Component 1
Activity 1:
An analysis of Nippn.
| Vision | The mission of Nippn is to “strive as a corporation, to gain trust from customers and continue to grow in strength. Make an effort on a daily basis to keep every customer satisfied, by offering, in every area of business, competitive products and services of superior quality, thereby contributing to society” (Nippn, 2021).
With the consideration of the mission statement of Nippn, it can be said that the company focuses on two areas which are business development and customer satisfaction. In simpler words, the company focuses on improving customer satisfaction which eventually helps in the development of business. The product quality of the company is also a key aspect of improving customer satisfaction. |
||
| Quality
(4 Vs & SQFD&C) |
Evaluation High / moderate/ low | Description and justification
|
Implications
|
| Volume | High | High volume means the customers’ intention as well as trust in a company to purchase certain products. | It means Nippn needs to focus on maintaining its product quality to meet the customer demands and strong presence in the market. |
| Variety | High | High variety means an organization operates its business with a diverse range of products or services. With the presence of a diverse range of products, a company gets assurance on the increase of sales. | The presence of different products ensures the company to be dependent on a particular product for sales (Nippn, 2021). Further, the sustainability of the business is also ensured as a failure of a product can be equaled with other products. |
| Variability | Moderate | Variability is the external factor that can lead to making changes in the requirement of products among the customer. A moderate level of variability means the external factors have an average level of impact.
|
With the moderate level of variability in Nippn, it can be said that the Covid-19 has become an external factor that negatively impacted the business. However, the organization operates in several different countries which ensures business sustainability. |
| Visibility | Low | Visibility reflects on the value chain of a business which is low for Nippn.
|
The reason for low visibility in the business of Nippn is due to the lack of promotional activities by the company (Nippn, 2021). This is why the company requires to focus on the effective use of promotional campaigns to interact with the customers. |
| Speed | High
|
Speed is defined as the time required for the production of products.
|
With high speed, Nippn shows that the company is capable of producing products in large numbers. |
| Flexibility
|
High | Flexibility is the ability of a business to control the production process. | The high level of flexibility in Nippn shows the organizational capability of increasing or decreasing production. |
| Dependability
|
Moderate
|
Dependability is the ability of a company to rely on others for production, especially the supply chain area is considered in it. | With a moderate level of dependability, Nippn shows dependency on others for some reasons. Nippn has to rely on others for the supply chain (Nippn, 2021). |
| Cost
|
Low
|
Low cost means the ability of a company to produce products at a low cost and control production costs.
|
The company produces products in large quantities which allows them to control the cost of production. |
| Quality | High | High quality of products means a company is capable of fulfilling the demand of customers. | The company’s mission statement reflects on the focus on quality. The company maintained the quality of products to improve customer satisfaction. |
References
Nippn, 2021. About Us. [Online] Available at: https://www.nippn.co.jp/en/aboutus/index.html [Accessed 31 December 2021].
Nippn, 2021. Mission & Value. [Online] Available at: https://www.nippn.co.jp/en/aboutus/mission_value/index.html#:~:text=Mission%20Statement%20of%20NIPPN&text=Strive%20as%20a%20corporation%2C%20to,quality%2C%20thereby%20contributing%20to%20society. [Accessed 29 December 2021].
Activity 2
Megatrend of the organisation and its impact
| Megatrend | Issues affecting the organisation | Impact of the issues |
| Sustainability | People are more into having innovative products to have better experiences and companies have to build those kinds of products (Kilburn et al. 2018). | The organisation has to build an innovative product for their customer that can be an issue.
It is generally cost-oriented that the organisation should have proper money back rather than this; they cannot mitigate the impact of that issue. |
| Transparency | Based on transparency consumers competitors can know the strategies of the organisation (Wan et al. 2017). | The competitors can improve their strategy to pass over other competitors and the organisation can face loss in their market.
