Developmental Relationships and Managerial Promotability in Organizations - Report Example

Strategic Management and Leadership Successful The company Jaguar was founded in 1992 as they began their journey by manufacturing motorcycles. It is a British automobile company with its headquarters in Whitely, UK. The company is mainly into designing, manufacturing, development and sales of cars bearing the tag of Jaguar and also Land Rover. The company has been acquired by Indian automobile company Tata Motors in 2008 and since then it has been a part of this company (Jaguar Land Rover, 2013). Jaguar Land Rover manufactures and sells highly performing specialist sports cars, luxury cars and the middle class four wheelers. It has got its presence across worldwide providing its cars to the customers across the globe making sure that the brand is able to explore maximum market share and is also able to gather maximum customers across the globe (Jaguar Land Rover PLC, 2012). The automobile industry in the global market is highly competitive as there are many companies in the same segment which are looking to provide best quality cars to the customers so that they can get maximum market share and also are able to have their brand presence in the global market. Jaguar has a wide range of products in its product line which includes XJ, R, F, XK and XF-Type and in the same way Land Rover also has a range of products under its line which include Freelander 2, Discovery 4, Range Rover, Range Rover Evoque, Range Rover Sport and Defender models (Jaguar Land Rover, 2014). The company has got its presence in 178 countries and has a very strong distribution channel of sales and export import and also a huge range of franchise dealers. The company has got a 70% of market share through its sales in UK, Italy, China, Germany, Russia and North America. It has a total of approximately 23,850 employees working globally with all the employees working with their best efficiency (Jaguar land Rover, 2013). It was able to sell an approximate number of 251,632 Land Rover and 54,227 Jaguar cars across the entire globe in the year 2013 (Yahoo finance, 2014). The company got net revenue of around £15,784m in the year 2013. The company got a 30% rise in its sales over the last year in the Asian market, 21% rise in sales in North America, 14% in UK and 6% in rest Europe (Bloomberg Businessweek, 2014). All these factors do show that the company has been very successful in the global market even with so much of competition in the market. The company has got a good percentage of growth every year increasing its market share and also net revenue and profit margin over the years (Jaguar Land Rover, 2013). Business reasons Jaguar and Land Rover over the years has grown a good pace over the years and it has been able to create a good market share in the automobile industry. Even after facing so much of competition the company has been able to create a good brand image in the mind of the customers as they are able to provide a good quality product to the customers over the years and the cars manufactured by the company are able to create a good value for the customers. The company has not only created a good market presence in United Kingdom but has been able to create a good market presence across the entire globe (Varbanova, 2013). The reasons which are behind the company being so successful over the years is been shown below. The company provides best quality cars to the customers by providing good performance and best of features in the cars that are been manufactured by the company. The company has got a big distribution channel across the entire globe with a huge number of retailers, service stations, distributors to increase the sales and also to create good brand awareness in the market (Kotler, 2001). The company has got its presence across the entire globe and has been able to create its band presence in 178 countries across the entire world. Because of such high presence the sales of the company does increases in a huge way and it also gets a lot of competitive edge in the automobile industry (Cunningham and Harney, 2012). The biggest strength of the company is that they change their strategies based on the change in the global trend. Changing based on the market demand and the market requirement does help the company in producing the products in the best quality and also as per changing demand of the customers (McLoughlin and Aaker, 2010). Jaguar land Rover invests around £ 800m every year towards the research and development of vehicles so that they are able to come up with the best technically equipped and highly efficient automobiles which can be used by the customers as per their needs (Kozami, 2002). The company has an innovative culture in its business operations which allows the company to come up with innovative ideas for production purpose. After the company was been acquired by Tata Motors the company has got lot of advantage as it has been able to get the huge Asian market as Tata Motors is one of the biggest brand in Asian automobile industry (Northouse, 2012). All these reasons do work together as all these reasons have enabled the company to grow in such a way and also expand its market share in the global market increasing its market share continuously by good percentage. Analysis and Interpretation of the company’s capabilities Company’s capabilities are very important for the company to have its strategies and process working in the most efficient way. The capabilities of the company can be understood by using the value chain analysis and the VRIN framework which will give a clear idea for understanding