Developing Business Strategy for Next plc

Developing Business Strategy

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Executive Summary

This study has included macro-environmental analysis using diverse frameworks besides stakeholder analysis. The current positioning of Next plc is presented. It is analysed internal capabilities can be carried out using the VRIO framework. Internal capabilities are helpful in business gaining competitive advantage. In this report, the competitive advantage of Next plc has been determined using the porter's five-force framework. Moreover, a strategic plan has been designed and two models namely the porter's generic model and Bowman's clock strategy has been implemented has been used to identify an appropriate strategy for expanding the sales performance of the organisation.

Introduction

Business strategy is a set of clear plans, goals or actions that the business will carry out in a specific market with a particular number of services or products (imd.org, 2021). It is crucial for a business to grow strategically. In this study, there will be exploration of macro and internal environmental factors using relevant frameworks. The retail industry of UK will be analysed and a strategic management plan will be formed for directing business strategies. Next plc is the selected organisation that is a multinational retailer. Joseph Hepworth has founded it in 1864 (nextplc.co.uk, 2021). This Britain based public limited company is headquartered in Enderby.

Section 1 Macro Environmental Analysis

General environment or macro-environment of business includes socio-cultural, economic, technological, legal or political trends that affect organisations indirectly (Hans, 2018). It is important to businesses because changes that occur in the macro-environment affect overall industries. General environment affects how businesses perform, operate, form decisions or strategies.

By using Ansoff’s growth vector matrix, the strategic positioning of Next plc can be gauged. As per this framework, there are four strategies of growth such as market penetration, product development, market development, and diversification (Loredana, 2017). Next plc uses diversification strategy presently by focusing on growth in new markets and raising product range. Though it has a higher risk than other strategies, it helps the company in increasing opportunity of making revenues by getting access to new customers in new markets (corporatefinanceinstitute.com, 2021). Its product ranges from clothing to home products and footwear. It has extended sales of beauty products, furniture, and others (next.co.uk, 2021). Its Lipsy brand designs and trades own branded products to younger female customers. Considering market expansion, it is found that it has around 700 outlets in different regions such as around 500 in the United Kingdom and 200 across the Middle East, Asia, and Europe. Its online marketing activities serve around 70 countries (nextplc.co.uk, 2020). In overseas markets, it has 1.5 million customers, as around 185 stores are located in 31 nations.

Stakeholder analysis includes collecting and analysing information of stakeholders systematically to identify their interest that should be met by business strategies. Stakeholder mapping can be applied in Next plc context top organise stakeholders based on certain criteria.

Some of the external stakeholders of Next plc are:

• Customers

• Suppliers

• Government

Internal stakeholders are:

• Employees

• Managers

Interest	Keep informed Government	Manage closely Employees
	Regular contact Suppliers Managers	Anticipate needs Customers
	Influence

Table 1: Stakeholder matrix

For environmental analysis, PESTLE model can be applied.

Political- According to Nazir (2020), Brexit has affected the retail industry of the UK by increasing exports tariffs to EU nations. Moreover, the operations of retailers are affected due to increase customs checks at borders of nation. This might be affecting Next plc by increasing time in exporting products to diverse regions. Besides this, the cost of overall operations must have been raised due to the rise in tariffs. However, Brexit has given opportunity to make changes in trade practices to reduce cost as well. This political aspect informs that Next plc can determine to focus on local markets to reduce sales dependency on EU nations.

Economic- UK’s GDP growth rate has been 16% at the end of 2020 that has seen rise from the third quarter -20.4% (tradingeconomics.com, 2020). The development in the economic condition of the country might be fruitful for Next plc sales growth. It can decide to make effective investments in innovative products to leverage the sales rate. However, the rise in GDP of the region would also increase competition in the industry, as the customers would have sufficient income to purchase products from diverse retail companies.

