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Monday, May 21, 2018

Business Plan Oman Inforrmation Center

  1. Executive Summary 

(You must  to  a brief description about key element on this OIC.com)When the reader read must to interest, While appearing first, this section is written last. It summarizes the key elements of the entire business plan. The Executive Summary is the most important part of your business plan. Because if it doesn’t interest readers, they’ll never even get to the rest of your plan

Start your executive summary with a brief and concise explanation of what your company does. Next, explain why your company is uniquely qualified to succeed. For example, does your management team have unique competencies? Do you have any patents? Are you the first mover in your market? Does a huge, unmet market opportunity exist? Etc.Finally, include a synopsis of your financial projections in your Executive Summary. Specifically, include your expected revenues, expenses and profits for each of the next five years, how much funding you are seeking, and the key uses of these funds.

It should sum up the following areas:

Purpose of the plan, Product or service and its advantages, Market opportunity. Management team, Track record, if any, Financial projections and Funding requirements

  1. Oman Information Centre is a special site online that will present special types of service for online customers of Oman. It will present information about Oman in term of   attraction places and areas in Oman as restaurants, hotels and resorts, mall , ministry, museum schools , Park ,Heritage and natural site and so on  .In additional it includes companies' sales in terms of promotion ,offered, event ,festival and so on that be related to tourism sectors and other sectors . The site also sells products  from famous store and local business in Oman and delivers the goods at homes of customers. The site is designed to make online buying easy for online customers. All people can use it such as Omani citizens or  tourists  and foreign residents, who want to reach places and hotels in Oman. The site is made to provide services that can cope the age of globalization and technology.  Furthermore, ,people can rents their items to other through money. This  website gain profit by combine department ,business and other thing on one websites, it could easers to use it rather than to search through internet to get relevant fact of information. There are other store on Oman don’t have online selling can sale through this website. 
    Company Overview

OIC.com is an online site that presents services of information and purchasing for people live in Oman as it has information about places where people can have dinner as restaurants and places where people can stay as hotels. It also sells goods and delivers them to the homes of customers who are registered in the site such as clothes, shoes, perfumes, make up, kitchen ware, scarves and children wear and souvenir items. It made for making buying from online sites an easy thing. The company is considered an e-commerce company, which is a type of commerce that has been widely used recently.
    1. Mission Statement

To be alternates online store that resident and foreign  find easy to use and interesting.

    1. Company Goals and Objectives

The company has the following goals and objectives
      1. To provide Omani customers with information service that make reaching anywhere easy for them.
      2. To get revenues and profits from the site.
      3. To make a good name in the Omani society.
      4. To attract many online purchasers for buying from the site.
      5. To have a wide range of customers from Omani people and from tourists.
    1. Business Philosophy

This business is based upon attracting online surfers who wish to find a site that joins providing services for them and selling items online. The current age is representing an age of globalization and online life made selling and buying an easy process which affect competition among all online sites.
    1. Describe Industry

Online trade or e commerce became a great industry today which requires high care from the business owners in order to reach competitive advantage as online business today is more handy by people as most people buy and sell online today. Online shopping and tourism and hospitality sector  are now one of the most trade methods people prefer as the online readers send e- mails to those customers in order to make them know the sales and offers that big companies provide and also they send them the promotions of the famous brands. Online trade today has made buying and selling easier than the past because you don’t have to open a store and spend too much money on it but a website and good administrators for the website are good to manage the project. (Strauss, 2014).  It also save customer time and money.
    1. Most Important Company Strengths and Core Competencies

The company strengths and core competencies are as follows:
      1. Quality content: the site contains high quality content about places in Oman where tourists can visit and information about places for shopping and the site provides extra services that most sites don't present such as the service of selling items and delivering them home and the payment can be according to the customers' desire either by cash on delivery or by mastercard online.
      2. Marketing: the site is prepared according to an effective marketing plan that depends on many promotions and strategies for making the site famous online through social media sites, forums and emails.
      3. Expenses: the site is prepared on low expenses which makes great opportunities for profit.
      4. Mixing between two services which are information and selling services. 
      5. Office: At the begging have small office for customer if there have   any inquires and to do contrast with other organization  to rent their business, advertising  and events.
    1. Legal from Ownership

OIC.com is a sole proprietorship, operated, founded and owned by independent.
  1. Industry Analysis

An overview of the industry sector that your business will be a part of, including industry trends, major players in the industry, and estimated industry sales; this section will also include a summary of your business's place within the industry.
OIC.com is including the e commerce industry which includes selling services and goods online for purchasers who are registered on the site. This industry is a fast growing one as it is a retailing industry which now faces the challenges of online retailing as many customers now prefer online buying because they can pay at home and receive the goods at home. The industry analysis section includes two main parts as follows:
    1. Market Overview

The Market Overview section discusses the size and characteristics of your market. For example, if you are a restaurant, you would include the size of the restaurant market, a brief discussion of sectors (e.g., fast food versus fine dining) and market trends.
Omani retailing market is a very busy one, which depends on many branches of retailing such as stores and online sites. The retailing business in Oman is increasing greatly as news tells that about 57% of Omani expect that the retailing market will improve and their profits as customers of Oman have strong activity especially online. Oman retailing market tells that most people today prefer online purchasing than store buying processes. This raises the company's opportunity in making profits in this field. (Oxford business group, 2013)
    1. Relevant Market Size

The relevant market size is a much more specific calculation of your market size. It is the annual revenue your company could attain if it attained 100% market share. Your relevant market size is calculated by multiplying 1) the number of customers who might be interested in purchasing your products and/or services each year and 2) the amount these customers might be willing to spend, on an annual basis, on your products and/or services
Basic Questions
1) What products/services are you (will you be) selling? 
2) What are the features and benefits of what you sell?
3) What position do you have (or want to have) in the market?
4) How do your products/services differ from the competition?
5) What makes your products unique and desirable?
6) Why do (will) customers buy from you?
Oman market for retailing is a developed market with great size that attracts retailers from all over the world as the AT Kearney’s Global Retail Development Index in 2012 has ranked Oman as the eighth emerging retailing market in the world and refers to its retailing market as a stable one. Oman economy is growing because the customers have confidence in it. This sector was expected to grow more to 29% in the next years. Among the Middle East countries, Oman is ranked the fifth related to customers' confidence. The total value of wholesale and retail trade in 2011 was set at OR1.95bn ($5.08bn) by The Oman Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OCCI). (Oxford business group, 2015)
  1. Customer Analysis

    1. Target Customer

Your Target Customers section precisely identifies your current and/or intended customers. Include as much demographic data on your target customers as possible, such as their gender, age, salary, geography, marital status and education.

