The most significant decisions that many big companies in the business world make today regard the locations in which their businesses are situated. The decisions are so important that some companies have spent years making sure that they make the right decisions as to where their businesses should be located. Location greatly affects both fixed and variable costs and is thus very important in determining the overall profit margins of a given company. The decision to have a company located at a given place is influenced by the type of business e.g. manufacturing, service industry, warehousing, etc. In deciding where to locate its business premises, the management of a company needs to break down the decision-making process which may constitute the choice of a country, a community or region, and the location of the business. Each of the choices is normally influenced by key success factors outlined in each category based on the values of the company and its goals. Among the factors that influence the decision of the location of a company include the cultures of the targeted clients, market concerns, suppliers of key materials, and competitors. It is important that the management of a company is not tempted to move to areas with low wage demands and overlook other important factors. Any company should consider the quality of its products and the viability of its market. Quality may be based on the training of its employees and the attitude towards work by the employees. Location problems are addressed differently for service, retail, and professional organizations. It is important that every company does comprehensive research and an assessment of its needs before deciding on the location of its business premises. Different categories are outlined from Munday’s Standard Market Report Checklist:
- Populations: Subcategories include Population density, education standards of the population, culture, and religious beliefs.
- Hotels: Subcategories include Number of hotels, number of visitors, markets served, and market potential.
- Restaurants and nightclubs: Subcategories include Ownership and operation of the existing premises, number of restaurants and nightclubs, the income bracket of the customers, and the customers’ age brackets.
- Real estate markets: Subcategories include Prices of real estate properties, availability of real estate properties, and the appreciation rates of the real estate properties. City A is the most highly rated.
The Hard Rock Company is involved in a serious exercise of analyzing its location because the company contends that its location will have a huge impact on its business. The returns on the investment can be remarkably different if the same business can be located elsewhere given that all the other factors can remain constant. It is therefore important that the Hard Rock Company acquires the best location for its business premises. This is because once the business is finally established in a certain location, the commitment to stay in that specific location for the Hard Rock Company will be long term stretching to a period of at least 10 to 15 years. It is therefore important that the decision as to where the location of the business will be should be sound and well informed. In places where the political environment is not stable, the Hard Rock Company would prefer to franchise one of its units for the security and stability of its business.