Strategic Entrepreneurship Issues - Essay Example

Answer Centrol, a highly successful recycling company, started by Heaps family in 1968, is a prime example of entrepreneurial brilliance. Glynn Heaps, who was a fireman, was actually inspired to start the enterprise when he was informed about the problems faced in disposing the paper and cardboard waste by one of his colleague, while they were having drinks. Like a true entrepreneur, who grabs the opportunity when they see it, Glynn saw huge potential in the office waste management. The couple, initially started the business by buying a second hand truck and collecting the office waste, which they sorted out in their backyard and resold the paper to the local paper mills at £40 a tonne. The business expanded within a year and they were on their road to success with their first big contract of waste management from the Beecham, a pharmaceutical company and Marks and Spenser. In the last forty years, the company has diversified into various areas of environmental concern that are the need of the hour. The company is renowned for its sincere commitment towards environment conservation efforts and its contribution towards environment preservation is commendable. The company’s value system is ingrained in its long term mission and vision and can be easily observed in all its activities which are designed to promote awareness towards conservation of our natural resources. The entrepreneurial strategies of the company, has been developed through the years, which are critical to its success. They followed the multi pronged strategy which became the foundation of their success. Paper and cardboard waste disposal is a widespread problem and Heaps had the foresight to see a huge opportunity in managing the paper waste disposal, He was therefore able to gradually grow his business by not only increasing the fleet of the waste disposal carriers but made efforts to use the technology efficiently to upgrade the carriers to suit the demands of the changing times that reduced timeframe, cost and at the same time helped the environment also. The company’s use of the resources was the highlight which promoted its successful diversification into areas that helped to reduce the overall cost of the waste management, attracting more clients from the domestic and foreign market. The management acquired other businesses in order to provide total solution for the all type of waste disposal needs of their clients. Thus new recycling plant was started that was able to successfully recycle paper, metal, wood, plastic etc. and the confidential papers were destroyed in front of their customers/ clients. The total solution was the strategic success because it clearly made a significant reduction in the waste disposal cost, efficiently dealt with the government rules and regulation and saved precious time of their clients. The company also made efforts to meet the challenges of the environmental compulsions that are increasing causing great concern throughout the world. Hence, the company’s initiative in recycling the waste was a major step towards environmental conservation. They also went into conducting awareness programs for the corporate bodies and students that promoted comprehensive and collective actions of the public towards conservation of our natural resources and help them to safeguard for our future generation. The company ensured the success of its various proactive decisions and policies by actively following its principles in the daily routine and encouraged participation in the environmental preservation by forging alliances professional partnership with companies that worked towards environment conservation. Answer 2 The rapid globalization and fast technological advancements are major factors that need to be incorporated at a continuous basis, in the strategy and planning of the company while addressing the changing needs of the time. The entrepreneurial process is an evolving process that must be able to assess the challenges faced by the company in meeting all its aims and objectives within the framework of its principle and professional and organizational ideologies. It is imperative that the company must be flexible in its long term vision so that it is able to address the challenges of fast changing socio economic and political values. Environmental preservation has become a global concern and therefore, the company’s objectives that have included this factor, must also be able to address the inherent compulsions of the masses that promote the blatant disregard for environment. Though the company has introduced various innovative measures to propagate its environmental policies among its in-house staff and business partners, the company must facilitate wider interaction with various focus groups and forge alliances to motivate and promotes proactive participation of the public in its drive for environmental conservations. The core business of the company has wide scope and the company has also used its potential to expand its business interest in the overseas market. The experience of more than forty years has opened a whole new vista of new areas of opportunities and the management must make available its vast experience of waste management to the under developed and developing countries so that they are also able to make their contribution towards environment in a more positive manner which is not only economical but also sustainable. The company has made significant contribution towards socio economic development of the society through its various projects and programs that are designed to benefit the society at large. The company needs to expand its policy of philanthropy to the economically weak countries which are unable to do anything for the environment either due to lack of resources or the lack of understanding and awareness. The advancing technology has brought about mixed blessings for the public. While the efficient use of technology has facilitated cost saving processes in the waste management, it has also been one of the worst contributor to environmental degradation with its emission of harmful rays and emissions that have made holes in the ozone layer and made the world a dangerous place to live. The company through its innovative measures and its sensitivity towards environment is renowned for its radical ideologies that it pursues with total commitment and sincerity. The company’s venture into logistics planning for its customers has been greatly appreciated by one and all. The company has used its expertise in evolving successful plans for its clients to reduce the waste and has encouraged them to introduce measures that are not only cost efficient but they also promote value addition to their product and services. This has enhanced the awareness among the clients and seems to have cascaded down to their (clients’) customers also which could be easily seen in their growing