OIC.COM is targeting specific customers who are residents of Oman from all ages and sexes because the site is presenting two main services which are providing the online service of providing the people with information about places for tourism in Oman and those may be citizens or tourists and another service which is selling products online and delivering them home so those customers are residents in Oman in all cities and areas of Oman. Customers from the site can be at any age or from any sex. In addition is target student employees who related to tourism and hospitality and enterpunership of business man and woment.

    1. Customer Needs

In this section of your business plan, specify why customers want or need your products and/or services. For example, do customers care most about speed, quality, location, reliability, comfort, price, value, etc.?
Questions for Existing Businesses:
1) Who are your current customers? (List largest customers or categories)
2) What do they buy from you?

3) Why do they buy from you? (Quality, Price, Reputation, etc?)
OIC.com customers have basic needs which are finding places of entertainment in Oman such as hotels and restaurants and knowing their information such as address and phone numbers. Customers; needs also include finding the goods they want to buy from a variety of goods related to the retailing market such as clothes, kitchen machines and foot wear. They need the site to be working properly, registration process is easy and flexible and they need their products to come at homes safely, to come exactly as they wanted and the price to be the same and time is not very long to receive the goods.
  1. Competitive Analysis

    1. Direct Competitors

Direct competitors are companies that fill the same customer need you fill with the same solution. For example, if you operate an Italian restaurant, other Italian restaurants would be direct competitors.In this section of your business plan, outline who your direct competitors are, and their strengths and weaknesses
The site has direct competitors such as the sites found online for online purchasing in Oman and information sites in Oman such as the following ones:
      1. Namshioman.com
      2. Sukar.com
      3. Souq.com
      4. Muscat ads
    1. Indirect Competitors

Indirect competitors are companies that fill the same customer need you fill with a different solution. For example, if you operate an Italian restaurant, a French restaurant would be an indirect competitor.In this section of your business plan, outline who your indirect competitors are, and their strengths and weaknesses
OIC has indirect competitors such as the retailers, which are having stores in Oman such as Salman stores and Sultan centre. These competitors are indirect because they are not having online stores.
    1. Competitive Advantages

Importantly, identify your Competitive Advantages in this section. Specifically, state what is it about your company that will allow you to effectively compete (and win) against both direct and indirect competitors.Basic Questions:
1) Who are (will be) your largest competitors? List them.
2) How will your operation be better (and worse) than your competitors?
3) How are competitors doing? What are their sales and profits?
4) (If Start-Up) How will competition respond to your market entry?
An overview of the industry sector that your business will be a part of, including industry trends, major players in the industry, and estimated industry sales; this section will also include a summary of your business's place within the industry. Your Industry Analysis section has two sub-sections as follows
OIC.com has many competitive advantages such as:
      1. Mixing between being an information site and a site for online purchasing.
      2. Providing fast delivery services.
      3. Having a very simple site with a clear interesting user face that has a simple sign  in way using emails or Facebook information.
      4. Having a simple advertising plan depends on social media sites.
      5. Having a unique interesting web design for the site.
  1. Marketing Plan

    1. Market History

Information on historical development and growth.  By investigating past trends, it is often possible to anticipate future opportunities in the market
Oman retailing market has a great history represented by the great demand of customers and the growth throughout time and the high demographic factors and the technology systems that added too much amendments on the industry Online marketing began as since the beginning of the 21st century, online trade was very common as many people began their online businesses as having their online sites and the trade became more famous till it took a great position now. The tourism industry has a great position in Oman today and this raised the importance for having online sites that provides information for those tourists about hotels and restaurants and other important places where tourists can go. In the past tourists used to use maps and investigate tourism offices for finding information, which was very difficult and tiring. Online trade and e commerce businesses provided solutions for many problems that people and tourists suffered in the past. As online trade evolved and more advancement had been added to it, this industry of online retailing became very important and lead to a great market competition that increases every day. (Gorvet, 2015)
    1. Target Market/ Segment Characteristics

      1. Geographic ( location, population size or climate)

Oman is the target geographic area prepared by the site as the area is focused on because the information provided in the site is all about places in Oman as many tourists visit this area yearly. Oman is one of the Gulf countries that attracts many customers to purchase from online sites. The great size of the country provides a better chance for the site to spread.
      1. Demographic(age, gender, family size, family life cycle or income)

Population of Oman are estimated as 4, 157,783 persons as about half of them live in Muscat and the rest are distributed on Omani cities. The site is specifically targeting youth more than other age because the young people are more interested in online sites and they use their mobiles and laptops for online purchasing too much. Income of Omani people is good and suitable for online purchasing processes. The Omani society likes to buy from the internet, which gives good opportunities to OIC.com. (World population review, 2015) .The office will located on city centre   Muscat , because willayat Al-Seeb is have a huge population in Oman  and this mall have crowed around the year. Or may be located at Oman Tourism College or ministry of tourism  to support  independent    through marally.
      1. Psychographic (social class, lifestyle, motivation or personality)

Oman's people prefers buying and shopping than any other activity while they have free time and some money, they also like the internet too much so the best thing is to make an online site for providing them with all what they like of activities. The Omani taste is considered when the site was designed. Opinions of visitors are asked to be put on answering some questions on the site.
      1. Behavioural(product benefits, frequency of use or brand loyalty)

