ACADEMY OF ECONOMIC STUDIES, BUCHAREST

Gfk Romania
Strategic Management
Case Study
10/01/2012

Coordinator: Orzea Ivona

Students: Grebles Ruxandra, Gr.1 Irinca Andra Florina, Gr.1 Robescu Andreia, Gr.2

Bucharest, 2012

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Introduction 2. General description of the company 3. Organizational purposes: vision, mission, values, objectives.
4. 5.

Diagnosing of the strategic capability within company Limitations in managing strategic capabilities within company Methods of pursuing strategies within company

6. Strategy development within company

7.

8. Strategy evaluation 9. Conclusions References

1. Introduction
Strategic management can be defined as the art and science of formulating, implementing, and evaluating cross-functional decisions that enable an organization to achieve its objectives. (Fred, R., 007, pag5) The positive relationship between the strategic management and business success, enlarged the process usage by small firms, large companies, non-profit institutions, governmental organizations and multinational conglomerates alike. Strategic management actually gives the organisation a sense of identity and unity towards its goals. The process itself consists of three main stages: strategy formulation, strategy implementation and strategy evaluation. If used effectively, the concept leads to significant improvements and high profitability within a company, thus gaining a competitive advantage when compared to firms without systematic planning activities. (Fred, R.,2007)

2. General presentation of the company History

GfK Romania was founded in 1992 and is integral part of GfK Group. Established 75 years ago as the first market research company in Germany, the GfK Group has today more than 150 branches in 100 countries on five continents. GfK Group is one of the largest research organizations in the world market, being situated on the forth place, as follows: 1. The Nielsen Company, USA 3. IMS Health, USA 2. Kantar Group & Taylor Nelson Sofres, UK 4. GfK Group, Germany For over 8 years GfK Romania has been the number 1 research institute market in Romania with a turnover of over 9 million euros in 2008. The quality of the collection, analysis and interpretation of market data, as well as specialized consulting provided to clients in the areas of industry, trade, media- for state and private institutions - have contributed to the success of the company. GfK Romania's activities are structured in 3main segments: Custom Research - Ad Hoc Research, Retail and Technology - continuous research for electronic goods and Media qualitative and quantitative research for media consumption. (company website).

Departments

GfK Romania's activities are structured in 3 segments: Custom Research - Ad Hoc Research, Retail and Technology - continuous research for electronic goods and Media - qualitative and quantitative research for media consumption. Custom Research Through the Custom Research division, GfK provides clients with information services for their operational and strategic marketing decisions. These include tests and surveys on product and pricing policy, brand management, communication, distribution and customer loyalty. The Custom Research business helps branded goods manufacturers, service providers and the advertising industry to test the likely efficiency of their product, pricing and communication policies. The business information services that GfK provides are designed to support all aspects of the marketing decision-making process for industry, service providers and retailers: Consumer Tracking, HealthCare, Lifestyles, Automotive, Financials, Retail, Industrial Goods, Consumer Goods, Telecoms & IT, Tourism, Energy. Retail and Technology The Retail and Technology Division within GfK Group is specialized in monitoring 250 groups of products belonging to several categories of durables: IT products, telecommunications, electronic products and household appliances, entertainment, photo or DIY products.

