Introduction
Glo-Bus achieved successful results at the end of the simulation exercise in Year 10. The company was rated the best among other players in the camera industry.
This paper explores factors and other dynamics that helped the company to succeed in the 5 years simulation exercise. The simulation started in Year 6 to 10.
Glo-Bus was an online, PC-based game. The sport involved manipulation of a digital camera at a head-to-head competition with rival companies. Groups of people coordinated the work of the camera.
The objective of the exercise was to operate a multi-product firm in the international environment successfully. The game involved drafting and executing a strategy that could give a business a competitive advantage over its rivals in the market.
The plan had to prove its capacity to deliver good bottom line results consistently and build shareholder value. For Glo-Bus, company managers jointly prepared a five-year business mission or a strategic plan to monitor and evaluate their performances and those of their competitors.
The directors reviewed objectives and goals and progressively interrogated their overall results whenever necessary. The management of the Bi-lens Company acquired a charter. The document helped the business to provide the best quality camera equipment for consumers.
This analysis focuses on the Bi-Lens Company. The research examines the performance of the business in terms of the simulation exercise under discussion and the team’s performance.
This study captures the competitive dimension that the Bi-Lens Company employed during the simulation. It explores ways that the organisation used to improve its market standing and financial performance.
The report evaluates the Bi-Lens Company and the various mechanisms it used to compete with other rivals within the context of appropriate social corporate responsibility.
Bi-Lens’ competitive strategies
The Bi-Lens Company endeavored to be a worldwide leader in the digital camera sector with innovative products, fair value and superior services in the market. The business sought to provide its customers with a product that utilised the most innovative and competitive technology.
The organisation planned to offer excellent client services, fair pricing, and adopted best practices for customers.
The company outlined several methods of fulfilling its objectives. The organisation’s vision was to be the best-cost provider. It also aimed at increasing sales through offering quality products at fair and market values.
This aspect included the sustenance of a highly skilled workforce that related to the development and maintenance of preferred products. Engineers designed Bi-Lens’ products to incorporate a low-cost differentiation, and at the same time target broad and narrow market regions.
The organisation’s goal was to appeal to diverse clients and provide them with value for their money. The company’s mission also involved the use of cost-effective strategy approaches that could allow for the incorporation of competitive attributes.
The business maintained a competitive edge over its rivals by listening and adjusting to value-conscious shoppers. The Bi-Lens Company utilised five robust strategies in the simulation.
The first objective focused on maintaining a highly skilled and valuable workforce. This aspect increased productivity and quality of Bi-Lens’ services.
The second goal entailed the provision of exceptional customer services. This point enticed the clients to have a preference for Bi-Lens’ cameras.
The third goal underscored the sustenance of a fair market value. This fact was significant in offering clients with worthwhile services.
The fourth intervention of the Bi-Lens Company was to offer quality cost-effective products with specifications that fulfilled consumer needs and outdid its competitors’ products.
The Bi-Lens Company maintained consistency of its business initiatives. The management of the company linked its overall objectives to the training of its workforce with a view of attaining organisational objectives.
The development of the workforce ensured the processing of products that met customers’ tastes and preferences. Bi-lens’ offensive and defensive strategic options
The organisation adopted offensive and defensive approaches to increase its ratings and financial results. The business integrated defensive options to ensure that products offered in the market were equal or greater than those of its competitors.
This open strategy focused on outperforming the business rivals of the Bi-Lens Company. The initiative also enhanced the organisation’s market position in relation to rivals. The offensive intervention offered many features that appealed to a broad consumer base.
This effort increased the client catchment population of the Bi-Lens Company and boosted its financial index. Another offensive alternative employed by the Bi-Lens Company entailed the development of instructional classes to assist buyers during their products’ selection.
This tool could be equated to an incentive for the customers because it presented them with rare shopping experiences and assistances. Another defensive method employed by the Bi-Lens Company involved the implementation of competitive staff remuneration structures.
Bi-Lens identified new players entering the industry and monitored their strategies in order to develop appropriate counter mechanisms.
For example, development of barriers or a counter strategy underscored building a competitive brand preference and sustenance of strong customer loyalty through consistent provision of quality products that fulfilled targeted needs.
Bi-Lens’ strategic approach to competing in a global camera market The Bi-Lens Company had to develop a foreign market entry strategy to compete with other business players. Foreign markets varied from the local ones based on political, legal, social and cultural considerations.
Foreign business investors had to survey the political environment of any state because changes in laws and regulations would have affected the performance and operations of businesses.
For instance, if the government in any of the European countries would have imposed a law that increased tax on imported goods, the company’s products would have been sold at a higher price.
Customers during the simulation period made decisions based on the prices and quality of products; therefore, the Bi-Lens Company evaluated these aspects first before producing goods or services.
