Assessment Tools: ADF Group Analysis Case Study Sample

Introduction:

ADF Group or African Development Funding Group is an investment company that focuses on operations in Africa. The company was established in the year 2013 in Hong Kong. The company has evolved into a fund management and private equity firm. The different tools that the company utilizes for analysis include the following.

1. SWOT Analysis:

This is a most important and widely used assessment tool. SWOT initials stand for Strength, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats. This tool helps in figuring out the internal strengths and weaknesses of the company along with the external opportunities and threats. ADF Group has applied SWOT analysis to review the internal mission, vision, and values statement. These statements have helped the company redefine its goals and improve its business process so that long-term gains and sustenance can be achieved. Along with that, the external policy of the company has been framed to deal with the competitors and environment creating threats and opportunities. The advantages and disadvantages of these tools include the following.

Advantages:

1. ADF group has been able to understand business better.
2. The company has been able to address its weaknesses to improve its business outcome.
3. ADF group has been able to capitalize on the opportunities.
4. The company is now in a position to take advantage of its strength by expanding its business in Asia and Europe as well.
5. A new set of goals and strategies are developed by the company to attain long-term goals and objectives.

Disadvantages:

1. This method does not help in prioritizing the issues and thus it all depends on the executives to select the issues that they consider are important.
2. SWOT analysis does not provide any solution to the problem. It is just a scale of analysis required to measure the different levels of strength and weakness of the business.
3. This method helps in fetching huge information from analysis, but not all of it is useful.
4. SWOT analysis helps in generating new ideas for the development and growth of the business but does not signify which idea is the best one for the firm.

2. Value Chain Assessment:

Value chain assessment is a method that could be used for delivering a product or service in a defined market segment. ADF group has utilized value chain assessment for understanding and optimizing the activities of the business that could help in attaining long-term competitive advantage. This way the whole business process is divided into different segments to understand the value proposition that can be added to the business process. The advantages and disadvantages of value chain assessment are as follows.

Advantages:

1. ADF has been able to divide its business process into various segments to find out the internal advantages that the company could gain from the business process.
2. The company has been able to create value for the company through its different value chain activities including inbound logistics, operations, outbound logistics, marketing, and sales and service.
3. ADF has been to gain a competitive advantage in the African market and has attained a comfortable level of overall profit.

Disadvantages:

1. Value chain analysis breaks down the overall system into different segments. This affects the overall strategy and vision of the company.
2. This method does not facilitate the linking of different activities in the value chain together. This way the long-term sight to develop and relate each activity is lost.

3. Competitor Assessment:

Competitor assessment is a method in which efforts are made to evaluate the competition with standard measures. This way the competitors' review and level of impact on the business is evaluated. ADF has utilized the competitor assessment method to identify the possible competitors in the African, Asian, and European markets. This has helped the company to analyze and estimate the level of impact that each competitor has on the business. The advantages and disadvantages of the competitor analysis can be done as follows.

Advantages:

1. ADF has been able to identify its competitors in the global markets where it has been developing its business.
2. The company has been able to review its internal strengths and weaknesses so that the company’s operation and internal advantage can be identified.
3. ADF has devised its corporate policies and strategies to fight back competition in the market to sustain itself for a longer period in the business.
4. The efforts are made by the company to improve its internal system to fight back competition.

Disadvantages:

1. Competitor analysis requires the deployment of efficient human resources for the job that could perform the task in a well-professional manner. Therefore the success of competitor analysis depends on the human factor.
2. This practice is based on long-term analysis and is devised to attain the long-term sustenance of the business. However, the short-term analysis and situations are not given due weightage. Therefore the company could face huge problems by not considering the short-term issues that could lead to the creation of new problems in the long run.

4. Generic Business Strategy:

The Generic business strategy could help it better diagnose the business. This is an effective business strategy that works towards the completion of the comprehensive situation analysis. ADF has been applying a generic business strategy to enhance the potential leverage of the business and attain long-term success. The various advantages and disadvantages are as follows.

Advantages:

1. ADF has been able to develop expertise in the business process which has helped in achieving competitive edge advantage in the market.
2. The company has been able to develop its business process at a steady pace which has helped it bring its concentration from just Africa to Europe and Asia as well.
3. The company has been able to devise various business strategies that could help in achieving long-term goals and objectives for the organization.

Disadvantages:

1. The generic business strategies are based on the inputs made by the officials. Therefore wrong inputs received could result in framing out improper strategies for the business.
2. This method frames out a set of objectives and policies for the organization but does not signify as to which method will help in attaining long-term benefits or gains. This way the viability of the different strategies and the best one for the business cannot be calculated.

Selecting the best method:

The combination of the SWOT analysis along with the value chain analysis could prove to be the best for business and industry. This is so because SWOT analysis will help the company find out its internal strengths and weaknesses so that the business function can improve and attain the desired outcomes and goals. On the other hand, the external opportunities and threats are measured which could help define the list of competitors to the company. This way a proper strategy can be developed which could help improve internal business operation on one side and the other side helping the business to deal with various opportunities and threats. You can find more at 'Assignment Help'.

Bibliography

ADFgroupltd.com, 2018. About us. [Online] Available at: https://www.adfgroupltd.com/about-us/ [Accessed 25 March 2018].

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Manteghi, N. & Zohrabi, A., 2011. A proposed comprehensive framework for formulating a strategy: A hybrid of balanced scorecard, SWOT analysis, Porter's generic strategies, and Fuzzy quality function deployment. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 15, pp.2068-73.

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