Working on the Yas Island project, Miral is facing four key issues. They are tasked with creating the entertainment of the future and have to formulate new ideas and build unique projects based on innovative designs and technologies. The company has to balance the previous task with the need to showcase the Emirati culture and present it to the world. Increasing visitation is also an important part of the company agenda. Finally, the company is yet to go global and has to find partners from all over the world who will help them build a sustainable and profitable operation.
Company value chain analysis
The company’s value chain is optimized to create innovative customer-centric entertainment. Miral achieves this goal by focusing on developing complex and unique projects, working on strict budgets and deadlines, managing assets for maximum value and creating integrated infrastructure. All of these values are outlined in Appendix 1. By following these values, the company has managed to achieve a set of key competences. The company has vast experience in constructing and managing theme parks. They are able to maximize property and business value of their projects. They have a considerable experience in dealing with various stakeholders involved in the Yas Island project. Miral offers world-class customer experience with optimal efficiency and synergy.
Competitive strength assessment
After conducting the assessment based on the key success factors outlined in the external analysis section, it can be concluded that Miral has a sizeable advantage over their competitors Zayed Sports City and Flash Entertainment. The most important factor by far is the diversity of the services offered by the company. In the oversaturated market of the UAE, covering as many directions as possible gives the company an incredible advantage. The sports center offers a diverse selection of services for the clients, but it is a specialized organization unable to match the variety of entertainment facilities offered by Yas Island.
Flash Entertainment offers a considerable portfolio of events. However, the company is limited to the event organization and is unable to provide the attractions on par with those situated on Yas. The variety and scale of the island create a unique competitive advantage for Miral, which is unmatched by any other company in the UAE. Being able to satisfy any wishes of the customer, the company has little to fear from the competition. Customer service level is another extremely important part of running a successful operation in the Emirates.
It supports customer retention and helps acquire positive press responses. All three companies covered by this analysis are characterized by strong, customer-focused corporate cultures. All of them emphasize the customer satisfaction as one of their primary goals. The UAE entertainment market maintains a high level of customer service and gaining a competitive advantage in this field is a grueling task.
However, Miral maintains suitably high standards, which means the company is on par with its competition and can safely develop in other directions. The Internet is one of the most important venues of advertising and selling in the modern world. Establishing a solid web infrastructure is crucial to the success of the entertainment operation aiming to attract customers from all over the world. The two competing companies are underdeveloped when it comes to the Internet presence.
Miral, on the other hand, has an attractive website and well-managed Facebook pages. When it comes to the location, all three companies are situated perfectly to conduct their business. The Emirates are not a large country, so getting any sizeable advantage based on the location of your company is difficult. However, it should be noted that Yas Island is situated perfectly between other entertainment centers and major transportation hubs, potentially giving it a considerable advantage. The two competitors also fall behind in term of advertisement. While Miral manages to use the Internet effectively, the other two companies do not utilize it well. The only exception is Flash making some moves to get noticed by the social networks users. Overall, it can be concluded that the unique variety of services offered by the company and strong corporate culture give Miral an advantage which will be difficult for other companies to overcome.
Assessment Summary
Despite operating in an overcrowded market, Miral has a unique advantage over their competitors. No other company in the entertainment sector of the UAE market is able to offer such a diverse and unique set of services and goods. However, it is still possible to improve the Yas Island and make it even more attractive for the customers.
- Strategic Issue. How can Miral develop true entertainment facilities of the future? While currently the services offered by the company are diverse, keeping pace with the technological innovation can help the company truly provide the entertainment of the future.
- SWOT framework. The analysis presented in Appendix 3 clearly illustrates that the company provides highly competitive services without any considerable weaknesses. However, expanding on the idea of the innovative entertainment can further the competitive advantage.
- Potential solutions. New technologies emerge every day. Lexus hoverboards, virtual reality headsets, and jet packs are some of the recent innovations that can be used in the entertainment industry. All of them can potentially attract new visitors and fill the niche of the entertainment of the future.
- Recommendation Selection. While new means of transportation are always compelling for the audience, maintaining the hoverboard park or a jetpack flying area is risky. These technologies are costly and largely untested making the potential risk for the customers high. Maintenance costs can also become an issue. For example, a hoverboard park is incredibly expensive and requires constant supervision (Stevens, 2015). And jetpacks are still not user-friendly and extremely dangerous (Burnett, 2014). That makes me believe that virtual reality setups are the most cost efficient and safe solution.
Recommendation
Utilizing virtual reality in the entertainment industry is not as challenging as it used to be. Recently, several companies, including Oculus Rift, HTC, and Sony have released consumer VR headgear. Other companies have provided even more impressive setups for various shows and exhibitions. There are solutions which allow the user to move in the virtual environment and interact with various simulated objects.
The potential of this tech for the entertainment industry is overwhelming. By contracting various companies, Miral can set up virtual reality center on the Yas Island. It can provide a wide range of services. Simple headsets running various “experience” programs or games can be compelling by themselves. However, Miral can outfit the whole rooms for the use of VR devices. With the technology offered by HTC, it is easy to transform any room into a safe play area (Machkovech, 2016).
The center can also offer some of the experimental devices developed by the independent companies. Advanced hand-tracking devices can create fully immersive experiences (Brown, 2016). Treadmills and even huge spheres provide the user with the ability to move without restrictions in the simulated environment (Shanklin, 2016). By setting up a dedicated VR center, Miral can provide truly innovative entertainment and even further some of the other goals. For example, virtual reality can be used to present the UAE culture and history through a series of immersive experiences for the headsets and playrooms. With the wide range of companies offering varied and customizable products, setting up the VR center will be much easier than utilizing any other emergent technology. The cost of the project will also be much lower than jetpacks or hoverboards, especially taking the safety concerns into consideration. Overall, this seems to be one of the most promising fields of the innovative entertainment industry.
Objectives
The optimistic profit margin for the VR project can be set at 20%. With the increasing profits of the entertainment industry, that goal can be achievable if the implementation is correct (EY, 2015). The most important values to monitor would be the number of visitors, average time spent at the center, and user retention. These three parameters can help the management evaluate the interest in the new product. It is also important to track the popularity of individual experiences to determine what kinds of simulations are more popular. That information will help develop the center in the future and increase its profitability by providing the most demanded services.
References
Brown, M. (2016). Leap Motion CEO Says VR Headsets That Can Detect Your Hands Will Launch This Year. Inverse. Web.
Brunett, D. (2014). Jetpacks: here’s why you don’t have one. The Guardian. Web.
EY. (2015). Media and entertainment industry poised to generate one of the best profit margins in 2015 compared to leading stock market indices. Web.
Machkovech, S. (2016). My virtual living room: Setting up a social VR space in the house. ArsTechnica. Web.
Shanklin, W. (2016). Virtuix Omni: VR treadmills not yet living up to the promise. gizmag. Web.
Stevens, T. (2015). The Lexus hoverboard is real, but it isn’t coming to a skate park near you. Road/Show. Web.
Appendix 1
Appendix 2
Comparative strength analysis.
Appendix 3
SWOT Analysis.