Mgt302 Strategic Management- Company Corporate Assessment Answers

1. The competitive rivalry

This force explores the current state of competition in the market. This involves finding out who are the competitors and what are their strengths in the industry. In this case, when Atlassian was being founded, HP, I BM, e-bay among others were the competitors in the tech industry.

2. The bargaining power of suppliers

It examines, the suppliers available in the market, their power intensity in raising prices.  Business always does well when the number of suppliers is substantial.

3. The bargaining power of customers

This force goes into details on the customers’ power and how they affect the services and quality of products. For example, Atlassian’s market has had to face rapid changes by customers who raise their demands on services, quality products, and the prices. 

4. The threat of new entrants

These forces explore the easiness of penetrating the market by other competitors. It can either be difficult or easy. If it is easy for others to come in, this places a risk on the market. In the case of Atlassian, due to the large starting capital needed, the market has had few new entrants.

5. The threat of substitutes

This fully looks at how consumers may switch from one business product to that of others. This may be caused by changes in the quality of products, mode of delivery or the fluctuation in prices. In the case of Atlassian, the co-founders have realized the need to keep their customers happy.

Macro environment

In formulating strategies, organizations must consider strategies that target the market by looking into the external environment. Macro environment involves those external factors that affect the performance of business. In an analysis of macro environment regarding factors that influence business, PESTLE analysis tool is used, (Del Marmol 2015). The PESTLE (political, economic, social-cultural, technological, legal and environmental) factors include;

The Political and Legal factors

Organizations are usually influenced by market and legal regulations, levies on tax and other obligations. These are the political and legal factors. Failure for business to conform to them may lead to imposed fines as well as denial of operating licenses.

The economic factors

The Economic environment of every business affects its performance. Fiscal policy and different interest rates are imposed in business both nationally and globally. The growth of the economy in a nation affects the way environment of the firm behaves as well as the inflation rates. For example, Atlassian Company does well because the economy of Sydney is stable and favors the business positively.

The socio-cultural factors

These factors include what makes up the society in which the organization is situated. For example, the level of literacy, age, demographics, lifestyles, population and the existence of social classes. These factors determine the type of customers that the organization will have and their behavior. Sydney is known to have a high level of educated people, one of the reasons why this software company does well, in selling their products because the target market favors them.

The Technological factors

New development in the industrial markets affects business. Organizations are affected by changes in the mobile technology, new developments, and internet changes. To do well, businesses need to find strategies that help to keep up to date with new tech developments.

Environmental factors

These are factors like natural disasters. This only affects a small number of businesses. It also includes the scarcity of materials and pollution. Some marketers are concerned with these factors.

Competitor analysis

When formulating strategies, the organization's management should consider policies on their competitors. Competitor analysis is a crucial aspect of strategic planning. Competitor analysis is usually composed of two important steps. The first is to determine who are the company’s competitors and their strengths. The second phase is to be able to map the behavior of the competitors identified, (Fleisher and Bensoussan 2015). Competitor analysis aims at having a proper understanding of the current competitors in the market, knowing the opponent's reactions to the activities of the company and having the know-how of the strategies outlined by the competitors.   For example, Atlassian Company managed to be ahead of its competitors by identifying them. These were eBay, Hewlett- Packard, Symantec, and IBM. Atlassian strategized on doing things differently from them, such as using the word of mouth marketing to influence customers.

According to John and Roger (2012), competitor analysis is a gateway to a good marketing plan. This analysis helps in forming strategies that contribute to identifying the available opportunities and threats to the firm. The there is a structure that was identified by Porter (2014), that is used in analyzing competition in a company. This structure is made up of  four major factors which include;

• Strategies by competitors

This involves identifying the competitors’ strategy. This is achieved by learning about what the opponent says especially from their annual reports, press releases and statements made by the opponents’ manager. To determine if what is said is implemented, there is need to identify the actions taken in regards to what was said. This can be analyzed from the projects which their business is involved in, the investments and the partnerships they engage. This helps in understanding the current strategies of the competitor.

• The resourcesof the opponent.

SWOT examination is used in analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of the competitors. This enables to learn the capabilities of the adversary. 

• Assumptions by competitors

In analyzing competitors, it is important to learn their assumptions about their organization. The way they perceive their company. This helps to determine, their failures and what their manager is doing. This contributes to coming up with strategies outlining what your organization could work improve. For example, Atlassian Company uses cash flow to expand its business rather than using investors’ funds.This strategy was unique among its competitors.

• Objectives

In competition examination, it is crucial to find out on the aims of the competitor in achieving their goals. This information is obtained from analyzing the background of their managers, the management composition, and the risks they faced and how they conquered those risks and their incentives. Learning this objective enables one to know whether the competitors have short or long term goals.

By accurately analyzing this structure, one can predict any move by the opponent hence an organization can come up with strategies that beat the game of their opponents by emerging on top. This approach can only be achieved by being acutely aware of what the competitors do and their plans and working on doing them differently (Porter 2014).

