Strategic Planning for JJ Richards & Sons Pty Limited - Case Study Example

Strategic Planning for JJ Richards & Sons Pty Limited Strategic Planning for JJ Richards & Sons Pty Limited Overview of JJ Richards & Sons Pty Ltd JJ Richards & Sons Pty Ltd is an Australian based Waste Management Company. Joseph John Richards established the Company after winning his first refuse and sanitary kerbside collection contract in 1932 in Murwillumbah. The Company has massively developed since then and presently operates in Queensland, Australian Capital Territory, Victoria and New Zealand and New South Wales. At present, the firm has more than one thousand six hundred vehicles and employs approximately two thousand people. JJ Richards Pty Ltd carries out a wide range of hazardous, liquid, and solid waste collection services. They do this for more than eighty thousand commercial customers. In addition, the company undertakes two million domestic garbage, recycling, sanitary and green waste collections every week. The Company does this under contract for forty-two local authorities all over Eastern Australia. Services rendered by the Company go beyond the domestic kerbside and presently consist of an extensive range of both commercial and domestic services that provide customers with Total Waste Management Solutions for all their waste problems. JJ Richards and Sons Pty Limited have grown immensely and is among the largest privately owned waste management companies in Australia. Presently, the family of Joseph John Richards still owns and manages the company. Description of the Environmental Industry JJ Richards and Sons Pty Limited is in the environmental industry. The industry offers resources and environmental equipment for residential and business customers. JJ Richards and Sons Pty Limited carries out business in environmental service areas such as analysis, hazardous waste management, solid waste management, environmental consulting, remediation services and engineering. The firms in this industry provide solid waste collection services, a support network of transfer stations, and disposal of wastes in compliance with the regulations of the government. Vision and Mission Statement, and Statement of Values for JJ Richards and Sons Pty Limited It is critical for an institute to have a vision, mission and statement of values. JJ Richard’s mission statement is “to offer its staff and customers a balance of novelty, flexibility and family values. This exceptional combination is the basis of our unrelenting growth and improvement into the 21st century.” The mission statement is appropriate for the company. The mission statement provides an insight into the importance of innovation, family values and flexibility of the company. The Company’s mission statement puts emphasis on the welfare of its customers and its staff. In addition, the company’s mission statement enables the organization to come up with strategies for survival in the 21st century. Improvements of the mission statements are necessary; the company should incorporate the need to be a market leader in waste management in Australia. The mission statement should express the Company’s willingness to be the market leader (Strategic Management: an Introduction, 1997). The Company’s statement of values entails communication; that encompasses ensuring the maintenance of a productive and close relationship of work with its customers and the public to guarantee correct information and knowledge. The company aims at achieving its mission statement through continuous improvement and flexibility. It strives to evaluate continuously and evolve services to improve the efficiency of services and community amenities. The Company’s statement of values equally entails complementary service development, with the company aiming at developing divisions and specialist companies to complement the provision of services. Finally, JJ Richards ensures innovation by being aware of technologies and innovations through attending conferences and workshops and joining associations for professional waste management. Objectives of JJ Richards and Sons Pty Limited The objective of the corporation is to achieve the best practice in the industry by continuously improving their waste management technology. Equally, the Company aims at reducing the impacts that waste have on the society and the environment. JJ Richards also targets the provision of services that are of high quality at lower customer costs. Finally, the corporation aims at maintaining high safety standards that will secure its employees, customers, and the public. The objectives are very appropriate for the company given their sector of operation. Operations in the waste management sector require an organization to come up with objectives that are environmentally oriented. These objectives ensure that the organization upholds high environmental standards and complies with the set of rules and regulations to attain social responsibility (Tanskanen, 2000). In addition to the Company’s laid out objectives, the company should target advancing scientific, practical and technical aspects of waste management and recycling. Further, JJ Richards should aim at liaising and establishing affiliations with local, national and international organization with the same objectives to its objectives. External Environmental Analysis of JJ Richards and Sons Pty Limited Analysis of the external environment provides JJ Richards Company with the necessary information to develop its strategic mission and its strategic intent. Strategic mission influences the formulation and implementation of a strategy (Goldman, 1986). The external environment affects the growth and profitability of a firm. Key political events, the strength of the economies of other nations and rapid emergence of new technologies are among the external environment’s conditions affecting the company. These external environmental conditions create opportunities and threats for the company, and these significantly influence its strategic actions (Research in global strategic management, 1991). General Environment A firm’s general environment entails the fundamentals in the society influencing the industry in which it operates. Firms lack the capacity to influence the general environment (Chowdhury, 2009). An organization needs to understand the implications of this segment and come up with strategies that will ensure effective competition (Tietze-Stockinger, 2004). The segments in the external environment influencing the operations of JJ Richards include:- Demographic Segment The demographic segment directly influences JJ Richards and Sons Limited given that it gives some indications of growth patterns. These will in turn reflects on income distribution. For instance, the increasing global population with the prediction being that there will be approximately nine billion people in the sphere by 2050 will heavily affect the standards of living. Increased population presents opportunities for increased wastes and increases in per capita consumption (Economopoulos, 2010). These influence JJ Richards and need strategic consideration. Economic Segment The global economy affects all nations in the world. Economic factors immensely affect business operations. JJ Richards is no exception; it also feels the impacts of the recently witnessed economic slowdown. These economic effects make people shift their attentions from waste management to the realization of other basic