Strategic Analysis Report: Vodafone's Corporate Strategy Assessment

This report provides a comprehensive strategic analysis of Vodafone, a leading telecommunications company in the UK. It begins with an introduction to corporate strategy and defines the industry context. The main body of the report includes an external analysis using PESTLE and Porter's Five Forces, identifying opportunities and threats within the macro-environment and assessing industry attractiveness. An internal analysis follows, evaluating Vodafone's resources and key competencies through a value chain and VRIO analysis to identify its core competence and strengths and weaknesses. Finally, the report evaluates Vodafone's strategy using the SAFe criteria, considering financial resources and skills required to achieve its goals. The report utilizes academic sources and frameworks to provide a detailed and well-supported assessment of Vodafone's strategic position.

Applied Corporate
Strategy
Assessment:
Strategic Analysis
Report

TABLE OF CONTENT
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................4
QUESTION 1..................................................................................................................................4
External Analysis.........................................................................................................................4
QUESTION 2..................................................................................................................................7
VRIO............................................................................................................................................8
VALUE :..........................................................................................................................................8
Question-3......................................................................................................................................11
Evaluation in regard to Vodafone..............................................................................................11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................13
REFRENCES.................................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
Corporate strategy is defined as highest strategic plan of a company, which clearly
defines overall directions and aims and way in which can be achieved within management
activities. The current study is based on Vodafone Plc, which falls under list of leading
telecommunication organizations in UK. This assignment will explain external and internal
environmental analysis in context of chosen organization via using appropriate frameworks like
PESTLE & SWOT. Furthermore, it will justify value chain analysis and VRIO as well to identify
abilities of firm. This report will clarify TOWS under suitability; acceptability and feasibility to
discuss financial resources and skill require achieving set aim
MAIN BODY
QUESTION 1
External Analysis
PESTLE analysis can be used to evaluate the macro environment of Vodafone. PESTLE analysis
identifies the external social, political, environmental, technological, economical and legal forces
that are present in the macro environment, which can come to influence the operations Vodafone
and provide it with an opportunity or threat (Abdel-Basset,Mohamed, M. and Smarandache,
2018). The PESTLE analysis for Vodafone is as follows:
Political Factors: The political uncertainty that has been plaguing UK for the past few years on
account of Brexit can have significant impact on the operations and functions of Vodafone in the
telecommunications industry of UK. Brexit can prove itself as an opportunity for the operations
of Vodafone as Brexit will inevitably involve the scrapping of current complex and convoluted

international trading policies and regulations in favour of trading policies that are much more
transparent and simple (Indartono and Wibowo, 2017)
Economic Factors: Economic forces such as rapid inflation within the UK’s economy can have
significant effect on the financial and operational productivity of Vodafone. Inflation is the
economic process in which there is sustained increase in the cost or prices of general goods and
services within a country’s economy. Inflation in the UK’s economy shall result in a decrease in
the purchasing power of the average UK consumer, which is a significantthreat for the sustained
operations and profitability of Vodafone.
Social Factors: Social factors such as the widespread adoption of technology and the internet is
a major social trend that can influence the operations of Vodafone in UK. As the
telecommunications technology is widely adopted by almost the entire population of UK barring
specific abnormalities, this social trend has presented Vodafone with a significant opportunity
towards being able to continue their successful operations sustainably into the future (Chesula
and Kiriiny, 2018). UK having quite a large population, most of whom having adopted to the
telecommunications industry provides Vodafone with the opportunity to service a very large base
of customers in the UK.
 Technological Factors: Innovation and advancement of technological solutions present
in the external environments and those that were innovated by Vodafone themselves,
present to Vodafone great opportunities to enhance their operational performance,
efficiency and profit margins in addition to their overall market share. New technological
solutions that were innovated by Vodafone themselves or procured by external
environments, would provide additional value to the customers of Vodafone, presenting
to the business organisation a vicarious opportunity to expand and grow their business
operations towards attaining increased operational performance. This can also provide
Vodafone with a sustained competitive advantage which is highly essential for the
sustained successful operations of Vodafone within the telecommunications industry of
UK (Yudhistira, 2016)
 Legal Factors: Alterations to the legal regulations and legislations, which Vodafone has
been legally mandate to adhere to by the governing authorities and the elected
government of UK, can have massive effect on the operational performance and
profitability of Vodafone in the telecommunications industry of UK. This is a key threat

