Assessment Organizational mission and vision project

Activities

1. Prepare for meeting with the management team

The development of mission, vision and value statements is central to provide strategic direction and business and society initiatives for the success. Their development and continuous analysis is important for Native Bush Spices to help the organization to identify key goals and focus on what is in reality significant and serve as a foundation for strategic plan.

The other companies dealing in similar products are Rocky Mountain Spice Company and Nedspice. Rocky Mountain Spice Company mission is to provide high quality, healthy ingredients, delicious tasting, and custom blends to their customers while operating under a within a sustainable environment that value nature (Rocky Mountain Spice Company, 2019).

Nedspice mission statement highlight that it provides quality single spices and herbs that assure their customers can make their product as per their terms in an economically efficient way (Nedspice, 2019).

On the other hand, in comparison of these two companies with Native Bush Spices mission statement it can be analyzed that Native Bush Spices focuses only on the aspirations to provide high quality products.

The vision statement of Nedspice to share knowledge and experience to innovate and optimize their business performance and Rocky Mountain Spice Company is to continue to innovate and invest in their people and sustainable development of the community.

In comparison, the vision of is to establish themselves as a respectable supplier of native bush spices. Thus, long term aspirations does not points towards their innovation value or the commitment towards their employee, local community, environment as reflected in these two different companies.

The values in Rocky Mountain Spice Company and Nedspice commonly highlights committed to high quality products, safety of internal and external customers, sustainability and positive team culture.

The value of Native Bush Spices also reflects on these which are important to move business forwards and to create value for their employees, business partners and customers. The mission statement scarcely define its concrete business and does not define what thecurent organization is and what it intent to become and on its creative growth and lacks concern for social and environmental aspects.

Thus, from comparison it can be noted that Native Bush Spices that existing mission and vision statements do not provide sufficient insights on the strategic direction, or actions or company objective thus, do not provide clarity to office guidance towards business operations in Australia.

It is researched that the key business strategies are cost leadership, differentiation (products with superior value) and focus (on specific segment/ market) that are useful for Native Bush Spices to effectively position in the target market, achieve customer satisfaction and positive business performance to gain a competitive advantage over its rivals.

These strategies are generic strategies proposed by Michel Porter that can be applied at business unit level. It is also researched and noted towards formulation of strategic objectives that risk management strategies needs to be considered. The strategic objective needs to be created by linking with the mission and vision (Quezada et al., 2009).

The formulation of these include positioning of goods in the competitive marketplace, company’s structure for efficient management, profitability, revenue, customer service level, market share, return on investment, and diversification.

2. Meeting with the management team

Here, it is discussed about the inadequacy of the mission and vision statements of Native Bush Spices when compared to other spices companies to guide the future business direction, operations and to form strategic objectives as a part of strategy formulation.

In meeting, it is also discussed about the key business strategies and strategic objectives to outline the position that Native Bush Spices want to achieve. The business objectives are focused on improving brand awareness, increasing sales, expanding into international markets, expanding product range and for alliance marketing options.

It was discussed that strategic objectives can be formulated under four major categories that involve company capabilities, technology, costs, sustainability and community.

It was discussed that there is need to identify a business strategy that work as competitive strategy to provide direction and to gain insight on how business can plan to achieve a competitive position in Australia.

It was conferred that among the generis strategies Native Bush Spices can pursue differentiation strategies die development of their product that offers uniqueness and a superior value to their customers (Santos-Vijande et al., 2012).

This will help the company to distinguish their products with other competitors in New South Wales and others in the Australian marketplace. It will also allow the company to charge a higher price on its spices, herbs, herbal tea products, fruit jams and conserve based on its uniqueness factor.

3. Summary of the meeting outcomes

Revisions of existing mission and visions and their updating
Establishing a robust business strategy
Reviewing the process of strategic objectives formulation
Approval of developing strategic plan

4. Submission to management team

Here, the request for approval is made from the management team. The approval is sought to proceed for the development of strategic plan for Native Bush Spices based on values and agreed mission, visions and strategic objectives.

Assessment Task 3: Research and develop strategic plan project

Activities

1. Research Native Bush Spices customers and competitors

Target customers:

The targets are gourmet enjoying people from average income segment of $80,000. The target customers include adults and older customer segments. The target customers belong in the age group of 35 to 65 years. The target customers are health conscious people who have interest and willingness to buy organic and herbal products.

