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Chillisauce Limited Company Strategic Plan

Introduction

The topic of strategic management is essential for many organizations, especially in the events industry.  This comes after the growing acknowledgment of events management as a profession and a career (Bodwin, et al., 2006). According to Gupta (2003, p. 93), “events must be scientifically planned, executed and evaluated”. Thus, strategic planning must come into play. From the definition of strategy by Johnson, et al. (2005), it can be deduced that strategy adoption in an event organization is arguably the most significant activity for the manager. Therefore, this essay will look to develop a strategic plan for an event organization, The Chillisauce Company.

Company Overview

Chillisauce is known for organizing hen nights, stag weekends, adventure weekends, and corporate events for a wide of variety of clients in the UK (Chillisauce Ltd, n.d.). The idea of Chillisauce Ltd was conceptualized and transformed into a reality in 2000 as an event organization and has enjoyed steady growth since then (Edwards, 2014). The company offers its services to both individuals and corporate teams. According to its website (Chillisauce Ltd, n.d.), it assists both individuals and companies to select destination and event ideas and actualize the ideas as desired by the clients. The rapid increase in demand for its services has seen the company in need for expansion in terms of space and personnel. The company has built a good rapport with its customers by providing exemplary services. The reason the company is regarded successful in the event industry is through the easy online management of events,  no charge for event amendments, total customization, utilizing best suppliers, and offering a 24-hour emergency helpline (Chillisauce Ltd, 2016).

Several issues present themselves in the business. The major issue faced by the organization is to keep up with the ever-increasing demand for its services. For example, rapid growth has seen the company’s team double in size within a three year period with a further increased projected in the coming years (Edwards, 2014). Another issue is the increasing variety of services and ideas to organize for events. Numerous categories regarding event management are emerging requiring the company to incorporate them so as to capture greater market shares. Relevant partnerships are being created that require sufficient planning. New partnerships are significant issues for the company. For example, new activities such as survival-based experiences have been introduced in conjunction with Bear Grylls’ Survival Academy (Edwards, 2014). Another fundamental issue can come from the simplicity of event organization in which a client can get fully customized services that will ensure customer satisfaction; thus, it requires a wide array of skills, knowledge and competencies.

The Mission/Aims/Objectives of the Strategic Plan

The goal for Chillisauce Ltd. is to become a leading high-performance company that is efficient, accountable and incorporates innovation to create best experiences for its clients. The objectives of the strategy to Chillisauce Ltd are directed towards the achievement of continuous success of the company that will help achieve the business’s goals. Therefore, all stakeholders of the company are considered in this strategic plan. The purpose of the strategic plan is to become a roadmap of the organization’s role, operations, and expectations. The strategic plan of the business will serve some functions:

1. Foster and facilitate strategic partnerships
2. Provide measures of performance that monitor the firm’s success.

Apparently provide the directions for meeting the company’s objectives.

1. Facilitate strategic expansion into the international markets (globalization).
2. Enable continuous improvement by tackling emerging challenges.

Strategic Choices

Strategic choices are critical as they are the specific steps of how a firm plans to deploy its resources in order to achieve success (Zanoni, et al., 2014, p. 13; Hill, n.d.).The future of Chillisauce Ltd is dependent on the choice of decisions made by the organization’s management and the way the business should react to the challenges, pressure’s and influence found in the companies’ analysis of its environment. Therefore, the firm will require properly developing and exploring the strategic methods to be pursued to create a sustainable competitive advantage. Also, it is critical for the organization’s plan to implement measures to that will determine the success of these strategic methods by evaluating their suitability, acceptability, and feasibility. Thereby, the program should comprehensively assess the overall appropriateness of the strategic option in which the company utilizes.

Strategic Methods

Recently, the global economic situation has been dynamic and companies, to survive, they need to expand. This can be done through accessing new markets, making products and services more attractive, satisfying customers, and most importantly by developing new strategies (Anna, 2015, p. 19). These methods can be applied at the corporate and business levels (Johnson, et al., 2005, p. 18). To realize the vision created by the strategic plan, the choices to be set relate to which business a firm operates. For the choices to made, in the business level, the company will look into innovation of services, diversification of products and services, and costs and pricing. In the corporate level, the business will look to entering new markets, market diversification, partnerships and collaboration, and corporate social responsibility.

1. Service and Process Innovation

Innovation is a strategic option that is known to achieve a competitive advantage (Hana, 2013, p. 82). The success of the organization will depend on the knowledge, skills, experience, creativity, and qualification that are directed towards continuous organizational learning and research and development (R&D) (Guatam, 2012, p. 23; Downey, 2013). Through continuous learning and R&D, a company is capable of developing new products and new processes in the organization. Chillisauce Ltd will incorporate new ways of conducting and offering services. Through service innovation, the firm will change how clients experience their services. For example, the company can come up with various ways to experience their services such as new ordering methods. Also, the company can come up with numerous ways to earn membership points and giving discounts on orders made.

2. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

CSR is an emerging trend that has been adopted by many organizations due to the impact the business has on society. CSR, which is also known as sustainable responsible business or corporate conscience, is used to refer to self-regulation policy that is incorporated into a firm’s business model where it acts in compliance with ethical standards and international norms (Fontaine, 2013, p. 111). The level of social responsibility of an organization vastly influences how the society views a company (Global Affairs Canada, 2015). In CSR, for example, Chillisauce can give back to the community through responsible activities such as incorporating hikes and other extreme sports with activities such as tree planting. This provides the company with an excellent image that is desirable by many individuals, eventually building a lasting brand. A good brand of the company aids in expansion and penetration into new markets.

3. Fostering and Facilitating Strategic Collaboration and Partnerships

Collaboration and partnerships have become a trend utilized by many companies to ensure that their survival either by minimizing their costs or through the increase in revenue from sales. According to Uddin & Akhter (2011, p. 44), strategic alliances are those cooperative strategies whereby the resources of some companies are combined to create competitive advantages. To achieve these benefits, firms will combine their assets, resources and capabilities to develop mutually and distribute services or create additional resources that form a part of new competitive advantages through innovation. Chillisauce will attempt to create collaboration and linkages with companies that have some degree of valuable exchange. For example, they have previously collaborated with Bear Grylls’ Survival Academy to create a new service – survival based experiences (Edwards, 2014). These alliances will help the business to penetrate new markets and capture a larger market share in return.

4. Pricing Strategies and Costs

For an organization to sustain its competitive strategy, it must align the prices and costs of its services with the industry in which it operates and continuously review them (Peter, et al., 2014). Most organizations have realized the essence of costs strategies through research (Baroto, et al., 2012). However, instead of Chillisauce seeking to concentrate on a singular pricing strategy, the business can utilize several strategies to remain sustainable competitively. In the cost strategy, the company will strive to process its value chain in the most effective and efficient way so as to produce goods and services at the lowest cost without compromising quality and also to provide unique products and services. For example, by combining these strategies, Chillisauce come up with a cluster of standard services in which they offer the lowest price to all individuals and teams compared to their competitors. On the other hand, the enterprise can provide some premium services such as customization that provide activities of the highest quality in which they can charge premium services.

5. Globalization and penetrating new markets.

The rapid expansion of business has led to the significant phenomenon of globalization. Globalization is the process by which various societies and economies get more closely integrated such that business can operate across boundaries (Irani & Noruzi, 2011, p. 217; Zitkiene & Zitkus, 2012). Globalization, being a part of the organizational design that influences a firm’s competitive strategy (Srivastava, et al., 2013), will help by contributing to gather skills and competencies from all over the world as well as assist in penetrating a new market. Globalization can be achieved either through collaboration with strategic partners or by foreign direct investments (FDIs). Therefore, a company will maintain a sustainable competitive advantage by acquiring necessary skills and competencies as well as create new markets that will generate more revenue through sales.

Success Criteria of Strategic choices

The evaluation of the success of strategic decisions must satisfy three criteria; suitability, acceptability, and feasibility (Kaplan Financial Limited, 2012).

1. Suitability

Suitability is an essential principle that assists greatly in assessing the strategic choices made by any organization (Jaeger, et al., 2010). Using suitability, one assess where strategic choices can exploit company strengths, overcome issues in their environment, and if it aligns with company’s objectives. Therefore, all strategic choices should be evaluated accordingly. All strategic options meet the suitability criterion. For instance, innovation, CSR, and cost strategies exploit the company’s good reputation by ensuring customer satisfaction by the creation of new services, helping the society deal with issues, and offer quality services at desired prices respectively. Also, these choices assist in resolving issues such as knowing how to manage all new and emerging activities in information management. As for strategic alliances and globalization, it helps the company to utilize its provision of high-quality services to penetrate new markets and thereby to solve the issue of capturing larger market shares and aid in generating more profits for the company.

2. Acceptability

Acceptability evaluates whether the options adopted by the strategic plan are in line with a firm’s objectives and whether they are acceptable to stakeholders (Boundless, 2016). Therefore, it is significant in assessing the risks involved and if they align with the expectations of stakeholders. All options play a crucial role for the shareholders of the company as they all offer a high profitability standpoint for the shareholders and the organization. However, some factors are contentious as CSR and globalization all require massive amounts of resources both financially and regarding the human resource. Shareholders and the business might view them as setbacks in their aim of generating more revenue. Also, globalization will have an effect on the organizational structure of the company, which in return might bring change and its effects on the company. Nonetheless, they are all acceptable since CSR and globalization have the positive effect on revenue and value of a share in the long run. In addition, CSR builds a stronger brand for the firm through acceptability by external stakeholders in the society.