to the operations of Vodafone as any alterations to legally mandated legislations and acts
such as the HSW, Minimum wages act, Employee laws etc., have the potential to force
Vodafone to change many of their operational methods and processes, which can
consume limited resources of the business organisation and lead to unproductively
(Fahmi, 2017).
 Environmental Factors: Adjustments to the environmental laws and regulations that
Vodafone or their suppliers are mandated to adhere to can also have significant
consequences for Vodafone. This is another threat to the productivity and financial
performance of Vodafone as changes to the environmental regulations can result in an
increase in the prices Vodafone’s suppliers charge, which can eat into the profit margins
of Vodafone resulting in decreased profitability.
Porter’s Five Forces:
 Buyer’s Bargaining Power (High): Though there are only a few highly dominant
business organisations operating in the telecommunications industry of UK, all of the
business organisations such as Vodafone, Sky etc. all provide highly similar and
substitutable services to the customers of telecommunications industry of UK. This
provides customers with increased bargaining power as should they grow unhappy or
unsatisfied with the services provided to them by Vodafone, they can easily switch to any
other competitor of Vodafone without significant trouble ((Yudiono, Wilopo and Iqbal,
2019)
 Supplier’s Bargaining Power (Low):The bargaining power of Vodafone’s suppliers is
low within the telecommunications industry. This is because there are present several
suppliers for telecommunication business organisations to choose from, with most
suppliers providing services that are highly substitutable by one another. This results in a
decrease in the bargaining power of suppliers as should the suppliers of Vodafone choose
to increase the prices they charge to Vodafone for providing them with raw materials,
Vodafone can simply choose to conduct their operations with another supplier operating
in the telecommunications industry, without facing excessive trouble or challenges in the
process (Rastogi and Trivedi, 2016)
 Threat of new entrants: Any new Entrance in the field of wireless communications
creates pressure on Vodafone group plc through its innovative ideas. Innovative ideas

leads to reduction in the cost, lower price strategies and also provide new value
preposition to the customer. This new method of doing things bring many challenges to
Vodafone group plc, so they should able to manage such challenges in proper ways and
should able to protect themselves from the various competitors (Gürel and Tat, 2017).
 Rivalry among the existing competitors: profitability of the company is also impacted by
the rivalry among the existing competitors. To compete with competition other company
keep on decrease the price to increase sales which decreases the overall profitability of
the company. As Vodafone group plc have operated in very competitive environments
they also need to maintain existing price which decreases profitability of company.
 Threats of substitute product or services: Profitability of the company suffers when
different needs of customer are fulfilled by the same product. There is high threat of
substitute product or service if new product provide more value to the customer then
existing product or service.
QUESTION 2
Value chain
Primary activity
Inbound logistic: Vodafone is having a very good inbound logistic as organizations used to build
good sort of relationship with variety of different supplier which help them in building good
inbound logistic.
Operation: operation of the company is one of the strength of the company as company used to
find it very easy to convert the raw material into the finished product at all.
Outbound logistic: Outbound logistic of the company is weakness of the company as it has been
identified that organizations has to face a bit of the issue in regards of managing the amount of
the competition in the market in the long run of business.
Secondary activity

