Strategic Management Report: MGT5STR - Grain Corp Strategic Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Grain Corp's strategic management, focusing on its business-level strategies. The report begins by identifying Grain Corp as a fiber-focused agribusiness operating in Australia, outlining its business units, product and service lines, and revenue streams. It then delves into the importance of the largest revenue units. The core of the report involves identifying and analyzing various business-level strategies, including cost leadership, differentiation, and focus strategies, ultimately determining that Grain Corp primarily employs a differentiation strategy. The analysis includes a discussion of the company's model of competitive reality and provides an implementation plan and evaluation strategy. The report concludes with recommendations for the future strategic direction of Grain Corp, emphasizing the benefits of its chosen differentiation strategy and its potential for continued success in the agribusiness sector. The report also examines the reasons for rejecting other strategies like cost leadership and focus strategies for Grain Corp.

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Author Note

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Introduction
The main purpose of this discussion will be identify different business level strategies
like cost leadership, differentiation, focus and integrated cost leadership or differentiation
along with the analysis the business level strategies of the agribusiness of Grain Corp. The
analysis will help the organization to identify the strategy which will suit the organization and
which will not. Grain Corp Limited is a public company from Australia which was
established in the year 1917. The core business of the organization is related in receival and
storage of grain and related commodities (Graincorp.com.au 2019).
Strategic Implementations in Grain Crop
In order to determine the profitability rate in a form, the porter generic strategy is
being considered as the significant strategic initiative (Ouma and Oloko2017). Appropriate
application of Porters generic strategy plays the crucial role for determining the position of an
organization in a particular industry sector. There are four elements which are being used for
developing the strategic tool in the workplace. As per the Porter’s generic model, in order to
gain the competitive advantage, three basic elements of this model such as cost leadership,
focus and differentiation are being used.
Cost Leadership Strategy
Cost leadership strategy is mostly being adopted in terms of gaining high profit. In
this strategy, introducing the cost effective products without compromising the quality, the
companies try to gain the competitive advantage in the market. As stated by Wicker et al.
(2015), in case of adopting this strategic initiatives, the firm gets to improve the operational
process as well as get the chance for ensuring the efficiency in lower cost. In order to access

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the capital for significant investment and designing the effective distribution channel, the cost
leadership strategy helps the firm to enhance the internal strength of the company. In case of
Grain crop, it can be said that adopting the cost leadership strategy, it can be easier for the
company to provide its products in lower cost to the customers, which can significantly
enhance the customer base of the company in competitive business environment.
Differentiation Strategy
In terms of developing new product in the market, differentiation strategy can be
considered as the scientific strategic approach that can help to develop unique attributes on
the company for value creation process. In case of better understanding of customer
perspectives, the implication of differentiation strategy can significantly bring impact on
creating unique existence in the market (Omsa, Abdullahand Jamali2017). In terms of
adopting the differentiation strategy in Grain Crop, highly skilled as well as creative product
development team needs to be appointed. It is true that implementing the new product
development strategy in the market, sales team makes the significant contribution. Therefore,
it can be said that introducing the differentiation strategy by adopting sustainable harvesting
plan in Grain Crop company, it can be easier for the company to associate with the changing
customer demands.
Focus Strategy
In order to operate in the narrow customer segment, the focus strategy is being
adopted by the firms (Bertozzi, Ali and Gul2017). In case of following the focus strategy, the
company either achieves the differentiation or the cost advantage. In case of pursuing the
focus strategy, with the lower bargaining power of the suppliers, the company can be able to
strengthen its existence in the narrow market segment. In case of adding the changes in target
market, focus strategy helps to ensure the higher rate of customer loyalty in the market,

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which significantly discourages the other existing companies in the market. However, in
order to operate in the broad market segment, risk focus strategy implementation becomes
challenging for the form.
Analysis
Selection of the Strategy
After performing the analysis on Porter’s Generic Competitive Strategies, it can be
stated that the differentiation strategy can be followed by the organization of Grain Corp,
which will sit them according to the strategies followed by them. It has been observed that
the organization is successful in the region of Australia in mixing of assets along with the
business operations followed. The company is focused on delivering high quality of products,
scale, competitive prices and confidence of supply. It has been stated earlier that the
management of the organization is focused in delivering the top most quality of grains and
other related products like oils and malts, and the uniqueness of the strategies and ideas used
by them can be matched with the differentiation strategy of Porter’s Generic Competitive
Strategies. It has been discussed that through differentiation strategy, the organization tends
to perform the business operations which will help them to sustain the uniqueness in the
industry where it serves. It will help them to drive for better business results in this highly
global competitive market place. It has became very much necessary to possess some
uniqueness in the operations of the business of a particular organization, which will actually
help them to gain the competitive advantage over its rival companies and maintain the
revenue generation at a uniform rate and pace. This strategy will also be valued by the buyers
of the products produced by the organization of Grain Corp. It will help the organization to
realize their potentiality and strategize their plans accordingly.

