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Resource: Strategic Plan Part 2: Internal Environmental Analysis Grading Guide

Write a 1,100-word minimum internal environmental analysis in which you include the following: 

· Assess the organization’s internal environment.

· Identify the most important strengths and weaknesses of your organization including an assessment of the organization’s resources.

· Identify important internal environmental factors found in your analysis of the general, industry, and external environments.

· Perform a competitor analysis.

· Assess the structure of the organization and the influence this has on its performance.

· Determine the organization’s competitive position and the possibilities this provides. 

Format your paper according to APA guidelines.

Plagiarism-Free

External Environmental Scan-Voxx International Corporation 7

External Environmental Scan-Voxx International Corporation

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21st March, 2020

Introduction

Environmental scanning is the continuous tracking of events and trends in the external and internal environment of an organization. It works to assist the organization determine its future path via shaping its strategies (Moutinho & Chien, 2008). Voxx International Corporation is the chosen as its familiar for a long time. It an American company dealing with consumer electronics. Its headquarters are in Orlando, Florida. It also deals with after-market automotive electronics as well as originally manufactured electronics.

Achieving Competitive Advantage Using the Environmental Scanning Strategy

Competitive advantage is the niche that makes a business more privileged than similar businesses in the market (Barney, 2011). Voxx International can use environmental scanning to achieve competitive advantage in a number of ways. The first one is through developing its objectives. With objectives aligned. As such, the company will be able to meet the demands of the marketplace thus getting a competitive edge owing to ability to address the market needs. The second way is through addressing company threats. Environmental scanning can assist a company to realize areas threatening its success. By addressing the threats, Voxx International will have a competitive advantage as it has overcame the threats thus being at the forefront in the market. For example, there was US-China trade disputes in 2019 which threatened relations which could in turn affect exports from China (“A quick guide”, 2020). Bearing in mind that Voxx International was getting supplies from China, environmental scanning would assist in determining which other area to source supplies from to avoid commercial effect of the dispute.

Evaluation of External Environment

The external environments to be discussed include the customers, Organization, competitors and suppliers (Fernando, 2011). The market/customers are an important part of the corporation. Customer attraction and retention is paramount at Voxx International. It has established consumer brands which sell under their own name such as Klipsich, Audiovox among others (Voxx International Corporation, 2020). The customer base can be enhanced by banking on social media including Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube among others. That happens as a substantial number of electronic consumers look up to social media to find products. By sharing their products and product information, it’s quite possible to enhance their consumer base.

As far as organization is concerned, it’s a public company thus has shareholders. It headed by 3 executives including the chairman, president and managing director. There are also three board members. The organization has a total of 885 employees (Voxx International Corporation, 2020). The management and employees are a substantial part of the organization as they provide human resource. The shareholders double as source of investment for the business. The Suppliers are a vital part and Voxx International works with suppliers from different continents such as South America, Asia and Europe. It has buying and inspection offices in order to enhance supplier coordination such as in China. It further offers long-term contracts as well as short-term orders for purchase. It thus has a huge pool of suppliers. Voxx International faces competition from a number of competitors including Cobra, Emerson, Delorme and Maponics. It further faces competition from automotive factory supplies including from General motors, Ford, Volkswagen among others. It however is still able to maintain its competitiveness with a 1.24% net margin of improved profitability in comparison to competitors (Voxx International Corporation, 2020).

Voxx International General Environment

The general environment comprises of political, economic, social, Technological, environmental and legal factors (Wallis, 2015). Politically, Voxx International is operating in over a dozen nations. These include Germany, Mexico, and Malaysia etc. It’s thus possible to be exposed to various political environments such as pricing regulations, wage legislations, employee benefits etc. For example, Mexico instituted a Federal Organic Law introducing the Federal Center for Conciliation and Labor Registry (Law) which will be handling labor disputes (Alvarez, 2020). Bearing in mind that Voxx International Operates in Mexico, such changes are imperative to pay attention. Economic factors determine the aggregate demand and investment.

Voxx International needs to take consideration the inflation, economic cycle and foreign exchange. All these factor in consumer spending power which can in turn affect its revenue (Wallis, 2015). On the social aspect, shared beliefs and attitudes play a role in marketing and Voxx International is not different. Factors such as demographics and skill levels, culture (gender roles), attitudes (health consciousness) and leisure interests are important. Technological aspect calls for attention to changes and disruptions in the industry. The ability to cope on the technology is essential. For example, the most electronics are being controlled through smartphones. The aspect of Voxx International coming up with Apps shows its adaptability to technological changes. There is an also environmental factor which calls for attention to environment needs. Adhering to environmental standards is important. Voxx International needs to pay attention to attitude to moving towards ecological products, waste management and supporting renewable energies. Legal factors impacting on Voxx International include laws on employment, health and safety, consumer protection among others. Voxx Leadership thus needs to pay attention to such laws as they affect the organization activities. A good attempt at this is investment in solar energy in their Long Island facility (Voxx International Corporation, 2020).

Operating Industry’s environment

To determine the environment, a quick look at porter’s 5 forces model will help (Magretta, 2011). The first force is threat by new entrants who might take the market share. It’s thus important for the company to invest in innovation to be ahead of the threat. The second force is threat of substitutes especially from competition. This can be handled by persuasive advertising to make customers know how its products are superior. Rivalry among competition is another force. It has already been established that there is high competition in the market for Voxx International. It thus needs to develop long-term relations with customers to tackle the rivalry. It’s also a good idea to invest in research and development in order to be always the first to learn new unexploited customer segments.

Bargaining power of suppliers is another force. When its suppliers have high power owing factors such as limited supply and cost of switching to other suppliers is high. Voxx International can work on that by increasing the pool of supply and developing long-term relationship with its suppliers. Bargaining power of buyers is the fifth force. Customers can exert power on Voxx International to get quality products at affordable prices. It’s therefore important to diversify the customer base, introducing new products and targeting new market segments to neutralize the bargaining power. An example is bearing in mind that it has over head series monitors; it can work to ensure that the monitors are capable of handling 5G speed capability.

Conclusion

In summary, Voxx International can benefit a huge deal from environmental analysis. It can do environmental scanning to identify threats and opportunities which upon investing, it will lead to success. The analysis of the external environment reveals the areas of that might change to affect the business positively.

References

A quick guide to the US-China trade war. (2020, January 16). Retrieved from

https://aus.libguides.com/apa/apa-no-author-date

Alvarez, R. (2020, January 17). Mexico Promulgates the Organic Law of the Federal Center for Conciliation and Labor Registration. The National Law Review. Retrieved from https://www.natlawreview.com/article/mexico-promulgates-organic-law-federal-center-conciliation-and-labor-registration

Barney, J. et al. (2011). Strategic Management and Competitive Advantage Concepts. NJ: Prentice Hall.

Fernando, A. (2011). Business Environment. NY: Pearson.

Magretta, J. (2011). Understanding Michael Porter: The Essential Guide to Competition and Strategy. Massachusetts: Harvard Business Review Press.

Moutinho, L. & Chien, C. (2008). Environmental scanning. In Problems in marketing: Applying key concepts and techniques (pp. 1-34). London: Sage.

Voxx International Corporation. (2020). 2019 Annual Report. Retrieved from

https://investors.voxxintl.com/financial-information/annual-reports

Wallis, G. (2015). Pestle Analysis Jump Start. Scotts Valley, California: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.