Blundstone Footwear Company - Case Study Example

Blundstone Footwear Company Student’s Name Institutional Affiliation Date Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Introduction 4 Use of Strategic Tools and Instruments 6 PEST Analysis 6 Political Factors that impact Blundstone Company 6 Economic Factors impacting Blundstone Company 6 Social Factors 7 Technological Factors 7 Key Performance Indicators 8 Production Efficiencies 9 Sales-Floor Performance 9 Organizational Culture Analysis 9 Formal Strategies versus Emergent Strategies 11 Blundstone’s Vision Statement 11 Blundstone’s Mission Statement 12 Blundstone’s Goals 12 Extent to which the Company sticks to the Planned Strategies 12 Plans that are emphasized in Blundstone 14 Business Plan 14 Marketing Plan 14 Emphasized Goals 15 Customer satisfaction 15 Reliable Distribution 16 Planning Flexibility 16 Structural flexibility 16 Operational Flexibility 17 Financial Flexibility 17 Strategic Planning Responsibility 17 Commitment to the Strategic Plan 18 Strategy Implementation 18 Specific things to ensure Successful Implementation 18 Staff Engagement 19 Difficulties 19 Weak Strategy 19 Inefficient Leadership 20 Monitoring the Plan 20 Planning Outcomes 20 Conclusion 22 Recommendations 22 References 24 Blundstone Footwear Company Introduction The Blundstone Footwear Company is a footwear manufacturer which is located in Hobart, Australia. This company is widely known for its product of elastic-sided, lace-less, ankle-boots (Craik, 2016). ‘The Original’ is the official name that is given to this product but in Australia they are known as the ‘Blunnies.’ The company, Blundstone Australia Pty. Limited typically engages in manufacturing and designing these kinds of footwear for the children, women, and men. The footwear that is produced by this company is suitable for numerous reasons like playing, hiking, light and heavy work, and also suitable for both the sunny days and rainy days (Craik, 2016). Additionally, Blundstone provides unisex-styled footwear, accessories elastic-sided boots, dress boots, as well as gumboots. The company offers its products through their various both in Australia and abroad (Craik, 2016). Blundstone Company is a private limited company with about 550 employees in Australia (Craik, 2009). It also has other branches in the United States, Canada, and Australia. The nature of competition that Blundstone Company faces is monopolistic in nature where numerous competitors exist who also provide footwear products that are slightly differentiated and easily substitutable (Craik, 2009). Precisely in Australia, which is its primary location of operation, they face a rather intense competition among other footwear manufacturers, and it is highly fragmented (Craik, 2009). Following this background, the paper will seek to evaluate and document the strategic planning activities of the Blundstone Company. This will be done through analyzing various aspects including the strategic tools, formal strategies, planning flexibility, strategic planning responsibility, and the planning outcomes of the company. Use of Strategic Tools and Instruments PEST Analysis The growth of the Blundstone Company depends heavily on the external conditions of where it operates. Therefore, the company makes use of the PEST analysis model to identify some of the external factors which may present both the threats and opportunities in the company’s macro-environment (Yüksel, 2012). This analysis also enables the company to have an insight of their current position. Political Factors that impact Blundstone Company The Blundstone footwear enterprise is also prone to the effects of the political landscape. The political component of the PEST analysis typically addresses the influence of the government on the business’s macro-environment (Yüksel, 2012). Having stable political conditions in the primary markets that the firm operates in presents various opportunities for the Blundstone Company to be able to expand in such areas. When the free trade policies are expanded, they tend to facilitate easier market penetration in the overseas regions (Yüksel, 2012). On the other hand, if the state chooses to improve their support regarding infrastructure, it provides greater levels of opportunities for the Blundstone Company to expand their operations in such markets. Therefore, following the political factors of the company, Blundstone usually experience numerous opportunities to enhance their global expansion and market presence in the boots footwear market. Economic Factors impacting Blundstone Company The performance of Blundstone is also largely determined by the state of economies in which it sells its boots footwear and products. This particular component typically identifies the various economic concerns which impact the macro-environment of Blundstone (Yüksel, 2012). Some of the economic factors which determine the performance of Blundstone include the fast growth of the developing markets and the economic markets of both the developing and developed markets. Some of the developed markets like Australia and the United States are rather stable which presents the company with a significant opportunity to keep up with its although slow but relatively stable growth in such countries. Blundstone Company is also presented with the possibilities to grow rapidly. Following this analysis, the external component depicts that it is critical for