The benefits that the site is expecting are based on the way Omani people purchasing their products online as the rate of their usage to internet stores as online shopping became a part of the Gulf people shopping behaviours. A survey was done in Oman showed that more than one of the participants in the survey made online purchasing in a past three months, which tells that online purchasing became very ready to buy online. This also declares that Omani people can be loyal to a specific site when they feel happy using it and that they can buy not even on holidays but all times of the year. 
    1. 7P’s of marketing mix which are following

Figure 1- 7’P’s of Marketing Mix
Source: (Professional academy, 2015)
      1. Product

In this section you need to thoroughly describe your product or service, along with any proprietary features and future development plans.
Describe your proposed products or services (technical specifications, drawings, photos, sales brochures, and other bulky items belong in Appendices).
For each product or service:
• Describe the most important features. What is special about it?
• Describe the benefits. That is, what will the product do for the customer?
What factors will give you competitive advantages or disadvantages? Examples include level of quality or unique or proprietary features.
The product the site is focusing on is mainly information and retailing goods, information are those databases present for providing the customers and tourists with the information about the places and all they want to know in Oman. The site is also focusing on retailing products manufactured by big companies with good brands such as clothes, footwear, accessories and kitchenware and so on. The product quality is the main objective of the site as the products are of very good quality. The customer can choose as many products as he wishes and then make the order to buy them after registration process. 
      1. Pricing

Detail your pricing here. In particular, discuss how your pricing relates to competition. For example, are you the premium brand? Or the low cost brand?
For most small businesses, having the lowest price is not a good policy. It robs you of needed profit margin; customers may not care as much about price as you think; and large competitors can underprice you anyway. Usually you will do better to have average prices and compete on quality and service.
·        Discuss your expected branding based on your chosen pricing model.
·        Discuss the pricing strategy and policy for your product or service.  Show how your pricing approach will enable you to:  penetrate the market, maintain and increase market share in a competitive environment, and make a profit.
·        Explain your method or methods of setting prices.
·        Does your pricing strategy fit with what was revealed in your competitive analysis?
   Compare your prices with those of the competition. Are they higher, lower, the same? Why? How important is price as a competitive factor?
·        Do your intended customers really make their purchase decisions mostly on price?



·        What will be your customer service and credit policies?
·        Explain markup policies.
Pricing policy is made according to the market needs and limits as the role of the site is to take a commission from companies that put their products on the site. Sales revenues are based upon the price so only valued products are sold with high prices and the prices are reasonable as the site chooses products from companies that have good reputation in the market and a good brand. Some less valued products are found on the site in low prices such as second hand product, which are used products, but in good condition.
      1. Place-Proposed Location

Probably you do not have a precise location picked out yet. This is the time to think about what you want and need in a location. Many startups run successfully from home for a while.
·        Analyze your location criteria as they will affect your customer
·        Is your location important to your customers? If yes, how?
·        If customers come to your place of business: Is it convenient? Parking? Interior spaces? Not out of the way? Is it consistent with your image?
·        What is it customers want and expect? Where is the competition located? Is it better for you to be near them (like car dealers or fast food restaurants) or distant (like convenience food stores)?
The site is basically based in Oman which is a country in the Gulf countries and it is found in Asia. Oman country is proposed for this project for many reasons such as its richness in cultural issues and famous places tourists seek so the site can present the place in a way that attracts tourists and encourage visitors of the site to come again. The place is also proposed due to the big area of it and the diversity of places found in it. Products are chosen according to the demands of the place and its nature
 
 . The office will located on city centre   Muscat , because willayat Al-Seeb is have a huge population in Oman. 

