Global Mobility and Talent Management

Discuss about the Global Mobility and Talent Management.

Introduction

Strategic Management is implementing strategies to achieve goals & objectives of an organization. Strategic Management involves planning and implementing all of that is necessary to an organization. It can be setting objectives, executing action plans, analyzing internal and external sources of the environment, implementing strategies and formulation of major goals (Gamble & Thompson, 2014). In this report, we have taken Primark to understand strategic management. Primark is a leading fashion brand of UK. It opened it’s first store in 1969 & having head quarter in Dublin. The store offers a wide range of products from babies to kids, to women, men, accessories and beauty products.

Primark offers range such as clothes- jackets, shirts, tee-shirts, shorts, dresses & hosiery items, footwear, home ware- bed sheets, towels, curtains, pillows & duvet covers, accessories and beauty products. The company offers its products at very competitive prices and has best simple designs and uses good fabrics which attracts customers. The company’s main target is group of below age 35. It has stores in various regions such as-UK, Ireland, Europe & USA. The company is increasing its stores day by day. It has two hundred seven stores in seven major regions. The company operates a chain of apparel stores for babies, kids, women & men. The company offers range such as clothes- jackets, shirts, tee-shirts, shorts, dresses & hosiery items, footwear, home ware- bed sheets, towels, curtains, pillows & duvet covers, accessories and beauty products. The company offers its products at very competitive prices and has best simple designs and uses good fabrics which attracts customers. The company’s main target is group of below age 35. The company’s aim is to provide good quality products. The prices of company is cheap but the quality is superior. So, products of the company are quite affordable.

Mission & vision are important to management to achieve their goals. These two are required before other strategies are formulated and implemented. Both vision & mission define the organization’s reason for existing.

A vision describes what a company wants to be in future. A vision is something that a company wants to achieve by knowing it’s mission. Vision of Primark is to be the first choice of customers by gaining social competitive advantage and for this company provides proper training to the employees. The company provides products at the most cost effective price possible.

A mission statement shows the organization’s purpose and why it is in existence. A mission statement describes what a company wants now. Mission includes general details of business as well as objectives and goals.  It provides a step stone. A company can build its future on the basis of its mission. As mission leads to vision. Primark’s mission is to provide good quality clothes at cheap prices that any individual can afford. The fabric and the simplicity of designs is the specialization of its clothes. Company’s mission defines the role of an organization. The company provides new innovative products to its customers. The company also makes new marketing strategies to gain competitive advantage.

Core values reflect the company values and support the vision. Core values educate clients about the identification of company. It is the basis upon which decisions & strategies can be made. Core value of Primark is to provide good variety of products with best quality and at reasonable prices. It offers great value for less money.

Analysis of the external factors

An organization is greatly influenced by the external factors. These factors affect the performance & operations of business. By PESTLE analysis we can know the positive & negative impact of external factors. These are:

A country’s political factors affects to a large extend by laws, taxes, government policies, rules & regulations, stability or instability of government, attitude of government (Rothaermel, 2015). Market of UK is mostly stable. So, Primark is least affected by the political factors.

The recession has greatly impacted the economy. But in the period of recession also, Primark has reported more profits as compared to the competitors. It is due to the effective strategic policies & the affordable price that is offered by the company. There can be some other economic factors such as- economy growth, inflation, interest rates, monetary policies and market trends.

While planning a business, it is necessary to mind changes happening in society such as changes in lifestyle, fashion, income, taste (Frynas & Mellahi, 2015). Primark is offering a good range of variety at nominal prices giving tough competition to it’s competitors with the changes taking place in the society.

New inventions, research & development, changes in IT comes in technological factors. All these factors help in improving company’s performance (Peppard & Ward, 2016). To reduce the level of stealing, Primark is using CCTV camera and scanners. Bar code scanners are being used to keep the perfect estimation of sales.

People find legal factors similar to political factors as both the factors are connected to laws. Tariffs, trading policies, wages & taxation are legal factors. In UK it is compulsory to contribute 3% of salary for pension by employees. So Primark has also adopted the policy.

Environmental analysis can be a part of corporate social responsibility. Policies are created to protect the environment. Such as use of recycled material & paper bags are being used by the Primark (Daspit, et. al., 2017).

Internal factors can be analyzed by SWOT. SWOT is acronym for strength, weakness, opportunity & strength. These points are discussed as-

Primark has 196 stores in seven countries & offers good employment opportunities. It employs more than 25000 people. The policy of low prices has given a tremendous success to Primark. Due to affordability, it has attracted a lot of customers. The company leads in low prices. Location & the superior of the stores is also strength of the company.  The company has also won many awards for the quality of products and service.

Primark does not advertise, it is one of the major weakness as competitors has gained advantage over them. It has also been said that the company uses child labour to produce goods, which is against the nation’s law. The company is also facing another issue of quality also.