Social- Customers’ buying habits determine sales of retailers’ offerings. Due to changes in their preference for clothing because of the fall of new fashion trend, retailers’ sales might be affected, as they would need to fulfil their demands by making transformation in product offerings. The changes take time to be implemented and are often costly. Thus, customers’ buying habits might affect Next plc, as it would need to bring innovation in product range. This will enable it to generate positive responses from them and trigger buying decision. Thus, this external factor informs the business decision of making improvement in its offerings or product range to cater to diverse requirements of customers.

Technological- It is found that there are around 45 million active social media users in the UK (Tankovska, 2021). This means that there is 66% social media penetration rate among the population of the country. The high penetration rate in the UK influences opportunity of Next plc for marketing its products through social media channels. However, social media advertising also has some challenges as the negative responses or comments of users might affect business reputation. The technological factor can be considered in making decision of enhancing marketing activities using social media platforms.

Legal- Equality Act 2010 protects employees from discrimination who have certain characteristics such as differences on gender, race, religion, sexual orientation or gender (equalityhumanrights.com, 2021). Next plc would be influenced by presence of such legislation as by managing equality and diversity; it can motivate employees into performing in an improved way. However, lack of compliance with regulatory requirements might make it face legal issues. This informs its strategic decision of providing equal treatment and career improvement opportunities to every employee regardless their individual characteristics.

Environmental- According to Erez (2019), sustainability in the retail sector is a way to attract younger customers by protecting the environment. This ensures customer brand loyalty by meeting the expectations of environment-conscious customers. Its influence over Next plc will be positive, as it will allow it to generate trust of consumers and retain them for a longer duration. On the other hand, sustainable development requires changes in each operation that needs modification business model. It might be a time-consuming process for the business. However, this factor informs the business decision of using sustainable practices by reducing waste and controlling emission.

An organisational audit can be carried out through SWOT analysis.

Strengths Online sales channel including next day delivery option (next.co.uk, 2021) Skilled workforce (nextplc.co.uk, 2015)	Weaknesses Highly dependent on home market (sec.report, 2021)
Opportunities Market expansion Celebrity endorsement for marketing	Threats High competition with discount retailers such as ASOS, Boohoo, and others (Bourke, 2021)

Table 2: SWOT analysis

Section 2 Internal Environment and its Strategic Capabilities

Internal environment analysis can be done through assessing resources of capabilities of an enterprise. According to Ahmed et al. (2018), the resource-based view of an enterprise a company’s performance is determined through its resources. Competitive advantage is ensured when a business uses its resources or capabilities to attain low cost or differentiation. VRIO framework can be applied by Next plc to attain sustainable competitive advantage. This tool is helpful in analysing business resources. It is easy to be applied to transform unused competitive advantages into sustainable competitive advantages. However, due to sudden fluctuations in the outer environment, there is a constant need for alterations in internal capabilities that makes it challenging for managers to suggest improvements by just carrying out internal analysis.

Resources/Capabilities	Valuable	Rare	Inimitable	Organised	Competitive advantage
Skilled employees	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Unused competitive advantage
Strong financial position	Yes	No	No	Yes	Temporary competitive advantage
Online sales channel	Yes	No	No	Yes	Temporary competitive advantage
International presence	Yes	No	No	Yes	Temporary competitive advantage
Functional organisational structure	Yes	No	No	Yes	Temporary competitive advantage
Transformational leadership (Pegden, 2020)	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Unused competitive advantage
Customer-centric culture	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Unused competitive advantage

Table 3: VRIO framework

From the presented table, it is found that the internal capabilities of Next plc are effective as the major strengths lie in its skilled workforce, transformational leadership style, and customer-centric organisational culture. They are valuable for customers and are effectively organised; however, they lack rarity. Besides them, it has strong financial position in the industry due to international market presence and online sales channel. Additionally, the organisational structure is effective in managing coordination between team. These aspects are not rare and can be imitated by rival companies. Thus, from the above analysis, it can be said that business performance has been effective, however; it is required to transform the unused competitive advantages and temporary competitive advantages into sustainable competitive advantages in near future. This can be suggested that by developing online websites and expanding in untapped regions it can gain sustainable competitive advantage.

