Heytsbury Holdings Limited: Contemporary Value Propositions

Answer :

Individual assignment 2: 

Understanding contemporary organisational value propositions

The Australia based company operating in retail chain market; Heytsbury Holdings Limited is an Australian stock market listed organisation consisting total 174 franchised and 41 company-owned outlets across Australia and New Zealand with total employee strength of 14,470. The company deals in mainly three kinds of products, which are Computers, home appliances and electrical goods. A value proposition depicts the prospects of why the consumers do business with the organisation rather than the competition. Moreover, in a simplified way, it can be stated that what value the consumer gets, out of the money they are spending on the company product apart from the product is good (Sausman et al., 2015). To gain the competitive edge, organisations are brainstorming rigorously to add value to their products so that they can attract consumers. It has been proven as the strongest tool available in the industry.

As a successful retail chain business, the organisation has been adding value to its products since a long time to get the positive response from the consumers and to do so, the brand uses an innovative business model, which comprises of both company-owned outlets and franchise outlets. The company owned outlets are in direct control of the organisation that keeps track of the value addition first hand from the customers and franchises penetrate the remote rural communities to add values to those consumer's products, which the different franchises inform them. The dual presence in the market has helped the organisation not only to liquidate their products but also to get holistic information about the operating market.

Along with dealing in Australia using the franchising technique, the company wants to convert their overseas business model in the same way, as it will be able to cover more area of the market (Yakimova et al., 2018). Apart from that, having only company-owned stores where the amount of the product is a secondary factor and the primary one being the brand value, which has been able to gain consumer attention. In continuation to that, the company do not want to shift its complete focus to overseas business in New Zealand but also wants to strengthen the Australian business by opening more company-owned outlets to have more control over the value addition by gaining first-hand details from the consumers by maintaining personal relationships with them. To have the personal connection strong with the remote areas, the organisation allows alteration and customisation of the product's features to meet the demands of different kind of consumers for all three kinds of products by providing the best value for money. This adds value to the computer products significantly as the consumers of rural areas do not require all the high-end features and save a lot of money while paying for only what they need. Along with adding value to their products, the company goes one step further and looks forward to adding value to the purchasing process of the product by trying to enter the online retail market instead of using the conventional marketing strategy.

The combination of company-owned outlets and franchise outlets has been a very useful approach for the organization as it has added immense value not only for the customers but also for the stakeholders of the organization, which can be anyone connected to the organization by any means, such as employees, suppliers, owners, managers, government and society. The value addition for society has been possible for them as the franchise owners are mostly from the local community and have a holistic idea of the emotional behaviour of the consumers; thus, the franchises use proportional revenue in value-added customer service by installing the electronic products free at the location with no delivery cost. The process is most likely to be carried out by the local community members or local business houses adding value to the community as it supports the local economy (Fosso Wamba et al., 2015). The organisation is expanding business in New Zealand, which is great news for the government as it is promoting exports of goods outside of the nation. These positive aspects are ultimately reflecting upon the uprising revenue generation, which is again benefiting the shareholders of the organisation.

Regarding more adding value to the consumers, the company should have a technical support team active around the clock to assist them as this will help the company to handle the vast market which they are planning to enter in New Zealand by opening franchises. Without the customer support team, they will not be able to handle the customer support system, which will affect the business in the long run. To support the consumers overseas, the organisation should equip their service team with enough technological advancement so that they can remotely inspect the computers purchased in New Zealand and support the customers without any hassle.  Apart from that, to add value to the consumers, the company should not only sell the products but also educate and empower the consumers about the products at the same time by organising teaching classes, as not all consumers are equally tech savvy (Hingley et al., 2015). The organisation should go one step further to justify the brand value and open customer service centres in New Zealand in case of those issues, which cannot be handled remotely for all the products. The company has to keep the chances open for product customisation for all the markets as it would add immense value to the consumers and they will be able to save a lot of money by paying for only what they want but not what the organisation want them to have. This empowering movement from the organisation can motivate the consumers by adding value to their life (Folder & Cavaye, 2015).

The organisation incorporates different theories such as bureaucratic, administrative and scientific management all together to add value to its products. The proper composition of the above-stated theories provides just the throttle needed to the company to supply the best-fitted value for products. The bureaucratic structure of the company reflects upon the strategic flow of information in the company, which is top to bottom to keep the subordinates informed about every aspect of the organisation depending on their job role helps the company to have the control in the hands of higher management (McGreevy, 2016). This brings the legislative strategy, where the company has a set of rules, which all the employees must comply to so that no one contradicts in the system. Thus, the regular flow of company helps to add value to its business and depicts that achieving the cumulative goal of the organisation has only been possible for the strong implication of bureaucratic strategy along with technological advancement. 