Other than this, organisations have to change their strategies to cope up with the situation. Organisations can face issues in maintaining customer trust. |
| Functional ingredients | The business of the company is entirely dependent upon processed food for example noodle, flour and rice. Therefore, food safety has become an important consideration for the company to address customer needs. The issues of health and food safety can negatively affect the overall business development process. The manager of the company must consider safety and check-up for the food processes activities (Kalaitzi et al. 2021). | There are both legal and social consequences on a company. According to Food Safety Basic Law, a company needs to ensure the quality and safety of the product they are offering. Any kind of negative consequences of food-related safety may lead to legal consequences. Along with this, the social image of the company may also be affected by these issues. The reliability and reputation of the brand may be hammered, and people may stop using the products of the company. |
| Plant-based products | People are more into having plant-based floods for their nutrition and the organization has to develop such kinds of food to maintain the quality and customer demand. Organisations have to change their terms and policies and implement new strategies that can create on recreating the strategies and understanding it by the employees.
|
As an impact organisation can have financial risk factors and have to develop new ideas that can be time-consuming.
The employees find it difficult to understand the strategies and their functions. Organisations try to develop products that can attract customers. Organisations have to research several data and information for it. |
Recommendations
| Megatrends | Recommendation, justification and its potential implication |
| Recommendations | In order to improve the performance of operation management, Nippn is needed to make changes in the company wide communication process. Communication is considered as the essential element of the operation management process, which allows managers to convey the organizational objectives with employees, and align their motivation to company goals. It is recommended that the company needs to adopt a company-wide communication streamlining process for improving the communication between hierarchy and employees. |
| Justification | The communication process of Nippn has been highly disrupted due to the emergence of COVID19. Consideration of remote working has further affected the communication process in the operation management of the company. Company Wide communication has become an essential trend in the present business world, which is playing a path breaking role in driving employee engagement. Most employees do not feel motivated to perform their task due to communication barriers. The needs and issues of employees are also not addressed, which creates extreme chaos in the operation management process. In this context, mobile communication tools such as smart phones, PDA (personal digital assistant), messengers and pagers have the potential to reduce the gap between operation managers and the employees. |
| Potential Implications | An organisation has too many needs to modify their communication structure to improve the performance of communication of the organisation. Nippn is an automobile industry that deals in manufacturing and developing new features for vehicles so it is important for companies that implement digital modes of communication to improve the performance of organisations and develop new features for vehicles. In This context latest technology such as smart phones and digital gadgets can use organization to make communication structure more effective and operational. Organisation needs to implement this communicational structure in order to increase employee’s job satisfaction and efficiency of workers. The employee of the organisation continually fails to cooperate well with other employees and their upper level management. That is too much necessary for better performed of organisation. |
References
Journal
Kilburn, W.E., McDonagh, P. and Prothero, A., 2018. Sustainable consumption, consumer culture and the politics of a megatrend. Handbook of Consumer Culture. Thousand Oaks, CA and London: Sage, pp.478-98. Available at: https://www.academia.edu/download/53257623/Sustainable_Consumption__Consumer_Culture_and_the_Politics_of_a_Megatrend_Kilbourne__McDonagh___Prothero_2_15_17_20_.pdf
Wan, S., Li, D., Gao, J., Roy, R. and Tong, Y., 2017. Process and knowledge management in a collaborative maintenance planning system for high value machine tools. Computers in Industry, 84, pp.14-24. Available at: .doi.org/10.1016/j.compind.2016.11.002
Kalaitzi, D., Matopoulos, A., Fornasiero, R., Sardesai, S., Barros, A.C., Balech, S. and Muerza, V., 2021. Megatrends and trends shaping supply chain innovation. In Next generation supply chains (pp. 3-34). Springer, Cham. Available at: doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63505-3
Activity 3
Critical evaluation of Nippon level of organisational integration
Organisational integration can be achieved by aligning organisational goals between internal or external influencing elements. It promotes teamwork and collaboration across the organisation. Further, it facilitates the resilience of external factors like business model, input or output, technology, economy, political or social factors, and stakeholders (Hashaw, 2020). Companies can maintain their integration level by aligning their internal or external factors like meet employees’ demand as per the market trends or fulfil supplier’s requirement to maintain their production capacities. Most of the companies develop robust strategies to maintain their organisation integration like Nippon Flour Ltd. It is the leading milling company which develops their general food business and in order to ensure business continuity they adopt diversification all around food companies. The primary growth areas of Nippon are the overseas business which they plan to promote into the future (Alkali and Mansor, 2020). Additionally, the company focuses on the fast-growing markets of North America and Asia.
