Zenos Cars: A Strategic Analysis Report on Business Strategy & Growth

This report provides a strategic analysis of Zenos Cars, a UK-based automotive company founded in 2012, focusing on its business strategies and market positioning. The analysis employs various strategic frameworks, including Mintzberg's 5Ps and PESTLE analysis, to evaluate the company's approach to achieving competitive advantage. The report reviews the company's background, strategic choices, goals, and performance management, offering strategic recommendations for improvement and future growth. It concludes by highlighting how Zenos Cars has utilized strategies to succeed in its target market, emphasizing the importance of strategic planning and implementation for organizational success. Desklib provides students access to this and many other solved assignments for academic support.

RUNNING HEAD: Strategic Management
Strategic Management

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Executive Summary
Strategies are very important for the business as it makes the business alive through its action.
Strategies implemented by the management of the company helps them to create identification in
the target market and grow as well. The below mentioned paper evaluates the strategic analysis
of the company Zenos Cars of UK. Two people namely Ansar Ali and Mark Edwards founded
the company in the year 2012. The report evaluates the strategic implementation and activities
initiated by the company using various tools and frameworks. It also explains the strategic
positions and choice of the company provides recommendations to perform better. The paper
concludes the ways in which the company used strategies to grow and succeed in the target
market.

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Contents
Executive Summary.........................................................................................................................1
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Background of company..................................................................................................................3
Literature Review............................................................................................................................4
Strategy and its Characteristics....................................................................................................4
Mintzberg’s 5Ps...............................................................................................................................5
PESTLE Analysis............................................................................................................................7
Finding and Discussion....................................................................................................................8
Company’s approach.....................................................................................................................10
Strategic Choice.............................................................................................................................10
Goals, strategic choice and stakeholder management in pluralistic context..................................11
Performance management of company.........................................................................................12
Strategic Recommendation............................................................................................................12
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................13
References......................................................................................................................................14
Appendices....................................................................................................................................18

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Introduction
The purpose of this report is to provide a brief description about the strategies implemented by
the company Zenos Cars. The company is placed in the automotive industry of UK and was
introduced in the year 2012. The report evaluates business strategies adopted by the company
with an aim to organize activities in such a way to develop competitive advantage for them. The
report explains the strategic choice of the company using various tools and strategic frameworks.
It assesses background of the company along with the literature review on strategy and its
characteristics as well (Shields, et. al., 2015). Furthermore, it also evaluates the strategies of
Zenos Cars using the Mintzberg 5P’s analysis and PESTLE analysis. Finding and discussions in
report evaluates the current strategic position of the company and analysis of the tools used. In
the latter part, company’s choice, goals, approach and performance is also explained.
Strategy is very important for the business as it helps them in creating an impact on the external
environment using the internal capabilities. Strategy refers to a plan that is designed in a way to
attain maximum profits for the company. Without an adequate strategy, the business cannot
successfully run in the target market, a strategy implemented by the company helps the
management in organizing the activities and using all the available resources to earn profits for
the company (Buckingham, and Goodall 2015). Further, more details about the report are
discussed below:
Background of company
Zenos Cars is a British automotive company has is involved in the business of producing high-
performance and lightweight sports car in the target market. The company is based in
Wymondham, Norfolk, UK. The organization designs, manufactures and sells three types of
Zenos E10 cars. The company is a private limited company that was founded by Ansar Ali and
Mark Edwards for producing sports cars in the market of UK (Zenos Cars 2018). The name of
the company Zenos, means vertebra or spin in Latin. This word reflects the key architectural
elements of the products of company. The purpose of the leaders to introduce this brand in the

