UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT Assignment for

PROFESSOR JIM SLATER

5,242 words

Submitted by:

PAY CHIA CHEE YIP KIM WAH YAP HWEE LING LOH QILIAN GOH SHU MIN AMANDA SHEN LITING

(1210626) (1210677) (1211534) (1212122) (1212125) (1212247)

Reflective Analysis

Write up fully the WRSX simulation. In this case, the appendices should contain a strategic analysis as above, but using WRSX rather than your airline. This must be a written up version of the slides you submitted on November 27th and the write-up in your appendix should not correct or update what is contained in your slides. The point is not whether your initial analysis was correct or not: it was simply your starting point and we are interested in your own evaluation of its quality after you tried to implement it. The 2000-word narrative should be a reflective analysis focusing on:

1. The strategic analysis that was your starting point and is now your appendix. Did you make errors? Did you omit any parts of the analysis that were actually important? Did you ignore any information supplied that turned out to be important? If you were to undertake this analysis again what would you change or add and why?

2. Compare what you did during the actual simulation with what you intended to do, explaining any changes. Why did you to keep to or depart from the intended strategy? Also, to what extent did you correctly anticipate strategic capability: i.e., the resources and capabilities that would be needed by your management team to successfully design and implement your strategies? Did the chosen Agenda Item fit with the Strategic Choices that you made in Phase 2? If not, were you happy to deviate from the strategic choices you made earlier, and did you have good reason for doing so? If so, what were they?

CONTENTS
Contents..................................................................................................................... 3 1. Strategic Analysis...................................................................................................4 2. Need For Change In Intended Strategy...................................................................6 3. Appendices.............................................................................................................9 PESTEL Analysis.......................................................................................................9 Strategic Capability...............................................................................................10 Strategic Purpose.................................................................................................. 10 Corporate Governance.......................................................................................10 Organisational Culture.......................................................................................10 Geert Hofstedes 5 Dimensions.............................................................................11 Demand.................................................................................................................13 Supply Value Chain................................................................................................13 Organization Infrastructure................................................................................13 Human resource management...........................................................................13 Operations..........................................................................................................14 Marketing and Sales...........................................................................................14 Services.............................................................................................................. 14 Evaluation of strategy...........................................................................................15 Key objectives.......................................................................................................15 Phases of Meetings................................................................................................16 Meeting 1...........................................................................................................16 Meeting 2...........................................................................................................17 Meeting 3...........................................................................................................17 Meeting 4...........................................................................................................18 Meeting 5...........................................................................................................18 Meeting 6...........................................................................................................19 Bibliography.............................................................................................................20

1. STRATEGIC ANALYSIS

WRSX faced trends of rising competition and operational costs in the advertising industry. These costs were incurred largely due to the diversified operational and reporting styles that were incompatible, as well as the rising costs of to retain talents. Several other issues include the lack of corporate governance and the corruption scandal that adversely affected WRSXs reputation. Competitors were able to offer price-sensitive clients more attractive prices due to their cost-efficiency and these affected WRSXs profit margins. With the declining yield in their current markets and growing opportunities in new potential markets, the strategies that could be recommended will be to initially stabilise its current internal functions and consider external opportunities and threats.

Aiming first to stabilise the internal functions and improve efficiency, strategies involved avoiding undertaking a broader concept and growth strategies to expand into China were omitted. Despite clients feedback on our absence in overseas market, we should have managed the risk in our stride and ventured into the global market so that WRSX is not seen as incapable to react to market changes with their strategies. WRSX is relatively risk-adverse because we focused heavily on internalisation before expansion. This may further affect our global presence as WRSX will be seen as a laggard, with insufficient capabilities to compete in emerging markets, when other agencies do. Consequently, this will cause WRSX to continue to miss out on business opportunities in China and clients seeking to create global campaigns. Evidence from the annual reports has shown that WRSX has not yet leveraged on its economies of scale. To fund the intended strategy, unprofitable businesses should have been divested first. By doing so, resources could have been better utilised on more profitable/core parts of the businesses. This could potentially lower the overheads cost and increase the profits. Despite having information on the strategic direction of the competitors, too much emphasis have been placed on improving internalization that the view became myopic and ignored the environmental factors that could essentially affect the companies growth and presence. By analysing the key success factors of our competitors, WRSX may then obtain a competitive edge over them and build up the brand. In order to step onto the global stage, it is only wise if WRXC can compare performance constantly with the global firms and advance from there.