They are also key decision makers for their eating choices and need and demands for Australian native food products. The company products have positive value proposition for these target customers who want to shift from unhealthy food to healthy food, healthy drinks and food ingredients.

Competitors:

The competition is growing in the Australian market. There are several already established players and new entrants in New South Wales and in other cities in Australia that are serving as both direct and indirect competitor to Native Bush Spices.

Wild Hibiscus Flower Company is a long-established company dealing in organic and native food stuffs and same products like rare native herbs and spices, herbal teas, native jams and conserve.

It has good market experience and strong capabilities in farming, food production, distribution centres in Europe and the United Kingdom, North America and Thailand, and efficient trade (both import and export). It has a strong market presence in around 50 countries.

Herbie’s Spices is another direct competitor that deals in similar products since 1997. The strength of this competitor is its brand recognition in Australia, high quality and rich in flavour products. The company has high value for innovation which also adds to its strength.

Similarly, Gourmet Garden Herbs & Spices is another key competitor operating in spice industry in Australia. The colour, flavour and aroma of their products, innovations and use of novel technologies form their key strengths. In New South Wales, Euro Spices is another emerging competitor that is gaining recognition and market reputation for its quality products and exceptional range of local and imported herbs and spices along with specialty blends to make home cooking easier.

2. Review of cooperative ventures- risks and benefits

It can be reviewed that cooperative venture have numerous benefits but have high risk associated with it. The benefits for Native Bush Spices are:

Fast growth of business
Pooling of resources and technological capabilities (Maula et al., 2009)
Increase in manufacturing, distribution network and marketing capabilities
Access to new market
Increase in productivity to improve profits
Sharing of costs and risks

Native Bush Spices will be exposed to risk such as:

Affect the existing flexibility of doing business (Maula et al., 2009)
Unclear or vague strategic objectives (Hsieh et al., 2010)
Communication issue (Hsieh et al., 2010)
Cultural differences

3. PESTLE and SWOT analysis

To communicate the development of strategic plan for Native Bush Spices, an external and internal environment analysis is conducted with the use of strategic tools such as Pestle model and SWOT model.

PESTLE:

The pestle analysis of Native Bush Spice in its operating enviornement, Australia is described below:

Political Factors: The country is well-developed and has a stable political environment (Pandya and Sisombat, 2017) which is positive for the sub-industry, spices.

The legal and regulatory framework is strong and stable and has regulation for market dominance and competition policy (higher prices settings) to safeguard other market players which have contributed to be a country destination image with least corruption (Pandya and Sisombat, 2017).

Thus, for Native Bush Spice the country serve as an attractive business destination to grow its business and operate without any political pressure and involvement to operate in an open and progressive economy with less political risk. The strict regulations for labour laws, environmental and taxes impact the spice manufacturer.

Economic Factors: The country is one of the largest capitalist economies and the economy is growing where the GDP growth was 2.3 percent from 2016 to 2017 (Countryeconomy.com, 2019) thus moved form 1204.62 bn US dollars to1421.80 bn (Trading Economics, 2019).

Apart from GDP factor, high interest rate, increase in prices of raw material, high labour cost and frequent currency fluctuations (the weakening of Australian dollar) can negatively impact the sales and business profitability and continuity of business operations of Native Bush Spice in Australia.

Social Factors: The social trends and demographics have been changing in Australia. There are high living standards with good wealth due to rising middle income level of populace (Powdthavee and Wooden, 2015) and changing lifestyle which positively impact the demand of native spices and herbs and other native food ingredients in the country.

The rise in income level leads to high purchasing power and customer spending which can be encouraging for increasing sales of native spices and herbs and other native products offered by Native Bush Spice.

At the same time, the society demands companies to be socially responsible and conserve natural resources and protect environment. This provides an opportunity for Native Bush Spice to promote its organic products and sustainable business practices to develop a positive brand image and strengthen its brand awareness (Brønn, 2011).

Technological Factors: The country has access to latest technology which is positive for business operation, supply chain operations and cost reductions. The technology developments also support innovation, marketing activities and internal and external communication with employee, business partners and customers.

Environmental Factors: The demand the business to give consideration towards the environmental impact due to their manufacturing and other business operations. The air and water pollution, conservation of water and energy and adoption of sustainable business practices demands business attention. This there is an opportunity for Native Bush Spice to integrate sustainable solutions into their business operations.

