Executive Summary
In the present-day world, business is evolving rapidly, and the pace of progress leads to the necessity for enterprises to readjust their efforts accordingly. This intention implies the need to benefit from innovation in technology, the economy, and other fields, and the sports industry is no exception to the rule. This area is significantly affected by environmental changes, urbanization, resources available for promotion, and other global factors defining companies’ position on the market. Consequently, they face uncertainty and a series of tough challenges, which stakeholders of the sports’ governing bodies must prepare to address. They primarily perform this task by applying new technologies to different situations. One of them is Riddell Speed Flex, and the use of these helmets ensures the safety of people, which is one of the principal concerns of manufacturers these days. This report aims to provide an overview of the product, which should be further developed and used by golf players around the world to eliminate the risks for their health and well-being. It delves into assessing the environment within which Riddell Speed Flex will exist and analyzing the future competition the product may face. Further, this paper will look at how the success of its introduction to a wider public will be evaluated alongside critical ethical issues. Based on this analysis, the report confirms the successful promotion of Riddell Speed Flex as a product meeting customers’ needs in different countries.
Introduction
The sports’ popularity stems from ancient times, and the attractiveness of golf products for people is not surprising. Throughout history, athletes were provided with various technological advances as per their requirements. From this perspective, Riddell Speed Flex helmets comply with the rule since they offer maximum protection against severe injuries to football players. The product has a hard outer shell and an inner layer of foam or other fluffy material. The outer shell is designed to dissipate force and spread the force’s impact over the larger area. These characteristics seem beneficial for creating similar helmets for golf players as the continuously emerging solutions add to the necessity to update gear. Safety is emphasized by all manufacturers in the context of a rapidly developing sports sector (Seshadri et al., 2017). Therefore, it is vital to develop a product for increasing its attractiveness for customers playing golf.
An Assessment of the Future Environment for Riddell Speed Flex
The ongoing evolution of the sports industry alongside technology conditions the need for a change. The future of businesses in this field significantly depends on their ability to provide the required degree of safety in their products. In this regard, they face more competition than ever before (Riot et al., 2018). Meanwhile, the concerns of athletes related to injury prevention and materials suitable for this purpose are not fully addressed.
At present, thousands of emergency room visits result from head injuries, including concussions from high-impact sports. Some of these events are severe, and the players have to suffer their effects for the rest of their lives. Research shows that repeated head injuries for a given time can lead to life-altering damage and even death (Christensen et al., 2021). Additionally, experts on head trauma argue that some of the hits experienced during sports can cause severe damage (Christensen et al., 2021). From this perspective, new technology is the solution to the challenge of preventing brain injuries caused by head trauma. Hence, the environment for creating new Riddel Speed Flex helmets is favorable, and the demand for the product is likely to be high.
An Analysis of the Future Competition for Riddell Speed Flex
In the sports industry, competition between companies selling gear is inevitable and, therefore, should be considered when implementing the initiative. According to Riot et al. (2018), it is quite unpredictable because the needs of athletes are continuously changing, and demand is difficult to trace. From this point of view, the numbers of customers positively correlate with the market shares they hold. Additionally, the more the sales, the higher the chances of making more profit. While the majority of business owners hate their competitors, they still recognize that competition is essential. It is a primary aspect, which can spur the invention of new or better products.
Competition is beneficial to the business and customers because the latter can afford to buy various quality goods. It also encourages enterprises to produce more and boost the economy in general. It can be viewed as a tool for optimal engineering decision-making as well. This task involves analyzing the competitors, trends, and market needs and using the generated reports to develop an optimal solution, which works for both companies and their clients. Learning to embrace competition also helps participants develop strategies, which will allow them to carry out their functions with minimal effort.
Physical activities and most sports are being transformed by the societies in which they are practiced. Therefore, the innovation in football gear and its efficient integration into the present-day sports market indicates high chances for the success of the proposed initiative, which is creating and selling golf helmets while adopting characteristics. These protective pieces of equipment will enhance physical activity while offering maximum protection to the players. Since the purposes, objectives, and tools in the cases of football and golf helmets are similar, the experience of the former will serve as a reliable basis for product promotion.
The likely future competition, which Riddell Speed Flex will face, is the production of other protective helmets such as the Schutt Air XP Pro. This alternative is one of the cheapest solutions which one can find in the market today. It is provided in various colors, which allow the player to choose the one for their teams and various other add-options that perfectly meet their requirements. This product can be modified to different forms, depending on the player’s specifications. By looking at its features, they resemble a traditional helmet, but one can create the edge they need to bring the new style on the field. Schutt Air XP Pro also offers dual compression, which ensures protection for both high and low-impact hits. Additionally, it has an airliner and interlinks jaw pads to provide more comfort to the wearer. Based on these features, it is evident that the player is guaranteed maximum security required during competitions.
