Strategic Planning

Zenith Technologies Strategic Planning

The purpose of this paper is to summarize the results of the marketing audit carried out at Zenith Limited technologies - an industrial automation service company established in the Republic of Ireland 10 years ago. Zenith Technologies employs more than 250 professionals working in projects and supporting many companies' industrial operations. The marketing audit includes the finding on three environmental aspects that affect the company marketing strategy. The paper also contains the marketing situation of the company, an executive summary, and the conclusions of the audit. The environmental aspects studied in this paper are the following: economics, market, and technology. The marketing situation for the company encompasses the objectives, strategies, tactics, 4Ps, and sales for the year 2006.

Executive summary

During times of market growth client needs are easily identifiable because they shout for products or services require. This was the case for the automation market in Ireland 15 years ago when multinational pharmaceuticals started to establish facilities in the country. In 1998 the engineering automation market in Ireland was just about to absorb all the resources in the island. The scarcely resources gave way to a rapid and unexpected demand for automation engineers. Supply was not enough in for the market. Zenith Technologies CEO's great visionary could see the immense business behind the situation. The companies were looking for those resources and they were ready to pay good money for it.

Zenith establishment is an example of hard work and different vision of the business world. Even though the market was small, the business was 100% profitable from the beginning, low risk, and little investment required. The trends and forecast showed a great deal of investment coming to the country from those multinational companies. The integration of the country to the European markets was a key event to start that invasion of foreign corporations. That was the perfect time to start a company like Zenith because of the high demand for automation job will follow. An early start would ensure recognition at some time in the near future and the company would be positioned in the Irish market sooner than later.

However, almost 10 year after those smart thoughts, the situation is totally different. The company' objectives have changed; it is now time to look for foreign markets to keep the business profitable. The organization has acquired the expertise to move beyond the border of the island and offer its services to the same brands in other locations. This aspiration puts zenith Technologies in the position of commence to revise the entire organization and make big moves in hiring people with experience in multinational corporations to plan, coordinate, and implement sophisticated marketing strategies to achieve such a elevated goal of been one of the top competitors in the automation world for Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology manufacturers.

Although Zenith Technology is a small and young company, the goals are very high. To achieve those goals some recommendations are now presented herein. The rationale of every one of these recommendations is extensively treated in the next sections.

* The marketing department of Zenith Technologies requires a structural transformation. The organization must start, a soon as possible this process with an integral diagnostic must be hired. It is recommended to find an independent consultant to execute this task on the global situation of the company.

* The scaling up to the salaries in Ireland due to the scarcely of resource for such dynamic economic has risen the costs of the company. The company must be careful to avoid passing its high cost to the clients. Zenith Tech. must not contribute to the over-heating of the sector prices. Many clients may decide to withdraw Zenith as a service provider and start looking to the competition.

* Although the strategy to attract quality workers with high salaries is good, the company must start to train their own people. The new beginners can be mixed with the senior engineers and supplied to clients at low cost. In the long term these young engineers will be accepted world wide with the same confidence as the experience engineers. The advantage of this strategy is that the company can stop the need to hire expensive engineers in the future every time a new customer is gained.

* Zenith is in the position to open offices in other location in the world where pharmaceutical and biotech companies have businesses. India, for example is an excellent candidate for the next office. The company has achieved great recognition in the Irish market and extended that recognition through the internal channels of its customers. This is a competency advantage that the company must implement very quickly before other local firms become stronger in those countries.

* The company must work hard to diversify its products. The products and services offer at the moment is too narrow. Many engineers have potential to understand and configure more than one control system. This should become a specific objective for the next year.

* There are many independent institution dedicated to studied the different markets in the industry and in this particular case, the pharmaceutical industry. The company must establish a minimum level of marketing research using those independent agencies to redirect and create new products.

* The organization must reinforce the marketing department and establish a program of competitive intelligence. It is true that a programs like this for Ireland are not required because the size of the market. However, if the mission of the organization is to trespass frontiers the competition has already business where Zenith Tech. is just starting to offer its services.

* The organization must establish a marketing strategy in order to achieve the goals for the short and long term. A complete plan must be developed using the marketing mix tool and the marketing research recommended before.

* The target market is so far happy with the DCS on which Zenith Technologies engineers best know. However, the maker of that DCS can start losing preference as their prices go up and up. As stated by Blois, "In accordance with the nature of marketing itself, the underlying idea is that demand is neither certain nor decided upon by the marketer" (2000).

* An audit system of the organization has to integrate a section for the marketing department. There will be not benefit to implement a marketing strategy without an evaluation system that helps the department to improve performance and correct deviations. Marketing audit is vital part of a marketing strategy. "Firms