Individual Global Market Research Analysis - Essay Example

? Individual Global Market Research Case Study Analysis The case is based on a medium sized architectural firm that is trying to expand its operation. Drew Sperry completed his studies at Nova Scotia Technical collage and decided to set up a small firm instead of being formally employed. His architectural firm has been doing good for about six years now and until he realizes that the normalcy and the complacency is threatening its operations. He thus decides to extend the operations of his company’s operations to newer markets. The brain behind all these push for expansion is a very junior partner in the firm, Mitch Brooks. When Brooks shares these ideas with the rest of the management team, he receives a very strong resistance from them apart from Drew Spenser who further challenges the firm to take its operations to markets that have previously been considered unproductive (Aaker & Aaker, 2010). In business, the only pointer to growth and development is expansion. Expansion may be reflected in the increased operations of the company or by the firm devolving its operations to newer markets. By engaging in either of the two, the company has its presence felt in a wider area. This it ensures by having its good and services being sold in newer markets at least every day. However, the expansion must be effectively planned and properly researched. Failure to carry out a market research may result in lack of effective understanding of the market which may further result in severe losses and failures in whichever undertaking that a business may later engage in (Thomas & Michael, 2001). In the case study, the architectural firm faces a number of challenges right from within its management. Drew Sperry, before starting this firm, had at one time served in a secondary firm. While there, he built his own customer network; it is this network that he resorts to serve later when he sets up his own company. Within the first months of business, the company is supported by a contract it wins to construct park facilities in Prince Edwards’s province for the department of tourism. Its later operations are also small scaled and the business is literally surviving. But just as is normally the case with businesses, the firm later gains reputation and increases its operation and clientele base. With time, the firm increases from the three employees that Derry Sperry had at inception to the current over fifty architectures that the firm boasts of. The brief story of the firm points to the essence of growth. From a four staffed firm, the company has grown to having over forty graduate architects. It thus beats logic that the employees of the company may find it hard to accept the plans for expanding the operations of the company. The difficulty in the acceptance of the expansion may be brought about by a number of reasons key among which may be the fear off that which is unknown. Managers may find it hard to invest the company’s capital in a foreign market where it may not perform effectively and give back the returns as expected. In case a company incurs losses, those to be blamed are its management who will be accused of inefficiency and not putting in place the best strategy for effective market response. In the architectural industry, matters are made even more complicated. The construction industry is forever viable; each day there is a building either being put up or being brought down on safety issues. Just as is common knowledge, a building is consumed by its target market through living in it. In the even of a dissatisfaction or poor workmanship, there normally results the loss of lives which is a case that no government can allow. This is a feature of the industry that has resulted in very close supervision and monitoring from state departments. This excessive gross supervision and standards set for the company by the government results in slow rate of investment and slow expansion into newer markets. Maybe a business does not meet the specifications set in a foreign country; this will definitely make investing in the country impossible (Chatterjee & Hevner, 2010). Apart from this unprecedented fear, a company may fail to expand its operation because of poor reputation. The word of mouth from a satisfied client plays an integral role in developing the business further. In the architectural industry, this is even more profound; buildings speak for themselves. It is therefore very easy for poor workmanship to be easily discredited while an effectively done building will stand tall and sell its designer even more. In the even that a building done by the company had previously been carried in the news as being defective and faulty, the negative reputation may hamper the calls for expansion into newer regions since it will be hard to convince newer markets. The industry is also steered by trend globally. There are regions in the world that the construction industry is booming. In regions such as Africa, the continent is at the brink of development. For effective development, it is only natural that the housing sector be booming too. Such regions attract more companies and with time the best ones would easily succeed as a result of quality jobs. The Middle East is another very large market since the region has been recording the development of very spectacular structures. For an architectural company to reap effectively and expand its operations, a proper market must be identified. Setting up the business in England is not a bad idea but business is very likely to be slow in the region since the country is fully developed with most of the buildings being accredited by government bodies which simply implies that they met the safety standards. The only undertaking that may provide answers to all these and many other questions that a company or business may have concerning to the expansion fears is market research. Effective research must provide answers to all the questions that either the investors or the management team may have over the expansion process. An effectively done research will give all the answers; an investment decision that will therefore be informed by a sound research will never be negative (Aaker & Aaker, 2010). In the architectural industry, a good research will look back into the previous jobs done by the company and determine any poor job previously done and what its effects might have been. In case the news was received, the research must provide an effective blueprint on the course of action to be done to redeem the company’s name from poor reputation, for instance. Given its findings, it advises on what to do and how to do it so that the company does not invest in futility. Some of the pieces of advice given may be a complete boycott of the expansion plans. The fear for the unknown is also reassured by an effective research. The decision to expand is normally important and thus cannot be trusted on a single department or a group of particular individuals. This is an undertaking that must involve all the stakeholders of the business. The opinions of the market count greatly for positive investment and expansion. Coincidentally, the opinions of the market are only obtained through an exhaustive market research. From the analysis, it is very evident that market research is integral in the process of either setting up a business or simply expanding it. The undertakings of a business must be informed; this implies that the business must stay in touch with its target market through a series of market researches. In the global community, market research has a number of values which include factuality; the research must be as factual as possible. All the findings of the research must be supported by facts that are provable should the occasion warrant the same. The market research should also be very integral and practical. This is achieved through practicality of the research findings and recommendations. The research should therefore be literally conducted and its findings substantiated as practical and realistic (Chatterjee & Hevner, 2010). References Aaker, D. A., & Aaker, D. A. (2010). Marketing research. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley. Chatterjee, S., & Hevner, A. (2010). Design Research in Information Systems: Theory and Practice. Berlin: Springer US. Thomas, D. & Michael, C. (2001). Successful Management Projects. 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