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Strategic Plan – Lyft’s Diversification and International Expansion into Sydney, AustraliaAlexandra WeitmanStrategic ManagementProfessor Colleen VucinovichPrincipia College – Elsah, Illinois3 May 2018Statement of PurposeThis strategic plan research paper, researched and written by Alexandra H. Weitman, is the final capstone project for the Business Administration Major and fulfills the Major Writing Portfolio requirement at Principia College in Elsah, Illinois. This strategic plan will implement a strategic plan for the ridesharing company, Lyft, to diversify and expand internationally into Sydney, Australia. This paper will discuss the many steps to implementing a strategic plan including investigating the external and internal environment of Lyft in the United States as well as investigating steps to enter into Australia, including market conditions externally as well as Lyft’s objectives and internal situation before it would decide to expand internationally into Australia. Once the external and internal environment is analyzed and understood, the strategic choice is introduced followed by the implementation, Critical Success Factors and Critical Activities for Lyft to be able to succeed in its diversification and international expansion into Australia, specifically the city of Sydney. IntroductionLyft is a web and mobile app that provides on-demand transportation that was started in San Francisco, California in June of 2012. Lyft was originally created by Logan Green and John Zimmer as a long distance ride service company called Zimride, which was made to provide transportation between University of California schools. When Lyft was launched, it focused more on providing shorter trips for riders in large cities. Lyft has grown a significant amount since its beginning and is now operating in 300 U.S. cities. The company was valued at $11.5 billion in December of 2017, and has just recently expanded to Toronto, Ontario, Canada in December 2017 as well. Lyft has also recently made an alliance with nuTonomy to research more about self-driving cars in large cities. In the spirit of expanding into new international markets, it is essential for Lyft to understand the international markets to which it could enter in. Each national market in the world has a different culture and process for its business. This graphic shows the global user penetration in the Ride Sharing market, showing the highest numbers in China, the United States, and some parts of Europe. Following behind these leaders are late majority leaders, like Canada, Brazil, South Africa, India, and Australia. Global penetration in Australia, for example, is around 7.3%, which is significantly low compared to China at 20.9% or the United States at 17.8%, which shows that there is a lot of potential to enter into Australia (Statista). Similarly, this graphic shows global revenue in Australia for the first three months of 2018, with Australia earning $447.3 million, measured in U.S. dollars (Statista). While Uber has already penetrated into Australia’s ridesharing market, there is still a lot of potential to enter for Lyft. Australia has around the same penetration and revenue from ridesharing as Canada, where Lyft is already entering, so it would be a good parallel for Lyft to enter into Australia as well. Because of these factors, it would benefit Lyft to move into the Australian market. Section IMarket Background Lyft’s business is to link drivers and riders in specific cities to bring these riders to their desired destinations. As of right now, Lyft does not own the market; it has around 11% market share while Uber has the majority of the market at around 54%. However, Lyft is above taxis and other car services, which are at 7% in market share (LeBeau). Lyft, also, is on the rise in gaining market share as its competition, Uber, is beginning to plateau due to its year of scandals in 2017. Lyft does control some distribution and marketing channels because of Uber’s scandals, and more and more of Uber’s consumers are switching to Lyft. The breadth of Lyft’s focus is significantly large because ride sharing can work in almost any major city around the world, so there are many global opportunities. Lyft’s main customers are adults aged 18-45 who go out together with friends, go shopping, go out as a family, or commute to work (Hensley). These customers want to arrive at their destinations affordably, safely, and relatively quickly without having to drive a car of their own and worry about parking it and protecting it while they are away, but at the same time be able to have the experience of a car ride (Nationwide). Lyft’s MissionLyft’s mission statement is simple and communicates their service and their main values. “Our mission is to reconnect people through transportation and bring communities together” (Twitter). To disaggregate this mission statement, we must look at how each department would describe its own individual mission statement. -Marketing DepartmentTo begin, the mission statement of the marketing department would most likely be to “provide an app that allows riders and drivers to communicate and interact with each other without any technological glitches, and provide each car with an easily discernible Lyft logo to promote the brand wherever the car goes.” For the marketing department, advertising well is important to them as well as user experience because consumer opinion about the brand carries a lot of weight, so that would be included. -Operations