Level 7 Strategic Planning: Business Case Report on Vista (MNC, UK)

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the strategic planning processes at Vista, a multinational company in the UK. It examines the company's mission and vision statements, their impact on business strategy, and the external factors influencing the organization. The report includes a SWOT analysis to identify Vista's strengths and weaknesses, and it utilizes tools such as PESTLE and Porter's Five Forces to assess the competitive landscape. Furthermore, the document explores various strategic options for Vista, outlines criteria for evaluating these options, and proposes a strategic action plan with a monitoring system for effective implementation. Examples from Amazon's business strategies are used for comparison. This document available on Desklib offers valuable insights into strategic management and business analysis.

STRATEGIC PLANNING
A Business Case Report on Vista (MNC in UK)
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STRATEGIC PLANNING
Executive Summary
The report has focused on the strategic planning procedures of a multinational company of
the United Kingdom, namely Vista. The company follows, to a certain extent, similar
business strategies as Amazon`s. However, the report is divided into several sections; first it
deals with mission and vision statement, its impact on the company and the external
influences that affect the company. Further, this study emphasises the strength as well as
weakness of Vista along with the criteria and the modelling tools that are used to select the
potential strategies for the company. Finally, the report suggests the monitoring system
enabling fruitful implementation of the policy and the effective strategies action plan. In
order to study and develop a clear understanding of Vista's business, examples of Amazon
and its operations has been taken into consideration.
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction............................................................................................................................4
Task 1.........................................................................................................................................5
1.1 (P) Organizational Vision, Mission, Strategy and Business Plans and Interrelationship 5
1.2 (P) Impact of External Factors on Organization and on its Strategy...............................5
1.3 Influence of Stakeholder Expectations on Organization..................................................6
Task 2.........................................................................................................................................7
2.1(P) Mission and Vision Statements of Vista.....................................................................7
2.2 (M) Impact of Mission and Vision Statement of Vista on Business Strategy.................7
2.3 (D) External Influences Affecting Organizational Strategy.............................................8
Task 3.........................................................................................................................................9
3.1(P) Importance of Review in Improving Organizational Strategy and Business Plan......9
3.2(P) Tools Use to Review Organizational Strategy and Business Plan..............................9
3.3(M) Review the Position of Vista in Its Current Market Using an Appropriate Tool....10
3.4(M) Strength and Weakness of Vista’s Existing Strategy and Plan................................11
Task 4.......................................................................................................................................11
4.1. (P) Modelling Tools for Strategic Options....................................................................11
4.2. (P) Strategic Business Options......................................................................................12
4.3. (P) Criteria for Reviewing the Potential Strategy Options............................................13
4.4. (M) Strategic Direction of Vista...................................................................................13
Task 5.......................................................................................................................................14
5.1. (P) Structure of The Strategic Business Plan................................................................14
5.2. (P) Stakeholders Involvement in The Formulation of The Plan...................................15
5.3. (P) Dissemination Process for Informing Stakeholders................................................15
5.4. (M) Monitoring System of Implementation of Strategic Business Plan.......................15
5.5 (D) Strategic Action plan...............................................................................................16
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6. Conclusion............................................................................................................................18
7. References............................................................................................................................19
8. Appendix..............................................................................................................................22
Appendix 1: SWOT Framework..........................................................................................22
Appendix 2: PESTEL Framework.......................................................................................23
Appendix 3: Porter`s Five Forces Framework.....................................................................24
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1. Introduction
The strategic marketing plan is a process to address the marketing plans and strategies of an
organization. The higher authority of the company creates a marketing plan to implement an
existing strategy, which is set for the target market. On the other hand, comprehensive
research in a competitive marketplace could identify the target market in a short period. It is
noted that the strategic marketing plan is considered as a parameter to plan a strategy
according to the target market (Olson et al., 2018). The paper would focus on mission and
vision of Vista, and will include a discussion regarding its impact on the operations of the
company. In addition, external influences over business strategy have been studied with the
help of tools as well.
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Task 1
1.1 (P) Organizational Vision, Mission, Strategy and Business Plans and
Interrelationship
Mission statement of Vista satisfies various conventional characteristics about ideal mission
statement. For example, the organization contain target market and customer, major business
aims and various kind of products in the corporation mission. On the other hand, the vision
statement of Vista holds strong characteristics like the specification of Vista’s market target
and the factors of its marketing mix. However, he mission and vision statements of this
company provide the company the acknowledgement as one of the major online stores within
the world.
