Strategic Management Analysis: Vershire Company Case Study Report

This report provides a comprehensive strategic analysis of Vershire Company, focusing on its operations within the packaging industry. The analysis begins with an introduction to the company and its core business of providing aluminum beverage cans, followed by a detailed SWOT analysis that identifies the company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The report then applies Porter's generic strategies to understand how Vershire Company can maintain a competitive advantage, discussing cost leadership, differentiation, and focus strategies. The evaluation of the company's performance assesses its financial and operational aspects, considering the perspectives of various stakeholders such as shareholders, employees, and customers. The report concludes by summarizing the key findings and insights into Vershire Company's strategic management and performance.

Running head: STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
Strategic management
Name of student
Name of University
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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
SWOT analysis of the organisation............................................................................................3
Application of Porter’s generic strategies..................................................................................4
Evaluation of company performance.........................................................................................6
NB performance.....................................................................................................................6
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................7
References..................................................................................................................................7

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Introduction
The report is prepared to analyse the case study for the business organisation named
Vershire Company in Australia. The company is known for its packaging services and
consists of several major divisions associated with the different business functions and
processes. The company offers aluminium beverage cans for packaging beverage items and
other drinks by considering proper control on the quality and budgeting for bringing
effectiveness in terms of performance and revenue generation within the packaging industry
all throughout. The major segment is the Aluminium can division and the case study is
analysed to determine the performance of the business by prioritising on the business
operations and processes along with meeting the customers’ expectations largely too (Ansoff
et al. 2019).
Based on various evidences, it is found that Vershire Company has experienced issues
mainly with the treatment plants focusing more on profit rather than making expenses, which
can represent in the ineffective performance of the manufacturing and production plants of
Vershire Company.
SWOT analysis of the organisation
The SWOT analysis framework demonstrates the strengths and weaknesses along
with the opportunities and threats that are faced by the company while operating within the
packaging industry. As the report focuses on the company’s planning system and essentially
the manufacturing and production divisions, so mostly, the strengths include company’s
ability to predict the feasibility of operations and making preparations for surviving in the
future and at the same time, formulate strategic goals and objectives while the weaknesses
can be the lack of promotional activities, which can also affect the brand image and identity
(David and David 2013). To overcome these weaknesses, the company needs to grab the

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opportunities and make sure to sustain in the long run, furthermore ensure that any kinds of
threats do not create barriers in the path of business management.
Strengths-
 The Company is specialised in the delivery of aluminium packaging cans that are of
good quality and available at reasonable prices
 The company is known for its operations because of the involvement of divisional
managers who have predicted the capital requirements and sales requirements as part
of the strategic planning, which has helped in determining the feasibility of operations
and goals to be achieved in the future (Hill, Jones and Schilling 2014)
 Practical events have occurred with the controller staffs and engineers visiting the
plants and manufacturing departments frequently to monitor the business operations
and analyse the opportunities through improved usability and accuracy
Weaknesses-
 The assumptions made by the corporate headquarters for the sales, packaging trends,
buying behaviours, supply and demands in the market often conflict with the
divisional managers who are assigned with the same roles and responsibilities.
 This could hinder the appropriateness of forecasting procedures and create failure
while reviewing the plans required to make the assumptions correct and noteworthy
(Noe et al. 2017)
 Lack of proper marketing and promotional techniques has hindered the marketing
efficiency and resulted in poor sales when compare to other businesses within the
industry

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 The positioning and unique selling proposition are missing, which has also affected
the marketing effectiveness while the attrition rate within the workplace is also high,
which needs training and development sessions for ensuring that the emotes possess
relevant skills to perform to their potential within the workplace (Rothaermel 2013).
Opportunities-
 The lower rate of inflation can bring better market stability, which can also help in
managing credit at a lower rate of interest to the clients
 The differentiation pricing strategy can be a good thing that can open up new scopes
for the company to maintain a loyal customer base and deliver best quality services.
 The new taxation policies can also create opportunities for the business to reduce
costs of operation and maintain steady flow of cash all throughout the business (Hill
2017).
 The stable flow of cash can relate to better scopes and opportunities to make
investments and even respond to the changing behaviours and new trends of
consumers, furthermore create new ways to manage diversification and open revenue
streams to sustain in the competitive marketplace.
 The reduced transportation costs and shipping prices could further contribute to the
lowering of products’ prices and ensure creating scopes for gaining a greater market
share (Hill, Jones and Schilling 2014).
Threats
 Due to lack of brand visibility, there is presence of new entrants and even substitute
products and services that has caused major threats for the business