DepartmentNext, the mission statement of the operations department would most likely be to “provide great riding experiences for its riders through its trusted drivers and maintain good relations with drivers, as well as maintain user-friendly app experiences.” For the operations department, it most likely finds the processes and systems of the business to be the most important. -Finance DepartmentNext, the mission statement of the finance department would most likely want to “provide an app that allows riders and drivers to interact and exchange money for riding safely and comfortably to a desired location by providing a price per ride that helps Lyft to turn a profit, as well as enticing other companies to invest in this forward moving industry.” For the finance department, turning a profit in a young company is the most important goal to focus on. -Human Resources DepartmentNext, the mission statement for the Human Resources department would most likely want to “hire safe, seasoned, respectful drivers to represent the Lyft brand and maintain this by providing a rating process for drivers and riders to rate each other while trying to include as many people in the opportunity to become a rider/driver as possible, creating a ride-sharing community.” For the HR department, making sure everyone is being treated well as well as following protocol for safe, efficient car trips is a top priority. -Research & Development DepartmentFinally, the mission statement of the research and development department would most likely want to “provide an app that is the most updated and completes desired needs for finding rides to destinations, while simultaneously improving the app’s technology and expanding Lyft’s reach into other continents – where ride-sharing is a possibility or even a large part of society already and other brands are available to compete with.” For the research and development department, growing and diversifying are a top priority because there is always room for improvement, and if a young company is not taking huge strides to get out of its financial deficit, it is not performing to its potential. Lyft’s ObjectivesIn order for Lyft to move forward, it needs to have a vision and goals to achieve its vision. Lyft’s corporate objectives need to incorporate different aspects of its environment in order to understand the environment and compete with other players in the same market. -Financial ObjectivesFinancially, Lyft should want to expand their market share to at least 25% by 2030. As of recently, Lyft has 11% market share in the ride-sharing industry. Similarly, Uber’s scandals have given Lyft a good opportunity to gain market share with more people switching brands due to these scandals. -Behavioral ObjectivesBehaviorally, Lyft should want to maintain an ethical appearance and system of action toward riders, drivers, stockholders, employees, the community it operates in, and the environment in general. Lyft can do a biweekly check in with its employees for feedback on how the company is doing and how it can improve so there is constant communication with employees. Lyft can do a similar check in with its other stakeholders so that it receives feedback more often. -Environmental ObjectivesAdding on to the environment, Lyft should want to have a small carbon footprint by providing the opportunity for its drivers to switch their cars to environmentally friendly ones, like electric cars. Lyft could give stipends or additional benefits to drivers with electric cars as well. If it does not move in this direction, Lyft should still want to have a small carbon footprint and help each community’s environment by either investing in or donating to green power, small businesses, fair trade businesses, or any other process that helps the environment. Lyft could donate twice a year to a different company that operates with environmentally friendly systems in cities where Lyft operates. -Economic ObjectivesEconomically, Lyft should want to provide a market competitive price for rides while providing rides for the most people possible. Also, providing a living wage for its drivers is important as well because it adds jobs to the economy, which increases buying power in other sectors, which cycles back around to Lyft. This allows riders to pay more for their rides when they use Lyft’s ride-sharing services because they can afford to do so. Socially, Lyft should want to improve user interface on its web app and mobile app as hardware and software continue to change and update and as user needs change as well. It can provide an update for its app once a month with bug fixes or new updates for better user interface and constant improvements. -Innovation Objectives – Strategic PossibilitiesLyft is trying to diversify into self-driving cars. This is a highly technological direction that Lyft is heading into, but a lot of businesses are investing in self-driving cars, so it seems like a smart direction to move into for Lyft. Lyft has already taken root in Toronto, and through this Strategic Plan will move into Australia, so this would be a good step for Lyft to continue looking for new international markets to penetrate, since Uber has already been operating internationally for at least five years. By diversifying into new countries, Lyft can identify different cultural tendencies that they could tap into as well as improve themselves to fit into in the new environment. Section IIMacro-economic environment274320065532000The external environment for Lyft is a difficult industry to operate in