This case study analyses the progress of Resolute Marine Energy (RME) towards its effort in purifying water for human consumption as it contains high saline. The case study covers the project in South Africa in Natal province at Ugu a certain village where the plant has been established. Since the water contain high salt, it is prudent for firms to come up in order to salvage the situation as the government, and different firms were using a lot of money to generate electricity for its citizens in order to desalinate water. The state of Ugu suffered a great deal since it depends entirely on the electric grid. It was established that per year the government uses a lot of money to generate power for this activity. It is from this that Bill Staby, the founder of RME decided to take a thorough survey ad research in South Africa and see how effective his idea would be. The plant was to be put at Natal province in order to desalinate water due to the growing demand for purified water by its citizens.
Major strategic issues of the firm
The RME has undergone different metamorphosis to the realization of its dream. Its founder members were Bill Staby, the Chief Executive Officer alongside his colleague , Olivier Ceberio the Chief Operating Officer (COO). It has grown and exuded confidence among the users. The reason as to why the plant was established in South Africa is that the nation was vehemently relying on coal and other form of generation of power such as use of fuel which was very expensive to the nation. However, this fir m has established a new way of desalinating water using the wave generating power. This is why the plant has been established at the offshore of Natal province in order to tap power around it. It is commonsensical and generally known that water is much heavier as compared to air. Furthermore, it is 800 times denser than air. It is from this phenomenon that the firm decided to tap the energy in order to be used in purification purposes. RME has realized a lot of success, one notable one is that of provision of water that is pure and using the wave power hence not being costly to both the nation and the consumer. RME got its immediate support from the National Oceanic atmospheric Administration (NOAA). This enabled it to carry out its research well and also be in a position of setting up the plant since it had enough capital for commencement of its operation. The CEO with the advice from his COO employed the technique of developing the aquaculture case. This was to aid the firm in its operation of activities. It was boosted by being granted $100k to augment its operation. Caberio’s preference for firm setting was at South Africa whilst Staby preferred Alaska. However, they came into consensus as they agreed to be established at South Africa but, Alaska remains its experimentation ground.
PESTEL Analysis
PESTEL assesses or rather analyzes the pragmatic dynamism and unpredictability in the environment. This may be attributed by different factors such as social, political, economic, and technological.
Social
Nonetheless, for our case, the dominant challenge was on the social; scaling since this being a new company it had to take a very drastic approach in order to make its product marketable. Moreover, it started facing challenges from the growing companies which came up with new approaches; most of them seemed to be venturing in this field of using wave power generation which meant that RME would meet different competitors. This is a great threat to the said company and they ought to take a paradigm shift to capture their position and maintain their status.
Technological
Similarly, another analyses made on this, was the technological one. There are different firms and companies that are desalinating water and have devised some cost effective ways of doing so. It is now high time for this firm to reassess its operation and see the area of weakness for corrective measures to take place instantaneously. The companies with the most advanced Technologies are Pelamis, Carnegie Wave Energy, Oceanlinx and Ocean Power Technologies (OPT). In 2010, it is supposedly believed that these mega companies suffered a great deal of about CONTENTnbsp;5 million.
Political
The politics of a place determines whether a given firm would be established. RME enjoys a great advantage since it did not meet a lot of opposition politically. It was granted permission by the government to initiate its project. This is the reason for its swift move it made in the province of Natal in South Africa.
Economical
At first the company enjoyed monopolistic position. This is because by then not many companies and firms had ventured in the generation of power using the wave’s turbulence. However, RME had to prepare to face their upcoming competitors using the same strategies as theirs.
SWOT analysis
i. Strengths
The strengths of any business are equivalent to its success. For a successful business, some clear modus operandi has to be developed to up the operation of services made by the organization. RME seems to be a stable financial entity as it carries its activities well. It has improved its service through desalination of water.
They also offer training program, to their employees which also goes in tandem with the induction courses
ii. Weaknesses
These are the pitfalls of an institution. These shortcomings bar the firm from realizing its objectives. Some of them are:
The firm covers small demographical area
iii. Opportunity
There are many opportunities outside the company. These comprise of the group of other agents who link the company to its immediate consumer. Moreover, the company enjoys being a monopolistic firm.
Threats
They are those things that are prone to put the entity at stake. Some of these threats are:
• Competition from upcoming firm
• Cost of production
Key success
• Entered an MOU with Ugu
• Expanding its services to entire country
• A replicated firm established at Alaska
• Survived the test of time
• Amalgamation with other minor units
Porters 5 forces illustration
The portes 5 forces are expliocated below.
Supplier Power
The supplier influences the price of the product
Buyer Power
The buyer determines the cost of the commodity in the market.
Competitive Rivalry
Stiff competition from upcoming and existing companies.
Threat of Substitution
This occurs where the consumer has multiple of choices to make from variety of products which bears the same resemblance.
Threat of New Entry
Threat from new and emerging company.
CONCLUSION
The RME has made a tremendous effort in seeing to it that their operations are running smoothly. Through the leadership of the founder Bill Staby, a number of successes had been achieved. One notable one is the issue of desalination. It is evident now that the populous nation around South Africa can access fresh water for consumption purposes unlike what used to happen in the past. Summarily, this firm is not only important to the nation but diversified state as the generation of power use by different firms. RME produces a lot of power which is very crucial to the economy of the neighboring states.
