Strategic Management Business Case Study for Insight Magazine

cat embodiment scoop outg drawg INSIGHTs MISSION, VISION &038 doctrine drawtext-box perceptivity is a local affable powder cartridge holder founded to execute diametric appeals in the Egyptian society. It argon perpetrate to face our ch whollyenges by embracing and creating change, through innovative solutions to extend the over every content dispersal and merchandiseing model to include websites, digital magazines, virtual events, and separate crude(a) technologies to establish positive relations and credibility between the magazine and its readers.It is committed to providing an informal yet professional persisting environment that march ons and rewards creativity, teamwork and en henceiasm. cortical potentials operation is environmentally friendly. drawtext-box ENVIRONMENTAL SCANNING When setting the mission, acuteness had to first understand the big visit of the environment, in which it is operating, and the opportunities and threats that lie within. such un derstanding of the surrounding environment pull up stakes enable us to get a line profit of the opportunities that will come in our miens and minimize the threats that will face us along the way The Big Picture ( canker ANALYSIS) PEST abstract serves understanding the big picture of the Political, Economic, Socio-Cultural and Technological environment, it ensures that what we argon aiming for in our mission is aligned positively with the powerful military groups of change that ar touch on the press media.Political factor Understanding the political environment in Egypt is almost the most distinguished step in the scanning phase, the license of press in Egypt is not as withdraw as it may seem because of the following The political environment might not be stable within the next five years due to the presidential choice which may negatively influence the grocery. Egypts state security probe apparatus empowered to interfere in almost each orbital cavity of public lif e under the state of emergency in force for the farthermost 28 years which forms a barrier for writers to speak up their minds freely.On the other hand, there are some positive changes in the political environment such as the reform program that is a work in progress. Egypt has made substantial progress in increment its legal, tax and investment infrastructure, over the past five years Egypt has passed, amend and admitted over 15 legislative pieces one of which was the reform of the countrys presidential election law, paving the way for multi-candidate polls in the upcoming presidential elections. scotch factor The financial crisis and the recession which has recently struck the population all over definitely had an impact on the Egyptian job tradeplace in many an(prenominal) versatile ways such as The descent of the western prudence forced the expatriates working abroad consider twice before asking for a superior salary, this made the hiring of foreign calibers easier an d resulted in the layoffs of many local employees and the increase of unemployment and job market instability.Unemployment in the Egyptian society has aggressively increased during the last five years poignant indirectly the press industry. Many governing bodys started to adopt the policy of cost strip and benefit minimization this as well had the same effect as the precedent point resulting in unemployment and instability.The worsening state of the global economy makes 2009 a horror show for advert-dependent sensitives stem and television companies, with some analysts predicting that barteres may gravel to wait until 2011 to see positive ad growth. It must be noted as well that the Egyptian economy has been gaining, thanks to the wide-ranging amendments &038 reforms that the country began implementing in 2004 and due to such amendments and administration of many legislative pieces the economy is expected to grow by ab knocked out(p) 4% to 6% in 2009/2010.Technological Facto r We are living the technology era, every day, a reinvigorated invention, revolution or innovation strikes the market in every business, if perceptivity is not open to apply new-fangled operating(a) strategies that can help to address the effects of both technological streamlining and separate developing meaningful ways of generating an exchange of ideas, it wont last before its competitors, with a daily change magnitude pace in the world of technology.The rise of online media presents another challenge reliability. The internet has become the fastest and easiest way for the readers to get the type of info they claim, low-priced and as diverse as they necessitate, and this rise is obliging the media world to give attention to online advertisement as a great think as or even at a high interest that normal printed magazines. Socio- heathen Factor A cultural change has came into the surface, with he increase of the coffee shops outings, the nipics that were point of interest to readers have been changed , perceptiveness carried out new researches to cover a broad carry of acmeics to describe readers. over the last 5 years, the interest in football, politics and religion govern over many areas in life, brain wave cosmos a social life-style magazine it has to vie with the new interests in our society. Given that slope is the language of the magazine in an Arabic speaking country this has enlarge the difficulty of the magazines distribution in the Egyptian market.environmental Factor Global warming that became perhaps the most complicated have it away facing the world of magazine intersection after study showed that the one C dioxide emissions caused by the production and distribution of one reproduction of an average coat 0. 39 pound magazine total about 0. 95 kilograms including paper from trees, materials, production, shipping and client use henceforth, the loss of natural habitat potence from the 0. 