An Electrical Grid Venture. Business Plan

Subject: Company Information
Pages: 6
Words: 1727
Reading time:
7 min
Study level: PhD

Objectives

The venture aims to become the best electricity grid provider of top-quality, innovative and services to the market. Consequently, the business subscribes to the following objectives:

  • Provide lucrative financial returns to business owners;
  • Provide the best products to appliances users;
  • Provide the best working environment for personnel;
  • Establish strong, mutually beneficial, and sustainable business relationships with merchandise suppliers

Marketing Objectives: Given the need for electricity Grid Company to expand its presence in other markets and sectors, as diversify its service portfolios, the company can pursue two major objectives, namely:

  • To increase sales by 30 percent annually in the next five years;
  • To increase its presence in the market

Growth Strategy

The company’s development is projected at ten years in terms of the 50% target market. This growth is also reflective of the growth of the company’s business and clientele. These projections, of course, can also change, but these figures are the average numbers in terms of the target customer that company can also aim to acquire in that specific period of time (Aaker and McLoughlin, 2007).

This target thereby establishes the company’s target growth over the years as the company also further expands its clientele. This can also be indicative of the company’s expansion to other offices in Europe. In reference to the projected growth, operations in the UK can further expand to respond to the growing Eastern and Central European markets. Another important market to look at is the booming economy in Russia and China, wherein the high-income groups are also starting to increase in numbers. Because of the economic growth in China, in addition to the other economies in Eastern Europe, forging businesses across the continent is definitely on the table.

Market Position

This business is intended to take advantage of the enormous growth opportunities in the sector, which was valued at billions. To effectively penetrate the market, the company intends to operate a lean but nimble management structure to handle the key operational areas of marketing, technical/website administration, and inventory management and delivery scheduling. Furthermore, the organization will employ the best people with ample experience and competence in the electricity sector (Kotler, 2009).

There is less market competition and the distribution of power. The company will have a good position. The market is a closed one, and the government has substantial control over the markets. The electricity market is a very large market, and being a developed nation, the US offers a huge substantial market for electricity.

Technology assessment

This proprietary technology would eventually become the cornerstone of the company’s R&D strategy. This strategy was clearly evident when the company prioritized developing its own proprietary technology. By developing its own system, the company effectively exerted strong bargaining power over its residential and commercial customers who rely on Apply computers for their technology requirements. In effect, by making its exclusive software and programs exclusive, customers would not be able to shift to other brands. Consequently, the company’s strong R&D capability has also enabled it to create a good supply system. With the company’s proprietary technology, the company had established the core technology that drove the other developed by the company (Johnson and Scholes, 2001).

The upgrade will introduce new methods of power storage, transmission through the use of digital technology. This system will solve Power System Outage, which is usually experienced throughout the country. The new technology will establishment better track transmission grids, thus leading to improvement of the supply of power and increased reliability. To reduce power theft by customers, the credit card will be introduced to ensure that customer pay their power in advance.

Competitive advantages

Competitive advantage refers to a special edge that enables a company or organization to deal with environmental and market forces better than its rivals. Sustainable competitive advantage refers to one that is difficult for rivals to copy. This differentiation is important in the evaluation of the acquisition and its impacts. The company tries to create and maintain a sustainable competitive advantage over its competitors, particularly US electricity, who decided to merge vertically in order to capture or dominate the market. The company’s goals will extend or go past the supply of electricity. Its mission will provide consumers with a competitive edge to enable them to have a constant supply of power. The company will be able to create a sustainable competitive advantage through several different strategies, although with a few challenges( Warkentin and Warkntin, 1998).

The company will develop an exceptional strategy of the utilization of global resources and place great emphasis on the quality of services. These factors, together with several other methodologies, will enable the company to maintain its philosophy and status. A fundamental part of the company’s supply chain management strategy is the use of several various global resources to its benefit. It does this for various reasons; essentially, it enables them to make use of the different economic environments across the world and utilize the individual strengths of various nations (Kotler, 2009).

The strategies should focus more on reinvigorating and bringing its own experience, which is the company’s key competitive positioning. This would entail motivating and inspiring personnel, developing organizational competencies, producing innovative, better product and service development initiatives, and proper financial and market planning.

The electricity industry is regulated to facilitate free-market operation, competition, and customer choice. The continued regulation of electric providers through regulation of rates in the non-competitive markets is aimed at ensuring the public is overcharged. The governments set prices, service providers, and rates of return so as to substitute for competition prior to deregulation. The distribution and transmission of power ought to remain a monopoly, although the power-generating industry is expected to reshape through competition.