3. Feasibility

Feasibility assesses whether a business possesses sufficient resources to carry out strategic choices (Currie, et al., 2009). Regarding globalization, there is a drawback on insufficient human resources to conduct. However, Chillisauce Ltd has sufficient funds to do massive recruitment of qualified personnel. Also, due to its positive growth in terms of capital, the organization can easily access funding from banks and other financial institutions. Moreover, the business, through its reputation and brand, it can provide sustainable progress in globalization efforts and creation of strategic alliances as many customers will want to be part of the Chillisauce Limited Company experiences as well as other companies will want to collaborate with the firm. The company also has the necessary skills and competencies in their human resource to identify the strategic partners, make plans for the appropriate CSR activities, develop innovative products and services, and establish the cost strategies for the various classes in its activities.

Therefore, all the strategic choices that have been identified to create a success path for the company in the future have met all the success criteria. This means that these activities, if well implemented, these activities have the capability to lead Chillisauce Ltd to become a growing high-performance company with a sustainable competitive advantage. Thus, the process of implementation of the strategic choice is paramount for the organization.

Disseminating the Strategy

The dissemination of a strategy requires a proper plan that will ensure that all the activities set out in the choices are properly organized so as to be performed. Understanding the position of the company and by considering the strategic choices have a minute worth to the organization unless these strategies are transformed into strategic action (Blahová & Knápková, 2011, p. 62).  Therefore, it is crucial to identify how the plan is going to be implemented throughout the entirety of the organization. The implementation plan must involve all stakeholders, and they should clearly understand the whole plan as well as their roles in the implementation. Designing strategic action will require the identification of activities and key performance indicators for success. A Balance Scorecard is used to translate an organization’s vision and strategic plan into a coherent set of performance measures. It utilizes for perspectives – customer knowledge, financial measures, internal business processes, and learning and growth- to provide equilibrium between the short-term and long-term objectives (Al-Hosaini & Sofian, 2015, p. 27).

Corporate Level

The corporate level which includes the CEO is responsible for ensuring that the plan is followed to the plan in the organization by facilitating support using resources available in the company. In the financial aspect, the corporate level’s mandate is to make the company more profitable and bring returns on investments which will be indicating by the profits achieved at the end of the year. For the customers, the corporate level is required to increase their satisfaction levels and capture more market share which the indicators of success include customer loyalty and increased customer base respectively. Internal processes, on the other hand, would be to improve the efficiency of internal processes which will be indicated by increased innovation. Finally, in learning and growth, it is expected that the corporate level increases the skills and competency levels of employees which will be shown by higher return per employee.

Management level

The management level includes the leading employees who manage business groups and teams in the firm. Therefore, the actions they undertake are crucial. They are liable for the achievement of optimal costs of services with regards to the financial aspect. They success indicator for this action is the reduction of production costs in preparing for the events. As for the actions towards customers, the management is responsible for reducing customer complaints and improving the time used to deliver services. The success indicators include better customer reviews of the company. While for internal processes, the management should ensure efficiency by eliminating redundant processes and improving the processes leading to quality event planning. For this, the success indicator is a reduction in production costs and faster service delivery. Learning and growth activities for the management level includes enrolling more employees to training and increasing the relevant frequency and quality of training sessions. The success indicator for this is low employee turnover.

Individual employee

This refers to a single employee working at Chillisauce Ltd. Their actions are extremely significant for the organization as the quality of services provided directly depend on them. Therefore, the activities of the employees, regarding the financial aspect, are to accomplish sales objectives and achieving financial goals with the indicators of success being higher sales returns per head. As for the customers, employees serve directly to the production of quality services. Therefore, their activities include customer competencies and excellent customer service with indicators being good customer reviews. For internal processes, employees are required to accomplish business objectives. As for learning and growth employees are to get involve more frequently in training and coaching sessions with the indicators being high-performance assessment scores and loyalty to the organization.

Figure 1: Balance Score Card for Chillisauce Limited Company.

Conclusion

In summary, a strategy is an essential plan that allows an organization plan its path to success. For Chillisauce Ltd, an event organization, it has several strengths and issue that need to be catered for the company to achieve better success. For example, the company needs to penetrate the market more. By utilizing strategic choices, these issues can be easily tackled, providing the company with a sustainable competitive advantage. The choices that have been chosen to include innovation, CSR, globalization, collaboration, and cost strategies. These options require an assessment to ensure that the plan is successful. The evaluation uses three criteria; suitability, acceptability, and feasibility. Since the strategic choices satisfied the criteria, they require being turned into strategic actions. Implementation of the strategic plan is essential if the strategic plan is to be of any importance to the company. A Balance Scorecard has been utilized to indicate precisely the activities each level of the business is required to perform, and the success factors highlighted in the discussion.

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