Body Shop
Anita Roddick, OBE, and The body Shop International Plc
FEDBACK FOR QUESTION WEEK 3 for week commencing 19.03.12
1. Evaluate the Financial Position of the Company (at the time of the case study) and comment upon the apparent success or otherwise of its strategy, based on your findings.
Introduction
We may consider a company’s strategy from a number of aspects, but generally we are interested in answering the question: How well is the company’s present strategy working? To understand and analyse success in terms of strategy, we must begin by understanding what the strategy is. From Thompson, Strickland and Gamble (2012) we might examine the following areas * Identify competitive approach * Low-cost leadership? * Differentiation? * Best-cost provider? * Focus on a particular market niche? * Determine competitive scope * Broad or narrow geographic market coverage? * In how many stages of industry’s production/distribution chain does the company operate? * Examine recent strategic moves * Identify functional strategies
We can also assess performance in terms of both quantitative measures (financial and strategic achievements against budget, plans, etc.) and look to see if its performance is above or below the industry average. We can also look at qualitative measures (such as brand awareness /status, consumer attitudes to the company, and so on). There is only limited information in the case regarding some of these areas, but I will attempt to look first at the strategy followed by Body Shop, then at the financial ratios based on its figures, non-financial measures and then finally draw conclusions that attempt to answer the question.
Strategy being followed by Body Shop
Porter’s Generic strategies, as amended by Hitt, Ireland and Hoskisson (2002) are shown below.
If we consider first, their competitive approach, there is no evidence in the case study
FEDBACK FOR QUESTION WEEK 3 for week commencing 19.03.12
1. Evaluate the Financial Position of the Company (at the time of the case study) and comment upon the apparent success or otherwise of its strategy, based on your findings.
Introduction
We may consider a company’s strategy from a number of aspects, but generally we are interested in answering the question: How well is the company’s present strategy working? To understand and analyse success in terms of strategy, we must begin by understanding what the strategy is. From Thompson, Strickland and Gamble (2012) we might examine the following areas * Identify competitive approach * Low-cost leadership? * Differentiation? * Best-cost provider? * Focus on a particular market niche? * Determine competitive scope * Broad or narrow geographic market coverage? * In how many stages of industry’s production/distribution chain does the company operate? * Examine recent strategic moves * Identify functional strategies
We can also assess performance in terms of both quantitative measures (financial and strategic achievements against budget, plans, etc.) and look to see if its performance is above or below the industry average. We can also look at qualitative measures (such as brand awareness /status, consumer attitudes to the company, and so on). There is only limited information in the case regarding some of these areas, but I will attempt to look first at the strategy followed by Body Shop, then at the financial ratios based on its figures, non-financial measures and then finally draw conclusions that attempt to answer the question.
Strategy being followed by Body Shop
Porter’s Generic strategies, as amended by Hitt, Ireland and Hoskisson (2002) are shown below.
If we consider first, their competitive approach, there is no evidence in the case study