Business Development for Brookdale Centre - Case Study Example

Business Development Plan for Brookdale Centre Affiliation: Executive Summary Currently, the market is very lucrative, and the economy is regaining its form rapidly after recovering from the recession of 2009. The current trends in the market provide an indication that there will be an increase in the number of entrepreneurs with the competition among the existing companies going to present a perfect opportunity for doing business (Gubisch, 2013). Studies also indicate that there will be an increase in the demand for the market information and services that will necessitate companies into staying ahead of their competitors. Through this promising market, there is a great possibility of making Brookdale Centre become a world class facility, and hence be able to regain its lost identity of being a world class shopping, accommodation, restaurant and leisure facility in United Kingdom. The business plan that I am proposing is that of which the management team needs to undertake a number of strategic changes that I will provide for Brookdale Center to revive again through the promising market (Crosby, 2009). Purpose of this Report The report identifies critical areas that require serious changes in the management, hence setting goals that the management has to meet to guarantee present and future success of Brookdale Centre, UK. Some goals to meet are the expansions, cost reduction, asset reduction, revenue generation, product strategies, turnaround, pricing strategies, competition, promotion strategies, and HRM and Operations. Table of Contents Executive summary ………………..…………………………………………………..2 Introduction- overview of the current situation and objectives ………….……………4 Moving Forward –Detailed Plan and Implementation …………………………………5 Expansion ………………………………………………………………………………6 Cost Reduction Strategies ………………………………………………………………7 Revenue Generation …………………………………………………………………….8 Turnaround …………………………………………………………………………….9 Competition …………………………………………………………………………..10 Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………………11 References …………………………………………………………………………….12 Introduction - Overview of the current situation and objectives Brookdale Center is a one time a regional center is United Kingdom that was subject to establish by Jonathan Owen back in 2001, while the project was completed and started operating in 2005. Owen’s long time dream was to build a leisure and entertainment center in UK, which is his favorite part of the world. However, it was until two years later that Owen was able to manage gaining the sufficient commitment from the backers and the financial institutions for the development of the project, which would thus see his dream becoming a reality. In the essence, Owen was envisioning to see a future proof leisure village, which would provide 100% customer satisfaction that was under the facilitation of the fully utilized workforce. The center operates under the control and management of Brookdale Management Enterprises (BME), with the Chairman, Owen, being at the centre of this management. Currently, there is a tightly-knit group of 70 managers and staff that oversee the BME-owned outlets. All the other external retailers operate under the management of their own management teams (Feyder, 2009). The situation at hand is that is a problem with the management of the center, with many managers citing Owen leadership to be too stressing to his juniors, thus contribution to the low staff morale. Owen’s leadership is very autocratic, which makes it hard for the entire management team to deliver their duties to their full capacity. Coming at the people, Owen’s approach of “pay big bucks and kick ass” has created a climate of fear and distrust through the entire management team, with the morale of continuing to go low while job satisfaction keeps on falling. Despite the challenge of bad leadership from the top executive, there is also a challenge of addressing the safety measures with the center. Another challenge is that some business rooms are not occupied, which the backers to be sending a negative image of the center to the public and prospective customers. After long time deliberations, decision was subject to make with changes in the management function, where Owen stepped aside from the Chairman role and only acting in the capacity of non-Executive director, with Gloria Withington taking upon the Chairperson’s role. The current management team thus faces a tough time with reviving the business back to where it used to be and be able to start generating more profits. In this regard, the objective is to come up will realistic solutions to these problems. These solutions need to be timely and ideal for them to succeed, hence gaining the market advantage that would eventually revive the activities of Brookdale Center. There is something special about the Brookdale Center in that it is the only facility in UK that is within the reach of Manchester, Leeds, Bradford, and most of the mid-northern cities and towns. In this regard, there is need to appeal to the public for support and be able to attract more investors to the center, as the possible measure of reviving its business functions. Moving Forward –Detailed Plan and Implementation In order to revive this facility and be able to be competitive again in the future promising business environment, there is need to establish and implement the goals identified when stating the purpose of this report. The following are a number of areas the management of Brookdale Center should consider as the possible way of reviving the business; i) Expansion The majority of business owners