Globalization has been a key factor that has determined the success in monitoring durables, the success materializing itself in the fact that it holds the 1st rank worldwide. GfK Retail and Technology has subsidiaries and branches in over 70 countries, the clients benefiting from a unitary format in all these countries and there is the possibility of aggregating the data from several countries in one single report. The Retail and Technology Division was set up with GfK Romania at the beginning of 2005. The activity covers the monitoring of the sales of household appliances, electronic and photo products, mobile telephones and IT, the elaboration and supply of market reports, on a monthly basis for mobile phones and IT and once every two months for the other categories. The monitoring consists in collecting data about sales which is done it in the following formats: in electronic format, from the big chains of stores; on paper support, from a representative sample of independent stores or stores that belong to smaller store chains. Media In the 21st century, media dominates our daily lives. Home or office, in the car or on foot, we are in permanent touch with different channels of mass communication. The world media today has many facets, and so media research requires knowledge and expertise of specialists in market research on each segment of such a dynamic market. At international level, GfK Group offers services in identifying consumer behavior and attitudes of media consumers, both for traditional vehicles, and also for the innovative ones. GfK Group Services for Audiences Measurement represent the exchange currency for the advertising markets on TV, radio, online, for outdoor as well as for newspapers and magazines. Media division in Romania is strongly represented by the two different areas of services: TV Research sole supplier to the National Service of TV Audiences Measurement; Media Research is part of the division of Custom Research of GfK Romania. GfK Romania has a divisional structure, which groups together people who work on the same product or process, serve similar customers and/or are located in the same geographical region. Thus, there are three types of divisional structures: product structure, market structure, and geographic structure out of which GfK fits better the second division. The main advantage of this kind of structure is that it allows employees of a certain division to concentrate on one type of product, on responding better to the needs of customers, or on responding better to the needs of customers in different parts of the world. Moreover Gfk has made some strategic alliances that have strengthen its position on the market. One such alliance is the one between Gfk and Social Media Insight & Analysis company, NetBase, to provide enhanced online conversation tracking and sentiment analysis that will support GfKs research capabilities. Through this strategic alliance, GfK will use the
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NetBase platform, social intelligence warehouse, analytic tools and scorecards to provide clients with insights that integrate advanced social media "listening with other market research methodologies. GfKs analysis of consumer conversations and sentiment occurring across the spectrum of social networks and other digital platforms will enhance GfK client engagements, providing a deeper understanding of the dynamics and drivers of brand affinity including brand health, customer experience, and corporate reputation to guide current and future marketing initiatives. Porters Five Forces Model Porters model is based on the insight that a corporate strategy should meet the opportunities and threats in the organizations external environment. Porter has identified five competitive forces that shape every industry and every market. These forces determine the intensity of competition and hence the profitability and attractiveness of an industry. The objective of corporate strategy should be to modify these competitive forces in a way that improves the position of the organization. Bargaining power of suppliers to provide goods or service you need suppliers, that it is a term that comprises all sources for inputs. (Dagmar, R. 2001) The bargaining power of supplier for GFK is likely to be low because there are few suppliers and there are substitutes for the particular input. Because they have direct contact with the suppliers there are no switching costs from one supplier to another. Bargaining power of customers this power reflects how much a customers can impose pressure on margins and volumes. The bargaining power of customers is likely to be high in GFK, because the client is the main corporate value that guides GFK. The customers can buy a large volume of services that GFK offers. There is a large number of small operators on the Romanian market that can become substitutes for the GFK services. But on the another hand the bargaining power of costumers is not so high, because the product of GFK has strategic importance for the customer and can help the clients to satisfy their needs by bringing them reports about consumers satisfaction of company products and about the other companies they compete with(Dagmar, R. 2001). Threat of New Entrants in an industry competition will be higher if it is easier to enter in that industry. When there are new entreats on the market environment, they can bring major changes on the industry at any time. All these threats of new entrants may be slower if they have some barriers to entry. Some of the typically barriers to entry in an industry, that apply in the domestic market research are: Economies of Romania that it is not in a good situation, and we have a government that makes all the time change in legislation, there are high initial investment and fixed costs to start a new company in this field, the customers for this service are loyalty for brand, because they know how they work and it is difficult to access the raw materials, you need time and money for this. Even it is not so easy to entrants on this industry of market research, you can have success if you make publicity for your products and services. (Dagmar, R. 2001). Threat of substitutes if there are alternative products or service with a better offer for the same purpose that can represent a threat for company, because the consumers will prefer to pay
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less if it is same performance for the same product and they will not take in consideration the brand or the company. But for GFK the threats of substitutes is not big, because they have an impressive list with loyal customers like TVR, Prima, Red Bull, P&G , BCR, BRD, Rompetrol etc. and because they are a global company they inspire trust and professionalism for the clients, it is like a current trends to make business with a global organization. (Dagmar, R. 2001) Competitive Rivalry between Existing Players The competition between existing players represent an important force in an Analysis of external competitive business environment (Porters model). On the domestic research market we will find at least 50 companies of research (website). But in our days GFK is the leader in Romania research market and it is ranked no.4 in the world. The facts that are so many companies in this field but with a higher difference between players and their products make this competition not to be so high.

