Free Custom «Corporate Strategy for Electrolux AB Company» Essay Paper

Strategic management is a field of management that mainly deals with the initiatives that are taken by managers on a daily basis. The initiatives are always taken in behalf of the owners and mainly involve the utilization of the organization’s resources with the main aim of expanding the corporation’s performance in the external environment. The main aim of management is to specify the mission of an organization in this case the main aim would be to identify and expound on the mission of the Electrolux AB – Swedish Company. This would help the reader to understand what tactics the corporation uses to decide on ways and means of utilizing its external resources. The other aim would be to focus on the vision plus the objectives of the organization. One of the main aims of strategic management is to create awareness on how an organization develops its policies and plans. This is in regard of the projects that it undertakes and also the program that the organization focuses on. The projects and programs that are studied are the ones that are designed to meet the objectives that are aforementioned. Therefore, the focus of an analysis on strategic management would be on how organizations allocate resources with an aim of implementing policies and programs that it has set forth. In addition to the above mentioned ways and means, there is also a balanced scorecard which is used to analyze the overall progress that the organization has made in terms of meeting the goals that it has set forth. In recent studies that have been conducted by management experts, the issue of the balance scorecard has come into the debate as the theory experts have come to advocate for new ways and means that would see that in the scorecard, the expectations of the stakeholders analyzed to see whether they are met. In detail, the paper analyzes strategic management of the aforementioned company with a view of expounding knowledge on it.        

 

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Discussion

Analysis Corporate Strategies Adopted by the Company

In consideration of the fact that the organization in focus deals with household appliances, it has to employ strategies that are in line with the needs of each and every stakeholder that it has. The company in discussion is one that is quite notable in Sweden and hence it has always to device new ways and means of creating and environment that will invite even more customers. It cannot afford to lose its customers since they are its back bone. In order to get a better understanding of this literature, it is imperative to focus on the meaning of corporate strategies. Corporate strategies are defined as the scope and direction that an organization focuses on in a bid to enhance its strategies and also to come out with clearer goals and ways of achieving them. The company employs three main ways to make sure that it is in line and has a competitive advantage over its competitors. The first strategy that it employs is the cost leadership. With cost leadership, the company ensures that the costs of its goods are relatively low compared to that of its competitors (Barham 1989). The advantages of this are that it helps the organization to come out with ways and means that it can tackle the competition that it faces in the market. This is quite an interesting way of ensuring that the interests of the company are always met whilst at the same time the organization maintains its brand name in the market.

The other strategy that the organization employs is that it tries to come out with ways and means of ensuring that there is product differentiation. What product differentiation means are that a company comes out with a strategy and in the process it ensures that all the produce that it gives out to the market is quite different from those that are already in the market. This is something that can be seen by the way that the vacuum cleaners of the company are made. They are quite different from the ones that are in the Swedish market. Product differentiation is a technique that is quite old in the corporate market strategies and when focused in detail, it is one of the main factors that keep the company in line and above its competitors in terms of ideas (Ontario Ministry of Community and Social Services 1984). In order to gain a better understanding of how the company is benefiting from its competitors, the best way is to analyze the way other companies that are in the same market are trying to match up to the competition that the aforementioned company presents. IKEA is a company that deals in almost all the same products that the Electrolux AB Company deals with. When the two companies are placed in an argumentative board to try and come out with a general idea on how they operate or how they compete each other. It is found that the strategy that makes the latter stand out is the fact that it operates on differentiation. The former is a company that deals with products but it has one in the same way not differentiated enough. The other strategy that makes the company in discussion stand out is the focus that it has put on the market. With focus, what is discussed is how a company has lain down its strategies in knowing the needs of the customers. This is one factor that the aforementioned company has really considered and is one of its strongest points when discussing corporate strategy.