Saturday, May 19, 2018

CEMEX Strategic Management

Introduction
Any business organization that seeks success should give much interest to its strategies and strategic management in order to boost other business rivals and increase its competitive advantages. (Gates, 2010) CEMEX is a big cement company established by a Mexican family. The company's strategy to be among the leaders companies in that field globally depends on three major orbits which are strengthening its existence in Mexico, focusing on internationalization and focusing on the global market. The company that began as a simple local business in 1906 in Mexico grew to be interested in many fields including oil, mining and tourism to be listed on the stock exchange of Mexico but cement was focused on to be its main business. CEMEX had good international opportunities in the mid 1980s but the chairman focused more in Mexico and then went globally by investing the company's noncore assets to be the best cement producer in Mexico first and then to internationalize the business. The company succeeded in Europe as in Spain and then Asia as in Philippine, Thailand and Indonesia. The company's production capacity raises in 2005 to be a global company with a current international network but there are still two main markets where CEMEX is still absent from which are China and India. The current paper is aiming at discussing the strategic management of CEMEX and its critically analyzing its future state and aspiration explaining its competitive advantage in addition to designing an alternative strategic plan for CEMEX to sustain growth in Oman market and face the challenges in it.
Analysis
Organizational vision, mission, objectives and strategic capabilities
CEMEX has a vision that depends on serving the requirements and needs of buildings for customers on a global level in addition to building a strong value for all the company's stakeholders via building a worldwide brand that reflects the most  profitable and efficient business and cement company. CEMEX is having a commitment for raising the effectiveness of the cement industry to be a partner in building nations with producing high quality cement. CEMEX mission is based on promoting the cement industry to be a key partner in the economic growth of nations and in building the infrastructures of countries and developing them. The company's mission includes having an effective advocate for all members of international cement and construction industry in addition being a responsive organization for the various issues relevant to the industry globally as well as establishing better stakeholders' relationships. (Husted and Alan, 2010) The company has organizational goals including making the company a global leader in cement industry, producing high quality products ensuring corporate social responsibility shown in many areas such as being environment friendly and helping for the world society, ensuring safety and security for all stakeholders, reaching higher levels of profitability and competitiveness in the field of cement production and ensuring sustainability in all activities and processes relevant to the business. The company also aims at invading new markets in the near future such as India and China, raising its human resources job satisfaction and retention rates and being a leader in the charity and helpful activities for the local and global societies. (CEMEX, 2016)The company has a number of strategic abilities that are used on a very professional level such as its capabilities in using technology for modernizing the techniques used in manufacturing and distributing its products and its capabilities un having strong human resources with different skills that are well used by the company to boost the global market yet the company should maintain some more core competencies that can be used for invading new markets such as India and China as these markets require new core competencies to be maintained by the company that are not found in other cement companies in these areas. (Ahlstrom and Bruton, 2009) 
Evaluation of the organization's Strategic management implications
Strategic management implications of CEMEX can be evaluated according to the international market expansion and the risk management processes. CEMEX has different strategic management processes as the company creates an environment that depends on making strategic alliances with the company's stakeholders especially shareholders who are well acknowledged with all the companies activities and policies, there are also the company's human resources who are given high interest to reduce turnover rates and retain them as the company invests in them in addition to other stakeholders including the world and local societies as CEMEX shares in many charity projects and sponsorship activates.(Harrison and John, 2007) CEMEX also tries to create value by establishing a global portfolio that includes many different activities related to integrated cement, aggregates and ready-mix concrete as the company makes sure of many steps such as valuing people who are the company's main competitive advantage as it helps customers succeed, help purchasers have long term profitability opportunities and ensuring sustainability to be fully embedded. (cemex, 2016) Yet the company should consider more risk management processes in order to consider risk as a core competency that can raise its competitive advantage as according to Lucia and Lessard, (2006), CEMEX has focused on two areas in risk management processes which are at first: growing in a very strong market and a strong institutional environment , CEMEX had the ability to succeed in markets that more powerful competitors didn't dare to enter. CEMEX has been famous for achieving many risky processes rather than avoidance of them which is a valued core competency for the company such as entering new markets in Asia and Europe; the second risk process is that CEMEX tried to make risk management as everyday activity of the company and nit as a separated process of the company's business as it became part of its cultural and organizational fabric. CEMEX includes risky decisions in the strategic planning of the company and align them with needs of the market and customers as it follows new innovative techniques in production and distribution of cement around the world. The biggest strategic risk CEMEX faced and succeeded in managing it is when its economic viability was threatened by the Mexican economy opening and the cement industry globalization as the company reacted to this threat by setting a stronger global scale and at the same time narrowing its product focus to cement and concrete only but the company has to develop new capabilities that can cope with new emerging risks in its field globally such as studying the demand risks in markets as India and China .
Explanation of competitive capabilities in improving trade margin and focus
CEMEX has competitive capabilities in improving trade margin and focus as the company focused on diversifying its geographic distribution areas to reach many new areas in addition to focusing only on cement as a main product of the company which raised its profit margin. In end of 2005, CEMEX got profits estimated with 1.5 million dollars out of its projects focusing on poor people in Mexico and although the trade margin of the company wasn't that high but it was improved by the company's capabilities in sharing in CSR projects in poor countries as Mexico and others in Asia and Africa which raised the trade margin as a result of improving the company's image at the countries where such projects were made and in other global countries based on such profitable partnerships with such countries. (Werhane et al, 2009). CEMEX is making deep analysis for the industry and this is among its competitive capabilities as the company has strong analysts who are able to study the market before entering it in addition to measuring loss and profit via different types of cost benefit analysis that can tell how much the company can gain from a specific market as for example, CEMEX is improving its trade margin by making good business in the USA as  the reasonable low price of portland cement and clinker the American companies import from CEMEX has made CEMEX get a disproportionate share of the U.S. market but at the same time this caused CEMEX problems such as the complaints of the  U.S. producers who accused CEMEX of selling its portland cement and clinker in prices that are less than the fair market value in which they described as predatory. (Bowman, 2010) According to Bovet, Martha and Consulting, (2000), margins of CEMEX are improving aligning with the strategy of CEMEX for paying down debt via selling off some of its real estate. As a way for investment; Cemex focused on its $520m contribution to its 2015 EBITDA from higher pricing policy and predicted a greater contribution in the year 2016. Debt reduction is a capability of CEMEX that is followed to raise trade market. CEMEX is also following a value before volume strategy that is able to raise its profitability and was followed for the past three years as the company's contribution was raised to $520m in 2015 after it was below $400m in years 2013 and 2014 at $395m and $390m.
Alternative strategic plan for CEMEX 's challenges and growth sustainability in Oman
Oman is a big market that all international businesses seek to inter and make business in due to many reasons such as the vivid investment conditions and supportive business environment as the government gives good opportunities to businessmen in related to taxation systems and import and export policies and tariffs. According to Hegazy and Doust, (2016) Oman is a main country of the Middle East where CEMEX is focusing as it has a large population and different industries that all requires construction projects for both housing and manufacturing needs. CEMEX needs to have an alternative strategic plan for facing any challenges in Oman and in improving the business there as the plan should be built on main goals of increasing the products distributed in Oman and perhaps there should be special plants for the company and this depends on the relationships between CEMEX and Oman government as the company can find many good opportunities for cement manufacturing in Oman with its different deserts and nature. The plan can be short term or long term as this depends on the size and volume of investment s set to be practiced by the company in Oman. CEMEX can also make deep analysis for the needs of the Omani market and how to control prices in the country and then to expand the business in other Gulf countries such as KSA and Kuwait where there are many construction projects. CEMEX should change its plans in Oman from those in other developing countries as Oman is not in that need for CSR via building homes for the poor but the company can be a sponsor for many sport activities such as football and others which improves the company's image at its customers' eyes. Oman also needs the company to make different advertising campaigns for manufacturing the product in Oman because the people in Oman needs to learn more about how powerful and effective CEMEX cement is in order to increase profitability and success in a country such as Oman that is a great opportunity to any business to invest in.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it is important to refer to how CEMEX became in such a successful position in the market of cement today as the company began simply in Mexico but with great efforts to focus only on cement and the different risk policies maintained by the company and how the company is applying them; the company was able to get a very high position in the world as there were three basic orbits the company focused on since its start as they are: the local market, international markets and global ones. As CEMEX has succeeded a lot in that field, it seems that it gives much interest to all stakeholders as the company is keen on making shareholders acknowledged with all about the business and its profits and the human resources are highly regarded by the company in addition to the different activities such as charity and others the company is sharing in them. CEMEX tries to have strong strategic capabilities that enable it to boost the international market such as being risky and taking risk decisions after deep analysis as when CEMEX makes such analysis; the company is also successful in improving its trade market by pricing policies, CSR projects and other ways. The company was also successful in taking serious decisions like focusing on cement only as a main product. The company is recommended to take more risks to reach markets such as India and China. CEMEX has also to put a different alternative strategic planning that can depends on goals and objectives that can share for raising the company's profitability and trade margin.