Nippon wisely handles their external operations and, on the way, to become an international player. They operate a wide range of food businesses comprising, the food ingredients, flour milling, processed food business, manufacture premixes, pasta, home used groceries, and the frozen foods. The company constantly invests to expand their business outside Japan. They locally produce and sell their products in China, Thailand, Indonesia, and the USA. They established new frozen dough production plants in Thailand and Indonesia. In order to adopt diversification, they changed their name from Nippon Flour Mills to Nippon Corporation effective by 1st January (Pryor et. al. 2019). The company uses different or suitable entry modes to expand their business in new markets as they use merger techniques with Sapporo Flour Mills to increase their operations. Hence, the company maintains external factors to manage integration in their organisation.
In order to manage their internal factors, the company is continuously involved in proposing or implementing new ideas. There are several internal factors like suppliers, employees, customers, materials, stakeholders, and so on. As the leading firm in the Japanese flour milling industry, they are socially responsible to improve productivity and ensure reliability. Further, they constantly contribute to building a new food culture in Japan with their products such as frozen noodles, tsukemen, Napoli Pizza, and more (Montesano et. al. 2021). It helps to maintain a leading position in the market. Moreover, the company develops high-quality products to meet changing requirements of customers. For instance, they established a food creating club So-Shoku which is an online membership site for commercial clients of their products. Through this platform they promote the benefits of whole grain flour products. In addition to this, the company adopts effective HRM practices in order to maintain a positive employment relationship.
Therefore, it can say that the company efficiently manages both internal or external factors and achieves their goals. Through such effective practices the company successfully maintains their organisation integration (Kobayashi, 2021). However, the company still has not succeeded in expanding their business in European and all Asian countries as their maximum presence is in Japan only. Hence, the company has to focus on their external factors to sustainably maintain organisation integration.
References
Books and Journals
Alkali, A.U. and Mansor, N.N.A., (2020). E-Training Integration In Organisation: Modeling Factors Predicting Employee’s Acceptance In A Developing Country. European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine, 7(3), pp.775-798.
Kobayashi, K., (2021). The Future of Gender Equality in Nippon: The Role of Business, Government, and Society. In Corporate Social Responsibility and Gender Equality in Japan (pp. 209-224). Springer, Cham.
Montesano, F.S., Biermann, F., Kalfagianni, A. and Vijge, M.J., (2021). Can the Sustainable Development Goals Green International Organisations? Sustainability Integration in the International Labour Organisation. Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning, pp.1-15.
Pryor, W., Harte, C., Ishii, Y., Kohler, F., Smith, F. and Pryor, W., (2019). Integrating a new prosthetics and orthotics workforce: Lessons from an evaluation of the Nippon Foundation’s investments in South East Asia. Global perspectives on assistive technology, p.366.
Online Hashaw, (2020). [Online] [Available Through]: https://smallbusiness.chron.com/organizational-integration-82053.html>
Activity 4
Critical analysis of Nippn
| Identification of the industry in question | ||
| Environmental Factor | Issues pertinent to the industry | |
| Political factors | · The international firms are creating a pressure on the Japan government to make the rules more strict for the food processing industry.
· Nippn have to focus on following all the rules and regulations made by the local government. · Political stability of all the different nations in which the case company is operating is having an higher influence on the firm. |
For managing the political implications which are being faced by the firms operating in the food processing industry it is essential that the government should support the industry. For this the taxes can be reduced by the government. Along with this if the political stability is being maintained in all the different nations in which the firm is operating then it can help the firm in surviving in the market. |
| Social factors | · Increasing liberalisation is creating a threat for the flour mills operating in Japan.
· Migrants are not welcomed in Japan due to this reason Nippn can face issues in having diverse workforce in the company. |
Market trends and the shifting customer demand need to be understood then the food processing industry should focus on offering effective products to their customers (Mor et. al. 2018). |
| Technological factors | · Latest technologies which are being used by the competitive are creating pressure on the case company.
