Competitive Advantage in the Industry - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 8 Words: 2355 Downloads: 8 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Marketing Essay Type Narrative essay Did you like this example? Introduction The Blacks Leisure Group is operating in one of the most competitive industries today. The leisure industry encompasses a range of services and products such as horse racing, fitness classes, casinos, cinemas, music concerts, water sports, land sports, videogames, bird watching and others. However, these products may be classified under the following major categories; tourism, sports, recreation and hospitality. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Competitive Advantage in the Industry" essay for you Create order Owing to the diversity in this industry, it is very necessary for Blacks Leisure Group to familiarize itself with all the latest industry trends, competitor information and consumer preferences in order to be a market leader. The report shall examine all the issues surrounding competitive advantage in the industry. Importance of developing and sustaining competitive advantage for Blacks Leisure Group Development and sustenance of competitive advantage is crucial to any business in the Leisure industry, consequently, the same applies to the company under analysis. Blacks Leisure group ought to sustain competitive advantage because of the following: First of all, the world has become increasingly interconnected. Globalisation has presented new challenges to leisure companies within the UK and beyond. Some come from the rapidly industrialised East (Asian continent) while others hail from the well established developed nations such as the US. These companies are looking to expand their service base and are therefore tapping into the companys market. Blacks Leisure Group should ensure that they sustain competitive advantage because if they fail to do so then online companies might drive them out of business. The advent of technology and the proliferation of the internet have further aggravated the situation. It is necessary for Blacks to ensure that they can expand their level of distribution in a cost efficient manner just like the online companies do. As if all the latter competitors are not enough to drive new changes in the industry, the company has to improve its product offering in order to battle it out with some of the larger Leisure groups. These Leisure companies have very large brand names and may have undue advantage over Blacks owing to their image and company strength. In the wake of the competition emanating from every single direction, Blacks should develop and sustain an advantage or competitive advantage over its players in the industry. This is because the market has evolved, gone are the days when companies would simply focus on their clients alone. Marketers and managers should not underestimate the effects that competition has because if they fail to do, then their profits will decline. The situation may aggravate and cause fluctuating sales of the respective products. Thereafter, it is likely that the company will be pushed out of business. Consequently, Black Leisure group should be vigilant about establishing a sound market positions and managing their brand selectively. Environmental marketing dynamics and the need for strategic change in order to sustain competitive advantage The world has slowly changed its gaol posts with regard to the definition of who real competitors are. Consequently, there are so many dynamics that come into play when trying to select which companies are Black Leisures competitors. The company may assume that its competitors are other Leisure groups in the country. However, there are potential entrants that may not have been considered. Taking the example of what has happened in the reading industry, group leaders such as Barnes and Nobel used up a substantial amount of their resources establishing large chains. However, the company underestimated the effect of technology because during the late nineties, another industry player came up with a way of accessing numerous books without spending too much on inventory. This company was called Amzon.com. The same situation applies to the Leisure industry. Many leisure consumers want to access services in the most convenient way possible. Online transactions have caused many consumers t o leave tangible companies such as Blacks. They are now taking most of their business to the internet. Blacks should give online transactions precedence because this has become a vital part of the marketing environment today. In order to understand ones market dynamics, it is necessary to look at competition through a wide range of angles. Competition may be defined in relation to the following; Industry concept or Marketing concept Industry concept Marketers ought to analyse their respective industries o determine whether they fall under the following Purely monopolistic industries are those that have only one company offering the service or product, Oligopolistic industries are those ones that have largely sized companies that offer the same commodities. On the other hand, monopolistic competition refers to those industries where there are a variety of products or services and competition is sustained through offering the products in a superior manner. Pure competition exists in industries where the competitors offer the same product or service. Consequently, competition is based on advertisement and marketing. Taking the example of Blacks Leisure Group, its industry falls under the monopolistic competition. In this case, there is market segmentation. Consequently, the company offers only a specific range of services to the consumer in a superior