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. aa The basic message taken from the
proposed strategy is that business continues as usual and is really not a strategy.
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). aa 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). aa 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. aa 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). aa 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). aa The market has been relatively stable and
predictable over time (Mastering Strategic Management, 2014, p.17) and this is
working for Paul’s. aa 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. aa Customers are expecting greater levels of service as well
as higher standards of protection when waiting for car repairs to be performed.
aa aa aa D. aa 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. aa The model is currently to “beat its competitors by providing
the lowest price discount tires, vehicle repairs, exceptional customer service, and
quality work.” aa The strategy can be formulated to specific actions that would
define how this would be done. aa The lowest price can be done by price
matching for equal products and services. aa 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. aa This could also include the service to take the car back to
the shop, perform the repairs, and return to the customer. aa 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. aa 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. aa These levels of service must remain flexible
(Mastering Strategic Management, 2014, p. 9) to changing customer demands. aa
Reference
Mastering Strategic Management. (2014). Adapted by the Saylor Foundation
under a creative commons attribution-noncommercial-sharealike 3.0 license.
