The Consultancy Project for Newsprinters Organization
Introduction
Newsprinters Company was started in 2004, and was established to revolutionise the newspaper printing industry in the UK. The organisation placed the much-needed investment in the UK market, where in 2009, Newsprinters used £650 million to capitalise in the UK newspaper industry. As such, Newsprinters has become one of the most prosperous companies within the newspaper printing industry in the United Kingdom. The company’s size has extended with the objective of becoming competitive in the division of news printing. As such, Newsprinters has built three major plants located in Scotland, North England, and South England. By creating these plants, the company has grown as the market leader in the newspaper printing industry.
Despite its success, Newsprinters faces the threat of digitals news, with most of the news-making companies in the UK opting to publish on digital platforms instead of printing newspapers. Therefore, as the Newsprinters aims at becoming the market leader in the news publishing industry, this project focuses on analysing the company in terms of the internal and external environment. The study also presents recommendations that are set to guide Newsprinters Company in making the decisions that will influence its performance given the inherent threats it is facing.
Newsprinters Company and Environment
Newsprinters Needs and External Environment
According to Johnson et al. (2014), the aspect of business environment interconnects different concepts of an organisation. The business environment has many effects on the performance of a business as the different forms of business environment changes the nature of work within an organisation, and influences the way the business will achieve its objectives and goals. Johnson et al. (2014) argue that when an organisation understands its environment, it gets to a better position to cope with business complexities and changes, which may affect it in a negative manner.
SWOT Analysis
SWOT analysis is an acronym for strength, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (Bull, et al. 2016). According to Culp, et al. (2016), SWOT analysis models are deliberate planning methods that an organisation can use to evaluate its issues and needs. It is substantial for a company to evaluate the SWOT analysis factors systematically because the task makes a firm to develop ideas used to achieve the best strategies that will enhance competitive advantage and profitability. As such, for an organisation that wants to become the best within the market, it is necessary for it to combine the SWOT analysis concept with the setting of its goals, objectives, and missions. Culp, et al. (2016) affirm that the SWOT analysis models are helpful to the management of an organisation because the concept allows both the managers and employees within an organisation to generate ideas that they can use in implementing a project.
Strengths
The company’s major strengths include its strong financial capabilities. In 2009, major news making companies invested in Newsprinters Company. The Newspaper Enterprises in the UK invested £650 million in Newsprinters, which helped the company improve its operations extensively (Newsprinters 2016). The company has also become a major supplier of print to the newspaper business in the UK, printing millions of newspaper copies such as The Sunday News, The Sun, The Daily Telegraph, and The Times (Newsprinters 2016). With sales of more than 29 million weekly, Newsprinters has managed to use its diverse newspapers to improve its market share. This number transcends to 1.5 billion copies yearly (Newsprinters 2016). Further, to ensure that it meets environment protection standards, the company reuses and recycles most of its waste products, extensively improving its image (Newsprinters 2016).
Weaknesses
Capitalizing on embracing the digital platform in news publishing remains a major challenge for Newsprinters. Additionally, the company has not focused on new markets in other areas out of the U.K., which limits the net profits.
Opportunities
The increased market share that Newsprinters Company is enjoying in the current state is an opportunity for the company to further its operations in other regions. Additionally, the company stands a chance to venture in printing magazines given that it has already established the infrastructure and market from its many years of operation. The company should also expand its digital media platform, which promises to be a long-term investment initiative.
Threats
As the company prints million copies for different news making enterprises, Newsprinters needs to come up with ideas that will make it continue serving its customers regardless of the introduction of technological platforms used to publish the news for in an efficacy manner (Newsprinters 2016). The company also faces imminent threats from new entrants who capitalize on the digital platform. Televised news has also become a major threat to news printing companies; most TV news channels attract advertisers following their appeal to more people as compared to newspapers.
The Organizations and Its Internal Environment
Mcintyre and Alon (2005) assert that the internal environment at the businesses refers to the factors within an organization that influence the success of the business. For Newsprinters Company, it is evident that the company has direct control over the internal factors and it uses the factors to become the most competitive organisation in the news making industry within the UK news printing market. Newsprinters have a working value that set employees to commit themselves to the company’s work. The company has an open and honest working culture that gives the employees to concentrate on their job and what they do best in the workplace (Newsprinters 2016). The company’s value is to seek the best talent in the UK and across the world, in order to use the people with talent to challenge what the company’s do and to enhance that the company’s stay one step ahead in the competition market of printing the newspaper (Newsprinters 2016). The leaders at Newsprinters work as partners but work according to the roles that they are given. The leaders at Newsprinters creates a modern working environment, whereby they procure the best working equipment for the employees and encourage the employees within different departments to work with the latest technology in printing (Newsprinters 2016).
