Analytical Report - Acquisition as a Growth Strategy Essay

Analytical Report - Acquisition as a Growth Strategy - Essay Example Apart from continuous development of products and services, there are several strategies for organisations in order to achieve growth quickly. One such strategy is acquisition strategy which is often considered as the exclusive province of business for large organisations. Growth by using acquisition strategy is quicker and a less risky proposition compared to other strategies such as increasing the market or sales. Moreover, acquisition provides organisations with numerous benefits such as easier funding, complete managerial control and higher economies of scale (Mustafa & Horan, 2010). The advantages of expansion through acquisition is not merely restricted to marketing, but also expanded for attaining several other advantages such as easier finance, lower risk and increased product portfolio. The paper will analyse the acquisition strategy of Virgin Money by using techniques such as SWOT analysis, PESTEL analysis and Ansoff Matrix. Furthermore, the paper will also define the other alternatives which might be pursued by Virgin Money as a growth strategy. The paper will also recommend how Virgin Money can build a sustainable advantage by using the four cornerstones of â€Å"competence based strategic management†. Task1 Critical Analysis of Acquisition Strategy of Virgin Money In November, 2011, Virgin Money had acquired a British bank named Northern Rock which was critically affected by the mortgage crisis. This acquisition would help Virgin Money to expand its business reach in the UK banking market (Anderson, 2011). SWOT Analysis of Acquisition Strategy of Virgin Money Strengths The acquisition of Northern Rock by Virgin Money will provide easy integration of all facilities provided by Northern Rock and will have positive impact on the growth of Virgin Money. The acquisition strategy can ensure Virgin Money to make a strong presence in the banking industry of the UK. Virgin Money has the capability to incorporate acquisition with fewer disturbances an d it will provide great advantage not only to Virgin Money but also to the complete Virgin Group, because the acquisition will help to provide financial support to other Virgin Group businesses. In banking industry, it is significant for a company to constantly improve the distribution of their products. Through acquisition of Northern Rock, Virgin Money can definitely increase and improve services such as internet banking, retail banking and other facilities. Therefore, the acquisition can provide excellent growth prospects for Virgin Money in the banking business of the UK. The other advantage of Virgin Money due to the acquisition of Northern Rock is the increased source of income. Through acquisition, Virgin Money can inevitably acquire the client base of Northern Rock which can provide immediate income from them. Besides, the acquisition will also help to gain experienced employees from Northern Rock, which will make much easier for Virgin Money to implement new strategies whic h can be feasible for

Strategic Management Analysis assignement Assignment

Strategic Management Analysis assignement - Assignment Example Unique Resources / Capabilities 25 10.0 Sustainable Competitive Advantage 26 11.0 Summary of the Strengths and Weaknesses 27 Task C 28 12.0 Strategic Direction 28 12.1 Market Penetration 29 12.2 Product Development 29 12.3 Market Development 29 12.4 Diversification 30 13.0 Strategic Fit 30 14.0 Summary on Strategic Fit 33 References 34 1.0 Introduction The aim of the study has been to conduct a strategic analysis of an UK based airline company offering package holiday. Therefore, in this context, the company that has been chosen for the study is British Airways. British Airways is based in the UK and is the biggest scheduled airline that runs internationally (Scribd, 2009). It offers flight services of low fares for customers availing its holiday packages and carries the passengers to and from the centrally located airports. The company also offers holiday packages that consist of super value packages for hotels as well (The Telegraph, 2011). A person can enjoy both the flight facili ty as well as hotel facility and thus visit numerous destinations with British Airways which can save time as well as cost (British Airways, n.d.). Tour operators tend to put the numerous elements of the holidays and thus sell them as a package. The packages are sold either to the public directly or through travel agents. There are innumerable tour operators offering enormous ranges of the holidays as well as destinations (Holiday Bargains, n.d.). The term ‘package’ generally is defined as a set combination of two services at minimum. They must be offered at inclusive prices and must include components such as transports, accommodations or other services that are important for the tourists. The holiday market of the UK seems to be quite competitive and the industry tends to operate at quite low margins (BIS Department for Business Innovation & Skills, n.d.). The main rationale for choosing the company is that it is the leader in airline industry that offers both the fli ght as well as the holiday package services. The company chosen will assist in comprehending the trends of the airline company offering the package holiday in the UK. Task A 2.0 PESTEL Analysis The PESTEL analysis tends to classify the environmental components into political, socio cultural, economical, technological, environmental as well as legal. It assists in comprehending the main drivers leading to change as well as the external factors affecting an organization. Political Factors The political environment of the UK is quite stable. However, the terror attack had a major impact upon the package holiday industry of the UK. Such terror attacks led to tight security as well as strict immigration laws. The package holiday industry suffers in the long-term if such turmoil keeps on continuing. This tends to affect the perception of the tourists. In recent times, strikes called by the staffs of the British Airways had an impact upon its holiday business. In future, such scenario can occur which might have an impact

