Introduction
OCP Nigeria is one of the leading experts in construction and agriculture industry that produce fertilizers and the related goods. To reach even greater excellence, OCP Nigeria will need to focus on expanding into new markets. Expanding its supply chain by building a large fertilizer plant is one of the main objectives of OCP Nigeria (‘Our presence,’ 2021). Nevertheless, the organization should aim for diversifying its products further and encompassing other areas of construction and agriculture.
Strategy and Strategic Management
For OCP Nigeria to advance in the target environment and ensure that it quickly attracts new customers, the company will need to focus on the development of new communication channels for managing its supply chain and promoting a more nuanced and closer dialogue with its target audiences. Therefore, the business strategy that the company must use will include supporting its current stellar quality management framework as it expands the supply chain. It will only be possible by introducing a downsizing technique while enhancing the role of cohesion in performance with effective communication and leadership (Adeniyi & Egbunike, 2017).
Business Strategy
Cost Leadership
OCP Nigeria will have to use of cost leadership to create new partnerships and attract new customers. Defined as the reduction of prices to the point when an organization offers its product for the cheapest price in the market, the notion of cost leadership suggests offering a product for the lowest price within the market (Noralam et al., 2020). However, the described approach will imply selling its new products that the company will develop after the diversification of its production line and investing in building fertilization plants across Africa for the lowest price-to-quality ratio (Farooque et al., 2019). Suppose that the product will be sold at a comparatively low market price. In that case, the specified strategy implies that OCP Nigeria will not use cost leadership to the detriment of its revenue.
Indeed, lowering the prices will mean two negative outcomes. First, the company is likely to lose a substantial amount of money even with its current unique and highly lucrative approach toward obtaining high-quality raw materials in large quantities for low prices. Second, by establishing the pricing framework that will position the company as the producer of primarily cheap construction materials and fertilizers, OCP Nigeria may make itself look cheap and inefficient in the eyes of its potential customers (Diefenbach et al., 2018). Possible buyers may refuse to believe that the announced high quality can be purchased for the price in question. Thus, suggested alteration will be introduced into the basic notion of the cost leadership framework.
Transparency
The focus on transparency will constitute another crucial element of OCP Nigeria’s functioning in the target market setting. With increased transparency within the company, data management will take place at a faster rate and with significant improvements in its efficiency (Bai and Sarkis, 2020). It is particularly important for OCP Nigeria since the organization will have to invest most of its resources into R&D, which will limit its opportunities for expanding its supply chain, hence possible issues with data management. In turn, increased transparency will allow making the key changes and actions taken by each party instantly visible, avoiding misunderstandings and delays.
With the rise in transparency and the focus on making every major decision within the organization pubic, OCP Nigeria will create a sense of mutual trust with its key stakeholders (Shafieizadeh and Tao, 2020). Consequently, OCP Nigeria will build an additional component of its competitive advantage, which will be rooted in the tremendous extent of loyalty among the target audiences.
Quality Management
Incorporating the current approach demonstrated by OCP Nigeria to quality management into its competitive advantage and the development of its business strategy is indispensable for entering the target market. OCP Nigeria has become the indisputable leader in its home market (‘Our presence’, 2021). To keep this advantage, OCP Nigeria will need to continue using the specified resource of raw materials, which may require several tweaks to its present supply chain. It is vital that all essential parts of the manufacturing stage of the SCM are located in close proximity to the source of raw materials (Hosseini et al., 2018). Therefore, the construction of the fertilization plant must be set in the vicinity of the company’s current manufacturing site.
Acquisition
Given its comparatively short supply chain and the necessity to keep it at the specified size, OCP Nigeria will need extensive support from its partner. Therefore, merging and acquiring other companies are crucial elements of OCP Nigeria’s new business strategy (Soundarya et al., 2018). Acquiring companies that offer transportation options for OCP Nigeria’s products and those that allow distributing the product and supplying crucial components for the end product should be seen as an option.
Organization: Situational Analysis
Applying a more nuanced lens to the analysis of OCP Nigeria’s current situation, one will realize that the organization will have to shape its current supply chain significantly due to the possible communication issues occurring as a result of its poor development.
McKinsey 7S Model
Currently, the organization has its key components of successful performance aligned, yet they require several major improvements. For instance, as the McKinsey analysis above indicates, OCP Nigeria values accountability and innovation, yet lacks a definitive business strategy that will allow its competitive advantage to shine. Moreover, the current values of commitment and innovation are vital for OCP Africa’s foray into the Nigerian market, yet it will need an approach for marketing its products to the target audience, which is why the company will need to reassess its strategy toward developing its brand in Nigeria.
