Contemporary Business Strategies

Question 1: A) Analyse the effectiveness of a range of strategies which an organisa2tion could use to improve engagement with its employees. B) Using an organisation of your knowledge, comment on how the company has implemented employee engagement techniques. Answer 1: A) Employees are one of the most important assets of an organisation and it is essential that the HR manager should look at ensuring sufficient level of employee engagement so that their maximum overall utilisation can be achieved. There are a range of strategies that could be employed by the managers in performing the employee engagement. An analysis of the existing literature indicates that the favourable employee engagement strategies that could be employed by HR managers include investment in training and development, respecting the needs of employees with respect to work life balance, creating favourable working conditions, creating an environment of diversity and inclusion and HR managers could also foster rewards and recognition programs in ensuring that sufficient level of employee engagement is being promoted within organisation. These techniques could be utilised for the purpose of achieving improved employee engagement within organisation (Dickson, 2010). With respect to the effectiveness of these strategies are concerned, they are highly effective in facilitating higher level of engagement of employees. As for instance, the strategy of training and development is crucial in enhancing the skills and abilities of employees which in turn would encourage them to contribute their higher level of efforts in achieving organisational goals. Similarly, the strategies of favourable work conditions and work life balance including the inclusion and diversion strategies are crucial from the point of view of achieving higher level of satisfaction within the organisational employees, and they could therefore be persuaded in a highly efficient manner towards accomplishing the organisational goals positively. These strategies in the form of creating positive working environment acts as a motivating factor to employees because it creates a sense of feeling within them that they are highly valued within organisation, and as a result, they focuses towar ds achieving organisational goals by creating values through their efforts and initiatives (Bridger, 2014). B) An organisation that has utilised employee engagement in a highly efficient manner as selected is Arcadia Group. An analysis of Arcadia Group indicates that it is a UK based fashion retailing company, and the company has also deployed a range of strategies aimed at achieving enhancement with regard to engaging its employees in contributing efficiently towards accomplishing organisational goals. As for instance, employee engagement is achieved in terms of strategies adopted by the company such as employee volunteering and the training and development. There are employee volunteering events that are being conducted across the Wallis brand of Arcadia Group, and such strategy has been highly efficient to the company in engaging its employees towards serving its customers. Apart from this employee volunteering, there has also been the application of training and development strategy that has also been carried out by the organisation with a view to enhance the abilities of its employees to perform and this has therefore been a crucial factor aimed at accomplishing organisational goals in a positive manner. The training provision by the company is mainly for all its employees and this is an important way in which employee engagement is being ensured at Arcadia (Arcadia Employee Engagement, 2015). Question 2: A) Explain each element of five porter's five forces analysis. B) Apply each element of porters five forces analysis to an organisation of your choice. Answer 2: A) Porter five forces is an important tool in assessing the industry effectiveness as it analyses different important aspects related to the industry performance so that its impact over organisations performance can be better assessed. There are five important elements included within it such as bargaining power of buyers which explains about the bargaining power as hold by the buyers in the industry. The bargaining power of suppliers reflects about the power as held by suppliers in the industry in influencing price and other such factors. Rivalry among the existing firms is also an important indicator and it mainly explains the level of competition within the existing firms in the industry. Threat of substitute explains the existence of similar products that can be consumed in lieu of the core products as offered by the company, and finally, the threat of new entrant explains the possibility of entering newer players in the industry. B) The application of Porter five forces in respect to Ryanair is performed as follows: Bargaining Power of Buyers: The buyer power in respect to airline industry is significantly higher and this is mainly because of availability of large number airlines providing high quality services across different segments such as premium class customers, low cost airline services etc. In respect to Ryanair, its leading position in the low cost airline services indicates lower bargaining power available to buyers (Shaw, 2012). Bargaining Power of Suppliers: The suppliers bargaining power is also lower because of the higher level of competition being exercised by large number of industry players. Ryanair in particular also faces the threat of competition in the form of competition from low cost airline service providers such as Southwest airline, Jetstar etc (Ahlstrom and Bruton, 2009). Rivalry among Existing Firms: The threat of rivalry within the existing firm indicates that it is significantly higher within the airline operators. Ryanair is serving low cost market model and there are a range of low cost service providers competing against each other such as Ryanair, Southwest Airline, British Airways, Jetstar etc (Major Airlines of the World, 2012). Threat of Substitutes: The threat of substitute as faced by airline operator such as Ryanair is lower because travelling via airline is essential to the travellers in reaching their destination in a positive manner. As a result, the threat of substitute to Ryanair is lower as people are required to travel via airline services in ensuring that they reaches their destination on time. Barriers of New Entry: The barriers to new entry is higher especially in respect to airline industry and this is mainly because of the fact that there is a need for huge investment that is required to be made in participating within such airline industry. This creates barriers in the process of successfully participating within the airline industry and thereby the threat to Ryanair in terms of entry of new player is lower. References Arcadia Employee Engagement, (2015) Ahlstrom, D. and Bruton, G.D. (2009), International Management: Strategy and Culture in the Emerging World, Cengage Learning. Bridger, E. (2014), Employee Engagement, Kogan Page Publishers. Dickson, D. (2010), Fostering Employee Engagement: Practical Tools and Best Practice Techniques, Human Resource Development. Major Airlines of the World. (2012). Shaw, S. (2012), Airline marketing and management (epub), Ashgate Publishing, ltd.