because it is very new and ambiguous. The ride sharing industry is just under a decade old when Uber first began offering its services in San Francisco around 2009. Once ridesharing gained national reach, Uber, and then Lyft in 2012, began to extend further to almost every major city in the United States. The national income, as defined as the total value a country’s final output of all new goods and services produced in 2016, was $18.97 trillion PPP, according to the World Bank. Since Lyft is a privately traded company, it does not issue a 10k form publicly. Because of this, it is difficult to understand the capacity of the ridesharing industry’s financials. To uncover these unknowns more thoroughly, the Taxi and Limousine Commission of New York City gave some insight into the financial situation of car services. In 2016, the NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission was given a budget of $68,567,792, which shrank by 32% in 2017 to $46,890,009. When compared to the rise in market share of Uber and Lyft in the past five years, it could account for why the Taxi and Limo Commission in New York City is losing its budget by almost a third in one year. Goldman Sachs hypothesized that the ride-sharing industry, being valued at around $36 billion in May 2017, would grow to $285 billion by 2030, a 792% increase in market value (Huston). Market ConditionsThe United States population, according to the Population Census, is currently at 326.8 million people. Demand for ride sharing is high in urban areas, according to Nationwide. More and more millennial-aged people in the United States want to avoid buying their own cars, especially if they are living in a city. However, these millennial-aged people still want the safety and enjoyment of a car ride on their way to their destinations (Nationwide). Because of this, ride sharing is in high demand. As for the labor market, many drivers of Lyft also have other jobs. Being a driver for a ride sharing service is usually to make more money on the side, as I have heard from friends who drive or will drive for Lyft or Uber. Between Lyft and Uber, friends have said that Lyft treats its drivers better than Uber does. According to Ridester, when comparing Uber to Lyft, Lyft wins over Uber in pricing, customer service, and brand image, which are very important to riders and drivers. However, Uber beats Lyft in vehicle options, coverage areas, and innovation. The main reason why Uber is beating Lyft is because it is a larger, more experienced company, so it has more vehicle options and covers more cities world wide, and has more money to invest in more innovation. Lyft, dissimilarly, wins in pricing and soft skills like helping customers and having an ethical and more community oriented brand image. Unemployment RateThe unemployment rate in the United States, as of February 2018, was 4.1% (Bureau of Labor Statistics). This is significant to the ride sharing industry because of the new innovation of self-driving cars. Since cars would drive themselves, less drivers would be needed by these ride sharing services like Uber and Lyft. These two companies, though, have assured their drivers that their jobs will be safe, whether it is true or not (Ridester). In terms of the capital market conditions, Lyft is a privately owned company, so it is not publicly traded. On its economic report from 2017, Lyft published that its drivers had earned $1.5 billion, its passengers had saved $500 million in transportation, and also generated $750 million in local economies in 2017 (Lyft Economic Report). The material market conditions for ride sharing show that supplies are only needed for the web and mobile app since the drivers themselves provide their personal cars used in Lyft’s ride sharing services. Because of this, Lyft deals mostly with knowledge workers, mostly engineers, designers, and customer service employees, who would technically be supplying the materials needed to continue Lyft’s processes, which mostly deals with the labor market. Industry EnvironmentThe demand curve for Lyft’s ride sharing services can be shown below. 32004006667500To make more money and make use of high demand and low supply, Uber, Lyft’s main competitor, uses a surge pricing strategy. Surge pricing allows Uber to charge higher rates during peak hours of Ubers being hailed or ordered, to make use of the high demand and low supply. This price surging strategy gives riders little choice of other inexpensive options (Hahn). Lyft is known to be less expensive to use than Uber’s services. According to Ridester, Uber marks up their rides by seven or eight times more than the ride is actually worthwhile Lyft only marks up their rides by only two times more. As mentioned previously, most people who use ridesharing services are one of four types of riders: a shopper, a family, a commuter, or a group of friends. These four types of riders demand ride sharing, especially in large urban cities, where owning a car is not seen as desirable. In the ridesharing market, Uber owns 54% of market share, Lyft owns 11%, Taxis own 7%, and Car Rental services own the rest of the 28% (LeBeau). While Lyft still has a way to go before it becomes dangerous competitively to Uber, Lyft has been gaining in market share since Uber’s scandals of 2017. Competitive PricingAccording to Ridester, on average, Lyft provides less expensive rides for the same distance as an Uber, but both are less expensive than the same ride in a taxi or limousine service. Uber riders pay $25.73 for the same distanced ride