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Since the company was founded in the year 1919, what needs to be studied in the way the corporate strategies it has used have benefited sit to refine and exploit the market whilst the same time maintains a great advantage over other players in the market? What corporate strategy leads to in the end is a competitive advantage and that is something that Electrolux AB Company has invested on in such great numbers to the point that it somehow is seen as a monopolistic competitor. The corporation has also employed corporate level strategy, what corporate level strategy basically entails is the way an organization makes its decision and this is through the whole corporation. The main aim is to formulate a way and mean through which it can gain competitive advantage over other players in the market (Pearce 1988). The company in focus is one that has operated in the field for quite a number of years and what this has helped it is to create a way through which it has focused more or less through the eyes of its competitors. When clearly elaborated as in the way it has been done in the context above, corporate strategy is one that is quite advantageous as opposed to other strategies that may seem contemporary but yet they are not advantageous since in the end all that matters is the returns. The company in focus is also known in the managerial field for the way that it has employed its strategic plan in order to meet the needs that it has in the market. What the strategic corporate strategies that the organization employs are mainly focused on tactical issues, operational issues and also marketing and finance. Therefore, in the analysis of its corporate strategy, it is quite beneficial to focus on the factors that are mentioned below. The organization has to focus on tactical issues since they are the ones that keep it informed of what the competitors are doing. What this in return leads to is the idea that the company has towards bettering its goals and also finding ways and means through which it has the ideas and therefore, it can conquer the weaknesses that it has in a direct focus on the strengths of the competing partners in the market. Marketing is also a key factor of focus incorporate strategy since it is through marketing that a company is always able to define itself. Marketing involves advertising and advertising are a major concept that a company should always focus on if it is willing to come out as the best in the market. Therefore, the plans for the institution are always created through an analysis, later they are set down as the clear statement s and then they are taken into action. This is what sets the corporate strategy of the company apart from other players (Rao 2002).                      

Potential Corporate Strategies for the Company

The company needs to analyze various issues before it fully takes on its corporate strategy. What this means then is that the company should in one way or the other need to focus on the trends that are in the financial market. Therefore, the company has to clearly understand the forces and trends that are in the market in order to know ways and means that it can challenge them. Considering the fact that the company is one that is quite old in the business, the new comers may come out with newer ways and means and what this would mean is that the company will have to devise a way that it can always have an added advantage over it competitors (Ward 2005). This does not rule out the fact that the company has brand loyalty sine it is one of its determining factors but what it means is that in order for the company to ensure that it does not meet hurdles in the future, then it has to rebrand at least once per every two years. What this would do is that it would rejuvenate its energy in the market and that would lead to the more and more customers coming in. Therefore, the strategy that a company employs as from the above literature is one that determines its fate in the financial market. The company has to also shine its focus on the environments that it focuses on (Banerjee 1999). Therefore, the organization should have to clearly set its objectives in the manner that empowers and focuses on its internal, external macro environment and also external micro environment. What this would lead to is that the organization would have an added advantage over its competitors since it would mean that it will know not only its weaknesses but also those of the competing firms and that would ensure that the company does not face any hurdles in the financial market which is something that each and every company aims at achieving. The macro environment that the organization should focus on is the society and the region that it operates from. What this would later entail is the nation as a whole. Keeping in mind that the corporation operates in a society that is quite diverse, then it would in its interests to come out with clear strategies and ways that would ensure it does not face opposition up to the point of being stopped (Lynch 2006).

The company should also frequently conduct a pestle analysis. What this analysis helps is defining a way and means through which the organization can monitor its external environment. From the underlying literature, it seems that point which always matters is the competitors when it comes to corporate strategy. Therefore, although the company may in one way or the other has the advantage. Then it is imperative that it should also focus on ways and means of ensuring that it still remains afloat and what that means is that the organization should. The PESTLE analysis is an abbreviation for the Political forces issues, economic trends and forces, socio-cultural changes and trends, technological changes and trends, legal and regulatory issues and forces, and environmental changes and forces.  Political forces issues are bound to affect the organization is the focus since it is quite a huge investment. Therefore, there are ways and means that the organization can come out with clear strategies that would ensure no matter what the situation, it does not collide with the interests and views of the politicians. What this would mean is that the organization would further invest heavily on the factors that have been mentioned and what therefore in an in depth analysis this would lead to is that the company would be in safe waters in terms of attacks that are meant to make it slow down (Business International Corporation 1986). The other main area of concern that the company should also focus on is the environmental changes. If the organization wants to remain on top of its game on the environmental issues, then it is imperative that it gives some thought on matters of the environment. The other corporate strategic analysis that may be incorporated into the company is mergers and acquisitions. The company can acquire other smaller companies in a bid to empower itself and make it better for the future. It is known that through acquisition of a company, it becomes stronger and wider in the financial market. This is in consideration of the fact that the organization deals with products that are harmful to the environment and environmentalists’ are slowly but gaining international recognition. Therefore, when followed in detail, these factors may tend to be very useful to the company in terms of its corporate strategies.