with intentions of growing their businesses always consider expansion as a strategy for growth. Expanding a business has many related advantages to the business. For example, it brings along the new personnel that will bring some unique qualifications to the organization. Other advantages are that expansion enhances the broader customer base, creates favorable financing opportunities, and creates relocation possibilities. However, the business need to note that expansion may pose some problems to the company that is unwilling to undergo changes of growth (Marques, Dhiman, & Holt, 2012). It is thus essential that the company in its expansion plans need to consider expansion from the aspect of profitability to all entities involved, but not from the aspect of making growth in sales. There are many workable ways of which a company may successfully implement the expansion initiatives. The first approach is by forming alliances with other business entities. In this way, the business will be marketing its products and services to the extended market. The expected long-term outcome is that the strategy will be able to attract more customers, gain popularity and loyalty among the locals, and similarly be able to attract more investors. The second approach for expansion is forming mergers. According to Krajewski, Ritzman, & Malhotra (2013), forming mergers would be able to bring added advantages through a reduction in cost expenses, the creation of market penetration, increasing of diversification, and adding more knowledge and skills to the panel of management. The third and last approach for expansion should be engaging in acquisitions. Acquisition by its own is the better way to achieving growth, as it ends up making it easier in financing the growth strategies and reduces the risks encountered (García-Canal et al., 2002). Through engaging in the growth strategy, Brookdale Center would be able to regain their strengths of operations and begin seeing growth in its business entities again. ii) Cost Reduction Strategies Developing and implementing cost reduction strategies is another possible way of which Brookdale Center may regain its business strength. According to Bragg (2010), the current market presents new opportunities for cost reductions in operations, such as internal optimization, cutting costs on materials and the continuous reduction of energy prices. For present and future companies, there is a need for people in managerial capacities to take the advantages of these opportunities in the market as a way of maximizing output in their products and services. By engaging in cost reduction strategies, the management will be able to get rid of the underperforming entities while in the same manner aiming to boost the productivity through capacity utilization (Institute of Management & Administration, 2002). To achieve seeing the effectiveness of cost reduction, managers need to integrate business planning, make investments on equipment and engage in lean manufacturing processes. There are also a number of significant ways of ensuring that the organization or business entity achieves success through cost reduction strategies. The first approach is engaging in better supply arrangements as it is a measure of getting the best resources at cheaper costs for producing the best quality and affordable products or services. There is a possibility of achieving cost reduction through public relations. Halloum (2008) suggests that engaging in good business relations would create an ample and conducive environment for the business, hence identifying the better source of resources at cheaper prices that would eventually reduce the cost of production. The business may also cut on its expenses in areas of training and advertising. Here, the business will only need to identify the target market and be able to devise possible means of reaching this market without necessarily training and advertising its products or services. Upon following some of these ideas, Brookdale Center will be able to outgrow the falling sales it is experiencing at the current situation. iii) Revenue Generation The first matter to consider when it comes to transforming any form of business so that it may achieve a recurring revenue model is by devising means of charging for the products and services offered to the consumers. In this particular matter, it is important for the management of any entity to appreciate on the existing differences in both sustainability and income generation. A business needs to engage in some sustainability initiatives so that it gains popularity and support in all areas where it conducts its operations. In the same way, the business should not invest a lot on sustainability as it would lead to a reduction in its revenues. Basing on this concept, there is absolute need for the management to identify most effective sustainability activities that the business needs to engage, while at the same time ensuring that these initiatives would translate to more sales in the long-term, hence generating more revenue to the business. It is also possible to generate more revenues for the business through engaging in stock management initiatives. Here, the business will devise measures of enhancing maximum accountability through all areas of its stock. Alstete (2014) suggests that any company intending maintain its inventory in sales must be able to define its inventory policies. By engaging in stock management, there will be leaner operations in all activities of the organization, followed by a reduction in the operational expenses. Effective inventory controls should be able to reduce the company’s expenses as there