Change Management Australian Coral Mine

Introduction
Change management is a process that depends on tools, techniques and methods for managing the way people are changing in the business organization and that change is meant for achieving certain business goals and outcomes. Change management uses organizational tools to help employees pass the different stages of change in order to apply it at last the way the organization desires. (Creasey, 2007) Business environments of today are so dynamic to the extent that they require organizational change as a main component of the organizational success which makes having organizational change and its relevant tools and methods is a need for the organization's stability and achievement of required transformation that helps reach better competitive advantage. The nature of the business and the market control the way the organization is managing change and the people who are responsible for achieving it and this is also related with the degree of understanding change by people in the organization. The current case discusses how change can be resisted by employees if it is not understood by employees as miner identities at the Australian colliery affected their acceptance to the change program as they view it as an attack on their dignity as it breaks their normative expectations and the current working relationships. Managers' prerogative attitudes in management and in applying the performance management system made miners face it with a resistance as it challenged their share miner identity and then change was refused. The current paper is discussing change management according to the case and it aims at explaining how to manage change effectively and managing resistance to change and realize the reasons that make change fail in the business organization. It also aims at analyzing the case critically in order to understand how managers made mistakes in applying change and how they can lead change effectively and face resistance to change.
Analysis
Critical analysis and evaluation of change initiated by the CEO of the Australian coal mine with relevant application of change and leadership theory
The CEO of the Australian coal mine applied a new system of appraising work performance and he didn't make any consultation before applying the change which lead to implement a performance appraisal system that is so simple and lacks main components relevant to HRM such as pay, performance and others. Miners were in need for a union official and this should have been regarded by the CEO and other managers as the miners should be job satisfied in order to do well at work as the lack of their needs made them refuse such change and just accept it by law and by force. This lead to reduced productivity and low performance as according to Wittig, (2012) the lack of understanding the occupational culture by managers can lead to not regarding the needs of workers which occurred with miners, the rating process also wasn't fair and was not accepted by miners. Lack of regarding needs and complaints of miners lead to their feeling of a lack of respecting them. Miners feel that they are abused by such appraisal system as they need to feel safe which is lacked in such a system. Another problem is that miners complained of being unfairly scored as this lead miners to work harder but not smarter which reduced the level of performance. Miners identities and the culture forming them were not understood by the CEO before applying the change which lead to problems and refuse to change as legitimating the process of change implementation lead to isolating miners and making them perform without the correct supervision of managers.  Pryor et al, (2008) discussed the reasons that make change fail referring to theories of change management such as using the change model that is suitable to the organization needs and nature of employees and their needs as they discussed organizational change versus organizational transformation; they explained that change should pass some steps in order to succeed as there should be a transformation not a change to occur, this was confirmed by Nickols, (2016) who added that preparing for the change is a very important stage and that change should be studied well and tried before its last implementation as employees' reactions to change should be studied and their needs must be considered when applying the change. Cummings and Worley, (2014) discussed how Lewin's model of change can be effective when it is applied by management as it consists of three stages that are unfreezing which includes preparing for the change and then change which refers to implementing it and refreezing which means to stress the change in the organization, this is useful as it can help managers adapt and modify the change in the unfreezing phase to the needs of employees and the nature of the organization to improve performance as a main goal. This was confirmed by Hiatt, (2006) who referred to ADKAR model of change that involves five phases or main components for implementing the change which are awareness, desire, knowledge, ability and reinforcement.
Critical explanation and analysis of miners' general views
Miners views show that they have fears of threats to their occupational community as one of the miners said that he had a problem with the rating process as he thought that he is rated without real understanding for his work abilities, performance and outcomes as he mentioned that he is rated before he goes into the rating room and there is no chance for changing the score he gets; this leads to reduction in the level of miners' performance as according to Thomas, (2014), effective leadership is the one that regards employees' needs and complaints about any new change otherwise they will resist change and find ways to work against the organizational goals. This occurred in the current case and many miners feel threatened in such work environment as a miner commented that the place they work in is dangerous and that leadership doesn't consider safety measurements for miners as if their safety is not regarded by the organization or managers. Adamshick, (2007) explained how risky work environment are in need for safety measurement applications rather than any other work environment as safety climate can raise the employees' morale and make them feel appreciated and respected by the work organization and managers which in turn can improve performance and productivity. Samuel, (2013) explained that change management is a crucial process that leaders and managers should understand before implementing any change as they should realize how far employees regard change and if they have different needs that change can't apply because this can lead to making the needed change instead of a change that will lead to passive results and negative outcomes in relation to performance. In the current case, one miner explained that he was very proud that he expressed his opinion to the manager and that he was able to change his score which tells how far the work environment in threatening to employees and may lead to high turnover rates because it lacks effective communication as it is clear that when one employee had negotiated a problem and was able to communicate it with the manager, he sees this is a great thing to do and not a common thing. This is very dangerous as it makes employees feel not respected or regarded by managers which was another opinion of another miner. Another opinion of miners show that change is not fairly implemented in the organization as some miners are low rated while others are highly rated without clear explanations for reasons for such unequal rating system as the miner expressed that he will react as other miners who work smarter not harder in a hint of not correct actions with managers. Farell, (2009) discussed this problem and he referred to equal and fair implementation for rating systems that can bring in the best results in performance of employees; this was confirmed by Mone and London, (2014) who stressed the need for avoiding errors of rating by managers via using successful rating systems that can satisfy all employees and really measure their performance.
Communication plan  
Erskine, (2013) confirmed the importance of communication plans in change management as he focused on two types of communication which are the communication that can discuss the change with employees and the communication that can get information when needed either from employees or managers. This was confirmed by Newton, (2012) who added that communication plans can help in managing change step by step.
Communication type
Objectives
Medium
Frequency
Audience
Owner
Deliverable
Meetings with managers
To make managers understand how to apply change with a model
Face to face
Weekly
Manager
Trainers and consultants
Agenda
Project team meetings
To make employees understand change and express opinions
Face to face
By reports
By e-mail
Weekly
Miners
Trainers and managers
Agenda
Reports about miners' satisfaction by managers
Realizing needs of miners and modify change to them
Written
Reports
Questionnaire
Interviews
Monthly
miners
Managers
consultants
Performance Reports
Reports about managers' performance
Monitoring managers implication for change
Written reports
Monthly
Managers
Supervisors and consultants
Performance reports