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market was to fill the gap of light weight and contemporary high performance cars that is
economical for people as well. The purpose of producing Zenos car was not to offer high
fashioned branded sports cars, but to present a sports car that is easily affordable by people and
one that can easily run on road. The initial model introduced by the company includes the E10
series line. Further, the company is also known for introducing innovation in their products, the
E10 R range products of the company are giving three choices to the customers for enjoying the
invigorating experiences on road. Basically there are three product lines in the company that are
E10, E10 S and E10 R, all the three types of products offer differential options to the customers
in the market. Apart from producing and manufacturing cars in the market of UK, the company
is also concerned towards their environmental sustainable activities and comply them
accordingly (Zenos Cars 2018).
Literature Review
Strategy and its Characteristics
Strategy refers to the high-level plan initiated by an organization with an aim to achieve
something. Strategy is very important for the business because it helps the organization to use the
available resources in direction of organizational success. Further, Henry Mintzberg from the
McGrill University defined the meaning of strategy as a pattern in a stream of decisions to
contrast with a view of strategy as planning (Ritson 2018). Whereas Henrik von Scheel defined
strategy as an activity to deliver a unique mix of values, while choosing to perform actions
differently or to perform different actions than rivals. In the same context, Max McKeown stated
that strategy is all about shaping the future and it is natural attempt to get the desirables ends
with available means. Strategy is also defined as a defined system of finding, formulating and
developing a doctrine to ensure the long term success objective of the company is followed
successfully. This definition was given by Dr Vladimir Kvint. Further, it should be noted that
corporate strategy refers to a pattern of decisions initiated in an organization that defines the
objectives, goals, and purposes to produce the principal policies and plan to achieve the
identified objectives (Research Gate 2018). Strategy is the way in which an organization to
initiate activities to move towards the goal of the organization and strategic management refers
to the process of formulating the strategies and monitoring them so as to keep the goals and

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strategies aligned in the company. The process of strategic management involves planning as
well acting. It is irrelevant to use same type of strategy for all the organizations, as it is the most
important aspect that helps the companies to identify their position in the target market. It
depends upon the companies, available resources, external environment and many other aspects
based on which strategy is proposed and implemented in an organization. Companies with good
strategic implementation help the companies to grow from the scratch to the top most position in
the target market. Further, there are different levels of strategies that are used by companies such
as corporate level strategy, competitive strategy, and operational strategy (BērziĦs 2018).
Mintzberg’s 5Ps
Henry Mintzberg, Joseph Lampell and Bruce Ahlstrand present the meaning of strategy in the
book, ‘Strategy Bite Back’ in the year 2005. They are presented 5Ps as a way to define strategy
for an organization (Appendices 1). Further, the use of this model for the company Zenos cars is
discussed below:
Strategy as a Plan: As discussed in the literature review that strategy is a plan for dealing with
the situations. A plan is the process that is made before actions are implemented by the
organization. Under the process of strategy as a plan, the management of the Zenos initially
identified the organizational goals on the basis of which they need to implement the strategies
accordingly. With the process of strategic planning, the leaders aimed to create differentiation in
the market by producing new and innovative products in the market (Teece 2010). The leaders
did not aim for providing luxurious and impressive sports cars in the market, instead they
planned for producing cars that are economical for people and is easy to use on road and track as
well. This type of plan helped the company creating differentiation in the target market (Mone,
and London 2018).
Strategy as a Ploy: This theory of Mintzberg states that ploy along with plan is very important
for the business so that the company can earn advantage over the competitors in the target
market. Ploy is a strategy that the competitors do not expect from the organization in the market.
In simple words, it is just a strategic step which helps the company to move one step ahead than

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the competitor. Zenos also used similar choice in the market by employing efficient people of
competitors (Jenkins, and Williamson 2015). The CEOs of the company hired people like
principle engineer of the company Tesla Matt Windle, and many of chief engineers from the
companies namely, Lotus Cars, Volvo, Nissan, Daewoo etc. The leaders of the company offered
such values to the people to which they were unable to deny. Resulting to which, these people
joined Zenos Company that somehow increased the competence of the company in front of its
competitors (Vedovato 2016).
Strategy as a Pattern: Strategy as a pattern is an important concept to understand as the future
strategies and decisions that are to be implemented are based on this pattern only. As explained
in the background of the company that Zenos is a newly start-up initiated by two people so the
company is at its beginning phase only. Until this time also, a pattern has formed for the
implementation decision at workplace (Grant 2016). However, the objective of Zenos is to
expand their scope of business by developing and organizing innovative activities at workplace.
The company believes in behaving constantly but it also aims to exploring the external
international markets as well. So, there is definite pattern for the organization to follow instead
they believe in exploring new paths (Freeman 2010).
Strategy as a Position: This aspect of the theory talks about the position of the company in the
target market that is the interaction between the internal and the external market. Under this
strategy, the company needs to identify carefully the ways in which they want to position the
image of the company where and how. Further, in order to identify the competitive advantage in
the target market, the leaders initially identified the competitive advantage that they have with
them. In response to which the positioned themselves between the target customers and the
companies where no other company can match the attractiveness of products served by them
(Siddique, and Shadbolt 2018).
Strategy as a Perspective: strategy is more than just position of the company as it is related larger
perspective. Position as a strategy looks in the outward direction of the company while
perspective is more about inward look of the company. Strategies under this aspect explain a
deep-rooted way of looking at the world. Perspective talks about the opinion of the whole