will be a reduction in the total amount required for managing the business. The second approach of generating more revenues for the business is by engaging in debt reduction practices (Whaley, 2006). iv) Turnaround Looking at the situation of Brookdale Center, it is apparent that the business is in a distress situation, hence justifying the need to revitalize its business operation with the aid of a turnaround strategy. Employing use of a turnaround management is subject to regard as being the subset of business consulting, with the only issue being that it has more concern with matters of cooperate revitalization (Schrager, 2003). Using this strategy is ideal for Brookdale Center as it will aid in utilizing on analysis and planning as the possible way of returning the business into a state of solvency. The advantage of using this approach is that it creates an opportunity for the company to continue conducting its operations with greater stability. More so, senior management team will be able to offer the rest of Brookdale’s management team with some fresh insights that explain why the company is struggling a lot, giving the objectivity that may permit the company into taking crucial steps that will guarantee the company’s survival. A turnaround approach will be able to introduce significant changes in the management of the organization’s activities. The first area of change will include change in prices, which is a tool useful for determining the ideal commodity prices or service prices in the market. The option will be able to assist the management in determining the best price for selling products or services without straining the business or the customer. A turnaround approach will induce refocusing in areas of operations, which eventually leads to the new product development. In a refocusing manner, it will be able to source other alternatives that the business may engage in and be able to generate enough profits to supplement the normal business operations (Lenahan & Lenahan, 2006). Finally, a turnaround approach will emphasize in achieving more sells and enhance an understanding of the competitors. Brookdale Center is in a situation that it really needs to make more sells since the competitors seem to be oppressing the business in this area of operation. v) Competition Competition is the last area that requires serious addressing through the management of Brookdale Center strategies. Engaging in the identification of a competitive advantage followed by the crafting of an effective business strategy for supporting the operations is both an iterative and ongoing process. The business will require re-evaluating itself and review on where it is heading to, together with telling who the largest competitors are. In a competitive approach to management, there will be an evaluation on the already established or emerging competitors, thus be able to tell on their strengths. It will thus be possible to consider on their weaknesses and to review on the possible opportunity that such weaknesses may provide the company with an opportunity of addressing the available loopholes. Using this approach in management will help at telling how the company’s operations will be better or worse than compared to the operations of the competitor (Clark, 2002). The situation that Brookdale Center is facing may be because its competitors have devised better methods of doing business, thus taking all available customers in the market. In this regard, there is need for the management team to conduct an evaluation and ask where the competitor is doing better in the market and at the same time evaluate on possibility of competition in responding to the new market entry. In doing this, areas to look may include looking at the analyst reports. For example, in case the player is this competitive landscape is operating as a public landscape, there is need of conducting careful reviews of the analyst reports for any clues about the core assets, strengths, and the source of its competitive edge. Also, review the competitor’s operational plan and the financial model, conduct some market analysis and evaluate on its sources of funding. A critical review in all these areas of competitor’s operations will aid the company in telling its weaknesses and possible opportunities for growth (Pearce & Robinson, 2013). Conclusion It is apparent that Brookdale Center is facing hard economic and competition ties in the market. In this regard, taking some of the above-mentioned measures has the potential of getting the business back on its feet and be able to utilize on the present and future promising market. Therefore, basing on the definition of weaknesses and competitive advantages of the business, the management needs to determine on key business strategies that will make sense for pursuing such strategies. The next step, the management team will require eliminating on strategies that may not be applicable to the business setting, and then make a consideration on which remaining strategies that will end up making the best match for the situation the business is currently facing. Bibliography ALSTETE, J. W. (2014). Revenue generation strategies: leveraging higher education resources for increased income. BRAGG, S. M. (2010). Cost reduction analysis tools and strategies. Hoboken, NJ, John Wiley & Sons. CLARK, P. A. (2002). Organisations in action competition between contexts. London, Routledge. CROSBY, JACKIE (2009). “Another store is closing the books on Brookdale". Star Tribune. Retrieved 2009-05-01. FEYDER, SUSAN (2009). "Brookdale: A ghost of its former self". Star Tribune. 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