1.2 (P) Impact of External Factors on Organization and on its Strategy
PESTLE is a strategy key tool that is used to analyse the external factors such as
opportunities and threats of any company or organization. PESTLE is also can applicable for
identifying the external factors of Vista.
Pestle Analysis
Political Factors Vista profits from political constancy. Political condition makes
the opportunities for the organization for growing the business
in advanced countriescountries, which affects the retail business
of Amazon.
Economic Factors The economic stability of the developed countries enhances the
likelihood this company’s success. Vista also has opportunities
for grow in the developing countries.
Social Factors Social factor can be a threat for the Vista in term of possible
inactivity of discarding income level and corresponding
inactivity of macro-environment of industry.
Technological factor Vista faces the threat of continuous technological obsolescence
that can enforce pressure on the organization to continuously
enhance its technological assets.
Legal factors Legal factors make the opportunities for Vista to strengthen its
efforts in decreasing counterfeit sale on the online store
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website.
Environmental Factors Vista has opportunities for improving its impact on
environment in response towards the rising attention in
environmental programs. These interests have a direct impact
on ecological challenges like energy consumption and waste
management of retail businesses that include big companies
like Amazon.
Table 1: PESTLE Analysis
(Source: Anton, 2016)
1.3 Influence of Stakeholder Expectations on Organization
Stakeholder involvement has become a common incidence in corporate life and over-all
administrative issue as employees, environmentalists, community groups, human rights
organizations, charitable organizations and employees progressively use a various strategy to
influence the action of the organization (Kopaneva, 2015). It is noted that stakeholder
expectation has both positive as well as negative impact on an organization, such as Vista.
Concerning positive influence, stakeholders not only help business to develop good and
services in a better manner, but also improves its marketing. However, an excess of
interference by investors, owners, communities or legislative bodies has negative impact on
operations.
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Task 2
2.1(P) Mission and Vision Statements of Vista
Mission statement of Vista: The vision of this company is to ensure 100% satisfaction of
customers, enhance innovation also provide a homelike environment to the employees.
Vision statement of Vista: The vision of the company is to sell products at a cost-effective
rate to reach towards non-users as well as the consumers of the competing businesses, along
with understanding needs of employees and fulfilling them.
2.2 (M) Impact of Mission and Vision Statement of Vista on Business Strategy
The mission of any organization describes the purpose of the company, and it is the base root
of the vision statement. The mission statement of Vista, is defined by the strategic
management of the company with a motive to reflect the future possibilities of Vista. On the
other hand, based on Amazon's growth it can be stated that, the vision statement of the
company could clarify an aspiring situation or a long-term goal and build an ideal image in
the competitive market place.
2.3 (D) External Influences Affecting Organizational Strategy
An essential aspect of Vista is to operate the business by avoiding external forces. The main
problem of a marketing strategy is to identify the factors affecting the company's
environment and respond as per the crisis. However, few external factors are hard to locate,
but the major factors which are affecting Vista could be listed as follows:
Economic Conditions: According to Spillman (2017), the economic structure of the UK
somehow affect significantly on marketing strategy of a business. Changes in the interest
rates of the nation's economy force Vista to modify their prices for consuming any goods at
the time of online selling.
Market competition: The strengths of the competition is addressed as a continually changing
factor in the discussion of the organizational environment. Vista has a marketing strategy to
run their business in that case, coming of a competitor in the market forces them to change
their marketing strategy to compete with them (Ranganathan, Ghosh and Rosenkopf, 2018).
Technology: Modern technology has been updating day by day, and it affects the existing
technology of Vista. It is an indisputable fact which forces a company to change its marketing
strategy based on technical change. As opined by Bennett, Segerberg and Knüpfer, (2017),
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changes in technology affects the existing design of the products and the delivery system is
also changed.
Legal: The changes in taxation is one of the most fundamental factors in law by legislation. It
has been noticed that changes in tax can come overnight without any warning. Although,
other laws change those mutual affect businesses, including Industrial Relations, Consumer
Protection, Environmental Law, Workplace Safety and Health (Curtis and Decker, 2018).
Task 3
3.1(P) Importance of Review in Improving Organizational Strategy and Business
Plan
The significant five benefits of strategic planning are:
 Enabling organizations to be upbeat rather than mercurial: According to Kopaneva,
2015), a strategic plan permits any organization to predict its future and let the
organization prepare accordingly.
 Enhance the set of direction: A strategic plan helps to represent the direction that a
company should aids and travel for creating realistic goals and objectives.
