Assignment Sample on Portfolio on Fargo Scooters Case Study
Introduction
Leadership and communication are the essential for any organization in order to give commands to the employees and motivate them towards organizational goals. The present report is based on Fargo Scooters case study where its owner and managing director Steve Parker share their experience about leadership and communication (Campbell and Besselli, 2020). The report will cover the company’s internal and external environment along with leadership and communication strategy. At last, some recommendations are given and discuss it implementation in order to remain competitive and achieve overall goals.
Section 1: An analysis of the company’s strategic position
Fargo Scooter is an automobile company who sells, restores, and services wide range of classics from Lambretta to Vespa, Royal Enfield, Hanway, and LML. They are the dealers and sell modified and vintage scooters. It is the UK based company owned by Steve Parker. The company starts to sell scooters but now they started dealership and wants to expand their business outside the Europe. In order to remain competitive and get growth in the market, it is necessary to analyse internal and external market situation. Thus, below are given internal and external analysis of the company.
Analyse internal and external analysis
External analysis– It refers as the environment which affects the company through outside such as political, economic, competitors, etc. Thus, PESTLE analysis is used as it provides overall market analysation. The component of this model is discussed below:
Political – It refers to government policy such as the interference of politics in the company. It affects significantly Fargo Scooters as the owner wants to eliminate regulatory intervention in their company (CFI, 2021). Further, Brexit policy also the event happens in the UK government and other EU nations. It also affects the company’s regulatory and financial; structure.
Economic– It includes interest rates, tax, inflation, exchange rates, etc. Changes in these factors majorly impact the company’s financial position. Brexit also impact company’s profitability. Other than that, due to lot of competition the company’s profit margin is very low which affect their profitability.
Social– The company’s customer base is very wide and loyal as they always demand vintage scooters. However, due to lot of competition and fluctuating trends impacts the company’s current product line.
Technological – In today’s time every company use technology to remain themselves competitive. There are lot of scooter who are technology compliance such as electric and battery-operated scooters. It gives reinforcement to change their existing policy. Further, the company think to use online platforms to promote their products as per the market demands.
Environmental – Scooters, motorbikes are creating significant air and noise pollutions. On the other hand, many countries and international organization make policy to save the environment. Thus, it affects the company to rethink about their practices.
Legal – The owner says in their interview that he wants to eliminate regulation in their company. Hence, it proves that government rules and regulation affect the company most.
Internal analysis– It refers the factors which affects the company through inside such as employees, customer, suppliers, etc. Thus, SWOT analysis is using to analyse internal environment. Below are given this model elements:
Strength– The company is own by that person who love their professional which is the biggest strength as the company is never going failure and bored (Bowman and West, 2018). Further, their vintage and royal look scooters and bikes is one of the biggest strengths of the company which bine their customer for a long-term.
Weakness– The company is not using such advanced technology and their employees are not trained to work in new environment which restrict the company to implement any changes. Further, they do not use advertising method for marketing which somehow negatively affect the company’s marketing campaign.
Opportunities– The company still operating in Europe and it is the best opportunity for them to expand their business outside of the country. Moreover, adopting advanced technology, wide customer base, innovative way of promotions are also considered as the opportunity for them.
Threats– The owner believe that regulation is the biggest obstacle for their business as they don’t like regulation because it does not make any sense and it must follow. In addition to this, increasing competition, advanced technology in scooters, low margin profits are threats for the company.
Analyse company’s strategic position
The company involves in sales, restore, and service a wide range of classical and vintage scooters. The owner wants to gain competitive advantage and high margin profit while maintain sustainability. Below are given strategic position of the company-
Leadership and communication- The owner believes that leadership is essential part of the company. Moreover, handling and managing people is not enough because it only provides final feedback about the performance. Therefore, a leader should guide their employee that how to do think in right way or what think is wrong (Guffey and Loewy, 2021). It reduces mistake chance in the company. Further, the owner think that delegation of authority is must in order to achieve collective goals because every employee will work together, and the manager can focus to more important task. In comparison to those managers who hold all task in their hand and get failure to manage them. In the context of leadership, the company’s strategy is bias towards transformational leadership style. On the other hand, the managing director believes that communication is important to mark their presence in the market. They do not like advertisement method for promotion. They are doing charity such as they draft things at Christmas and going around the ring road on a scooter. Hence, the company’s strategy position is using innovation and attractive to improve communication.