the Blundstone Company to put a notable amount of emphasis on the global expansion strategies and at the same time striving to devise new ways of capturing growth in those developing countries (Yüksel, 2012). Social Factors The social issues affect the level of attractiveness of Blundstone’s footwear designs. This particular component of the model tackles the impacts of the social conditions of the company’s macro-environment (Yüksel, 2012). Some of the external social factors include enhancing their positive attitudes regarding leisure and increasing their emphasis on the product safety. Blundstone Company possesses various opportunities of developing safe footwear products and then make use of marketing campaigns which tends to stress on the product safety (Yüksel, 2012). In the same light, Blundstone Footwear company also usually have the opportunity of implementing some product development strategies which will seek to address the specific needs for the leisure activities. Technological Factors Blundstone’s business activities tend to always change with the available technologies that are present concerning the business processes and the designs of the footwear. The technical factors tend to identify some of the technological conditions which result in a rather significant change in the macro-environment (Yüksel, 2012). Some of the technical factors that Blundstone Company encounters include the wide utilization of the mobile technology, the increased investment in research and development, as well as the enhanced technological obsolescence. The increased investment in research and development among businesses tends to threaten Blundstone because these competing companies to focus on developing some technologically advanced footwear. In the same light, the increased technological obsolescence is a threat to Blundstone Footwear as it puts a significant quantity of pressure on the business to strive in increasing their efforts in product development (Yüksel, 2012). On the other hand, the technological factors also provide Blundstone Footwear with the opportunities of integrating some of these advanced technologies in developing their footwear products. Precisely, the company has the opportunity of combining the mobile technologies like online tools and mobile applications so that they could capture the consumers who significantly make use of these techniques (Yüksel, 2012). Key Performance Indicators Most of the businesses regardless of which industry they are in to have a particular way which they could utilize to keep a track on where they stand against their competition, goals, profitability, and their strategic plan (Parmenter, 2015). The KPI is an essential tool which is often utilized to measure and monitor the operational factors which ultimately determines the success of the company. Blundstone makes use of this tool to assess and monitor the specific factors which impact the success of their business as well as track where they stand regarding their competition and most importantly monitor their level of implementation of the strategic plan (Parmenter, 2015). Some of the KPIs that Blundstone makes use of are their production efficiencies, their sales-floor performance, as well as clicking success. Production Efficiencies Out of the total footwear manufacturing costs, approximately 70% is used in fabric for the Blundstone Company. Therefore, the company makes use of the KPIs which are related to the use of fabric which could help them approximate the profitability issues for the enterprise (Parmenter, 2015). Specifically, Blundstone Company calculates the quantity of fabric which is utilized for manufacturing a given number of footwear products and comparing it to the amount which is was bought for that particular job. In the same light, the company also calculates the cost of labor that is utilized for per every minute (Parmenter, 2015). The overall number that they get after calculating these KPIs gives them a particular reading regarding the quality of the footwear which they manufacture. Sales-Floor Performance Blundstone makes use of this KPI to shift their focus to their financial perspective of both their wholesale and retail operations (Parmenter, 2015). They do this together with the merchandise performance measurements. Precisely, the financial ratios which the company makes use of are the costs of their products that they have sold, the sales of products per every square foot, as well as the sell-through (Parmenter, 2015). The company also assesses their sales by every product category like the various types of boots or accessories and they also depend on the ratios of stock-to-sales so that they can obtain the correct inventory amount in their hands so that they could sell a given set of quantity (Parmenter, 2015). Organizational Culture Analysis Blundstone frequently undertakes the analysis of their organizational culture so that they could identify the building blocks which they will need to combine so that they could establish an overall corporate culture (Cameron & Quinn, 2005). Blundstone adopts several aspects of their organizational culture so that they can manage to identify both the issues that hinder their success as well as those that promote their success. Blundstone oversees that there is the individual learning in the company. The organizational culture for this company highlights the benefits of overseeing a lifelong learning (Cameron & Quinn, 2005). Blundstone company has the belief that when they develop and sustain a culture of individual learning will tend to promote business effectiveness, quality, as well as productivity. Following this, Blundstone regularly provides opportunities for training and development, some leadership development programs, global mobility, as well as internships. Through these particular efforts, Blundstone has managed to maintain an organizational culture which has played a significant role in motivating the employees and encourage them to keep learning (Cameron & Quinn, 2005). Other important factors that are a part of Blundstone corporate culture include inclusion and diversity (Cameron & Quinn, 2005). The management of the company has recognized the critical role that inclusion and diversity play in the efforts of optimizing their Human Resource capabilities of dealing with a market that is increasingly becoming diverse (Cameron & Quinn, 2005). Following this, Blundstone's organization culture encourages their staff, customers, franchisees, and suppliers to offer them with their feedback as well as engage them in some useful conversations so that they could ensure their support for inclusion and diversity. In doing this, Blundstone improves their business significantly. On the flip side, the lack of resources is a factor which has for some time jeopardized the organizational culture of Blundstone. The company has strived to address this particular problem but with minimal success. They need to manage to maintain an adequate amount of resources so that they can be successful in the long run (Cameron & Quinn, 2005). Therefore, there has been a problem in maintaining a thriving organizational culture because all the workers keep on being worried about the lack of adequate resources (Cameron & Quinn, 2005). Out of a scale of I to 5, 1 being the highest score and 5 being the lowest score, PEST analysis has a score of 2, KPIs a score of 3, while organizational culture has a score of 5. PEST gives a rather comprehensive overview of the company’s status through the analysis of various perspectives, which is followed by the KPIs and then the organizational culture. Formal Strategies versus Emergent Strategies Blundstone Company, just like many other companies, has some company values, mission, vision, and goals. This business has formally written these values, mission, vision, and goals as documented below. Blundstone Company Values (Dobson et al., 2015) Outstanding customer service Active legal compliance Non-discriminatory employment Respecting our people’s dignity Responsible community membership Outstanding product quality Active industry membership Healthy and safe workplaces Blundstone’s Vision Statement Blundstone’s vision is to be among the leading contributors to Australia’s socio-economic development (Dobson et al., 2015). Blundstone’s Mission Statement Blundstone’s mission is to be able to invest in the manufacturing of products while at the same time striving to achieve the highest international standards of their global customers in the niche and conventional markets (Dobson et al., 2015). Blundstone’s Goals In all their dealings and activities, Blundstone’s goal is to follow the humanistic approach of their founder. The company stands always to be committed to high ethical standards as well as the cultural heritage of their values. They also aim at treating their stakeholders and the community as a whole with a significant utmost social responsibility sense through sharing the benefits that they make with them (Dobson et al., 2015). Extent to which the Company sticks to the Planned Strategies Blundstone Company, just like any other company, has a formally planned strategy which it follows to keep them on track on various aspects of the business. The company’s strategic plan has overseen the company improving their revenues through the design, branding, expansion, as well as production strategies. Regarding the company’s extent of sticking to its strategic plans, it tries as much as possible to go by the plan, but this is not without challenges (Skelton, 2013). The strategic plan of Blundstone Company is of three years, but each year they partake some monitoring and evaluation activities whereby they make some changes to it if need be. From the monitoring and evaluation outcome, on a scale of 1 to 5 one being highest and five being lowest, the extent to which the company sticks to the formally planned strategies is 2. This is because it has included various practical aspects which they intend to achieve within some given time frames and they do so as much as possible. For example, there was a component of the strategic plan which stipulated that Blundstone would strive to compete through innovation. The goal of their incorporating technology and product innovation is to inspire their consumers in every way (Skelton, 2013). The Blundstone Company has managed to achieve this aspect of their strategic plan through redesigning their shoes to capture a wider range of market so that they could fit the particular niche that they intend to fill. They have also strived to develop some new product lines which stand out which is a component of their strategic plan. In doing this, Blundstone has established a new technology that they use to manufacture their shoes which are the use of image recognition. This technology has enabled the company to develop new types of shoes