A strategy is crucial because it serves as a comprehensive and long-lasting plan of action to achieve goals. It plays a vital role in the success of a company, enabling it to increase sales, dominate the market, and enhance revenue growth.
A company cannot achieve its future goals and objectives without a well-developed strategy. Blair Smith founded Smith Systems Consulting (SSC) in 1984, which has now become a significant consulting company with multiple locations across several states. However, SSC is currently encountering several challenges including the retirement of its CEO, branding, record management, marketing, and understanding customer buying behaviors.
The company is facing issues, which highlights the need for a strategy to enhance its competitiveness. This paper will utilize the 9-Step Decision Making Model to employ problem-solving techniques in order to identify the issues and opportunities. Additionally, it will analyze the concepts and strategies required to upgrade the company.
Consulting needs to establish a strong strategy for both customer retention and acquisition while effectively meeting clients’ wants and needs. Customer retention is crucial for building a financially stable company, as satisfied customers contribute to its strength. To achieve this, the company should identify their target customers and design a marketing mix that not only appeases current customers but also aids in forming new connections and acquiring new clients.
Under CEO Sam Smith’s leadership, the company has achieved success. However, they have neglected to maintain records on profitability and the performance of their products and services. Effective record keeping enables a company to address unsuccessful aspects of their offerings and facilitates the creation of new ones.
Using records, both departments and executives can identify ideas that will enhance the company’s profitability. Additionally, they can identify products and services that have not been as lucrative and make adjustments to increase their profitability. Despite facing increased competition from larger companies, SSC remains a smaller company that is highly attuned to customer desires and demands. To differentiate themselves from their competitors, Smith Systems Consulting must implement various strategies such as branding, marketing tactics, relationship and referral building, and marketing communications.
In order to maintain their current clients and gain referrals, it is crucial for the company to keep competitive prices. Additionally, with the CEO’s retirement approaching, there is an anticipation of a change in leadership. This presents a critical period for the company, as a well-developed strategy will be essential for ongoing success. The CEO intends to pass on the company to someone who can aid in acquiring new clients, retaining existing ones, and sustaining the achieved success. Stakeholder Perspectives/Ethical Dilemmas involve individuals, groups, or organizations that are impacted by and have an impact on the decisions and actions of the firm (Advameg, Inc., 2010, n.p.).
Every organization faces various situations that involve different stakeholders, each with their own interests, rights, and values. The CEO, Sam Smith, is concerned about his company’s success but believes that equal treatment for all customers may not be ideal. However, with his retirement approaching and the importance of a strategic plan to attract and retain clients, making significant changes in how they treat clients could have negative consequences.
Treating clients differently could not only be unfair, but it could also cause additional problems for the company. The executives and managers at Smith Systems Consulting have varying perspectives, but they all place importance on their positions, jobs, and the success of their departments. The Director of Marketing believes in assessing the marketplace, industry trends, and competitors. On the other hand, the Finance and Accounting Manager emphasizes prioritizing profitability over service.
The Customer Service Managers responsible for customer service and sales have opposing values and interests within the company. Nevertheless, they both have a shared interest in the success of the company. One is focused on keeping existing clients, while the other is dedicated to obtaining new accounts and enhancing current ones. Both aspects are vital for the company’s success, thus collaboration between them is crucial to accomplish these objectives. Regardless of their individual roles, all stakeholders unanimously agree that having the CEO present is essential as it guarantees optimal performance and prevents any decline in business.
The stakeholders of Smith Systems Consulting need to collaborate in order to acquire new customers and retain existing ones. This is especially important because the CEO, who has strong relationships with many clients, will be less involved in assisting and serving clients. Conflicts can arise due to differences in stakeholder interests, values, and goals. According to Gomez-Mejia & Balkin (2002), management decision making often involves conflicts over opposing goals, the allocation of limited resources, and prioritization. To ensure successful implementation of decisions, effective managers must consider the perspectives of various stakeholders.
Smith Systems Consulting has a problem statement: they want to achieve the highest level of customer acquisition and retention by using effective marketing principles. Their end-state vision is to establish mutually beneficial relationships with all clients and become a widely recognized brand, leading to overall corporate success.
