Marketing Strategies of la Fosse Associates and Other Small Businesses - Report Example

Marketing for Small Businesses Table of Contents Introduction 3 2. History 3 2 Company Overview 3 2.2 Critical Development 4 3. Marketplace Position 7 4. Secondary Data 8 4.1. Staffing and Recruiting Industry 8 4.2 Buying Behaviour Theory 9 5. FT Article 10 6. Nature of Planning 12 7. Areas of Concern 12 8. Service Marketing 13 9. PEST Analysis 14 10. SWOT Analysis 16 11. McKinsey 7s Model 17 12. Entrepreneurial Marketing 18 13. Comparison with another Two SMEs 19 References 20 1. Introduction Name: La Fosse Associates Location: Bressenden Place, London, UK Date Started: 2007 Size (number of business units): 1 Business Sector: Staffing and Recruiting Number of Employees: 51-200 Number of Owners: 1, Simon La Fosse 2. History 2.1. Company Overview La Fosse Associates, founded in the year 2007, is a privately held business organisation, which is mainly operating in the industry of staffing and recruiting. The current Chief Executive Officer of the company is Simon La Fosse and is currently headquartered London, UK. It is viewed to be a mid-size company, employing 51-200 employees for conducting varied operational functions. La Fosse Associates is quite renowned in the UK business market as a pioneering digital and technology recruiter, offering broad array of services to a versatile group of customers ranging. The business leaders of the company have been much passionate about offering outstanding service to worldwide customers with a firm belief that the company can attain its desired business objectives quite certainly. In this similar context, the predetermined business targets of the company can be duly measured through improved profitability in terms of market share, making effective business decisions and attaining superior competitive position as compared to others operating in the similar industry (La Fosse Associates, 2014). It is worth mentioning that La Fosse Associates is specialised in the area of recruiting technology as well as digital talent through the incorporation of varied technological advancements. The company has been apparently noted to perform its prime operational functions at every level of a specific technology organisation based on contract, permanent, executive search and interim portfolios. Apparently, the company serves in staffing and recruitment business sector or industry, offering flexible services to its customers following value-driven approach. It would be vital to mention in this similar concern that the company has been operating in this particular industry since the year 2007 with utmost effectiveness in its leadership quality and capability. This can be justified with reference to the fact that the company tends to recruit people regarded as top 10% performers and possess superior integrity level with passionate commitments towards offering quality services to the clients (La Fosse Associates, 2014). By taking into concern this vital aspect, it can be affirmed that the company has been able to strengthen its dominant position in the respective industry as compared to its major rivals. 2.2 Critical Development The platforms associated with digital marketing and e-commerce have eventually transformed into effective business systems that has made the traditional operational functions to change into modernised ones. It can be apparently observed in this similar concern that the fastest as well as the most effective business stories of to this modern world have largely embraced the notion of digital innovation with the intention of accomplishing predetermined organisational targets. In addition, it has been quite apparent that the businesses have adopted the idea of digital innovation in order to address and mitigate any sort of risk while performing varied operational functions (LFA, n.d.). With regards to critically analyse the business development of La Fosse, based on the above presented information, it can be apparently observed that the business of the small company has been able to leverage maximum growth and profitability by segregating its business into two broad divisions. These divisions include “interim management” and “contract.” The prime elements that can be found in the aforesaid business division of La Fosse’s “interim management” are ‘leadership’ and ‘management.’ On the other hand, ‘technical’ is viewed to be a major part in the business division of “contract” of La Fosse (La Fosse Associates, 2014). Identifiably, the ‘leadership’ element of La Fosse’s “interim management” fundamentally covers the practices that encompass digital ecosystem and technology, which implies Executive & Digital IT Leadership and technology. This particular element of La Fosse has been apparently noted to deal with the clientele including technology software based consultancies along with vendors and infrastructure as well as telecom service providers. It is worth mentioning in this regard that the critical development of La Fosse’s business relating to ‘leadership’ constituent can be witnessed with a close look on the recent technology based assignments that the company has