The proposed strategy to strengthen WRSXs internal infrastructure through the standardisation of operations, procedure and communications systems were beneficial to the companys longterm efficiency and cost reduction intention. In addition, a standard code of corporate governance and reporting standards would reduce the likelihood of doubts arising from the misinterpretations of statements written up in different formats. This strategy has proven to be successful based on the statistical evidence available, with Leadership Capability increasing 23% from 39.2 in Period 0 to 48.4 in Period 6. The same strategy would have been chosen as

before, which is to focus on improving internal activities to ensure sustainability of the business as a whole before expanding the business to greater horizons. On top of that, to ensure that the restructuring is progressing as planned and to rectify in time if there are any problems encountered, change management would be implemented. The opening of feedback channels enables two-way communication in the feasibility and execution of change, as well as to help evaluate the success of the change. This can facilitate internal communications between all levels within the organisation, reducing conflicts and unhappiness, thus improving the companys ability to attract and retain talents especially in the top management positions. It is important that WRSX value and retain these people in order to safeguard the company's competitive advantage and differentiation in this highly competitive advertising industry. In our opinion, internal management is vital in order to create a sustainable and profitable business. Each part of the business has a role in keeping the business going. Businesses often fail because they are unable to respond quickly to external changes and therefore, internal capabilities are valued, to help the company stay effective and competitive at all times. The external environment is not within our control and hence the strategy to stabilise internally before exposing ourselves to potential external risk will allow WRSX to adapt to changes more easily.

2. NEED FOR CHANGE IN INTENDED STRATEGY

Throughout the entire simulation, the intended strategy for WRSX was followed through with no deviation. After understanding the external factors, the advertising industry and WRSXs operations, a consensus that WRSX needs to place emphasis on building their internal communications and corporate governance, was achieved. Considerations of expanding WRSX were secondary, seeing that WRSX's position was already matured within the US market which contributed to 50% revenue for the global advertising and media communications industry. Despite the growing potential within developing markets such as China and India, and the increase in popularity using digital marketing, stabilising WRSXs corporate structure was the top priority. Establishing a firm corporate structure is vital if the company aims to successfully expand its operations globally and increase market share in the long run.

The very first step for WRSX involved improving the corporate governance. This considered irregularities among the offices in regards to the way revenues and other associated costs were reported. This signifies that there was no standardised group-wide code of corporate governance as offices were managed only at local level. This could cause different branches, divisions and departments to have differing goals, which may in turn affect the communication and progress of WRSX. When benchmarked against other competitors on the industry level, WRSXs performance and management structure are mediocre, lacking the ability to retain high quality personnel. The corruption scandal involving the global CEO of WRSX further damaged the companys reputation, affecting the companys corporate social responsibility (CSR) negatively. However, though cutting costs was our next priority, it was not executed from the start. WRSXs key financial performance ratios indicate low performance in contrast to the industrys average. Staff costs ratio was significantly above the industry average by 5%, and current liabilities were at a high of 2.1%. Furthermore, WRSX was having problems exploiting benefits of economies of scale and maintaining good relationships with its suppliers.

Our strategic capability was correctly predicted to a large extent as resources and capabilities were utilised relatively wisely by having a core focus on stabilising the internal operations before expanding overseas to India. It also corresponds with the mission by differentiating and strengthening the brand through constant innovation and creativity. Some significant decisions that were made include placing strong emphasis on WRSX's CSR activities, implementing cost cutting measures as well as creative innovation whenever feasible. These choices were made in view of a long-term prospect for the future of WRSX. However, the capabilities may be utilised more efficiently by undertaking more projects to maximise business growth and enhancing its brand position to achieve one of the Top 20 brands in the advertising industry. Although there is no lack of resources such as capital and finance, a relatively conservative approach was taken in handling the business, enabling the share price to rise steadily.

