Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION ...............................................................................................................................................2
COMPANY PERFORMANCE .........................................................................................................................2
CRITICAL REFLECTION .................................................................................................................................3
1. Operations..................................................................................................................................................4
2. Marketing....................................................................................................................................................5
3. Human resources management .............................................................................................................7
4. Financial management .............................................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................................................................7
EVALUATION OF TEAM PERFORMANCE .................................................................................................8
REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................................... 10
INTRODUCTION

Fighter savvy aims at investing in future technology in order to attain competitive advantage. More
specifically, the company’s business objectives include increasing its market share, shareholder’s
equity, exports to EU countries, and operating profit margin. Fighter Savvy also attempts to enhance
its inventory management system and apply automation technologies to boost productivity. Results
of the last round indicate that the company has failed to accomplish numerous business objectives.
Even though Fighter Savvy’s market share increased annually, the company did not generate any
profits in the first four years of its operations. In addition, spending on automation technology were
lower than expected, Fighter Savvy could not boost its productivity. Furthermore, Fighter Savvy’s
liquidity was low. This suggests that the company may lack capital to fund its operations. The
company’s performance in the first four years is described in the below table.

Table 1. Savvy Fighter's performance (in £million)

First round Second round Third round Fourth round

Total sales 3,274.35 8156.76 10591.23 11,401.42

Total unsold 0 0 1,382.38 3,868

stock

Shareholder 526.26 1,125.35 1,867.70 2,112.53

funds

Closing bank 32.21 113.09 (653.90) (88.87)

balance

Outstanding 250 233.89 177.35 177.35

loan

COMPANY PERFORMANCE
CRITICAL REFLECTION
In recent years, creating values for stakeholders has been featured as a main issue in need of optimal
efforts from the businesses. Referring to stakeholders, there remains a school of thoughts about the
definition of this term to correctly identify who are actual and potential constituents. As stated by
Abratt and O’Leary, stakeholders can be a group or individual who depends on the organization to
achieve their objectives and in turn, be influenced by any activities of that organization (Abratt &
O'Leary, 2016). They range from persons, institutions, agencies, neighborhoods, community and
even environment. It is a firm and commonly held belief that a manager should take the interests and
value of these stakeholders into consideration when it comes to decisions possibly affecting their
benefits (Jenson, 2001).

Figure 1. Stakeholder mapping on the power/interest grid ( (Mathur, et al., 2007)

According to the book “Defining the principle of Who and What really counts”, the attributes of
stakeholders should be analyzed in different variables such as power, interests, legitimacy, urgency,
readiness or capability. For the power/interest matrix, it is essential to understand the type and level
of power or interest that constituents possess; whether it is applied in the short term or long term,
direct or indirect, under each specific circumstances. Hereby, the organization can focus on engaging
the stakeholders and controlling their influences on the business (Mitchell, et al., 1997). In this paper,
stakeholder mapping is utilized to identify several key players internal and external to our organization
Fighter Savvy (Figure 1). Specifically, three main constituents with high interest and high power at
the early-stage business are determined, namely shareholders, employees (of internal stakeholder
group) and customer (of external economic stakeholder group).

In the business plan, a series of objectives and business decisions are pointed out for the best
interests of key stakeholders. They include both long-terms goals and short-term actions to improve
major areas of the business relating to operation, marketing, human resources and financial
management. However, it is notable that the goals set out by the team are mainly long-term within 4
years. The objectives as well as decisions are considered to be a trial with errors as the team cannot
anticipate any potential problems with the plan. Instead, the goals should be divided into 2 sections
where the short-term objectives can be easily observed, measured and adjusted based on the current
situation of the product, workforce or market. In retrospect, the business decisions have been set out
responsibly in consideration for stakeholder’s interests; but still, there are some rooms for
improvement as follows.