obtained. Out of these, the major ones included Hitachi Consulting – Programme Manager, Visual DNA – Business Development, Openbet – Senior Vice President – Technology and Phorm – Director of Business Development among others. On the other hand, the recent digital based assignments that the company received include Burberry – Director of Digital Solutions, Bacardi – Director of Global Digital Marketing, Tesco.com – Ecommerce Programme Manager and BBH – Head of Creative Technology. With regards to Executive-IT, the latest assignments that La Fosse obtained are Macmillan – Global Business Systems Director, Reed Elsevier – Director of Business Technology and Ecore – Chief Information Officer among others (La Fosse Associates, 2014). Specially mentioning, the ‘management’ element of La Fosse’s “Interim Management” division focuses on forming exceptional leadership teams with the incorporation of various significant aspects that comprise architecture, business partnering, strategy, transformation and service delivery. Similar to the above-discussed assignments, the prime instances of searches that have been conducted by the company at this level include The Sanctuary – IT Manager, Remploy – Head of IT, BUPA – Head of Information Security, Smiths Group – IT Procurement Manager and Mothercare – Head of IT among others (La Fosse Associates, 2014). Finally, the technical element of La Fosse’s “contract” business division emphasises offering permanent as well as contractual technical specialists and middle-management recruitment services in every functional area. In this similar context, these areas include support specialists, software developers, infrastructure, project managers and business analysts. The sorts of assignments that La Fosse conduct at this particular level are Rolls Royce – Business Analyst – applications, Clear Channel UK – Data Manager, Globalclick – Development Team Lead and Kingfisher – SAP Technical Architect. Furthermore, the other related assignments encompass Paddy Power – Web Project Manager, Gala Coral – Network Engineer – CCNP, Discovery Communications Inc – Citrix Systems Administrator, Greene King – SQL Service Engineer, University College London – Helpdesk Support Engineer and McDonalds – IT Sourcing Lead among others (La Fosse Associates, 2014). 3. Marketplace Position The market environment in this present day context seems to be quite competitive irrespective of any industry due to certain factors like increased level of globalisation, gaining momentum of internationalisation as well as liberalisation and extreme usage of innovative technological advancements. In order to preserve an effective and viable marketplace position, La Fosse requires recognising the needs as well as the preferences of its global customers and offering the services in accordance with their respective choices. It can be apparently observed in this similar context that the company knows its marketplace and position in the same, for which it has been able to obtain a superior competitive position as compared to others operating in the respective industry (La Fosse Associates, 2014). In order to determine the marketplace position of La Fosse, the major competitors and the respective factors that supported them towards competing with this particular small-sized business company have been analysed. Correspondingly, it is strongly believed that the detailed information concerning strengths along with weaknesses of its competitors would certainly help in determining the marketplace position of the company by a substantial extent. In this regard, the major competitors of La Fosse operating in the UK business market can be apparently noted as Castlerock Recruitment Group (CRG) and Interact Medical (ID Medical) (ICS, 2014). The analysis of these prime competitors of La Fosse operating in the similar industry and varied sector in the UK has been presented in the following. Castlerock Recruitment Group (CRG) CRG is involved in performing a varied range of trading functions for a long period particularly in the sector of healthcare as well as homecare, allied health, social care along with health sciences and resourcing among others. It would be vital to mention in this regard that there are several important factors, which has eventually led the company to face tougher competition with La Fosse. In this regard, the factors included spending substantially, specifically on impermanent staffing, minimising costs through performing effective management systems, designing as well as allocating budgets for making quality workforce planning and employing delivery teams along with account management personnel among others (Castlerock Recruitment Group Ltd, 2014). Interact Medical (ID Medical) Apart from CRG, ID Medical is regarded as the other prime competitor of La Fosse, which operates in the similar industry and gives tough fight to this small-sized business company. Notably, ID Medical mainly operates in healthcare segment and is quite renowned in offering managed healthcare solutions to diverse healthcare organisations present in the UK region. Specially mentioning, the company strongly believed that its initiative of establishing strong client relationship has been identified as one of the prime factors for its success (Interact Medical, 2012). In this similar context, according to the report published by ICS (2014), ID Medical holds a significant position in staffing as well as recruiting business industry due to effective, quality and appropriate services provided to the clients, having their presence in the UK business market. 