as a Lyft ride, which would only cost around $19.20. Both of these, however, are usually less than cab fare, which is averaged with these ride prices at around $29.52. Product DifferentiationThere are different types of rides in these ridesharing services that allow riders to share the fare with each other if they are actually sharing a ride. This helps to segment this service and differentiate between types of rides. As of present, UberPOOL is the cheapest option because it can provide room for six passengers, who can split the ride fare six ways (Ridester). Lyft comparatively provides a similar type of ride called Lyft Line, which allows riders to share rides and share fare. Product QualityLyft differs from Uber in that Lyft provides a ride atmosphere more like a community than Uber does. If it is just one person for a ride, Lyft encourages the rider to sit in the front seat next to the driver. This allows for more conversation and connection between the rider and driver, allowing for potentially better ratings for both parties when the ride ends. For Lyft’s competitor, Uber, the atmosphere is created to be more professional and more like a chauffer than a friend. Also, because of the numerous Uber scandals that happened in 2017, Uber’s brand image has been damaged, resulting in lower product quality even if the ride goes well. Lyft’s ride quality has a friendly, community-like atmosphere, which allows potentially for better, happier rides between rider and driver. Because of this, many believe that Lyft treats people better than Uber would or even than taxis would. Product Lifecycle The product lifecycle of the ridesharing industry resembles the matrix below. 09144000This matrix shows the lifecycle of different brands and companies in the ridesharing industry and where they are in their lifecycle. Also included is the Boston Consulting Group matrix sections and where they would fall on the timeline as well as the types of consumers as relating to time of adoption of a product or service. Since Uber and Lyft are so new and successful, they would both be considered Stars, or in the Growth stage. Car rentals would be considered the cash cow or the Maturity stage of ridesharing or ordering a car for rides industry because it has been around for a long time, but it is still a huge moneymaker, especially at airports. The dogs, or those in the decline, would be traditional taxi services because they are being edged out of the ridesharing or ride hailing industry because they are not adjusting their prices to be competitive enough with Lyft or Uber. The types of consumers that would be using Uber and Lyft are in the Early Majority, who are interested in following trends, but did not want to risk it too early on. 297180012636500Industry Supply CurveThis industry supply curve shown above shows that connecting the points where output meets revenue creates short term supply of the industry. If rides continue to increase, revenue will increase. For the ridesharing industry, this makes sense because just starting out, these industry players will continue to supply jobs for drivers, which will meet the high demand for Uber and Lyft rides around cities. Barriers to EntrySome barriers to entry into this industry include economies of scale, start up costs, and competing with already huge industry names, like Uber, Lyft’s competitor. Since specialization of labor and more integrated technology boost production volumes, especially in an engineering and design heavy industry like ridesharing because it is necessary to develop web and mobile apps, new companies with low knowledge or labor power in these aspects of the brand will have a hard time entering the ride sharing industry. All three of these barriers work together to limit entry into this industry. Since Uber is international, it has already endured different regulations in order to enter into new international markets. However, Lyft has just only expanded out of the United States into Canada, but if it were to diversify and enter other new international markets, it would have to meet new policies and regulations of other nations’ governments, especially those in Australia. Australia’s policies for foreign companies entering into the Australian market are significantly difficult to adhere to because they are somewhat strict and long-winded. A foreign company is required to send in an application to register as a foreign company, to be in contact with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, and contacting a private service provider. This may inhibit some countries because the registration process is too long or too difficult, even if the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) grants to register their application. Boston Consulting Group Matrix – Growth vs. Market share09144000The Boston Consulting Group matrix shows the four different stages of a company’s products during their lives. The star that Lyft provides as of right now is Lyft Line. This is because Lyft Line is a ride service that allows for riders in a Lyft Line ride to share fare with each other in a ride that goes along the same route, which saves money for each rider. The cash cow of ridesharing is Lyft, the main type of ride that the company provides with four seats with one rider booking the ride who is responsible to pay for the ride. Two question marks that Lyft provides are Lyft Premier and Lyft Plus. Lyft Premier provides rides in high quality vehicles with seats for up to four riders. Lyft Plus provides room for six riders, which would be