WRSX, a global brand with huge resource capacity, has offices in Europe (London & Paris), USA and Asia (Singapore) which cater to specific regions where each office operates as individual business units; answering to their respective main board. This autonomy gives rise to conflicts as each entity have a differing operational styles. The management was inefficient in leveraging on these resources to improve the growth of the company as shown by their operating margins as well as staff ratios which are well below industry average. With a market capitalisation of $285 million and a healthy gearing ratio of 45.5%, the company is in a favourable and steady position to expand. The company has also a cash balance of $53 million which grew from $10 million in the preceding year, allowing management the flexibility of implementing the necessary changes, such as training and development in areas of Human Resources (HR) and CSR. This also allows the firm to invest in technology with reduction in the high operational costs to boost profit margins. The presented resources were adequate in allowing the suggested strategies to stabilize the business, by improving HR functions as well as reducing staff costs through the later divestment of unprofitable businesses. The global offices have also allowed the implementation of the growth strategy, using local staff to aid expansion in Asia, such as the choice to expand to India. There were, however, issues in retaining top talents in France as the talents felt that the top management were receptive to their feedback and suggestions. This led to the change of HR strategies to address this issue.

With analysis on the business development, the planned strategic path includes concentration on improving internal functions, comprising of the organisations infrastructure and operations, as well as the Human Resource (HR) management. These strategies focused on stabilising the organisation internally, reducing costs and creating a competitive edge through differentiation. With each board meeting, the initial strategies were reinforced with the chosen agenda items, taking into consideration internal capabilities and conditions, as well as the external environment. Agenda items in the initial stages emphasised largely on internal sustainability, made possible by cutting costs and managing internal operations.

i.

Firm Infrastructure and Operations Organisation-wide standardisation is implemented mainly to improve consistency and efficiency. The Agenda items selected include improving and focusing on corporate governance. Operations are optimised by outsourcing central services and managing clientele accounts responsibly, creating the basis for rationalisation and cost reduction.

ii.

Human Resource Management

Cultural differences may create conflicts and reduce productivity thus situations such as the cultural changes in New York, where there is great potential for expansion, should be meticulously handled and monitored. The HR unit should focus on retaining talents by achieving satisfaction of employees through incentives and benefits provided, as talents create wealth for the organization and should be valued. To boost performance in the underperforming subsidiaries, talents should be allocated to these subsidiaries to prevent the performance from declining further.

iii.

Marketing and Sales To improve WRSXs reputation, CSR notions should be undertaken, coupled with engaging a Public Relations (PR) company to increase PR efforts. To account for declining margins, sales should be improved, by retaining clients and expanding where there are opportunities in new markets.

Despite all the efforts undertaken to improve the organisations position, WRSX could have been more successful if costs were managed more efficiently from the beginning. During the implementation of strategies to improve the internal functions, additional costs were incurred. The accumulation of costs was overlooked in lieu of the benefits received, resulting in constantly ascending costs. The agenda of divesting underperforming subsidiaries should have been selected at the start, rather than at the end, to fund subsequent strategies, and prevent further financial losses that may adversely affect the organizations reputation. Additionally, by divesting earlier, the gains derived from divesting may be re-invested to further improve other subsidiaries, or improve efficiencies of operations with higher yield. It also provides the organization with better cash flow that may be utilised to implement other strategies, or serve as a source of capital for contingency purposes. Overall, the strategic capabilities of WRSX were correctly anticipated and adequate resources were available to carry out the intended strategies. WRSX's profits and reputation rose through improving CSR and reducing the cost of operations within the company. If given the chance to re-consider the strategic options, the choices would remain the same. However, with the exception of the possibility to divest at an earlier stage by selling off unprofitable businesses, to reduce fixed costs and attain extra funds for future plans.

