www.vodafone.co.

uk

Vodafone Plc.

Module: Corporate Management in Action

Course: PGD in Business Management (ABP Level 7)

Institute: Essex College of Management and IT

Submitted to: Dr. Andrew

Submitted By: Muhammad Imran Khan

April, 2011

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 Table of Contents

Title Page

Statement of Originality.......................................................................4

Acknowledgement...........................................................................5

Executive Summary............................................................................6

TASK NO. 1

1.1 Introduction................................................................ .............7

1.2 Reasons Behind

learning......................................................................10

1.3 Vodafone
Goals.....................................................................................10

TASK NO. 2

2.1 Concept of Business Strategy by different

experts....................................11

2.2 Competitive advantage to

Vodafone..........................................................12

2.3 Model of Competitive

advantage..............................................................13

2.4 Porter’s Five Forces Analysis of Vodafone..............................................14

TASK No.3

3.1 PESTEL Analysis of

Vodafone................................................................16

TASK NO.4

4.1 SWOT Analysis of

Vodafone...................................................................19

TASK NO.5

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5.2 Needs for Strategic
Management..............................................................22

5.2 Profit and not-for-profit

Organizations................. ............................23

5.3 Difference between for profit and not for profit Business.................23

5.4 Planned versus emergent

Strategies....................................................24

5.5 Prescriptive and Emergent approach

Diagram.....................................25

TASK NO.6

6.1 Corporate
Strategy................................................................................26

6.2 Classic and Contemporary

Models........................................................27

6.3 Johnson & Scholes

Model......................................................................29

6.5 Critical Analysis of Strategic Business

Models.....................................31

6.6 Strategic Planning Tools for Business strategy……………………...…32

Conclusion.................................................................................................
.......33

References.................................................................................................
........34

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STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY

I hereby certify that iam the sole author of this assignment and that no part of
this assignment has been published or submitted for publication.

I certify that, to the best of my knowledge, my assignment does not consist of

any other material from the work of other people.

I declare that this is a true copy of my assignment, including any final revisions
and this assignment has not been submitted for a higher degree to any other
University or Institution.

Thank You

Muhammad Imran Khan

Student PGD Level 7

Essex College of Management & IT

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ACKNOWLEDGMENT

I Muhammad Imran Khan, sincerely thankful to my GOD and all those people
who have been gave me any kind of assistance in the making of this
assignment.

I thanks to all my college management who’s trained teachers gave me

conceptual understanding, which made my job more easy. I also thanks to my
friends who gave me strength and confidence to complete the assignment
without any difficulty.

Muhammad Imran Khan

Student PGD Level 7

Essex College of Management & IT

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Executive Summary

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International Business and Global Organizations

The International Business Environment allows the business world a macro view
of markets and institutions in the global economy. Over the last few years there
has been a rapid growth of international business. Since that time after various
transactions the company got consolidated in the UK and around the world as
well. The company did not stop progressing anyway and between 1999 and 2007
made mergers and acquisitions of different companies like Air Touch and
Mannesmann AG and did many transactions in Germany Italy and Japan that
enabled Vodafone acquire 97 % stake in Japan. Onward, Vodafone acquired a
tremendous share in global market up to 2009 working in India, Qatar Ghana,
Poland South Africa and Australia as well. Vodafone captured a large portion of
telecommunication business world around and set showed its presence in global
market.

Source: www.Vodafone.com

Now a days there is a great competition in a telecommunication market and all

the telecommunication companies offers broad band and voice packages. Other
alternatives like internet protocol and value added services which play important
role of customer’s preferences. Like 3G network most of the customers switched
to 3 networks because it’s new and advance technology.

Global Competition of Vodafone

Vodafone is showing heavy investment push and has shared with Euro-fibre to
roll out FTTO in Holland and in Germany Vodafone announced the strategies for
IPTV and LTE. The organisation is going to introduce a set-top and a hybrid box
by Sagem com. It will provide OTT content to TV. This is a great benefit for the
customers. In Spain, the Vodafone is going to launch IPTV whereas the company
has already provided the services in Portugal and by the end of 2011, national
coverage will be launched in Germany. There are minority stakes as well such as
Polkom-tel of Poland, SFR French, Verizon Wireless, and China Mobile. The
private equity firms are showing their interest particularly in Polkom-tel which
can be beneficial for the company. Vodafone is not stopping investing more to
capture more market in the business world.

www.telecompaper.com

Organization Survival, prospers or Dies

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The factors which examine in real the status of the Organization whether it
survives in the market by facing the competitors, prospers or dies.