The plan can be achieved according to what was reported by Biech, (2016) as he reported that change management needs training for both employees and managers and this can be reached by implementing a communication plan for managing change and as confirmed by Attong and Metz, (2016) who asserted that to make a business change succeed, there should be a communication plan that can be updated to match the needs of the project applied as a change.
The current communication plan is set to focus on both managers and miners as managers are in need for understanding the process of change and to realize that it needs to pass different stages before implementing and there are right ways for the correct implementation of change. The plan has four types of communication which are meetings with managers, project team meetings, reports about miners' satisfaction by managers and reports about managers' performance in applying change. This can be done by the help of some trainers, consultants and supervisors who can provide managers with training needed for change implementation in order not to fall in errors as the occurred before. Supervisors and consultants can monitor managers' performance and report it in order to be estimated and to evaluate change. Miners' opinions and complaints should be listened to by the reports or via the meetings with them that can strengthen the communication process between miners and managers. The plan can be adapted and updated according to the needs of the miners, managers and the organization. The communication plan can be effective when needs of miners are met and when they have a supportive performance appraisal system that can help them have their rights, feel better and perform better in the work which can raise productivity and profitability as well as raising miners' moral which ensures better work environment as the communication process will reveal many opinions and complaints the miners may have which is helpful in meeting their needs and making them job satisfied.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it is important to refer to the importance of understanding change management process and how to implement change properly in the business organization. As seen above, the CEO of the coal mines in Australia has committed mistakes as he didn't prepare for the change or make analysis for miners' needs which resulted in great failure and resistance to change as well as a reduction in the level of miners' performance that reflected on the organizational productivity. The organization should give much interest to miners' opinions in order to raise their morale and make them job satisfied and this can be applied by implementing a communication plan that focuses on both managers and miners in order to establish a work environment where communication is well applied as this will help in recognizing needs and complaints of miners and apply a new change that can satisfy them.

Friday, May 18, 2018

Strategic Management Oman Alluminium Rolling Company

Analysis of the industry and the firm
Oman Aluminium Rolling Company LLC (OARC) is one of the leading companies in the field of Aluminum rolling in Oman and in the Gulf area as its start was in 2011 as it began to be a green field aluminum rolling mill plant based in Sohar Industrial Estate. The company was established for purposes of producing products of aluminum by processing aluminum metal to make the required rolled products in the Gulf and Omani markets. The plant has actual capacity estimated with 140,000 metric tons per annum of multi-purpose Aluminum sheets that are marketed in the local and the Middle East, Asia, Europe, Australia, North and South America markets. The company follows very modern strategies in production and marketing of such products based on the needs of the market as according to the Aluminum association, (2007), the aluminum rolling industry requires high efficiency in managing the different relevant operations such as the sheet rolling operations, the sheet finishing and the quality and process control. The OARC focuses on the rolling processing operations with the help of other companies contracted with it such as the Sohar Aluminum company to smelt the material directly and produce enough amounts of aluminum coils and products. The company is trying to make different expansions to include more operations as in 2014 it built a new aluminum Coil Coating Unit for its existed units with a capacity of 25,000 ton per annum as an expansion to the company's existing OARC rolling mill located in the Sohar Industrial Estate (SIE) in Oman. The plant is able to provide customers with different aluminum products as the Coil Coating Line is the first of its kind in Oman. The Plant was established for meeting safety and environmental standards, and it is equipped with high industrial technologies relevant to the aluminum coating industry. Due to the high safety standards of the plant, it exceeded 5 million accident-free man-hours in its construction phase. OARC is keen on producing the best quality aluminum products as it is following national and international standards to meet the needs of the market and to reach a high level of customers’ satisfaction aligning with its quality policies and sustainable improvement. The Company looks forward to being a world-leader in the field of rolled aluminum production. Among the company's goals is to be a part of the Takamul project and is adapting its objectives for developing the mineral, metal and petrochemical projects as Takamul is developing an aluminum downstream park that is known as the Metal Park and it includes a number of projects that will be able to convert the liquid aluminum from the smelter to the semi-finished as well as the finished aluminum products. Takamul project is a subsidiary of the OOC which is a completely Government owned company located in the Sultanate of Oman.
According to United States, Bureau of the Census, (2001), the aluminum industry is one of the most important metal manufacturing industries in the world which makes it a good chance to establish a plant for manufacturing aluminum and produce different types of it via rolling and other processing methods; the aluminum industry can be one of the income resources for a country and it can provide many job opportunities but this industry requires specific levels of quality that can raise sales and lead to more profitability as this industry can meet the market demands of different products including food packages, finished coil products, semi finished coil products  and other different products. OARC has a vision that depends on making the company an organization of a world class that is able to support the Omani economy and ensuring job opportunities for its youth. Its mission is to provide safe work environment for its society and keep it without harms on both environmental and industrial levels with a customer focus in order to meet customers' expectations with a product that is of high quality and to ensure the highest market productivity that results from its efficiency and capabilities. The company depends on a concept of value creation that ensures the continuous creation of values in relation to production and services. ORAC has a business strategy that applies many principles that can benefit the country's economy and raise more profits such as Omanization as the company tries to nationalize its policy of employment and it follows employing Omani young people who are trustworthy and talented in strategic positions in the company to build a strong future of employees who are loyal to the company and reduce the ratios of turnover in the organization to gain them as valuable assets that help in the growth and development of the organization. The organization of OARC supports the creative initiatives that develop and retain local Omani talents and consider Omanization as one of the organization's “Corporate Social Responsibility” concepts. Omanization aims at ensuring a sustainable increase in the competency among Omani Employees at all the different levels of the Company. OARC has an internship program that applies basics of corporate social responsibility principles and tries to develop the students of Omani universities by offering them an internship program that provides them with opportunities for practicing their educated material and understand how rolling aluminum industry works on in real life with a presentation for the different used techniques, machinery and technologies in the plant of ORAC as students have the chance to acquire skills and experiences in addition to practical knowledge about the functions applied within the rolling aluminum industry. (Oman-arc, 2016) 
The aluminum rolling industry requires innovative strategies and developed techniques in all its practices in order to compete the market and boost other rivals as aluminum rolling mills require updated different solutions in order to produce higher quality products everyday; it is a great challenge for a company as OARC to maintain sustainable plant productivity and quality rolled products. Due to the international economic growth, the company is faced with severe competition from other countries in areas as Asia that has witnessed great economic growth and success in the aluminum rolling field as many plants there have been developed and grew so it is important for OARC to have continuous optimizing for the different aluminum rolling processes so as to keep competitive. There should be higher rolling speeds as well as raised plant productivity which are the best key factors for securing the company's position in the market. Regarding such industry; there are many different strategies that can improve and develop its current position as flexibility is important as the company has to be flexible in its products and amounts according to the needs of the customers and the plants should be adapted to such changes as this may require fast production, different delivery times or other relevant decisions that a strategy can suggest. The changes in products locally and internationally should also be regarded and put into consideration by the strategy as there should be logistic design as a part of the company's plant solutions; another important factor in the aluminum rolling industry is to cut operating costs and increase quality in order to increase profits. (w3.siemens, 2016)