Additionally, the current economic state of Nigeria can be described as marginally positive, yet noticeable negative changes are expected to take place in the near future (Kemi, 2019). The specified prognosis is reasonable to expect since the current economic options of Nigeria have been severely restricted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the fact that the pandemic has been taken under control in some states, it still runs rampant in a range of African states (Ufua et al., 2021; Danaan, 2018). According to the latest WHO report, the current state of Nigerian public health regarding the COVID-19 issue sits at 169,329 confirmed instances of the disease and 2,126 deaths caused by it (World Health Organization, 2021). Therefore, OCP Africa must consider introducing additional precaution measures to prevent the further spread of the disease. The associated costs must be incorporated into the company’s budget, which will reduce OCP Nigeria’s financial opportunities to an extent.
Porter’s 5 Forces
Viewing the situation form the perspective of the forces that will affect OCP Nigeria’s performance in Nigerian market, one will need to consider the existing competition. At the same time, one should point to the presence of stiff competition in the Nigerian construction and agricultural markets (Danso and Obeng-Ahenkora, 2018). OCP Nigeria will have to work extensively on its competitive advantage to meet the set expectations.
Current Strategy
The current business strategy that OCP Nigeria will pursue in the Nigerian market will include the active enhancement of communication within its supply chain, the reinforcement of quality management and product diversification, and the attempts at minor expansion through acquisition while also maintaining the company’s nimbleness and maneuverability in the construction and agricultural markets. This strategy appears to be geared toward boosting the levels of the company’s attractiveness for prospective clients by creating an added value of stellar quality that OCP Nigeria’s competitors cannot reach.
Outlook
The prospects of OCP Nigeria entering the Nigerian construction market appear to be rather uncertain. On the one hand, OCP Nigeria is evidently ready to expand into a boarder economic setting; on the other hand, both the external (Nigerian market environment) and internal (OCP Nigeria’s resource management) issues appear to represent a significant hindrance on the company’s way to success.
Risks
Despite the efficacy and straightforwardness of its current business strategy, OCP Nigeria may need an update when it reaches the Nigeria market and considers expanding further. The risks associated with the failure to rearrange current assets should be listed as the key concerns. Additionally, OCP Nigeria may fail to build the publicity needed for the company to reach new customers and potential partners, including investors, suppliers, and distributors. All of the three are vital for updating OCP Nigeria’s current supply chain while keeping it dense and maneuverable. This change will require close attention to the unique characteristics of the Nigerian market and the ability to respond to the changing environment promptly and introduce new approaches accordingly. In turn, OCP Nigeria appears to be relying primarily on its well trodden and properly developed yet humble business strategy that implies functioning within a small supply chain. Thus, OCP Africa’s ability to forecast the risks that it will face in the Nigerian context, particularly makes the risks high.
Future
OCP Nigeria assumes that its strategy should be geared toward expanding the range of its customers and entering new markets while maintaining its reputation of an organization producing high-quality goods. Additionally, OCP Nigeria seeks to introduce strategies for maintaining its performance standards by building a fertilization plant that will become an integral part of its manufacturing framework and, in the long run, its supply chain. Furthermore, OCP Nigeria considers expanding into the Nigerian construction market to attract new customers and investors. Thus, OCP Nigeria will be able to afford the further development and the implementation of the business approach based on the continuous innovation.
Practical Strategy
To manage the transition to the Nigerian market and integrate into it successfully, OCP Nigeria will need to promote its services. The company leaders will need to deploy traditional and digital marketing tools to adjust to the fluctuating nature of the Nigerian economy and ensure that OCP Nigeria’s message reaches the target audiences.
Quality management should remain the priority of the organization since it constitutes the bulk of its competitive advantage. The use of the ISO 9001 quality management principles should be regarded as the first step toward improving the situation. The notions of stakeholder engagement, prioritizing customers, transformational leadership, process approach, incremental improvement, evidence-based decision making, and relationship management must be integrated into the management of production quality (To et al., 2018).
Conclusion
Due to the challenges that the Nigerian economy is currently facing, OCP Nigeria will need to build a strategy based on cost leadership, outstanding quality of the end product, and high level of transparency of its operations. With this strategy, OCP Nigeria will market itself in the way that will attract potential customers and partners immediately, winning their loyalty. The sue of a cost leadership principle will allow OCP Nigeria to continue its current plans of acquiring new companies while keeping its competitive advantage of a small but functional supply chain intact. Since the choice of the supply chain framework depends on the presence of the resource for raw material that helps OCP Nigeria maintain its competitive advantage, the company will have to rely on effective communication and additional support from its partners to expand its framework for market performance and encompass new economic settings.
Reference List
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Our presence (2021) Web.
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