Critical Success Factors of ABC Consultancy Services - Assignment Example

Critical Success Factors of ABC Consultancy Services Introduction The purpose of this assignment is to provide ABC consultancy services with advice on the critical success factors that the company has to consider before entering into an international market. These factors are beneficial and must be considered by any international venture before making the decision to enter the new market. ABC operates as a sole trade student recruitment agency based in London. ABC targets Jordanian prospective applicant who wish to continue their studies into the English degree courses, short courses, undergraduate degree programs, post graduate and research degrees in the United Kingdom. Hence, the assignment aims at providing the factors that should be taken into consideration when entering the new market. Market entry Strategies Branding The potential critical success factors in international marketing for the company ABC include; the global scale. This is known as a successful branding. ABC as a company should develop a branding strategy where targeting a certain quality and price level. In addition to the strong brand reputation, it is essential for ABC as a company to expand operation into new areas and develop new product lines for their client. They can launch a new line of products in the education segment, and with successful branding they can obtain a large market share in this education segment (Bell, Crick and Young, 2004). Price Sensitivity The other success factor that should be taken into consideration by ABC as a company is the price sensitivity of the services they offer. Considering the increased costs of education services, other service providers in this field normally attempt to lower the prices of the services they offer in order to meet the demands of the consumers. It is observed that service providers who have the size to realize the economics of scale normally remain competitive for a long time. The price sensitivity and the need to continually lower prices are normally the principal forces driving consolidation in such industries (Cavusgil, 1996). Using the internet for recruitment The other critical success factor that needs to be taken into consideration by ABC as a recruiting agency for students is the commercial internet presence. ABC as a company should establish an e-commerce site so as to ensure success for the organization. The importance of e-commerce to such an organization is to ensure accuracy in the delivery of the services offered by the organization. With an e-commerce website, the company will be in a position to ensure that all the transaction procedures made are clear. With the e-commerce website, ABC as a company can normally ensure purchasing is made clear and easy. This strategy can also ensure success in the international market in that the consumer will be in a position to identify whatever they want on the website. The consumer will normally be in apposition to load all the information they may require despite the consumer’s available knowledge of technology. With an e-commerce site, the privacy of the consumer’s financial and personal information will always be enhanced, and the interactions between consumers and the organization will always be kept private (Brouthers and Hennart, 2007). Data Gathering The other factor that can contribute to the success of ABC as a company in international marketing is data gathering. An organization’s ability to gather sales data and translate the demographic information normally contributes to the success of the organization in international marketing. The accumulation of data of the past sales made by the organization and the utilization of an organization’s commercial website, with the demographic information concerning the users, ABC as a company can be in a position to break its global market scope into smaller segments. With a smaller market segment, demographic advertising is normally enhanced as opposed to, the global market place (Doole and Lowe, 1998). Local Partnerships One of the most influential success factors, when entering an international market, is the ability for ABC to make local partnerships. When entering an international market, the company should make local partnerships that will help the company penetrate the new market. By making local partnerships, the company will be able to share costs and risks, while at the same time, it will be able access the new countries distributions and market networks. ABC will also be able to have the advantage of inheriting local employees with experience in the market which is critical in strengthening the company in the new market. These partnerships are also beneficial when it comes to designing ABCs products to be specific for the country. These partnerships are vital in accelerating regulation, conduct translations and help in meeting other local government requirements (Johansson, 1997). Product Adaptations Product adaptation is a crucial factor when entering an international market. It is vital that the company offers products that are adapted to the local market. Product adaptations may not necessarily be meant to attract more customers, but they may be done so as to meet the legalities due to the different society. A good example is the local language and local culture, which may force some services to be made in the local language. For example, teaching and training English to the locals will require that interpretations are made from the local language to English. Local partnerships as mentioned above will be crucial in making these product changes (Chowdhury, 2007). Recognizing the