Evaluate the Impact of Media such as Video Games, Film and TV on the Essay

Evaluate the Impact of Media such as Video Games, Film and TV on the Behaviour of Teenagers - Essay Example This means that their sexual behaviour is influenced in one way or another. As media exposure reaches out to teenage persons, pornography becomes a point of concern (Wallmyr and Welin, 2006, pg. 292). This is because different forms of media have made pornographic materials easily accessible to both intended and unintended audience. The readily available explicit materials have had immense effect on the behaviour of teenagers. While not all have succumbed to the force of pornography, others have plunged into the ditch of immorality and undefined sexual behaviour. This has been accelerated by the need for teenagers to identify with influential people in the world as they grow and develop physically, emotionally, and mentally. As a result, new trends keep emerging relative to sexuality and sexual behaviours. At the same time, sexual attitudes have enormously changed. The respect and importance accorded to sex and related activities have continued to lose meaning as this generation beco mes more and more exposed inappropriate sexual materials through the media. Even as the negative implication of media on teenage behaviour rages on, all is not lost in that regard. The media plays a very crucial role of sensitizing teenagers on safe sexual practices and the importance of using contraceptives. In so doing, more and more teenagers are becoming cautious and responsible for their sexual behaviours. Media advocacy in this respect is commendable but the challenge surrounding teenagers and explicit sexual exposure through the media still remains. Over and above the sexuality factor, the daily lifestyles and standards observed by teenagers have faced the influence of the media. As earlier mentioned, the media platform is characterized by global diversity and dynamism. For... The above discussion does not imply that the media only affects eating behaviours negatively among teenagers. In fact, there are key positive aspects associated with the media as far as eating behaviour is concerned. The media is a rich source of information on weight loss programs. These programs have made it possible for teenagers to manage their own weights from wherever they are all over the world. TV programs offer help to persons dealing with eating disorders. There are doctors’ reality shows that are primarily designed for teenagers and teenage life, and they are meant to enhance the quality of life that teenagers lead. Over and above that films have been developed that deal with eating behaviour among other issues that teenagers face. In the process, media also fosters a positive behaviour line among teenagers although both the open and underlying negative implications are still critical. This report makes a conclusion that all said and done about the positives of the media on eating habits, research indicates that most of the teenagers with eating disorders have developed them from watching too many model media shows such America’s next top model and in their emulation of these celebrities, they end up with the eating disorders. Video games have been the main mode of entertainment for the teenagers in the recent past. More evidence of this violence and even that which is seen in the television and action or thriller films is portrayed in their social life where most of them and especially boys constantly engage in fights and other violent behaviour all in the name of emulating their favourite character from the media.

Social Media Users in Finland and Poland Assignment

Social Media Users in Finland and Poland - Assignment Example In July 2012, during the 16 International Christian Internet Congress staged in Munich, the attending church representatives unanimously agreed there was need for Christian organizations to boost their internet connective and interaction through social media. The outcome of the Munich conference was later discussed by Christian leaders in Finland in their annual meeting. Although only 35% of Finnish Christians use Facebook and other social sites, churches had lost more forty thousand faithful in less than four months. This served as an indication of how important social media are in wooing loyalist including fundamentalist. Churches therefore saw the need to retain their flocks by going socially online. It is from then that religious institutions adjusted their marketing strategy. Churches went ahead to appoint a team of delegates to investigate the role of social media in the modern society and also respond onslaught of social media criticisms. Instead, churches in Finland and the r est of Europe proposed new ways of positively using social media to preach the gospel and win new converts. Churches therefore launched an interactive social websites where their followers can post comments, videos, blogs, and pictures which would encourage other website followers. However, because of increasing cases of hacking, churches were forced to deploy experts and administrators to manage and integrate their sites (Scott, & Scott, 2011, p.63-4). The increasing use of online and digital communication technologies.... From political, corporate, to religious, all the organizations currently embrace social networks or media. Churches across Finland and Poland were surveyed on their how active to they use social media as a marketing base. The result polled by Buzzplant marketing agency revealed that these institutions often used social media to popularize themselves. Even millennium old institutions were found to have joined social network train. The survey covered about 250 churches in Finland on their position towards social media. Surprisingly, the finding of the survey established that religious institutions strongly believed on the effectiveness of social media form of outreach (Scott, 2010, p.89). Over forty six percent of the respondents indicated their preference of social media as an effective way of reaching out to their followers with only 25% of them preferring knocking on the door, and 6% indicating that TV is a better way of gaining numbers. Similar to Poland, Facebook and twitter were the most popular social networks for a large number of religious followers. This was evidence by the frequency at which these churches updated their Facebook or twitter pages on a daily account (Armfield, & Holbert, 2003, p.129). In July 2012, during the 16 International Christian Internet Congress staged in Munich, the attending church representatives unanimously agreed there was need for Christian organizations to boost their internet connective and interaction through social media. The outcome of the Munich conference was later discussed by Christian leaders in Finland in their annual meeting. Although only 35% of Finnish Christians use Facebook and other social sites, churches had lost more forty thousand faithful in less than four months. This served as an indication of how