Company’s culture and values– The owner believes that work-life balance is must for all their employees and for itself as well. They think that being honest, reliable, and loyal is the key to communicate with the customers as these things are not require any tools to express as it shows on the culture. They also taking care for their customers and they increase their customer target reach through demographical.
The company’s position- The company hold strong position in the market as they sell royal and vintage look scooters and motorbikes which is rarely found in today’s time. It makes strong the company’s position in the market (Coleman, 2018). Further, the company believe delegation of authority and unique communication strategy which grab all customer attention. Hence, the company’s position in their industry is very strong.
Critical evaluation– In order to analyse internal and external environment, PESTLE, and SWOT model is used as they provides overall analysation of the market trends. However, market situation is very dynamic and the strategy which design on theses models result can face failure because they become redundant. Further, it provides only market current situation while not give prediction and suggestion to survive in the market. Hence, it can say that above using tools are not perfect, but they are the best among other models.
The client needs- The company sell, restore, and service scooters and now they become dealer to sell vintage and modified scooters. Their customer wants to buy old royal loom scooter along with latest techniques. Hence, the customer wants from the company that they bring new changes but looks should be remain same.
As per the above analysation it can say that the company’s strategic position is very strong, but they have some threats also which needs to be addressed in order to achieve their goals. There are many issues which needs to be addressed such as they should comply with regulations and modify their own strategies (Hansen, 2018). They should adopt innovation while maintain their core values and use creative and unique way of promotion and communication. Other than that, the company should explore more growth opportunities in dealership and expand their business in new markets outside European countries.
Section 2: Recommendations to the organization
Based on the analysis which is given below some recommendations are given below:
Expand their business– Steve says that it is the biggest opportunity for them that they still doing their business in Europe. It is clear indication that the company has lot of opportunities to expand their business. Thus, they should establish their business outside Europe. In addition to this, the company sell old royal or vintage look scooters and motorbikes which is rare in today’s time where every company introduce stylish bikes. There are lot of people who demands such retro look products. Hence, the company can use merger & acquisition, joint ventures, and partnership to enter in new market. Other than that, the company can strong their presence in new market through their effective leadership and communication strategies such as unique style of promotion, delegation of authority, etc. In addition to this, the company can get benefits from the difference of currency rates and exchange rates which also profitable for them to enter in new market. Thus, the company should develop their business in new market or in new country.
Use effective communication mode– The owner believes that communication is essential to ensure their presence in the market (Johnson and Hackman, 2018). They are not using advertisement mode for promotion as they are doing somethings different such as charity. They use father Christmas where they draft thigs and going around the ring road on a scooter. Thus, they got business friends, and raise more charity which ultimately increase the company reach. Other than that, the company believes that they should give feedback to let the employee know that what the company want them to do. However, it is not enough to communicate with stakeholders. The company use interactional models which follows two ways where communication and feedback flow between sender and receiver.
Hence, it can recommend to the company that they should use transactional model of communication as each communicator has different experience. It allows the stakeholders to share their culture, language, or experience to each other’s (Corey, 2021). It is the dynamic process of communication where people are feeling more connected and gain knowledge from other experiences.
Explore opportunities- The company sell very rare products which are highly demanded by people who like such royal and vintage scooters. They also get offers to become dealer, but the owner denies such offers and later he learns from his mistake and make dealership. Like this, the company should find more opportunities to make dealers of giant automobile companies to ensure their success and sustainability (Husam et.al. 2018). Further, they should open their gate for partnership, third-party dealership, and joint ventures. Other than that, the company should display all their brands on online market. It helps to increase their reach and sell or profits. They also use social media platform to be marketing their products. Moreover, they also look opportunities where they can increase their profit margin such as increasing production, bulk selling, pricing strategies, etc. They should concentrate on those activities which is profitable and ignore non-profitable work.
