Employing Strategy a Competitive Environment This Assignment

Employing Strategy a Competitive Environment This assignment builds strategy elements created Assignment 1. Please assigment Write a (4) page paper: 1.Create environmental scan company indicating significant environmental threats discuss company respond threat ensure impact business minimal.

Employing strategy

Environmental scan

The Amber Snack Company operates in a highly complex and dynamic industry, in which the final success of the firm is influenced by a series of external factors, and mostly, by the company's ability to integrate these factors within its business model. The more relevant examples in this sense refer to the threats which impact the industry, which can be summarized as follows (the table also provides recommendations as to how the company should approach the threat):

The threat

The proposed solution

1.

Intensifying competition in both domestic and international market places

Attract new customers

Increase customer loyalty

2.

Increasing operational costs due to increasing international prices in commodities

Better budget allocation and internal planning processes

3.

Rapidly evolving technologies which force costly innovation to be supported

Allocation of budgets for innovation; technologic integration in business operations

4.

Increasing pressures from the stakeholders to operate in a more socially and environmentally responsible manner

Implementation of corporate social responsibility programs and strategies

5.

Changing customer needs and behaviors, such as an increasing emphasis on a healthier nutrition, which could materialize in a decreased demand for chips and other snacks

Market research and adaptation to the emergent customer needs (e.g. new product development)

2. Organizational strengths

The Amber Snack Company has the ability to respond to these challenges due to the strengths it possesses. For instance, the company is of a relatively small size, which allows it increased flexibility. This flexibility is further more supported by the strength of a solid organizational culture, which embraces change and continuous development. In such a setting then, the firm is highly able to identify changes within the market and the industry and to quickly adapt to them.

Then, the company has a specific direction to follow, which gives it strengths in the development and implementation of its strategies. The company has also established SMART goals -- specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time frameable (Dyck and Neubert, 2008), which allow the firm to pursue its final goal in light of the environmental threats. Last, the company also employs skilled and dedicated staffs, which help the company to identify and respond to the challenges raised by the external environment.

3. Competition and competitive strategy

The largest competitor of the Amber Snack Company is represented by PepsiCo, the creator of the famous Pepsi Cola beverage, but also reputable snack brands, such as Lays. This company is characterized by an impressive size, and the adjacent resources and profits. Still, it also faces the challenges of a large size company, such as decreased flexibility, increased dependence on retailers or decreased overall productivity.

In order to compete with this firm, the Amber Snack Company can capitalize on its advantages, such as its small size and flexibility. The firm will as such compete within local markets, by serving niche sectors. It will target final consumers in means that are convenient for them and will even seek to create specific products which serve specific customer needs, e.g. particularly spiced snacks for culturally diverse customers (guacamole, hot chili, wasabi and so on).

4. Strategy modification

In a context in which the American economy was in a state of decline, the company would have to reshape its organizational strategy in order to better respond to the new realities. In this specific setting, the strategy would be reshaped at an internal level, in order to focus more on internal strengthening and the generation of financial sustainability and operational efficiency (Hitt, Ireland and Hoskinsson, 2012).

In other words, the Amber Snack Company would seek to create cost and operational efficiencies by better planning, allocating resources, eliminating redundancies and maximizing the results obtained. Within the market place, the company would limit its expansionist efforts, but would focus on the consolidation of its current position. Furthermore, at the level of the customers, the internal cost cutting process should materialize in lower levels of retail prices, which will be better able to attract price sensitive consumers, and as such maintain a sustainable level of sales volumes and revenues.

5. Global competition and business strategy