the capabilities and the way it is been used. Value Chain Analysis The Value chain analysis does provide a good understanding of both the primary and secondary activities that help the company to operate in an efficient way. All the activities in the company do perform together to make sure that they help the company to grow and also increase the productivity of the company at a good pace. The value chain analysis diagram for the company Jaguar Land Rover is been shown in the below diagram. Thus looking at the value chain diagram the primary activities in the company are mainly concentrated towards the production system and quality maintenance, supply chain, research and development, the service and the marketing sales team which play the most important role in generating high revenue for the company and also to get the best quality and innovative cars that do create a lot of value for the customers (Pearce, 2009). Apart from the primary activities the secondary activities also play a vital role in the company for making it grow in such a huge manner and become one of the top automobile companies in the global market with increasing market share (Marr and Gray, 2012). The secondary activities cover the departments of infrastructure facility that the company has that allows it to have such a nice production system, the human resource strength that the company has is also very important as it allows the company to produce quality products and also come up with innovative strategies, the information system in the company is also important as it creates a lot of value for the employees in the way the information is conveyed across (Rogers, 2001). All these activities work together as a unit and as a single team towards achieving the company goals and objectives. These primary and secondary activities for the company help the company to create a lot of value for the customers and also the stakeholders. The cars been launched by the company are generally in the luxury segment as a result of which it does help in creating a lot of value for the customers in the form of creating a good status symbol for them and also by providing a high quality vehicle with good performance level (Stonehouse and Houston, 2012). The company do creates a lot of value for the stake holders as they are benefited in a huge way with the increasing sales of the vehicles being launched by the company. The increasing sales volume does increases the net revenue of the company and also the market share thus the stake holders are highly benefited from this. VRIN Framework This framework is the type of analysis that is been done to understand the exact way in which the company is having a competitive advantage over other companies present in the competitive global world with many other companies present and striving hard in the same field. VRIN refers to Value, Rarity, and Inimitability and non-substitutability characteristics of the company present in the particular industry (Mazzucato, M. and The Open University, 2002). Value for Jaguar and land rover refers to the way the company creates value for its customers and also the stakeholders. The company does create a lot of value for the customers as they provide good quality vehicles to the customers and also do provide the best of service in the industry to the customers. Apart from the customers the company do provide a lot of value for the stakeholders as it does allows them to grow on continuous basis along with having a continuous growth in its business process. Rarity in case of this company is related to the way the company invests over the research and development team yearly and the way it has its production process which allows the company to continuously come up with latest technically equipped and better performance vehicles which are different from the other brand vehicles present in the market and do create a lot of value for the customers (Fitzroy and Herbert, 2007). These rarity factors are highly difficult for other company to implement upon and it does help the company to increase its sales and get more number of customers. Inimitability is related to the way in which other companies can imitate the original company (Fidler, 2002). For Jaguar Land Rover the inimitability factor is very less as they have a very stringent policy of not letting other companies to know their strategies and unique points like its production process and research and development process. This allows it to keep it like a huge secret thus not allowing other to imitate its business operation (Coleman, 1988). Non-substitutability refers to the products of the similar category that can substitute the original product. In case of the vehicles that are been produced by Jaguar Land Rover is highly non-substitutable as the substitute products are not of the same category in luxury segment neither in the quality segment thus the company has got a lot of competitive edge over the substitutes as they are not able to replace the original product developed by the company (Hutt and Speh, 2012). Thus looking at both the value chain analysis and also the VRIN network it can be seen how the various activities done by the company and also the way the company has got a lot of competitive advantage over the other companies present in the same segment by providing the best quality vehicles with good design and also luxury look thus creating a lot of value for customers and stakeholders (Sekhar, 2009). This does help the company to increase their sales volume and also increase their profit margin by a good percentage. Analysis and Interpretation based on another topic area The other areas over