1. Operations
The car manufacturing industry has become a leader in the optimization-oriented world with a number
of ways to maximize productivity, minimize production expenses and logistics costs. The most
significant and widely adopted principles in the operation management of the automotive industry
include Lean and Agile manufacturing techniques (Naylor, et al., 1999). Hence, to sustainably grow
in the competitive market, these principles are crucial for Fighter Savvy business to achieve their
stated objectives. In fact, we followed two competitive strategies namely Cost Focus for the Medium
SUVs and Differentiation Focus for Luxury SUVs. To ensure the successful implementation of those
strategies, we practiced lean and agile approaches for Medium and Luxury ranges respectively.
Especially, automation and mechanizing process is also applied into the production for the highest
efficiency. As a result, we can protect the interests of shareholders by maintaining a reasonable
amount of stock while maximizing the customer’s benefits with stylish and high-quality cars.

Lean and Agile Manufacturing techniques are all represented by a systematic Pull-based approach
as the system is designed to be flexible and responsive to customer demands. Specifically, lean
manufacturing helps to minimize waste and operation costs by authorizing business activities through
actual consumption of inventory. This technique has been developed towards an integrated practice
which includes all interrelated management tools such as Just in time, cellular manufacturing or
quality system, etc; so that the organization can fulfil the customer demand with a lowest lead time
and a lowest price but with an upmost value (Khan, 2015). Hence, regarding the production of medium
SUVs range, this approach is the most affordable and productive for both shareholders and
customers. Meanwhile, according to Lewis, whether the lean production is successful still has some
limits in some contexts of specific market types, technology as well as structures of supply chain. A
trade-off between lean manufacturing and product innovations is also identified when a more
productive system is potentially associated with fewer innovative activities (Lewis, 2000). With regard
to an unpredictable and competitive market of Luxury SUVs, the capability to quickly respond to a
variety of customer demands and advanced high technology is the key to success. Agile production
system with the maximum flexibility then becomes a crucial component to manufacture highly stylish
and customized products while still keeping costs and quality under control (Hallgren & Olhager,
2009). This technique is in fact a revolution of lean manufacturing to be adopted in the customer-
oriented and innovation-focus businesses (Mason-Jones, et al., 2000).

Nonetheless, for the optimal success, automotive industry is suggested to practice both pull and push
systems at different stages of the production. The reasons for this recommendation is that the
complete process of car production ranges from logistics management (based on schedules) to
modules manufacturing (in response to customer orders internally or externally). The hardest task is
then to determine the balanced portion between push and pull system in the production chain to
maximize the cost effectiveness and profits for shareholders as well as pricing and quality benefits
for customers (Simchi-Levi, et al., 2003). Therefore, our decision should have considered different
variables to find the right combination of push and pull systems. In the car industry, the level of
uncertainty remains high especially for the range of high-end luxury SUVs due to unpredictable
consumer requests, lead times and stock status. At the same time, thanks to the application of lean
manufacturing, this industry can also benefit from economies of scale. Above all, regardless of how
innovative the product is, we still need a smooth, continuous and well-balanced production network
where all the components are fully optimized (Klug, 2006).

We fully understand that there exists a tough competition in the automotive industry which
encourages the organization to adapt to diversified and complex products. To cater for increasing
consumer demands, in our research and development management, there are a number of projects
we invested to remain ahead of the market trends such as Fuel Efficient Engine, Anti-Theft/Tracking,
Car-2-Car Communications or Remote Self-Parking. A wider range of options also lead to an
increased number of specifications and variants for that special model. Hence, although the
manufacturing process of SUVs can be agile and based on pull system, Just-in-time delivery is more
preferred to follow push principle to prevent stock-out of and longer lead times.

2. Marketing
In the high technology industry like automobiles, an appropriate marketing strategy is essential for
the success of innovative products. The introduction of medium and luxury SUVs is only welcomed
when the customers have sufficient knowledge and practical experiences about those items. As
stated by researchers in 2009, automotive industry is considered greatly dependent on R&D for
innovation and marketing strategies to come up with innovative products in a high-pressure market.
Hence, there is a positive correlation in the investment amount as well as effort between new product
development and marketing implementation (Srinivasan, et al., 2009).