Identification of the possible scenarios
According to Burn, Marshal and Barnett, (2007),  any business organization that seeks success and competitiveness should depend on its strategic management techniques that need to be developed and improved along with the advancement and developments occurring in the industry and to choose the best business and corporate strategies that help in improving its efficiency and profitability. This requires the company to make the needed analysis that help in identifying the best strategies and this PESTLE analysis can be helpful in this:
  1. Political
The political environment where OARC works is a safe environment as Oman is one of the countries that is advantaged with a stable political climate as the country enjoys peace without conflicts or wars with other countries or inside Oman. The government of Oman also gives many opportunities for its businessmen who establish great projects as ORAC and gives them many opportunities and facilities to develop and help its economy.
  1. Economic:
ORAC enjoys being established in a country with a stable economic conditions as there is good economic conditions for the company to be established and flourished with a welcoming public audience of customers who prefer Omani products rather than others. The country is also advantaged with providing its citizens with high individual incomes which encourage any businessmen to build its own business with a trust in profit.
  1. Social:
OARC is established in a country with a peaceful and interactive social life as Oman is one of the Arabian Gulf countries that is characterized with vivid changing nature and it is full of different people from different areas of the world who come to work and get privileges of Oman. The Omani society is an active changing one that bears welcoming for any innovative ideas and new industries and new businessmen who have the ability to improve the economy of Oman. The Omani society has changed to be a basic user of rolled aluminum products as they are widely used in machines, kitchens, restaurants, homes and everywhere due to its easiness, cleanliness and being friendly to the environment which makes the opportunities for a company such as OARC  great and available in a society such as the Omani one.
  1. Technological:
Oman is a country that is characterized with following the latest technologies in all fields as most plants and factories follow the latest technologies in machinery, production and marketing in order to improve the service as well as the products and this technological trends are used in all areas of Oman which makes OARC keen on developing its facilities, plants and machinery in order to compete other market rivals locally and internationally and raise its profitability and success levels.
  1. Legal:
The legal system of Oman is characterized with being clear supportive legal system for businesses and other different activities relevant to the market as the legal system has many laws that make businesses establishment in Oman flexible and receive many governmental and legal facilitations which makes OARC has good chances for development.
  1. Environmental:
Oman is characterized with a safe environment with a desert climate but this environment has accepted many new life styles such as using aluminum products everywhere due to the easiness for its usage and the cheap prices of such products so the company has good opportunities to market its products in such environment. (BBC, 2016)
Porter theory
According to Constanta-Nicoleta, (2016), business organizations look forward to reaching competitive advantage through developments done for their strategies on both business and corporate levels as they try to reach higher productivity and profitability by developing their strategies and find the most suitable ones to be implemented. According to Porter, (2011), discussed the different possible strategies that can be helpful for any business organization and should be followed or chosen from by the organization; he referred to main three strategies which are cost leadership, differentiation strategy and the focus strategy and that each of them can be used according to the needs and nature of the business and how far profits are needed and related to the business strategies. As to OARC, it is an organization that looks for profitability and each of the three strategies can be effective with it as it can use the cost leadership strategy for reducing production and distribution costs or use the differentiation strategy in order to present new different services and products for its customers and beat the aluminum market with innovative high quality products or to use the focus strategy for focusing on some basic products and increase the production of these products to present them to the market with higher quality and better prices in order to attract more customers.
Cost Leadership strategy:
The cost leadership strategy is based on cost reduction through applying many techniques as it helps in raising the market share of the company and let it make more profits. Eldring, (2009) discussed Porter's generic strategies and explained how each strategy of the three can be effective and useful for business organizations, he discussed how the cost leadership strategy can be helpful for companies that need to save of its costs in production or other processes and operations in order to make more profits as the strategy depends on keeping a specific level of quality; this can be applied to OARC as the company can reduce costs of producing specific foil products and to make them less in selling prices to sell more but this needs the company to make different types of analysis to realize if prices reduction will affect its position in the market and if quality will not be affected by cost reduction of production.
The Differentiation Strategy
Lewis et al, (2006) explained how Porter's differentiation strategy can be effective when used by a leadership team of an organization either it was meant for raising profits or for satisfying customers and enhancing the company's name in the market as they stated that this strategy enables the company to add differentiation to its products to make them unique and innovative through applying differentiation on any feature of the product such as durability, functionality or others. This can be applied on OARC as it can present new innovative different product made of rolled aluminum or to improve a current product made of the aluminum to make it more durable for more usage time or for heat or to add more features for the service of delivering its products. This strategy can be effective in beating the market if the company succeeded in choosing the product or the feature but it requires high risk taking abilities and deep analysis from the company. Yet it seems to be suitable for OARC as it can bring in more success and profitability in addition to enabling the company to open new markets. 
The Focus Strategy
