Richmond Events - a High Level of Resources - Case Study Example

Executive Summary Richmond Events is an organisation which specifically deals with organising events through offering a platform whereby people from various cultural backgrounds especially senior business executives meet to discuss different businesses. The firm appears to have many positive features; it has a number of prestigious, well paying contracts and is in a position to take advantages of economies of scope and scale which may help to make it attractive to potential participants. In order to assess the potential of Richmond Events, it is imperative to analyse the organisations’ environment it operates in through conducting a SWOT as well as PEST analysis of the factors that affect its operations. There is also need to outline the company’s historical background in detail and its current operating strategies should also be examined. This includes identifying the sources of competitive advantage as well as its potential for better performance in the future and recommendations would be given in the study. Case Study Analysis Richmond Events specifically deals with organising events through offering a platform whereby people from various cultural backgrounds representing their organisations discuss pertinent issues that often affect their different businesses. According to information obtained from its official website, the organisation is particularly concerned with providing a better way for buyers to meet sellers through face to face meetings coupled with high quality conference programmes and networking opportunities. These forums take place on cruise ships and more recently on land based venues and at exclusive locations which allow attendees, particularly senior decision makers to focus on key business issues in a relaxed and distraction-free environment. The organisation is continually looking to build its panel with senior professionals from UK business. The main purpose and objective of the organisation is inclusion, awareness, education, cultural, destination marketing, development and change with the aim of highlighting social issues among business executives. The major strategy employed by Richmond Events is that of targeting business executives by giving them the platform hold conferences in a conducive environment where they also get the chance to meet their partners in business. The organisation’s culture is accommodative to a wide range of people from a diverse cultural background. Likewise, this organisation operates in an environment where there are also competitors who may offer the same services. It is imperative to give a critical analysis of the organisation’s environment in order to get a clear understanding of its operations through an analysis of its internal and external environment. Thus, a SWOT analysis is more appropriate for this task. It defines the relationship between the internal and external environmental factors that can affect an organisation in a bid to deal with the appraisals and strategic analysis (Robinson 1997). Basically, SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses which represent the internal environment of the firm while opportunities and threats are external environmental factors. It is primarily concerned with analysing the key factors of the environment and the fundamental internal strengths and weaknesses of the organisation which will help dictate the strategies appropriate to the firm. This must be based on a realistic appraisal of the organisation’s past and present performance. The organisation’s strategy must take into account its resources and competitiveness. Therefore, the objective of this analysis is to use the strategic pointers in order to use the existing business strengths to exploit the opportunities, create new opportunities, to counteract threats and repair the weaknesses (Robinson 1997). By virtue of using the same technique to assess the competitors, the organisation can capitalise upon those competitors’ weaknesses and avoid going head on against their strengths. As clearly noted, the organisation has various strengths which give it a competitive advantage over other players. For instance, it offers extremely high levels of customer service, resulting in attendees returning year after year. It offers security in that the organisations represented by the participants will benefit hugely from this unique style of strategic business forum which gives them the chance to meet buyers. On the other hand, a weakness that can be seen in this organisation is that its services are specifically tailored for senior executive managers of very big organisations. It can as well capitalise on extending its services to equally smaller organisations as a way of trying to cater for all actors in the industry. One major opportunity for Richmond Events is that the business for various organisations is an ongoing process hence the high chances of making business throughout. The participants will also be able to meet potential buyers which imply that there are always chances of new business coming up. However, a probable threat to the organisation though to a lesser extent is the existence of competitors in the industry. Every organisation does not exist in a vacuum where it would enjoy the monopoly of service provision but there would also be other actors who can pose a challenge to it. Another method which can be used to analyse the environment of an organisation is PEST analysis which tries to give an in-depth understanding of the operations of an organisation. Basically, PEST stands for factors which may affect the operations of business such as political, economic, social and technological. The table below illustrates these factors. Political factors -The threat of international terrorism is one major political factor which may negatively affect business. Since most of these events are held on cruise ships, there is need to tighten security such that the chances of terrorist attacks would be minimal otherwise the security concerns can cause a decline in business. Economic Factors -Global economic recession has negatively impacted on various facets of the economy. The organisation is not spared from this crisis which may negatively impact on its performance since most organisations may not be able to meet the costs of sending their representatives to attend such conferences. -Competition from other actors is a challenge to Richmond Events. Social factors -The need to take into consideration different cultural values of people from different backgrounds is very essential as a way of ensuring satisfaction among all the participants. -Motivated workers are likely to be productive in any working environment hence Richmond Events must always take this into consideration. Technological factors -Advanced information and communication technology improves the chances of better performance of business (Use of the internet) -Centralised management systems aided by the use of computers -The computerised appointment system allows attendees to choose exactly who they want to meet and which conference sessions they wish to attend. Value can be as well be added through inclusion of various participants including those representing equally smaller organisations. This would be a way of diversifying business