Assignment 2: LASA 2—Presentation of Strategy Audit Findings- Due 10/21

Ashton Wood Company is known to be one of the best-performing homebuilding entities in the country. The company is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. It sells it new homes in Tampa, Sarasota, San Antonio, Raleigh, Phoenix, Orlando, Naples, Killeen/Ft. Hood, Houston, Dallas, Charleston, Atlanta, and Austin. This company has been in operations for the past twenty-five years, and it is known for focusing on building for its models together with allowing detailed personalization (Ashtonwoods.com, 2015). This allows the company to build homes that are as unique as the people who will live in them. The company has won multiple awards, among them the 2014 awards, which was given to the company for being the Most-Trusted Builder in America for the second year in a row. Ashton Woods' collaborative approach has earned the company high scores in terms of customer support. This paper is going to carry out preliminary strategy audit of Ashton Wood Company.

The value proposition of Ashton Woods is a promise of value to be delivered to its customers. This is important since it makes customers have a belief that value will be experienced and delivered. This company is more than just a home builder. It has been in the forefront in coming up with new designs and personalizing so that it can build homes that are in line with the unique people who live in them. The result of this effort by the company is a homebuilding experience that is more empowering, more collaborative, and more personal that what the company’s homebuyers could ever imagine. This experience is a unique one that it pushes the boundaries beyond what is possible in homebuilding. The company is a builder positioned for the future. This is evident from the fact that the company is considered to be the 4th largest private builder throughout the nation. The company also derives its value proposition from being the most trusted builder in the country. This is evident from the report of Lifestory Research Most Trusted Builder. The company is also the only builder in the country to make effectively use of the Environment for Living Platinum program that satisfies the energy efficient status of the company's homes.

Ashton Woods is at the top of its market. The company has managed to remain at the top of its market because of its quality products it is providing its customers. Most of the commodities of the company are also priced very fairly. There people who are arguing that the company may not be the most affordable one, but the quality of the products overcomes any pricing issues the customer might have. On top of quality and price, the company also boasts about building homes that are innovative. The innovative homes reflect unique needs of its customers. The company not only focuses on the customers, but it also considers its employees because it knows the employees are also the backbone of the company's success (Trimper, 2015). There is a cohesive and captivating culture within the company. The divisions of the company operate in an organic way. This means that the divisions operate as if they are separate from the corporate office. This strategy of operations helps to retain and attract top talent to the company. This type of management has enabled the company to create employee engagement. This is achieved from getting ideas from local divisions. The young generation is entering the workforce for many companies. This change brings in some changes in expectation, but this shift is not going unnoticed by the company as still fights to be the employer of choice. The needs of the Millennials and that of the new generation have to be balanced. The top priority of the company irrespective of the change in the generation is to retain and attract new top talent in the company and the market. Helps to ensure the company attains its strategic goals and stays at the top of all its competitors in the market.

The product produced by the company differs from those of competitors. The difference in the products can be seen when it comes to features offered in the different models in the community. Many of the plans for the company are designed to suit the needs of many customers. The products are designed considering that many customers are after diverse features when purchasing a home. This forces the company to be innovative when it comes to offering products to consumers. With respect to quality and price, the company offers its customers the most balanced combination since it intends it intends to give customer more for their investment. The brand image also differentiates the products offered by Aston Woods compared to that of competitors as customers’ appreciation for the company is seen in many surveys. All the aforementioned aspects influence a customer’s decision when purchasing a home, which creates more opportunities for Aston Woods to continue being at the top of the home building industry. Definitely, the source of competitive advantage for the Aston Woods products is the quality and innovative efforts included in the models build by the company, this source of advantage is sustainable in the long term, as the company is well known for building high-efficiency models. Further research about the company shows that Ashton Woods grants customers savings ranging from 40 to 50% in their energy bills. According to the Aston Woods website, "energy-efficient homes provides homeowners with significant savings in their utility bills (Aston Woods, n. d.). Also, the company offers quieter interiors and improved temperature control to provide customers with greater comfort. Aston Woods also offers homeowners fresh air ventilation as a way to achieve a healthier living. All the features make investing in an Aston Woods home the opportunity to invest in a “better-built, healthier and more comfortable home.”