Moon, (2010) discussed the focus strategy as one of the three generic strategies of Porter and explained that this type of strategies is used when the organization tries to focus on a specific niche or a specific product and find new ideas for it regarding production, marketing, distribution or other practices in order to provide customers with a specific product with specific interest. As for OARC, this strategy may need much effort to be done with a specific product after studying all products and its effect on the market and its customers.
Evaluation of the strategy and recommendations
The differentiation strategy
Daft, Murphy and Willmott, (2010) discussed in their book the Porter's differentiation strategy and explained that this strategy can be applied on any type of organizations either it was established for profits as a main purpose or even governmental organizations or others. It is based on the concept of making the product different and unique by working on the product and make it ready for competitiveness against other products in the market, as to OARC; the company can employ its leadership to apply such strategy on products such as gauges in order to make them distinguished and qualified for stronger conditions and to be more durable and be different from other products in the market. The company can also differentiate its services and open new markets in other areas than the Gulf area such as the North Africa or in KSA in order to get more fame and make its products more needed in these markets. Daft, Murphy and Willmott, (2010) explained that this strategy can be effective with big organizations that produce many types of products and can choose some of them to make them differentiated by adding features of quality to the products such as reroll light and heavy gauges in order to improve the way they can be used by customers who will be more satisfied and happy with the new differentiation; this can help the company make more profits out of selling more of the product. The company can also applies new services for reaching more customer satisfaction and can reach more areas in Oman. By using the PESTLE analysis, it can be clear that the company has a good opportunity to work in Oman and can find new opportunities by differentiating its products in Oman at first and then to go out Oman and open new markets in other areas but as Oman is a rich country with peaceful political and social condition, the company can differentiate in many things such as the technology used in manufacturing its products as it can add advanced machines and developed technologies in manufacturing the products which fastens the process of manufacturing and produces better and higher quality products with big numbers and huge amounts in order to fill the Omani market with such innovative products and then to enter new neighboring markets. The requires the company to make a number of different analysis including a cost benefit analysis to calculate the cost of new advanced machines and the change that will occur in the product and to compare this with the profits gained from selling more products and attracting more customers in order to make more profits. The company can also deliver new aluminum products to the market that can be used easily at homes and offices such as kitchen appliances and parts of furniture that are suitable to offices and can be cheap in price and at the same time high in quality in order to beat the local market with local products that are better than imported products which will help the company make more profits and at the same time help the Omani economy to flourish and master the rolled aluminum market locally and perhaps internationally.  Abdelkafi, (2008) discussed how the Porter's topology is important in developing the business organization strategic management by applying strategies such as the differentiating strategy and the need to fill any gaps that can be found at time of implementing the strategy such as realizing the company's situation in the market, understanding the financial needs for the change, the market needs and the company's chances compared with other companies in the market; this means that the company has to investigate its situation before implementing the change and the differentiation strategy. These views were discussed by Porter, Magretta and Kramer, (2014) as they checked methods for implementing differentiation strategy in large business organizations such as OARC and explained that there should be analysis for the company's internal and external environments and identify any problems or difficulties that may face the leadership of the organization while implementing the strategy.
OARC has to regard many points before implementing the differentiation strategy based on the company's needs and situation in the market locally and internationally as the company is recommended to analyze the internal and external environments with all the operations and processes occurring for producing and marketing the products as they have to be adapted to suit the new products, machines have to be innovated and employees are in need to be trained for the new operations and systems of work; employees have also to be asked about the changes that will occur and their opinions should be regarded and considered as this can be done through holding meetings with employees and identifying their opinions, special analysts should be asked to give reports about the market and the needed products and how to compete the market locally and internationally. Dealings with suppliers and customers have to be update and developed in order to suit the new differentiation applied on the products. Services should also be developed to suit the new products and be suitable for encouraging the purchasers to ask for the new products. Advertisements should also be developed in order to make the market of Oman acknowledged about the new products and be encouraged to learn more about them and purchase them.  
Recommendation criteria
Any business organization that is trying to succeed has to identify its strategies and strategic management and check if they are useful or not in order to find new strategies to be applied and update the current strategy to find more suitable ones. In the case of OARC; the company is asked to follow the differentiation strategy to update its current products and develop its techniques in producing and processing rolled aluminum. The company can use the PESTLE analysis to investigate its position in the Omani market and then to use it for investigating its position in other countries or markets before entering such markets. As a big company, OARC can benefit greatly from the differentiation strategy according to the market needs in order to compete with other companies in the market and beat them. OARC is recommended to ask consultants in analysis and get advice from them about the best products to be developed via applying the differentiation strategy in order to reach the best results. The company is also asked to make the needed types of analysis that show the areas in Oman and the products that can suit applying the differentiation strategy and the methods that can be used in this in order to succeed and make the utmost  benefit out of it.