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 The currency fluctuations can also affect the market conditions while the lack of
skilled labour can make the company experience threats too
 High competition in the marketplace of packaging industry (Stead and Stead 2014).
 Demands for highly profitable products and services have increased along with the
increase in cost of raw materials and resources
Application of Porter’s generic strategies
The generic strategies are defined within the Porter’s framework that includes cost
leadership, differentiation, cost focus and differentiation focus, which can allow the company
to attain competitive advantage. The cost leadership strategy enables getting an edge by
focusing on the sales management and competitor analysis, which can be beneficial not only
for enhancing the profitability through reduction of costs, but also for increasing the market
share. To become successful in the competitive marketplace, Vershire Company must
produce the products at lower prices to combat the other low cost producers, furthermore
block their attempts to capture the market share (Meyer, Neck and Meeks 2017). Vershire
Company should make investments in managing logistics and supply chain operations
properly so that access to a good amount of capital is possible, which can reduce the costs of
operations as well as sustainably reduce the costs when compared with the competitors in
business (Vogel and Güttel 2013). The labour cost must be lowered to ensure that the
expenses are lowered and a positive impact is created on the sustainable production.
The strategy of differentiation is done by distinguishing the products and services
from the competitors’ products and services, which can allow for adding some extra features,
support, durability and functionality for improving the product performance and create some
uniqueness. This should allow the customers to understand the differences between the
products and services delivered by Vershire Company with the other company products,

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furthermore remain loyal to the brand rather than making purchases from any other company
within the packaging industry. The company should invest on research and development
activities for managing innovation all throughout and even gain the ability to deliver the best
quality products and services, furthermore facilitate the marketing procedure to make the
consumers informed and knowledgeable about the differentiable features of products and
services of Vershire Company (Morschett, Schramm-Klein and Zentes 2015). The
differentiation strategy should also allow the company to attain agility and ensure proper
development and production processes to enter different new market segments as well.
Figure: Porter’s generic strategies
(Morschett, Schramm-Klein and Zentes 2015)

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The focus strategy can help Vershire Company to prioritise on the niche markets and
analyse the market dynamics to determine the unique and changing needs and preferences of
the buyers. The consumers mainly prefer products that can deliver value considering the
quality and cost perspectives. The focus strategy should enable Vershire Company to focus
on the niche market and serve the clients in an unique way to ensure building trust and
loyalty among the clients regarding the brand. The focus can be cost focus or differentiation
focus, where the both these focus strategies are implemented to focus on the market niche
segments, though higher profit level cannot be achieved with focus on a single market
segment. Making some additions like reduction of operational costs and differentiation of
products could be beneficial as well as for fulfilling the customers’ needs and preferences
(Tanwar 2013). The selection of right generic strategy, especially the differentiation focus
strategy can be highly effective for managing an innovation aprp0ach to marketing and take
into account Vershire Company’s strengths and competencies to stay ahead of the
competitors within the business environment.
The differentiation focus strategy could also contribute to the management of trust
and loyalty among clients and at the same time, ensure cost reduction techniques for better
flow of cash during the management of business. It should also promote diversification of
products and services and ensure capturing a greater market share by targeting the specific
market segments (D. Banker, Mashruwala and Tripathy 2014). The company could also
facilitate the marketing actions by involving various social media platforms to engage more
clients and kept them informed with any updates and changes to the products and services
made, thereby, focus on better brand visibility and exposure.