McKinsey’s 7s model can be applied to analyse internal capabilities of Next plc. As per this framework, organisational elements can be assessed such as structure, strategy, shared values, systems, staff, skills, and style (corporatefinanceinstitute.com. 2021). This can enable alignment of the same with that of business objectives. It is to be noted that change in one factor requires changes in other elements too as all of them are interconnected. Its implementation can help in applying new strategies and facilitating organisational change.

Strategy- Next plc has a long-term strategy to provide values to its shareholders for the long run. It ensures improvement and development of product range and boosts customer satisfaction and experience (nextplc.co.uk, 2019). Besides this, it emphasises on gaining long-term benefits financially with secure financial structure.

Structure- It is the way business is organised or structured and includes details on accountability of specific member to particular team. Next plc has functional structure as the departments are categorised into the operating section, finance department, sales and marketing department among others (nextplc.co.uk, 2021).

Systems- These are procedures or processes of the company that reveals its daily functions and decision-making process. Next plc has a robust and flexible infrastructure as well as distribution channels as logistics and warehouse operations offer agile and efficient distribution network (nextplc.co.uk, 2020). Online sales are carried out through third-party websites besides its official website. There is a well-connected network of stores as half of the online orders in the UK are collected from outlets. Besides this, it has customer relationship management (CRM) system to deliver effective customer service and engage consumers.

Skills- Competencies and capabilities of the workforce of Next plc are effective as they are provided with training and development programs.

Staff- As per the report of 2018, Next plc has 43,970 employees worldwide. Employees are managed by performance appraisal method as they are provided with opportunity of career development. Additionally, they are offered with recognition and reward such as competitive salary (nextplc.co.uk, 2015). Training is provided through diverse methods such as e-learning, job-specific training, tailored training, and training on first aid, manual handling, and health and safety. They are motivated through promotion provision that also helps in recruiting internally.

Style- Top-level management has good communication with each other to make effective decisions. The organisational value of corporate social responsibility is considered in meeting the firm's objective of meeting customers' expectations or treating employees with respect and dignity (nextplc.co.uk, 2021).

Shared values- These are standards and norms that guide Next plc’s actions and employee behaviour. The company is committed to provide excellent quality goods to customers that are responsibly sourced and possess value in the eyes of customers (nextplc.co.uk, 2021).

From the above discussion on major elements or capabilities of Next plc, it is found that it has an effective organisational structure that supports it on focusing on specific departmental functions. However, functional structure limits communication between team members of different teams. Long-term orientation helps in fulfilling business goals; however, it needs strategic planning. Organisational system and skills are well organised and staffs are managed effectively. However, decision-making is carried out at the upper level thus; there is less participation of employees. The business values are efficient in performing its role in environmental protection and in motivating employees.

Section 3 Competitive Industry analysis

Porter’s five force model is a framework that is applied to identify the competitive advantage of an organisation. The five forces according to this model are:

Bargaining power of suppliers

The bargaining power of the suppliers remains high when an organisation is dependent on a fewer number of suppliers. As a result, the supplier has more power to drive up the costs of raw materials. This is not the case for Next plc since it offers a wide range of products and has a large number of suppliers. Additionally, they also operate with third party branded suppliers to offer an extensive range of clothing products (nextplc.co.uk, 2021). Due to this factor, the bargaining power of supplier is low Next plc.

Bargaining power of consumers

It is the power of the customers to lower the prices of the products offered by a company. It is dependent on the number of customers of a company. Next plc has a large number of customers which ranges and it generates annual revenue of close to 4266 million GDP (statista.com, 2021). Moreover, consumers have the power to shift to other brands. Thus, the bargaining power of the customers is high for next plc. To mitigate this issue, Next plc can focus on innovating newer products rapidly and offer customers with offerings and discounts.