· For remaining competitive in the food processing industry it is important for the company to use latest technologies (Juliana and Nyoman, 2019). |
Technological advancement is required in the food processing industry which can help the firm’s in remaining innovative and more competitive. |
| Economic factors | · Availability of the great infrastructure in Japan is an favourable factor the case company.
· The declining downward pressure on the consumer spending is affecting the firm’s sale negatively. · Higher availability of skilled labour is also an important benefit for the case company. |
All the different factors related to the economy such as customer spending, inflation rate, GDP, economic growth all are required to be considered and then the industry should decide the price and manage the firm operating in the industry. This will help them in managing the impact of the economic factors on the firms operating in the food processing industry. |
| Porter forces | Strengths | Justification |
| Bargain power of suppliers | Moderate | There is large number of suppliers in the food processing industry. But the case company focuses on having high quality raw material. Due to this reason the bargain power of the suppliers is moderate. If the suppliers charge higher from Nippn then it can affect the average profit of the case company. |
| Bargain power of buyers | High | Due to large number of flour mills the bargain power of customers is higher. For the company need to keep their price low and need to offer different products which can help them in attracting the customers and reducing their bargain power. |
| Threat of new entrance | Low | Threat of new entrance is low because entering into the food processing industry is not easy. Due to higher rules and regulations it is quite challenging for the firms to enter into the food processing industry (Khouryieh, 2021). |
| Threat of substitute | Moderate | The threat of substitution is moderate due to large number of companies operating in the food processing industry and different alternative to flour are also available. For this it is essential for Nippn to focus on their Research and development which can help them in gaining competitive advantage over others and reducing the threat of substitution also. |
| Rivalry | High | Competition is higher in the food processing industry due to this factor companies need to use effective marketing strategies and product differentiation which can help them in surviving in the industry. Along with this effective strategies related to business management are also required for coping up with the competitors. |
| Stage in the industry life cycle | Maturity | |
| Implications | Nippn flour mills is at the maturity stage of the Industry life cycle. The company is doing well in the industry but now their sales is not increasing much and nor their profit is increasing which shows that the company is in the maturity stage in the industry life cycle. Better strategic actions can help the company in surviving in the industry for a longer period of time and generating better and sustainable profit in the food processing industry. | |
| Issue | Survival Factor | Success Factor |
| · Low loyalty among the suppliers is creating issues for the company in managing the demand and supply.
· The niche market and the local monopolies are creating issues for the firm. |
· Continuous improvement in the business operation management
· New product mix is helping the company in remaining competitive in the industry and is helping them in surviving the market. |
· Working effectively on the innovation
· Effective leadership · Better talent management in the firm (Oliveira et. al. 2019) · Effective brand image in different customer segments · Success of the new product mix is leading the company towards success |
References
Juliana, J.P.E. and Nyoman, Y.N., (2019). Factors influencing competitiveness of small and medium industry of Bali: Porter’s five forces analysis. Russian Journal of Agricultural and Socio-Economic Sciences, 89(5).
Khouryieh, H.A., (2021). Novel and emerging technologies used by the US food processing industry. Innovative Food Science & Emerging Technologies, 67, p.102559.
Mor, R.S., Bhardwaj, A. and Singh, S., (2018), March. A structured literature review of the Supply Chain practices in Food Processing Industry. In Proceedings of the 2018 International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Operations Management, Bandung, Indonesia (pp. 588-599).
Oliveira, C.A.O., Ruffoni, E.P., Maçada, A.C.G. and Padula, Â.D., (2019). Innovation capabilities in the food processing industry in Brazil. British Food Journal.
Component 2
Introduction
This report is based on the development of a corporate strategy for Nippn. The planned strategy to be developed for the organization will be for 10 years of time. In an organizational setting, different strategies exist at different levels. The strategy that exists in the topmost hierarchical level of organization is known as a corporate strategy (Feldman, 2020). For developing the corporate strategy of Nippn, the existing internal business environment of Nippn will be analyzed. The existing internal environment of Nippn will be analyzed on the basis of the resources, capabilities of the company. The model like resource based view, Porter’s value chain analysis and VRIO analysis will be applied. Based on the analysis and identified issues, the strategic direction or position of the company will be developed.