People management is the most important part of adding value to the product. The process includes the phases of recruiting, hiring and then giving them the proper training so that they can return the ultimate value to the company as expected (Ulrich & Dulebohn, 2015). There are 470 employees in the headquarter of Heytsbury holdings limited whereas 2000 people are in the retail sector and over 12000 people work in the franchise sector all over the stores. This structure defines the departmentalisation, which helps to organise all the related works and duties in a systematic way, which includes a set of employees in the defined department.  That means an employee with pre-defined duty will be trained specifically to his job profile so that he can input is labour and knowledge to that specified section and brings the most out of work. This is another part of the value proportion. A franchise has its own culture and work process. When franchises recruit their employee by this way, they can make sure that the employee should be from same culture and territory, so that the franchisor can make use of the local knowledge and experience of the employee regarding selling the product. This method works another beneficial way like consumer or buyer will feel connected and attracted to the brand. This falls a good impact on the customer; thus it seems to them that they are also getting the same value and it brings the buyer back to the brand. Many other organisational theories have supported this part of the value proportion.  

Marketing is the most important and beneficial part of the company business strategy. It is the key step to create and maintain the product in the market so that the product cannot get out of the sight and mind of the customers (Henriksen, 2015). Thereafter, the company needs proper planning to advertise the product to the customer. Heytsbury is still now following the traditional marketing trend as press or print media and television. But recently, they have taken into consideration of internet or online media to market their product. Today is the era of the internet, and if any company cannot resolve their strategy of this type, they cannot survive for long. By every passing day, the internet is becoming a regular and crucial part of a person's lifestyle. From the starting phase of e-commerce platforms to the current phase of social media advertising, the internet has made its place of the advertising industry. Some of the popular names on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook etc. are the main platforms to socialise with online advertising, so, Heytsbury Holdings has the immense opportunity to market their product using these sure shot way of advertising as these sites cover a huge part of the popularity of potential buyers of electronic market (Hajli, 2015). Being a merchandiser of electronic products, Heytsbury has a huge potential to gain profit through the internet and social media platforms.

Being in the list of Australian stock exchange, Heytsbury is running with the products like property portfolio management, franchise business and retail sector. As the report says, Heytsbury has a good and strong financial background as they got $3.96 billion in sales revenue from the franchise and $1.48 billion from retail sectors. According to some assessments, the company is in a steady trend of 11% in overall increment since 2000.  Therefore, it is clear that the revenue provides the benefits to the shareholder of Heytsbury holdings limited and of course adds the value to the products they are dealing with. The increasing trend of any company helps to gain value proportion and creating goodwill in the eyes of the customer and related people as well.

The franchise business strategy offers a huge amount of profit for both the parties associated in the business. On the one hand, the franchisor allows the franchise to use the trade name, products, goodwill and brand value of the franchisor in lieu of either a short-term amount or a long-term value. On the other hand, the franchise has the authority to structure the processes as per own requirement. The franchise system of business also allows some of the franchisors to control the process of work. However, as the franchisee pays an amount of percentage from the profit it earns, both the franchisor and the franchise earn a good amount of revenue. Thus, the original company can also focus on implementing some business strategies that will help the company to gain value proposition. The perspectives that are necessary for the strong value proposition are present in case of Heytsbury Holding Ltd. It can also be said that they are earning a good revenue and gaining trust from its customers.

It is seen that Heytsbury Holding Ltd uses conventional marketing methods such as print media and television marketing. However, print media and television marketing are not enough for sustainability in today's world. In order to attract more customers, the company has to increase its presence in the social media platforms as well. Heytsbury Holding Ltd can create a page in Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest. It can regularly update the pages with suitable videos, ad-campaigns, images etc. The social media also allows connecting to the customers directly as they can send the message to the company page or share their views through comments as well. Thus, the value proposition of the company will become stronger. 

Apart from that, Heytsbury Holding Ltd can also offer customized electronic goods. The computers can be customized and assembled by the executive as per the demand of the customers. Besides, in case the consumers are not aware of the electronic products, service executives should be ready to help them promptly. As the company will explore the franchise system, even more, it should offer proper technical support for the franchisees as well. 24x7 technical support should be available from the company’s end. Heytsbury Holding Ltd can arrange training classes for the customers for the utilities that need in-depth understanding.