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company towards their actions in the external market (David 2011). It is very important to have
diversified perspective to reach towards each and every customer present in the market. The
company Zenos has an aggressive pacesetter perspective in the market. As the company do not
want to settle for anything, resulting to which the management perceives to deliver the best
innovative products and services in the target market (Rothaermel 2015).
PESTLE Analysis
As Zenos Cars is headquartered in Wymondham, UK so the PESTLE Analysis of United
Kingdom for Zenos Cars is discussed below:
Political: Coming up from the time when UK decided to initiate the BREXIT movement, the
country has now earned a steady growth in the international market. There is presence of
political stability as well, as the country has started taking their decision separately which
involves les restriction from the European Union. However, the position of pound has reduced
with the occurrence of this event. The taxation policy initiated by the government on the goods
gives moderate extent of risk for the automobile companies. The conservative party rules are
working properly for the automobile industry (Wheelen, and Hunger 2011).
Economic: Talking about economic factors, the initial point to talk is exchange rate conversion.
The conversion rate remains volatile by affecting negotiations with the suppliers. However, there
is medium demand of the products and services of automobile industry in UK. Consumer
spending habits have increased giving profitability to the companies. UK’s automotive industry
reaches to the peak of £77.5 billion in the year 2016 that increases the employment rate in the
country as well (Appendices 2). Value added economy of the country rose by 7.3 % giving
prosperity to the country (Smmt 2017).
Social: The social factors of the country UK includes cultural diversity as per different regions
present in the country. Most disposable income in the country lies in the hands of two age group
that are people between 25-35 and 45-60. These people are the one who are mostly interested in
purchasing the products from Zenos. The social factors also explain that people present in the

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country are more inclined towards the automotive industry as they have craze of buying sports
car. Also, the preference of people is luxurious and expensive that makes them purchase such
products in the market (Hitt, Ireland, and Hoskisson 2012).
Technological: The companies present in the country UK do not face difficulty in attaining
adequate technology required by the business. There is presence of automation and disruptive
innovation in the market that helps the companies present in the automotive industry to make full
use of available resources and reach at the top. The technology present increases online
intelligence as well which opens another way for sales of the companies (Schilling 2010).
However, GDPR - new regulations came in May, 2018 has increased the pressure for the
companies to comply with all the regulations and work effectively in the market. System upgrade
facilities available in the market also decreases the differentiation of companies present in the
market (Hill, Jones, and Schilling 2014).
Legal: The wage rate and national minimum wage rate increases yearly for the companies but
with a medium speed. The companies are forced to implement family friendly regulations in the
market that is somehow affecting the growth of the companies. The overall regulations of the
country works with a medium rate that does not increases the pressure of companies present or
entering in the market (Noland, and Phillips 2010).
Environmental: Lastly, the environmental factors of the country are topic of great concerns for
the companies present in the automobile industry. The companies present in this industry re
under constant surveillance to initiate environmental and ethical consciousness in the market.
However, customer relationships have improved and the companies present in this industry have
started using biodegradable waste and using less natural resources as well (Hörisch, Freeman,
and Schaltegger 2014).
Finding and Discussion
The company Zenos is doing explicitly well in the target market even after having an experience
of short period of seven years only. The company has worked on their management and gained

