Almeera company’s mission
Almeera company’s mission is to serve the customers’ daily needs conveniently by serving them with quality and dedication, developing friendly and knowledgeable employees, and sharing their resources with society. The firm also has a mission of developing friendly, knowledgeable workers with unmatched quality and dedication and rewarding the community it operates within by executing the highest standards in its business operations and sharing its resources with the community. Likewise, the core values of the company include integrity, respect, and transparency. The company’s vision is to be the foremost global firm, the best-loved neighborhood retailer serving the customers’ common needs with the freshest products in the market, providing healthy alternatives all at competitive costs. Furthermore, the company’s goal is to make the customer happy with a continuous consciousness of the freshness of products, to their obtainability and competitive costs.
The mission of the company clearly states its strategic goals. For instance, the mission states that the firm has a goal of developing knowledgeable employees with unmatched quality and dedication. This strategic goal will eventually foster the company’s performance and productivity in the aggressive Gulf Region market. The mission has also clearly stated the company’s strategic goal in sharing its resources with the community. Doing so will consequently foster the corporate social responsibility of Almeera towards the community. Enhanced social responsibility towards the community will significantly promote the company’s sustainability and competitive advantage in the competitive business environment. Additionally, the values of Almeera offer a good guideline for managerial action at the company. For example, integrity offers guidelines for the managerial actions that would be imposed on the employees and the firm’s executives implicated in various unethical practices like corruption and embezzlement of funds that has a negative effect on the financial stability and reputation of Almeera. Transparency also assists in guiding all the company’s operations, and it also offers a guideline for managerial actions on the practices that would affect the operation of the company in the aggressive business environment. Moreover, the values recognize the stakeholders’ claims by respecting their claims against the company regarding the products and services the company offers to them.
Question 1.2
Corporate responsibility is a self-governing business model that capacitates an organization to be socially liable for itself, its stockholders, together with the community. It encompasses how the company performs its business, how it controls its effect on the environment, and how it treats the workers alongside how it promotes community activities. Almeera attempts to balance the goals of offering stockholders with adequate ROR on their investment while producing products obtained by those in need at an affordable price by boosting investor relations. In support of the company management’s commitment to creating transparent and close communication with the stockholders, precise and comprehensive access to information has been provided. Offering access to investment information has consequently enabled the company to provide an adequate return rate to the investors on their investment. Consequently, access to information has helped the company produce products that benefit the customers and are obtained at a fairly affordable price. Almeera did a good job by balancing the goals of offering stockholders with adequate ROR while developing a product that would be afforded by the customers at a low price because the balancing of the goals helped in increasing the investors’ trust in the company. An increase in the trust of the investors in the company is essential for the firm’s sustainability and future growth. Thus, it was a good idea to balance the goals because it would positively impact Almeera by fostering its sustainability in the aggressive business environment.
Question 1.3
The applicable dimensions of the sustainability of Almeera encompass economic dimensions, social dimensions alongside environmental dimensions. Economic stability is often connected to the ecological dimensions, for example, concerning the economic use of natural resources and energy. The economic dimension applies to Almeera company’s sustainability because it will assist the company in adopting a range of commitments that will increase the free market economies and enhance the firm’s economic performance, including better economic and commercial information and enhance business contract and facilities. An increase in the levels of economic cooperation will consequently foster the sustainability and competitive advantage of Almeera in the competitive market. Similarly, the social dimension applies to the sustainability of Almeera. For instance, the creation and safeguarding of the workplace will consequently foster the sustainability of the company. A safe workplace typically lower workplace conflict instances, which often threatens the performance, productivity, and sustainability of the business. Creating a safe workplace as a social dimension will assist in averting the workplace issues, which will consequently assist in enhancing the sustainability of Almeera. Additionally, the environmental dimension in relation to the sustainable use of the resources essential for the sustainability of Almeera. Effective use of the resources without overexploitation will make the company continuously produce products to the market, which will, in turn, promote the sustainability of the company.