Business/Product Portfolio Analysis (BCG Matrix)

The company should formulate ways and means that it can have a number of priorities on the product. With that said, the company should then focus on enhancing its products to suit the business market in such a way that it ensures that there is the long term value creation. What this does, is that it empowers the customers and makes them want to buy more and more. Therefore, the organization in focus is one when it plays its cards well in terms of the home appliances, it can double its annual sales. What the company currently employs is that it clearly knows that it is dealing with products that have high cash inputs and also the factor that the world is turning technological is also an added advantage (Griffin 2010). The company therefore, it terms of the products has two dimensions which are the market share and the market growth. Then what the company basically presumes is that when it has a bigger market share in terms of the products and market growth, the better chances that it has in terms of having a better competition advantage. When products are placed in the BCG matrix, they usually result in four categories of the portfolio of the company. Therefore, the organization in focus, deals with home appliances and that is why when the products are analyzed, it leads to the following categories. They are the starts. These are the products amongst the ones that it has which have high growth and market share. Then there are the cash cows, these are the products which have a low growth and high market share. Basically, the products of the organization fall in these two broad categories and that is why they are quite marketable (Stonehouse 2004).   

The Competitive Strategy

In corporate level strategy, what a company is mainly concerned with is creating an environment through which it focuses on its strategic activities for example the competitive strategy and the competitors. The competitors therefore, are to be clearly defined.  Competitive advantage is defined as a situation which comes forth when an organization profits more than the more than an average organization would benefit from the market that it operates. The corporation in focus is one that utilizes this advantage to the maximum and therefore, in the end it finds that it is one of the leading home appliances distributors in Sweden.  As aforementioned, the organization utilizes two basic types of competitive advantage according to the Michael Porter (Porter 1998).  The two are; cost and differentiation advantages. The benefits of the two are immeasurable in the market and when the firm utilizes it to come out as a big winner in the global economy sphere, it is one of the best ways that it can sustain itself.  The company is always able to deliver what other companies in the same business wish to deliver at fairer costs and that is one of the key factors that have sustained it since the year 1919. The other facts as aforementioned are that the products that the organization delivers are quite different from the ones that its competitors deliver in the service market. Therefore, to sum it up, the organization has employed all the techniques that any organization working in the same field to ensure that it has a competitive advantage over other players (Walker 2003).       

The Development Strategy and Methods of Development (Using the Ansoff's Products/Markets Framework)

Electrolux AB – Swedish Company employed the Ansoff’s framework to enable it sustain competition and also to ensure that the products which it delivered sold widely into the existent market (Cook 1998). What this means is that the organization in focus used a variety of ways and means to ensure that it achieved the following objectives; the first one is to ensure that the organization maintained and increased the market share which it enjoyed and what this meant is that the organization used competitive pricing strategies which are what makes organization like Microsoft remain on top of the game (Cole 2003). The other development strategy that the organization used in accordance to Ansoff’s framework is to ensure that it has new distribution channel each and every time which are quite important in sustaining itself in the market. To finish off, the corporation also ensures that it has a new product dimensions at least once per year which is important since it helps to maintain the overall cash flow an increase competitive advantage (Partridge 2009).       

Conclusion

In conclusion, the survival of Electrolux AB – Swedish Company in the financial market uses a lot of strategies that are at the corporate level as predetermined in this literature. What this means therefore, is that the organization has employed some of the best techniques in the market to ensure that it survives and also increases its competitive advantage and that is one of the factors that make the organization not only stay afloat but also to remain as one of the dominant home appliances provider in Switzerland. One of the factors that have not been mentioned is that the organization also plans to expand even further into the markets that it has not touched in the world and that are one of its greatest advantages. This and many other reasons are what make the organization one of the best in the world.