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The diversified work culture will of this organization will mostly suit with the
differentiation strategy to sustain in the market places where the organization are running
their business operations. As the organization possess the largest integrated edible oil
business in the region of Australia and celebrated its 100 years in the year of 2016, this
strategy will more suit with the differentiation strategy, which will help the organization to
grow more along with its customers and by the help of uniqueness possessed by them. This
strategy will help the organization to grow into a more leading agribusiness organization
around the world along with increasing expertise and assets that will be differ from its
competitors in processing of agrifood and delivering the top quality products to the customers
who are present globally. Innovation, integration and partnership are the three things that are
followed by this organization, and the differentiation strategy will be valued by the buyers of
the products manufactured by the organization to meet the needs and requirements of those
buyers, so that competitive advantage can be obtained in the market places. Though this
strategy involves premium pricing, the organization follows competitive pricing, and it need
to be set accordingly, so that it will help to sustain the leading place enjoyed by the
organization currently.
Reason for Rejection of other Strategies
As discussed above, Grain Corp follows the differentiation strategy. The cost
leadership strategy will not be followed by the organization as the management cannot come
down below a particular level as this strategy focuses on low cost producer in the industry. It
may be helpful for the organization to earn more revenues, but it will not earn the uniqueness
in the industry, which can be earned by following the differentiation strategy. Operational
process as well as get the chance for ensuring the efficiency can be achieved in a much lower
price, but there will be no difference by doing so as this method is followed by most of the
firms within this industry. On the other hand, focus strategy follows the strategy which offers

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a narrow competitive scope within the industry. It will limit the products manufactured by the
organization of Grain Corp to a limited segment of people, thus will reduce the chance of
reaching to a wider audience. It will limit the reach as well as the revenue earning of the firm.
Though the company will be able to strengthen its existence in the narrow market segment by
lowering the bargaining power of the suppliers and assure a higher rate of customer loyalty in
the market, it will not be termed something different which it would have achieved by
following the differentiation strategy.
It has been found in various research and studies that due to the advancement of
technology in the market places around the world, competition has also increased and all
companies from their respective sectors are competing with each other to gain the
competitive advantage. After reviewing the Porter’s Generic strategies, it can be said that to
possess a minimum amount of uniqueness helps a particular firm to enjoy that competitive
advantage over others and this can be followed by following the differentiation strategy. It
can be said that introducing the differentiation strategy by adopting sustainable harvesting
plan in Grain Crop Company, it can be easier to associate with the changing customer
demands and fulfilling them accordingly with their uniqueness approach in the market places
where they have buyers for the products manufactured by them. Uniqueness will help to
differentiate the company from its rivals, which the other two strategies will not be able to do.
Reduction of cost and focusing to a particular segment may allow increasing the revenue
generation of the organization or focusing to a limited umber of people so that top quality
services can be delivered to them, but the bigger aspect and business goals can be achieved
by following the differentiation strategy (Zehir, Can and Karaboga 2015).

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Conclusion
From the above discussion, it can be stated that differentiation strategy is followed by
the organization of Grain Corp, which helps them to identify by their buyers present in the
markets where they are selling their products.

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References
Bertozzi, F., Ali, C.M. and Gul, F.A., 2017. Porter’s five generic strategies; A case study
from the hospitality industry. International Journal For Research In Mechanical & Civil
Engineering (ISSN: 2208-2727), 3(2), pp.09-23.
Graincorp.com.au. (2019). GrainCorp. [online] Available at: http://www.graincorp.com.au/
[Accessed 20 Sep. 2019].
Omsa, S., Abdullah, I.H. and Jamali, H., 2017. Five Competitive Forces Model and the
Implementation of Porter’s Generic Strategies to Gain Firm Performances.
Ouma, G. and Oloko, M., 2017. THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PORTER’S GENERIC
STRATEGIES AND COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE A CASE STUDY OF BUS
COMPANIES PLYING THE KISUMU-NAIROBI ROUTE, KENYA.
Wicker, P., Soebbing, B.P., Feiler, S. and Breuer, C., 2015. The effect of Porter’s generic
strategies on organisational problems of non-profit sports clubs. European Journal for Sport
and Society, 12(3), pp.281-307.
Zehir, C., Can, E. and Karaboga, T., 2015. Linking entrepreneurial orientation to firm
performance: the role of differentiation strategy and innovation performance. Procedia-Social
and Behavioral Sciences, 210, pp.358-367.