PESTEL ANALYSIS

PESTEL stands for ‘’Political, Economic, Social and Technological analysis’’ and it
describe the structure of macro-environmental factors which are used in the
environmental mechanism of strategic management. PESTEL analysis is helpful
for understanding the needs for a product or services and it also give the right
direction to the organization for its business. There are many factors in the
macro-environment which effect the decision of managers of the association. For
example Tax, new laws, trade barriers,, demographic change and government
policy. To analyze these factors mangers use the PESTEL.

Source: www.learnmarketing.net Visited date: December 27, 2010 time

23:10

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Political Factors

Political factors play an important role in the development of the network

operational industry. Political factors have great influence on the company
because the business decisions can be transformed according to the rules set by
the political forces. Business can be affected by the competition, collusion,
acquisition and national laws.

Economical Factors:

The economic environment is influenced by the country’s economics polices.

Economical factors have critical impact on the business and its performance
because it’s directly effect on supply and demand power. It includes interest
rates, exchange rates, rates of economic growth, inflation. Utilization patterns,
income distribution, taxation charges, costing, unemployment, increase
competitors and scale and other economic trends the nature of product and
services provided by Vodafone.

Social Factors:

Social factors look at the structure of the population and the impact of which it
has on the demand for the product and the supply of labour. In the Uk , the
population has been aged, It increased the costs for firms who are committed to
pension payments for their employees because their staff are living longer The
aged population every so often expect more facilities such as demand for
sheltered accommodation and medicines.

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Technological Factors:

Advance technologies create new products and processes, for example MP3
players, online gambling, computer games all are the creations of advance
technology. In the start mobiles were used only for speaking, after the SMS
service and upgraded technology in mobile phones peoples not only attract for
talking but also enjoy the other services offered by the operation companies.
The advance technology like Bluetooth, wireless, WAP make the life of the
peoples simple and they can contact with other peoples around the world.

Now days in mobile phone there are many accessories like camera and video
camera for capturing pictures and videos and proper access for memory cards
for saving movies and documents.

Environmental Factors:

Industries all over the world start focussing on recycling and trying to be
environment friendly. Vodafone being a company directly related to very
individual and offers services to millions of direct customers. The government is
forcing Vodafone and other telecom operators to become more environmentally
conscious. Specially for installing the cellular towers, they must have to keep
various factors in mind regarding the noise pollution as well as radiations.
Because of which the action of the companies is being checked for making sure
that they are environmentally friendly. Government of UK also a not allow the
Vodafone as well as other telecom companies to erect the cellular towers in the
residential area, and also not allow to install the cellular towers on green field.
They just allow installing the cellular towers like BTS, BSC and MSC on rooftops
in commercial area.

Legal: These factors are related to the legal environment in which the company
operates. It includes certain laws. Because the operating companies must have
to follow the law of the country in which they are doing the business.

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 SWOT Analysis

SWOT analysis basically provides the company with detail information of market
situation. By using SWOT analysis we can analyse the internal and the external
factors which directly effect on the Organization. SWOT analysis basically
identifies the Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats. It is a tool for the
analysis of strategic position of the business and the environment. Its main
purpose is mostly to identify the strategies that will create an Organization a
model which is best for the organization’s resources to the requirements of
environment in which the organization is operating. At present Vodafone Plc
have competitive advantage over its competitors. This report will use the SWOT
analysis to analyse and evaluate the internal and external environment of
Vodafone Plc.

SWOT ANALYSIS FRAMEWORK

Source: www. http://www.managementstudyguide.com/swot-analysis.htm

Visited date: December 27, 2010 time 15:14

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Strengths

Strength is the qualities which make possible to complete the organization’s

mission. Strength can be either tangible or intangible. Strengths are the
capabilities of any organization which includes process capabilities, financial
resources, product and services, customer goodwill and brand loyalty.

The main strength of Vodafone lies in its brand image and identification.
Vodafone have established a global presence and have invested highly in
marketing a differentiate image. The presence of Vodafone is various countries
within Europe as well as all part of world improve this image. It has establish
different strategies to provide better service to the customers. Vodafone have
very good coverage including clear crystal voice and network signals in the UK
as well as in other countries directly or by joint agreement. Vodafone is the
World’s largest mobile telecom network company, based on revenue, good
support strategy, millions of customers and operating near about in 31
countries.

Weakness

Weakness is the qualities which create hurdles from accomplishing the missions
and targets. Weakness in an organization may be because of narrow product
range, poor decision making unsatisfactory facilities, high employee income,
large raw material wastage, , high costs, poor market image etc. We can say
that the absence of certain strengths are viewed as a weakness, but they are
controllable because they are within the organization and these weaknesses can
be removed by making a proper strategy according to the environment and
customer trend. The market of Vodafone in Europe is getting down because of
its high cost, especially high rates for international calls.

