Vodafone UK: Environmental Analysis and Strategic Management Plan

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Vodafone UK's business strategy, utilizing frameworks such as SWOT, PESTLE, and Porter's Five Forces to evaluate the macro and micro environments impacting the organization. The analysis covers Vodafone's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, as well as the political, economic, social, technological, and legal factors influencing its operations. The report also assesses Vodafone's competitive forces, including the bargaining power of customers and suppliers, the threat of new entrants and substitutes, and the intensity of competitive rivalry. Furthermore, the document devises a strategic management plan with tangible objectives and tactical priorities aimed at improving Vodafone's competitive edge and market position, focusing on innovation, cost management, and customer satisfaction. The report concludes by highlighting the strategic directions and tactical actions necessary for Vodafone's continued success in the dynamic telecommunications market.

Business Strategy
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
Part A...............................................................................................................................................5
Task 1...............................................................................................................................................5
P1: Apply the appropriate frame work to analyze the macro environment for a given
organization.................................................................................................................................5
M1: Critically analyze the macro environment to determine and inform strategies management
decisions......................................................................................................................................6
Task 2...............................................................................................................................................7
P2: Analyse the internal environment and capabilities of your chosen organization..................7
Matching customer's expectation.................................................................................................8
M2: Critically analyse the internal environment to assess strengths and weaknesses of your
organization’s internal capabilities, structure and skill set........................................................10
D1: Critically interpret the information and data applying environmental and competitive
analysis to produce a set of valid strategic directions, objective and tactical actions...............11
Part B.............................................................................................................................................12
Task 3.............................................................................................................................................12
P3: Evaluate the competitive forces applying Porter’s Five Forces model of a given market
sector for your chosen organization...........................................................................................12
M3: Devise appropriate strategies to improve competitive edge and market positions based on
the outcomes..............................................................................................................................14
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Task 4.............................................................................................................................................15
P4: Applying a range of theories, concepts and models, you are required to interpret and
devise a strategic plan for your chosen organization.................................................................15
M4: Produce a strategic management plan that has tangible and tactical strategic priorities and
objectives...................................................................................................................................17
D1: Critically interpret the information and data applying environmental and competitive
analysis to produce a set of valid strategic directions, objective and tactical actions...............19
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................21
References......................................................................................................................................22
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Introduction
The main objectives of starting any business are probably to make profits as much as possible. In
that business is intended or wished to be ad hoc. As all business is to work to achieve certain
objectives. In order for the business to operate well till the end, they should adopt some tactics,
strategies and also some practices where all these can be achieved when the business or
organization is profitable. Also, there are some forces and dynamics that can break the
organization thus they should be modified and monitored accordingly to ensure the survival of
the organization.
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Part A
Task 1
P1: Apply the appropriate framework to analyze the macro environment for a given
organization.
For the survival of the organization, there are some approaches which have been put in place,
this approaches also assists the managers of the organization in monitoring dynamics and forces
that may be threats to the organization and also to find a way to get away with this. SWOT is an
acronym for opportunities, threats, strengths, and lastly weaknesses. Pestle on the other hand
which is the acronym for social, economic, political, technological, and legal environmental
factors, are the two frameworks that allow planners and strategists to monitor the dynamics and
forces that may break the survival of an organization. Thus using the SWOT, pestle porters five
forces framework, this report will show how Vodafone UK, can now take advantage of the
strengths in the digital innovation and seize on the opportunities in the global markets which is
created by the competitive retailing markets (Ali, et. al., 2013).
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M1: Critically analyze the macro environment to determine and inform strategies
management decisions
Vodafone UK Pestle analysis
The pestle is used to analyze the macro environment influencing an organization. These factors
are economic, political, social, legal and technological factors. Thus the firms on the other hand
study how to change the pestle factors.
Social factors
These aspects of the pestle frameworks deal with the social and cultural factors and how they can
affect the organization both negatively and positively. There is a shift in the way smartphones are
being used by the customers that are according to Alshaher, (2013). This rise in the usage of
Smartphone’s by the customers thus this has meant that the owners were inclined to use their
own phones to carry on time-consuming tasks for example online shopping, thus providing an
opportunity to online networks like Vodafone. Thus becomes appositive impact to the various
organizations.
Political factors
The main political treat that Vodafone faces and are still facing up to date is which has caused
both economic and political effects and uncertainty for the UK economy. This was according to
(Baker, 2014). Thus this has an impact in Vodafone in that it leads to price inflation, thus
weakening the dollar and the euro, thus becoming a treat to the organization.
Technological factor
Technology cans either lad to the success or failure of the organization. The use of modern
technology, for instance, the digital used of the network is a very big threat to Vodafone. Thus
for the company to get rid of these treatments they should the organization must focus by
responding and defecting to the evolving digital treats also the traditional blocking and other
measures to ensure there is no attack in the organization (Balanced Scorecard Institute, 2017).
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Task 2
P2: Analyse the internal environment and capabilities of your chosen organization.
The Vodafone Company is famous for its network and lows cost plans. Initially, it was started as
a pure IT organization, but it started focusing on consumer products because of increased
competition in the sector of technology. The products manufactured by Vodafone Company are
acknowledged by the customers since their plans are based on the wants of the customer.
SWOT analysis of Vodafone Company
Strengths
Some of the advantages of Vodafone Company are discussed below.
