Date: March 18, 2022
To: Steve Wilford, President
From: Joe Rousseau, Business Consultant
Subject: Strategic Plan
Please see the following answers to the questions posted regarding the 10-year
strategic plan for Pauls Discount Tire & Repair:
A. What is wrong with this strategy?
The strategic plan lacks in specifics. g The basic message taken from the proposed
strategy is that business continues as usual and is really not a strategy. g The business
has grown well using the current model however a strategy will require more
specific steps that must be followed to gain success (Mastering Strategic
Management, 2014, p.8). g Those could often take the form of one of five possible
activities, known as the 5 P’s, of a plan, a ploy, a pattern, a position, or a perspective
(Mastering Strategic Management, 2014, p.6). The strategy lacks a vision for all
employees to work toward to collectively gain success (Mastering Strategic
Management, 2014, p. 40).
B. What is right about this strategy?
The strategy provides a great basis for creating a vision and strategy for the company
however this it remains incomplete. g The current plan could be viewed more as a
business model which will be a key aspect to developing a successful plan
(Mastering Strategic Management, 2014, p. 8). g The strategy itself is solid but lacks
depth and the business model could easily be used to develop SMART goals
(specific, measurable, aggressive, realistic, and time-bound) (Mastering Strategic
Management, 2014, p. 43-44) to help motivate employees towards the success of the
strategy.
C. Will Paul’s maintain their competitive advantage with this strategy?
As the strategy is currently written, Paul’s could maintain their competitive
advantage due to their current realized strategy (Mastering Strategic Management,
2014, p. 20). g The market has been relatively stable and predictable over time
(Mastering Strategic Management, 2014, p.17) and this is working for Paul’s. g
However, Paul’s must be constantly watching external factors when creating a
strategy (Mastering Strategic Management, 2014, p.33) and the pandemic has shown
that sticking to the core values and cutting costs may not be enough. g Customers are
expecting greater levels of service as well as higher standards of protection when
waiting for car repairs to be performed.
g g g D. g What is one thing that could be done to improve this strategy?
One thing that could be done would be to turn that business model into an actionable
plan. g The model is currently to “beat its competitors by providing the lowest price
discount tires, vehicle repairs, exceptional customer service, and quality work.” g The
strategy can be formulated to specific actions that would define how this would be
done. g The lowest price can be done by price matching for equal products and
services. g Exceptional customer service could be the focus of an intended strategy
(Mastering Strategic Management, 2014, p.17) to really go the extra mile by
diagnosing certain vehicle problems at the customer’s home. g This could also include
the service to take the car back to the shop, perform the repairs, and return to the
customer. g Quality work could be assured through a guarantee that if an issue arises
this will be taken care of in whatever way is most convenient for the customer, again
in a way that provides the exceptional customer service mentioned above. g A return
visit due to an error by an employee should be as easy for them as possible and
include the pickup service if requested. g These levels of service must remain flexible
(Mastering Strategic Management, 2014, p. 9) to changing customer demands. g
Reference
Mastering Strategic Management. (2014). Adapted by the Saylor Foundation under a
creative commons attribution-noncommercial-sharealike 3.0 license.