3. APPENDICES
PESTEL ANALYSIS
By analysing the external environment, WRSX gets a head start on the factors that will influence progress. Regulations and legal environment are constantly developing, changing around the world, thus WRSX has to adapt fast in the advertising industry. US remain the market leader, accounting for 50% revenue, of the global advertising industry. With a predicted maintained growth of 4% in the following year, economy downturn due to consumer debt and rising oil prices, investors find it difficult to depend on the US market in the long term. The US interest rates are also expected to remain low, with governments working to improve the situation by encouraging consumer spending. Other foreseen economic risks include volatility in economic growth, interest and currency exchange rates. The rise of consumerism in the Asia-Pacific region is a good opportunity due to its high population density. Africa, especially in North African countries such as Egypt is another focal with its increasing number of middle class consumers. To compete with low-cost manufacturers and service providers from Eastern Europe and Asia-Pacific, many companies are looking towards mergers and acquisitions to drive down costs and enjoy economies of scale. WRSX has to take effort in understanding Muslims culture, values, beliefs and mindset as they form a large potential market with one-quarter of the worlds population and increasing continuously. Growing demand for new products and services resulting from the increase in aging consumers creates another market opportunity too. Besides, the rise in sophisticated customers due to better education and shift in values will result in higher expectations of products and services. With the increased significance of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), many corporations are promoting their CSR policies vigorously through investment in education and other social projects. The internet is an increasingly popular medium of communication in this digital age. The emergence of on-demand content, commercial communications and the expansion of the range of digital channels are redefining the nature of the industry. With technology advancement, WRSX have to acknowledge and embrace this dynamic change to remain competitive within the industry. It is likely that the stringent employment laws in Europe and US may hinder growth for companies. Data protection laws in these two countries can also restrict certain business activities of WRSX and its competitors. The threat of global warming aspire companies to continue to reduce their carbon footprint through CSR initiatives. These include heat-efficient buildings, generating renewable energy and reducing waste and business travel.

STRATEGIC CAPABILITY
WRSXs strategic capabilities include the ability to understand the market, attract and retain clients, and persevering creativity and innovation. The Management Board was also advised to approve a budget of 500,000 for initiatives of consultation and implementation across the whole Group to further enhance the overall scores. Although WRSXs management of growth is slightly below average, there is ample room for improvement as internal operations are planned to be stabilised before focusing on overseas expansion. This could be done through improving the management of operations, information management and administration, where WRSXs leadership capability was clearly underperforming in some of its offices. This way, talents and high quality personnel can be retained. WRSX took effort to improve its CSR standing by re-branding one of the agency subsidiaries as a 'Green Agency', as sustainability is increasingly becoming a strategic issue. Concurrently, this could improve WRSXs strategic position from damaged reputation caused by the corruption scandal. It could inevitably spur the management of risk and bring WRSX back to a relatively stable financial position. With a sound standing in the market and employees with necessary know-how, procurement will be made easy and supplier relationship definitely better than before.

STRATEGIC PURPOSE
WRSX follows duly the mission, vision, corporate values as well as their objectives to become what they are today. WRSX provides a variety of services including, but not limited to, consumer advertising, media services, photographic studios, film production, mail handling services, exhibitions and conferences and consumer research, all of which may or may not be marketing related. This is in line with their mission to provide a range of activities to differentiate and strengthen their brand. Although WRSX has yet to achieve their vision to be the top 20 agency group with global presence, they have the capabilities to achieve it. With proper strategic planning and decision, they should be able to succeed in the near future. WRSX has good reputation of being creative and innovative for many years and they could continue to uphold their name by scouting and retaining talents who will become WRSX's best asset.

CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
Being a listed company for 8 years and crossing over a range of disciplines in several countries, it is not surprising that the number of stakeholders that WRSX are accountable to are not just within its company but also organisations that may indirectly affect them. The lack of a standard code of operation restricted WRSX's ability to provide a good position in explaining their reports, resulting in allegations that doubted their business ethics.

ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE
One of the major issues lies with the communication within the organization structure. The diversified offices, accompanied with distinctive reporting composition, only aspire to grow and

develop locally. Thus, the lack of group-wide standard code of corporate governance resulted in inability to keep up with the ever-changing environment. This is because the company has a very different set of goals, thus the strategic focus for the organization, as a whole, can be varied.

