In this case study for strategic management, we will analyse the company Mercator Dolenjska. The reason we do that is to look how the future of the company could look like, taking into account its advantages and disadvantages. For that we made an analysis of the company, it's internal and external environment. In order to make a logical and detailed business strategy we made a SWOT analysis and via the outcome of this test we tried to find this optimal business strategy. The first part of the paper will handle about the analysis of the external environment. The main purpose here is to make clear the economic, political, social and demographic. It is just a general summary of related information about Slovenia. The second part is a more specific analysis of the external environment of Mercator Dolenjska. It this part we explained the relation between the company and customers, suppliers and competitors. In this part we will also check how big the thread is of new competitors. The third part is all about the internal environment. We will analyse here the financial aspect and the advantages and disadvantages of their products, services, technologies, personnel and organisational structure. The fourth part summarises the whole paper in the SWOT analysis. Per part we look for the most important aspects for the company, together with some comments to see how we can improve it. Than finally the last part is the conclusion of the whole SWOT analysis, in which we look for the vision, mission, goals and strategy.
[...] Socio-cultural and demographic environment Economical data of Slovenia General information Total area (1000km) 20 Population 2 Growth rate of population 0.1 Life expectancies (Men / women) 73.1 / 80.7 Employment rate 55.4 Unemployment rate 6 Percentage of the population aged 0-14 in % of total 15 population Percentage of the population aged 65 and over in % of total 14.8 population Average monthly labour costs per person Slovenia 1496.7 U-E 2908.6 Level of living Final consumption expenditure of households at current 13.7 prices % food and non-alcoholic beverages 17.1 Sources: National Statistical Office, Bank of Slovenia, Institute of Macroeconomic Analysis and Development, EIPF, * new methodology Industrial environment Bargaining power of suppliers Mercator Dolenjska is the biggest retailer in the regions of Dolenjska, Belakrajina and Posavje, with a market share of 50%. [...]
[...] Organizational structure Mercator Dolenjska is a subsidiary of Mercator and we can see they use an organizational structure of kind functional that is the company is managed by the managing director and the second layer is divided into three departments which are: -the finance and accounts department, -the marketing department, -the personnel department. We can also observe the Authority is delegated to maximise creativity and investment of employees. The management is called “integrated”. Mercator Dolenjska has also an IT department, to give support to the retail business. [...]
[...] The lack of service is also a key reason for the bad performance of Mercator Dolenjska in the year 2002. Marketing and sales organisation The wholesale sales in 2001 declined by compared to the year 2000, if we take a closer look at the sales of different programs, we become the following table : Table comparison of sales of different programs between 2000 and 2001 Programs Decline or increase in sales -Catering Great decline -Textiles fabrics, cosmetics, fancy Decline goods, fotwear,domestic appliances and furniture -Specialised outlets Stable -Construction material, retail Increase transit Source: Čater (2003) There are several reasons why this is happening. [...]
[...] If you take a closer look at the Income Statement you see that most of the operating costs are from costs of goods (in euros out of 27,859,401 euros of total operating costs). So the company should take a closer look at this, and try to get rid of unprofitable products and focus on the profitable ones, to make more profit for the future. Labor costs can also be reduced. To do this Mercator Dolenjska should reorganise its personnel structure by making it more flexible, via more flexible working hours, part-time work, more flexible ways of payment and by reducing the unefficient jobs. All this can be very hard, [...]
[...] disadvantages of their products, services, technologies, personnel and organisational structure. The fourth part summarises the whole paper in the SWOT analysis. Per part we look for the most important aspects for the company, together with some comments to see how we can improve it. Than finally the last part is the conclusion of the whole SWOT analysis, in which we look for the vision, mission, goals and strategy. External environment Economic environment Slovenia today enjoys prosperity and stability, as well as a GDP per capita substantially higher than that of the other transitioning economies of Central Europe. [...]
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