as a way of trying to satisfy the needs of different actors in the industry regardless of their size. More venues particularly on land should be opened so as to meet the needs of those who may not be able to attend conferences on cruise ships. Recommendations Whilst it can be noted that Richmond Events is performing quite well in terms of its service provision, it still needs to constantly revise its strategies as a way of ensuring continual growth of the organisation. Every business is affected in one way or the other by changes that take place everyday in the environment and each organisation should always be on the lookout for these inevitable changes in order to entrench its position as a force to reckon with in the market. Strategically, the organisation should be better positioned such that it would be able to enjoy competitive advantage over other competitors which may exist in the industry. This may include taking up measures such as venturing into all encompassing business which also caters for smaller organisations, diversifying its services as well as re-branding where necessary. Basically, the major strategy employed by Richmond Events is that of targeting business executives by giving them the platform hold conferences in a satisfactory environment where they also get the chance to meet their partners in business. However, it must be borne in mind that the current global economic recession has affected almost all facets of business resulting in a decline of business in some instances. During the harsh economic conditions, not all organisations can be able to afford the money to send their representatives to such enlightening events. In an attempt to cushion the organisation from the severe effects of economic recession, it would be recommended that the organisation should also target smaller actors and design the packages that are also affordable to these small organisations. Instead of targeting first class participants alone, there would also be need to give the smaller companies a chance to realise their own potential and the costs should be revised to meet their needs which will ensure some revenue generation from various sources even during the current harsh economic conditions prevailing. Another viable option for Richmond Events would be diversification where it would attempt to look at other diverse options that can be used as a way of cutting the costs. The organisation can also offer services such as training upcoming decision makers in strategic making and focus should be paid especially on issues related to human resources management. The viability of each organisation is determined by the efforts of its human resources hence the need to offer training in such an area. These sessions ought to be conducted on venues located on the land as a way of cutting costs as well as attracting quite a big number of participants. Venues based on land are quite affordable compared to the ones conducted on cruise ships. If such an event is hosted on an affordable venue, there would be likely chances of attracting smaller to medium sized participants which would immensely contribute to the revenue generated as well as minimising cots. Diversification in this case also entails that the organisation can as well act as a recruiting agency which can be used by other organisations in outsourcing qualified personnel for various targets given that they would have the ability to outsource talent considering that they specifically deal with issues related to human resources and training the decision makers. It is also recommended that there is need for constant re-branding of the organisation in order to keep pace with the changes that may take place during the day to day operations of the organisation. In this particular case, re-branding is particularly concerned with introducing new features to the organisation’s stable which are likely to attract new players. By way or introducing new features, the organisation will have higher chances of growing bigger since it will have a widened customer base. In line with its vision to offer the greatest opportunity for various officials from various organisations to meet, there would be great need to create opportunities that would also appeal to smaller companies through provision of services that are affordable to them. Such an opportunity should try to create a scenario whereby the concerns of all interested stakeholders are taken into consideration without any limitation such as financial constraints emanating from the exclusivity of the events held. In the long run, another viable option can be the opportunity of venturing into other global markets where the organisation would be targeting decision makers as well as other upcoming actors in the industry. By venturing into other global markets, the organisation will stand better chances of growing from strength to strength through unification of people from diverse cultural backgrounds with the aim of offering the platform where they can interact and discuss issues pertinent to the concerns of their businesses. Some organisations miss the opportunity where they can get a chance to interact with their clients face to face hence this opportunity of venturing into global markets can create the much needed platform for these disadvantaged organisations to voice their own concerns with regards to the day to day operations of their organisations. Conclusion Richmond Events has a strong position and also has a high level of resources with several contracts and facilities. They have defied the odds in the industry and managed to remain in business through the provision of first class services to all the delegates who attend conferences they host at various venues. However, it is recommended that the organisation should diversify its operations as a way of accommodating other small actors in the industry. A re-branding exercise may be advisable in the long run in order to create a more positive image that may counter all the negative perceptions that may emerge. It has also been recommended that the differentiation strategy should be pursued, and increased attention paid to other human resources issues as employees can also be the source of value. Increasing attention here may help the firm to move towards gaining a cost advantage as well as differentiation, placing the firm in an even stronger position, Overally, this firm has a great deal of potential as long as it is given further support in its operations and the time needed to create awareness to other small actors. References Bates B. et al (2005), Business Management, fresh perspectives, Pearson SA Lynch, R. (2006), Corporate strategy, Harlow: Financial Times Prentice Hall Mintzberg H, Quinn J, Goshal S (2003) The Strategy Process (Revised European Edition), London, Prentice Hall Robinson W (1997), Strategic Management and Information Systems, 2nd Edition, Prentice Hall, UK Pestel Analysis of the macro environment, Accessed on 27 Jul. 09, From: http://www.oup.com/uk/orc/bin/9780199296378/01student/additional/page_12.htm Richmond Events [official website], accessed on 24 Jul. 09, from http://www.richmondevents.com/ The Richmond business confidence Index May 2009, Accessed on 24 Jul. 09, from:S http://pdf.richmondevents.com/assets/PDF/rec/The%20RBCI%20report%205.pdf Read More