Critical assessment of competitive advantage of Nippn
In order to analyze the available resources of a company, the resource based view model will be applied. Resource based view is considered as a model or managerial framework that is applied to identify the strategic resources of a company. Based on the identified resources, a company’s ability to achieve sustainable competitive advantage is explored. Based on the resource based view, it can be said that two types of resources exist in organizations which are tangible and intangible resources (Bromiley & Rau, 2016). Tangible and intangible resources are also represented different types of characteristics which are immobile and heterogenous. Based on the resource based view, it can be said that Nippn’s manufacturing units, as well as machineries, are examples of tangible resources. On the other hand, more than 3800 employees of the company, as well as the capabilities of the R&D department, are the intangible resources for the company. The presence of both tangible and intangible resources in Nippn shows the presence of mixed resources in the company. Considering both the tangible and intangible resources, it can also be said that the company’s resources are immobile in nature. This is because career growth opportunities and employee satisfaction are the factors that hold the employees to work for the long term in the company. Whereas, the market value of tangible resources like equipment, infrastructure is quite difficult to purchase or acquire by others.
In order to analyze the capabilities of Nippn, Porter’s value chain analysis model will be applied. Porter’s value chain analysis involves two types of activities which are primary and support activities. In order to execute the primary activities, the organizations receive support from support activities. The first element of primary activities is inbound logistics (Koc & Bozdag, 2017). Nippn’s inbound logistics have the presence of a strong network as well as capabilities. This is because Nippon Express is a subsidiary of the company which primarily deals with logistics services (Nipponexpress, 2021). The operation in Nippn is controlled by the advanced manufacturing units presented across Japan as well as overseas locations. The organization has seven flour mills across Japan and two other manufacturing units for premix and frozen dough products in China and Thailand respectively (Nippn, 2021). Similar to inbound logistics, the outbound logistics of Nippn is also supported by the subsidiary business of the company. With the help of internal logistics, Nippn transports its products from manufacturing units to the stores. The market and sales department of the company is an area of concern. This is because the department controls the marketing and sales with traditional approaches. The traditional approaches of marketing and sales portraits a negative remark of the company’s advanced approach to business. This is because the company mainly focuses on a traditional market channel like TV, newspaper. Based on the service element, it can be said that Nippn always focuses on supplying its products to the stores for fulfilling the demand of customers. On the other hand, the presence of 9 manufacturing units along with flour mills across Japan, China and Thailand are examples of firm infrastructure which supports the business operation of Nippn. Whereas, the human resource department of the company deals with the need of employees from a different department to maintain smooth services and operations. Nippn is also quite advanced with the presence of technologies that help the company to execute the operations in a simplification and flawless manner.
VRIO analysis is another framework that is used to explore the internal analysis of the company’s resources and capabilities. It helps in understanding the competitive potential of an organization (Das, 2016). The presence of a separate R&D department of the company is a valuable resource of the company that ensures the opportunities for developing new products and improving existing products of Nippn. Being a food processing company, Nippn also holds a strong presence in logistics with the help of its subsidiary organization that is a rare capability. The market value and presence of Nippn in the overseas market is an imitable resource that is difficult to capture by other companies. The logistics, marketing and operation department of the company operates the business with a systematic approach that ensures organized resources and capabilities.
The analysis of resources and capabilities in Nippn shows the presence of a strong competitive advantage. This is because the infrastructure, market value, logistics and technology existing in the company empower the organization. However, certain issues have been identified in the business of Nippn through the analysis. It is understood that the issues like lack of efficiency in the marketing and sales department to consider advanced approaches, and quality assessment are the major issues for Nippn (Nippn, 2021). However, the resources and capabilities of Nippn empower it to overcome the challenges and grab the opportunities. For example, the R&D department of the company can develop a new approach to assess the quality of products and raw materials which will allow satisfying the customers. Whereas, the brand value of the company is a strong aspect that can help Nippn to influence customers through digital or advanced marketing and sales approaches.