manner. The dynamics that affect such an industry (monopolistic competiti on) are quite diverse. The first issue that one should consider is entry vs. exit barriers within the industry. The Leisure industry has very minimal entry barriers owing to the fact that it has low capital requirements and patents are not that important too. On top of that, exit barriers are rather high because it likely that the assets will be obsolete by the time one is leaving the exit industries. These dynamics need to be incorporated by Blacks in order to stay ahead. The next environmental issue that should be considered by Blacks is the level of vertical integration. In the Leisure industry, there are numerous cases of vertical integration. Some companies opt to integrate their leisure equipment such as sports gear, they rent those facilities to their clients and also coordinate their accommodation among others. This trend has become very common but Blacks should avoid this approach because certain parts of the value chain are inflexible. Consequently, it is better for the company to outsource some of its pressing activities. This allows the company to focus on the services that it does best while saving a substantial portion of its budget on the specialty service. Lastly, different industries have different levels of globalisation. The leisure industry is one of the most heavily hit. This has caused a large number of these companies to compete on a global platform. Their services, marketing approaches and other company ideas have been tailored to embrace the issue of globalisation. Blacks Leisure group is not an exception, the company depends on numerous foreigners for business. Consequently, its marketing approach is tailored towards the international market. The company needs to break into other market segments owing to the fact that numerous leisure companies do the same. It would be necessary to check on some other consumers that may be interested in their services. Market concept Marketers consider competition in a different light. However, they define competitors as any company or entity that meet the same consumer need. Consequently, even if the services under consideration may not seem related, they may qualify as competitors. These competitors can be divided d into various categories depending on how closely relate their commodities are. Taking the example of Blacks Leisure Group, the company cannot ascertain that its only competitors are the ones that offer similar leisure service. While these companies may actually fall in eth same category as Blacks, one cannot under look the diversity of the Leisure industry. Some of the closely related companies include hotels, camping guides and tour operators. However, other leisure products still meet the same consumer need and these include, television show companies, movie companies, video games, music or radio companies, fitness centres, night clubs, casinos, tennis operators and many others. Consequently, it is very advisable for company to shift from defining competitors in a conventional way as the marketing environment has changed. Those companies that seem to come from a totally different industry may end up being the most influential in that respective industry . It is therefore necessary to ensure that one frequently monitors these different competitors because they could take first place. After identifying all the competitors that fall in the same category, then it is necessary to asses the strategies, objectives and strengths needed to sustain competitive advantage within ones domain. When analysing competition, it is necessary to determine which companies are following the same strategic path as Black Leisure group. The company could look at any of the following items; whether the competitor under consideration has a wide or narrow line compared to Blacks. A larger line always possesses greater competition than a narrower line. On top of that, the company could analys e the manufacturing costs of its competitor, if they have the same costs, then the company ought to watch out for it. This should then be followed by an analysis of service offering. If the company offers a high quality then it is definitely a force worth reckoning. This should be followed by a consideration of the kind of price on offer. Those companies that have the same features as the company under consideration in terms of the latter four factors will fall under the same strategic group. After doing an analysis of the strategies used by its competitors then the company should look out for the objectives of their competitors. Some companies are driven by the need for growing their market share, others place more precedence on increasing their profitability, alternatively, other companies need to be service leaders while others need to develop their technologies. Blacks then needs to look at their competitors strengths, this refers to how large their share of the market is, th ey should also look at the level of support which the company has garnered in terms of support for their products. By examining all the latter issues, Blacks can identify some loopholes among its competitors and establish itself in the market. How Porters five forces and Value Chain analysis can assist in understanding the marketing environment and competitive advantage Porters five forces The porters five forces are as follows Threat of rivalry Blacks needs to worry about this generic force because the leisure industry is highly competitive. Entry barriers are not very high. Additionally, investors have high stakes if they leave. As if this is not enough, capital costs are also strenuous. The overall effect is frequent advertisement battles, product introductions and frequent price battles. In order to stay