Question Two
Question 2.1: Superior efficiency
The food retail industry is a highly aggressive market that requires organizations to offer customer value for money. The tight competition in the industry often requires organizations to understand what their customers want. To sustain a competitive advantage in the competitive food retail industry, Almeria has successfully employed superior efficiency to remain sustainable in the market. The strategy often enables companies to lower their costs to enable their products to be affordable to the majority of customers. For instance, the mission statement of Almeera states that the firm has a mission of making the customers happy with constant attention to the freshness of products to their availability and competitive prices. This goal promotes the use of a superior efficiency block of competitive advantage to promote the sustainability of the company in an aggressive business environment. For instance, in 2014, in the spirit of the blessed month of Ramathan, the company launched a variety of exceptional offers and reduced prices in all its branches. The offer commenced a few days after the start of the Ramadhan month, and it lasted throughout the month, and it included a wide selection of the most sought-after items during the holy season.
During the offer, the company sold about 1,000 consumer products at a reduced 2014 price while also offering 740 store promotions along with many more socially responsible activities. This offer was evidence of the use of superior efficiency competitive advantage block, which consequently enhanced the sustainability and performance of the company in the Gulf region.
Question 2.2: Superior quality
Superior quality is the competitive advantage block that enables the company to charge higher prices and lower its costs. The fact and evidence which supports the use of this strategy to enhance Ameera’s competitive advantage is the expansion of the company’s quality product line in 2019. In 2019, the CEO of the company said the company recently announced the initiation of a range of quality items from British supermarkets brand at select Almeera branches across the country.
The primary goal of the introduction of a new product brand was to constantly foster the product mix for the company’s customers. The firm increased its branded products and added other international brands to deliver new choices for the customers who value premium quality products. The company also increased the prices of the newly branded products, which was a competitive advantage strategy that Almeera use to remain competitive and sustainable in the aggressive food retail industry. The product specifically targeted customers who value premium quality products. Thus, they consequently made Almeera charge higher prices for which is a competitive advantage approach that significantly enabled the company to outdo its rivals in the competitive food retail industry.
Question 2.3: Superior innovation
Superior innovation is the competitive advantage block that can lead to higher prices, particularly in the case of product innovations, or to reduce unit costs, especially in the case of process innovation. The fact which supports the use of superior innovation as a competitive strategy used by Almeera involves the rebranding of the company’s product to attract many customers in the market. The company rebranded and created new innovative products, which consequently assisted it in charging high prices on the product. Superior innovation enables Almeera to charge high prices for its products in its branches, including the newly opened stores. Additionally, the provision of specifically designated MEC-priced items augmented shoppers’ experience at the Almeera store during Ramathan, where the company had launched about 1438 consumer goods at cost price. This innovative move made the company appear unique compared to its competitors; hence it greatly assisted Almeera in fostering its competitive edge in the aggressive food retail industry.
Question 2.4: Superior customer responsiveness
Customer responsiveness is often critical to the performance and sustainability of the business in the market. It usually highlights the business in a positive light. And enable the company to know how its consumers perceived it. Strong customer responsiveness is typically essential in creating a competitive advantage that would assist a corporation to remain sustainable in the marketplace. An example of a fact which shows the use of strong customer responsiveness as a competitive advantage block which has made Almeera remain sustainable in the market is reassurance that the firm made to the customers concerning their safety following the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic. In March, the company reassurance the safety of its customers together with the employees by taking the required measures to move on with the supply of goods and ensure that all the stores are clean and sanitized for safety. This reassures a response to the concerns made by the customers concerning their safety during the pandemic. Strong customer responsiveness has indicated the commitment of the company to protect its customers compared to its rivals in the industry. Thus, it has assisted in creating a competitive advantage, which has consequently promoted the sustainability of the company in the aggressive food retail industry.
Question Three
Question 3.1
Porter’s five forces is a business model that assists in assessing and evaluating the competitive capability and position of a business organization. It assists in locating where power lies in a business situation. The five forces in this model include the bargaining power of the customers, bargaining power of distributors, rivalry among the existing competitors, threats of new entrants together with the threat of substitutes.