Prioritization of the issues
The analysis of resources, capabilities, and competitive advantage of the company have shown certain areas where Nippn requires improvement. The identified issues to be prioritized by Nippn involves the development of new marketing and sales strategies, quality assessment of raw materials and products along the lack of online sales options for the product of Nippn. These areas are required to be prioritized by the organization to maintain the growth and development of the business (Rugman & Verbeke, 2017). The focus will be to develop a corporate level strategy. The developed strategy requires to be developed for the upper hierarchical level of the company. Theoretically, it can be said that Nippn needs to consider the vertical integration strategy or approach in its business. The basis of the vertical integration strategy is to control all the elements of the production line of a business. Thus, Nippn needs to consider the option of having control over the suppliers, production and sales. Quality assessment is a major issue in the business of Nippn as it depends on suppliers to acquire raw materials. However, the organization requires to create its own network of suppliers who can produce and supply raw materials for Nippn only. It will help the company to acquire raw materials as per their need or requirements. Further, the quality of raw materials can also be controlled by the company itself as its resources and capabilities can help in the assessment.
Another strategic option suggested for Nippn is to improve and change the existing marketing and sales approach. The organization involves in marketing and sales of its products with an approach that is mostly based on the traditional approach. This is because Nippn uses marketing channels like television, newspapers to promote its products. However, the marketing strategies of Nippn are quite less effective in the existing market environment. This is because the company lacks in having a presence in social media as well as digital marketing. The company requires to focus on adopting new digital approach based strategies to promote and market the products. With the use of digital marketing as well as social media based marketing approaches, the company will be able to reach a larger extent of customer base (Nippn, 2021). Further, the company can also bring innovation in the marketing approach to attract customers. However, the most effective benefit for Nippn to adopt social media and digital marketing is the cost effectiveness of the strategies. With the help of social media and digital marketing strategies, Nippn can also attract customers who are tech savvy which is quite difficult to attract through the traditional marketing approaches.
The products of Nippn are only available in the offline store which also hinders the growth of Nippn in the existing era of business. This is a strategic area or option where Nippn requires to focus on the growth and development of the business. The business market and approach of operations have been changing across the world as the offline market is shifting towards the online marketplace. The customers also show their interest to purchase products from the online marketplace for its simplification and availability of products. In this context, it can be said that Nippn requires to focus on diversifying its business from offline store to online marketplace. The shift of business from offline stores to online marketplace will ensure the increase of sales in business of Nippn. Further, the company will also be able to adopt online business operations with ease that will help in the growth of the business.
In order to provide a theoretical base to the developed strategic options of Nippn, the RACES framework is considerable. Resources, acceptable, consistent, effective and sustainable are the abbreviation of RACES (Ansoff, et al., 2018). The framework will help in analyzing the potentiality of Nippn to implement the strategies in its business. Based on resources, it can be said that Nippn has both tangible and intangible resources which are strengthening the possibility of implementing the strategies. Resources like logistics capabilities, R&D department are empowering Nippn to develop the strategies and implement those. The second element of the RACES framework is acceptable which is considered to be accepted by every stakeholder and shareholders of the company. This is because the new strategic options will allow the shareholders to increase their existing profit generation rate. For example, the improvement of marketing strategies as well as sales of the products through the online platform will be beneficial for shareholders. Whereas, the quality assessment will ensure the customers receive a good quality of products from Nippn which is a factor to satisfy the customers. The strategic options of Nippn are also considered as consistent as all the strategies are aligned with each other. Further, the strategies are also based on the mission of the company to provide the best quality of products to the customers. Overall, the scope of generating profit from the business will also be increased with the strategic options developed for Nippn. Considering the factor, it can be said that the strategies will be effective for Nippn to increase the rate of profit and growth of the business. The last element of RACES framework is sustainability. Based on the strategic options, it can be said that the strategies of Nippn will be sustainable as they will ensure economic sustainability of the company.