External environment scan will help determine the level of completion in the market where Ashton Woods is operating and the business strategy that the company can come up with. This assessment will help to measure attractiveness of the industry. Some of the environmental factors likely to interfere with the business activities of the company are political, economic, regulatory, societal, and technological. The model that is going to be used to analyze the company is Porter’s five forces analysis. The five forces in this model under consideration are bargaining power of buyers, bargaining power of suppliers, threats of new entrants, threats of a substitute, and industry rivals.

The intensity of industry rivalry in the market where Ashton Wood is operating is favorable. Compared to many other industries, the level of rivalry among home builders is relatively fair. The company has no control over the products of competitors or rivals. But the company can come up with effective measures to ensure that its products and services are the best compared to those of competitors in terms of price and quality. All industries have issues when it comes threats from substitute products. Ashton just like other companies has to deal with this problem. There are buyers who go renting residential houses instead of purchasing. They are forced to this due to the high cost associated with purchasing a house. This forces the company to come up with ways of attracting customers to purchase houses compared to renting. The presence of substitute commodities in the market gives buyers a high bargaining power. This high bargaining power of buyers reduces the potential of the company selling its products at a good price that they intended. The high bargaining power of buyers is also determined by their income. Buyers with high income have high bargaining power. Regulatory, political, and negative economic factors pose threats to the company and other new entrants. Some of the issues as a result of political factors are high taxation, employing high-skilled employees, and strict health and environmental laws. These increases the operations cost of this industry and limits new entrants in the market. Some of the regulatory factors in the picture are safety and health laws, antitrust laws, and consumer laws. These laws also add the operational cost that eventually increases the total cost of constructing a unit. High house price repels potential house, buyers. High inflation rate and interest rate are economic factors affect the company negatively. These factors also affect other competitors in the market and new entrants. High-interest rates have had a negative impact on the amount of capital the organization can raise thus limiting its potential to grow and expand. Fluctuations in the exchange rates have also impacted the cost of construction materials imported from other countries especially China. The occurrence of typhoons and strong storms (among the environmental factors) lead to an early destruction of both the already sold and the unsold houses. This makes the company experience large losses.

Strategic issues are issues that limit the company from achieving its strategic goals. Some of the strategic issues being faced by Ashton Woods Company are:

The company is facing challenges getting and hiring employees who are well qualified for certain positions in the company. Finding and competing for the top talent in the region is becoming tough to the company. The laws requiring building and construction companies to hire highly skilled workers are also causing issues to the company. This has forced the company to go after highly skilled workers and to find an adequate number of these workers have been a problem (Ryko Development, 2015). This is an issue to the company because it makes it not be adequately staffed, hence, a reduction in productivity.

Government regulations are very prevalent to companies in this industry. Some of these regulations are safety and health laws, antitrust laws, and consumer laws. These regulations are forcing the company to adjust constantly it business operations and behavior so as to comply with the regulation. This interferes with the normal operations of the business as some even require the company to spend additional cost so as to comply with them.

The recent change in healthcare legislation has directly impacted Ashton Woods. The company is a big business with more than 50 employees. This calls for the company to provide healthcare coverage to its employees. Providing healthcare coverage to all employees of the company has brought in big financial concern.

The cost associated with raw materials has been going up. This makes the total cost for constructing a unit to increase. It means the company has to sell the houses at a higher cost to its customers. A rise in the material cost is beyond the control of the company. A rise in material cost can be associated with fluctuations in the exchange rates. This makes the cost of importing building materials to increase.

Security of a place determines how fast the company can sell its units to customers or how slow. Houses built in areas that are secure have high demand compared to those built in unsecure areas. Poor security limits the company from achieving its sales goals

Ashton Woods is known by many for its innovative and unique housed that match the need of the customers. Being at the top of the market calls for the company to continue offering differentiated products and services. Every company has strategic issues it faces. To move past the strategic issues, solutions have to be created. Having high-skilled employees is possible through providing training and advanced learning programs in the company. Since the company has been sourcing materials from China, the problem of increased material cost can be solved by sourcing materials from other countries providing the building materials at an affordable cost. Home buyers value security the most. So, the company should consider the security of the areas where it is building its houses. The only way to deal with government regulations is by complying with them. It should ensure the process of compliance does not interfere with its operations.

Ryko Development, Inc.(2015). Ashton Woods Homes. Retrieved from