that address the needs of consumers from different age brackets and of different cultures (Skelton, 2013). Blundstone’s strategic plan is rather flexible to some extent as it can to a considerable extent incorporate the emergent, new, and unanticipated developments. One of the aspects in which this plan is flexible is that it can be altered to expand the scope of their marketplace. The markets that the Blundstone Company has developed in Australia can be easily duplicated through the applications of e-commerce as well as through internet marketing (Skelton, 2013). As a mechanism of addressing the increasing levels of competition, Blundstone Company is adjusting their strategic plan so that they could avoid being affected by the economic downturns of Australia or being caught up in the changes in the footwear fashion. In doing this, it has altered its plan such that it has incorporated the use of e-commerce in expanding their market (Skelton, 2013). The other way in which Blundstone Company is flexible is through making the necessary changes to diversify so that they could reduce risks. As discussed earlier, Blundstone Company has other branches in America as well as Canada. Additionally, it has a broad range of products (Skelton, 2013). Through this, the strategic plan is flexible in that it spreads the risks to other regions of operation and through striving to develop new product lines to spread these risks as well. Plans that are emphasized in Blundstone Two plans are largely highlighted in the company’s business strategy which includes the business plan and the marketing plan. Business Plan The business plan is the document which the company uses to plan for the specific details of their business. This plan is emphasized in the Blundstone’s business strategy because of various reasons. One of them is that the business plan clarifies the direction for the company through defining what the company intends to become within a stipulated time (Walker & Shen, 2002). Since the business plan defines the direction and purpose of the company, it enables the company’s management to understand what it will need to do so that it can be productive moving forward. Another importance of emphasizing the business plan in their strategy is that it gives the company a clear future vision. The plan has proven to be a rather efficient way of planning for the market changes, the new directions or innovations which the company could take as the company intends to grow (Walker & Shen, 2002). Therefore, although the plan clarifies the direction for the company, establishing a future vision for the company enables it to have specific goals which they could reach for Marketing Plan Blundstone also emphasizes the marketing plan is it assists the business management to be able to think about what make it a unique enterprise as well as reflect on the ways in which the company’s management could share the message regarding the company to the intended audiences through the utilization of a variety of communication channels. One of the reasons why the marketing plan is emphasized is so that they could manage to remain competitive in the footwear industry (Lim & Phillips, 2008). It precisely does this through developing the marketing strategies in due course so as to ensure that the company runs in a smooth way. The marketing plan also enables the company to stay focused on mapping out a guide which will drive it towards achieving their goals. The marketing plan enables the Blundstone Company to become proactive as well as coordinate their efforts. Additionally, the marketing plan allows it to stay on track and be organized all through the entire year (Lim & Phillips, 2008). Emphasized Goals The strategic plan of Blundstone Company emphasizes on various goals and objectives. One of them is ensuring a consistent product quality. This goal is emphasized through developing a repeat customer base through ensuring that the quality of the footwear that they produce meets the needs and standards of their clients. By them developing a product that has a dependable quality, they tend to establish a trusted brand name in their market. This will, in the end, bring about some new customers (Lim & Phillips, 2008). Customer satisfaction Another goal that Blundstone Company emphasizes is that of ensuring that their clients are satisfied by their footwear products. They oversee that their customers are satisfied through seeking to obtain feedback on their sales. Additionally, when they know which among their products tend to have more sales than the others indicates to them the kinds of shoes which their customers prefer and through this, they will oversee their clients are satisfied (Piller & Kumar, 2006). Reliable Distribution Blundstone Company does both wholesale and retail distribution to their clients. Therefore, among the company’s objectives is to fulfill the orders made on time while meeting the scheduled requirements of their suppliers. Therefore, they strive as much as possible to either eliminate or reduce delayed orders so that they can prove to be a reliable company (Piller & Kumar, 2006). Planning Flexibility In developing their strategic plans, Blundstone strives to be as flexible as much as possible regarding their finances, operations, and structures such that they can manage the unanticipated situations more efficiently and with minimum losses (Gamba & Triantis, 2008). Structural flexibility In