4. Secondary Data 4.1. Staffing and Recruiting Industry Based on the report published by Panoptic Analytics (n.d.), the varied sorts of services that are included within staffing and the recruiting industry are permanent recruitment, support services and agency work among others. According to this particular report, one of the decisive facets of staffing and recruiting industry is its low-entry barrier, as massive investments and most crucially, lawful compliances are not needed to form an effective staffing agency. However, there are certain portion of nations and end-customer segments that does not possess precise supervisory requirements, which might duly act as one of the major entry barriers (Panoptic Analytics, n.d.). As per the report published by Panoptic Analytics (n.d.), the UK staffing and recruiting industry was highly fragmented during the year 2006, which is following the similar trend. This can be accepted with reference to the findings presented in the report that the staffing industry of the UK generated revenue of 36.4 billion Euro in excess of 10,000 agencies creating income of about 3.5 million Euro in the year 2006. The report of Panoptic Analytics (n.d.) highlighted certain major drivers that affected the UK staffing and recruiting industry largely. In this similar concern, the drivers include employment levels, job vacancies, growth rate of the industries and transforming behavioural attitudes of the labour force (Panoptic Analytics, n.d.). In brief, it can be affirmed that the high industry growth rate is one of the prime strengths of staffing and recruiting industry of the UK, resulting in delivering significant benefits to the small-sized businesses belonging to the nation such as La Fosse Associates. 4.2 Buying Behaviour Theory In general, the theory of buying behaviour or consumer behaviour is regarded as the study of the procedures that are engaged in selecting, buying and utilising any sort of product and/or service, idea or experience for satisfying the customers’ preferences. It would be vital to mention in this similar concern that based on the above presented idea, this particular theory is largely reliant on the effective decisions made by the organisations, individuals or groups towards buying any particular product or availing any service. Correspondingly, it has been quite apparent that the major determinants of the theory of buying behaviour include ‘attention’, ‘comprehension’, ‘attitudes’ and ‘intention’ (Bray, n.d.). Similar to the above-discussed perception, the buying behaviour of the clients relating to staffing and recruiting industry is also dependent on the decisions made by them towards availing any sort of service. In this present day context, wherein there exists greater business market competition and excessive usage of innovative technological advancements, every sort of businesses tends to evaluate the decisions of the customers at large. Thus, in relation to the UK staffing along with recruiting industry, the behavioural theory of the clients can be assessed by adapting their personal behavioural attitudes towards seeking any related product and/or service. It is quite essential for the organisations, groups or individuals operating in the UK staffing and recruiting industry to cope up with buyer objections concerning any subject matter for raising customer satisfaction level at large (RBA, n.d.). 5. FT Article The article “Wind In Their Sails” highlighted La Fosse Associates as one of the best small-sized companies operating in varied business or operational levels. It is worth mentioning that based on the perceptions depicted in the article, the business position, operational performance and marketplace position of the company can be determined. According to the article, the employees desire to work with utmost effectiveness as the business leaders of the company remain much committed towards providing astonishing 40% stake to them by utilising various share options. In relation to the article, the biggest factor that contributed in making La Fosse to attain its desired business targets is leadership. The business leaders of the company strongly believe that it can attain success in this respective industry by focusing on the construction of a customer-oriented business (The Sunday Times, 2013). The aforesaid article, titled “Wind in Their Sails”, displayed certain fundamental approaches that were undertaken by La Fosse, which eventually attracted the employees to work for the company with utmost effectiveness. It can be apparently observed in this similar context that the business leaders of the company have introduced performance-linked bonuses for its employees, resulting in the overall development of the entire business