3. Organizational purposes
Every organization is a unique entity, thus having a unique purpose and reason for being. This uniqueness is usually reflected within the vision and mission statements. Being considered very important tools of strategic management, their main value is derived from their specification of the ultimate aim of a firm (Fred, R., 2007) : they provide managers with a unity of direction, they promote a sense of common expectations and wishes among all levels of employees, they consolidate values over time, they project a sense of worth and intend to be easily identified by outsiders, and last but not least, they affirm and promote responsibility and commitment within the area of their activity. (Pearce, J., 1982) There is a big difference between the vision and the mission of any company. While the former one usually answer to the question, What do we want to become, the last one is concerned with finding out What is our business?. Although they are quite misleading at a first view, the answers are usually simple and clear. Thus, they are well defined and made public all over the world. Experts agree that vision should be firstly determined in order to provide the foundation for developing a comprehensive mission statement. (Fred, R., 2007)

Vision
When developing the vision, it is better to take into consideration a long-term period of time. It should be clear, precise and elevated and have an internationally sense: it is essential to push on vision globally rather than trying to drive home different messages in different cultures (Reuben, M., page 62) The GfKsvision statement looks into the future at least five years and defines a desired future state of the company which is: to act as a decision making tool, based on seven principles precision, detail, technology, analysis, depth, punctuality and service - which are all focused towards the success of their clients projects.
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The vision clearly states that the company wishes to invest in the quality of their services and technology in order to be prepared to assist its customers worldwide and in all kinds of situations. Gfk believes that it has a different vision of market research, the element of originality being its capital structure that makes it possible for them to adhere to three essential values in the market research industry (web site):

Independence in terms of capital; Scientific values. The Research & Development has been at the heart of methodological and analytical development and it ensures the internal and external validity of their key measures and scientific innovation which creates value for the clients; Ethical value described as a pillar of its raison dtre.

Mission
GfK- Growth from Knowledge Based on what Benjamin Frankling once stated, an investment in knowledge always pays the best interest, GfK started to develop its mission statement. Companies need to make decisions. Knowledge is the basis for decision-making. GfK business information services provide the essential knowledge that industry, retail, healthcare, service sectors and the media need in order to make their decisions. Thus, as a knowledge provider, GfK aims to be at the top in all the global markets in which it operates in the interest of clients, employees, company, shareholders and the general public.(company website). By evaluating GfKs mission statement, it can be noticed that it includes eight out of nine of the essential components that should be exhibited. Thus, the following characteristics: customers, products or services, markets, concern for survival, growth and profitability, philosophy, selfconcept, concern for public image and concern for employees, are all expressed accordingly. The only exception is done by the technology component which should reveal if the firm is technologically up to date.( Fred, R., 2007)

Corporate Values
A companys statement of values is a high level statement that describes how the company behaves. It is not a mission statement that describes what task the company aims to fulfil, neither is it a set of commercial objectives. Corporate values are about what the company stands for and how its employees behave. They are about framing a role for the business that gives it a purpose beyond profit. GfK has 5 main corporate values that guide it through all its activities, as follows:
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 Client-driven The clients needs drive the GfKs business. It continuously seeks to better understand its clients needs, improve all aspects of existing research products, offer innovative products and to be an integral part of our clients information systems. Accuracy, sound methodology, excellent client service, flexibility, timely delivery and cost effectiveness all ensure that GfK meets and even exceeds its clients expectations. It builds long-term partnerships with its clients, contributing to their success. Employees The employees are GfKs main asset. Development through training, sharing ideas and sound experience is essential to its business. The employees have the freedom to explore and develop their talents and are empowered to achieve the companys common goals. It encourages and rewards initiative, dedication and hard work. Fairness, good communication and working relationships at all levels and locations are key to GfKs success. Innovation GfK recognizes that investing in continuous innovation in both the process and the end product is a prerequisite to meeting clients requirements. The aim is to be at the cutting edge with the key business activities. Clients needs, evolving markets, new technology and the expertise and ideas of all the employees throughout the world are what drive innovation. Global expertise local knowledge The company respects and learns from local business practices and cultures and provides knowledge tailored to local needs. Its global network comprises international teams, tools and products to provide multinational clients with consistent services. As proud members of the GfK Group, GfK Romania shares local and international expertise to continually improve all aspects of the business. Growth Profitable growth results in greater opportunities. As individuals, teams and business units, GfK is aware of the impact of its decisions and actions at all levels. It uses financial and nonfinancial measurements to review and improve performance on an ongoing basis. Its growth provides investors with a fair return on the financial resources they have entrusted.