To further assure comfort to the wearer, Schutt Air XP Pro is made from lightweight materials, such as polycarbonate. For immediate and ready use, this helmet comes with a facemask a soft cup chin strap. In broad terms, Schutt Air XP Pro is highly known for its reliability. Its products are unlikely to disappoint when it comes to maximum protection of the wearer. Moreover, they are the most affordable helmets among others of the same quality and possessing similar characteristics. Therefore, Riddell Speed Flex can face competition from this company since its services and goods are cheaper while being almost identical in features, and golf players might find their offers more attractive.
How Riddell Speed Flex Will Gain Sustainable Competitive Advantage
As can be seen from the analysis above, the environment for Riddell Speed Flex can be characterized as highly competitive, and it requires developing distinctive features for its future success. In the business setting, competitive advantage refers to factors, which allow a company to produce goods or services better than its rivals. It allows enterprises to achieve superior margins compared to their competitors (Singh et al., 2018). The general principle for competitive advantage is that it should be challenging to duplicate. If it is easily copied, then it is not considered as such. Before the beneficial characteristics are derived, there is a need for the business to know the value of their products or services realized on the target market and their competitors. In a broad perspective, it implies the necessity to emphasize the provision of unique features and solutions, which have no analogs among their rivals.
In order to address this aspect, Riddell Speed Flex can elaborate a strategy allowing it to present the differences between its products and the ones of Schutt Air XP Pro. It should be based on the company’s strengths, one of which is cost leadership. In the long run, it can help become the lowest-cost producer and create unique value while remaining affordable (Mortazavi et al., 2017). Although Schutt Air XP Pro is already known for cheap goods suitable for golf players, Riddell Speed Flex can initially establish lower prices for new products so that their buyers could assess their advantages. To achieve cost leadership, the company, which manufactures Riddell Speed Flex, can also ensure large-scale production to exploit economies of scale. Any business can utilize economies of scale and produce relatively cheaper products than its competitors. In that case, it can establish a selling price, which its rivals cannot replicate. In this regard, any business adopting the cost leadership strategy will be in a position to reap benefits due to its significant cost reduction over its competitors.
This approach can be successfully underpinned by a variety of other measures in this direction. Another strategy, which Riddell Speed Flex can employ to gain a competitive advantage, is differentiation (Khaligh et al., 2020). This technique is a marketing method designed to distinguish a company’s product from one of its rivals. It goes hand in hand with developing a solid value proposition to create goods or services attractive to a target market or the public. Other than selling at a lower price, Riddell Speed Flex can maximize quality delivery to customers. If differentiation is effectively attained, and the business will be able to set a premium price for its offer.
Riddell Speed Flex Product Company can also use focus as a strategy to gain its competitive advantage. In this type of measure, the business is oriented to a narrow target market segment. This approach is only successful if a product can cater to the needs of the customers. In other words, selling goods to a niche market in a specific geographical area can tremendously increase their popularity (Nursaadah, 2018). It would center on expanding marketing tactics for the product while establishing a new relationship with the target audience. Thus, Riddell Speed Flex can highlight the importance of a specific group of golf players, which is not covered by the offers of Schutt Air XP Pro.
The Resources Required to Deliver Riddell Speed Flex
Resources are essential to the organization because they create value propositions and help deliver the product to the customer. They are vital components of business operations defining the success of any initiatives and can be either tangible or intangible. The available materials and the sufficient number of people working on implementing projects are considered as important assets in this case because the results are solely dependant on their inclusion in the process (Lima et al., 2021). In turn, their role is not limited to the development of the product as it means achieving the minimum value of the product to deliver to customers in the long run. Consequently, the sustainability of golf helmets from Riddell Speed Flex will be connected to the presence of sufficient resources. For example, the management of the demand will be performed through the assessment of available materials for their production in the future and the consideration of the numbers of employees able to perform this task. In addition, it will be necessary to match the expectations in this regard with the outcomes of the initiative at different stages.
The assets, which can be used by Riddell Speed Flex, are numerous. One of them is physical resources, which describe tangible goods and materials, which any organization can utilize to create new products. In this case, they include available utilities, such as the buildings in which they are stored before being delivered to customers. They are also vital for further operations following the development of new helmets. For example, without a building in which the product is manufactured or stored, it will be difficult for the business to function. These assets are complemented by the people involved in different processes related to the initiative. They are considered the most instrumental resource in any organization, ensuring a great deal of creativity and knowledge (Terziev, 2019). Therefore, the combination of resources described above will be sufficient for making a change.
Moreover, when it comes to selling products to customers, human resources are important for providing customized solutions. They contribute to the effective realization of goods alongside the used physical materials. For example, company drivers may use trucks to deliver the golf helmets to buyers. In the creation of Riddell Speed Flex, highly qualified engineers may be considered competent human resources. They can present innovative ideas and new insights on how to create highly competitive solutions. These specialists can also utilize the available technology to produce the most attractive Riddell Speed Flex for different sports.