The threat of substitute products

Companies that offer products which lesser substitutes generally have a higher power to increase the prices. However, next plc is a retail organisation that offers multiple substitutes of a single product. Thus, this threat is considerably low for next plc.

The threat of new entrants

The threat of new entrants remains high for an organisation when the investment cost and time to enter the competitive market is high. Next plc has already established a market and for any new entrant, the investment required to enter this market of retailing of fashion wears, footwear and apparels are considerably high. Thus, the threat of any new entrants is low for Next plc. Moreover, it is operating in an industry that has strong barriers to new entrants.

Rivalry of competitors

This threat of rivalry is dependent on the number of competitors in the market offering similar category of products as that of the organisation. In the fashion industry in the UK, Next plc faces heavy competition from brands like Debenhams, marks & spencer’s, Arcadia group and they offer almost similar types of products. Thus, the threat of competitive rivalry is high for next plc. To mitigate this issue, Next plc can look forward to developing a sustainable differentiation. Additionally, it can also build a scale to compete better in the market.

Ansoff matrix

Ansoff matrix is primarily applied by the organisation to analyse and develop strategies for growth and expansion. It consists of basic strategies namely:

Market penetration:

This strategy is used by an organisation to increase its sales operation by offering its existing products to an existing market. It is also used to determine the size of the market (Viktorov, 2020). This strategy can be applied by Next plc to increase the product demand by lowering the prices of products and the organisation can benefit from a greater volume of production. However, this strategy may be complicated since there are a large number of firms operating in the same market as Next plc. Further, it may harm the image of the organisation.

Product development

This strategy is generally used by an organisation to introduce newer products into an existing market (Hosseini et al., 2018). Next plc can focus on the research and development process to develop newer products. Moreover, it can acquire a product developed by its competitors and merge resource to develop a newer and improved product. This strategy helps to satisfy customers and also helps in market expansion for the developed products and helps in obtaining stability. However, extra costs get involved in the research and development process and there remains riskiness of its acceptance in the market.

Market development

This strategy is used to enter a new market with an existing set of products. The company can focus on capturing a different customers segment in the market. On successful implementation of this strategy, Next plc can gain competitive advantage and this can result in an increase in its revenue and can gain newer customers. However, a considerable risk is associated with the implementation of this strategy.

Diversification

Organisations can implement this strategy to introduce newer products into a new market (Vogl, 2018). This strategy has several demerits since it is the riskiest because it requires both markets as well as product development. However, an organisation can benefit from the implementation of this strategy since it has the greatest potential to increase revenues.

It is recommended that Next plc can focus on the market development strategy since there are multiple markets where it can enter with its existing set of products; moreover, it will also enable an increase in revenue generation of the organisation and can attract newer customers

Section 4 Strategic Plan

Porter’s generic strategies

Porter’s generic strategies can be defined as a framework that organisations can incorporate to gain a competitive advantage in the industry.

Cost leadership

This strategy is used by organisations to lower the cost of delivering the product and services to the customers. This strategy has several benefits and it tends to increase the profit margin of the organisation. Further, it also ensures that the organisation remains competitive by reducing the price. This strategy can be applied to obtain the lowest cost position in the market (Chepchirchir et al., 2018). However, it can threaten the position of the firm id the competitor’s starts offering newer products at lower costs.

Cost focus

This strategy is implemented by an organisation to focus on the niche market. This strategy can develop customer loyalty. However, this strategy reduces the product innovation and tends to offer lower quality products in the market.

Differentiation leadership

This strategy focuses on offering customers with items, which are unique and different from their competitors (Islami et al., 2020). Suing this strategy, an organisation can introduce newer products, can attract customers, and reduces price competition. However, the developed products may not appeal to the customers.