 Firm infrastructure: it is one of the biggest positive impact which is being faced by the
company in the current scenario. As organization is having a good and strong
infrastructure.
 Human resources management: organizations used to manage the Human resources of the
company in one of the best way in the organizations as it has been identified that they
uses more than one resources to recruit different human resources. They also used to
motivate them in the organization
 Technology development: it is another important activity of the company as a result
Vodafone used to update their technology on the regular basis to see a better outcome as
well (Indartono and Wibowo, 2017).
VRIO
VALUE : The Value of Vodafone company value is strong for developing new functional
expansion within working scenario for bringing on new innovation working experience and
promoting new end goals within diverse functional paradigms onto which diverse functional
standards can be understood. The value factor has been strong and diversely focusing to bring on
consumer goodwill within profitability goals onto which new reflective synergy are developed
onto new metrics where the brand has also been competitively growing on various new fields.
There is wider demand for bringing on new synergy of innovation and stringent new functional
services where there are wider new pathways to grow (Phadermrod, Crowder. and Wills,2019).
RARE: It is not rare and services offered by Vodafone are not that strong and innovative for
bringing on various new innovation onto wider new parameters which may be work as threat
within future for developing new end goals and stronger working force among cooperative
actions. The rare factor also enables us to analyse that there are less determinants of rarity when
it comes to recognising new pathways and wider technical advancement among operations
where Vodafone need to work more advance where it can be understood that there are new
sources of funds demanded which will also potentially enhance new factors of market paradigm
(Chesula and Kiriiny,2018).
Imitability

Imitability is the factor in the VRIO Framework which denote about the unique essence
of the organisation. Vodafone Company serve all its services at the best affordable price possible
(Fahmi, 2017). The prices offer by the company are non replaceable. Company also deals with
all kinds of connectivity services which can’t be replaced further also. This is one of the key
factors that allow company to take competitive advantages in the market. The affordability
aspect of company is hard to imitate. Company also further serve its services at plenty of
locations which also allow the Vodafone Company to achieve the competitive advantages in the
market.
Organisation
Organisation is another crucial part of the VRIO Analysis framework. All operations of
company are well organised. The organisation structure of company is well diversified and
decentralised in nature. This organisation structure has allowed company to serve all kinds if
functional activities in the best professional fashion. Leadership of company has given focus
over system leadership approach to achieve the best potential outcomes (Spina and Spina, 2020).
All different functions of company like finance, marketing, sales and all other are distributed into
individual functional department. The well balanced structure of organisation has allowed the
company to take competitive advantages in the associated dealing market.
Strengths
 Massive market coverage: Vodafone have a strong market share in world that is it
ranked among 395 among various world top companies or brand such as Forbes. It has
huge strong network and distribution channel which helps in delivering products and
services to large number of customers within limited time and cost (Lumbanraja,
Dalimunthe and Hasibuan, 2019). Vodafone has its operation has operations in more
than 25 countries across worldwide and it ranked second in telecom operator. Most of the
customers or subscribers of Vodafone are based from India so company have
opportunities to expand its business further for earning profitability.
 Effective marketing strategies: It can be stated that Vodafone have excellent marketing
strategies that contributed in effectively influencing large number of customers to prefer
products of its over other competitors in market. Company have always come up with

new and innovative marketing campaign at right times that have increased market share
and better customers satisfaction.
Strong brand image: Company has strong brand image and customers loyalty that
contributed in long term growth and success of firm. It have generated nearly 87.3
billion dollars of revenue in 2016 and it was estimated brand value of firm around 28
billion dollar. So, it can be stated that strong brand image of Vodafone in term of
delivering qualitative services and products have contributed in expansion and growth of
firm.
There are certain areas in which company lack so it have to find best possible option to
remove weakness for effective or smooth operation of enterprise in telecommunication industry.
Weakness
 Dropping subscriber base: It has been noticed that subscriber of Vodafone has been
decreased since last 4 years that may affect future growth and expansion of business.
Company needs to improve its brand values and customer’s satisfaction in order to attract
existing as well as new customer’s base to choose Vodafone products and services for
fulfilment of their respective needs.
 Dropping brand value: The Vodafone company brand value is widely dropping onto
various paraamters within global telecom industry where it can be analysed that
customers have varied market choices available for choosing which makes the
competition tough and also fundamentally operate higher working scenario within new
determinants onto which new goals can be strongly focused. The brand value onto new
working scenario for which it can be understood that there are = various new level
competitors available within telecom industry.
Question-3
Evaluation in regard to Vodafone
Suitability-