39 pound magazine is estimated to be 0 . 3 square meters. This has conduct to a long increase in the prices of the papers which is the most important element of the magazines industry. drawframe The Small Details (SWOT ANALYSIS) SWOT Analysis is a simple but powerful framework for analyzing the magazines Strengths and Weaknesses, and the Opportunities and Threats it faces. Thus, helping brain wave to focus on its strengths, minimize threats, and take the sterling(prenominal) possible advantage of opportunities available.Strengths Insight magazine enjoys a very favourable image that has a business idea and credibility amongst its competitors. It has an extensive announce and good promotions that withhold good value and quality. The magazine enjoys good hard cash melt through advertising which provides put for innovation and expansion. Most of Insights staff is between 20-25 years, at these young ages the ability to cope with new challenges of life is much more(prenominal) flexible than older generations and this provides the space to innovate &038 improve in many fields.Weakness Any face has its weaknesses Insight suffers from the lack of a good distribution plan compared to its rivals. some other weakness facing Insight is the fact that the teams are self managed by third-year staff which lack knowledge and experience leadership of its junior staff. Threats Insights main threat is the strong competitors dominating the market and how quickly they can adapt to market changes. The inability to cope with new technologies may also lead to the magazines failure.Opportunities Giving that Egypt is in a state of transition and economic growth, our good cash flow will enable us to seize any opportunity of hiring beautiful calibers and adopting new technologies. drawframe STRATEGY FORMULATION Strategy reflexion is the process of de vergeining appropriate courses of action for achieving the placemental objectives and thereby accomplishing organisational purpose. The strategies formulated shou ld reflect environmental abbreviation previously discussed, lead to fulfillment of the mission, and result in reaching our organizational objectives.TOWS MATRIX The TOWS Matrix is a comparatively simple tool for generating the strategical options, using it, will enable us to look intelligently at how Insight takes the best advantage of the opportunities open, at the same sequence that we minimize the impact of weaknesses and protect ourselves against threats. By analyzing the outdoor(a) environment (threats and opportunities), and the inhering environment (weaknesses and strengths), we can use these techniques to moot about our incorporate, business &038 practicable strategies.Corporate Strategy Corporate dodging is one, which decides what business the magazine should be in, and how the overall group of activities should be structure and managed, it is as well a description of the magazines overall accusation in terms of its general attitude toward growth, stability or R etrenchment and the watchfulness of its various businesses and product lines. Following the change of the external major forces as well as the declining mental process of the distribution unit and the marketing department, the jacket counseling had to consider formulating an alternative schema other than the previously followed growth dodge.A stability system is now the new corporate scheme followed by Insight, it is decision of doing nothing new in the worsening moorage but instead to act as though Insights problems are still temporary, and it is an attempt to artificially support profits when gross revenue are declining by reducing short term discretionary expenditures. Insight magazine is currently following the stability outline as its corporate strategy knowing that it will be temporarily adopted until Insight settles its weakness in the marketing area and regains a significant rank in the Egyptian market.Business Strategies In light of the ongoing economic crisis be setting the world, many business leaders had to consider just exactly how they are going to put together a winning business strategy to help pass over the hard times. Insights business strategy is a rivalrous one, it involves making the right choices in coif to secure cost leadership, differentiation and focus this is graspd by invest our money and strategies in this area as well as coordinating gracefully Insights sectionifiable competencies in the provision of the service we provide.In ordinate to sustain our competitive advantage, Insight has to determine the durability and imitability of its main distinctive resources which are the human and the financial resources. Business Model Insight serves side reading customers in Egypt by providing them with the latest lifestyle information Insights Insight sustains a competitive advantage through recruitment through the strong cash flow from advertisements made by spinning crownwork class brands, young calibers who adapt easi ly with any changes in the external environment, thus allowing diversity in writing materials and articles. drawframe in operation(p) Strategies Functional strategy is the approach taken by Insights be givenal departments to achieve corporate and business unit objectives and strategies by maximize distribution. In each functional area, the manager is concerned with developing a distinctive competence to provide Insight with the competitive advantage that it aims to obtain. trade &038 Sales Strategies After 14 years Insight is still struggle and to maintain, capture larger market share, and continues market penetration. It is very hard to achieve now days e supernumeraryly in our case and similar to many magazines and newspapers in the region and world wide. Insight relies heavily on advertising money for revenue since the price consumers pay when they purchase a copy of the magazine has never been sufficient to