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reputation in the target market. Further, the above mentioned models successfully depicted the
growth of the company, strategies and the favorable environments for the company to work
effectively in the target market. With the evaluation of Mintzberg strategy and PESTLE analysis,
following discussions were acknowledged. These findings are discussed below:
The company Zenos planned the approach that can successfully help them to create
differentiation in the market. The company did not enter in the market just to become another
ordinary sports car selling organization; instead, they wanted to fill the gap that other
organizations have created through their existence. The company planned to become an
organization that provides sports cars to the people in UK at affordable prices (Wheelen, et. al.,
2017). The major aim of introduction of the brand was to provide easy using cars in the market
not just fancy cars that are good looking. The company tried all their efforts to gain advantage
over other competitors present in the market. Even they hired the employees of competitor’s
organization in order to ploy the best plan for them (Waddock, and Bodwell 2017).
Further, it was also evaluated that the fast growing organization only focuses on providing
differentiation in the market by initiating innovative activities in the target market. The company
does initiate patterns that helps them to remain consistent in the target market, instead they aims
to explore the capabilities of the environment by finding and exploring internal as well as
external capabilities (Keller, Parameswaran, and Jacob 2011).
Talking about the positioning and the perspective strategy organized by the company it was
evaluated that the has successfully launched three series of cars back to back and still they are
aiming to achieve the best position in the market. Resulting to which, the company is positioned
at an identified position in the market, in the eyes of the customers, the brand is seen as an
organization that manufactures highly innovative, efficient and economical products in the
market (Drucker 2012). And in the eyes of the competitors the brand looked as a threat that can
eat them any day. From the above analysis it was evaluated that the company Zenos used a smart
strategy under which they initially targeted the niche market and then slowly and gradually by
using adequate resources the company fought with big firms in the target market (Kapferer
2012).

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Flexibility of the company and use of technology also helped them to grow in the external
market. The technological factors present in UK helped the company to grow and expand. The
social factors also explained that the company has several target customers in UK. People have
adequate disposable income to purchase Zenos cars in the market. Clean sheet design of the cars
attracted the customers in the target market. Lastly, it should be noted that the overall
environmental, economic and political factors also helped the company to some extent to grow in
the external market (Slack, Chambers, and Johnston 2010).
Company’s approach
The company successfully applied adequate approach in the market that helped them to attain
identified position in the market. The company used the differentiation focus strategy in the
market to secure their position. Under this type of strategy, the Zenos developed differentiation
in the target market by particularly focusing on the target customers and their requirements as
well. The company initially created differentiation through their products and then they
adequately focused on the target segment to initiate revenue (Hickman, and Silva 2018). Further,
the organization used economies of scale and adequate technology to deliver the products to the
customers at a cost that they are willing to spend. The company proposed a price that is adequate
for the products at price acts as one of the biggest reason in influencing the decisions of the
customers in the market. Customers are the people who position an organization in the market,
so the customers in this case positioned Zenos Cars at a place where they can look themselves as
the most innovative organization present in the automobile industry of UK (Elmes, and Barry
2017).
Strategic Choice
The strategic choice theory explains the role of a leader in influencing the organization by
making choices in dynamic political process. The process of strategic choice provides
alternatives to the organization that helps the management in taking decision on the basis of
internal as well as external environment. In short, strategic choice refers to the choice of the
decision that the leaders of the organization take according to the strategic position of the

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company (Belton 2017). Relating it to the choice and decision making process of the company
Zenos, it should be noted that leaders initiate the decision considering various aspects present
with them. The external environment is overlooked along with the internal environment and
competitors as well. Under this process, the company takes care of their reputation and then finds
out the best possible outcome that can help them to sustain their image and resolve the problem
as well. The process of strategic choice helps the company to find out various alternatives and
narrow down their approach to best possible option that can help them in the target market
(Wolf, and Floyd 2017).
Goals, strategic choice and stakeholder management in pluralistic
context
Understanding the aspect of goals, strategic choice and stakeholder management is an easier
aspect as it just talks about various functions of a corporate, whereas it is comparatively a
difficult to understand these functions in a plural context. The pluralistic context in this case
explains the perspective of all the stakeholders of the company. It is important for the
organization to opt for the strategic choice that considers multiple interests that emerges from all
the stakeholders of the company. Referring to the goals, strategic choice and stakeholder
management in pluralistic context, it should be noted that the management of Zenos should
initiate goals that not only fulfill their monetary requirements but also the qualitative
requirements of the company (Friis, Holmgren, and Eskildsen 2016). Further the strategic choice
that the organization should make should reflect the pluralistic decision making process of the
company. The choice made by management of Zenos should be suitable for all the people
connected to the company. Lastly, stakeholder management can be implemented if the
management understand the needs of the stakeholders of the company. In response which the
pluralistic strategy initiated by Zenos should align the interest of all the stakeholders of the
company.