TOWS framework is a variant of classic business method like SWOT analysis. By
examining external environment and internal as well, organization can utilize these techniques to
think about tactic of their whole business, a team or function. (Rastogi and Trivedi, 2016)
Threats-
Increasing competition is one of the biggest threats of Vodafone that impact on its
business growth and success in negative manner. Exponential progress of new consumers has
been due to increased competition level in market. Intense competition led to decline in tariffs
for firm and is expected to drop down further thereby causing drop in profit or sales. In market or
industry where Vodafone operate is full of other players who are able to beat company and
capable to give tough competition to them. Competition has also led to enhance in subsidies for
handsets. Due to this threat organization and its workers feel high pressure that affect negatively.
Furthermore, legal risk is another threat that also impact unlike above one. The revenue of
company comes from developing or emerging nations since they have majority of their
consumers in such markets. In these markets however, economic, legal systems and regulatory
are less predictable which can makes business investment vulnerable and any legal agreement
are beyond control of management (Perera, 2017).
Opportunities-
In recent time due to intense competition level, companies try to find out and grab the
best opportunities for them to increase their profit margin and sales rather than other firms.
Vodafone strengthen their marketing activities in effective manner by planning and
implementing advanced technologies which is quite beneficial for them in term of increasing
sales and revenue. With the help of digital tools and latest technologies organization make their
marketing department more able to conduct in depth research about target market and gather a
lot of data about their needs. Moreover, it can be said that development of 4G network improved
the experience of consumers and allow them to find anything via using phone, laptop and other
tools. It is all about better high speed data transmission that allows people to share information
and communicate with friends and family members where ever they live. (Indartono and
Wibowo, 2017)
Weaknesses-

Dropping brand valuation is one of the weak points of Vodafone that has been discussed
above. Due to this weakness company face a lot of issues and challenges that impact in negative
manner and decrease sales. Along with this, another weakness of firm is mobile phone radiation.
It can be said that exposure of radio frequency fields from mobile phone towers has harmful
health hazards. Some government authority finds that mobile phone radiation impact on human
health, they put high damage on well being of health. National or local authorities in some
nations have already take actions measures by limiting cell phone utilization in colleges or other
institutes. To come level, mobile phone radiation concern decrease quantity of demand since
consumers will have minimum usage of it. Due to these weaknesses organization profitability
suffers and it impact on consumers base as well.
Strengths-
It can be said that workers are the main strength of any company. In case of Vodafone
marketing team is one of its strength which makes them able to gain attention of market and
increase profit margin even better. Marketing department by developing the best marketing plan
effectively attract local people who seek to obtain better network. By using advanced
technologies, marketing team can work much better, they can target market, analyse current
trend and gather more and more information about anything which they want about target
segment. Furthermore, it allows them to increase their brand image and strength brand reputation
at global level. By using better technologies marketing department can reach at international
level where they grab new opportunities that direct impact on sale, productivity and profitability
in effective manner.
After identifying all above things it is easy for company to overcome factors that impact
in negative manner by using strength and chance. (Singh, 2018)
Safe analysis
 Acceptablity:This sort of the strategy is very much acceptable in the organizations reason
behind the same is identified that selecting a customer base of the company will give the
freedom for the company to plan the variety of the activities in the synchronized way in
the organization as all the function of the company's will be on the same route in the
organization these will be also accepted by the consumer in the market as well as all the