Defending the proposal and preferred strategic direction
In order to develop the strategic options of Nippn, certain steps have been undertaken in the research. The steps undertaken in the development of strategies have been depicted in the above diagram. The basic steps followed in the development of strategies involve the analysis of resources and capabilities of the company and the development of strategies based on the analysis. The common and important aspect of developing strategies is to focus on the internal analysis of a company (Wheelen, et al., 2017). It helps in assessing the existing resources and capabilities. For this purpose, different models like resource based view, Porter’s value chain analysis and VRIO analysis are applied to explore the internal business environment. At first the resource based review, has been applied to explore the available resources in the business of Nippn. Based on the resource based review, the potentiality of the available resources and their identification have been made. Following this, Porter’s value chain analysis model has been applied. The value chain analysis model is used to explore the capabilities of organizations in terms of different areas like logistics, operations, human resource department, technology, infrastructure etc. With the help of Porter’s value chain analysis, the capabilities of Nippn have been assessed. It is explored through the analysis that logistics, technology, and operations are the major areas where Porter’s value chain analysis has a stronghold. It is identified that the presence of internal logistics empowers the company to control supply chain activities. Although, marketing and sales of the company have been identified as an area where Nippn has weaknesses. This is because the company adopts the marketing and sales approaches that are relevant to the traditional market environment. On the other hand, technology and infrastructure have been identified as major support activities of Nippn to operate the business.
Based on the analysis of resources and capabilities in Nippn, the resources and capabilities have been assessed using the VRIO analysis. VRIO analysis helps in assessing the effectiveness of the resources and capabilities of the organization. Overall, the lack of digital marketing approaches as well as an online presence for sales has been the major issue that Nippn requires to focus on in its strategic direction. Based on the analysis, expansion of business in the online marketplace, digital marketing and quality assessment of raw materials have been suggested for the next 10 years time. In order to develop the strategic options in the business of Nippn, the vertical integration approaches of corporate level strategy have been considered. The approach involves the focus on internal resources and capabilities to develop business opportunities. Theoretically, it is about taking control of the dimensions involved in the production and sales of products. Based on the proposed strategies, the strategy of having its own internal supplier sources have been suggested.
Conclusion
This study focuses on analyzing the business of Nippn. The internal analysis of the organization is focused to develop strategic options for the next 10 years of period. It is analyzed that the resources in the business of Nippn involve both tangible and intangible resources. The organization has the presence of strong resources like the R&D department, manufacturing units, infrastructure. Along with the presence of such strong resources, Nippn also has the presence of strong capabilities like logistics, firm infrastructure, operations. However, the marketing strategies of the company lacks due to the adoption of traditional approaches. Thus, the organization is suggested to modify its marketing strategies and focus on digital marketing strategies. Along with this, focus on the operations and quality assessment have also been considered in strategies.
References
Ansoff, H. et al., 2018. Implanting strategic management. 01 ed. London: Springer.
Bromiley, P. & Rau, D., 2016. Operations management and the resource based view: Another view. Journal of Operations Management, 41(1), pp. 95-106.
Das, R., 2016. United Bank of India: A Strategic Analysis Using the VRIO Method. IUP Journal of Bank Management, 15(2), p. 1.
Feldman, E., 2020. Corporate strategy: Past, present, and future. Strategic Management Review, 1(1), pp. 179-206.
Koc, T. & Bozdag, E., 2017. Measuring the degree of novelty of innovation based on Porter’s value chain approach. European Journal of Operational Research, 257(2), pp. 559-567.
Nippn, 2021. About Us. [Online] Available at: https://www.nippn.co.jp/en/aboutus/index.html [Accessed 31 December 2021].
Nippn, 2021. Flour Milling Business. [Online] Available at: https://www.nippn.co.jp/en/business/flour_milling/index.html [Accessed 31 December 2021].
Nipponexpress, 2021. About Us. [Online] Available at: https://www.nipponexpress.com/about/ [Accessed 31 December 2021].
Rugman, A. & Verbeke, A., 2017. Global corporate strategy and trade policy. 01 ed. London: Routledge.
Wheelen, T., Hunger, J., Hoffman, A. & Bamford, C., 2017. Strategic management and business policy. 55 ed. Boston: MA: pearson.