Section 3: Implementation of recommendations
In order to implement recommendations which are given in section 2 the company would bring some changes in their strategic directions such as they should be more open for dealership and partnership in order to establish their business outside the Europe. The company believes in delegation of authority but to practice such strategy they should use transactional communication strategy in order to provide information to all relevant employees. As per the given case study the company only provides feedback to their employees but not listen their feedbacks and views about them. Thus, they should use interactive communication model to ensure two-way effective communication. They provide all brands to view online in their Coventry showrooms, to fulfil their customer expectations. Apart from display the products they should make provision for sell the products online to increase their market growth.Furthermore, they focus to making money as they get approaches by a supplier to get offers and get high margin profits (Abu Sultan et.al. 2018). The company should take such initiatives to earn lot of profits. Thus, the company can achieve these recommended goals through modify their strategy direction and position such as using different leadership and communication style, enhance their existing culture, fulfil customer needs, etc. Below are given some analysis to achieve such goals:
Leadership styles- It is the methods of leading which includes direction, implementation, and motivation. There are various methods to carry out these things which called leadership styles such as:
Autocratic style- In this style the leaders make decisions without taking input from their employees and stakeholders. It is rare use style as now, company’s care about their employees and consider their knowledge and suggestion in decision-making process.
Democratic style- As contrast to autocratic, in this style leaders consider employees input and allow lower-level employees to exercise their authority. For example, Fargo Scooter delegate authority to their employees and provide them autonomy to take decision at their own level.
Strategic style– It is most desirable leadership style in most of the company because in this style leaders support multiple kind of employees at once. It is the relation between company’s operations and its growth opportunities which is host by the leader. It is commonly effective leadership style.
Transformational style- As per its name transformational leadership is always transforming where employees have assigned task that they complete on specific time, but the leader constantly push them outside of their comfort zone (Martinuzzi,2019). It is highly motivated leadership style as it allows employees to explore beyond their capacity.
Coach-style leadership– It focus to identify and nurturing individual’s strength of each team members. It focuses to strong their team member relations. For instance, Fargo Scooter owner says that handling and managing people is not enough to lead a team. A leader should guide their employees about right or wrong things along with provides the accurate feedback in order to ensure their future growth.
As per the given case study, Steve use democratic and coach-style leadership to guide their employees, provide them feedback, and ensure their growth within the organizations. Additionally, they focus to earn high margin profits and suggest lot of ideas to implement them.
Communicating the vision to external stakeholders– External stakeholders includes investors, suppliers, customers, society, etc. In order to communicate with external stakeholders there are multiple ways. Initially the company must conduct research about their target audience needs and expectations, investors view about the company, society expectations, etc. Based on research outcomes, they should develop plan such as choosing communication mode, required resources, etc. At last, they implement them to connect with them. Therefore, the company use father Christmas to draft things on the scooter and give around on the ring road to grab customer attention and receive charity (Othman et.al. 2017). However, it is not reached by every target audience. The company should use effective and most using mode such as TV advertisement, social media platforms, etc. In addition to this, they should conduct seminars, participate in exhibitions where old and royal vehicles are displayed where they can connect significant number of people. They target specific customer groups who are likes classic and retro look scooter as they are loyal customer which automatically connect with the company. Hence, there are multiple way to communicate company vision to external stakeholders.
Leadership strategy and the impact on organizational direction- Leadership is essential for the organization as it has direct cause and effect relationship on organization and their directions. Leadership styles and strategies determine company’s culture, values, employee engagement or motivation, and change tolerance. Autocratic leaders ignore employees which leads to low production and poor performance. While democratic and transformational style includes their employees in decision-making process and allows them to explore growth opportunities which increase their motivation level and encourage them towards best performance. At the same time coach-style leadership provide adequate guidance to the employees to increase their performance. Fargo Scooters focus to guide their employee about right and wrong things and provide them feedbacks for future improvements. They follow democratic and coach-style to lead their teams (Crews et.al. 2019). It also facilitates to implement every change as Steve says that change is not always good thing, but it brings life long experience and lot of learning which improve future growth. Like this, demotivated employees resist the change. Hence, effective and motivated leadership style can reduce the chance of resistance and facilitate new and innovative changes within the organization.