which the analysis is been done for Jaguar land rover to see its performance in the global market is with related to the innovation and the competitive strategy that the company has implemented in its business operations. These strategies provide a lot of competitive edge to the company over other companies present in the same industry over the years. Competitive strategy The company has implemented many competitive strategies to make sure it has got a good competitive advantage over the competitors and also gets the maximum market share (Jenster, Hayes and Smith, 2005). This allows the company to get maximum number of customers and also allow the company to maximise its revenue by a good percentage. The company has got a huge distribution channel which is spread across to a total of 178 countries including the retailers, distributors who make sure that the company can reach the customers easily and it has a good visibility in the global market. This allows the company to get more customers and provide its vehicles to more customers. It also has a good competitive advantage over the others by the way it looks to invest so much amount on the research and development department so as to come with new and better vehicles that can provide more facility and also create more value to the customers (Navarro, 2006). Jaguar and Land rover looks to change it based on the changes in the demand in the market thus it has a very flexible manufacturing process and also a flexible complete business operation thus allowing the company to provide the products to the customers based on their needs and requirements (Doole and Lowe, 2005). It has looked to utilise the available resources in the best possible way so that it reduces the amount of wastage in the production process by a good percentage (OaShaughnessy, 1995). The company has got its presence in the global market in a huge way and also has it business spread across to 178 countries in the world thus providing a huge market for the company to go about with its business process. Innovation strategy The company has looked to invest huge amount every year on the research and development to have a continuous innovation in its business process and also to come with latest innovative and creative vehicles on a regular basis such that it can attract more customers and also get more sales (Abraham, 2012). This innovative way of having a good market strategy and continuously creative and innovative production process the company gets a huge advantage as it is able to come up with new technologies which reduce the amount of wastage in the production process and also in the overall business process. It does try and use various innovative and creative techniques for marketing and sales of the vehicles so that it can reach the customers in the best possible way and also in a way that it can communicate the message to the customers in the perfect manner (Abrams and Abrams, 2003). Thus the competitive and the innovative strategy that is been used by the company on a continuous basis does provide a lot of help to the company to have a constant growth in their business process and also to grow its market share by a good percentage on a constant basis. These strategies are been implemented by the company on a continuous basis to make sure that they get a good growth in not only in US but in the overall world and can also explore the new markets which are yet to be explored by the company (Witcher and Chau, 2010). Leadership In this section JLR’s leadership would be discussed with the help of Fielder contingency model. This model states that there is no fixed style of best leadership. Effectiveness of the leadership is based on different situations only. JLR’s leadership would be discussed based on two factors. Those are 1) Leadership style 2) Situational favourableness. Leadership style of the company would be measured on the basis of Least-preferred co-worker scale (LPC). This scale is consisting of different attributes of the leader for whom this model is being done (Gentry and Sosik, 2010). (Source: Yukl, 2006). In the case of JLR average score is coming 3 in the LPC scale. It is on the lower side. That means JLR’s LPC style of leadership is on the lower side. This measurement shows that JLR does not believe in a leadership style which is more of a relationship oriented and supportive in nature. It also shows that they are highly task orientation and scope of personal relationship is less (Yukl, 2006). It shows that JLR’s leadership very effective for task performance. Situational favourableness depends on three different factors. Those are 1) Leader Member relationship, 2) Task Structure, 3) Leader’s Position Power. In case of JLR relationship between leaders and subordinates are good. It is an automobile company tasks are very well assigned for each workers. That means task structure is, structured well enough. Leaders of the company have very strong power of positions. Leader has the power to give reward as well as punishment to its subordinates. So the combining result of JLR is good leader member relationship, Structured Task Structure, Strong Leaders Position Power (Marable, 2013). Below picture shows most effective leadership style according to the demand of situation. This model was created by Fiedler. In the case of JLR the situation is absolutely perfect in terms of leader ship style. (Source: Western, 2007). 