Back Bay Battery Strategic Plan

The foreground reading of Back Bay Battery Ltd. demonstrates that NiMH has competitive advantages in three markets, which are power tools, two-way radios and power packs. However, as li-ion batteries and lithium batteries were introduced to the market, they have almost replaced NiMH in the market for laptop computer batteries and stolen some other markets as well. As a result of improving li-ion and lithium, NiMH is facing a big risk in the three primary market segments where might be cut into by li-ion and lithium. On the other hand, a new Ultracapacitor was developed, and has much better performance in most features but energy density and price.
By analysing the markets and desired features of each product, the energy density, self-discharge and price are the most important features for both batteries. In particular, price war is the biggest problem faced by NiMH because of the increasing competitors and low energy density for Ultracapacitor is the main issue that need to be solved. Since NiMH is the cash caw for Back Bay Battery, it is not a good idea to abandon this product, and focus on developing the new technology, especially when the energy density of Ultracapactor is too low to take over the position of NiMH in the market. However, in the future, Ultracapacitor will be the leader in the battery market, which could bring in more revenue for the company. Therefore, Back Bay Battery cannot ignore developing Ultracapacitor as well.
Consequently, the ideal strategic plan for Back Bay Battery is to invest R&D in both products. For NiMH, the main focus is to decrease the price in order to compete with existing and potential competitors. At the same time, the company should increase the performance of energy density and self-discharge gradually by investing a small potion of the budget. On the other hand, as Ultracapacitor performs well in most features, the goal for Ultracapacitor is to store energy density as much as possible in a few years to meet market demands. In the mean time, price is also a big concern for consumers. Customers always want a better product, but with a lower price. Thus, Back Bay Battery not only needs to improve the feature of energy density, but also needs to improve process to decrease production cost for Ultracapacitor. By the year 4 or 5, Back Bay Battery should already move up a big step with much better features for each battery. Moreover, prices for both products should have been decreased a lot, but market shares and revenue should be increased dramatically. After that, the company should stay in a stable stage, and revenue for both batteries will increase gradually.
Above all, this is the strategic plan that Back Bay Battery should follow in order to increase both total cumulative profit and Ultracapacitor revenue growth rate. However, unpredictable accidents can happen unexpectedly each year, so the strategic plan might need to be adjusted each year to insure that Back Bay Battery is walking towards the right direction.