Introduction
David Chamber (who was a determined entrepreneur), started working with a small company in California in order to cater for his family. This company was involved in landscaping the gardens of rich people located in his home area.
Years later, he was invited by one of the clients in Abu Dhabi where he was to work in the client’s company together with another worker called Sheik. It is in this company that David started the whole idea of building flagpoles after he was asked to make one by Sheik. This made him to start a company called Trident Support Company.
Strategic Management Concepts
Trident Support Company had some goals which marked their first segment of strategic management concepts. Their goals were to be the leading producers of poles in order to meet the high demand and to expand their market by selling their products throughout the world. According to Menon, (1999) management strategies have major impact on an industry’s well-being in the market.
After having these goals, the company had a developed business strategy, which included actions and plans that would help achieve these goals. The company decided that, in order to sell more poles, it would subsequently increase the length of the poles by one metre. Another plan was to come up with tall cranes, which would assist in raising the flags as the poles increased in height.
According to Lamb, (1984) evaluating is an important aspect in that; it considers whether the strategies applied were done as required or not. In its evaluation, the company trained a team on how to raise flags, repair and lower them. The training of the team imparted expertise on how to use the crane. The company also manufactured steel in Dubai and shipped it to the manufacturing points.
SWOT Analysis
The strength of Trident Support Company was that, it had capability of building the tallest flagpoles in the world. The company created a flagpole with a height of 165 metres for Dushanbe city which was the capital of Tajikistan. The company was monopolistic, which enabled it to control the market. This was confessed by members of Guinness World Record ltd.
One of the company’s weaknesses is that it didn’t have a defined pricing strategy. This is evident in that it had standard price for the poles it made for different clients. The company was small. This meant that it had few workers and infrastructure. This made the company spend more time in completing one pole, despite the high demand in the market.
Trident Company had numerous opportunities. Ambitious nations hired the company to build flagpoles for them, which would get them on top of the record.
The company’s order book was bulging. Its entries included: a flagpole in South Africa before the world cup with a height of 60 metres, one at Yas Marina circuit with a height of 38 metres and a flag measuring 35 metres by 70 metre for Azerbaijan to coincide with the country’s national day.
Threats facing the company included heavy winds in Baku which made the flags to be changed after every three days. The increasing height of the flagpoles called for larger cranes needed to erect them. This caused complications at Dushanbe and Tajikistan making them use helicopters.
PESTEL Analysis
Trident company faced a changing political environment just like any other company. Since the company was going global, governments competed for holding the record. The government of Azerbaijani ordered one to break a record held by Aqaba that would measure 492 feet.
The economic status of different countries affected the company’s pricing as the raw materials became expensive. The poles cost millions of dollars, but countries rich in oil deposits barely had a problem with the cost. A pole in Baku cost $4 million and that was not a problem to the country.
Social factors also affected the company in its operations. The company did a research and hired the right people who had a positive attitude towards work. These composed of fifteen employees and subcontractors. The company admired working in the United States in order for workers to move back home to their families.
Technological factors such as having taller cranes than the ones they were using affected the height of flagpoles that the company built. The company believed that it could build a pole of up to 220 metres provided the large cranes were in place. Lack of large cranes made the company use helicopters which required experienced people to operate.
As the flagpoles increased in height the altitude change brought different weather conditions. The company made flags from nylon and polyester and as the altitude increased, the flags were subjected to strong winds which tore them. This called for regular repairs. The heavy winds in Baku destroyed the flag in only three days while in other places it could last for some weeks.
Legal factors had impacted on Trident Support Company. These factors included rules that acted as guidelines. The company had employees and Subcontractors. The Company therefore had obligations to meet in terms of honouring contracts and employment terms.
Five Forces Analysis
Trident company had a less competition. The only competition came from U.S. Flag & Flagpole Supply Inc., which had negotiated with a client to build a 500 foot pole. The monopolistic nature of Trident Company made it difficult for other companies to enter the market.
Supplier’s power was not a great issue to the company because it manufactured its own raw materials. This included steel and flags, which were shipped to working stations.
Buyers’ powers had no control over the company since they were not sensitive to prices and were willing to pay any price provided they have to the record. There were few companies making flagpoles hence the countries had to wait for Trident Company to build the poles for them.
Threat from substitutes could not be felt by the company since there were no substitutes that the customers could run for. The buyers were not willing to change the product because their main aim was to be on top of the record.
Threat from companies entering the market was low. This is because the operating cost of Trident Support Company was high and the company had already dominated the market.
Recommendation
From the SWOT analysis, several recommendations would be helpful to the company. Since the company produced the world’s tallest flagpoles, it should advance technologically by adopting tall cranes in order to make tall poles as required by clients.
The company should develop a pricing strategy that will define its ways of selling the flagpoles. This would help in monitoring the sales and keeping the competitors off.
It should also employ more workers to reduce time spent on each flagpole, making it easier to meet the high demand.
Trident company should also reduce the height of subsequent flagpoles. This would help in keeping the business in operation for log time. This is so because reducing the length of subsequent poles prolongs the time taken to reach the height limit.
References
Lamb, R.B. 1984, Competitive strategic management, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.
Menon, A. et al. 1999, “Antecedents and Consequences of Marketing Strategy Making,” Journal of Marketing, vol.63, no. 2, pp. 18–40.