Strategic Objectives
GfK Group together with GfK Romania has 5Star objectives (as they called them) for the future:

 Fact-based Consultancy Competence through added value and consultancy Focus on customer relationship Innovation Leadership Top 3 Top 3 Global Player currently number 4; Top 3 for the Individual Sector aim achieved in 1 out of 3 sectors; Top 3 in Key Countries target achieved in 10 out of 20 biggest market research countries. Global Reach The third aim under the Global Reach initiative is to further expand the network from the present level of more than 100 countries and to establish a presence in other countries, which are important both economically and in terms of market research, where it does not yet have its own subsidiaries. Full Service Expertise in all markets and regions relevant to market research; Information services for the full range of strategic and operating marketing decisions; Use of standard, high quality analysis methods. Excellent Financials Margin 13-15% Sales EUR 1.500 million Tax ratio of about 30%
4.

Diagnosing of the strategic capability within company

Gfk conducts hundreds of custom proprietary projects a year both qualitative and quantitative. This is because the clients trust their knowledge, recognize them as experts and value their capabilities to collect information via a breadth of methodologies, from desk research and telephone to Web or focus group. One example is represented by the newly developed Eye Tracker. The system presented at Marketing Research 2011 helps a company understand what is in the mind of a buyer by seeing through his eyes and accurately establishing at what he/she is looking and is interested in. Eye Tracker is made of plastic glasses that hold two small video cameras. The first scans the eye, record its movements, tracking what the subject is looking at as a response to certain stimuli; the second film the space in front of the analyzed subject. The signal from both is then transmitted to a computer, the recordings are put together and with the help of special software the information is decoded and analyzed.
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Eye Tracker records all the actions that form the buyers experience inside the store. With this a company can identify, for example, preferred buying routes and specific behaviors, the effects of sales and to what extent they make the buyer stop and the value of different positions of putting the merchandize on a shelf. Each step of the buying decision can be described, catching the first moment of truth: what was touched, what was smelled, what was only looked at and for how long and, maybe the most important, what was never looked at. Another strong capability of Gfk is represented by excellent communication within the company, between employees and stakeholders and of course between company and clients. As a proof Gfk Romania is the first market research company participating in the most important competition dedicated to communication industry, Romania PR Award, that has won the Silver Award for Excellence for the campaign ReThink. ReInvent. ReBuild. Another project that emphasizes the companys strong communication skills is Gfk Extra Job. GfK Extra Job is an internal communication program meant to stimulate the traditional internal events by introducing a more intense component of interactivity and creativity. The campaign has shown that a happy team functions by the same rules as a happy family. Respect, enthusiasm, implication are the ingredients for long time engagement, especially when the family members are more than 140. The success of this internal communication program was awarded at Global HR Conference of Gfk Group with the HR Best Practice Award for the Category Retain. In addition the idea was taken up and implemented in other Gfk companies. Moreover the company has other capabilities that help it maintain its competitive advantage as follows: GfK Romania is the single marketing research company from our country that is specialized in the Media field Its turnover increased during the last years despite the economic crisis, being registered at almost 40 million Euro in 2010 The employees are real professionals with over 10 year experience in the field, but there are also young collectives having an age range of 22-35. In this way, the personnels capacity of working is high and together with their optimism and their positive attitude towards work and commitment, they present all the premises of a bright future of the company. The level of devotion and sacrifice is always high as regular after-work hours are made. The day of work should start from 8 am and last till 4 pm, but it usually ends at 6 or 7 in the evening. They created a client-relation with the biggest companies from Romania: Pepsi, Red Bull, Danone, Nestle, ING, BancPost, BRD, ERSTE Bank, Renault, Rompetrol, Fiat, etc. Long lasting experience - 75 years at international level and over 17 years of active presence on the Romanian market; Highly specialized - development and patent of numerous own methodologies, scientifically established and practically validated; Over 300 quantitative and qualitative studies, 400 focus groups and 300 in-depth interviews conducted yearly on the market in Romania;
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Long business relationships with the largest multinational companies in the world and in the country and leading Romanian companies; Latest technology (software and hardware); Extended employees network: over 600 across the country.