good for groups between 5-6 riders to travel together. Since Lyft is such a new company, there does not seem to be a ride that is considered a dog, yet. In the next five to ten years, some of the question marks may change into dogs depending on how popular or unpopular they are to Lyft’s riders. Since there are no public financial statements available for Lyft to show how much revenue is being made by each type of ride, nor is there public information about which rides are most popular or requested/used the most by riders, this information in the BCG matrix is based on which rides were created first and from common knowledge about which rides are used the most.Ansoff Matrix019431000 The Ansoff Matrix shows that while Uber is already in market development, it could move into diversification. For Lyft, it needs to move into product development or market development if it wants to diversify at all. Lyft is performing well in market penetration where it already is, but to move toward catching up with Uber, or even passing it, Lyft needs to create a strategy that moves into the markets that Uber is already in, or do something even different from Uber that will convince consumers to switch to Lyft. 2514600000Five Forces of PorterFor the Five Forces of Porter, threat of new entrants has low pressure because if new competitors enter into the market, it is highly unlikely that they will be able to catch up to Uber or Lyft because Uber has already become a global super power. Lyft has a lot of support as it expands to Canada, but it could improve with more riders, especially if they switch from Uber. Its employees, the drivers, provide supplier power, so Lyft’s success depends upon how many drivers it has to meet the high demand and create profit. Buyer power is where Lyft needs to power ahead. It needs Uber’s customers to switch to Lyft–which they have been–as well as pulling other consumers of transportation, like those using public transportation, their personal car, or other forms of transportation. The substitutes for Lyft are these other options mentioned just above that Lyft needs to convince potential consumers that it has more benefits than limits. Section IIIInternal AnalysisAfter assessing the external environment of Lyft, it is essential to look inward for deeper understanding into what is needed from Lyft in order to create a strategic plan. To begin, the opportunity cost for Lyft to move into Australia instead of another international market is that Australia is a lot farther away than markets like Latin America or even parts of Europe or Africa. However, Australia is an island, which provides somewhat of a microcosm for Lyft to be able to test out international penetration in a less risky way.Financials 272288056007000Because Lyft is a privately held company, its financials are not public. To investigate further, I reached out to Lyft directly in order to ensure that no information was missing from this strategic investigation. Lyft’s reply informed me that their financial information is truly private and could not be shared with me despite my inquiry. Due to this, there is no public information regarding their assets, liabilities, equities, investments, etc., so there is no information regarding the gearing ratio, the quick ratio, level of retained profits, among other financial information in order to understand how Lyft is faring financially. The conversation between Lyft’s online “Ask Lyft” account on Twitter and myself, which explains that Lyft cannot share its financial information, is found on the right. Sources of IncomeIn order to remedy this, research was done to collect financial information on the price of rides, the amount grossed by drivers, and the net amount retained by drivers after taxes. This may give some insight into Lyft’s financials. Lyft receives its source of income directly from riders. Riders pay the ride fare, which is earned by the driver. Drivers have gross earnings on average of $17.50 per hour, but drivers only retain around $3.37 per hour after taxes. This does not bode well for drivers because this hourly rate is not livable. Depending on the income tax rate per driver, drivers can earn slightly more. If the income tax rate for a specific driver were to be 15%, then $3.96 is taken from what drivers would get ($7.34), which leaves $10.16 for Lyft to take as gross profit (Bhuiyan). After Lyft reported that drivers earned $1.5 billion in 2017 in order to provide for their families, in other words after taxes, it meant that Lyft is earning around $7.89 billion gross earnings before paying drivers, in terms of reasoning through simple math. Research and DevelopmentLyft’s research and development/innovation department has most recently been working on developing self-driving cars. There have been some self-driving cars that were released in San Francisco, Lyft’s hometown, and some plans to release in Boston. This new venture has lead Lyft to team up with a self-driving car software company called nuTomony. This step toward innovation has helped Lyft to keep up with Uber as it has also been focusing on self-driving cars in cities (Anders). Similarly, Lyft is looking to move international. While Uber has been internationally active for a couple years, and has a head start on Lyft, it is still very important for Lyft to move into international markets because Uber is active in 58 countries and 632 cities worldwide while Lyft is only in 70 cities only in the United States (). Because of this, Lyft needs to consider moving into international markets