Analysis and Recommendation to the Organization
Analysis of the findings
From the case of Newsprinters and the threat that the company is facing, it is evident that the companies must adapt to a new generation of media consumers despite selling many copies currently. The use of the internet remains a viable option for companies like Newsprinters who have to appeal to new markets. Willims (2010) states that globally, there are about ten million young people who are using technology; thus, it is becoming hard for the companies such as Newsprinters to appeal to these groups. Additionally, new entrants have brought stiff competition to companies such as Newsprinters, who mainly rely on traditional news printing despite venturing in the digital platform. Williams (2010) suggests that in the recent years, the UK newspaper companies are facing more competition than ever before, due to the introduction of new forms of mass communication such as the internet and growth of the televised media.
In addition, the Business: The Ultimate Resource (2003) publication also affirmed that the internet will extensively affect the news printing industry. For Newsprinters Company, increased use of the internet to publish news will influence the company in a positive way. Many news-making companies across the globe and mostly in the UK have set massive investment scheduled to use the internet to make news and present them to different audiences. For example, the use of technologies such digital subscriber line (DSL), by major news making in the UK means that Newsprinters will encounter negative impact, as the company views the aspect of printing news as the best way to become the market leaders within the industry (Business The Ultimate Resource 2003). Williams (2010) reveals that for the newspaper companies that have not embraced technology within this industry, there has been the case of fall in sales, a drop in readership, and the turnover rate has increased. Further, due to the introduction of technology in the news-making businesses, many employees prefer to work for companies using digital platforms for newspapers. Thus, Newsprinters is likely to encounter problems such as sales decline or even lose some of its top talents who would prefer working for other companies that are well versed in the use of technology within the process of producing and making the news. However, its online subscriptions for most of its newspapers such as The Times can be harnessed to improve the sales of the company.
Additionally, most televised media provide intense competition for the lucrative news industry. With increase in cable transmissions and improved internet systems, the purchase and subscription for newspapers has reduced over the years (Willims, 2010). Thus, it is paramount that Newsprinters works to tame the competition from such televised media.
Recommendations for the Organization
From the discussion of the findings above, Newsprinters needs to improve on its online presence and newspapers subscriptions. By employing more experts in development of technology and helping the company shift to a more digital platform, Plunkett (2009) reveals that when entertainment and media companies seek help from professional consultants, they grow, gather competitive plans, and learn about special features that relate to the business of making and disseminating news. The consultants that Newsprinters need to use for the case of digital news will carry out research on the problem and come up with the solutions that interest the company.
Furthermore, to avoid the decline of the company’s sales, Newsprinters need to invest heavily in the technology, as a strategy that will broaden the company’s opportunities within the UK’s news making market. Business The Ultimate Resource publication (2003) outlines that the construction of technological programs within the news companies makes people access what is happening in the different part of the world even with their mobile phones. This means that technology allows a news company to have different opportunities such as allowing people to use their mobile gadget to review and access what is happening across the globe.
Finally, Newsprinters should consider venturing into televised media. With customer loyalty, infrastructure, and personnel, the company will make a smooth transition into televised media. Given that the company enjoys a wide U.K. market, it stands a chance to penetrate this market. Despite stiff competition from developed market players, Newsprinters will still manage to venture into the market with low start-up costs as compared to entrants who have not actively worked in the news industry. Nonetheless, this will also be an opportunity to venture into international markets and market their products to the U.S., Asia, and other areas that offer great market opportunities. This investment opportunity also stands to attract new investor given that the company will diversify its investments in print, digital media, and televised news platforms; a strategy that may help revolutionalise its operations.
Implementation of the Recommendations
Leaders play a substantial role in organisations, as they provide direction and carriy out activities that will ensure that organisations achieve their goals and objectives (Grojean, Dcikson, and Smith 2004). According to Avolio (2007), different leadership personalities and style are significant because they have an impact on the organisational strategies and culture. Therefore, with Newsprinters inherent threats, the responsibility of the company’s leaders to implement the recommendations that are set to solve the problem that is said to have impacts on the organisation’s performance. The company’s leadership will need to adopt specific strategies, as the implementation of the recommendation cannot be done without planning and fruitful implementation. The Newsprinters leaders will also be required to consider the fact that the implementation of changes identified by the consultant can influence leadership concept in the company. As a result, the leaders ought to communicate effectively with the employees concerning the changes that these recommendations will bring to the company.