their structural planning flexibility, Blundstone mainly focuses on their team structure which they ensure that they are very flexible. This company is built on some teams of employees whose duty is to make a contribution to the specific work processes and objectives of the enterprise (Andersen, 2000). One of the ways in which the company ensures that their plan is structurally flexible is through encouraging the employees to lead themselves and one manager being in charge of overseeing the various teams in the enterprise. This, in turn, oversees that the teams stay innovative and have the ability to respond to the market demands and needs of the market with high levels of flexibility and speed (Andersen, 2000). Operational Flexibility Blundstone Footwear Company enhances their operational flexibility through collaborating with the suppliers closely. Precisely, through the company working closely with its suppliers, it enables it to optimize the time frame within which the products are availed. They link this close collaboration with the suppliers with the flexibility contract which makes the strategic plan rather flexible (Andersen, 2000). Financial Flexibility To address the financial flexibility, Blundstone Company has developed some sort of external financing to buy the company’s assets whether they are intangible or tangible. Therefore, when the company faces the financial flexibility crisis, it has some assets in place which are not related to its individual core business. In their plan, they intend to oversee the financial flexibility through spelling out some of these assets which can be sold so that they could generate the necessary funds which will tackle the financial flexibility problem (Gamba & Triantis, 2008). Strategic Planning Responsibility In the Blundstone Company, the particular person who is responsible for the strategic planning of the business is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the company. Although the CEO is the one with this responsibility, he does not do this by himself. He has established a team of some top-level executives who assists him in the strategic planning process. This team, headed by the company’s CEO accepts the accountability for both formulation and the implementation of the company’s strategic plan. Commitment to the Strategic Plan The people who seek the commitment for the strategic plan include the CEO and the top executives. These people, in particular through the Human Resource department, oversees that the staff is motivated and the entire workforce is committed to implement this plan and ensure that it becomes successful as well. Strategy Implementation In the Blundstone Footwear Company, the Execution Planning Facilitator is the one who has the responsibility of implementing the company’s strategic plan. The facilitator does this through integrating the execution and the project planning disciplines with the necessary change management process needed. In doing this, the facilitator formulates some plans that they could follow in the implementation of the strategic plan. Specific things to ensure Successful Implementation In overseeing the successful implementation of their strategic plan, Blundstone Company does the following particular things; The company aligns their initiatives. Since the company creates a new planning strategy, it develops new activities and strategies across the entire company. After developing these new activities and strategies, they review it regularly against the relevance of the new strategy. Precisely, the company has developed a ‘strategic value measurement tool’ both for the new and existing initiatives. This tool then enables the relevant workforce to analyze their initiatives against their impact on the company (Kerzner, 2002). Another thing that the company does is to align their budgets together with their performance. This has protected the company from the strategic expenditure through subjecting the strategic initiatives to an extensive review. The performance of the business needs to be placed on the organizational strategic goals. Additionally, all the staff members are usually given the job functions which will have an effect on strategy. In doing this, the company avoids over-expenditure and at the same time ensures that whatever they spend on the plan matches the company’s performance (Kerzner, 2002). Staff Engagement Blundstone appreciates the fact that staff engagement in various stages of the strategic implementation is critical to the success of the plan. The company ensures that all the key stakeholders and staff members understand the strategic plan and its importance to the success of the organization. This ultimately results in the success of strategy implementation because they are engaged and committed to oversee its success (Kerzner, 2002). Difficulties Blundstone Company has experienced some problems and challenges as they implement their strategy. Some of these difficulties are documented below. Weak Strategy The company has on several occasions failed to have an honest evaluation of their company which led to the development of a planning strategy which is not achievable. This is because the leaders of Blundstone Footwear are very aspirational, which is a good thing but has on several occasions led to them developing strategies that are rather weak. On these occasions, the leaders have adopted some strategies that are ill-fitting regarding the