very soon in order to nail down more market share in the ridesharing industry. Also, something that sets Lyft apart from Uber is that Lyft has been presenting innovation awards to special people who have made key contributions to advancing the ridesharing industry, “which correlates heavily to their core mission and values” (). Economies of ScaleBecause of the increase in innovation, economies of scale are affected. When innovation increases and improves over time, economies of scale advance, leading to a reduction in prices (). Especially with Lyft’s partnership with nuTonomy as well as its investors from General Motors, economies of scale will most likely decrease the price of rides because processes are becoming more efficient and problems are being solved, major and minor. SynergiesWhile General Motors has decided to invest in Lyft through a $500 million investment, it would not necessarily be seen as a partnership or Synergy (General Motors Company). However, even though Lyft has just recently moved internationally to Toronto itself, it has teamed up with other ridesharing businesses in other countries like Didi Chuxing in China and Ola in India, having some call it “the anti-Uber alliance” (Bosa). This “team up,” or partnership – as Lyft refers to it – allows Didi Chuxing users to hail a Lyft through their Didi app when they are in the United States without having to download Lyft’s app. Similarly, when Didi and Ola users are in the United States, their apps will send them a message to download Lyft for more permanent use while Lyft users when in China or India will receive the same message from Lyft to download Didi or Ola, respectively. This partnership is really helpful for Lyft internationally because it has created allies with other ridesharing companies before looking to become an international competitor (Bosa). This could help Lyft decide which market locations to penetrate in Asia in the future when moving into other international markets. Human ResourcesLyft’s human resources only want to hire the very best and brightest who are looking to disrupt industries and are gritty and scrappy when it comes to working in a “mission-driven environment” (Mehta). While this article is almost four years old, the culture at Lyft has not depleted its drive for innovation and the right people to build the teams it needs to keep “changing how people think about transportation” (Mehta). Ron Storn, Lyft’s Vice President of People, had stated that he wants a “nurturing type of individual who can play to others’ strengths and help them improve on areas of development.” He goes on to say in this interview with Profit Magazine, that Lyft looks for “individuals who display certain core elements– being very collaborative, scrappy, and no hierarchical.” Lyft seems to be hiring people that see one team member winning as the whole team winning, as well as people who deeply want to disrupt an industry and make lasting, major changes. These types of candidates are essential to Lyft’s culture of making rapid strides toward innovation and improving upon processes efficiently and with a scrappy, yet teamwork focused attitude. 264604516002000Value ChainLyft’s value chain put together its primary activities with its secondary or support activities in order for its systems to work correctly. The primary activities usually focus on the compilation and sourcing of resources and raw materials, using the materials effectively to create products, selling the products to buyers or businesses, along with the actual sales and advertising, and customer service. Since Lyft provides a service, many of these primary activity steps are skipped or changed in one way or another. Lyft’s materials consist of the drivers’ vehicles that they bring themselves to the job, so Lyft is not responsible for this besides hiring drivers that are reliable, which works more into Human Resources, a support activity. Lyft focuses more on the support activity because it provides a service instead of a tangible good. The firm infrastructure, or general administration, conducts general activities and includes all departments, which is important to Lyft because this is the internal basis of the business itself. The other support activities, HR Administration, Research Technology and Systems Development, and Procurement, are equally important and make sure all systems are working in accord. While Lyft’s procurement is privately held, HR and Research Technology and Systems Development, as mentioned earlier, are essential to the innovation being done on a day to day basis through hiring and retaining individuals who share the mission and vision of Lyft while being capable of doing the utmost to gain market share and disrupt the industry. Core CompetenciesLyft’s core competencies are what set it apart from its main competitor, Uber. Lyft has not had anywhere near as many scandals as Uber has had, if any, which helps them to keep in high regard in consumers’ minds. Also, Lyft allows riders to tip and rate their drivers for stand out rides, which reiterates that Lyft cares about its drivers and wants a community of riders and drivers through their recent tagline “It matters how you get there.” This sets Lyft apart from Uber because it reinforces that Lyft cares about its community of riders and drivers and that it wants to be a master in its craft, where little details matter most. Also, its price surging by two times the original base price is more practical and affordable, yet still effective than Uber’s price increase up to seven to