Last but not lest GfK Romania is a member of ESOMAR, the worldwide organization of market research professionals. Being an ESOMAR member provides credibility and prestige for researchers offering a valued means of recognition among members and within the wider marketing and research world - the ESOMAR Membership Mark. As a member of ESOMAR a company demonstrates that, as a professional researcher, it cares about consumer protection and wants to stay abreast of the latest ethical issues and guidelines for best practice. ESOMAR embodies professional global standards for a worldwide industry and facilitates an on-going dialogue with its 4,900 members, in over 120 countries, through the promotion of a comprehensive programme of industry specific and thematic conferences, publications and best practice guidelines. ESOMAR also provides ethical guidance and actively promotes selfregulation in partnership with a number of associations across the globe

5. Limitations in managing strategic capabilities within company

GFK does not have high resistance from other players on the market because of their ongoing improvement in everything that they do and by trying to satisfy the clients by making their needs to drive the GfKs business. For this reason they have long relationship with their customers, but even they are placed on the first place among the marketing research companies from Romania, they dont have a good advertising and that can represent a resistance. They need to try to make some publicity for their products and services by bringing some offers for the loyal customers, making some presentation in some companies and in universities, bring more information in the newspapers. What is more even if today GfK is placed on the first place among the marketing research companies from Romania, the high competition still exists between them and Synovate, Mercury or AC Nielsen. It has to focus on a continuous development in order to respond promptly to the new challenges.

6. Strategy development within the company

In order to reach its 5Star objectives Gfk has developed the following strategies:

With the first initiative Fact-based Consultancy GfK aims to consistently expand its service offering to produce high quality, information-based ongoing advisory services for the top level management of its clients. In addition to providing precise and up-to-date information it intends to further strengthen its position as the essential partner for the clients market decisions.

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With the Top 3 initiative GfK has set itself the ambitious target of becoming the number 3 in the market research industry. In conjunction with this aim, it will work intensively to take at least the number 3 spot in the industry for the sectors and in the key countries. With the fourth initiative, Full Service GfK intends to further enhance its position as a company specializing in market research services which has a wide ranging offering of information, analysis and advisory services for all the market research segments in consumer goods, pharmaceuticals, media and services. The fifth initiative, Excellent Financials, defines the medium-term financial expectations. GfK is working to drive its sales quickly up to the EUR 1.5 billion mark and in the next few years to generate a margin of between 13 and 15%.It has set specific targets for reducing its indebtedness and this also applies tothe tax ratio for the Group. (company website, company brochures)

GFKs business strategy is called Own the future and its goal is to transform the company into a truly global organization that will combine all of the core assets under the roof of One Gfk. From a customer point of view this new strategy will bring certain benefits:

Gfk will deliver the knowledge needed to expand across borders into new markets; Will help clients innovate for success in this new world that becomes a smaller, more connected place and where technology changes lives; Will create stronger connections between different markets, between different areas of expertise and between every GfK colleague. All to provide deeper insights; By harmonizing their products they will create value for clients through synergies, knowledge-sharing and a stronger portfolio of global solutions; Because they analyze the entire process they can tell clients what people see, how they fell and what they buy at every stage; Their solutions cover everything that happens in the important months, weeks, days and seconds before the customers decide to buy (or not buy) products, services or ideas; They are streamlining, to work in a faster, more responsive, more efficient way; Kfk experts are on the ground in every major market, giving deep local knowledge, with global standards of excellence; They are investing in people, supporting them to lead GfK and their clients to a rewarding new future.