 Increasing operational efficiency: Strategic plan gives management a roadmap to
allocate the company's functional activities to reach the required goals.
 Enhancing market profitability and share: With the help of a steadfast strategic plan,
companies can get essential insights on consumer segments, market trends, as well as
service and product offering that may affect the success of the organization.
 Making business more durable: World market and industries are always changing.
Therefore, the organizations need a robust strategic plan for a permanent foundation,
foresight and focus for ignore the upcoming external challenges (Merkus, Willems
and Veenswijk, 2019).
3.2(P) Tools Use to Review Organizational Strategy and Business Plan
Strategic tool is crucial within any organization for competitive and business analysis. The
strategic tools that any company can use to develop the strategic plan are SWOT, PESTLE
and Porte’s Five Forces (Mufudza, 2018).
Name of the Strategy Tool Description
SWOT The SWOT is a most major tool of strategic
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analysis. It helps to analyze the
organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses,
Opportunities and Threats (Gürel, 2017).
PESTLE PESTLE is a tool used for ensuring the
possible external sources for threats and
opportunities (Anton, 2016).
Porter’s Five Forces Porter’s Five Forces helps to detect the
opportunities and threats within the
organization (Harvard Business School,
2019).
Table 2: Tools use to review organizational strategy and business plan
(Source: Harding and Long, 2017)
3.3(M) Review the Position of Vista in Its Current Market Using an Appropriate
Tool
According to Schawel and Billing (2017), BCG Matrix is a tool used by any organization or
companies to analyze its current position in the market.
Question Mark Star
Question Mark represent the area of the
company where it needs closer
consideration. Products of Vista has chances
of growing within a profitable business.
Star represents a high growth industry and
high market share (Schawel and Billing,
2017). The electronic products of Vista are
in more demands than before, and it is also
increasing by the time.
Dogs Cash Cow
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Vista is progressing slowly with minimal
scope for further development, including the
complexity of the external environment of
the business (Schawel and Billing, 2017).
Vista is a mature organization that knows to
support the high ranking and high customer
demand with more facilities to positioning
the goods as a Cash Cow.
Table 3: BCG Matrix
(Source: Schawel and Billing, 2017)
3.4(M) Strength and Weakness of Vista’s Existing Strategy and Plan
Strengths
 Vista originates its competitive benefit from leveraging Information Technology.
Also, it utilizes e-Commerce as an accessible and scalable ramp up a platform which
makes sure that the organization is ahead of its entrants.
 Vista originates its strength from three-pronged strategic plan on differentiation, cost
leadership and focus.
 Vista uses a superior distribution and logistics system; therefore, it has been able to
enhance customer fulfilment.
Weaknesses
 Vista offers free shipping for the consumers, and it causes danger of margins losing.
Therefore, the company may not be able to improve the cost department because of
this strategy.
 Vista is an online retailer, and the single-minded mainly focus on online dealing
might “come in the way” of its growth plans specifically in developing markets.
Task 4
4.1. (P) Modelling Tools for Strategic Options
Modelling tools are framed to develop the procedures within the organization. The tools that
are mainly utilized are VMOST, PESTEL Analysis, Porter’s Five Forces, SWOT Analysis,
BCG Matrix and VRIO Framework. According to Bryson (2018), these tools are crucial for
setting remote future goals, objectives and prerogatives for the company. Application of these
modelling tools benefits the companies to recognize both the strengths and weaknesses and to
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select the do's and don'ts and what strategic options should be used. Modelling tools also
helps in identifying the risks, limitations and threats that may act as a barrier to the company
(Afonina, 2015).
4.2. (P) Strategic Business Options
In order to benefit multinational companies, there exist several strategic business options.
They are Market Penetration, Diversification, Market Development, Improvement of
products in the competitive market and Strategic partnership. Market Penetration is trading
more products of what the company has already sold in the existing market by enumerating
more representatives to get into the new accounts (Chatzoglou et al., 2018). Diversification is
entitled to make entry into the new business markets by introducing new goods. Market
Development means to extend the company geographically. According to Nagy and Fawcett
(2019), developing the product in a way also help in advancing the company in expanding the
sphere they hold in the market. Strategic Partnership, also titled a strategic alliance, provides
an advantage to access the integral energies of the partner company but acting two disparate
businesses (Bang, Joshi and Singh, 2015).
Figure 1: Business Strategy options available to Vista
(Source: Bang, Joshi and Singh, 2015).
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