Case Study paper
Lotus
manchesterunitedcasesstudy.docxRunning head: CASE STUDY FOR MANCHESTER UNITED 1
CASE STUDY FOR MANCHESTER UNITED 6
CASE STUDY FOR MANCHESTER UNITED
After reading the case study, I have determined that Manchester United football club leadership is effective. For many years, the leadership of the football club has strived to ensure the club can achieve its objectives. The club’s leadership has designed various strategies which ensures the club is able to pay its debts without losing its shareholders. A development of such strategies helps settle the club’s debts. This is a clear indication that the leadership of the club is more interested in the future of the club than the current status. Manchester United football club engaging in the building of the stake financial institutions is another indicator which show the club’s leadership is efficacious. Additionally, “the leadership of the football club is visionary, they predicted what is likely to happen in future, and decided to invest in the building of the stake financial institutions “(Poulton, 2014). This shows that the club’s leadership is prepared for the future and able to maintain its objectives. Furthermore, the management of the club values its fans and assures them that they are not after making quick profits. Manchester’s management share with its fans what is likely to affect the club directly or indirectly. This is a good quality of leadership because it confirms that the management of the football club values the source of its income. If the club’s leadership was not effective, it would have been very difficult for the club to excel. The club has been successful on various occasions and registers the highest number of fans, to include winning both premier league and champion's league.
The foundation of Manchester United football club is the focus. Their competitive strategy is to focus on their objectives and narrow a competitive scope to that particular objective. They choose a group or segment in the industry and tailor strategies to serving them. This strategy has two variants, a in cost focus, which seeks to minimize costs in that scope, and a differentiation focus which segregates itself in that scope. An example of competitive strategies which Manchester United have exhibited is the listing of its shares in the New York stock exchange; this was meant to dilute the ownership of Glazers without losing control (Saunders, 2015). This particular competitive strategy played a major role in ensuring that the company was successful in generating a substantial income and revenue. The possession of an alternative ownership structure is also another strategy which helped Manchester United produce patterns which could finance their debts. This strategy was crucial because it helped the company to achieve 51 percent ownership by the members. The introduction of more discipline and rationality with the club finances is another strategy which helped the company thrive. Furthermore, these strategies placed the company in a position to deal with debts in the most appropriate manner. Additionally, the company settles its liabilities on a timely basis, by doing so the company has been able to satisfy the needs as well as the expectation of the shareholders. Manchester United States Competitive advantage can be viewed as any activity that is used for the purpose of creating superior value above its rival football teams. For example, Arsenal, Manchester City and Liverpool, the major interest of the club is to increase the gap between perceived value and the cost of the product as well as the competition. There are several challenges to the company’s strategy. First, implementation of the strategy might be consuming. For the company to effectively apply the above competitive strategy it takes a lot of time. It may take a year for the outcome of the competitive advantage strategy to be witnessed. Another challenge the company's strategy may endure is the ability to sustainable its strategy. The company is required to build its reputation around those distinctive characteristics and make its expertise in management exceptionally visible to its target audience. The visible expertise will become the company's foundation to the professional services, particularly to the shareholders. Manchester United football club might have to pursue several growth strategies to be able to achieve its objectives. The first growth strategy which the company might have to pursue is market penetration. The company will be able to use this growth strategy to be able to market its products to their shares. This growth strategy will be essential to the company and it will also the help the company generate more income which will allow the company to be able to settle its dues. The second growth strategy which can be essential to this company is a diversification strategy. Mainly this entails the provision of new products to the market. The company can still apply this growth strategy to ensure that the existing products which are already in the market, for instance, Avène, Klorane, and Ducray are accessible. This type of strategy can be very risky, it is recommendable for the management of the company to be very keen before pursuing it. For the company to successfully pursue this strategy market research will be essential for the company to plan effectively before pursuing this strategy, (Gebauer, 2015). The last growth strategy which the company might pursue in order is acquisition strategies. Basically, this entails purchasing other small companies to be able to expand its operations. In Manchester United case, the company can purchase a football club united of Manchester. By applying this strategy, the company will be able to enter new markets and have the opportunity to market and sell its products. One advantage of this strategy is that the products and markets are already established. It is recommendable for the company to identify what it exactly wants to achieve before pursuing the acquisition strategy, majorly as a result of the fact that outstanding investment is required for it to be implemented.
References
Kowalkowski, C., Windahl, C., Kindström, D., & Gebauer, H. (2015). What service transition? Rethinking established assumptions about manufacturers' service-led growth strategies. Industrial Marketing Management, 45, 59-69.
Millward, P., & Poulton, G. (2014). Football fandom, mobilization, and Herbert Blumer: A social movement analysis of FC United of Manchester. Sociology of Sports Journal, 31(1), 1-22.
Saunders, F. C. (2015). Toward high-reliability project organizing in safety‐Critical projects. Project Management Journal, 46(3), 25-35.
