Strategy Composition

Strategy Composition

Our top two global competitors in the office furniture industry are Steelcase Company and Herman Miller Inc. These two companies are the world’s leading suppliers of office furniture operating in the United States (US) and other parts of the world.

SWOT analysis

The main strength of the Steelcase Company is that it has good returns on capital expenditure, which enables it to execute new projects successfully. The inability to venture into online marketing and other distribution channels is the company’s primary weakness. However, e-commerce and online marketing provide Steelcase the opportunity for future growth in sales. The company faces stiff competition as its main threat.

Herman Miller Inc. draws its strength from its successful automation of most of its processes, leading to consistency in the quality of its products and production is demand-based. The main weakness of this company is that its profitability ratio and net contribution are below the industry average. The adoption of new technologies provides Herman Miller Inc. with the opportunity to apply the differentiated pricing strategy in new markets. However, Herman Miller Inc. faces a threat from inferior products and imitations from emerging markets.

Competition and cooperative strategy

These companies’ competitive advantage lies in the manufacture of customized furniture that targets a niche market that is rapidly growing. Customization of these products increases the cost of production hence higher prices for the end products, which informs the company’s decision to price the products a little bit higher; thus, good profit margins.

I would form a cooperative strategy with Herman Miller Inc. by entering into a strategic alliance to promote the mutual competitive advantage. Through the strategic partnership, the company can undertake joint research, improve products, and share new technologies with their partner (Datta, 2017). The strategic alliance will enable my company to conduct a joint venture with Herman Miller Inc. by committing an equal amount of resources to create an independent company. Through this new company, my company would share resources, skills, and risks to attain a competitive advantage over other industry players.

Competitive market profile strategies

A market profile entails understanding the unique characteristics of customers and customer groups by creating a picture of the market and the buyers’ characteristics (Datta, 2017). The strategies I would employ in building a competitive market profile include; industry, geography, size, and trends. The first strategy is analyzing the industry the company would serve, and the global stage of the industry, whether it is in the growth phase or decline. Analysis of the industry would also provide information on the availability of opportunities in other sectors. Understanding the geography of the target market is a strategy that would enable me to understand the location of the customers, whether distributed across the globe, national or locally concentrated.

Additionally, understanding the geography of the market will reveal if the products cut across cultural barriers. Analyzing the size and trends of the market is another strategy that I would employ to help me understand the total numbers of potential customers and the overall business prospects available. Understanding the size and trends of the customers would help to establish the average income or annual business revenue, spending power of the customer, and the general demographics in the target market.

Balanced scorecard

This is a management tool or performance report that managers can use to monitor the execution of tasks by employees under their supervision and keep track of the impact of these activities. A balanced scorecard is a framework used in the implementation and management of strategy. My company can use the balanced scorecard to identify and improve various internal business processes and the resulting external outcomes. A balanced scorecard is used to evaluate and provide responses to institutions.

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References

Datta, Y. (2017). The US Beer market: A competitive profile. Journal of Economics and Public Finance, 3(4), 541-579.

Phadermrod, B., Crowder, R. M., & Wills, G. B. (2019). Importance-performance analysis based SWOT analysis. International Journal of Information Management, 44, 194-203.