Differentiation focus

This strategy is implemented to remain superior to the competitors even with higher prices (Ouma and Oloko, 2017). The primary advantage that Next plc can enjoy from this strategy is it can provide a competitive advantage with the superior quality of the products. However, this can be too specific for any market.

The organisation can focus primarily on the differentiation leadership strategy to offer unique products in the mar jet to its customers. Although there is a considerable risk associated if implemented successfully, the organisation can gain a competitive advantage and can also increase the revenue.

Bowman’s clock strategy

According to bowman's clock strategy, the 8 factors are:

Differentiation

Next plc can implement this strategy to offer its products in the market that are different and unique from its competitors. This may add value to the products offered by the company.

Focussed differentiation

This strategy aims at offering different and unique products in the market at high prices. The company implement this strategy to offer some premium products over its competitors.

Risky high margins

The company to offer products at a higher price range but with lesser-perceived value can implement this strategy.

Monopoly pricing

It can be implemented by Next plc to introduce products in the market that is to be offered and controlled by this organisation only. It eliminates factors like pricing, value and competitors.

Loss of market share

It is considered as the worst strategy and the company can implement this to shift to newer markets because of declination in the sales and performance in the existing market.

Low price and low value-added

Next plc can use this strategy focuses on selling the products in quantity. It lacks focus on the quality of the products and tends to keep the price margin as low as possible.

Low price

It can be used by the organisation to keep the price of the products lowest in the market and the basic factors that the organisation should focus on are the process efficiency and the cost reduction.

Hybrid

It aims at ensuring the price of the products remains competitive in the market and this strategy is between low price and differentiation strategy.

Next plc can focus primarily on the differentiation strategy in order to offer unique and highly valued products to its customers. This will also ensure a competitive advantage over its competitors and has the potential to develop customer loyalty.

Strategic plan

Objective

• To increase the sales performance of Next plc

• To apply differentiation strategy in the business operations of Next plc

Mission

To increase the sales performance of the organisation and this may reflect on the increase in the revenue generation.

Target audience

The strategies need to be implemented to target the audiences between the age group of 20 to 30.

Strategy

Product

Next plc can focus on offering products in the home décor section and other sections that have been manufactured from the recycled products. It may lower the cost of raw materials and manufacture and it can attract a large range of customers who are environmentally concerned.

Price

The organisation should focus on value-based pricing strategy since it has the potential to develop customer loyalty and increases the value perceived by the customer.

Promotion

It should continue to use its social media for the promotion of its products since it has the potential to reach a large range of customers.

Place

Next plc can implement selective distribution strategy to sell its products through selected stores. Using it they can understand their customers and it can also help them to identify the demands of the customers.

Action plan

Objective	Tactics	Resources	Time frame
To increase the sales performance	Offer customers with deals and discounts. To offer value for money products	An appropriate pricing and promotion strategy	6 months
To apply differentiation strategy in the business operations	To offer unique and distinguished products over its competitors	Focussing on the research and development	1 year

Table 4: action plan

Budget

particulars	Budget
Human resources	£ 10000
Research and development	£ 20000
Promotion	£ 5000
total	£ 35000

Table 5: budget

Controlling and measures

• Working capital: Enough cash should be readily accessible to enhance the research and development process for the development of newer products.

• Inventory turnover: it helps to measure the amount of inventory turnover in the production areas and warehouses.

Conclusion

This is found that business strategy development is crucial for enhancing success opportunities of business like Next plc. From the environmental analysis, the possible threats and opportunities are identified. It is discussed that the internal capabilities of the company are effective in gaining competitive advantage. Some recommendations to business are made such as differentiation, market development, and others for further progression. The forces that business faces from the external environment are discussed such as competition, customers’ bargaining power, and so on. There has been utilisation of different frameworks in this study such as Porter’s generic model, Bowman’s strategic clock, Ansoff’s strategic growth framework, and some others.

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