Uncertainties facing the automobile/personal transportation industry over the next decade
1. 600 words with the scenario analysis diagram
I dentify some of the key trends and uncertainties facing the automobile/personal transportation industry over the next decade. Use this analysis to generate 2 possible scenarios for Better Place . What implications are there for Better Place’s strategy ? (need to identify 2 key factors from a pestle I think Political and Environmental).
2. 400 words with 1 illustration
Identify Better Place’s key stakeholders and map these stakeholders in terms of the power/interest grid.
The link for the case study is:
https://backup.oikos-international.org/academic/case-collection/inspection-copies/alphabetical-list/better-place-ii.html
Strategic Management Analysis:
The key trends and uncertainties facing the automobile/personal and transportation industry over the next decade are the political and environmental factors (Audretsch, 1995, 120).
Political:
The politics of a particular country have a huge bearing on its economic operations. In those countries which produce and buy automobiles, the political situation concerning how they pass the policies that touch directly on the importation of the automobiles, policies pertaining the movement of the manufactured goods to other countries and manufacture of these goods is very critical. In addition, the political situation in this country will also determine the kind of legislation that is passed concerning starting up an automobile manufacturing company from a foreign country (Datamonitor, 2010, 12).
Furthermore, the political stability which has a direct impact on the peace of a country has a direct impact on future dealings of a country. A country can only have hope for future development in the automobile and transportation industry if that country is politically stable. Another issue is the policies that govern how taxes are collected. Very high taxes will always scare away the investors who might be interested in investing in a particular country in the manufacturing industry. High taxes can also discourage contractors from participating in road construction work (Shales, 2009, 109).
Environmental:
In the automobile and transport industry, the physical or the geographical factors are key in its prosperity. The physical conditions in a given country have a direct impact on the use of automobile of different types in a given country. Due to such challenges, a country will only be able to use very specific automobiles hence narrowing the market in which business can thrive. The infrastructure for instance the roads is another key factor in the automobile and transport industry. The roads have to be in good condition to allow easy movement for the transport of goods and services (Office for National Statistics 2009, 56).
Possible scenarios for Better Place:
The government has to provide free movement of automobile goods from one country to the other. This has to be done through removal of all the restrictions that discourage movement of goods with ease across continents. When a country does this, companies from different countries get interested in investing and doing trade with such countries. In addition, a country that is interested in thriving in automobile and transport industry has to development of blocs in which trade is conducted freely without any restriction measures. This move enables the countries that are involved in automobile trade and those that are not involved to have a mutual benefit hence development of each economy (National Minimum Wage 2009, 105).
Improvement of the physical environment better place strategy should involve ensuring that all the vehicles are using fuel efficiently, buying of vehicle which uses less fuel, using alternative sources of fuel like fuel from food crops and training of the drivers who should also get monitored through the development of monitoring technology. This is basically intended to ensure that there is minimal or pollution created by the automobile ( Mintel,2009,35).
Implications for Better Place’s strategy:
The better place strategy will have so much implication in the automobile and transport industry. This strategy will have direct impact on the countries that deal in the manufacture and those that buy automobile products. For instance, the countries that are manufacturing automobile will perform excellently in the world especially in their retailing performance. In addition, such countries will perform very well financially due to the good strategic approaches. The good financial performance will be as a result of a very good political environment to do business. Furthermore, good roads and good communication attracts investors hence development and growth of the automobile industry.
Identification of Better Place’s key stakeholders and mapping these stakeholders in terms of the power/interest grid. Analyzing stakeholders is the process of identifying those stakeholders who have a direct impact in the transport and automobile industry. It also involves identifying those people who are most likely to get affected by these strategies and how to deal with each stakeholder in this industry.
Therefore, the better place stakeholders include those people who run the government and those elected people who are concerned with making laws. Those in the government therefore are the people who can either make a strategy flourish or diminish. This is because they are the people who pass the regulations of any undertaking in a country (King, 2009,15).
The legislators will pass the rules hence control how money is spent in a country. In addition, those people who are responsible for advising the government on policy matters are also very essential despite the fact they have no power. Their input is always respected by the government.
Another group of stakeholders who are very important in better place strategy are those who are able to influence how other people think. These include those people who are in the media industry. The media advices many people and has so many loyalist who take their opinion as the truth. Other people include the leaders in the community. Community leaders are always listened to because of the leadership position that they hold in the society (Lynch, 2006,11).
The stakeholders who have an interest in the result of the better place strategy are also very important in the automobile industry. Example of such people includes those who do business. The business people will always get interested inactivates that have a direct impact on what they are dealing in. in addition those who defend the rights of the community will want to know the benefits of such a move. They will always mobilize the community to rise against any issue that they feel is unpleasing (Herald 2005,27)
An illustration of better place strategy stakeholders:
The low to high influence upon the efforts to come up with better place strategies move from below the grid to the top while low to to high interest moves from left hand side to the left hand side. Therefore the interested in the better place strategy varies even including any place between the grids (Abeysinghe, 2010, 300)
References:
Abeysinghe, T. (2010), ‘Roaring tigers, rising dragon’, Straits Times (Singapore), February 2, 2010. Available at
https://www.fas.nus.edu.sg/ecs/scape/doc/ST-NUS-Econ-Series-02Feb10.pdf [accessed 07/07/2010]
Audretsch, D. B. (1995), Innovation and Industry Evolution, (Cambridge: MIT Press)
Datamonitor (2010), ‘Company Profile – Tesco’, Datamonitor Europe, 2010, Ref Code: 1674
Euromonitor (2010), ‘Industry Profile – Food retailing’, Euromonitor International, 2010
Herald Scotland (2005), ‘Baby boom gone bust, Policies needed to tackle worryingly low birthrate’, Herald Scotland, November 11, 2005. Available at
https://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/spl/aberdeen/baby-boom-gone-bust-policies-needed-to-tackle-worryingly-low-birthrate-1.37681 [accessed 07/07/2010]
Keynote (2010), Keynote Report on Food Retail Industry, Keynote International [can’t find. Wrong date. Need to provide link]
King, I. (2009), ‘Tesco shows its claws’, Sun, Jan 18, 2009. p.42
Lynch, R. (2006), Corporate Strategy (4th ed.) (Harlow: Pearson Education Limited)
Mintel (2009), Food Retail Industry – Including Online, Mintel Research
National Minimum Wage (2009), ‘Low Pay Commission Report 2009′, National Minimum Wage. Available at
https://www.lowpay.gov.uk/lowpay/report/pdf/7997-BERR-Low%20Pay%20Commission-WEB.pdf [accessed 07/07/2010]
Office for National Statistics (2009), ‘Internet Access Households and Individuals’, Office for National Statistics, August 29, 2009.
Available ahttps://www.statistics.gov.uk/pdfdir/iahi0809.pdf [accessed 07/07/2010]
Shales, A. (2009), ‘An unpalatable attitude towards food’, Financial Times, Oct 22, 2009. p.19