1. Innovation
One of the significant forces of Vodafone Company over the previous years is innovation in the
product design. It supports the innovation through creating the digital and technological products
and services (Business-to-you, 2016). This may include workshops training, employee’s access,
go to market support and accesses to investors.
2. Leadership position
Through recent research, Vodafone Company is also seen to be the best network company in the
world according to revenue generation. It outlines the three components for the effective
leadership that contribute in building up the competitive advantage. This shows how Vodafone
Company is ahead in leadership skills.
3. Brand equity
It is a requirement for brand equity to be high being in the leadership position. Vodafone is
considered to be the best valued brand compared to all companies in the world. Its brand value is
in billion dollars (David, et. al., 2017).
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4. Design and technology
Design and technology Vodafone company uses makes it be considered the best according to the
products it produces. The product design of Vodafone Company is said to be always suave and
elegant. Besides its design it has a machine whose work is to deliver a good and quality
performance which runs on software called Marcos prominent for its efficiency.
5. Distribution
The Company provides its services in all over the world. However, it sells its products through
online channels and through other premium retail stores. The company in addition has also
launched the comment box which is intended to solve customers’ issues directly within the
stores. Thus making the concentration of the Company on its services and also sales be
legendary (Duff, 2017).
6. Margins
A margin that commands over its products is one of the significant advantages of Vodafone
Company. Vodafone Company keeps a hefty margin for the company in order to invest in brand
building. In addition, its pricing method is such that there is no breakage of price in the market
and that the price is always the same in all various retail stores.
8. Consumer focus
Vodafone designs its products with a concern on consumers while concentrating in the future.
This is the reason behind the success of Vodafone Company.
Weaknesses
Matching customer's expectation
Vodafone has been a leading company thus it has a significant market share where the
consumer's expectation is going over the roof. Therefore it is a weakness in that a lot of people
expect great things from Vodafone from one year after the other which is not easy for the
company to meet their expectations (Linder and Williander, 2017).
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Opportunities
1. The growing market
It is all known that Vodafone is a growing company in the ever-increasing demand Thus it is an
opportunity to the company in that a growing company needs a broad market base which is being
built on the territory expansion for Vodafone Company.
2. Technological advancement
Technology advancement is always an opportunity for Vodafone Company in that Vodafone can
take advantage of this to produce more advanced network as one of its products (Goldbach,
2016).
Threats
Vodafone as a company does not have any treats; instead the product it sells faces a lot of treats
from other competitive brands producing the same product. Thus these treats are as follows.
Market penetration in Smartphone
The is the significant threat in the Vodafone company by different Smartphone market, in that
they may produce a variety of phones which people may prefer since they are new in the market,
thus threatening Vodafone company a lot (Hitt, et. al., 2012).
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M2: Critically analyse the internal environment to assess strengths and weaknesses of your
organization’s internal capabilities, structure and skill set.
Since the diversification beyond the personal network, the Vodafone Company has benefited
from the increased sales and has also managed the flow of cash wisely. The Company has a
prominent recognition due to its nature towards its innovation and creativity (Investopedia,
2017). It also has its sales branches at high traffic location thus contributing to its strengths.
Even though Vodafone Company is the leading market leader and also innovative, it still has
some shortcomings.
Incompatibility is a weakness in Vodafone Company in that most of its products are usually
incompatible with the third party accessories thus when you buy a product from Vodafone you
will have to its universe and stick to it thus becoming an impact on the customer's decision
making.
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D1: Critically interpret the information and data applying environmental and competitive
analysis to produce a set of valid strategic directions, objective and tactical actions.
Strategic capability can be defined as competencies and resources of an organization needed for
its survival, this strategy help an organization its strategic position within the market. Thus
Vodafone Company focuses on innovative technology and also focuses on keeping the cost low,
it also ensures that it runs on the competitive environment, it also achieves this through its low-
cost strategy in the current environment. Vodafone is also able to provide product differentiation
through its product innovation, Also the purpose of Vodafone is to understand its customers
through the customer’s reviews which it offers through its products (Rugman. and Verbeke, 2017).
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Part B
Task 3
P3: Evaluate the competitive forces applying Porter’s Five Forces model of a given market
sector for your chosen organization.
Porter’s five forces analysis for Vodafone Company
Vodafone strategies are mainly to address forces in the external environment; also these forces
can reduce the organization's revenues. Thus the strengths portrayed by porters five on the
organization are:
Bargaining power of Vodafone customers
The bargaining power of Vodafone buyers is very high thus affecting the organization. Thus this
component of porters five is to determine how buyers impact on business. The strongest power
on Vodafone Company by buyers is based on low switching cost which is a strong force then the
small size of individual buyers, on the other hand, is a weak force (Isaac, 2017). This means that
it is very for the customers to change brands and abandon other companies, for instance,
Vodafone company thus the organization should ensure that they satisfy their customers,
therefore this analysis porters five indicates that Vodafone company should include the
bargaining power of its customers as one of its variables for its development.
Competition rivalry
This is one of the rivalries Vodafone organization faces. Thus this an analysis of porters five is
trying to explain the influence completion has on each other, companies, for instance, Oz
compete with Vodafone organization where this aggressiveness can be seen, also, on the other
hand, the switching cost is very low thus making customers switch to other brands abandoning
Vodafone Company. Therefore in order for Vodafone Company to succeed they should consider
this part of Porter's five forces.
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