Other brands are also leading in the market in terms of quality, so Primark has huge competitors in the market. The company has low IT skills and poor management but has higher profits and good financial strength (Hill, et. al., 2014).

Setting long term objectives

Long term objectives define a goal and are for long period of time, ranging from two to five years. These objectives are prepared from mission, other activities also depend on the mission statements. Results of long term objectives are achieved in future and efforts are made in present (Eden & Ackermann, 2013). Primark wants to realize public that just because price of products are cheap does not mean that the quality of product is also inferior, quality of products is far superior. It is the aim of company to provide products at reasonable prices so that public will have wide options at minimum prices. The company keeps friendly approach by greeting their customers and welcoming the Long term objectives of the company are: to lead in the market and be the number one, to gain customer’s loyalty, train the employees for the betterment of organization, to be the first choice of customers, to achieve international standards & to keep the environmental clean by using paper bags.

Primark has been making effective & competent marketing strategies to attract customers. It has also making strategies for marketing mix. Primark has well organized strategic plans:

Firms are concerned for the target set of customers, as it will reduce product cost & will increase effectiveness of product. Target marketing breaks the market into segments on the basis of the income, taste & preference of consumers. By targeting a specific group, it makes promotion, pricing & distribution easier. Strategies under target marketing approach are:

In the stage of segmentation, market is divided into group of buyers on the basis of how their response is going to be towards product. Primark is segmented as clothing retailer. Further segmentation is done on the basis of different departments such as – clothes, footwear & home ware.

Customers are targeted on the basis of their taste, income & preference. Primark has multiple products & are segmented by differentiated marketing strategy. Segment is done on the basis of age, sex, income, taste, social status and lifestyle.

Consumer preferences can be known by marketing research for a brand. According to the preference of customers, a brand can improve its performance. Primark has repositioned the perception of simple & basic designs to trendy & stylish. The company still wants to maintain low prices at good quality.

Product marketing approach is applied even before the production starts. Primark has increased the market share by competitive pricing strategies & sales promotion.  Internal promotion strategies are also been used by the company such as loyalty schemes. Market development is also a growth strategy used by the company in which the existing products are sold into new markets. Ansoff matrtix is also used by the company to determine product marketing strategies to set the directions for the business.

Establish annual objectives

Annual objectives are discussed prior in a meeting or in an annual general meeting. Important decisions are made regarding policies & regulations of the Primark:

Putting benefit of workers ahead company’s profits is the main objective of the company.

 Company provides data knowledge & support to it’s customers.

To achieve the objective of quality, products should be checked before putting on sale to public.

 Provide wide variety of products at reasonable prices.

The company tries to be eco-friendly by using paper bags to keep the environment safe.

The company maintains friendly relationship, also it help customers so that they feel welcome & loyal towards company.

At the end, growth in sales & increase in market shares are also annual objectives of the company.

Establish certain policies

Primark has certain policies, which makes it different from another brands. These policies are the reason for the success of company too:

Doing new things & different from others is the main policy of the company.

The company keep prices low & standards high (Morschett, Schramm-Klein & Zentes, 2015).

It has good standards in supply chain management.

 The quality of the product is measured through international standards (Bettis, et. al., 2016).

The company hardly spends on the advertisement.

The company does not hire any celebrity to promote the products.

The policy of low prices has win-win situation in the market.

Their refund & exchange policy is also ideal in the market. Full refund or exchange is made to customers (except jewelry & cosmetics) within twenty eight days of purchase after showing the original receipt. Returns are made according to the payment of method made at the time of purchase (Carroll, Primo & Richter, 2016).

Allocate necessary sources

Resource allocation is a way of using available resources. Human resources are used to achieve goals in the future (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014). It is necessary to allocate human resources to maximize output & organizational efficiency in an effective manner:

Strategy of the organization includes planning, communication, information & interactive skills.

Resourcing like identifying the employees & analyzing their needs, contract of employment, method of recruitment and the selection method (Wheelen & Hunger, 2017).

Staff retention can be introducing new staff, payment for employees, career development & training, development program, health & safety issues, ending contract.

Balanced score card refers to the performance management report used by the management. It is used to provide feedback to organizations. It focuses on the implementation of strategy or operational activities. The system connects the link between mission, vision, core values and strategy focus areas (Punt, et. al., 2016). Primark used BSC so that organization can:

Align the business activities that everyone is doing with strategy.

Communicate what the company is trying to accomplish.

The company has prioritized products & services.

Measure & monitor progress towards strategic targets for learning & growth.

Balanced score card of Primark

Conclusion

Primark has a great role & contribution in the trend of fast fashion. Primark is best known for good quality at cheap prices. This feature of Primark has made it the most leading brand in Europe, UK & USA. Company’s mission, vision & core value gives it recognition. List of alternative strategies has defined the priority of customers. Certain policies are also established, which makes it different from another brands. Necessary sources are allocated to understand employee’s need. The company keeps on improving it’s performance and communication by using balanced score card (BCS)

References

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