Assignment 4
A Student of
University of the People
Restoration Affiliates (RA) was founded by the heads of four restoration and reconstruction companies. The company was formed to allow smaller regional restoration and reconstruction companies to compete with big national players, by providing a national service solution for their clients (Zuckerman & Reavis, 2014).
Challenges Faced
The main challenges of the new organization was deciding how to achieve a high level of coordination with its many partners, building a network with its partners all sharing a common goal and objective, while creating value for customers and maintaining a competitive advantage (Zuckerman & Reavis, 2014).
Value Chain Analysis
In building
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a value chain, the organization’s activities had to be assessed and its strongest and weakest link identified. The primary mandate was to provide a national solution for customers, primarily large property management firms (Zuckerman & Reavis, 2014). Second, the company needed to manage capacity issues during a catastrophe by being able to tap into a larger network (Zuckerman & Reavis, 2014). An analysis of the primary activities of RA revealed the following. Image compliments Mindtools.com Inbound logistics – Suppliers such as individuals, insurance companies and referrals make a huge impact on the company’s revenue Operations – Services offered to customers included restorations and other as needed products based on the nature of the disaster or situation Outbound logistics – creating a network of partners that could deliver the services as needed, 24/7 Marketing and sales – Offer a full service provider for companies that operate regionally and internally.
Offer special software to meet the needs of clients
Service – round the clock customer service and support offered to customers, educational training, daily communication, and disaster planning (Zuckerman & Reavis, 2014).
RA’s support activities are closely aligned to primary activities. These include
Procurement – providing national coverage, but local expertise, local market knowledge, local relationships, and local resources as much as possible (Zuckerman & Reavis, 2014).
Human resource management – By recruiting affiliates that are aligned to its mission and goals, RA creates a valuable asset critical to achieving its goals. Each affiliate comes ready equipped with a team that adds value to the organization (Zuckerman & Reavis,
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2014). Technological development – Creating software programs that complimented it services was a great addition as no other company had such a development (Zuckerman & Reavis, 2014) Infrastructure – RA created a new structure, board of directors and management team to meet the needs of the company and its affiliates (Zuckerman & Reavis, 2014). Strongest and Weakest Link RA’s strongest and at the same time weakest link, is its affiliates.
“Members had to be privately owned, independent, commercially focused, regional restoration contracting service organizations, with a dedicated commercial marketing person on staff” (Zuckerman & Reavis, 2014). In addition, members have to pay membership dues and referral fees. The amount if data and requirements for being an affiliate assures high quality assurance but may also be a deterrent for start up firms who have much knowledge and skills to contribute but little to no financial resources. As it is, while these firms may actually be an asset, they do not meet the minimum requirements to be a part of the
association. The major advantage faced by RA is the key advantage of having a multi-vendor solution. In cases of emergency, there are a range of choices including local firms to work on projects, who may have intimate knowledge of the area or vicinity. Weaknesses include reliance on insurance companies for referrals and the inability to handle some sectors because no affiliate may specialize in that area (Zuckerman & Reavis, 2014). The opportunities exist for new recruits to join the firm thereby reducing that particular weakness. There is always the threat of the larger companies taking away business by reactive attacks from perceived lost business opportunities (Zuckerman & Reavis, 2014). SWOT analysis (Zuckerman & Reavis, 2014). Strengths 1. The existing entities, resources, and infrastructure to deal with a catastrophe or disaster that the company specializes in 2. Local expertise and local market knowledge 3. Creating local relationships 4. Availability of local resources 5. Management/teams are committed and confident in their job/service delivery Weakness 1. Reliance on insurance companies for business referrals 2. Financial viability – relying on membership dues 3. Having third party administrators as partners 4. Some gaps in range for certain sectors that the larger companies handle with ease 5. Communication between affiliates and customers Opportunities 1. Create a growing public awareness by marketing the company 2. Invite more affiliates – small firms who specialize in niche areas 3. New specialist software applications 4. Support core business economies 5. Creating Standards and Enforcing Consistency Threats 1. Larger companies 2. Affiliates may choose to leave company 3. Insurance company policies 4. Government regulations may change 5. Retention of key staff critical to continued success 6. Vulnerable to reactive attacks by major competitors 7. Internal competition between affiliates Important strategic opportunity facing the firm and how it could be implemented. The current most important strategic opportunity facing the firm is its new software program. RA was operating without any kind of an integrated system for communicating and tracking jobs (Zuckerman & Reavis, 2014). While still managing to deliver and track its jobs, it was a very inefficient system and with a growing number of affiliates, business could derail quickly. With the development of its faciliSmart software program, the team has a golden opportunity to market its software aggressively. No other company to date of the article has anything even close to the software. The software can be used and customized to different clients a needed bringing much needed revenue to the firm (Zuckerman & Reavis, 2014). Conclusion References Zuckerman, E. & Reavis, C. (2014). Restoration Affiliates. MIT Sloan School of Management. Retrieved from: https://mitsloan.mit.edu/LearningEdge/strategy/RA/Pages/default.aspx
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