cover the production costs much less creating any profit.Insight Mag azines marketing strategy consists of market and product development as well as transaction with pricing, selling and distributing the magazine through the following Creativity Launch new campaigns with developed layout and logo. Distribution Generate new distribution plans to cover different venues hotels, bookshops, newsstands, supermarkets, airports, cultural centers, advertisers, numerous Egyptians and international business peoples and VIPs.Make a deal with a well known distribution agency to circulate the magazine on a wider scale on one hand, and on the other hand to put booths in many different areas and offer special gifts to people in order to attract the readers. Sales Give free issues on special occasions in order to encourage and attract customers Instead of selling space to marketers for print ads, we started selling services that marketers want to have. Diversification To focus more on topics that have overwhelmed people recently especially football.Emphasize profita ble material and realign their content production costs with where the revenue is generated. A publisher will need to engender the unique and defining material that attracts their readership. Go Green Despite the economic state and the rapid increase of paper prices, the trade head suggested to the top instruction to use recycled papers and environmentally friendly materials in order to save cost and maintain same quality of the product that the customer got used to and at the same time to cope with the green burn of the world.Technology &038 Innovation Digital marketing media and web publishing have become a very tangible area for improvement and market enlargement, Insights strategy for development in print media magazine world is mainly based on enriching Insights website, with new means of advertisements such as online purchasing of a wide range of products starting from pictures all the way to specific non published exclusive articles.HR Strategies Giving that a good human resources management practice enables organization to achieve higher profits and better survival rate than do firms without these practice, Insights strategies towards its most valued asset-the people had to be reviewed and revise to the following Insight being owned and managed by a mend proprietor, have always followed a top-bottom strategy, as a new practice, the top management is now opening the door for a bottom-top strategy thus taking advantage of any new ideas, innovations and changes that can increase the magazines share in the Egyptian Market.Insight magazine is considering the involve of a mix of young generation, skilled honored writers and foreign calibers as well, no matter how high they get gainful. This mixture will help the different teams at Insight to properly manage themselves and thus achieving high productivity to the magazine. Encouraging the hire of part time employees and free date writers it will save cost since they will not be paid for health care benefits, pensions and many allowances offered to the full time employees.Promote new company traditions such as family outings, annual dinners. Improve the communication aim between the top management and staff by involving employees in decisions that propel their jobs and the overall direction of the company whenever possible. Recognize excellent exploit by implementing new exercises such as employee of the month, additional rewards for high performers. Promote life history &038 personal growth perspectives such as achieverion planning, trainings, education, challenging, assignments and more.Assign a development team to cope with the recent technologies. Insights finis &038 Behavior Insight enjoys a very friendly and supportive work environment, everyone is free to speak up their minds, and all new ideas are being appreciated, but giving that the top management of the magazine is being held by the owner, the last word is always up to them. This gives Insights a mix of Suppor tive and Autocratic behavior, any suggestions are being cautiously interpreted but the final decision is always up to the owner.Insights culture is a Multi-directionalone, being a relatively miniscule organization that has only four distinct function, each department ingredient considers themselves as a part of his function only forgetting that they are a member of a whole body. Insights Organization twist Insights organization was structured based on functional groups centered on clusters of titles each led by chief function officer with complete responsibility for their respective business unit as per the below chart. drawframe STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION The performance of organization strategy involves the application of the management process to obtain the desired results. Particularly, strategy implementation includes designing the organizations structure, allocating resources, developing information and decision process, and managing human resources, including such areas as t he reward system, approaches to leadership, and staffing. Strategy mplementation skills are not easily mastered, unfortunately. In fact, virtually all managers find implementation the most difficult tantrum of their jobs more difficult than strategic analysis or strategy formulation. Marketing &038 Sales Strategy Implementation Implementing a rock-solid marketing strategy is believably the most important factor contributing to the long-term sustainable success of any business and the one that will set Insight ahead(predicate) of its competitors.Insights main task is to get its message across the market, make sure that its unique selling proposition is articulated in all of its marketing messages, campaigns, and sales channels through the following implementation HR Strategy Implementation The HR Strategy has at its nerve center maximizing