Company corporate strategy

Business often realizes other gaps to be filled outside their original line of industry. These opportunities lead to companies coming together to form corporate strategies. A plan of activities establishes the course of the firm economically to achieve the intended goals. The business strategy aims at diversification to gain competitive advantage. Corporate strategy is when companies come together to grow (Krug, 2009).

Company business strategy

These are the measures put down by a company with the aim of achieving its set goals in the long term. Business strategies involve the process of coming up with plans to implement the mission and vision of the organization.  Lastly, it involves allocating resources to help in the implementation process of the objectives. Strategies are set out by the chief executive officer of the company and later approved by the members of the board of directors (Great Britain, 2007). In this case, the two co-founders of Atlassian Company came up with the strategies that have led to the success of the company.

In coming up with strategies, managers should be aware of certain guidelines to produce unique strategies that will achieve results. First, all leaders should come up with strategies that bring money to the organization. The goal of every policy is making the profit. Secondly, every leader should be well conversant with the structure of a company before coming up with any plan. Thirdly, every manager should be aware of the target customers of their products to come up with the right strategies .lastly, all strategies must be unique in their ways, and no strategy should be the same with another from a different organization. (Williams, 2014).

Strategic leadership is evident in Atlassian Company by the two co-founders; Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar. These two leaders have made strategies that have seen the company ahead of the competition and as the most successful in the tech company, making increasing profits each year. Some of the strategies that saw the success of the company include; Atlassian Company does not use sales people to market their products, but it made its products cheap and made it easy for customers to acquire through the web. Here they employed the word of mouth marketing strategy, where customers told others customers of their products. This approach has seen massive traffic on their sales website (Riehle, 2015).

Current position of Atlassian

Currently, Atlassian Company is still on top, as the provider of productivity and collaboration software according to the financial results of the Fiscal year, which ended on 30^th June 2016. According to the co-founders, this is the year that Atlassian Company has made the most benefit.  The company has realized more revenue of over $400 million as well gaining more net customers. This company emerged as a leader in the Stand Out; this was a great achievement. The co-founders are hoping for even better results in the fiscal year 2017.

Conclusion.

Atlassian Company has a great future ahead if it goes on implementing those strategies that have worked best. This company is best known for embracing transparency with all the employees; this has also been part of the success they achieved. This is because of internal client strategy, is the best tool. Employees determine the performance of an organization. An open culture will spearhead the team success. In the next ten years, Atlassian Company can only make a 10X, if it deals with its terms and its schedule as well as maintain their marketing strategy.

References

Bredick, KV, (2011), The Australian Financial Review Case Studies with Business News. Cessnock, Australian Business Case Studies Pty, Limited.

Cortellessa, V, Di marco, A, & Inverardi, P. (2011). Model-based software performance analysis. Berlin, Springer. https://site.ebrary.com/id/10468201

DEL marmol, T. (2015),  Pestle analysis. Prepare the best strategies in advance Prepare the best strategies in advance. [United States], Primento Digital. https://www.hoopladigital.com/title/11443281.

Dess, GG, Mcnamara, G, & Eisner, AB, (2016), Strategic management: creating competitive advantages.Pearson publishing.

Fleisher, CS, & Bensoussan, BE, (2015), Business and Competitive Analysis: Effective Application of new and classic methods. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, Pearson Education.

Great Britain, (2007). Business strategy. Bristol, DE & S. Primento Digital Strategic management: creating competitive advantages. Wiley publishers.

Hitt, MA., Ireland, RD, & Hoskisson, RE, (2017), Strategic management: competitiveness & globalization. https://shibboleth2sp.gar.semcs.net/Shibboleth.sso/Login?entityID=https%3A%2F%2Fidp.gla.ac.uk%2Fshibboleth&target=https%3A%2F%2Fshibboleth2sp.

John, A, Czepiel, & Roger A. Kerin, (2012), Competitor Analysis. New York

Krug, JA, (2009),  Corporate Strategy Vol. 2, Vol. 2. Corporate Strategy. London [etc.], SAGE.

Lynch, RL, (2007). Corporate strategy. Harlow, Prentice Hall. https://www.dawsonera.com/depp/reader/protected/external/AbstractView/S9781405871952.

Mahroum, S. (2016). Atlassian in Sydney: Beating the Tyranny of Distance. Prentice Hall.

Porter, ME, (2014), Competitive strategy: techniques for analyzing industries and competitors. [Place of publication not identified], Free Press. https://www.myilibrary.com?id=894079.

Riehle, D. (2015), How Open Source Is Changing the Software Developer's Career. Computer. 48, 51-57.

Warner, AG, (2011), Strategic Analysis and Choice: a structured approach. New York [N.Y.], Business Expert Press. https://www.credoreference.com/book/bepsmsac. 

West Group. (2015), Australian financial review. Publisher ND 

WIlliams, D, (2014). Connected CRM: implementing a big-data-driven, customer-centric business strategy. https://public.eblib.com/choice/publicfullrecord.aspx?p=1638156.