As cited by Schermerhorn, Davidson, Woods, Simon, Poole and Mcbarron(2014), strategic management is a process of formulating and applyingstrategies to achieve long-standing aims and withstand competitive advantage.One of the goals of strategic management is profitability and the best way toachieve this goal is through strategic planning. Organizations need to plan andensure that the processes are parallel to the goals, vision and mission of theorganization. Heathfield (2016) depicted human resource as an organizational functionthat coordinates people and issues in relation to people, which includescompensation, hiring, training and performance evaluation. Human Resources isone of the most vital components in organisations as it builds productivity andconfidence in all aspects of the employment environment.
This assignment will address HR and strategic processes, application ofHR, strategic management and competitive advantage through SWOT Analysis andPorter’s Five Forces Model. This assignment also focuses on the competitiveadvantages Catapult has as well as addresses the internal issues of Catapult. STRATEGIC DIRECTIONS Biswas (2016) stated that strategic direction is a course of action thatleads to achievement of goals and objectives within an organization.
InCatapult, issues that have risen over the course of time needed significantactions that is strategically planned to enable Catapult to become the marketleader once again. For Catapult, their main concern is to increase sales. Twoimportant steps in the strategies management process are the analysis of theorganization and the analysis of its environment (Schermerhorn etal, 2014).
Hence, a SWOT analysis is the most appropriate technique to analyse thesituation.The above figure depicts SWOT Analysis forCatapult. Evidently, Catapult’s strength includes having a good market share.Due to its offer of low-cost broadband, Catapult was able to rapidly take themarket share from its competitors. However, one of Catapult’s major weaknessesis obsolete technology. As mentioned by Robert Leicester, the current hardwarefor the network is becoming highly unstable, which has led to slower connectionspeed and outages. Opportunities available for Catapult include partnershipwith other organisations. Sarah indicates that by partnering with a majorelectronic company or a big-box retailer, the company may be able to decreasethe limitation of consumer uptake.
Selling SIM Cards in bundle with handsetwill definitely increase market penetration. With opportunities come Stthreats. Threats include competition from the market. Engaging in pricewar or technology race will definitely be a threat to Catapult. A SWOT Analysisis not complete until opportunities and threats in the external environment areexamined (Schermerhorn et al, 2014). Therefore,Porter’s Five Forces Analysis should also be used to analyse the environment.