The intellectual capacity of the company is also significant when it comes to the effective delivery of products. These resources are intangible or non-physical, and once they are incorporated, they can offer a unique advantage to this area. The basic principle, which these resources follow, is based on the fact that employee satisfaction contributes to customers’ happiness. In the case of Riddell Speed Flex, the brand may be a key determinant of its principal procedures. For instance, if the product is ascribed to a well-known manufacturer, the distinction will attract customers to select it over other options. In business, this feature is considered an essential promise any company makes to its customers. The primary purpose of branding is to establish trust within the customers and create loyalty. Once these targets are achieved, delivery of products becomes relatively easy (Chen & Hua, 2017). The utilization of intellectual resources related to brands gives the buyer a way to remember the offer and creates an identity for the goods while facilitating the delivery and making it more accessible.
The Proposed Organizational Culture
Organizational culture is one of the issues, which have been researched for many years. Scholars claim that people’s behavior under this concept and their way of thinking define the understanding of its importance for meeting organizational goals (Champ et al., 2020). The most basic definition of this term is “the way organizations do things around here” (Elsbach & Stigliani 2018). It can also be seen as a set of observed behavioral regularities, values, and formal philosophy. For Riddell Speed Flex’s case, product safety will be an essential aspect, which should be prioritized. This objective will be addressed by establishing a compliance team of specialists determining the product’s effectiveness in golf sports. Since most business institutions in the United States experience significant financial losses due to their non-compliance with safety regulations, this measure is feasible (Chen & Hua, 2017). It will help the company avoid returns of products due to these reasons and maintain sustainable growth.
The Leadership Requirements to Deliver the Product Successfully
In every business setting, leadership is crucial because it motivates people to reach a higher level of performance through their strong human relations. It is also an important function of management, which maximizes efficiency and helps achieve organizational goals (Al-Ali et al., 2017). With this being the case, all managers should have the traits of a leader. In order to effectively deliver Riddell Speed Flex to potential customers, various leadership requirements should be employed. One of these leadership requirements is strong work ethics (Engelbrecht et al., 2017). As a manager, one should not expect other people to perform better than they are willing to, stemming from their personal motivation. In this regard, when it comes to Riddell Speed Flex’s delivery, leaders should be at the front line to ensure that customers can access the right products.
Another leadership requirement for Riddell Speed Flex is a keen sense of agency. In view of this, managers should be ready to solve problems and be dedicated to using suitable solutions to address the challenges’ actual causes. For example, when the Riddell Speed Flex offer reaches the intended customers, leaders should not be quick to attack the supply team but consider looking at other aspects such as the product’s availability. In this way, they will be instrumental in addressing specific issues, which may arise in the future. To deliver Riddell Speed Flex successfully, managers should also have a “can do” attitude. It is essential for demonstrating a high energy level to overcome the business’s long-standing barriers (Warrick, 2017). More importantly, they should be in a position to lead by setting a role model. Leaders should be directly involved in delivering the product to individuals and organizations (Blanchard, 2018). By doing so, they will promote the development of skills necessary for changing the way people think and act.
How ‘Success’ will be Evaluated
One of the vital questions, which every business and entrepreneur should be asking themselves is whether the customers love their products. Once they get genuine answers concerning it, they can evaluate the success of their offers. Various strategies will be employed to assess the efficiency of the Riddell Speed Flex helmets. One of them is calculating the numbers of clients, which are using the goods. It will be made possible through tracking account activity and individuals who buy the product monthly (Nijkamp, 2018). In this way, the company will start by identifying the top features of the maximum core audience for improvements. They include value drivers motivating people to purchase the product. Another critical approach used to evaluate the success of Riddell Speed Flex is customer satisfaction. It will be required to conduct a background examination of what they are saying about the helmets. If the clients are unwilling to give comments about them, the initiative will be considered insufficiently effective.
Ethical Issues
In every business operation, ethics should be highly prioritized. They are essential for maintaining the company’s excellent reputation while assisting in avoiding significant financial and legal challenges. Their inclusion increases not only productivity but also employee morale (Ferrell et al., 2019). For Riddell Speed Flex, one of the ethical issues, which will be emphasized, is quality. Since the demand for a product goes hand in hand with this aspect, it is the business’s responsibility to ensure that the outcome matches the customer’s expectation regarding the purchase. When complemented by safety, the offer as per the proposal will be successfully developed when following these regulations.
Conclusion
To summarize, the initiative regarding the creation of Riddell Speed Flex golf helmets is beneficial from the perspective of the manufacturer’s position on the market. It is likely to be profitable in the long run since the business environment is favorable, competitors do not present a significant threat, and gaining a competitive advantage is easy. Moreover, the enterprise possesses sufficient resources for the project and can efficiently address the ethical concerns of buyers, and these factors allow concluding on the success of the implementation of this idea.
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