GEERT HOFSTEDES 5 DIMENSIONS

In order to centralize the functions of all offices, the culture differences of each nation should be analyzed for cross-cultural training to be effective. In Hofstedes research (2005), it was found that different countries have varied culture, thus it is important to devise a synergy to prevent cultural conflict and lack of strategic focus. It was identified that Paris and Singapore have a relatively high power distance level; meaning fewer managers are willing to accept power relations that are more autocratic and paternalistic. Subordinates acknowledge the power of others based on their formal and hierarchical positions. New York and London have corporate systems that endorse a culture where power relations are more consultative or democratic; employees can relate to one another as equals regardless of formal positions. In individualistic societies like Paris, New York and London, personal achievements and individual rights are of higher priority. In contrast, individuals in collectivist societies such as Singapore tend to act predominantly as members of a lifelong and cohesive organization. All countries have almost a fair mixture of masculine and feminine cultures. They share the same level of values of competitiveness, ambition and power, with value on relationships and quality of life too. As for uncertainty avoidance, all countries have differing tolerance level for uncertainty and ambiguity. Paris scored the highest, indicating that employees will try to minimize the occurrence of unknown and unusual circumstances. They will only proceed with cautious, stepby-step changes after meticulous planning and implementation of rules and regulations. This is then followed by New York, London and Singapore respectively; where individuals are more comfortable in accepting unstructured situations or changeable environments and try to have minimal rules. Lastly, Singapore is a long-term oriented society where individuals attach more importance to the future and has longer foresight. In contrast, the other nations are more short-term oriented, where promoted values are related to the past and the present, including steadiness and respect for tradition.

Figure: Path Dependency (Johnson et. Al., 2011)

WRSX should integrate path dependency as it can effectively create lasting effects on subsequent events and decisions through early establishment of policy paths (Johnson et al, 2011). Following the successful steps of Tesco, WRSX should retain its basic principles of CSR, while significantly changing the way in which their advertising services are distributed. By analysing relevant past success examples, it can help anticipate future demands. However, past success factors may not necessarily be applicable to the present. Although WRSX has its roots in history on their management style, the industry is dynamic and new ways have to be implemented to contribute to their success.

DEMAND
To cater to the needs and demands of various clients, WRSX should conduct market research on the clients' target market prior its formulation of campaigns so as to accurately plan the requirements and strategies.

SUPPLY VALUE CHAIN

The supply value chain is essential in determining which functions are important in creating value for clients to achieve competitive advantage. Incorporating the Supply Value Chain model in correspondence with the organisation's mission, vision and corporate value, specific internal functions are targeted to stabilise the organization to enhance strengths and control weaknesses, preparing the organization for external opportunities and threats.

ORGANIZATION INFRASTRUCTURE
Beginning with the foundation, the firm's infrastructure, WRSX should implement a transparent organization-wide code of corporate governance in terms of its customs and policies, ensuring that the organization is accountable and concerned regarding satisfaction of all stakeholders. A standardised communication system throughout the organization would serve to reduce miscommunications and improve efficiency and productivity. Restructuring should also begin at the top, by assessing abilities of management to ensure quality of the leaders piloting the organization.

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

WRSX depends greatly on its intangible resources like employees skills and talents, and these should be valued. Talents should be carefully recruited by having stringent recruitment policies and retained by increasing employee welfare and benefits to keep them satisfied. In a dynamic industry, trends are ever-changing and skills become obsolete quickly. To maintain a competitive edge, employees should be constantly upgraded through training to spur innovation and be ahead of competition. Management should also undergo periodic training to acquire and upgrade management skills that would aid in leading the employees better. The talent pool and increased efficiency would create an edge, boosting WRSX to be the market leader.

OPERATIONS
Organization-wide standardisation of operating procedures could prevent compromising on quality and standardise revenue reporting systems, reducing incompatibility of methods and confusion. To increase employee dedication to the organization and cohesiveness, periodic teambuilding efforts may be incorporated into operations. Relationships and synergies with external vendors like WRSXs suppliers should be strengthened to improve communications and loyalty. Taking into consideration prominent markets like North America, efforts should be increased in improving efficiency and monitoring processes especially in the new media and digital segments. These may serve to improve processes and communications, reducing bottlenecks and increasing profit margins.

MARKETING AND SALES

With WRSXs recent corruption scandal, the organizations reputation has been adversely affected, reducing investors confidence as well as stakeholders. To control the situation, public relation efforts should be taken to address the issue, clear doubts and lastly, enhance corporate image.