Leadership Strategies to be Adopted
Evidently, leaders at Newsprinters can use various leadership strategies to implement the recommendation identified in this report. One of the strategies that the leaders at the company will use is transforming the working environment. In this case, the leaders at the company will procure new working tools that will ensure that the employees at Newsprinters work efficiently and produce the best newspaper for the readers in the United Kingdom. Ladegaard, et al. (2014) posit that leaders can transform the working environment by transforming the employees. When the leaders at Newsprinters use transforming strategy to change the working environment, this will have an impact on the employees, which will make them work better through their self-interest and with the help of the new equipment such as computers and printers that the leaders will introduce for effectiveness. Proper budgeting and planning will also rely on the teamwork among leaders, their experience, and determination to meet organizational goals.
The leaders at Newsprinters can as well use intellectual stimulation as a strategy to implement change at the organisation. Grojean, Dcikson, and Smith (2004) point out that leaders can ensure the employees follow new models that are applied in an organisation through leadership stimulation, as the new models require both the leaders and employees of the organisation to reexamine their thinking and how a new model can influence the organisational performance. This strategy will be influential to Newsprinters, especially when the company hires a consultant firm to oversee its operations and how new models can change the company’s performance in the market.
The leaders at Newsprinters can also take the aspect of investing more on the specific department at the organisation as a strategy that it will use to implement working changes. As the problem, affecting Newsprinters Company relates to the technological department, the company will be required to come up with adequate investment in the information commination technology (ICT) department rather than putting a lot of money in other departments within the company. Needle (2010) argues that ICT is a department that is associated with the growth and development of an organisation and instead of a company focusing on other tasks, it is important for the organisation to consider the impact that it will have when it invest or finance the ICT department.
Finally, leaders at Newsprinters should function as a team during the implementation of the change recommended. This will make the leaders at the company to create the connection at the workplace. The transition to a more digital platform would mean that some of the employees may be rendered jobless. However, to ensure that the company harnesses the experience of its employees and encourages them to embrace the transitions, having them work as key consultants in the implementation stage will be crucial for the success of the whole plan. Assimilating employees to new positions created as a result of the transition would require team-work and decision making that can only stem from consultations among employees. Grojean, Dcikson, and Smith (2004) assert that when leaders at the organisation partners with the employees, this allows the workers to link the social network theory together with leadership theory, hence creating a better relationship that is needed at the workplace. As such, for the leaders at Newsprinters to implement the recommended changes successfully, they can create a working relation that will require them to work directly with the employees at all levels within the organisation.
Impact of the Strategies to the Leadership
The leadership strategies that will be employed in the implementation of the changes recommended by Newsprinters Company may have an impact on the leadership team. From the discussion above, it is apparent that the strategies will create a connection between the employees and the leadership team. With the strategies being transforming the working environment, creating the relationship between employees and leadership team, investing more on the ICT department, and use of intellectual stimulation, one can see that these leadership frameworks bring out the aspect connecting the employees together with the leadership team for efficiency and effectiveness at the company.
Role of Leadership in Communicating the Vision
According to Hansma and Elving (2008), communication is fundamental during the implementation of change within an organisation. Most importantly, for leaders, it is essential to communicate organisational visions in the most effective ways. For this to happen, the leaders will have to come up with a working plan before sharing the organisational visions to the employees. In other words, leaders play a vital role in the communication processes within an organisation, especially when communicating the vision of the organisation. Husain (2013) suggests that leaders have various roles during the communication of different functions within the organisations. Therefore, when the leader at the Newsprinters communicate about the company’s vision, the leader will play an essential role in helping the employees to extract appropriate functions that they should carry out to ensure that the company achieves its goals and objectives. The leader at the company will also have a role of being referent point, as the employees will view the leader as their representative and a reference point in sense making and carrying out different tasks set to make the company efficient.
Critical Reflection
From a personal perspective, I think that the emergence of the internet as a major medium for information and business activities has eroded the printing of newspapers in the UK. Technology has made many people shift from reading the newspaper to reviewing the news that are posted on the digital platforms. Although many newspapers have gone online as a way to respond to the growth of technology, this discussion shows that a lot has to be done by the companies that want to be competitive through the printing of the news. With clear findings and recommendations, from this report, I feel that for news-making companies that are not using technology as part of the news publishing process, the level of consumption is declining, and the companies should take the effort that is needed to increase their sales and market share.
From this discussion, I learnt that it is important for to companies the concept of internal and external environment, as these concepts allow the organisation to deal with various challenges efficiently. The discussion has focused on reviewing the case of Newsprinters Company (UK); although the company has a large presence in the U.K., it has not extensively capitalized on digital news platforms and faces a threat from televised media. The study has also developed my experience concerning how technology is making the news making business to be competitive and why it is important for the companies printing news in the UK to embrace technology within their operations. Besides, the study is critical to me as it strengthens my idea concerning the way the technology in the news-making industry is influencing many people in the UK, particularity the young people.
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