The Strategy Adopted by Smooth Electronics Incorporated - Assignment Example

Information Security Aim of the Paper: The aim of the Paper is to get understand the strategy adopted by the rival company. To analyze whether the technical know how of the company is being applied in the rival firm or not. Objectives To evaluate and analyze the current problems associated with the HOLD device in Smooth Electronics Incorporated. Executive Summary Smooth Electronics Incorporated is in a very competitive marketplace where I am employed in. Our organization has just designed a new electronic product that supersedes the CD and DVD – a HOLD or Holographic Drive. Holography is imaging using a photographic plate to record the interference patterns between two portions of a laser beam. Our research and development team is currently testing this product. In the near future Smooth Electronics Inc. will embark upon a mass production programme of the HOLD product followed by a huge marketing campaign. Our Executive Director, Ms Dank, suspects that a rival firm, Exigent Pty Ltd, is also researching and developing a competitive new product in the same field. I have been requested to investigate the activities of Exigent and report my confidential findings back to Ms Dank. She has instructed me to use any overt or covert means necessary to gather intelligence information on this competitor. It is to write a report to Ms Dank explaining the methods me could use to gather information about Exigent Pty Ltd. Report Due to the nature of this study, in order to have the concept in making of holographic drive, a literature review was to complete first. Why did Smooth Electronics incorporate introduce holographic drive? The overall objective of Smooth Electronics Incorporated is to make good scientific advancement in the modern world. They can increase profits by increasing customer retention rate, increasing the number of referrals, increase cross-sales and up-sales, enabling companies to use the customers to find more loyal and responsive customers. Control groups should be set up to measure success and show if the scheme has worked, work out lifetime value of customers and use this to evaluate the success of the strategy. Why concentrate on Exigent Pty Ltd? Our Executive Director, Ms Dank, suspects that a rival firm, Exigent Pty Ltd, is also researching and developing a competitive new product in the same field. I have been requested to investigate the activities of Exigent and report my confidential findings back to Ms Dank. She has instructed me to use any overt or covert means necessary to gather intelligence information on this competitor. Our research and development team is currently testing this product. In the near future Smooth Electronics Inc. will embark upon a mass production programme of the HOLD product followed by a huge marketing campaign. How information can be gained? Information can be gained any overt or covert means to find out the fact whether they are engaging in the same production of HOLD. Objectives of the research The objectives of the research are to: Discover whether Exigent Pty Ltd, is also researching and developing a competitive new product in the same field? investigate the activities of Exigent report the confidential findings back to Ms Dank Comparisons will be made between primary research findings and previous research results. Methodology Both primary and secondary evidence as overt and covert means were collected in order to produce this report. Relevant previous researches on strategies, in the form of questionnaire, interview by overt means and by seeking employment in Exigent by covert means were used to complete this assignment. Primary Research Questionnaires were used to understand Exigent employees know-how and feelings towards HOLD production. Personal interviews and observation were used to collect data even though they are more time consuming and questionnaires provided the data required in a form that could be analysed with ease. The questionnaires provided both quantitative and qualitative information (Bell, J., 1999. Doing your Research Project. Open University Press, Philadelphia.). Pilot Study First, a pilot study (pre-test sample) was done on fifteen Exigent employees to get feedback on the questionnaire so errors could be corrected and ascertain if there were any difficulties. The time taken to complete the questionnaire was also tested to ensure it wasn’t too time consuming. It was used to check respondents understood the questions. Items that didn’t produce usable data were removed. As a result of the pilot study, some questions were omitted, some were re-worded and some questions added (Bell, 1999). Questions on income, age, marital status and number of dependents were either removed or changed as they were not required for analysis. Structure of Questions Fixed-alternative questions were asked as they are less time consuming to fill in and analyse, even though less information can be gathered from the responses (Burns, 2000). They either consisted of a list of items or a list of categories to choose from. The respondent was given specific limited alternative responses and asked to choose the one closest to his/her own viewpoint. Care was taken to ensure the questions consisted of simple language; the questions were non-leading or presumptuous, not ambiguous offensive or sensitive, and not burdensome. The funnel technique was followed whereby general questions were asked before specific questions in order to obtain unbiased responses (Zikmund, 2003 and Burns, 2000). Unfortunately, some of the questions were double barrelled to keep the questionnaire short but this was overcome by asking the respondents to indicate which cards each answer applied to. It was still simple to fill in and analyse. The questions tested the memory so the respondent may have forgotten which cards they possessed. This was overcome by including an introductory sentence at the top of the questionnaire reminding them what a loyalty card is, and tick boxes were used where possible throughout. The appearance and layout of the questionnaire was clear to encourage respondents to read and fill in the questionnaire. Instructions were included at the top and instructions within the questions were put in bold for clarity. The questionnaire started with straightforward, easy questions with more complex topics covered later (Bell, 1999). Final questionnaire The questionnaires were given to respondents personally so it could be explained, any queries could be dealt with straight away and how the results were used could be explained. Respondents were asked to complete the questionnaire there and then to obtain a better response rate (Bell, 1999). The results were confidential, there is no way of identifying individual respondents but the findings were discussed. Sample The final questionnaire was completed by 100 Exigent employees, a small sample of the total staff strength of Exigent Pty Ltd. This was a compromise between time and size but makes it as representative as possible in the time available so conclusions could be drawn from the data (Bryman, A., Bell, E., 2003. Business Research Methods. Oxford University Press, Oxford.). Research Findings Results of primary research Once all the 100 questionnaires were completed, the results were analysed. In some instances, there appear to be more than 100 responses; this is because people may have multiple answers. The response rate for the questionnaire was 100%, and all the questionnaires were completed sufficiently. Some of the questions are given below: 1. How long have you employed in Exigent Pty Ltd? Less than 6 months 18 6-12 months 26 1-2 years 51 3-4 years 53 4+ years 17 Wright and Sparks found 26% of staff is employed in Exigent Pty Ltd within the last year (Wright and Sparks, 1999). Results found in this study concur; with 27% of staff employed there in the last year. 53 were working in the company since the last 3-4 years. From this we can understand that the questions were posed to the right people to elicit the right desired answer regarding the issue. 