performance and the employees at large. Apart from this, the company is also viewed to take better care of its personnel, offering them with certain rewards like spa treatments and beach holidays among others that attract them to work for the company with utmost dedication (The Sunday Times, 2013). A snapshot of the article has been provided below for better comprehension. Source: (The Sunday Times, 2013) 6. Nature of Planning It is obvious that planning plays a conclusive role in driving modern organisations and their businesses towards attaining success in this competitive landscape. However, it is to be stated that the planning structures or initiatives differ from small-sized to big-sized businesses at large due to certain important aspects. These aspects entail size as well as the scope of the business, its nature, its investment level and marketplace positioning among others (Khan, 2008). Concerning its planning strategies, La Fosse, as a small-sized business, focuses on three particular values that include ‘outstanding delivery’, ‘innovation’ and ‘integrity’, which eventually guide the company towards assessing the behavioural attitudes of its clients and colleagues and deliver them with quality assured services. In relation to its value for ‘outstanding delivery’, La Fosse is quite interested to focus on superiority particularly when delivering at every operational level. From the perspective of ‘innovation’ as its another value, La Fosse has planned to implement traditional sourcing procedures with broad assortment of pioneering techniques, which has aided it to obtain most comprehensive candidates from diverse business markets throughout the globe. Relating to the value of ‘integrity’, La Fosse tends to emphasise maintaining integrity as well as transparency in making effective decisions towards the welfare of the employees and other related aspects (La Fosse Associates, 2014). 7. Areas of Concern One of the biggest challenges or concerned areas for La Fosse is the prevalence of extreme business market competition in the industry wherein the business operates. It is thus anticipated that this competition would continue increasing in future as the services relating to staffing along with recruiting are gradually becoming popular in the modern day context. Besides, the market trend relating to these kinds of services seem to be much positive, resulting in extreme business market competition. La Fosse was established in the year 2007 and during that particular period, the market competition was not so much prevalent as compared to the recent days, facilitating the company to attract as well as retain loyal clients. It is worth mentioning in this similar context that the company can address and mitigate the aforesaid concerned area, incorporating its varied value structures like ‘innovation’, ‘outstanding delivery’ and ‘integrity’ at every business or operational level (Infosys Technologies Limited, 2010). Apart from the concerned area of prevailing extreme business market competition, the soaring operational expenses might be identified as the other challenge for La Fosse, which took place fundamentally for using disintegrated business systems while performing any sort of operational function. Specially mentioning, the coalition of the above-discussed values might not take place appropriately within La Fosse, affecting the sustainability of the business at large (Infosys Technologies Limited, 2010). 8. Service Marketing The idea of service marketing generally signifies marketing any particular product or service. It is usually regarded as a valuable and effective marketing branch, which engages the dissemination of product and/or services to the end customers. It has become quite apparent that the conception of service marketing plays a decisive role for both big as well as small-sized businesses in attaining greater level of success communicating respective products and/or services to the clients in the form of service marketing (Hoffman & Bateson, 2010). With this concern, it can be apparently observed that La Fosse markets and advertises its broad assortment of service lines to customers utilising print media such as in articles like The Sunday Times. The chief business market competitors of La Fosse are also noted to render due significance to effectively advertise their respective services through print media and digital media. They have also been using traditional media such as in newspapers at certain times (La Fosse Associates, 2014). It is strongly believed that effective communication means would certainly assist in developing the entire performance of La Fosse’s business attracting a huge figure of customers. This would ultimately help the company to attain a superior competitive position in comparison with its chief business market competitors. 