This point meant that clients would have paid more than the company’s envisaged prices for the cameras. Based on the law of demand and supply, the cameras’ market demand would have digressed, and Bi-lens would have risked losing its customers to its competitors.
Other factors to be considered by the Bi-Lens Company comprised of cultural and social considerations. Culture defined the way people lived in a society. Human beings based their social activities on cultural dimensions like language and moral practices.
Products whose consumption would have caused moral conflicts among community members would not have made significant sales. The Bi-Lens Company understood the moral practices of a target market.
This aspect helped the business to produce goods and services that were friendly to the market’s general culture. A proposed foreign market entry plan for the Bi-lens Company entailed the application of the concept of assemblies.
In this strategy, Bi-lens initiated the local production of the parts of the digital camera and transported them to a foreign market for assembly. This intervention was suitable for the company because of its cost effectiveness in matters related to transportation and custom tariffs.
The fact also enabled the Bi-Lens Company to perform local employee recruitments. This approach facilitated easy penetration of the business into a foreign market. In addition, it helped the business to overcome potential cultural and social obstacles like a different language.
This design enhanced the domestic firm’s full concentration on research activities that focused on improvement of product development and related skills.
The assembling framework built the confidence of the domestic firm with the foreign company which in this paper is the Bi-Lens Company. This fact ensured that the responsibility of decision making lay entirely with the domestic firm and thus facilitated quick action on stipulated agenda.
This study confirms that the strategy of assembly brought successful results to the Bi-Lens Company. The intervention remained a cost-effective one and needed further improvement by the company. It gave room to the organisation to focus on product development.
The Bi-Lens Company recognized the fact that it faced stiff competition from five other businesses in the same industry. The company affirmed that the competition may have been a significant threat to the business if it had not been well addressed.
Competitors of the Bi-Lens Company created products similar to those of the organisation. The rival firms may have been a threat to Bi-Lens because they also laid down plans that may have countered its market strategies.
The Bi-Lens Company engaged various interventions to compete successfully against its rivals in 4 geographic regions of the world. The first strategy involved increment in the volume of its advertisements.
The business increased its advertising budget annually to continue to exploit opportunities and establish itself as a market leader (Thompson, 23). This program intended to build on the company’s market shares in Europe and Africa.
The region formed part of the biggest markets across the world. From Year 6, the Bi-Lens Company had an approximate market share of 37% and had to strive to attain 50% of market shares by year 8.
The company directed its attention to the warranty period and had to seek ways of adding multi-featured models to improve on its weaknesses. The company also increased its marketing recourses in North America.
The company had realized losses in North America where it had recorded the lowest regional market share of about 11%. On a broader scale, the increased advertising efforts and market budgetary allocation of the Bi-Lens Company improved the company’s competitive advantage.
The Bi-Lens Company provided on-site technical support for different geographical regions. This approach ensured that every operation ran without incurring problems for the company.
The other format integrated by the company was to provide extended warranty offers in the North American region.
In addition, the Bi-Lens Company also incorporated a method of using mitigation measures effectively to resolve consumer concerns. The organisation made consumer experiences memorable in areas where it penetrated markets.
Bi-Lens’ decisions to shift resources
Bi-lens’ goal was to overcome market challenges mostly linked to stiff competition from other businesses in the digital camera industry.
Part of the process of achieving this goal was through increasing the organisation’s marketing efforts to improve product recognition, reputation and work to sustain a competitive edge over its rivals.
The Bi-Lens Company made crucial decisions by shifting resources from one area to another to support the execution its efforts.
The Bi-Lens’ sales improvement effort related to the transformation of resources from quarterly sales’ promotions offered to buyers to realizing monthly discount deals.
These deals would go up to 20% discount. This aspect would increase the number of sales for the company and its overall performance in the financial market.
The Bi-Lens Company strived to improve the number of multi-store chains, online retailers and local camera shops that sold Bi-Lens’ products by building a strong relationship with buyers so that they could earn their loyalty.
Bi-Lens worked with retailers by offering them its sales representatives. The company visited retailers and took feedback from them, and also offered advice. The organisation focused on a timely delivery of products to its clients.
The company had an efficient labor support approach with expansive resources to implement its strategies.
The labor and compensation objectives were comprehensive approaches that sought to align the workforce to meet the needs of the Bi-Lens Company and provide exceptional compensation packages. This point aimed at maintaining a highly skilled and valuable workforce.
The focus of the work strategy was to link the quarterly demands of consumers to the projected sales. The compensation structure focused on the provision of efficient means of boosting the returns of the PAT’s while ensuring quality products.
Company experts designed Bi-lens’ cameras with the help of high quality components sourced from foreign suppliers. The organisation manufactured two lines of cameras. These cameras comprised of the regular entry-level and professional multi-level digital cameras.
The company worked closely with suppliers in gathering excellent parts used to assemble both entry-level and multi-level cameras.