Riordan Manufacturing can utilize different alternative approaches that have been discovered through generic and competitive benchmarking to aid in their objective of becoming a thriving global company and attaining long-term success in the future (University of Phoenix, n. d.). The Coca-Cola Company (2009) states that “Coca-Cola is the most renowned and highest selling soft drink ever, as well as the most globally recognized product” (n. p.).
The Coca-Cola Company has established a strong brand identity, making it synonymous with the term soft drink. Despite minimal taste differences compared to rivals, the Coca-Cola brand is globally recognized and highly regarded for its image and name (Investopedia, 2010, n.p.). To gain a competitive edge and achieve industry recognition, Smith Systems Consulting must create a branding strategy. Google, an unconventional company, has surpassed expectations in providing customer value and adheres to various crucial principles in customer relations (Stirtz, 2010).
Smith Systems Consulting values transparency and openness in their company, regardless of the feedback received. They strive to offer a diverse range of products and services that meet the needs and desires of both current and potential clients. Additionally, they prioritize engaging with customers actively. By following these customer-centric principles, Smith Systems Consulting can foster mutually respectful relationships with all clients, ensuring they feel valued. In a highly competitive computer industry, Apple Computers recognized the importance of obtaining a competitive edge.
Apple has gained a competitive advantage by creating lightweight and user-friendly products and prioritizing customer value. Smith Systems Consulting can achieve a similar edge by focusing on developing highly user-friendly products and services that are in high demand. This would greatly improve the organization’s success, particularly within the web and business application industry. In contrast, JCPenny, a well-known retailer and catalog retailer, has consistently faced challenges in evaluating business marketing trends.
JCPenny recognized the significance of comprehending marketing trends and adapting to meet evolving business marketing trends in the face of intense competition. By meticulously planning and evaluating individual stores, the company has successfully customized their marketing activities based on different environmental trends. Smith Systems Consulting can enhance their understanding of marketing trends by assessing the environments they operate in and the customers they target.
Smith Systems Consulting can achieve their end-state goals or make progress towards them by developing a branding strategy. By creating brand awareness, the company can implement a marketing strategy and establish a unique identity for the organization. This option is crucial as it directly contributes to accomplishing the organization’s objectives.
Establishing a brand or trademark is crucial for companies as it helps attract and retain customers. It also involves implementing a strategy to continuously increase brand awareness, which is essential for the company’s success. By reinforcing the company’s presence in the minds of existing and potential customers, building brand awareness allows businesses to maintain their current customer base while attracting new ones.
After the brand is created, a strategy can be formed and executed to foster connections and marketing communications between the sales and marketing teams and clients. Billington (1997) identifies three types of risk: hazard, uncertainty, and opportunity. While the first two categories concentrate on the negative aspects of risk, the third category highlights its positive side and emphasizes the significance of innovative approaches. According to Billington (1997), “Insufficient risk-taking can be equally detrimental for management as excessive risk-taking” (p. 4).
Relying excessively on advanced tools and checklists can increase the potential for encountering negative risks since these tools are based on past experiences, which may not account for crucial new risk areas (Billington, 1997). In light of this study, the search for an alternative best practice in risk assessment that regards risks as opportunities was undertaken. All three alternatives are associated with several high-ranking risks in terms of goal achievement, with moderate to low levels of risks across the board. Smith Systems Consulting is taking the risk of utilizing company time and resources on a brand that, if not adequately developed, could potentially fail.
The company faces the risk of losing market share to competitors if the brand awareness strategy fails. Additionally, there is a possibility of disagreement among stakeholders regarding company branding and potential conflicts with alternative options. To minimize these risks and conflicts, the company should ensure continual commitment from all stakeholders and establish a well-defined plan and responsibilities.
The ideal approach to address this problem is through the creation of customer value. When a business sells any product or service, its primary focus should be on the customer, guaranteeing their happiness and contentment. By acquiring customer value, a company can evaluate the excellence of its products and services by gathering feedback and comments from customers.
Acquiring valuable information is crucial for enhancing a company’s products and services. This data aids in recognizing and meeting customer needs, resulting in tailored offerings. By emphasizing customer value, a marketing strategy can efficiently target customers and contribute to realizing the company’s vision and goals.
The implementation plan consists of several steps to ensure success within a year. Initially, the CEO will conduct an information briefing to reveal upcoming changes and plans. Next, a team will be assembled to develop a marketing brand and strategy. This team’s responsibilities will include establishing brand recognition, designing a logo, and devising a distinctive slogan that distinguishes them from competitors.
