Introduction
Contemporary organizations have realized the usefulness of incorporating the aspect of strategic management in order to succeed. Strategic management plays a key role in a journey towards the achievement of a competitive advantage for any organization. With reference to the QVC company case study, this paper aims at identifying how the company grew to become a successful company.
Further, through a critical analysis, the paper will also seek to determine the strategy that the company has adopted and thereby identifying the measures put in place in an effort towards supporting the adopted strategy. The final part of this paper will involve establishing the challenges that the company face and the measures it came up with in order to confront these challenges (Drezner, 2007).
The Problem
There are several challenges faced by the company according to the case study. Foremost, the company needs to expand further beyond the boundaries within which it operates. Currently, the company is only limited to four regions namely United Kingdom, Italy Japan as well as Germany. It ought to access other international markets, as well (Michael, Hitt, Ireland & Hoskisson, 2012).
The second challenge faced by the company includes making a decision as to succeed items that are of higher margin. The company has to establish the manner in which it will ensure expanded programming such that it will include reality television shows, which are based on themes, as well as, the designer fashions. In the same context, the company gas to decide how to be successful considering the actively searched out products, which are proprietary in nature, either from the suppliers or even from the entrepreneurs, who have gained a new entry into the United States Market.
The third challenge that the case study depicts are the continued expansion through the internet, applications of mobile devices, video streaming, in addition to, interactive television shows (Haberberg &Rieple, 2008).
Further challenge concerns the growth of the company. According to the case study, it is evident that QVC has continued difficulties in establishing growth trends. However, according to the case, there are moves that the company engaged itself in and as such, it is a clear indication that the company is aware of these challenges and, therefore, it is in the process of establishing the most effective measures in order to confront them.
Analysis
How the company grew to become a successful company
The success of the QVC Company can be attributed to having a clear vision. The founder of this group intended to reach a wide range of people in an effective manner employing the use of appealing, in addition to, high quality products while observing the most viable ways to generate profits. Indeed, the title of the company in itself is an aspect of strategic management. As such, the founder established an initiative, which was not only massively inspiring but also overarching.
Further, the vision was a long-term one, and as such, it focused the future. The founder was also passionate in his journey towards accomplishing this vision. On route to success, the founder established the guiding values, goals, in addition to aspirations (Drezner, 2007).
Another success factor is the company’s mission. According to the case analysis, the founder wanted to establish a company that would be cost effective in its operation while still ensuring that it responds to its customers. However, vision and mission cannot be used singly to obtain success. This implies that they have to be linked up using objectives. The founder of this company did establish remarkably clear objectives. Some of these objectives include expansion of the client reach with the help of technology. Another objective is ensuring that both the existing client service and the standards of product quality have been maintained regardless of the channel of distribution utilized.
This indicates that the founder indeed recognized the trade-offs between the two in an extraordinarily efficient manner. He also intended to focus unique, quality, in addition to, high margin products. Further, he intended to involve a number of stakeholders in decision-making. As such, he involved both the small as well as the large vendors in the search towards efficiently finding the products that would be more entertaining. This implies that he acknowledged the aspect of strategic management through the action of hiring a number of seasoned television executives.
For the objectives of the company to be attained effectively, several actions have to be considered. Foremost, the company must ensure that it keeps the current offerings with the advent of technology. Another thing that the company ought to ensure is that it not only scans but also monitors the external environment. Through this, the company will be able to identify trends in the consumer market, trends in vendor product advancements, as well as, each move initiated by a competing business.
Further, the company should ensure that it provides a working environment, which is exciting in nature. The company should ensure that the working environment guarantees that the employees will be committed to the notion of delivering quality at the first instance.
In general, the successful spell of QVC Company can be materially attributed to the strategic management approach adopted by the founding father. Through strategic management, an organization is usually in the right direction and in a good position to achieve a greater market share and, therefore, competitive advantage over the other firms.
What strategy did QVC use, and how did it support this strategy?
According to the case study, the company incorporated the use of several strategies in ensuring that it endures successful performance. In strategic management, there are several strategies adopted. However, many organizations focus on three principal ones, which include, analysis, formulation, in addition to implementation.
Strategic analysis concerns the strategic goal, which is the vision, the mission, as well as, the strategic objectives. On its part, strategic formulation involves making decisions of which industry it should engage in as well as making decisions on how the organization should compete in the identified industry.