consumer always demand for the product which is generally helping them in satisfying
there need in the market
 Feasible: Looking at the feasibility of the strategy which has been find out it has been
analysed that organization is having good marketing team and also they used to manage
them easily in the market. These will eventually help the company in carrying out the
variety of different activity very feasibly in the organization to find out the outcome of
the different strategy in the better way in the long run. It will be also feasible for the
consumer in the market as they will eventually find in very easy to understand the variety
of the offering which company is trying to show to them. So these two basis clearly
explain that it is a feasible strategy to adopt as well in the organization.
CONCLUSION
After going through the above report it has been concluded that there is good sort of opportunity
which are presented in front of the company from the external environment of the company in
the long run but also there are variety of the threat which are also in front of the company in the
long run. After that report concludes the industry analysis of the company. Report concludes six
issue of the company which is faced by the company in the current scenario. After that report
analysis the internal analysis of the company by the way of SWOT analysis of the company and
also through vrio analysis as it has helped in having the knowledge about the resources of the
company. In the end the report concludes the TOWS analysis of the company and on the basis of
same a strategy has been recommend and the strategy which has been recommended is tested on
the basis of SAFe analysis as well in the end (Chesula and Kiriiny, 2018)

REFRENCES
Books and journals
Abdel-Basset, M., Mohamed, M. and Smarandache, F., 2018. An extension of neutrosophic
AHP–SWOT analysis for strategic planning and decision-
making. Symmetry. 10(4). p.116.
Chesula, O. W. and Kiriiny, S. N., 2018. Competitiveness In The Telecommunication Sector In
Kenya Using Porters Five Forces Model. International Journal of Research in
Finance and Marketing (IJRFM), 8(7), pp.1-10.
Fahmi, F., 2017, June. MARKETING STRATEGY ANALYSIS TO INCREASE THE
GROWTH OF OLAMITA RESTO. In The 3rd PIABC (Parahyangan
International Accounting and Business Conference.
Gürel, E. and Tat, M., 2017. SWOT analysis: a theoretical review. Journal of International Social
Research. 10(51).
Indartono, S. and Wibowo, F. W., 2017. VRIO and THES based development of university
competitive advantage model in formulating university strategic plan. International
Information Institute (Tokyo). Information. 20(10A). pp.7275-7283.
Lumbanraja, P., Dalimunthe, R.F. and Hasibuan, B.K., 2019. Application of Porter’s Five Forces
to Improve Competitiveness: Case of Featured SMEs in Medan.
Perera, R., 2017. The PESTLE analysis. Nerdynaut.
Phadermrod, B., Crowder, R.M. and Wills, G.B., 2019. Importance-performance analysis based
SWOT analysis. International Journal of Information Management. 44. pp.194-
203.
Rastogi, N.I.T.A.N.K. and Trivedi, M.K., 2016. PESTLE technique–a tool to identify external
risks in construction projects. International Research Journal of Engineering and
Technology (IRJET), 3(1), pp.384-388.
SHTAL, T.V., and et.al., 2018. Methods of analysis of the external environment of business
activities. Revista ESPACIOS, 39(12).
Singh, S., 2018. An Analysis of Major Challenges That an Indian Leather Industry Is Facing and
Their Impact on Leather Export Performance in Recent Years. Available at SSRN
3125545.
Spina, L. J. and Spina, J. D., 2020. Cooperative Strategies to Sink Competitors. In Harnessing
Change to Develop Talent and Beat the Competition. Emerald Publishing Limited.

Yudhistira, G. R., 2016. the Vrio Analysis of Corporate Strategy in Facing the Implementation of
the ASEAN Open Skies 2015: the Case of PT. Garuda Indonesia (Doctoral
dissertation, UNIVERSITAS BAKRIE).
Yudiono, N., Wilopo, W. and Iqbal, M., 2019. VRIO Analysis to Measure E-Business Readiness
in the Automotive Industry in East Java (Study on Otobus Company Kalisari and
Otobus Company Menggala). Wacana Journal of Social and Humanity
Studies. 22(4).