9. PEST Analysis The Political Environment It can be affirmed from a broader understanding that political actions can impose significant impacts on the overall performance of the companies, which operate in the current staffing and recruiting industry. In this respect, the political environment functioning in the UK is found to be quiet stable and is free from the conduct of any sort of violence (Scribd Inc., 2014). Thus, with this concern, it becomes evident that the staffing and recruiting procedure can be conducted efficiently by observing the political situations persisting within this nation. The Economic Environment The UK holds the position as one of the principal economies in terms of nominal Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which clearly depicts that its financial circumstance is quite strong. It is worth mentioning that the nation was able to cope up with the adverse situation of recession, which took place in the year 2008, establishing the fact that it holds the capacity to mitigate such type of recession if occurs in future instances (Scribd Inc., 2014). Thus, with this notion, it can be affirmed that the strong financial position of the UK might favour in developing its recruiting as well as staffing industry at large. The Socio-Cultural Environment Socio-cultural factors often play an imperative role in developing any industry as the societal norms and behavioural attitudes of the customers need to be taken into concern for providing products and/or services to them in accordance with their requirements (Scribd Inc., 2014). Thus, the socio-cultural setting, which is prevalent within the UK, might aid in developing the staffing and recruiting industry, emphasising social as well as cultural aspects of the customers at large. The Technologic Environment Concerning the technological aspects, the UK is regarded as one of the leaders in the innovation field. It has been apparently observed that the nation utilises quality and effective technological advancements in various fields like Research and Development (R&D) for enabling the organisations to make innovative performances (Scribd Inc., 2014). Thus, it can be affirmed in this context that the nation is quite capable of facilitating developments in the staffing and recruiting industry through better utilisation of accessible resources in the form of pioneering technological advancements. 10. SWOT Analysis Strengths Weaknesses Innovative digital & technology recruiter Broader level of service offerings Delivers outstanding services Immense reliance on the employees Limited resources Opportunities Threats Developing staffing and recruiting industry Stable political conditions Strong business market competition Probable change in regulatory frameworks Possible rise in tax levels Source: (La Fosse Associates, 2014) From the above-depicted tabular representation, the strengths along with the weaknesses of La Fosse can be apparently observed, along with the opportunities as well as the threats that might be faced by the company in future. As discussed earlier, staffing and recruiting industry of the UK is incessantly growing and thus, the company tends to offer a broad assortment of quality services to its clients. However, at the same time, this particularly industry is intensifying with extreme business market competition for which its financial performance might get hampered to a certain extent (La Fosse Associates, 2014). 11. McKinsey 7s Model This particular model generally tends to provide active support to the modern companies in determining their respective business and operational effectiveness (Nair & et. al., 2011). This can be better understood with the help of the following pictorial illustration. Source: (Nair & et. al., 2011) Strategy: La Fosse takes into concern the application of functional integration as one of its effective strategies, which supported the company to attain greater success at every business or operational level. Structure: The business or operational structure of La Fosse is noted to be multi-dimensional in nature, which aids in developing its overall performance at large. Systems: La Fosses works in collaboration with various business analysts, support specialists and software developers with the purpose of developing its varied operational systems. Style: La Fosse possesses a unique leadership style, which values the ideas presented by its employees and takes care of them providing various monetary as well as non-monetary awards. Staff: La Fosse involves talented staff members for performing its versatile and challenging operational functions that ranges from contracts team, regional recruitment and client services team to operations. Skills: The leadership skills of the personnel belonging to La Fosse include strong vision, greater commitment level, better decision-making power and capability of promoting innovation. Shared Values: La Fosse has certainly developed a wide range of corporate values that include “innovation”, “outstanding delivery” and “integrity”, supporting the company towards attaining its predetermined business targets. (La Fosse Associates, 2014) 12. Entrepreneurial Marketing The notion of entrepreneurial marketing typically refers to a sole marketing strategy, which enables an organisation to differentiate itself from the conduct of traditional based marketing practices (Fayolle, 2007; Lodish & et. al., 2002). It can be apparently observed in this regard that La Fosses utilises the idea of print media in order to market and advertise its broad product lines, which clearly depicts that the company is involved in performing entrepreneurial marketing effectively. Moreover, adaptation of functional integration mechanism in the business or operational procedure also signifies the usage of entrepreneurial marketing by La Fosse (La Fosse Associates, 2014). The company strongly believes that it can attain its predetermined business targets through remaining active involvement in conducting effective practices linked with entrepreneurial marketing. 