Because few competitors to monopoly regulation are in place and the company should bear in mind this as regulation will remain until there is no more competition. There is a commission charged with this responsibility. Secondly, the commission is focused on setting and enforcing the least quality standards to all-electric providers. The oversight role of the commission is anticipated to change as competition increases, setting rates chargeable by utilities to setting as well as enforcing working standards. These will involve changes in the technical standards of consumer standards like itemizing charges on bills from voltage distributed to the residence. This seems a kind of complex process in the state with regard to its size and population as the electric companies guarantee universal affordability and availability of power as well as obligation to serve. The fourth goal involves the provision of education, information, and protection to the customers. The protection of customers by the ability of the government in controlling prices charged by the companies is the fundamental hypothesis in a monopoly regulation. However, customers in a deregulated market composed of multiple providers will require meaningful information to make decisions on the choice of the company, services to purchase, and the best prices (Johnson and Scholes, 2001).

SWOT Analysis

Some of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that exist in the market for the electricity companies that the company is planning to launch.

Strengths
  • Tremendous goodwill and cost-effectiveness
  • High creditworthiness
  • Excellent rapport with suppliers and with distributors through the offering of attractive credit terms.
  • Qualified and experienced employees
  • Existing customer base
  • Ability to find more resources
  • Ability to expand
Weaknesses
  • No market research was done to determine how successful the service would be.
  • Absence of data about previous trials of the launch of this service by other companies.
  • Unsure of success or failure
  • Less control over the performance
  • No standards are there to verify the performance of employees or the company.
  • No standards for customer satisfaction.
  • Employees are not trained to satisfy the customer and to contribute to profitability.
Opportunities
  • New private service in the market
  • Opportunity to make big profits as there is no competition to the product.
  • Opportunity to expand the company’s operations to capture a wider market once the brand succeeds.
Threats
  • Threat from the public companies
  • The threat of new entrants
  • Supplier dominance
  • The threat of losing customer base as a consequence of losing the quality of work
  • The threat of losing customers because of lack of courtesy of the required standard
  • Low profitability arising out of the low performance of the employees

(Clark, 2002).

Critical Success Factors

As far as the critical success factors of the industry are concerned, the changing trends of consumers were more prominent. In addition, the company’s strategy to develop direct relationships with their customers also became the major success factor for the industry because the customers’ trust in this industry was more than the previous experiences. Similarly, cost-effectiveness was emphasized more in the company as well as in the industry, due to which customers received the ultimate benefits. No doubt that the company is making all efforts to not only sustain its position but also to improve its ranking within the industry but unfortunately, its management could not be successful in doing so due to the absence of a strong corporate strategy(Johnson and Scholes, 2001).

Critical Risk factors

The company will be faced with many different challenges in its growth strategy. The major problem faced by the company is the achievement of a cooperation level with the public utility companies in the UK. There are at times substantial initial costs that relate to the updating of the technology of electricity supply can be very high. Dealing with the utility sector, the company will have the problem of tackling or dealing with the administration or authority that handles the use of state-owned facilities.

Slowed growth in the segment would jeopardize the firm because its investment, competitive edge, and technology are deeply entrenched in a specific offering. It is difficult for the firm to attempt sudden changes if its product is threatened by near-term obsolescence, a faltering market, new substitutes, or changes in technology or customer needs (Clark, 2002).

This firm will be faced with the risk of changes in economic, political, and social factors. Entrenchment in a specific product-market tends to make a concentrating firm more adept than competitors at detecting new trends. However, any failure of such a firm to properly forecast major changes in its industry can result in extraordinary losses (Gluck, Kaufman, and Walleck, 2000). This high strategy costs, thereby reducing the end results of the company. Over-commitment to a specific technology and product market can hinder a firm’s ability to enter a new or growing product market that offers more attractive cost-benefit trade-offs (Hitt, Ireland, and Hoskisson, 2008).

Reference List

Aaker, D., & McLoughlin. D. (2007). Strategic Market Management. Chichester: Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Clark P. A. (2002). Organizational innovations. London: Sage.

Gluck, F., Kaufman, S. & Walleck, S. (2000). The evolution of strategic management. The McKinsey Quarterly, 3 (5): 36-57.

Hitt, M., Ireland, R. & Hoskisson, R. (2008). Strategic management: competitiveness and globalization: concepts & cases. New Delhi: Cengage.

Johnson G. & Scholes K. (2001). Exploring corporate strategy. London: Prentice Hall.

Kotler, P. (2009). Marketing Management. New York: Prentice Hall.

Warkentin, G. & Warkntin, D. (1998). Electric power industry in nontechnical language. New York: PennWell Books, p51.