Pure Home Water (PHW) is an organization engaged in the production of special equipment to clean the drinking water. It was established to reach people living in Northern Ghana and provide them with water treatment and storage solutions. Importantly, PHW intends to provide low-income families with their equipment. The ultimate goal of the company is to become self-sustaining. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the company’s internal and external environment and its competencies.
External Environment
It should be noted that economic factors influence the business to a great degree. The purchasing power of buyers is rather low in this region, which is important due to the fact that the organization intends to address those people living in poverty (Nelson, Ingols, Christian-Murtie, & Myers, 2013).
It is also complicated by the low literacy levels, which complicates the promotion of filters. Operational factors include the insufficiently developed technologies that hinder manufacturing of the commodity to the full capacity. Regarding the natural environment, it should be stressed that climate and physical terrain also pose particular barriers to the quicker customer outreach and product dissemination (Harrison & John, 2013). The climatic conditions have already adversely affected the productions in previous years, and the company had to reconsider its approach.
Internal Environment
Regarding the VRIO analysis, it should be stated that it reveals the actual competitive status of the organization. The value component of PHW implies having poor resources and capabilities. The staff is not qualified enough to perform the required functions, and they need constant supervision (Nelson et al., 2013). Therefore, it is rather difficult to sustain value while experiencing high employee turnover. In terms of rarity, the organization does not have effective human and technical resources. Therefore, it is rather difficult for PHW to achieve competitive edge. Imitability component implies having the preference among clients.
Despite the existing competitors, PHW does have their loyalty since other options are less affordable for the customers. Regarding the organization, PHW provides cooperative environment to the staff and intends to maintain long-term relationships with employees and customers (Harrison & John, 2013). Thus, the internal competencies and capabilities of PHW cannot be considered strong. The main difficulty faced by the organization is inexperienced staff, which complicates the majority of other factors.
SWOT
It should be stressed that one of the main strengths is the actual demand for the PHW’s products. The main weaknesses include poor availability of skilled workers and illiteracy of customers (Nelson et al., 2013). The opportunities can be displayed in the possibility to reach greater market share while the climate and environmental barriers pose the greatest threats to the business development and expansion.
Technology and Innovation Management
The type of innovation proposed by PHW is sustaining innovation. Due to the fact that there is a clearly determined issue in the Northern Ghana and the organization is knowledgeable of the way to resolve it, PHW has to overcome the difficulties in implementing it. The implications for managing include on-site management, definition of customer distribution, and inter-organizational relationships (Harrison & John, 2013). Apart from that, it is essential to refine the issues related to supplier power. All of these implications are sensitive to developing economy factors as well.
Conclusion
Thus, it can be concluded that Pure Home Water has a great value to bring to its customers. Nevertheless, its resources and capabilities hinder the success of PHW’s operations. Therefore, to be able to move the organization towards implementing its mission and meeting the objectives, the company leadership needs to refine its strategy.
References
Harrison, J., & John, C. (2013). Foundations in strategic management (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage.
Nelson, T., Ingols, C., Christian-Murtie, J., & Myers, P. (2013). Susan Murcott and Pure Home Water: Building a sustainable mission-driven enterprise in Northern Ghana. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 37(4), 961–979.