13. Comparison with another Two SMEs In this section, two of the SMEs, CRG and ID Medical, have been taken into concern for comparing the approaches executed by La Fosse, while performing varied operational functions. In this similar context, it can be apparently observed that both the above stated two SMEs, i.e. CRG and ID Medical, have been following the operational integration model in their respective businesses, while, La Fosse strictly follows the functional integration model in its business. This can be explained based on the fact that La Fosse focuses on developing the functions of business in order to attain its expected business targets. On the other hand, both ID Medical and CRG emphasise advancing the operational procedures for reaping several significant benefits like improved profitability. Another comparison can be made between the two SMEs and La Fosse, which can be measured in terms of their respective performance in varied industry segment. In this regard, it can be observed that La Fosse has performed and developed its business segment continually in the field of staffing and recruiting, while CRG on outsourcing and ID Medical on healthcare (Castlerock Recruitment Group Ltd, 2014; ICS, 2014; La Fosse Associates, 2014). References Bray, J., No Date. Consumer Behaviour & Consumer Decision Making. Consumer Behaviour Theory: Approaches and Models, pp. 1-33. Castlerock Recruitment Group Ltd, 2014. About CRG. Home. [Online] Available at: http://www.crg.uk.com/about-crg [Accessed May 13, 2014]. Fayolle, A., 2007. Handbook of Research in Entrepreneurship Education: A General Perspective. Edward Elgar Publishing. Gamage, D. T., 2006. Professional Development for Leaders and Managers of Self-Governing Schools. Springer. Hoffman, K. & Bateson, J., 2010. Services Marketing: Concepts, Strategies, & Cases. Cengage Learning. Interact Medical, 2012. About Us. Content. [Online] Available at: http://www.interactmedical.co.uk/content/about-us [Accessed May 13, 2014]. ICS, 2014. FAST 50 Firms Show the Way. Heralding a Bright Future, pp. 29-30. Infosys Technologies Limited, 2010. Abstract. Staffing Industry: Challenges and Solution, pp. 1-6. Khan, A., 2008. Profitable Exporting for Small Business. Kompass Business & Professional Publishing. Lovelock, C., 2011. Services Marketing. Pearson Education India. La Fosse Associates, 2014. About Us. Home. [Online] Available at: http://www.lafosse.com/about-us/ [Accessed May 13, 2014]. La Fosse Associates, 2014. Meet the Team. About Us. [Online] Available at: http://www.lafosse.com/about-us/the-team/ [Accessed May 13, 2014]. LFA, No Date. Functional Integration is the Key to Multi-Channel Success. Uploads. [Online] Available at: http://www.lafosse.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Functional_Integration_is_the_Key_to_Multi-Channel_Success.pdf [Accessed May 15, 2014]. La Fosse Associates, 2014. Technology / Digital / Executive IT. Case Studies. [Online] Available at: http://www.lafosse.com/case-studies/technology-digital-executive-it/ [Accessed May 13, 2014]. La Fosse Associates, 2014. Management. Case Studies. [Online] Available at: http://www.lafosse.com/case-studies/leadership-team/ [Accessed May 13, 2014]. La Fosse Associates, 2014. Technical. Case Studies. [Online] Available at: http://www.lafosse.com/case-studies/technical/ [Accessed May 13, 2014]. La Fosse Associates, 2014. Client References. About Us. [Online] Available at: http://www.lafosse.com/about-us/client-references/ [Accessed May 13, 2014]. Lodish, L. M. & et. al., 2002. Entrepreneurial Marketing: Lessons from Whartons Pioneering MBA Course. John Wiley & Sons. Nair, M., 2011. Improving Governance the Participatory Way: A Pilot Study of Maternal Health Services for Urban Poor in Bangalore. Public Affairs Centre. Naik, C. N. K. & Reddy, L. V., 1999. Consumer Behaviour. Discovery Publishing House. Panoptic Analytics, No Date. Executive Summary. Global Staffing Industry, pp. 2-34. Palmer, A., 2012. Introduction to Marketing: Theory and Practice. Oxford University Press. RBA, No Date. Aims & Objectives. RBA Perfect Client Meeting Programme Outline. [Online] Available at: https://www.rec.uk.com/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/123772/Perfect-Client-Meeting.pdf [Accessed May 13, 2014]. Scribd Inc., 2014. UK Pestle Analysis. Documents. [Online] Available at: http://www.scribd.com/doc/35524199/UK-PESTLE [Accessed May 13, 2014]. The Sunday Times, 2013. Wind In Their Sails. Uploads. [Online] Available at: http://www.lafosse.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/La_Fosse_PDF_EPS.pdf [Accessed May 13, 2014]. Read More