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7. Methods of pursuing strategies within the company

Bernard Reimann said that the greatest strategy is doomed if its implemented badly (Fred,R.D., pg.305) In order to have maximum results in achieving the strategy the company decided to conduct a market segmentation. Market segmentation can be defined as the subdividing of a market into distinct subsets of customers according to need and buying habits.(Fred,R.D, 2007) Because of this Gfk made some adjustments to its Marketing mix variables: product, price, promotion, place. It has developed new tools in order to better assist its customers. PRODUCT
GfK PRODUCT CHALLENGER

GfK Product Challenger is a complete diagnostic tool designed to test and refine new products prior to launch. It allows customers to make sure that their new product fits the concept, to choose the most promising new product formulation out of several alternatives, to benchmark the product against market competitors, determine whether or not the product improvements will be appreciated by consumers, current users (alienation risk) as well as new users (recruitment capacity), measure the risk that may come from switching to a lower cost formula. PRICE The Gfk Solution to Price Optimization Price is emerging increasingly as a driver when it comes to choosing products and brands.Gfk will help their clients,at a very early stage of product development, to determine the price that fits their product while fully exploiting what the target group is willing to pay for such a product. Gfk tries to resolve a number of pricing issues such as which price strategies should one implement for certain ranges and how can profit as well as sales be increased? They use for this tried, tested and creative methods. Theyselect the ideal method for a clients project from a broad portfolio, or adjust their own methods to the circumstances. PROMOTION Strong Ties Create Strong Brands Today, brands are the key value drivers for companies. This is why they need to be continually cultivated and strategically developed. Given that shoppers/consumers ultimately control the success of a brand through their purchasing decisions, they play a vital role. Brands and brand management must consequently focus on establishing strong and lasting relationships with customers, developing potential customer relationships and managing these
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intensively. Customers must be able to identify with the rational and emotional dimensions and value systems conveyed by the brand claims. Only then are ties created that will take brands to success. Regular views of the effectiveness of all marketing investments are also very important. Only investments that promote brands in line with their strategic goals evoke a clear brand image in the target groups. GfK has established a comprehensive, integrated research system to support brand manufacturers in their assessment of the effectiveness of their own marketing

activities.For this Gfk developed the Brand and Communication Overview to help the clients obtain a rapid summary of the overall performance of their brands and marketing activities. The Overview facilitates identification of the strengths and weaknesses of their activities at a glance and is one of the instruments of choice for management. PLACE Leaflet Monitor Leaflet Monitor represents a market research instrument resulting from the need of ongoing monitoring of the leaflets issued by the big retail companies that are locally and internationally active. The project was innitiated in the Czeck Republic and subsequently implemented in other CEE countries, including Romania so that, at this moment, GfK Romania is the only market research institute that is carrying out this study in the country. The use of this instrument enables to strategically and operationally implement decisions at sales and marketing departments level both for the suppliers, and retailers. The analysed database supplies information about all the products published in the leaflets, structured by categories and subcategories, as well as about the participation of various manufacturers and retail chains in the promotions for the monitored period.
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The clients can thus have an overview on the marketing strategy and the promotion activities of the competitor retail companies.

