Strategic Issues

Introduction
Sailing Hawk Car Wash faces several important issues. It wishes to expand its current location by adding new bays and a possible tunnel. Sailing Hawk is also looking at expanding to a second location. Increasing environmental governmental regulation and increasing traffic flow are also important issues facing Sailing hawk. Increasing competition is also an important issue because car washing season if quickly approaching.
Borders
The book store Borders is facing declining profits and fierce competition from online book sellers. Borders implemented an ambitious strategic plan to deal with the threats. They closed nearly half its Waldenbooks stores, sold international stores, and strengthened superstores by cutting back on music sales but adding more cafes and stationary offerings. It is also implemented an online bookstore in 2008. Sailing Hawk should include methods in its strategic plan in case it expands too quickly and begins to loose profitability.
Grainger
Grainger is an Illinois-based industrial distributor and in 2006 it crafted strong expansion plans and pruned costs. The company uses a multi-channel business model to provide customers with a range of options for finding and purchasing products through a network of branches, field sales forces, direct marketing (including catalogs), and a variety of electronic and Internet channels.
Grainger holds a 4% share of the estimated $140 billion North American facilities-maintenance market. We believe a trend toward consolidation emerged during 2005, as acquirers had more excess cash available for acquisitions. In addition, some distributors became more willing to sell their businesses based on their improved results. In late March, 2006, Home Depot (HD) acquired Hughes Supply, a distributor of construction, repair, and maintenance products, for $3.2 billion. We see this trend continuing for several years.
Grainger has four strategic growth initiatives: selling customers on their value proposition as they seek ways to reduce time and costs to purchase facilities-maintenance products, enhancing their presence in local markets, increasing the number of available products, and making acquisitions to complement their Lab Safety business segment.
By following this model, Sailing Hawk can author its strategic plan so that it can capitalize on growth trends and position themselves for future growth.
Google
According to Google’s strategic plan Google's short-term objectives are to expand the workforce for anticipated growth, expand further into international markets, and
continue developing new products. Expanding the workforce will help achieve the long-term objective of delivering new advertising technology. One key to the success of Google is the culture of the organization. Google employees are the best of the best and treated as such. The atmosphere is relaxed, fun and laid back which fosters creativity.
Google provides free lunches every day for employees and encourages participation in the weekly roller hockey games. The company regularly sponsors employee outings such as picnics and skiing trips. Finally, Google is generous in its rewards to employees by offering bonuses, stock options and profit sharing. Strategic controls can be largely affected by environmental factors. Consider the negative consequences of a significant power outage. Google systems are vulnerable to any electrical service disruptions resulting in service being impacted. "For example, in November, 2003, [Google] failed to provide search results for approximately 20% of traffic for a period of about 30 minutes" (Google, 2005a, p. 40). Additionally, any disruptions in service will tax the entire Google system and result in lost revenue (Google, 2005a). Another environmental concern is new technologies that do not compliment Google's current operating systems. For example, "the number of people who access the internet through devices other than personal computers, including mobile phones, hand-held calendaring and email assistance, and television set-top devices, has increased dramatically in the past few years" (Google, 2005a, p. 45). Expanding Google's product offering to meet all user needs will limit the threat of alternative internet devices.
Sailing Hawk can address environmental concerns and employee valuation in similar fashion. Although Sailing Hawk’s environmental concerns deal more with water restrictions and conservation, it can still improve its plan based on Google’s model.
Yahoo
Yahoo is a company fighting for its life. Microsoft made an unsolicited bid to buyout the company. Since then Yahoo is struggling to revitalize its business. CEO Jerry Yang made his earnings conference call debut on Tuesday and said the next “100 days or so” will be spent mapping out the strategic plan for the company. “The next 100 days or so will be spent mapping out Yahoo’s strategic plan,” said Yang. “We’re well underway in our review of the business. We will move fast in a focused way.” Yang, who noted that he took the CEO post “not out of obligation but desire,” said he will be taking a “fresh look” at Yahoo’s assets and deemphasizing parts that are not performing well or don’t fit in. Yang acknowledged that he didn’t have all the answers today, but said he intends to get them. He said: “I believe Yahoo is too often defined by the competitive landscape. Yahoo is a deep and active market place. The way we will strengthen Yahoo is to strengthen the market place. There’s a gap of where Yahoo is and where Yahoo needs to be.” In the short run, here are Yahoo’s priorities pending the strategic review:
• Insight: Yang said Yahoo wants to leverage data across the advertising platform for advertisers and publishers. For users, this means better personalization.
• Faster decision making: Yang said Yahoo will focus on differentiated products.
• Set a new bar for Yahoo culture: Yang said he intends to prioritize teamwork, leadership and the will to win. Yang also noted that the search for a new CTO is underway and he plans to “bring on additional leaders to the company.”
Yang also noted that Yahoo will coalesce around key principles such as insight and openness for its partners and users. “We will accelerate transformation and invest heavily,” said Yang. “We are in investment mode.”
By using Yahoo’s example Sailing Hawk can structure their strategic plan so that they are positioned to deal with competitors expressing desires to buy them out.
References
Steverman, Ben, 2007, Harry Potter Gives Borders a Boost, http://www.businessweek.com/investor/content/aug2007/pi20070829_783055.htm?chan=search retrieved April 25, 2008
Scharf, Stewart, 2006, Grainger: Tooled Up for Growth, http://www.businessweek.com/investor/content/apr2006/pi20060425_988642.htm?chan=search, retrieved April 25, 2008
Brent Hummer, Greg Jones, Audre Wilde, Steve Ellison, 2006, Google Strategic Plan, http://www.dailyspeculations.com/google-paper-ellison.html, retrieved April 25, 2008
Dignan, Larry, 2007, http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=5684, retrieved April 25, 2008