The business utilised diverse resources to manufacture its cameras. The main raw materials for manufacturing a camera included image resolution, LCD, and lens. These components were of high quality compared to the industry’s standards.
Bi-Lens’ suppliers in conjunction with the management of the company transformed the constituents. The business worked with the suppliers for constant improvement of the components. The organisation also purchased quality parts that enhanced its desired P/Q ratings.
The business used its money to brand diverse components. Bi-Lens developed a unique quality, brand of cameras that many customers appreciated. The organisation continued to work closely with suppliers to design strong and stylish camera bodies.
The company’s branding styles were a great attraction to digital camera customers. It continued to utilise its funds by working on new and better designs. Bi-Lens built cameras with high imaging device and control.
The company worked closely with the software developers to source high quality image handling software for both entry level and multi-level cameras. Bi-Lens’ cameras had types of accessories added to them. The Bi-Lens Company provided unique features in its cameras.
As an ambitious company, it endeavored to produce quality eye-catching cameras. The organisation’s cameras had unique applications that customers valued. The business continued to offer new and extra components in their camera lines.
Bi-Lens’ multi-featured cameras had 12 unique applications. The company increased the accessories to improve its market ratings.
The Bi-Lens Company used diverse models to manufacture quality cameras that made a huge commercial impact. The organisation used its funds to manufacture three models of entry-level and two models of multi-featured cameras.
Technological innovation was significant to the success and competitive advantage of Bi-Lens over its rivals in the digital camera sector. Bi-Lens manufactured new and more competitive cameras by investing in research and development.
The company’s research and development budgets continued to increase every year. The plans formed a critical part in the transformation of the organisation’s resources in order to support the execution of its business strategies.
Bi-Lens’ spending on corporate social responsibility
As a company, Bi-Lens offered the best-cost value cameras to its clients. The business provided customers with guaranteed products in the contemporary digital camera market and sold them at the most reasonable prices across the globe.
Bi-Lens continued to improve product ratings to increase the numbers of retailers that sold its products. This paper suggests that good products in terms of quality usually move fast in the market.
The Bi-Lens Company’s entry level and multi-featured cameras were among the best-rated in the industry.
The organization was committed to corporate social responsibility. A number of the practices that were part of the company’s corporate social responsibilities included quarterly promotions.
Bi-Lens offered weekly and monthly promotions at discounts up to 20% and encouraged retailers to pass on the discounts to their customers.
The business also provided a warranty period or technical support for its products. Bi-Lens provided customers with the confidence to buy great products by offering a reasonable warranty period.
The company’s entry level-cameras carried 6 months to 1-year warranties depending on the purchased models. The business also built a strong technical support team, which assisted customers throughout the day and night.
Provision of employment opportunities to locals in foreign markets was part of the social corporate responsibility of the organization (Landsburg, 46).
The company would hire temporary PAT’s during the 3rd quarter of the season’s peak. It would also utilise overtime to compensate for product demand.
Where necessary, Bi-Lens outsourced to compensate for customer demand or financial resources. These approaches were part of the company’s social corporate responsibility.
The other functions included providing an annual base pay increase of at least 1% per year and camera incentive bonuses to ensure exceptional quality production.
The company would also provide an exceptional retirement or insurance benefits package and a thorough training program for its workers. In addition, it would also offer quarterly bonuses for attendance.
The rationale I would give to shareholders for these social corporate responsibilities is that they form part of the strategic plan to market the company and sell its brand.
The SCR strategy would enable the organisation to achieve its objectives of growing the global market share and increasing its retail network. It would also promote the acceptance and preference of the company among consumers. Bi-Lens’ internal operations
The Bi-Lens Company focused on providing consumers with leading products in the digital camera industry with markets all over the world. The company encountered diverse challenges in realizing its objectives. The managers of the Bi-Lens Company made decisions through consensus.
The team functioned coherently as a whole to contribute to the management of the company (Graf, 25). The disadvantage of this approach of internal operations and decision making was that it consumed a lot of time.
The team would take a significant amount of time to agree on basic approaches. The lost time would have otherwise been used to implement laid down strategies for the company’s growth and development. It was also difficult to achieve homogeneity among the team members.
The foundation of Bi-Lens’ strategic operations plan was to lay emphasis on the achievement of the organisation’s goals. The company provided quality products at fair market value while maintaining a competitive edge over its rivals.
Works Cited
Graf, Mitche. Power Marketing, Selling, and Pricing: A business Guide for Wedding and Portrait Photographers, New York, USA: Amherst Media Inc., 2009. Print.
Landsburg, Steven. Fair Play: What Your Child Can Teach You About Economics, Values and the Meaning of Life, New York, USA: Free Press, 2010. Print.
Thompson, Arthur 2012, Strategy: Core concepts and analytical approaches (2nd Ed.). PDF file. Web.