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Opportunities

An opportunity is considered as a constructive situation which can be used for

beneficial purpose. The opportunities arise from outside the environment and the
management decides how to make the best use of it. Vodafone has got good
opportunity to become the largest mobile telecommunication company regarding
the number of customers by focusing on developing markets. It can also
increase its customers by making proper marketing strategies, by sponsoring
more international events.

Threats

There is a great competition in telecommunication sector all over the world.

Vodafone have great threats from his competitors like orange, O2, T-Mobile etc.
So it must have to make the future strategies to capture the market according to
the demand of customers. Some examples of the threats are new regulations,
increased trade barriers, shortage of resources, recession in economy. There are
also some new coming telecommunication companies who offer good packages
including national and international calls, they also offer their customers low call
rates that is also a great threat for Vodafone.

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Page 14
Porter’s five forces analysis of Vodafone plc

Porters five forces model helps to analyse the Organization and its competitors
in the industry. Porter’s five forces analyse the power of buyers, suppliers, new
entrance threats, product substitutes and industry rivalry. With the help of these
five forces Vodafone analyse its competitive advantage in the market.

Competitive rivalry:

Now days there are a huge competition between mobile companies is very high
as there are lot of companies operating in a specified location, T-mobile, O2,
Orange, Virgin. Vodafone faces a high industry rivalry from its competitors.
Rivalry is high when the customers switched to Vodafone from other networks
and they feel there is no difference in services.

Buying Power:

Any telecommunication company including Vodafone must analyse that the

packages and the rates they offer must be in the range of customers. Vodafone
provides a number of choices to choose from new packages, phones, tariffs
through advertisement.

Power of suppliers:

Suppliers have very important role in the telecom industry and they are very
much strong in mobile industry. Vodafone because of its geographical existence
cut the cost and operates with greater margin as compare to their competitors.
Vodafone being a large telecommunication company in the world leads the
telecom sector, it holds the suppliers cost down and it makes a profit and its
competitors are only making average returns.

Threats of Substitutes:

Vodafone have very low threats of product substitutes because the Vodafone
planned the strategy which makes difficult for the similar substitutes to produce
at the low rate by their use of economic scales, buying power, temporary prices
increase that come from the suppliers.

Threat of entry:

The threat of new entrance is very weak if the Vodafone reduces the costs with
good and high services. Then it’s difficult for the new entry to create a place in
the telecommunication market. Vodafone is a major supplier of the mobile

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products and services and if it change the trend set, it creates difficulty for the
new organizations to make potential entrance.

Entry
Threats of New

Competitive
Rivalry w
oB
u
e
rP
y

Supplier Power
noi t uti t s buS
f o t aer hT

External and Internal Environment of Vodafone

Vodafone as a leading Organization in the world and it enjoys both internal and
external environment. Vodafone have good relations with the Government,
customers and with the society and this thing is very important for an

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Organization to survive and sustain in both domestic and Global market.
Internally Vodafone provides technical and managerial training and certification
to the employees and by this strategy they make their employees well
knowledge. And as a return of that they provide excellent services.

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Page 18
Conclusions

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References

Andrews K (1971).Page 8, Lynch

Chaffee, E (1985) Strategic Management

Dickinson (2008) Washington State Schools Directors Association Leadership

Program

Jobber. D & Fahy, Foundation of Marketing 2nd Edition (2006), McGraw-Hill

Education.

Johnson, G and Scholes, K (2002) Exploring Corporate Strategy, 6th Edition,

Prentice Hall.
Kotler, P (2003) Marketing Management, 11th Edition. Prentice Hall.

Lynch. R, Corporate Strategy 4th Edition, (2006), Pearson Education limited.

Marketing Management 13th edition Kotler Philip (2003)

Mintzberg, Henry, Lampel, J., Ahlstrand, B., Strategy Safari: A guide Tour
though the Wilds of Strategic Management.

Worrell, L. (1998). Strategic analysis: a scientific art. Wolverhampton:

Wolverhampton Business School
www.learnmarketing.net Visited date: December 27, 2010 time 23:10

www.managementhelp.org/plan_doc/str_plan/str_plan.htm Visited date:

January 6, 2011 time 21:05

http://www.managementstudyguide.com/swot-analysis.htm Visited date:

December 27, 2010 time 15:14

http://martinwebster.info/category/management/is-management/ Visited

Date: January 6, 2011 time 21:35

http://www.netmba.com/strategy/matrix/bcg/ Visited date: January 3, 2011time

4:25

http://www.pacis-net.org/file/2003/papers/e-business/219.pdf Visited date:

December 28, 2010 time 16:44

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http://www.quickmba.com/strategy/competitive-advantage/ Visited date:
December 29, 2010 time 7:14

http://www.rdi.co.uk/pdf/MBASunderland.PDF Visited date: December 21, 2010

time18:14

www.vodafone.co.uk

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