eight times the original price. This is what sets Lyft apart more tangibly from Uber. Section IVStrategic ChoicesIn order for Lyft to continue with its mission “to reconnect people through transportation and bring communities together,” a strategic plan needs to be developed that takes Lyft to the next level where it can be more competitive with Uber. I would suggest that Lyft expand into a new international market. Since Uber has already expanded internationally into 57 countries besides the United States of America, and can be found in around 632 cities worldwide, Lyft is still able to penetrate a new market in another country without the fear of barriers to entry. Because of this, Lyft should enter into the Australian market, starting in Sydney, Australia. Generic StrategyThe generic strategy that would fit best for Lyft is Expansion and Differentiation. The more practical and affordable price surge sets Lyft apart from Uber, allowing more riders to choose Lyft over Uber internationally. Similarly, Lyft cares about creating a community in each city it becomes a part of and giving back to the community it joins, which shows it cares about the local economy, its people, and wanting to be a positive aspect of the city instead of hurting it. While Lyft wants to “disrupt industries,” as Ron Storn, Lyft’s Vice President of People said, it can do that without disrupting communities because of Lyft’s track record and statistics on its website of how much money has been funneled back into the community because of Lyft’s social enabling and support of local businesses (Mehta). Lyft’s expansion into a new international market allows for differentiation as well because it differs from Uber already, but also differs from Australian ridesharing companies as well due to its core competencies of lower price surging, its care for communities, and Lyft can decide to invest in the local economy as well, which will be touched on later in the section on Critical Success Factors. Grand StrategyIn this strategy, it would help to enter into a new market where Lyft could start an alliance with an existing ridesharing company or become a leader early on in order to compete with Uber in Australia as well as the other Australian market leader. After looking into new markets like China and Southeast Asia, it seemed evident that the market leaders were already too powerful to compete with at such a low level, even some market leaders beating out Uber. Because of this, these two countries/regions would not be a good first international market entry for Lyft to enter into. Contrastingly, Lyft is already looking to enter into Canada’s ridesharing market in real time, moving to enter into Toronto completely in the next year, so it would be redundant to create a strategy that has already been implemented by Lyft in some way. Australia, while it does have a significant amount of policies for businesses to enter into their markets, has already been home to Uber since late 2012. This shows that American ridesharing companies are able to enter in, so it is not impossible. However, since Lyft has just moved into Toronto within the past year, it would make sense not to move into Australia until 2019 in order to focus on Toronto for at least a year on its own and learn lessons about moving abroad that can be implemented into the next transition into Australia. Organizational Structure2938780112014000As mentioned previously, CEO Logan Green and President John Zimmer created Lyft and now are the top two executives for Lyft. These two executives have created a large company with a product team organizational structure with these two at the top. While there is no indication whether these team leads work with each other’s teams, it would make sense that the team leads collaborate with each other in order to be more transparent and fluid with company information. However, each executive has his own organizational structure.First, for CEO Logan Green, under him are names such as COO, CFO, CTO, CSO, Chief of Staff, VP of Product, VP of Engineering, VP of Design, and VP of Growth. This team under Green is more geared toward internal affairs and leading teams that focus on internal processes. -457200000Under President John Zimmer are the CBO, VP of People, VP of Government Relations, VP of Marketing, and General Counsel. This team seems to work with external affairs, except for Ron Storn, VP of People, which seems to be a part of Human Resources, which works with employees inside of the company already. However, Human Resources could be segmented this way because it hires people outside of the company, and that could be the reason it is grouped in the external affairs team. Corporate Culture Lyft’s corporate culture has been difficult for Lyft’s leaders to hold on to while the company has been growing at a “dizzying rate” over the past six years (Oliver). Ron Storn, VP of People, is the main leader setting the corporate culture at Lyft’s offices. Lyft has four core values: Be Yourself, Create Fearlessly, Uplift Others, and Make It Happen. Ron Storn mentions in a presentation given at the 2nd Annual Culture Conference in October of 2016 that Lyft wants employees to be themselves like they would be at home or away from work in order to mimic the comfort felt at home to provide a safe work environment that promotes efficient, fun productivity. Storn refers to the corporate culture as “collaborative and team oriented.” Storn is even quoted by saying, “Culture definitely starts with your founders, your CEO, and your leadership, but I think it's owned by everyone in the organization” (Oliver). Lyft’s corporate culture needs to continue to be flexible while the company continues to grow, especially into international markets, but still stay true to its mission and core values. Critical Success FactorsBased on the suggested strategies, Lyft’s three main critical success factors would be: 1. To increase market share, 2. To maintain its four core values while it transitions into becoming an international company, and 3. To give back to the communities it joins through this transition. These three main critical success factors are important to Lyft’s ability to enter into Australia without unnecessary obstacles. To be able to achieve these critical success factors, Lyft needs to implement some critical activities. -Increase Market ShareIn order to increase market share, a critical activity to achieve this would be to possibly lower the price surge even further. While Uber has a price surge 7-8 times their original base price during peak hours, Lyft could decrease their price surging strategy from double the original base price to only around 1.5 times more. This competes directly with Uber even more as well as with Australian based ridesharing company, Taxify and GoCatch. Taxify does price surging at 1.5 times the base price while GoCatch does not price surge whatsoever (Lieu). -Maintain Core ValuesIn order for Lyft to maintain its four core values as well as its mission and vision while it transitions into an international company, Lyft should implement a company wide monthly check in with each city’s office in order for office teams to meet and discuss how the core values have been implemented with tangible examples and results. This would allow for a widespread way to keep in touch with office culture bridged over borders and oceans. -Give Back To CommunityFinally, in order for Lyft to give back to each community it enters into, Lyft should commit to donating a certain amount to local communities as well as possibly highlighting certain local businesses in its social media or tangibly by handing out vouchers to these businesses in a sort of partnership. Lyft already does highlight certain businesses in the cities it inhabits on its website through an annual online event called The Lyftie Awards. In 2017, there were six overarching awards including Most Visited Restaurant, Most Visited Bar, Most Likely Place to Spot A Celebrity, Most Visited Museum, Most Visited Coffee Shop, and Most Visited Sports Bar. Similarly, each city has these categories, which highlights popular locations in each city based on ride information from that year. This could be added to cities in Australia that Lyft could enter into, starting with Sydney. Appropriate Management StyleIn order for Lyft to successfully enter into the Australian ridesharing market and run successfully, management needs to know exactly what it is doing and the management style needs to fit perfectly in terms of a growth mindset. Maintaining the company domestic and abroad is difficult because there is distance involved, but the management style used needs to have clear, transparent communication as well as a proactive atmosphere contributed by all employees. However, as Ron Storn said, “culture…starts with your…leadership,” so it is important for management to set that standard and make clear the expectations of the individuals in the company. The management style necessary is well explained by Henry Mintzberg about managers having a balance. Especially while going abroad, a company’s manager needs to take all aspects of the transition into account as well as who is staying domestically. Being too extreme as a manager may tip the scale in terms of decision-making and taking risks. However, making concrete decisions based on the company’s core values does not have to be middle of the road whatsoever. Moving to Australia, Lyft is taking a risk, but is staying true to its core values and mission of connecting people with rides who need them most. ConclusionOverall, Lyft would be making a smart choice to move into Sydney, Australia in 2019. Lyft wants to expand its reach as well as gain market share, and the best way to do that would be to move even further internationally into a nation that may have a long registration and transitional period, but for now only houses one global superpower – Uber. Lyft has a lot to offer that stands apart from its main competitor, Uber, like its lower price surging strategy as well as giving back to the communities it enters into. With Lyft’s core values of being yourself, creating fearlessly, uplifting each other, and making it happen, it has a team-oriented, collaborative, supportive organization that will be able to support new ventures in Australia while keeping its stakeholders, like its employees and customers, overly satisfied with its services. Penetrating the Australian market is what Lyft needs most to do in order to continue closing in on the market share that Uber is inescapably letting go of. If Lyft can maintain its own image projected through its core values and mission of connecting people with rides who need them most while confidently sharing its core competencies with its new communities, Lyft will undoubtedly succeed. BibliographyAnders, Jason. "Where the Ride-Sharing Industry in Asia Is Headed; Grab's Anthony Tan and NuTonomy's Doug Parker on Driverless Cars and Other Ride-Sharing Trends." Wall Street Journal (Online) [New York], 13 June 2017, Business sec. 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