market competition as well as its current position. Following these weak strategies, the company has struggled severally to take the necessary action to implement the strategy efficiently as they are needed to. Inefficient Leadership In the year 2014, Blundstone Company was changing the its leadership on several levels because they were unable to have the ability to balance where they needed to work with their partners closely so that they could build the necessary support and cohesion of the company’s strategy. During that time, the leadership was rather weak which jeopardized the implementation of the business’s strategy. In some cases, the leaders were not willing to undertake some of the difficult decisions which were included in the plan. This, therefore, necessitated the company to change the leaders often so that they could oversee proper strategy implementation. Monitoring the Plan The strategic plan of Blundstone has highlighted the person who has the responsibility for monitoring and evaluating the plan. In this case, the CEO was the one who was accorded the responsibility of monitoring and evaluating the plan and reporting the progress to the Board of the company. They are also accorded the responsibility of assessing whether the plan is effective and sustainable or not. Planning Outcomes Following the strategic planning activities that Blundstone Footwear Company undertakes, there have been several positive outcomes that have been realized. Through strategic planning, Blundstone Company has continuously developed the appropriate budget forecasts so that the company knows what it will cost them to be in operation. Costs are significant determinants of the success of any business, and following the fact the company kept track of their finances through the plans it has been able to be productive and realizes significant amount of profits as well (Craik, 2016). Strategic planning has also enabled Blundstone to have a realistic projection of whatever they will require concerning their staff and their other new capacities that they will use to achieve their vision. In the same light, strategic planning has also overseen the company to develop their critical goals which enable them to measure their strategic progress with time. Over the last year of operation, Blundstone Footwear Company developed a referral incentive program for their customers which seek to offer them with freebies, gift cards, and discounts so that they encourage their consumers to purchase the company’s products and refer other people to that company. The company strives to communicate with their customers frequently through email so that they can make them active and engage them in their business activities (Craik, 2016). One of the negative aspects of strategic planning for this company is that it led to the development of a totalitarianism climate. This is where the employees no longer felt the need to communicate openly with their supervisors as well as their colleagues. This has resulted in the suffering of their performance because of the rigid environment that they created (Walker & Shen, 2002). The lack of this open communication did not oversee the employees and their colleagues to be on the same page regarding implementing the strategic plan which impacted the company rather negatively. Conclusion Blundstone Footwear Company is a private manufacturing company which produces boots for various types of consumers. This company is medium sized, and it is in operation in America, Canada, and Australia. Like many other companies, Blundstone Company has put in place a strategic plan which they follow to keep them on track regarding their productivity. Some of the strategic tools that the company uses to make learn about its current situation include the PEST analysis, KPIs, and the organizational culture analysis. As documented in the paper, the Blundstone Company has a formally written mission, vision, values, as well as goals and objectives. The plans emphasized in the plan include the business and marketing plans. Due to the unexpected situations, the company has embraced structural, operational, and financial flexibility to deal with such circumstances. The strategic planning responsibilities have been documented with the primary responsibility lying on the company’s CEO. As discussed in the paper, the strategic planning activities have had significant effects on the productivity of the company as has been discussed. Recommendations Blundstone Company can make the strategic planning more efficient through engaging the commitment from the individuals who will be influenced by the strategic plan. Aside from involving the CEO and the other top executives, it will also be prudent to engage the governing body who will then engage the other beneficiary groups that they represent. All the stakeholders need to be engaged in every step of the strategic plan so that it may be more useful, productive, and achieve the needs of a wide range of people affected by the company (Van Niekerk, 2008). The other way of making the plan effective is through monitoring its execution against the long-term business goals. Although the strategic plan of Blundstone Company oversees its regular monitoring, the monitoring system will need to be designed such that it addresses the same factors and objectives that are important and significant in the planning process. 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