Differences in each Country Pan and Tse, 2000 suggest that recognizing differences between countries is crucial as it helps the company to understand the different history, culture and legalities involved while conducting business in the country. Marketing ABC’s services in Jordan are quite different from marketing it in German or Britain. It is necessary to recognize that teaching and training English to Germans is different when compared to teaching the same to Jordanians. Understanding these differences will help ABC in changing its marketing plans to fit the international market that it is entering. Training and focusing the services of ABC for each country that it will operate on the basis of the history, culture and legal requirements of the country will ensure that the company offers a quality service as opposed to its competitors. Being Customer Driven It is crucial for ABC as an international venture to be a customer driven company. This will act as a way for the company to differentiate itself to the needs of the country. Hence, ABC will need a superior and effective customer service strategy that encompasses all the international context strategies for customer services. Concrete but localized CRM strategies will be a benefit for the company in ensuring that it succeeds in the international context (Hollensen, 1998). Understanding Different Cultures The values, beliefs, superstitions and assumptions of a new society are a critical aspect for a company like ABC. This will help the company when making a target market strategy for the new market. Social structures, religion, and communication, are usually cultural factors that offer tremendous challenges for companies that want to penetrate the African and Arabic regions. This cultural make Ups have to be understood by a new venture and even prior to making entry to the market. This will help ABC to make informed decisions when dealing with local partners, local employees and local clients when entering these new markets (Cateora and Graham, 2002). Taking a Long-Term View of Market Another essential aspect, when entering a new market, is the ability to decide if the service that ABC is going to provide is a permanent or temporary. By understanding this on the onset of the venture, the company will be able to make their decisions and plans in relation to this. If the company is going to decide on a long term venture, then ABC should be ready to acquire permanent residence and offices in the country which may be cheaper for the company. Furthermore, this may prove cheaper compared to starting a temporary venture. Starting a temporary service will not require ABC to train staff and even get permanent offices, but it will mean that the company has to rent premises, and even take in already trained local employees. The strategy for entering this market will also change according to the longevity of the business (Sharma, 1998). Recommendations The recommendations for ABC in assessing the critical success factors include; successful branding this is recommended as it will enable ABC as a company to expand its operations into new areas and develop new product lines for the clients. Branding is also recommended as it enhances the launching of a new line of products in the education segment, hence a large market share in the education segment can be obtained. Another recommendation is; considering the prices of the services ABC as a company offers to its consumers. According to Anderson and Coughan (1987), this is known as the price sensitivity. ABC should attempt to realize the economics of scale so as to face the challenge of competition posed by other service providers. The other recommendation for ABC as a company is to enhance internet use. This normally enhances the accuracy in the delivery of the services offered by the organization. The other recommendation that can be of help to ABC as a company in assessing the critical success factors is; enhancing local partnerships that normally help the company to penetrate new markets. Such partnerships are normally essential in accelerating regulation, conduct translations and help in meeting other local government requirements. The other recommendation for ABC as a company is to ensure they are aware of the product adaptations. This would enable the company to meet the legalities due to different societies. Recognizing the differences in the different countries where they offer their services can also be of importance to the company. The other recommendation for ABC as a company is to be customer driven. This will ensure the success of the company in the international market (Agarwal and Ramaswami, 1992). Conclusion In conclusion, a company of ABC’s caliber has to make the right decisions before entering a new international market. Entry of a new international market such as Jordan, for a British company, may be quite challenging as the company has to deal with cultural, legal and historical factors that are dissimilar from the mother country. In addition to this, the new country offers different approaches to the CRM strategy of the company which have to be considered before entry to this new market. Local partnerships for a sole company like ABC may be beneficial as this will help the company to reduce on the cost of setup, and also the company will have the advantage of going about the legal requirements. It is also crucial for ABC to make decisions based on the longevity of its operations in the new market. The use of the internet is a decisive factor in recruitment and also when it comes to offering services to the younger generation. 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