Power of suppliers
The power of suppliers at Almeera company is low. The company has several suppliers who provide it with resources, and this makes the suppliers lack the authority to dictate the price, which the company pays them when they supply resources. The powers of suppliers often indicate the influence of suppliers in imposing their demand on the firm together with its rivals. The suppliers of Almeera usually have weak power because of various factors, which include but are not limited to a high number of suppliers, moderate to high overall supply together with a high ratio of firm concentration to supplier concentration. The international size of Ameera’s supply chain enables it to access several suppliers. The high number of suppliers consequently lower their force in the organization due to a lack of capacity to induce an effect in the company, particularly on the prices which they are paid for their resources. Therefore, the power of suppliers of Almeera company is generally weak since they cannot induce an effect on the company’s pricing for resources.
Bargaining power of consumers
The bargaining power of customers usually has an effect on the business operation of a company. The strong bargaining power of the buyers generally impacts the business since it determines how the consumers will buy the products of the company based on their perception and preferences. The bargaining power of Almeera’s buyers is generally strong. The powers of the customers are high because of various factors that encompass high buyer information low switching costs. The buyers of Almeera’s products are well informed about the products offered by the firm. They are usually updated on the products, which often make them have the power to ask the company to give them a discount on the products or sell the products on the best which best suits them. Therefore, the customers of Almeera have strong bargaining power, which often influences their decision to buy the products based on their tastes and preferences.
Threat of substitute
This component of the model usually determines the strength of substitute products in attracting customers. The substitutes exert weak force since there are several similar products like those of Almeera though they have low performance due to their quality. For example, Almeera offers quality products, which is often difficult to substitute.
The threat of new entrant
Establishing a business to compete against Almeera requires huge capitalization since the company has developed over time and expanded in various regions within the Gulf region. Therefore, the threat of new entrants is low due to various factors like a high capital requirement and the high cost of brand development. These factors make the threat of new entrants to the food retail industry in the Gulf region to be weak. Nonetheless, there are well-developed companies with the adequate financial capacity to enter into the market. Such companies have the potential to enter the market and compete against Almeera. The threat of new entrants is generally low for newly developed companies, but the developed large companies have the potential of entering the market to compete against Almeera.
Competitive rivalry
Almeera faces strong competition from its rivals within the food retail industry. Strong competition is typically caused by highly competitive firms, together with low switching costs. There are tough competitors of the company in the market, and some of them include Spinneys, welcome supermarket, Lulu supermarket, Galleria supermarket, and Save-On-Foods, which put great competition in the market. The strong competition usually makes it easy for the customers to switch from one company to another based on the prices and quality of products offered. Almeera, therefore, faces strong competition from its rivals, which offers similar products in the Gulf region.
Question 3.2
Porter’s generic strategies that are used in Almeera include cost leadership and differentiation strategies. Cost leadership strategy is an approach to obtaining a competitive edge, which can be achieved through enhancing profits by lowering costs while charging the industry-average prices. The strategy also involves fostering the market share by charging lower prices while still making a substantial profit on each sale. Differentiation, on the other hand, is the strategy that involves making products or services more attractive than those of the rivals. Differentiation often depends on the organization, the ability to deliver high-quality products or services together with effective sales and marketing. Almeera is utilizing a cost leadership strategy to lower the prices of its products to attract customers. For instance, in 2014, during the month of Ramadhan, it lowered the prices of its 1,000 products, which consequently assisted in attracting customers to the company. The strategy significantly improved the competitive advantage, which made Almeera thrive within the aggressive food retail market. Additionally, Almeera is utilizing differentiation to produce a different product, which has the potential of attracting many customers who would, in turn, foster the sales and revenue of the company. The company has diversified and differentiated its products into a wide range of products, which have considerably improved the competitive edge and sustainability of Almeera in the competitive business environment. The strategies are implemented through the tactics of outsourcing raw materials alongside executing advanced technology. The firm has invested in innovative technology that manufactures more products per hour with a limited number of employees. The innovation has consequently enabled Almeera to implement a cost leadership competitive strategy, which has allowed it to remain competitive and sustainable in the food retail industry. Similarly, the company has implemented the differentiation strategy by sourcing raw materials, which has capacitated it to produce different varieties of goods based on the demands of the customers. Buying or raw resources for the manufacturing process often tend to be expensive because of the extra costs placed by the suppliers to enable them to acquire profit. Sourcing of raw materials and lowering dependence on third-party products lower the operational cost. Reduction in the operational cost consequently enables give the company to produce a different range of products, which would, in turn, boost its competitive advantage and stream of revenue flow.