Competitive Strategy Assignment: Business Report Analysis Of The Digitell

Question

Task: This is where you reflect on what you have learned. This form part of a reflective account used for assessment in the STG701 module on what you have learnt through The Strategy and International Business Simulation – CESIM Global Challenge.

Throughout your participation in the intensive simulation, you should set out to keep a log of your own learning and keep copies of materials including obtaining and collect your teams’ information and results of each business rounds.

You will see that the Learning Report CW has 5 (five) sections:
1. Phase One – Understanding the Strategic Position
2. Phase Two – Making Strategic Choices
3. Phase Three – Strategy in Action
4. High5Test Strengths, Self & Peer Assessment
5.Application of Learning

Answer

Introduction
The reflective report provides an analysis of the business that has been set up to understand the position that can be gained in the market. The company name is Digitell and it has been set up to sell product with multiple features. The team comprises of four members each with different roles. The intention of the report is to understand the competitive strategies of the company along with the market ventures that has been adopted. The issues with the ventures and the financial results are also highlighted in the assessment.

About the company
The name of our company is Digitell and we have the aim to sell products that consists of multiple features as well as R&D more than the competitors do.The operations of the company can be defined as it had set its sight in growing in markets in Asia, US and Europe. The marketing ventures of the company had been to enhance the services and gain an opportunity in terms of the expansion of the company.The vision of the company is to enhance the financial stability and ensue that threat from each of the competitors are mitigated. The mission of our team is to become the most innovative sales team in the world.The tag line of the company is “Go Global and remain innovative”. The chief members of our company include Managing Director. My position in the company is that of managing production and R&D.

Company Logo

IshikaAgarwal AmanKataria
(Managing Director) (R&D and Production head)

Competitive strategies
The competitive strategies that we had adopted included understanding the demand of the products that we were expected to sell. As stated by Chaffey (2019) in the modern world, multiple featured products are of high demand mainly because people want each of their required items to fit in one container or box. Hence, the demand needed to be analysed. My role as an R&D manager had been to provide emphasis on the areas. At the same time, we needed to maintain strong HR personnel so that the employees can be motivated. We had even undertaken huge investment in the Asian and the UK markets so that we can understand and improve on the areas that were deemed asimportant.

Thus, the market venture of the company was procured along the lines of understanding the price and ensuring that it provides a competitive advantage in the market. We identified that after the practise round; the pricing had been higher than the competitor had. Hence, we adopted to lower the price and focus on the quality of the products so that customers can provide use with the competitive advantage in the market. The analysis with the competitive teams shows that Digitell does not have a competitive advantage. While Astro seems to have a competitive advantage in the European market and the US market, Innovo Ltd have an advantage on the Asian market

Market ventures adopted
The market ventures that we had undertaken came in different steps. Each step had been measured carefully to understand the effectiveness it can have on our business. According to Bekaert and Hodrick (2017), the market ventures are the most essential part of the progress as based on it the success and failure of the company are dependent. The main target for Digitell was to expand in the Asian continent. The reason for this was to cut cost as generally the Asian market can be ventured in with low entry cost and achieve high success.

At the same time, we had planned to invest in the US as well as the European market so that we can keep a global perspective on the company. The success of the team was that we even increased the budget of our advertisement. This was done in the Asian and the US market with little or low focus in the European market.As stated by Perreault (2018) advertisement helps in promoting the company among the people and as stated earlier we had already understood that quality over quantity is the way to attract the customers away from our competitors.

We also focused on the suppliers so that we can maintain a steady supply in the market. The ethics associated with the company need to be maintained along with the places in which we had aimed to venture. Despite the success in the US and the European markets, our preferred market had been Asia. We even changed the catering order of the factories in which the focus had been to deliver the orders in the host area before continuing with the delivery in the other parts. For example, focus of the initial catering of the US based factories had been on the US market before moving to the European and the Asian market.

Issues identified with the ventures
The issues that we needed to deal with focused more on the marketing ventures that had been adopted. The main issue that we needed to deal withinclude getting the finance and loans. The reason for this was that the parent company had been suffering from loss. As stated by Shapiro and Hanouna (2019) for setting up a business the financial aid as well as loans from the banks is needed. This can help in maintaining a stability of the business and ensure that an urge to make profit is made so that the loans can be repaid. However, in our case with loss incurred by the parent company financial stability had not been made. Although the Asian market had been making profits, transferring the profit from the Asian market to the US had been problematic.

At the same time, tax barriers imposed in Asia and the USA market. Hence, transfer of profit as well as increasing the selling point in these places had not been considered as an option. The price of the products sold was also higher. In the words of Madura (2020) for a start up focus needed to be more on quality, however, in our case, with the parent company suffering loss, it had been necessary that the prices remain high so that we can undertake challenging ventures in the market. We also had to undergo issues with the delivery system, as Europe had not been regarded as the strongest market. Hence, dependence only on the Asian market needed to be made. Thus, these issues had been taken into consideration in terms of our market venture.

Financial results obtained
The financial results obtained from the analysis indicate that in each round Digitell had varied results in terms of the marketing venture and the sales. From the analysis, made it is clear that profit in each round had been gained from the market in Asia. The Europe and the US markets had favoured the growth of its competitors vigorously. Investment made in the R&D in Asia had not been much and I think it is for this reason that the Asian market provided the best returns in terms of dealing with the market. The assets held by the company in the Asian market are also considered as high as compared with the other markets. Overall, it can be said that our company had an enhanced business opportunity, which led us to remain competitive in the market without having to face major threat. The Asian market can be considered as our biggest asset for success.

(Refer to appendices for financial stats)

Recommendation
From the analysis, recommendations that can be madeinclude understanding the effectiveness of communication and the financial stability. The biggest issue or failure that Digitell had faced included the lack of financial stability. For this, the company can invest heavily on the Asian market and make products that can be exported from the Asian market to the US and the European markets. This can help in cutting the cost of the company and focus on the quality of the products. At the same time, a steady flow of communication between each of the departments all around the world via email can help Digitell maintain the stability of its business. The investments made can be controlled so that Digitell does not suffer excessive loss at once and ensure that opportunities for success remain.

Team work and organisation
Therefore, from the analysis, it can be said that for the success of Digitell it is necessary that the company identify the extensive ways by which the company can promote its market in the target regions. The analysis shows that the market ventures are ambitious as well a show potential of success of the company. At the same time, the effectiveness of the team had also helped. The application of Belbin’s team roles helped in providing an assessment of the work that every individual had to undertake. Challenges in the team included the communication and the lack of knowledge about marketing. From the simulation the learning gained include the need for a proper market entry strategy, financial stability and maintaining an ethical supply chain. Support between each member had been seen in the business simulation.?

Bibliography
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