4 Es of Leadership are Envision, Enable, Empower and Energise. JLR follows this model of leadership very well. Here these 4 Es of JLR are discussed below (Peter, 2012). Envision: - Top Leaders of the JLR over the years has able to communicate their long term visions among the employ very well. Employs has able to visualise the vision of the company. Leaders of the organization have some long term visions. It is very important to that those visions are spread from top level to bottom level of management (Gentry, W. A., Harris, Baker, and Leslie, 2008). The vision of JLR is very clear at different levels of managements; Company is finding sustainability in the market. Enable: - In this style leaders enables its subordinate to perform it task. In JLR leaders always tries to enable its subordinate. It is very important to enable the subordinate. Empower: - Empowerment of staffs is very important for any organization. JLR always believe in employee empowerment. It arranges lots of training and development programmes for employees to empower them. Empowered staffs of JLR are making differences for the company (Philip, 2003). Energise: - Leadership should energies subordinates. A well energised workforce is an asset for any company. JLR’s leadership energise its employees by offering different performance based incentives and by offering different facilities. Energised employees of JLR are highly motivated and dedicated towards their work (James, 2012). What might cause problems and Suggestions The life of a modern-day leader is clearly full of challenges. Some of the challenges are discussed below. JLR is having diversified workforce to motivate them for one common cause is very challenging for the company. Company must come up with some common orientation programmes to motivate diversified workforce to work across the globe. Improving efficiency of the workers is also real challenge for the company. Organization must provide some skill enhancing training to increase the efficiency of worker. In automobile industry competition is very high. Company must continue with innovations and creativities in their work. Innovation and creativity backed up by good leadership can be a competitive advantage for JLR to sustain in the market. JLR has presence across the world. Modern world has very complex business environment. Political, Economical, Social and technological differences are there in different countries. It can be a serious problem for JLR to fix strategies. Company must conduct PESTAL analysis of each and every foreign market before coming up with any strategy (Mintzberg, 1985). This analysis would help the company to get a clear picture about that country. Then the company can easily design a suitable strategy for that country. Stake holders are very important part of the company. Satisfying all the stake holders at a same time can be a problem for the company. Company must prioritize its stake holders and then should address their interest according to highest priority. Vendor management is also potential problem for JLR. As this industry is full of technical specifications bargaining power of suppliers are on the higher side. It can have an adverse affect on JLR’s performance (Ferris, Treadway, Kolodinsky, Hochwarter, Kacmar, Douglas and Frink, 2005). JLR must maintain good relationship with its vendors and must search for different substitute vendors. JLR was acquired by TATA Motors in 2008. This kind of acquisition can cause serious problems for company. TATA Motor (from India) has a different organization culture and JLR (from UK) is having different organization culture. Cultural clash can be a serious problem for JLR. This kind of merger and acquisition should be dealt with very professionally. Diversification can be a problem for JLR. In the course of diversification company may lose its focus from its existing popular products. Company must take very calculative steps for diversification. It must not forget its core competencies. Maintaining safety of the products is also can be a potential problem for JLR. Company must conduct an extensive safety test for its every product before launching it in the market. Marinating ethical conduct in the market of cut throat competition is also a challenge for JLR. Company must be ethically pure and transparent in their activities. Company may face the problem related to product dispute. Company must address all those issue very seriously and must take all the necessary actions according to that. Analysing the demand of a product can also be a problem for JLR. Company must do different market research for analysing the market demand. The company can also look to conduct a quality functional deployment to understand the exact needs and requirements of the customers based on which it can produce the products and launch which will help it to increase its market share by even higher percentage. Concluding thoughts From financial perspective jaguar can be labelled as the successful company since it enjoys more than 70% of the market share in European markets. It has witnessed rise in the sales figures in all markets which is a sign that the products of the company has been accepted worldwide. Again, from nonfinancial perspective, the company can be tagged as successful since it has got an alternative plan behind every ventures. If a plan does not work for the company, it can easily adopt to the next alternative available. The use of models as described above acts to be the witness behind the success of the company. Works Cited Abraham, S. C. (2012). Strategic Planning: A Practical Guide for Competitive Success. UK: Emerald Group Publishing. Abrams, R. and Abrams, R. M. (2003). The Successful Business Plan: Secrets & Strategies. Canada: The Planning Shop. Bloomberg Businessweek. 2014. Company Overview of Jaguar Land Rover Automotive plc. 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