2. How many new assignments are you working in? How many new assignments are you working in? No. of schemes Respondents 0 26 1 22 2 28 3 18 4 1 5 4 6+ 1 The percentage of respondents owning one or more employees is 74%, while the average number of schemes respondents are a member of is 1.62 schemes. This is very useful research which found 72% of people own at least one new assignment similar to HOLD. Moreover the expected answer is got from some senior level staff that the new product of the rival company is more or less similar to the device HOLD! 3. How often do you use the new product of your firm? Every time 84 Most of the time new products 43 Sometimes 15 Rarely 22 How often do you use the new product of your firm? This study found that most products are used every time the, 84% in the group and Most of the time new products at 45% in this study (Wright, and Sparks, 1999). This lower percentage and the fact 15% only use devices ‘sometimes’ or ‘rarely’ is worrying as it, they may not be using as a high percentage of it are not being used. This was a vital step from which we can cruise towards my mission since the fact that most of the employees are having the self pride in using their company product. That means they themselves have the belief in the product. So I had decided to find out the similarity of the product. If they are designing the very same product, it would be a severe head ache for all the staff of our firm since the quality of the product is high. We have to formulate various strategies to overcome the situation. To be frank, I felt some sort of burn in the belly when I involve the seriousness of the mission the company given to me. 4. When was the last time you used the new product of your firm for a trial run or so ? During the last month 96 During the last 6 months 41 During the last year 6 Can't remember 25 In the study it has been found that over 96% used it last month. This suggests that there is some new item is being designed by the firm recently. More alarming fact to me was that most of the employees are keenly watching and advancing forward so interestingly. They are taking part in their activities whole heartedly. Even though it is interesting, as a rival firm it was irritating for me and I decided that there is something to fear about. 5. Has your shopping behaviour changed after using the new device? Not at all 2 A little 8 A lot 90 Results suggest most people’s (90%) shopping behaviour does change and some (8%) say it changes their behaviour a little. Very few (2%) say that has not changed their behaviour. On further enquiry it was evident that that is very similar to HOLD! Our organization has just designed a new electronic product that supersedes the CD and DVD – a HOLD or Holographic Drive. Holography is imaging using a photographic plate to record the interference patterns between two portions of a laser beam. Our research and development team is currently testing this product. It was quite shocking that the new product that we thought it would supersede the industry is in our rival’s hand! We have been thinking to embark upon a mass production programme of the HOLD product followed by a huge marketing campaign in the near future. 6. What was the reason for using the new item? Quality 90 rewards 2 Credit-related 2 Initial discount 0 Sense of belonging 0 Opportunity to build relationship 0 Other 6 From the study it is obvious that the new product used by its quality for which reason we were manufacturing it, the very same answer that I got from them. From this it was almost sure that the apprehension of our Executive Director, Ms Dank came true!! In order to find out its genuineness, I must make sure that it is exactly similar to our product. As a sincere and responsible officer, it was my duty to find out it by any covert means! Hence I had decided to get an employment in the rival firm. I had sent an unsolicited application for an apprentice in the rival firm. Since the qualification and experience match for the ongoing project, I found that, there is no difficulty to get the job in the rival firm. Though they have enquired why the reason to quit from Smooth for which I had kept a readymade answer that there is none to lend their ear for innovative ideas. I had presented the outline idea of HOLD product as my novel venture which will overturn the industry. Since they were quite ignorant about our new venture, there was nothing wrong for taking me in their deployment. Why should say the entire history? In short, I was given an opportunity to work in the very same project line. While going through the initial work, I had surprised that the entire project is exactly similar to our Smooth project. It was obvious that if we do not apply any innovative strategy, it would be a blow for us and our entire work will go waste. Now it is the time to act….. Conclusion Now the matter is s clear. Our rival firm, Exigent Pty Ltd, is also researching and developing a competitive new product in the same field. So without wasting any time I hereby submit the report before Ms. Dank for further immediate action plan. I am pretty sure that we can outplay them with the immediate execution of the following action plan. Action Plan Recommendations 1. PRODUCT STRATEGY AND POSITIONING 2. PRICING THE NEW PRODUCT 3. PROMOTIONAL PRICING 4. WIDE ADVERTISING FOR THE NEW PRODUCT 5. ENTIRE MEDIA SELECTION 6. PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER 7. IMMEDIATE PRODUCT LAUNCH References 1. Bell, J., 1999. Doing your Research Project. Open University Press, Philadelphia. 2. Bryman, A., Bell, E., 2003. Business Research Methods. Oxford University Press, Oxford. 3. Burns, R., 2000. Introduction to Research Methods. Sage Publications, London. 4. Gordon, I., 1998. Relationship marketing: new strategies, techniques and technologies to win the customers you want and keep them forever. John Wiley & Sons, Ontario. 5. Payne, A., 1998. Relationship marketing for competitive advantage: winning and keeping customers. Butterworth Heinemann, Oxford. 6. Zikmund, W., 2003. Business Research Methods. Thomson, Ohio. 7. DRUCKER F. 2003. Management challenges for the 21st century. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann 8. FAHEY L & NARAYAMAN VK. 1986. Macro-environmental analysis for strategic management. St Paul: West. Read More