the potential talent of Insights staff. Each of these strategic themes are interlinked and are the strategic objectives for each of these th emes facilitates the delivery of the Institutional Strategy, the financial Strategy, enhanced organizational performance and Operational Plans.This is illustrated as follows drawframe In implementing the desired strategy of Insight to resolve the sales and distribution, The HR function have done the following Get the big picture of the whole company, to provide the readers with the ultimate life experience through lifestyle magazine and becoming No. 1 magazine the Egyptian market Recruit a mix of the young generation and skilled reputable writers and employees who receive high pay and are trained to participate in self managing teams.By implementing this strategy it will result in employee bliss and high productivity to the magazine. Hire part time employees and free dig writers it will not save cost since they will not be paid for health care benefits, pensions and many allowances offered to the full time employees. promote diversity in nationality, and age as in aligning with the Egyptian labor law, this strategy has proven higher productivity inside the magazine. maintain employees at all times. Listen to them deeply use their ideas. Offer performance feedback and praise good efforts and results.Involve employees in decisions that affect their jobs and the overall direction of the magazine whenever possible thus increasing the loyalty and sense of be to the magazine Recognize excellent performance, and especially, link pay to performance. Value and encourage the magazine traditions through events and gatherings like Family day and annual company dinner. profit the employees skill by providing them with the best training opportunities to enhance their competencies and develop their skills. source professional distributors in an attempt to reach the target.EVALUATION &038 CONTROL Although the term monitor and paygrade tends to get run together as if it is only one thing, monitoring and evaluation are, in fact, two distinct sets of organizational act ivities, related but not identical. Monitoring is the systematic collection and analysis of information as a project progresses, aimed at improving the capacity of organization. If done properly, it is an invaluable tool for good management that provides a recyclable base for evaluation. Evaluation is the comparison of actual project impacts against the agreed strategic plans.It can be formative (taking place during the life of a project or organization, with the intention of improving the strategy or way of execution of the project or organization). It can also be summative (drawing accomplishment from a completed project or an organization that is no thirster functioning) During the planning and implementation phases, it was crucial to conduct a reporting apparatus to monitor whether the right milestones have been taken towards the targeted goals or not as well as to ensure that employees are keeping pace with the progress.This monitoring was done by Chief executives submitt ing a monthly report to the chairwoman as well as scheduling a quarterly confluence to continually keep an eye on the sales, client feedback, foresee what could be done for improvement of any new ideas that would help in increasing the sales of upcoming editions, and finally to ensure that the business and functional levels are keeping track with the corporate objectives and goals. On the other hand, daily meetings are held in each functional department to continually monitor and tax work quality and business progress.After an extensive monitoring process the HR strategy was found week in the following points No HR interview was made any manager interviews his calibers from his own aspects and cultural background. Huge cultural gaps between foreign and local employees No relatively clear difference between the full time and part time employees in term of salaries and benefits which creates unfairness and injustice among them. The rewards were not given in great value and are not fa irly given to all employees. Trainings were not fairly distributed among employees.In order to evaluate the magazine performance we have found the following diagnostic checklist items CONCLUSION Insight is a local English magazine which has been in the Egyptian market for more than a decade. Although Insight enjoys good cash revenue from the top class advertisements it provides, it is struggling with a marketing and distribution setback which gave the top management the sufficient motives to alter the current strategies followed in order to reclaim its top position in the Egyptian market.Insights top management first steps of creating new strategies started by setting a new mission of developing the marketing function followed by an external and internal scanning of all possible threats and opportunities that could in a way or another affect the strategies. The scanning that was done helped Insight distinguish its competitive advantage which consequently assisted in the formulation of new corporate, business and functional strategies. After implementing the previously formulated strategies precise monitoring and evaluation were done in order to conclude the gap areas that resulted in the implementation. iodine of the gap areas that were found was the wrong implementation of hiring foreigners without giving them a proper induction on the Egyptian culture which lead to a huge conflict in ideas between the local and foreign staff. As a final conclusion to the previous report, Insight top management should canvas what went wrong during the implementation of the HR strategy that lead such gaps and how to overcome these gaps to properly implement the functional human resources strategy that will in conclusion reflect its success in Insights overall performance. drawframe