Legal Factors: The business requires giving high consideration to age and disability discrimination, fair work polices, import/export laws, environmental law, minimum wage regulations, and business tax and carbon tax obligations (Robson, 2014). Any non-compliance can lead to regulatory burden and fines and penalties which negative impact the business reputation and business profitability in Australia.

SWOT:

Internal Factors
Strengths	Weaknesses
Strong market presence and recognition in Australia High quality products Strong distribution network in Australia consisting of small supermarkets and health stores Good control over processing and distribution operations for herbal tea, herbs and spices, jams and conserve	Pressure on business operations due to increasing competitive landscape Less differentiation of their products Appeals to adults and older people only as the company do not target younger audience
External factors
Opportunities	Threats
To grow their e-commerce market To expand into South-East Asia countries like Japan, Hong-King and Singapore To strengthen the company’s marketing capabilities To form marketing alliances To promote their eco –friendly practices To make use of new technologies for cost advantages, supply chain efficiency and reach wider markets. To develop technological capabilities	High competition from existing and established players as well as new players Change in government polices Situation of economic downturns Stringent environmental laws Increase in environment regulations

Strategic plan

This includes the revised purpose of Native Bush Spices and values, strategic objectives and the changes to the external and internal analysis frameworks.

The strategic objectives that can be added in exiting objectives can be:

To offer a high-quality and innovative products through capable and competent staff

To promote product innovation culture by use of new technological solutions.

To engage and work with local community for their development and environment sustainability

Assessment Task 4: Strategic plan performance and monitoring

Activity

1. Report for management

From the analysis of implementation of strategic plan for one year, it can be reported that not all performance indicators have been achieved as stated in the plan. There have been no suitable alliance marketing partner have been identified which has similar marketing goals and contribute in increasing sale of Native Bush Spice.

Also, there has been no identification of new products by reviewing websites of different competitors.

Based on the evaluation, it can be recommended for the 2^nd and 3^rd year of implementation of strategic plan that the marketers to search for alliance with ready-to-use spice ingredients player in Australia and can also survey exporters of food products like rice to promote each other business by increasing the customers referring with the goal to increase awareness and increase sales.

It is also recommended to review the competitor’s activities from different platforms such as social media sites and their newsletters and press release to gain information on their investments, innovation and new products.

References

Brønn, P.S., 2011. Marketing and corporate social responsibility. The handbook of communication and corporate social responsibility, pp.110-127.

Countryeconomy.com. 2019. Australia GDP – Gross Domestic Product. [Online] Available at: https://countryeconomy.com/gdp/australia (accessed 22 April 2019).

Hsieh, L.H., Rodrigues, S.B. and Child, J., 2010. Risk perception and post-formation governance in international joint ventures in Taiwan: The perspective of the foreign partner. Journal of International Management, 16(3), pp.288-303.

Maula, M.V., Autio, E. and Murray, G.C., 2009. Corporate venture capital and the balance of risks and rewards for portfolio companies. Journal of Business Venturing, 24(3), pp.274-286.

Nedspice. 2019. Mission, vision and strategy. [Online] Available at: http://www.nedspice.com/company_mission-vision-strategy (accessed 22 April 2019).

Pandya, V. and Sisombat, S., 2017. Impacts of Foreign Direct Investment on Economic Growth: Empirical Evidence from Australian Economy. International Journal of Economics and Finance, 9(5), p.121.

Powdthavee, N. and Wooden, M., 2015. Life satisfaction and sexual minorities: Evidence from Australia and the United Kingdom. Journal of economic behavior & organization, 116, pp.107-126.

Quezada, L.E., Cordova, F.M., Palominos, P., Godoy, K. and Ross, J., 2009. Method for identifying strategic objectives in strategy maps. International Journal of Production Economics, 122(1), pp.492-500.

Robson, A., 2014. Australia’s carbon tax: An economic evaluation. Economic Affairs, 34(1), pp.35-45.

Rocky Mountain Spice Company. 2019. About. [Online] Available at: https://rockymountainspice.com/about/ (accessed 22 April 2019).

Santos-Vijande, M.L., López-Sánchez, J.Á. and Trespalacios, J.A., 2012. How organizational learning affects a firm’s flexibility, competitive strategy, and performance. Journal of Business Research, 65(8), pp.1079-1089.

Trading Economics. 2019. Australia GDP. [Online] Available at: https://tradingeconomics.com/australia/gdp (accessed 22 April 2019).