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Evaluation of company performance
Based on the various financial reports consisting of sales, income generation and
requirements for capital, the trends are anticipated for the corporate management, which is
important not only for the assessment of market conditions but also to conduct market
research and prioritise of budgetary procedures, staff management and identifying areas of
improvements too. The financial information includes greater earnings per share, which is
nearly $0.35 for the quarter, which is good considering the loss faced in the previous year.
The free cash flow for the entire year is around $500 million while the can packaging for
global beverage items has somewhat increased to over 5 percent. Considering the sales,
which have been $2000 million in the fourth quarter of 2018, the increased packaging for the
beverage items could further contribute to the rise in costs of materials and other complexities
though. With the uniqueness and great design that compose the tin and metal packaging of
products, the global beverage can increase in volume, which should exceed the expectations
of Vershire Company (Salavou 2015). With the management of proper budgetary procedures,
Vershire Company aims to attain adjustable diluted earnings per share of nearly $4.50, which
should enable tackling he decline in market share and value, furthermore ensure increase in
sales of more than 30 percent in the years to come.
NB performance
The NB performance is based on the assessment of various perspectives of the
different kinds of stakeholders such as the shareholders or investors, employees, customers
and even the managers of the organisation. The shareholders or investors should support the
idea of innovation, research and development with the help of investments made and they
have been benefited with the good rate of return on investments made by them. The
employees on the other hand, makes sure to provide their best for accomplishing the business
goals and objectives with ease and effectiveness. The manager of the organisation though

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should provide proper training sessions by assessing their development needs and ensure that
they possess the desired skills and knowledge to perform to their potential within the
workplace (David and David 2013). From the perspectives of the stakeholders, especially, the
customers, they demand good quality products that are available at reasonable prices, which
has been done properly by the company. But with the emergence of multiple competitors, the
company needs to ensure that proper approaches are undertaken to differentiate the products
and services from the competitors, which could enable Vershire Company to sustain in the
competitive business environment as well (Hill, Jones and Schilling 2014). The manager
should also be responsible for following a proper leadership style where he can consider the
views and opinions of employees and make them feel valued to the organisation, which is
also critical for the process of decision making in business.
Conclusion
The report was prepared to discuss about the strengths and weaknesses of Vershire
Company and how the company utilised the scopes and opportunities to overcome the threats
faced and attain competitive advantage. The company responded to various scopes and
opportunities through prioritising on the differentiation focus to present something unique
and innovative, which could make the customers distinguish between the products of
Vershire Company and the other products delivered by the rivalries within the packaging
industry. With the investments made on research and development activities and for
enhancing the marketing performance, the company should definitely be able to gain a
greater market share and gain competitive advantage over its competitors too.

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References
Ansoff, H.I., Kipley, D., Lewis, A.O., Helm-Stevens, R. and Ansoff, R., 2019. Implanting
strategic management. Springer.
D. Banker, R., Mashruwala, R. and Tripathy, A., 2014. Does a differentiation strategy lead to
more sustainable financial performance than a cost leadership strategy?. Management
Decision, 52(5), pp.872-896.
David, F.R. and David, F.R., 2013. Strategic management: Concepts and cases: A
competitive advantage approach. Pearson.
Hill, C.W., Jones, G.R. and Schilling, M.A., 2014. Strategic management: Theory & cases:
An integrated approach. Cengage Learning.
Hill, C.W., Jones, G.R. and Schilling, M.A., 2014. Strategic management: theory: an
integrated approach. Cengage Learning.
Hill, T., 2017. Manufacturing strategy: the strategic management of the manufacturing
function. Macmillan International Higher Education.
Meyer, G.D., Neck, H.M. and Meeks, M.D., 2017. The entrepreneurship strategic‐
management interface. Strategic entrepreneurship: Creating a new mindset, pp.17-44.
Morschett, D., Schramm-Klein, H. and Zentes, J., 2015. Strategic international management
(pp. 978-3658078836). Springer.

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Noe, R.A., Hollenbeck, J.R., Gerhart, B. and Wright, P.M., 2017. Human resource
management: Gaining a competitive advantage. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.
Rothaermel, F.T., 2013. Strategic management: concepts. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill
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Review, 27(1), pp.80-99.
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