ahead of it competitors, Blacks needs to become very aggressive. There is very fierce rivalry in this industry and only the most vigilant company garner enough support. Threats of new entrants In the leisure industry, it is relatively easy to enter into the industry. The reasons for this is that capital cost requirements are not as high as they are in other industries like aviation. Additionally, patent requirements in the leisure industry are not that high too. This means that Blacks has to be ready for intense competition. The company ought to look for a unique selling point in order to sustain competitive advantage. Threats of buyers Owing to the fact that the Leisure industry is highly differentiated, then the company has potential to do well because they can offer their services in a superior manner to their clients. However, it is relatively easy to switch from one leisure company to another, this gives the buyers a higher advantage, Blacks Leisure Group should tackle this moderate buyer strength by offering superior quality products that the consumers cannot reject. Threats of suppliers The company operates in an industry segment that has many substitutes for the products consequently, suppliers do into have a lot of bargaining power. One of the actions that the company can make to cope with the threats of suppliers is by teaming up with other leisure groups to be more influential in their respective market. Threats of substitutes There are numerous substitutes in the leisure industry. Therefore, Blacks should invest in research to forecast some of this future threats. Value chain analysis Inbound logistics; this involves, transportation, material handling material storage, communication, testing and information systems that are related to the supplier. Outbound logistics refer to all the latter that are related to the consumer. Black Leisure Group needs to consider how it can outsource its information systems which can be improve performance here. Marketing and sales technologies; refer to all media, audio and communications involved in selling the product. The company should consider incorporating technological system in service operations. Operations technologies; refer to the process and materials involved in the service offering of the company. Blacks Leisure Group should consider merging some of their business units to sustaining competitive advantage Conclusion The Black Leisure Group operates in a highly competitive market. Consequently, the companys environmental dynamics cannot be ignored. Some of the things that the company can do to sustain competitive advantage include offering superior services, outsourcing their inbound and outbound logistic, integrating business units, teaming up with leisure groups to strengthen their buyer power from suppliers, intensifying technological advancements and encompassing the global market more aggressively. All these steps will go a long way in enhancing their position in the market. Reference: Thompson, A. Strickland III, A. (1992): Strategy formulation and complementation: Tasks of the General Manager; Blackwell Publishers Benter, J. and Booms, B. (1981): business development strategies and organizational structures for service firms, in Donnelly, J. and George, W. Marketing, American Marketing Association, Chicago. Barney, J. B. (1991): Firm Resources and Sustained Competitive Advantage, Journal of Management, 1 (January) Aaker, David A. (1984): Strategic Marketing Management. New York: John Wiley. Barney, J. B. (1997): Gaining and Sustaining Competitive Advantage. Reading, MA: Addison- Wesley. Grant, R.M. (2005): Contemporary Strategy Analysis; Blackwell Publishing Ltd., Oxford (U.K.) Dyer, R. F. and Ernest H. F (1991): An Analytical Approach to Marketing Decisions. New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Porter, M.E. (1985): Competitive Advantage: The Free Press, New York, 1985. Baird, L. (1994): Meeting global challenges: The executive perspective; University of Boston Professor Raphael Amit (2007): Strategic Management , a journal for Faculty of Commerce and Business Administration, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C., Canada

Selection System Of Human Resource Management - 1208 Words

Selection system A selection system in human resource management is combination of tools and procedures used in choosing a person who is qualified for a certain role, who can successfully bring valuable contributions to an organization (Foot, Hook, Jenkins, 2016). An effective selection system is fundamentally based on job analysis so that the selection tools utilized in the recruitment process add value to the organization. This selection system provides a framework for recruiting an accountant, and it provides job analysis for the position as well as the selection tools and procedures for the position. †¢ Job title: Accountant This position generally involves providing the day to day support to the accounting function of the company. †¢Ã¢â‚¬ ¦show more content†¦Those who do not meet this requirement will be eliminated at this stage. Other items to check during screening are education background and work experience as stated in the job analysis. As result, the tool i s reliable in ensuring misfits will not be able to proceed to the next level. The applications for the position will be received online through recruitment portals and therefore the applications will be screened electronically by the human resource personnel. This tool will be administered by two human resource staff and it will take approximately five hours to execute. Telephone interviews Telephone interview is the second tool in the selection system. It involves contacting the applicants who passed the in the screening tool. The questions that are asked in the telephone interview are based on the job analysis weighed against the applicant’s responses in the application materials. It is a cost effective and reliabvle tool in selecting the best candidates who will proceed to next level in the recruitment process. 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Readers of Huck Finn Free Essays

