, either the wrong options are
considered or the vision, mission and goals cannot be achieved.
2) Validity
The assumptions underlying the policy options must be valid. Such assumptions might include
the future environment for business, competition, customers and providers and how they can
react to alternative strategies. A strategic option involving a price reduction but not recognizing
the chance that competitors can reduce their prices may not be valid.
3) Feasibility
In theory, a strategy can be able to achieve the vision, mission and objectives of the enterprise,
but it should also be feasible in practice. That means that the business needs the funding,
resources, assets, experience, culture and skills to achieve this (or to be able to acquire them).
4) Business risk
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Return on investment is linked to risk and there is some form of risk to all strategic options. They
should also include ways to minimize the risk. The evaluation should seek to determine if the
residual risk of a strategic choice matches the expected return.
5) Flexibility
Today, a strategy must have sufficient flexibility to work in a fast-changing business world if
circumstances change. If, depending on the circumstances, a series of options can be selected, it
is a significant benefit.
Task 5
The structure of a plan needed to deliver the strategy.
The key elements of such a plan include your vision and mission statements, detailed goals and
objectives, and action plans and scorecards to help you track your progress.
Make sure you include each of these key components in order to create a strategic plan that will
serve your business. Including these detailed sections will help you and your employees stay on
the same page and understand what you want to accomplish. A properly made strategic plan is
not only thorough, but also helps ensure each section comes together to create a cohesive
document to support you in leading your business.
Vision, mission & other key components are required to be drafted properly by following
accurate data.
1. How to Write a Good Vision Statement
2. How To Create Company Values
3. Creating Strategic Focus Areas
4. How To Write Strategic Objectives
5. How To Create Effective Projects
6. How To Write KPIs
Stakeholders are involved in the formulation of the plan.
Business owners must consider stakeholders in any major company decision or development
project. In most cases, stakeholders are those who have a vested interest in what a company does
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but aren't the actual decision makers. For example, a local city council and its representatives are
stakeholders in a new real estate development, even though they are not part of the company
developing the land. Stakeholders' roles vary, depending upon the business circumstances or
project type.
Stakeholders brought into any decision or project development from the get-go are able to help
provide ideas and help create potential solutions. Often, stakeholders come from varying
backgrounds, and so they look at issues from differing perspectives. This enables opposing
viewpoints to get expressed and discussed.
Engaged stakeholders stay involved in the process. This increases the overall chance of project
success through final execution. Smart project leaders keep stakeholders informed of project
updates, as well as newsletters and any information regarding progress.
A business owner might not think about employees as stakeholders because employees get paid
to do a job. However, giving employees a clear plan with set goals and resources to succeed
builds engagement. Employees have many reasons for a project to succeed – pride, job security,
potential promotion and prestige. Survey the employees and gather input on the project idea and
on any potential issues perceived from the inside.
It is natural to want a project to come together without a hitch; that is seldom the reality,
however, especially as projects become grander in scope. Business leaders can mitigate many
problems by utilizing stakeholders, thereby preventing potential issues.
Provide a dissemination process to ensure stakeholders are informed and committed to the
plan.
Dissemination refers to the process of sharing research findings with stakeholders and wider
audiences.
The objective of the Dissemination Plan is to identify and organize the activities to be performed
in order to promote the commercial exploitation of the project’s results and the widest
dissemination of knowledge from the project. The success of the dissemination plan will depend
largely on the activities planned to convey the messages to each target audience. Activities such
as face-to-face meetings and briefings may be effective in promoting a two-way dialogue
between the researchers and the decision makers in each of the target audiences.
Once the dissemination objective and the audience are identified, there are a variety of ways to
share the developed content.
Common methods of dissemination include:
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 Publishing program or policy briefs.
 Publishing project findings in journals and statewide publications.
 Presenting at conferences and meetings of professional associations.
 Presenting program results to groups and other local stakeholders.
 Creating and distributing program materials, such as flyers, guides, pamphlets and DVDs.
 Sharing information through social media or on an organization's website.
 Summarizing findings in progress reports for funders.
 Disseminating information on an organization's website.
 Publishing information in the local newspaper.
 Issuing a press release.
 Hosting health promotion events at health fairs and school functions.
 Using the 2-1-1 system to publicize available services and resources.
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References
1- Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies; Book by James C. Collins and
Jerry I. Porras
2- Strategic Internal Communication: How to Build Employee Engagement and
Performance; Book by David Cowan
3- Bradford, R. W., & Duncan, J. P. (2000). Simplified strategic planning. Worcester, MA:
Chandler House Press.
4- Aragón-Sánchez, A., & Sánchez-Marín, G. (2005). Strategic orientation, management
characteristics, and performance: A study of Spanish SMEs. Journal of Small Business
Management.
5- Ash, M. K. (1984). Mary Kay on people management. New York: Warner Books
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