SERVICES
To assure quality, accountability and responsibility, WRSX should regularly provide detailed reports and updates on projects for clients, to provide them a sense of security. The individual or group responsible for the different accounts should provide the reports in a respectful manner and answer any queries the client may have. This aims to retain clientele better.

EVALUATION OF STRATEGY
WRSXs infrastructure should be strengthened via standardisation of operations, procedures and communications systems. Coupled with transparent policies and group-wide stated code of corporate governance, the strategies will aid in efficiency and reduce cost, at the same time creating an edge in differentiation. Efficiency would be supplemented through stringent criteria in recruitment and retaining and increased efforts in training and development of employees and managers. Reputation should also be managed through public relations efforts.

KEY OBJECTIVES
The key financial objective for WRSX is to make meticulous planning and make quality acquisitions that have the ability to deliver value for the group in the medium and long term. The firm has to also exploit economies of scale through its global presence. WRSX also has to establish a standard set of accounting practices through restructuring and conduct investigation by inquiry committee to prevent the emergence of repeated corruption scandals. WRSX aims to establish a global brand through adding values in the interest of clients and focus in specific areas of the business to gain competitive edge. It also aims to improve corporate governance standards and strategic leadership by retaining talents such as creative directors and senior account managers and increase the innovation in our HR policies to attract talents, before improving in the area of organic growth.

PHASES OF MEETINGS
Prior to each meeting, the external analysis of the industry and issues faced were considered and incorporated into decisions made. Prominent factors include the changing world economy, demographics and trends. The emergence of Asia provide opportunities, yet poses threats to the US market. Therefore, the need to differentiate and utilise advancing technology is pressing. Concurrently, other underlying issues persist, which include ability to retain talents and innovate to stay ahead of competition, as well as WRSX's affected reputation due to the corruption scandal.

MEETING 1
Retaining talents and spurring innovation is important to WRSXs position in the industry, and to do so, Generation Y, the leaders of tomorrow, should be incentivized by providing flexible work timings, creating work/life balance. Cultural changes in New York have led to a management style that is fundamentally different from other international offices and discrepancies in distribution of authority and reporting styles. Thus to incorporate cohesiveness, management layers would be reduced and authority would be decentralized organization-wide. HR efforts of re-drawing job descriptions and objectives, as well as moving employees around offices to implement Leadership by example and having early retirement and redundancy schemes, would be beneficial. To address the issue of retaining clients and attracting new ones, creating sustainability within the organization is crucial and the strategy recommended was to position one of WRSXs subsidiaries as a Green Agency. This would allow WRSX to be viewed as a market leader. With trends of increasing budgets in digital spaces, additional endeavours to retain clients include building presence in these areas. To avoid unnecessary high risk, each office would engage external local digital suppliers rather than investing in the volatile technological industry.

MEETING 2
Intensified competition has led to client churn. To maintain profits, using the Strengthening Client Relationship (SCR) programme was recommended to retain clients by focusing on all clients who are at risk of leaving WRSX. Long term benefits not only include financial returns, but may also boost WRSXs reputation. Initial actions taken to mend WRSX's affected reputation include sponsoring a young female tennis player as a Public Relations (PR) effort. Due to WRSX's lack of a PR subsidiary in the US, this initiative would provide the organization with branding opportunities. An area with need for immediate attention is WRSX's lack of corporate governance. Corporate governance strategies with the Ten Point Code of Business Conduct were recommended. Additionally, to protect WRSX's interests and reputation, it was strongly advised to withdraw from Soccer Focus South America joint venture as the benefits of withdrawing outweighed the cons. Through recent surveys, it was found that WRSX was ranked lowly on brand recognition. It was proposed for WRSX to guide the corporate business strategy by adding value to the subsidiaries and strengthening the brand. Rebranding and restructuring subsidiaries, applying the WRSX name followed by the area of specialisation may accelerate group development and may provide greater value to the clients.

