Westlake Lanes Market Performance - Case Study Example

Westlake Strengths Westlake Lanes has established its business in a prime location. For this reason the company had been able to attract many s. Its prime location acted as strength to generate more revenue in the business. The company is into the business for past 30 years. So it has created its name in the market of recreation. This acted as a competitive advantage to the company. For maintaining its business for a long time the company was able to develop loyal customers. Other than blowing the company deals with many other recreational activities. It helps to strengthen the company to by providing wide range of product and services to its targeted customers. Price of recreational activities of Westlake Lanes was affordable which contributed a lot in attracting customers from all income groups. Pricing strategy of this company helped to strengthen its business position. Westlake Lane also had fooding facilities. It sold Pizza, soda etc in their bowling zone (Hamermesh and Zalosh, 2012). This acted as strength to the business by satisfying its customers through different products and services. Weaknesses The company incurred a huge cost for maintaining its recreational activities. Low sale of these activities weaken the business position and lower the company’s profit. For a long period of time the company was operating its business activities by taking different types of loan from the market. In many cases Westlake Lane was unable to repay the loans which hampered its revenue. Strategies in which the company operated its business process were not effective enough to improve the business condition. For its inefficient business process the company incurred huge losses which weaken the business position. The operational activities of Westlake Lane were not managed properly which resulted in rise of cost in its business process. General expenses of the company were very high. Productivity of its employees was very low. As a result the company delivered low quality of products and services to its customers. There was no strong long term strategy for the company to improve or strengthen its business position. Opportunities Westlake Lanes is into a developing industry. This attractive industry provides huge growth opportunities to the company. Westlake Lanes is into the business for past 30years. So it acts as a strong barrier to different small companies in this industry. The loyal customer base of this firm helps it to improve business position. Westlake Lanes is a family owned business which provides different opportunities to the company to growth its business operations. For last three decades the company is into this business. This provided an opportunity to the company to easily enhance its image in the mind of its customer (Henry, 2011). It was the first company which targeted family and kids for recreational activities. In the present time there is a rise of disposable income among the people. Therefore with the rise of disposable income family and kids will spent more on recreational activities which will help the company to grow and improve its business position. Threats Presently Westlake Lanes is facing threats from its many new competitors. The industry of recreational activities has developed a lot in the past few years. Many new companies have developed its business in this industry. This has impacted the growth of Westlake Lanes negatively. The competitor companies provide various types of services and products to the customers. It helps to increase their customer base and reduces Westlake Lanes customer base. There are different types of recreational activities developing in the recent days which are attracting more customers compared to blowing. It reduces the popularity of Westlake Lanes activities. One of the important business operations of this company is arranging birthday parties. But in the present time many small and big companies have developed a good market in arranging birthday parties. They have become indirect substitute of Westlake Lanes business. Low productivity of Westlake Lanes employees hampers its business operations (Wintzer, 2007). This gives other business the opportunity to capture the market of this company by their high quality of products and services. The general manager of Westlake Lane was Shelby Given. She pointed out several reasons which contributed in the downfall of this company. She analyzed the company’s situation in great details which helped her to understand all of these issues and problems of Westlake Lane. She pointed out many things about financial condition and low productivity of the business. She also highlighted about operational inefficiency of the company and its present threats which are reducing its revenues. Therefore most of the issues discussed in SWOT are indentified by Given. Problems The company faced some major problems in its business process which have lowered its revenue. The business model of this company was based on old ideas and process. It was not effective in modern competitive world. Westlake Lanes did not have any strong strategy or policies which could have improved its business operations or productivity. As a result the company was not utilizing its resources properly. Employees of Westlake Lanes were not so productive. The company was in the dilemma to keep its employees or to fire them. Moreover Westlake Lanes was into a huge dept. It was facing a major financial crisis. Strategies For improving the business condition Westlake Lanes should implement strong strategies which will help the company to improve its business position. The company should not get involved into major investment as its financial condition is not good. So it should focus more on increasing its revenue by effectively utilizing its current resources. For protect this family business Given should keep the existing employees and train them well to increase their efficiency and productivity in the business. The company should also focus on reducing its general expenses (Porter, 2008). It will help the firm to increase its profit. Westlake Lanes should also reduce its advertisement expenses which will help the company to use in improving its product and service quality. Given had implemented various measures to improve business condition of Westlake Lanes. He improved the financial condition of the business by repaying up the debts. Productivity was increasing by improving employee morale. He also improved operational process of the business by reducing its different expenses. References Hamermesh, R. G. and Zalosh, A. (2012). Westlake Lanes: How Can This Business Be Saved?. Harvard Business School Brief Case. pp.124-431. Henry, A. (2011). Understanding Strategic Management. New York: Oxford University Press. Porter, M. E. (2008). Competitive advantage: creating and sustaining superior performance. New York: Simon and Schuster. Wintzer, E. (2007). Global Competition and Strategic Management. Germany: GRIN Verlag. Read More