Research Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 7

Research - Essay Example hat, in situations where there is the need to optimize the use of resources especially in the low income countries, there is a tendency to scale down the local strategies for quality to enable the practitioner and the constrained health providers to serve a larger population. The growth of the health sector has thus concentrated on geographical coverage and based more of their services to providing universal health at the expense of the quality. Most of the resources are focused to expansion leaving loopholes for inefficiencies and incompetence if not unprofessionalism. According to the article by the world health organization, there is a need to address the health issue from a systems perspective (World Health Organization, 3). For this research proposal, I will review previous data on the topic and develop the various problems encountered in health care, examine them in the light of the efforts to mitigate them and come up with a plan to work out the inefficiencies and ensure there is an optimal allocation of resources and optimal gains, as a result. When we look at health care in an economic perspective, health care involves the provision of services and the receipt of payment for the services (Lebrun-Harris, Lydie A., et al., 44). However, the rate with which an individual seeks health care largely depends on his/her resource endowments especially in cases where they are not covered by insurance cover and have to pay through an out-of –pocket basis. Access to health care is thus limited by the constrained resources. However, healthcare in the modern day has become more of an enterprise, and the providers are aiming at expanding more and reaping more profits for their services. This has led to the use of incompetent personnel in place of doctors, the use of low quality alternative medicine, application of procedures that undermine the patients’ health status, for better monetary rewards; among them carrying out a caesarian section where the patient can have

Compare 3 different conceptual approaches to global supply chains Essay

Compare 3 different conceptual approaches to global supply chains examining their differences and similarities - Essay Example Effective supply chain management is made possible by the use of effective communication, information, trust and cooperation. Global commodity chain (GCC) approach consists of â€Å"set of interorganisational networks clustered around one commodity or product, linking households, enterprises and states to one another within the world economy† (Gereffi & Korzeniewicz, 1994). The global production network (GPN) approach involves the existence of circuits that function in an interconnected way to conduct operation and transactions for the production of specific services and products for distribution and consumption (Dicken, 2011). As opposed to the concept of ‘chains’ which follow a vertical mono-linear structure, the GPNs are ‘networks’ that spread in multiple directions i.e. vertical, horizontal, diagonal etc. Christopher (2011) asserts that it should be kept in mind that supply chain is different from ‘vertical integration’. As far as the complexity is concerned, the structures of GPNs are far more complex and inter-woven when compared to chains. This extreme complexity is driven by the patterns of demands that exist worldwide. Global supply chain management is more inclined towards addressing the issue of supply to the end users of products. As a result of this, the competition between different firms can be seen at grass root level. This is due to the fact that every firm is striving to achieve the aim of reducing costs in a competitive market to maximize profits. The GPNs on the other hands are more concerned with the issues of supply that are faced by producers of the products. At this end, the problems are more related to the matters regarding acquisition of raw materials on lowest possible prices from suppliers around the world. The areas of focus related to GPNs include territoriality, domestic actors like

DMI Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

DMI - Assignment Example Data was collected on the following variables: For the variable on the time of study, the histogram shows that 61% of respondents studied at night while the remaining 39% studied during the day. Studying until late in the night can have an impact on the results as a student takes exam while the brain is fatigued and is not functioning at its optimum. The histogram and summary statistics for number of hours slept is shown above. From the results, we see that the average hours of sleep for grade 12 students are 6.5 hours with a standard deviation of 1.35. It has been recommended that students should sleep for at least 6 hours to maximize their cognitive ability. A scatterplot of age versus hours slept shows a negative correlation, i.e. older persons tend to sleep fewer hours as compared to younger ones. Indeed, the results from the scatterplot are further confirmed by results from the correlation table. The correlation is -0.725 implying a negative correlation between the two variables. A plot of exam score against hours slept shows a positive correlation between the two variables. Further analysis through correlation shows a value of 0.617. Consequently, the preliminary analysis supports the null hypothesis that academic performance is positively related with the number of sleep hours. Further analysis through regression is needed to build confidence in this hypothesis. Final analysis of the data involved regression modeling using exam scores as the dependent variable and hours slept, age and food quality as the independent variables. The regression equation can be stated as follows: From the equation, it is observed that the intercept for the number of hours slept is positive implying that hours of sleep positively impacts test scores. This can be stated as follows: a unit increase in hours slept results into a 4.479 unit increase in examination scores. However, age and food quality have a