needs. Economic unfolding that strain the company’s budget toward the realization of effective waste management thwarts the operations of the company thus it cannot effectively carry out waste management (Battaglia, Passetti and Frey, 2015). Fluctuating global oil prices equally affects the waste management industry. Given that the operations of JJ Richards depend on oil, these developments heavily affect its operations. Political-Legal Segment Political environment equally affects the operations of JJ Richards and Sons Limited. The Australian government through the Department of Environmental Regulation has come up with several harsh policies and regulations for the management of wastes (Parsons and Kriwoken, 2009). These regulations influence the operations of JJ Richards and Sons Limited. The Department of Environmental Regulation has established projects aimed at reducing waste through avoidance of wastes, re-using and recycling (Davis, 2012). These impact on the company since it has to comply with these set rules and regulations. Global political issues affect the prices of the commodities utilized by JJ Richards and Sons Limited. For instance, the political tensions in oil producing nations result to increased oil prices that influence the company’s efforts to keeping low its operational costs. Technological Segment Technological development in the waste management industry characterized as a process of continuous improvement (Zangi Abadi and Ahmadi, 2012). Companies modify and use existing and proven technologies to manage waste streams in ways that are more energy efficient and in cost-effective manners. JJ Richards and Sons Pty Limited has equally experienced new and innovative technologies for waste management. Technological changes present new business opportunities for JJ Richards and Sons Limited. In addition, technological advances reduce the need for investing in landfills since with these technologies wastes re-use is easy (Cardinali, 2001). Internal Environmental Analysis of JJ Richards and Sons Pty Limited By using Porter’s Five Force Framework, JJ Richards and Sons Pty Limited can better conduct the internal competitive environmental analysis. These can enable the company to analyze their strategic competitiveness. Porters Five Forces include; Threat of new entrants, bargaining power of suppliers, bargaining power of buyers, the threat of substituent products, and intensity of competitors rivalry. Threats of New Entrants JJ Richards and Sons Pty Limited experience high barriers to new entrants in the environmental industry. The industry relies on the mode of service based on its commercial presence (Kum, Sharp and Harnpornchai, 2005). Therefore, the ability of a firm to establish a commercial presence is limited since environmental service requires a lot of investment from the new entrants. JJ Richards enjoy high threats of entrants given that the federal requirements required by these agencies for entry of foreign companies are harsh. In addition, high taxation and cross-border consumption and supply compromise penetration of firms into the environmental industry. Bargaining Power of Buyers JJ Richardson has the moderate bargaining power of buyers. The divisions of the environmental services market include residential, business, and industrial segments. The residential customers lack much bargaining power over JJ Richards Limited. Individuals do not have the power of choosing the waste service provider for their household since most a time legal organizations do these tasks (Corvellec and Bramryd, 2012). On the other hand, business and industrial customers have power to select the service provider. Hence, industrial and business customers have significant power in the industry. Bargaining Power of Suppliers The bargaining power of suppliers of JJ Richards Limited is moderately high. Key suppliers for this industry encompass landfills, human labor, the network of transportation stations, and facilities for processing collected waste. Given that the company uses people to undertake tasks that machines cannot conduct, they can face challenges since workers unions can negotiate in their favor. JJ Richardson also has to negotiate to acquire ownership of landfill and license from federal agencies to enable it dispose of its waste. In addition, the company has to pay premiums for ownership rights and license. Competitive Rivalry JJ Richards and Sons Pty Limited faces moderate competition. The market features of the environmental industry allow for few players with similar qualities in a specific region. Despite the presence of only few players in an area, competition remains to be fierce since customers prefer service providers that are modern and consolidated for their national operations. In addition, the loyalty of customers to JJ Richards and Sons Pty Limited is low because the company gets short, renewable contracts that do not enable it to have enough time to stabilize its relationship with customers. Proposed Strategy for JJ Richards and Sons Pty Limited For JJ Richards and Sons Pty Limited to meet market demands, it should grow through expansion of new technological divisions. The company should adopt two competitive strategies used by other firms in the environmental service industry. The competitive strategies include the introduction of highly modernized fleets and provision of better customer services. In addition, the company should work towards the establishment of a green company reputation in the market. A green firm is a body that is conscious of the environment (Davis and Herat, 2009). The company should strive to go past the expectations of set environmental laws. In addition, the company can launch numerous campaigns as a way of emphasizing their focus to the customer service. These campaigns can appeal to corporations and residential customers. JJ Richards and Sons Pty Limited can leverage its constructions and demolition services. Leveraging construction and demolition services enable the company to provide itself with a competitive advantage avenue. Finally, the company can provide medical and needs for special waste and hazardous material recovery as a competitive edge over its competitors. Conclusion In conclusion, it is apparent that the future of JJ Richards and Sons Pty Industry will experience increased challenges as time goes. However, company’s struggles to meet present demands will reshape the environmental industry. Companies will go on investing huge amount of dollars in technology and environmental quality. Companies are ready to invest the capital that is required to make these key investments to attain profits. Given the increased challenges experienced in the environmental industry in Australia, there are probabilities that JJ Richards and Sons Pty Limited will struggle in the future. Therefore, increased amount of capital should be invested in the formulation of policy and strategic management to overcome these challenges in future. References Battaglia, M., Passetti, E. and Frey, M. (2015). Occupational health and safety management in municipal waste companies: A note on the Italian sector. Safety Science, 72, pp.55-65. Cardinali, R. (2001). Waste management: a missing element in strategic planning. Work Study, 50(5), pp.197-201. Chowdhury, M. (2009). Searching quality data for municipal solid waste planning. Waste Management, 29(8), pp.2240-2247. Corvellec, H. and Bramryd, T. (2012). 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