MEETING 3
As part of the mid to longer term restructuring strategy, aspects of Human Resource (HR) may be outsourced for better cost management to improve competitiveness. This would enable WRSX to focus on recruiting and retaining talents. Asian SMEs provide growing opportunities and it may be opportune for WRSX to leverage upon the opportunities to enhance its profile. This may be accomplished by establishing a strategic alliance with E-sme due to its desirable track record and expertise in the SME market that would grant WRSX easier access into the market. Long-term growth may be established in the relatively untapped market. Old methods of doing things are becoming obsolete and with WRSX experiencing a strategic drift, restructuring was recommended. The top 50 global senior managers would undergo meetings to analyse the pros and cons of implementing the matrix structure. The final decision regarding the implementation will be made democratically among the managers. The issue on cost is of great importance and has to be planned carefully. It is critical to address this on a regional basis to allow better planning and cost-effectiveness may be achieved by bringing down print cost through group buying power. Details include reducing the supplier base to one or two suppliers to achieve enhanced terms, reducing cost in the mid-term.

MEETING 4
Increasing pressures on margins have augmented the importance of client retention to sustain WRSXs profits. Strategies include demonstrating to clients that they are highly valued and regarded through value-added services provided. Senior managers would be responsible for the accounts, margins and emphasizing WRSXs expertise and knowledge to gain continuing support from majority of our clients. Sustainability is one of WRSXs main objectives yet not well-managed in comparison to other factors. In order to remedy the situation, there should be no conflict between business profitability and sustainability. WRSXs motion towards sustainability is a business opportunity that should be signalled to clients and stakeholders to build not only clients CSR profiles, but WRSXs as well. Cost-cutting measures are vital to create sustainability. Excessive overhead and operational costs may be reduced by shrinking and combining offices into one, which also reduces overlapping work. The savings may then be utilized to improve efficiency of various functions. A key priority for WRSX is corporate governance and to boost stakeholder confidence, sound corporate governance would be imposed. It would review remuneration packages of senior managers, and enforcing punishment schemes when required to minimise corporate greed to a large extent. This would improve the image and position of WRSX and build credibility.

MEETING 5
With the shift of the industry to an intensified competitive environment, a value-based compensation system was recommended to entice clients where fees are based on results attained as a product of the advertising campaign. It also aimed to encourage efficiency and creativity, and maintain margins. WRSX faces the threat of losing bargaining power when there is centralising of purchasing or procurement, thus it is imperative to safeguard the interest of WRSXs shareholders and reinforce trust in WRSXs advertising once again. Performance management systems should be implemented to punish mediocre or poor performance to sustain WRSXs brand image. Sustainability continues to be a prominent concern thus, to signal WRSX's position in the community. WRSX should focus on demonstrating CSR to present ideas for the obesity campaign, yet at the same time be accountable to current clients. Communication breakdowns between WRSX and clients needs were not valued by the middle and senior managers of the agency. Thus, the structure should be reformed to operate on a more communal basis, less hierarchical but with more consultation at every level. The generation is evolving and people desire a more cohesive workplace where they can be heard; subsequently internal success will promise the success of the organisation when everyone strives together as a whole.

MEETING 6
Shareholders concerns with WRSXs future direction, sustainability and transparency may lead to a loss of confidence thus to be answerable, WRSX was recommended to analyse and determine whether restructuring of the business was required for future plans and to reduce costs. The Muslim community is growing and presents untapped opportunities for WRSX, but with insufficient market research and knowledge, WRSX was recommended to set up a marketing business unit in a Muslim country staffed with Muslim employees from varying backgrounds and perspectives to facilitate better market research, efficiency in delivering results for clients. In view of strategic review and raising capital to fund businesses with higher profit margin, the film production business has been selected for divestment due to its high ongoing maintenance and development costs, and limited capability in competing in markets other than France. Following stabilisation of the internal environment, WRSX may focus on leveraging on opportunities. HALs current strategy follows the path towards the global strategy option, thus it may be feasible to recommend the international approach, entering the US and EU markets, with potential technology deals with prominent manufacturers, at the same time lobbying for government funding in both countries for Research and Development to reduce costs.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Hofstede, Geert and Hofstede, Gert, Jan, 2005. Cultures and Organisations: Software of the Mind. 2nd ed. USA: The McGraw-Hill Companies. Johnson, Gerry, Whittington, Richard and Scholes, Kevan, 2011. Exploring Strategy: Text & Cases. 9th ed. Edinburgh Gate: Pearson education Limited.