The following actions will be taken:
– Distributing marketing and promotional materials to both existing and potential clients of Smith Systems Consulting.
– Regularly reaching out to existing clients by the marketing and sales department to enhance relationships and forge new ones.
– Holding an executive meeting to discuss strategic marketing plans and implement marketing communications.
Additional steps for marketing and branding will be developed as necessary. These monthly executive meetings ensure alignment and a common goal among all company members. The deliverables contribute to both gaining new clients and maintaining current customers. Through these executive meetings, marketing materials, and relationship building, the company can consistently form connections with decision makers and successfully establish a strong brand identity.
Evaluation of results is often neglected and not included in the initial plan. However, by incorporating SMART objectives that include meaningful and practical measures, feedback and learning can be obtained to ensure success (Berry & Thomas, 2008, p. 3). To maintain progress, Riordan will conduct regular reviews of employee satisfaction surveys, employee files, and compiled reports, making necessary changes as required. The established SMART goals will serve as indicators of the company’s progress towards its ultimate vision. The effectiveness of measurement depends on the chosen metrics.
It is considered a best practice to have an objective third party record metrics, ensuring impartiality and delivering the most dependable and unfiltered results to management. Additionally, the effectiveness of a plan can only be measured by its execution and subsequent follow-up phases. All employees have the chance to assess the implementation’s outcomes and offer evaluations to the relevant team. Upon implementation of the strategic marketing plan, evaluation of the results becomes feasible. Smith Systems Consulting has numerous goals for the future, aiming to achieve success as a company and enhance their industry recognition.
The company plans to hold quarterly meetings with all shareholders to assess the effectiveness of marketing materials and evaluate the success and growth of the business. Additionally, a yearly review of both existing and potential client files will be conducted to track progress and sales achievements, serving as a gauge for the organization’s overall direction and goals. Furthermore, annual satisfaction surveys will be distributed to current clients to gauge their level of satisfaction as well as their requirements for additional or specialized services that Smith Systems Consulting can provide. By evaluating each customer, the company aims to identify the top five most profitable clients in order to establish stronger and more lucrative accounts.
Conclusion
By implementing a strategy based on strong marketing principles, Smith Systems Consulting can achieve the best results in customer acquisition and retention. This approach has provided valuable insights, highlighting the importance of recognizing that there may be multiple correct solutions to any given problem.
The University of Phoenix (2010) proposes that the 9 Step approach to problem solving is not a straightforward process, but instead encompasses several uncertainties. To attain success, Smith Systems Consulting should contemplate diversifying their marketing strategies, enhancing record-keeping practices, and fostering strong relationships with business owners.
The company can achieve its objectives and exceed expectations by using the knowledge gained from the 9 Step Model. This includes incorporating elements of marketing, branding, marketing communications, marketing trends, customer value, risk management, conflict resolution, and distinguishing between symptoms and problems.
By implementing a structured problem-solving approach, Smith Systems Consulting is able to effectively handle the complexity and mitigate risks associated with each phase of their operations. This method enables them to systematically identify and resolve issues, thus ensuring their ongoing success as a provider of web and business application services.
References
- Advameg, Inc. (2010). Stakeholders. Retrieved March 12, 2010 from, http://www. referenceforbusiness. com/management/Sc-Str/Stakeholders. html
- Berry, S. , & Thomas, R. (2008). Use SMART objectives to focus goals, plans and performance. Retrieved September 12, 2008 from: http://www. projectsmart. co. uk/use-smart-objectives-to-focus-goals-plans-and- performance. html
- Billington, J. (1997). A few things every manager ought to know about risk. Harvard Business Review. New York: McGraw-Hill.
- University of Phoenix. BusinessDictionary. com. (2010). Macroenvironment. Retrieved March 13, 2010 from, http://www. businessdictionary. com/definition/macro-environment. html
- Gomez-Mejia, L. R. & Balkin, D. B. (2002). Management (1st ed. ). New York: McGraw-Hill.
- Investopedia. com. (2010). Brand Awareness. Retrieved March 4, 2010 from, ttp://www. investopedia. com/terms/b/brandawareness. asp InvestorWords. com. (n. d. ).
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