Nowadays, customers in the automotive market have shifted their attention towards different
characteristics of a car like purpose, experiences, design rather than just functional aspect. That
explains why car manufacturers begin to introduce different kinds of automobiles from luxury, medium
class to speed or off road cars so that various market segments can find a suitable item based on
their purpose and budget (Niminet, 2012). It is notable that our plan to introduce two kinds of SUVs
to cater for different demands is wise and well planned in consideration for the customer’s needs and
sustainability of Fighter Savvy business.

However, when it comes to market segmentation to establish a proper customer profile for each
product, we only took age group as the main criteria to determine the market size and product fit.
Admittedly, age group is one of the key component to identify potential consumers for automobiles;
but to classify target customers into strategic homogeneous groups for specific key decisions, more
variables need to be considered in terms of demographic, psychographic and behavioral
segmentation (Kerin & Hartley, 2017). For example, 40% of new buyers are from the millennial
generation who are more tech-savvy, environmental friendly and conscious to the design when
purchasing a car. The potential target customers for Luxury SUVs can be those buying a car to
represent their social status; while those with family or children will put safety and budget on top
priority. These factors will influence other decisions afterwards, such as market size, distribution
channels, choice of technology and promotion strategy (Niminet, 2013).

Furthermore, the consumer buying process in automotive industry is longer than a usual decision-
making process. Particularly for the high-end range like Luxury SUVs, the marketing cycle between
brand awareness to actual purchase may last for a long period. Therefore, it is of paramount
importance to reach and grow the aspiration from the right pre-luxury customers in a cost-effective
way (Bailis, 2017). There is a clear hierarchy in the type of information shown to the customers in
high-tech automotive brands, which favors to depict cue such as value/experiences, design and
innovation in their products. Similarly, we also aim at delivering such information to our target
customers by catering to their hedonic and utilitarian needs. While television and digital media are
regarded as the right channel to promote our products, they only focus on pure advertising (one-way
communication). For the purchase of a car as a long-term investment, personal selling techniques
should be adopted such as Demonstrations and Sales presentation so that customer can truly
experience a new product and be incentivized to purchase by sales intermediaries.
3. Human resources management
Human resource is also a key stakeholder in the business with average power and high interest. In
our business, labor is viewed as a key competitive advantage in which we invested greatly in training
and development. This strategy can boost the employee motivation, increase the productivity per
labor and ultimately reduce the costs for profit maximization (Nda & Fard, 2013), as stated in the
shareholder’s interests. In addition, following the lean manufacturing techniques, we also adopted
automation in the production of Medium SUV Roar and Luxury SUV Savvy X, with the concentration
of mechanization on the medium range. From operating standpoint, this method is beneficial for
shareholders in enhancing efficiency. However, there are still some problems with mechanizing and
workforce.

First, upfront investment in machine automation is expensive without any guarantee that production
mechanizing will succeed right at the first place. Besides, those machines also need continual
maintenance but are still exposed to depreciation. The ability to utilize and control those machines
also requires workers with technical skills. Above all, one of the most difficult trade-off is the
contrasting interests between shareholders and labor when a highly automated production also leads
to some workers being laid off. As a result, to sustain our competitive advantage with staff
engagement, the interests and needs of employees should be considered in every strategic decision.

4. Financial management
Financial management is critical to the management of a business as the results and analytics of
strategy effectiveness can be determined from figures. Overall, the financial statement within 3 years
of Fighter Savvy is sufficient with operating forecast, profit forecast and future cash flows.
Nonetheless, it is well noted that some statistics in the predictions seem to be perfect, which result in
high revenues and profits right in the 1st year. For example, we record no unsold inventories from the
previous round. Additionally, there is no record on account receivables for credit purchasers
(outstanding invoices) and even bad debts. These elements can negatively affect the profits and
sustainability of the business if we do not tighten our cash flow management (Albany Software, 2019).