The ending of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is indeed puzzling. On the surface, the story looks a perfect happy end – more or less, everybody seems satisfied with the new order of things: Jim is now a free man, Tom is fully recovered, and Huck gets rid of his father and receives a chance to move West to start an independent life free of â€Å"civilizing† efforts of well-meaning adult women. This looks like a perfect American ‘happy end’ which so often ends Hollywood movies even if the previous course of events had seemed unlikely to bring about such a happy combination of circumstances. We will write a custom essay sample on Readers of Huck Finn or any similar topic only for you Order Now Perhaps the sympathetic treatment of the runaway slave on the part of Huck seemed idealized to many of Clemens’ contemporaries and later critics. At the same time, the ending contains one very important message that makes it less ideal than it may seem on the surface. This is the whole behaviour of Tom Sawyer who had known all the way that Jim was in fact a free man, yet had chosen to withhold this information from his friends simply to have a spectacular liberation. In doing so, he had subjected Huck and Tom to many trials and dangers that are surely exciting to read about, but overall so difficult that few of us would like to repeat it on their own. This callous and insensitive action on the part of Tom, although he tries to justify it with a lame excuse that he had meant to repay Jim with money for his troubles, vividly demonstrates that his treatment of Afro-Americans is less idealistic. In showing Tom’s lack of sensitivity for the feelings of another human being simply because this human being happens to be a black slave brings home to the readers of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn the real situation of the relationship between slave-owners and slaves. To a great degree, such attitude puts Huck’s heroic deeds in context and reveals that many people would probably choose to imitate Tom’s behaviour rather than Huck’s especially if this promised them an opportunity to have fun. True, the readers realize that Tom is not a typical white male as there is probably no such thing as a purely stereotypical person who simply follows all the norms of his class without showing any individuality. Tom does have a very bright and outstanding individuality, and he is notable for his love of a good prank. Thus, he is going to take liberties with the lives and need of other people, including those of his own class, as he had shown during his school jokes. However, would he be willing to make a white person from a respectable background undergo such hardship as Jim did? The question remains unanswered, and the readers can very well suspect that Tom can be doing many things to have fun with things that are life and death to other people, less empowered than himself. Therefore, the ending of the book does reveal the inhuman attitudes of white slave-owners toward their black slaves. The author does show that the life of a black person is no bed of roses even after the basic question of personal freedom is solved. This freed person finds oneself in the setting in which the white majority are taught to see their black fellow citizens as worthless individuals in contrast to themselves – as people whose human value is at least slightly less than that of their own. As to Huck’s kind treatment of the runaway slave, this does not seem so improbably even one considers the wide scale of the abolitionist movement in the nation. Huck is shown to experience pangs of conscience when he conceals a runaway slave, feeling affinity with his own class and race. Yet, like many people in theory born to be slave-owners, he oversteps the prejudice the society imposes upon him and manages to become a moral person by helping a human being. Summing it up, the ending of Huck Finn does not seem to contain any improbable elements that would confirm that Twain cheated. The closure of the book does show that white people often tended to see slaves as inferior, and that many were able to rise above prejudices to help slaves. Twain, Mark. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. 13 Jan. 06 http://www.bibliomania.com/0/0/54/99/frameset.html.       How to cite Readers of Huck Finn, Essay examples

Nero The Great Fire free essay sample

Role of corrupt Roman emperor in start, spread aftermath of fire which burned city in 64 AD. Of all the Roman emperors, very few are better known today than Nero. Perhaps none is more familiar as a popular image and personality. Even Augustus is a colorless figure to most people, hardly more than a name, lost in the shadow of Julius Caesar and Mark Antony. In contrast, Nero endures in the popular culture as the symbol of Roman decadence: hedonism in food, drink, and above all sex; lurid spectacles; persecution of Christians. Everything that Hollywood loves about Rome is exemplified in the popular image of Nero, and though the Roman Empire did not actually fall till four hundred years after Neros death, it is the Neronian image that most people have in mind when they imagine the Fall of Rome. A variety of factors have led to Neros special prominence as the human symbol of Roman decadence. We will write a custom essay sample on Nero The Great Fire or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Petronius Arbiter, whose