The third strategic concept is implementation. This strategic management approach concerns the allocation of the essential as well as the necessary resources in order to operate. Further, this approach involves designation of the organization. Here, the management is required to deliver the operations by bringing the intended strategy into operational reality.
Different alternatives that can solve the problem
Strategic analysis
The company can make use of the strategic analysis strategy, and as such, the company will be able to anticipate, not only competition but also other forces, as well, existing in the external environment of the company. The activities depicted from the case study to support that this strategy was adopted include such actions as acquisitions, vertical integration, development of a vendor network, in addition to, understanding the company’s customers.
About acquisitions, the company acquired another business in the name Cable Value Network Shopping Channel. Concerning the vertical integration, the company acquired the service of Dominique Corporation. Further, the company developed a vendor network through linking up and working closely with a wide range of partners. Finally, the company ensured that it focused on understanding their customers, as well as, their needs and services, in addition to, ensuring that it discourages them from turning to the company’s competitors (Carrol, 2009).
Strategic Formulation
It is also evident in the case study that the company also adopted the strategic formulation strategy (Carrol, 2009). According to strategic management analysts, this strategy concerns making a choice in the manner in which a company will compete. The reasons why this paper notes that the company adopted the strategic formulation is because of the offering of a shopping experience, which is attributed to as posing a low level of risk, while providing products of high quality to the customers. Moreover, the company did this in a way that no other shopping venue did and as such, QVC’s operations were differentiated.
Ways in which the company differentiated itself from the competitors include the creation of a shopping mall that would run twenty-four hours a day for a period of seven days. It also ensured that it was running programs that were based on themes with celebrities. Apart from these, the company ensured that it ran shipment for forty-eight hours. Moreover, QVC provided a one-month money back guarantee. Another action that signified differentiated service included institution of a quality control system, which was rigorous in nature, in addition to, linking up with national brands and thus forming a partnership aimed at attracting customers.
Strategic Implementation
The other management strategy adopted by this company was strategic implementation. According to the findings of the research conducted by Haberberg & Rieple (2008), it is indicated that strategic implementation concerns marshalling the company resources in a manner in which coordination, as well as, the integration of activities will be done easily and effectively in an effort towards the achievement of the chosen strategy.
This is evident in the case of QVC through various activities. The three crucial ways in which the company did this is by innovating while making use of creative merchandising. The second way evident in the case is the integration of activities (Dess, Lumpkin & Eisner, 2012). Thirdly, the company ensured that it monitored its procedures while still establishing controls (Haberberg & Rieple, 2008).
Recommendation
All of the above alternatives are viable and can lead to the establishment of the most ideal solution to the existing problem. However, strategic analysis is more weighty. To support this assertion, the company will be able to anticipate, not only competition but also other forces, as well, existing in the external environment of the company.
Conclusion
From this analysis, it is clear that from incorporating an aspect of management in one’s organization cannot bring about success. Instead, it is necessary that the owner of the organization employs the use of strategic management whereby, he defines the mission as well as the vision of his company and then identifying goals that will lead to the attainment of these two. A company that integrates an aspect of strategic management to its operations is in a better position to achieve a competitive advantage, as well as, an increased market share as compared to one that does not.
The analysis has also established that for the objectives a company to be attained effectively a company has to ensure that it keeps the current offerings with the advent of technology (Dess, Lumpkin & Eisner, 2012). Another thing that the company ought to ensure is that it not only scans but also monitors the external environment. Through this, the company will be able to identify trends in the consumer market, trends in vendor product advancements, as well as, each move initiated by a competing business (Michael, Hitt, Ireland & Hoskisson, 2012).
References
Carrol, W. (2009). Strategic communities for knowledge creation: a Western proposal for the Japanese concept of BA. Journal of Knowledge Management, 7 (5). 23-45.
Dess, G., Lumpkin, G. T., & Eisner, A. (2012). Strategic management: Creating competitive advantages (6th Ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
Drezner, D. W. (2007). Avoiding Trivia: The Role of Strategic Planning in American Foreign Policy. Journal of Knowledge Management, 16 (4). 2003, 3-15.
Haberberg, A., & Rieple, A. (2008). Strategic Management: Theory and Applications. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Michael, A., Hitt, R., Ireland, D., & Hoskisson, R. E. (2012). Strategic Management Cases: Competitiveness and Globalization. Belmont, CA: Cengage Learning