CONCLUSION
To sum up, Fighter Savvy has failed to accomplish all objectives. This suggests that its performance
in the first four years is merely a qualified success. Regarding the company’s achievements, it has
successfully obtained it strategic, marketing, and human resources objectives. Increases in Fighter
Savvy’s market share and shareholder’s equity far exceeded the company’s target. Spending on
promotion increased at least by 1.3 in this period. This enabled Fighter Savvy to penetrate the EU
market. In addition, workers’ wage and training costs increased gradually. However, Fighter Savvy’s
operational and financial performance were below par. To specify, the company’s inventory level and
profitability were far lower than expected. This may have been resulted from application of unsuitable
strategies and decisions.

EVALUATION OF TEAM PERFORMANCE

According to Gibbs (1988), learning does not only involve the process of gaining experience, but it
also requires reflection upon such experience in order to retain its knowledge. Lessons are then
derived from the feelings and thoughts that learners have in the experience. This helps learners deal
with similar tasks or situations more effectively (Gibbs, 1988). Hence, reflecting upon the team’s
performance during the simulation will help members recognize their strengths and weaknesses with
a view to enhancing their performance in the future.

There were four main tasks including defining the company’s mission and vision and establishing
objectives, and designing the marketing, human resources, and operations strategy. In the simulation,
the team leader acted as Fighter Savvy’s CEO, came up with the company’s mission and vision, set
business objectives, assigned roles to the members. Each strategy was designed by two members
in the group. Collaboration among members was carried out effectively. On overall, timely and full
completion of tasks was achieved. However, the output’s quality can be deemed unsatisfactory
because of Fighter Savvy’s failure to accomplish all objectives.

In this exercise, I was responsible for Fighter Savvy’s marketing strategy. In order to design strategies
and make decisions for this functional department, I had to work in harmony with other members.
This makes sure that the proposed strategies and decisions are in alignment with the company’s
vision and mission. Also, by listening to other members’ plans, I managed to produce strategic options
that worked effectively with other department’s strategies. In other words, this ensures that each
strategy can offer support to other strategies. Hence, Fighter Savvy will be more likely to succeed in
the competitive market.

As mentioned above, Fighter Savvy’s strategic, marketing, and human resources objectives were
fully attained. This was due to members’ acknowledgement of the interconnectivity between
functional strategic options. Members whose functional objectives were obtained demonstrated a
higher level of cooperation. Hence, implementation of their strategies produced fruitful results. On the
contrary, from the aspect of teamwork, failure to accomplish operation strategies was resulted from
the members’ negligent attitudes towards the linkage between functional strategies. Owing to lack of
consultation and cooperation with other members, operation strategies offered unsatisfactory results.
Apart from considering other members’ plans, I also assisted them in the process of designing
strategies and making decisions. Not only did this ensure that the company’s strategies were in
alignment, but it also made sure that the group finished these tasks in time. Additionally, I put forward
numerous recommendations on effective decision making. For example, I suggested several
decision-making styles such as team, delegating, consultative, and autocratic styles. Due to high
involvement of members and the leader, our group applied the consultative decision-making style
(Stoner, 2017). The decision-making process was carried out effectively. Decisions were put forward
by the members and then approved by the leader.

After playing this game, I have recognized a number of strengths and weaknesses in the way I
participated in team work activities. With regard to my strengths, I am a positive team player and
willing to offer support to all members of the group. In addition, I tend to focus on unanimity in the
group’s final product, thus opinions of other members are often taken into account. However, after
the simulation, I have acknowledged the absence of assessment metrics. To specify, during the
game, our group did not have any measures or scales to assess the suitability and effectiveness of a
strategy. Given that decisions might have been made based on intuition instead of concrete evidence
and logic, several objectives were not fulfilled. Furthermore, the leader did not address any criteria
for assessing team members. Hence, their performance could not be evaluated properly. Taking
everything into consideration, if I were to play the game differently, I would design a range of criteria
in order to make decisions more effectively. This will make sure that decisions are made based on
critical examination of factual evidence and criteria. Additionally, members should be encouraged to
cooperate with each other instead of completing their tasks independently.
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