Global Strategic Objectives, Order Qualifiers and Order Winners, Core Competencies (Case Study Sample)

Operations Management - Consumer electronics in UAE
Introduction
UAE has developed as the world’s major producer and supplier in consumer electronics. A report by Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry indicate that UAE leads the world consumer electronics market (Gulf News, 2010). The position is influenced the huge demand in the local market that increasingly growing every day and its strategic position at the traffic circle connecting Africa, Asia and Europe. The UAE has steadily been chosen by multinational electronic companies as the test centre for launching new products or for marketing schemes. Gulf News (2010) explains that the UAE was first in consumer electronics in the region in 2009. the UAE electronics market is projected to grow further in the future owing to the rampant advances in information technology and as well as telecommunication. At the heart of this consumer electronic market is Jumbo Electronics Company Ltd (LLC). The company was started in 1974 as a flagship from the Jumbo Group and has since expanded across the UAE Bloomberg (2014). The firm boasts of its thirty retail outlets and 9 service centers. The company retails and distributes a whole range of consumer electronics, IT products and accessories. Common products from the company include freezers, cameras, mobile phones, monitors studio vision mixers, microphones among others. Some of the accessories produced by the company include carry cases, batteries and chargers. The company is also a significant supplier of Sony products.
Corporate vision
Cooper (2014) explains that a corporate vision defines how a firms desire to be in the future by creating mental imageries of what business wants to accomplish over time. The vision should be pragmatic and attainable. Realistic corporate vision acts a source of motivation to the employees. Jumbo electronics company vision is "to bring the most technologically advanced and reliable electronic, communication and household products and related services of the highest quality to individual and institutional consumers in the country, and make these products and services available at the most fair and competitive prices, creating and sustaining the long term goodwill of the consuming public," (Bloomberg, 2014). The achievement of this vision is enhanced by the mission of the company. The mission of the company aims at continuously assessing global developments in electronics, communication and domestic products. Jumbo Electronics also aims at improving the competence of its workers by training and motivating them. The company is also extending its sales network to reach more consumer segments as well as providing the best after sale services.
Global Strategic Objectives
As Cooper (2014) explains, the term ‘global strategy’ comprises of three areas namely global, multinational and international. These strategies refer to the tactics formulated to aid a business to venture and sustain its operations at an international level. The company’s global strategy is engraved on their combined individual potential that gives it the advantage to meet the need of its customers globally. The company aims at instituting values to cultivate fairness, teamwork and human creativity. The leading philosophy at Jumbo focuses on delivering high quality products and services as well as offering positive customer experience.
Order Qualifiers and Order Winners
According to Cooper (2014), Order Qualifiers and Order Winners refer to how an organization can translate its internal operational capabilities to criteria that yields leverage and market success. Order Qualifiers are features that a product or service poses which might make a consumer consider purchasing it. On the other hand, Order Winners are the features that win a consumer’s offer. Order qualifiers are necessary for a firm to continue operating in the market. For a business to stay in the market, it needs to be better than the rivals otherwise it will make losses. Order winners and order qualifiers differ across markets and are time specific. The two operate with varying combinations and in different ways on various markets and for different consumers. Cooper (2014) expounds that there exist a ‘fit’ in the market when the business’ perception on order qualifiers and winners match the expectations of the consumers. However, this equivalence is hard to achieve in the market owing to changing consumer perceptions about different goods and services.
Jumbo Electronics Ltd (JEL) has stayed in the market since inception as a result of its ability to provide quality goods at affordable prices. The company has overtime maintained an efficient marketing team that since it is through this department that a firm is able to identify order winners and order qualifiers. This department maintains links with the production department to ensure that information flow smoothly. JEL has several points of sale locally and internationally which are well interlinked. Views from customers concerning certain products are communicated from these outlets to the headquarters in the UAE (Lala, 2013). The company is therefore able to communicate to their suppliers such as Sony and Acer to reflect the perceived features on their products.
Lala (2013) further clarifies that JEL has over time taken price and quality as the key factors in the company’s operations. Price has served as the fundamental order qualifier while quality supplement as the order winners. Although the two factors highly influence each other, other factors such as completion and consumer tastes and preferences affect the pricing policies of the company. The company devices various strategies such as product customization and rebranding to maintain customers and also meet the differences in these want. Lala (2013) noted that succeeding firms are able to maintain flow shops stocked with low cost but high quality products. These characteristics have proven to be critical order winners for firms translating this into high revenues.
Through effective market study, the company partnered with Flipkart to launch Yotaphone that is affordable and solves the consumer frustrations with dark screens (Bloomberg, 2014). The phone, launched in India provided users with a new experience in mobile phones. The device contains a second screen that utilizes white paper technology. The screen allows users to access their information without necessarily waking up the screen. This feature also allows the phone to preserve battery power which has remained a big problem to other mobile devices. The most stunning pro of the phone is the ability to allow reading –on- the go even in the brightest sunlight. The phone also adds e-reader capability and smart phone features in one device. Bloomberg (2014) explains that it is through a consistent and efficient market investigation that made the company identify this gap. As a result, JEL and Flipkart produced an order winning mobile device.
Core CompetencesA company’s competences describe its ability and commitment as well as skills that are indispensable in acting decisively during certain times in the market (Turkish Weekly, 2006). Companies need to be flexible and fast in responding to the various events in their environment. These events may arise from competition, advances in technology and changes in consumer tastes. A company’s ability to respond to these occurrences depends on its competences. Cooper (2014) elucidates that corporate competences are drawn from the management, employees as well as external forces that places a company in a better position compared to the competitors.
A major competence of JEL comes from the company’s ability to apply intensive IT techniques in running the company. In fact, IT forms one of the principal divisions of the company. Others include Telecom, Supra, Sony and Agencies. The use of IT by the firm is evident in the company’s state of the warehouses in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Bahrain. The warehouses have fully automated systems that reduce paper and printing costs. The firm uses RF software to pick, load, add serial number and move away goods (Lala, 2013). The company has also invested in its workforce by providing intensive training. Mr. Nair, the Chief Operating reinstated the fact the company is the most favored place to work in the UAE for its ability to train employees on adopting new technology.
Value Chain
The concept of value chain is imperative in any business especially those dealing with production. The chain describes all the activities that take place in a straight from receiving raw materials to sales. The chain is formed by a set of operations that a firm undertakes to produce and deliver a valuable commodity or service to consumers. As a retail giant, JEL has a well organized value that is well managed. The company deals majorly with retailing hence its value chain focus more on transporting and warehousing than production. JEL has a network of warehouses as mentioned earlier. Goods sourced locally are transported to the warehouses by vehicles fitted with GPS systems. Products from abroad are transported by air or water. The size, degree of perishability and urgency determine the mode of transport used. Major suppliers come from the Us, Europe and China. The company uses the latest vehicles from Japan that include Toyota, Isuzu and Nissan. The fleet consists of 53 vehicles with loading and delivery based on LIFO approach. The modes of transport that deliver products to the warehouses undertake the reverse logistics (Lala, 2013).
Product Chain using Porters Model
The Porters model, devised by Porter in 1985, describes the primary and secondary activities that take place in an organization from taking inputs to converting them into outputs ...