In order to achieve above mentioned recommendation some actions should be taken such as
- conduct research to find opportunity in international market, customer preferences, investors expectations, etc.
- As per the research outcomes, strategy should be developed.
- After that, arrange require resources is must in order to facilitate such objectives for instance, financial resources, human resources, government permission, stakeholder acceptance, etc. Moreover, communicate with internal and external stakeholders about some changes in necessary to reduce resistance chances.
- Then implement those strategies in an effective way.
- Invite feedbacks and grievances to know the response of such new changes.
These actions need to be followed in order to achieve above recommendation goals.
Section 4: Critical reflection
As per the above discussion about Fargo Scooters I understand that how to identify client needs and how to conduct appropriate research and develop strategies for consultancy purpose. I learn the importance and some disadvantages of internal and external analysis tools and models and know that how to have applied them effectively in the company. Moreover, I identify the relationship between strategic management, leadership style, communication models and its usage that support organizational ethical and values. At last, I able to analyse the application of leadership strategies and the its impacts on organizational direction. Hence, I learn lot of things about leadership and communication styles and its careful application within the organization.
Conclusion
The present report concluded to demonstrate leadership and communication importance in Fargo scooters which sells, restore, and service wide range of classic looking scooters and motorcycles. As per the given case study, the company becomes dealers and use unique communication modes to promote their products. They use democratic and coach-style leadership and transaction communication model to facilitate both things within their organization. The culture is positive and interactive where employee have work-life balance. At last, to sum up this report some recommendations are given along with strategies and action plan to achieve them effectively.
References
Books and Journals
Bowman, J.S. and West, J.P., (2018). Public service ethics: Individual and institutional responsibilities. Routledge.
Guffey, M.E. and Loewy, D., (2021). Business communication: Process & product. Cengage Learning.
Coleman, D., (2018). Building Brand Experiences: A Practical Guide to Retaining Brand Relevance. Kogan Page Publishers.
Hansen, M., (2018). Cultivating change: The relationship between organizational culture, leadership style and communication style with organizational change.
Johnson, C.E. and Hackman, M.Z., (2018). Leadership: A communication perspective. Waveland Press.
Husam, R., Naser, S.S.A., El Talla, S.A. and Al Shobaki, M.J., (2018). Information Technology Role in Determining Communication Style Prevalent Among Al-Azhar University Administrative Staff. International Journal of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, 7(4), pp.21-43.
Abu Sultan, Y.S., Al Shobaki, M.J., Abu-Naser, S.S. and El Talla, S.A., (2018). The Style of Leadership and Its Role in Determining the Pattern of Administrative Communication in Universities-Islamic University of Gaza as a Model.
Othman, A.K., Hamzah, M.I., Abas, M.K. and Zakuan, N.M., (2017). The influence of leadership styles on employee engagement: The moderating effect of communication styles. International Journal of Advanced and applied scienceS, 4(3), pp.107-116.
Crews, E.R., Brouwers, M. and Visagie, J.C., (2019). Transformational and transactional leadership effects on communication styles. Journal of Psychology in Africa, 29(5), pp.421-428.
Online
Martinuzzi,B., (2019). The 7 Most Common Leadership Styles (and How to Find Your Own). [Online] [Available Through]: <https://www.americanexpress.com/en-us/business/trends-and-insights/articles/the-7-most-common-leadership-styles-and-how-to-find-your-own/>
Corey, M., (2021)Communication . [Online] [Available Through]:<https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/evolutionhumancommunication/chapter/chapter-1/>
CFI, (2021)What is a PESTEL Analysis? [Online] [Available Through]:<https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/knowledge/strategy/pestel-analysis/>
Know more about UniqueSubmission’s other writing services:
