Trojan Technology Inc. Case Analysis

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Culture. The culture within Trojan is based on having a positive attitude, which Vander Laan stated was key. If people come in because they love coming to work, it is because “[i]t’s a place where you’re respected, where you’re asked to take risks, where you’re allowed to fail as long as you succeed most of the time” (Trojan Technologies, 2014, para. 1).

Goals and Strategy. Their purpose is to “…enable customers to meet their water quality objectives by providing eco-efficient solutions that reduce and recover costs, energy, resources and space” (Trojan Technologies, 2014, para. 5). This is obtained through collaborative problem solving for customers, and ensuring “greater water confidence and environmental stewardship for people, industries and municipalities” (Trojan Technologies, 2014, para. 6-7), which would help to improve over a billion lives globally.

Competitive strategy

The systems that Trojan created for the disinfection of water, were meant to be used at wastewater treatment plants that ranged in size from small to very large, as well as ones that were more complex. In addition, they also marketed clean water products that were utilized in producing clean municipal and residential drink water and industrial process applications (Upton, 1999). Using Porter’s competitive strategies framework, it is evident that Trojan Technologies Inc. is utilizing a differentiation strategy. This strategy is used by organizations as an “…attempt to distinguish their products or services from others in the industry” (Daft & Armstrong, 2015, p. 62). Using their patents on their products, this strategy enabled them to gain a competitive advantage over the competition. In addition, since their product is much more expensive in certain aspects, the use of the differentiation strategy will be successful since they must target consumers who are not concerned about the price, such as the municipality or contractors working for the municipality.

Effectiveness of the Organization

The effectiveness of an organization “…evaluates the extent to which multiple goals – whether official or operative – are attained” (Daft & Armstrong, 2015, p. 70). For Trojan to ensure its effectiveness, it needs to have clear, focused goals with an appropriate strategy to achieve them. To determine how effective Trojan is as an organization, the competing-values model will be used. This model looks at their focus – whether internal or external – and their structure – whether it is more stable or more flexible.

Using Exhibit 2.8 in Daft & Armstrong (2015), it appears that Trojan lies somewhere in between all four approaches, however, the organization would have more emphasis in the human resources approach and the rational-goal approach (p. 77). Though it is leaning slightly more towards the control and external aspects in terms of structure and focus, it still has ties into the internal aspects in terms of human resource development, thus making the company rational-goal oriented, with a touch of the human relations emphasis, and nearly non-existent ties into the remaining categories (See Appendix 1). This is because Trojan is looking towards how to improve the company globally, and how they should structure the company in terms of this, while still ensuring that the employees are kept in the loop to ensure cohesion and a team-based approach.

Trojan’s Environment

The elements outside of Trojan can play a huge part in how successful the company is, whether they will be able to expand, as well as so many other factors. To understand how Trojan should proceed with dealing with the substantial growth that they have, it is in their best interests to look at their task environment and their general environment. This will provide them with insight into whether these sectors may play an important part in defining how they determine a strategy for the changes they need to make.

Task Environment

The task environment is the sectors of the environment directly interact with and that have a direct impact on the organization’s ability to achieve their goals (Daft & Armstrong, 2015). This section will look at the industry, market, and international sectors.

Industry. Trojan developed specialized “UV light applications for disinfecting water and wastewater…[This] had proven to be an environmentally safe and cost-effective alternative to chlorination, and was gaining wider recognition and acceptance” (Upton, 1999, p. 1). This is helping to push them further into the industry and help make a name for themselves in the effectiveness of cleaning water and wastewater.

Market. Despite Trojan gaining wider recognition, “…only five per cent to 10 per cent of municipal wastewater sites in North America use UV-based technology…[and] of the approximate 62,000 wastewater treatment facilities operating worldwide, only 2,500 currently utilize UV disinfection systems” (Upton, 1999, p. 1). These statistics make it evident that Trojan needs more growth before they become a leader in the market and gain more market share.

International. As a company that does dealing globally, Trojan is faced with the constraints and uncertainties that follow. For this organization, they are faced with struggles in terms of the timing of service calls, and the physical location of service employees on a geographic basis. In addition, this caused a significant amount of travel to be involved and risked having the employees become “burned out” (Upton, 1999).

General Environment

The general environment is the sectors of the environment that indirectly affect and influence the day-to-day operations of the firm (Daft & Armstrong, 2015). This section will look at the financial, technological, economic, and governmental sectors that will influence the decision of Trojan.

Financial Resources. By 1998, Trojan Technologies Inc. was expected to exceed sales of $70 million and continue its growth for the next five years, by at least 30 per cent, to a substantial $300 million in 2003 (Upton, 1999). As well, with each project that they could win, that was another $100,000 to $500,000 in their pockets.

Technology. Trojan technologies created many patents regarding their UV units. These units are created to use special lamps that emit UV light at particular wavelengths to disrupt or kill the DNA of micro-organisms in the water (ESP Water Products, 2017, para. 6).

Economic Conditions. During this period, the economy is growing at a strong rate

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