business. The most commendable work of the company has been its educational initiatives that are directed at the young children and business houses. Special modules have been developed that critically evaluate the cause and consequences of our actions and develop solutions through interactive brainstorming that promote participation and valuable input from them. The educational packages thus create and generate genuine sensitivity towards environment that goes a long way in promoting measures among the masses for the environmental preservation. Waste disposal is a universal problem and the company’s initiative in expanding its business concern internationally has given it an opportunity to promote its value system overseas. The environmental concern has been incorporated within its organizational ideologies and therefore, all its business, domestic and otherwise are deemed to be environmental friendly. This is one of the major reasons that the company’s long term plans must include its expansion in areas and countries that are worst affected and have fewer resources and options to tackle the waste disposal in ways that help to preserve environment. Effective communication is the key to success and though the company has relied on its work to promote its business, the paradigm of the changing times have made it imperative that the company use media wisely and effectively to convey its general concern. Communication through various means including media, seminars etc are effective medium to promote its innovative measures so that people are made aware of the importance for conservation and develop sensitivity towards conservation and preservation of the natural resources so that our children can also enjoy the nature and its benefits. The company has efficiently used technology and introduced various measures to safeguard its workers. It has not only preached but also practiced its ideologies and principles in its area of work. Its core competency in the recycling of the waste products though highly innovative, it also needs to evolve ways to reach more people so that it not only develops more market for its business but helps to propagate its environmental friendly aims and objectives among the masses with more pragmatic results. Answer 3 The growth graph of the company has been most interesting and highly inspiring. The core competency of the company has been its recycling of the waste materials from the various public and private organizations. In the last forty years the company has grown from two person enterprise to private holding company that has interest areas in domestic and international market and overseas branches. It has capital value of £3.5m, employs 84 people and is presently recycling 142,000 tonne of waste a year at its four British sites which represent nearly 5% of its market (article). The company aims to capture 10% of the market in the near future and intends to open offices in America. The entrepreneurial processes of the company have been the main motivating forces that have helped it to evolve as an international company with highly credible history. The hard work and total commitment to their work has turned it into a entrepreneurial success story. The proprietors’ vision and their entrepreneurial traits like creative thinking and leadership qualities have helped them to expand their business and maintain the high end quality in the services. They were able to exploit the opportunities that were presented to them in a well planned strategy that further provided them with wider scope to expand their interests in areas that complemented their core competencies. The strategic planning ensured that it gave them ample room for self appraisal which facilitated in improvisation in actions and business planning. The external and internal appraisal of their work gave them opportunity to study and understand the factors that that were important for them to grow professionally and expand and diversify. The focused approach of the management was a great asset so far as the implementation of the business plans were concerned. The company was able to study the various inputs that were putting socio economic pressure on the market. These challenges became the motivators for Centrol who started devising innovative measures to overcome the increasing cost of the waste management of their present and future clients. The introduction of total solution for waste management was a step that brought forth big clients and attracted government agencies that were interested in the recycling of the waste materials comprising of paper, metal, cloth, wood etc. The innovative thinking and creative inputs from its staff helped the company to successfully implement its strategy of diversification. The rapid globalization became another reason that inspired the company to go global. The company’s mission and vision were developed keeping in mind the socio-environmental dynamics in the fast changing technology. Hence the sensitive and focused approach of the company in dealing with the various aspects of the environmental features became the most crucial compulsions of the company while implementing their business strategies and plans. The company’s current resource base has wide scope for the expanding business and therefore it does not require much change. The company has expanded its business in areas that directly and indirectly meet the challenges of its core competencies in recycling of waste and waste management that not only are the major source of revenue but the company is also able to fulfil its social responsibility by encouraging environmental friendly processes that are designed to promote preservation and conservation of natural resources. Its foray into the area of logistic planning and education are the landmark decisions that display company’s sincerity and commitment towards its social responsibility. The company has expanded its business by not only widening its interests areas but it has consolidated its position by acquisitions of units that may further its business interests. While the company has managed to establish a good client base in the domestic and international market, It has also been able to start management consultancy in the waste management and improvise training modules for business house and school children to promote awareness about the need for preservation and conservation of the environment. In the fast expanding business, the company has, till now maintained it as a privately owned company which is still managed by the members of the Heaps family, even though they have appointed some outsiders in the prominent positions within the organization. The changing dynamics of the organization and the expanding business have necessitated a review of the organizational structure so that the company may successfully meet the challenges of the fast changing socio-economic dynamics of the world. Read More