Smart Technologies Strategic Plan

Smart Technologies Strategic Plan

—  The development of a market expansion strategic plan is critical because its implementation allows a business entity to maintain competitiveness (Webster , 2011).

—  The management of Smart Technologies Inc. understands the need for a market expansion plan with regards to the profitability and effective decision making.

—  The plan considers both the optimal target customer and the competitor’s activity for product differentiation and brand improvement.

—  Smart Technologies Inc. benefits remarkably from the market expansion plan because all the departments will work cordially with each other. Not only will this minimize the operation cost but also the management can redirect the resources towards CSR and business sustainability. Moreover, the strategic plan addresses the impact of globalization to the tech sector.

—  The main aim of a market expansion strategic plan is to create a sustainable competitive advantage through the analysis of both the external and internal environment. Further, the strategist must identify organizational opportunities and threats.

—  There are three levels of a market expansion plan. First, the designer must highlight the organizational mission and vision. Then, he should critically analyze the organizational goals and how they influence the business culture. Lastly, the planner must consider the organizational operations at a functional level. In this way, it will be possible to determine the competitiveness and long-term performance.

—  Creating a business plan and implementing an organizational growth strategy to reach out to new business environments prior to the flattening out of the existing market not only gives the management a considerable age but also is helpful for business survival through tough times. Undeniably, the market in the technological business sector changes over time. As Smart Technologies matures and its market share steadily rise, it will certainly encounter growth limits in its initial market segment.

Mission, Vision, and Values

—  Smart Technologies mission is to create superior value for the workforce, consumers, and stakeholders by being a market leader in next-generation tech services. 

—  The Vision is to be a global leader in the provision of advanced technology.

Values

—  Smart Technologies Inc. is client focused. It derives its success from a deep understanding of the consumer to whom all of the employees are committed to provide exceptional value and service.

—  The firm leads from the front. It applies facts to support straight talk to ensure integrity in service provision.

—  Most importantly, the management insists on excellence as the firm strives for recognition from the competitors and business partners alike.

—  The provision of sector-specific solutions is attainable through acquisition of the best talent globally. Furthermore, the company’s clients realize superior tech investment returns due to the best-in-class industrial solutions. Smart Technologies working environment is built on trust and collaboration for a positive change.

—  The top level leadership should lay emphasis on the existing mission statement to the workforce. Understandably, it clarifies the function and core organizational objectives. At Smart Technologies, both the organizational staff and managers consult a mission statement when making decisions. Nevertheless, a business expansion strategic plan may prompt an alteration of the mission and vision statement to reflect the latest organizational direction. If this is the case, the strategist must highlight minimize the deficits through a highlight of change benefits for employees and new market to buy into it.

—  On the other hand, vision statement describes business purpose. They contain the business values and offer a direction for worker behaviour. In addition, it inspires all the staff and customers to work towards attainment of organizational objectives.

—  Surely, any strategic plan will have failures and successes. Therefore, the organizational management and employees should appreciate the insignificant successes since they take the firm one step closer towards meeting the goals, which in turn form part of the overall agency objectives. Most importantly, the workers that feel invested in the business expansion plan and success are more likely to maintain high motivation levels for better productivity.

Organizational Value and Culture

—  It is the management’s responsibility to instil values to the organization and the workforce. The HR department hires competent employees that are ready to implement and adhere to the firm’s policies. Eventually, they adopt a progressive culture as they gain experience while working at Smart Technologies.

—  The leadership is categorical on the organization’s core objectives, mission and vision. Therefore, the corporate culture is coined from these values as the firm strives to maintain competitiveness in a tumultuous business environment.

—  Smart Technologies business culture includes engaging in CSR and the implementation of sustainable business practices. Clearly, these engagements complement the firm’s vision and mission.

—  Values are crucial elements because they affect the employees and how they engage with colleagues and clients. On the other hand, business entities influence the employee’s behaviour through ethical codes of conduct, rewards, and a punishment system. Evidently, motivating factors such as rewards bridges the gap between a person’s behaviour and business values. Moreover, culture fosters social interdependence and conceives camaraderie.

—  When making an business expansion plan, there are multiples issues to consider. Strategic plans imply change in business operations organizational structure. Fundamentally, the management needs to get the workers on board, particularly when making core business decisions. In fact, the leadership can articulate this in the company’s vision and mission statement. If the positives of the expansion to a new market are inscribed and repeated in the business values, the workers will be motivated and engaged.

—  While change in the business world is inevitable, growth is not. Business expansion is highly dependent on the manager’s actions and strategies taken to make it work. The extent to which Smart Technologies Inc. implement a market expansion strategy depends on the firm’s vision, mission and values. Essentially, the organization has an option to implement a slow growth plan to sustain a dismal but manageable market share. On the other hand, the strategist can design a significantly aggressive business expansion strategy to ensure structural flexibility, particularly during the adaption to new technologies and business environments in the developing world. Regardless of the market growth measure required to meet the Smart Technologies mission and vision, there ought to be an expansion plan to guarantee the business venture’s success.

—  Planning and attaining a market growth during expansion (albeit conservative or aggressive) call for the application of fundamental marketing techniques and activities. The strategist incorporates them in the new market definition and market entry plan. Still, success is within reach only if the employees uphold corporate values and principles.

Culture

—  It the technology industry, corporations overcome competition through innovation (Hitt et al., 2012). Smart Technologies Inc. cannot expand to the developing market unless the workforce participates in decision making.

—  Therefore, I will foster creativity by encouraging the staff to take risks. In addition, each employee will get an opportunity to engage in unprompted debates on the impact of globalization to the business operations. In this way, they will devise intervention measures to be adopted by the leadership.

—  Further, I will create a seamless consumer technology that is easily adaptable in the developing world to encourage sales in the new market.

—  The introduction of a business culture at a start-up phase allows the organization to thrive in a new environment. I will nurture and participate in peer networks to ensure a cooperative atmosphere. Notably, the main aim of Smart Technologies is to maximize revenue and to maintain competitiveness, hence the importance of motivating employees through rewards and recognition.

—  Business culture is an essential strategic planning component. It entails the forward movement of the firm’s program to instigate change and identity. Mostly, the management endorse business plans developed organically for entry to a new business environment. However, they stress on the retention of unique business values that constitute organizational culture and identity.

Competitive Advantage

—  Smart Technologies has been operational for four years. Therefore, the management has a wealth of experience that is useful, especially during the expansion stage. It is advantageous in that most of the competing firms in the industry are start-ups.

—  Besides, Smart Technologies has adequate capital and financial resources that are useable in research and development to understand the conditions in the new market environment prior to the expansion.

—  Additionally, the financial resources can be utilized in hiring the best talent to guarantee business survival and stability (Levitt, 2013).

—  Over the years, smart technologies has built its brand on elegance and innovativeness and ethics. Therefore, the new customers will easily identify with its products rather than those of its competitors. Besides, the leadership understands that investing heavily on talent will result in significant returns in the long-run should the firm exploit the abundant opportunities in a new business environment.

—  One of the challenges of developing a functional business expansion strategy is to determine how to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage over other competing tech products and organizations in the new market. A competitive advantage refers to the additional benefit over rivalling business entities. An organization such as Smart Technologies gains it by providing greater value to the new consumers through the provision of better quality products to justify high prices, or focusing on better customer service to ensure brand loyalty.