8. Strategy Evaluation
Strategy evaluation is important because organizations face dynamic environment in which key external and internal factors often change quickly and dramatically. Strategy evaluation is becoming increasingly difficult with the passage of time, for many reasons. Domestic and world economies were more stable in past years, product life cycles were longer, product development cycles were longer, technological advancement was slower, change occurred less frequently, there were fewer competitors, foreign companies were weak, and there were more regulated industries. A basic strategy evaluation includes three main activities, such as examining the underlying bases of a firms strategy, comparing expected results with actual results and taking corrective actions to ensure that performance conforms to plans. Another way of evaluating a strategy is offered by Richard Rumelt, which includes a four criteria analysis based on internal and external environment. This implies the consonance and the advantage of the company, which are mostly based on its external assessment, together with its consistency and feasibility that are largely based on an internal assessment. From the consistencys perspective, a strategy should not present inconsistent goals and policies. Organizational conflict and interdepartmental bickering are often symptoms of managerial disorder, but these problems may also be a sign of strategic inconsistency. Therefore, a guideline in helping to determine if organizational problems are due to inconsistencies in strategy includes managerial problems, the organizational department success and differences among them, and the policy problems. This criteria represents a strong point for GfK, which has a very well organized management department, with a united team, both young people with energy, enthusiasm and creativity, but also experts in the field who have been with the company in its ups and downs. Thus, they learnt how to manage and handle difficult situations and also to take the best decisions for the company. All departments of the company are strongly tied and connected to one another. An implementation of a project consists of the active participation of each and so, they all represent a major importance in the final evaluation. There are no policy problems which might interfere with the legal clauses or national laws, but every internal rule is concise and clear to all employees, any time. Consonance refers to the need for strategies to examine sets of trends, as well as individual trends in evaluating strategy. A strategy must represent an adaptive response to the external environment and to the critical changes occurring within it. Being a leader on the Romanian market, GfK was able to set trends and to be always with a step in front of its competitors. It is the first company and still the single one, for the moment, which also conducts its business in the
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media segment. It is up to date with the new technology and invests a in any tool that can bring value and knowledge to the company and which simplifies the work of the employees, leading in the end to better final results of the projects conducted. For instance, it works with the last updated software and they are the first company on the Romanian market which invested in the eye tracker, a tool able to analyze the consumer behavior in detail. A strategy must neither overtax available resources, nor create unsolvable problems. The final broad test of strategy is its feasibility which is highly related to the physical, human and financial resources. The financial resources of a business are the easiest to quantify and are normally the first limitation against which strategy is evaluated. From this point of view, GfK has big profit margin and return rate, which brings many additional benefits to the company such as the investors confidence, ability to motivate employees through financial resources and personal development trainings, ability to invest in the research department and last updated technology. The lasts may be a less quantifiable, but actually more rigid limitations on strategic choices, but this is not the case of GfK at the moment. In evaluating a strategy, it is important to examine whether an organization has demonstrated in the past that it possesses the abilities, competencies, skills and talents needed to carry out it out. The sustainable growth of GfK in the last years, its leading place on the Romanian market and also its recent projects implemented and awarded in 2011, in the PR field, for communication excellence both internal and external, place the company on a secure and feasible ground with concern to its actual plans and strategies. A strategy must also provide for the creation or maintenance of a competitive advantage in a selected area of activity. Competitive advantages normally are the result of superiority in at least one of three areas: resources, skills or position. GfK proved its superiority to all these on the Romanian market during years, which brings a high competitive advantage and a clear and differentiated image between it and its rivals. The principal characteristic of good position is that it permits the firm to obtain advantage from policies that could not similarly benefit the competitors, without the same position. All in all, the strategy evaluation looks quite optimistic so far. Its five-star strategy is in a continuous development and it has all the chances to end successfully and to reach all the objectives established. However, the evaluation of a strategy on the long term should be done at specific interval of times and improved, if necessary, during its implementation.

9. Conclusions
Strategic management can be defined as the art and science of formulating, implementing, and evaluating cross-functional decisions that enable an organization to achieve its objectives. Gfk Romania is the number 1 research institute market in Romania that focuses its activity on three large segments: Custom Research, Retail & Technology and Media. Its innovative side is
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continuously developing and strategies are clear defined in order to compete at high levels any time. The companys vision and mission together with its core values are always considered as basic principles and starting points of any new strategy development. They always focus on the 5-star objectives, by adding value to their company and services they provide. The SWOT and PEST analysis of the company revealed its strategic power, professionalism and the improvements that can be conducted to lead the company to a higher level of success. The latest strategies GfK has been working at, were highly increasing its professional competences and enlarged their abilities to satisfy a variety of possible clients. The first initiative, Fact-based Consultancy helped to expand the Gfk services offering by producing higher quality, information-based ongoing advisory services for the top level management of its clients. With the second initiative, Top 3, Gfk has set itself an ambitious target. By doing so they created a clear vision of the future of what they want to become in order to have a clearer view of their path to follow. The third aim under the Global Reach initiative offered Gfk the possibility to think big and to think global. This is the first step that a successful company on a market takes in order to expand onto a global one. The fourth initiative, Full Service is strictly related to its customers. By setting an objective for the customers Gfk show that it understands how important they are for the company and by delivering good and qualitative products all the time and by developing new ways in order to improve their customers experience. The fifth initiative, Excellent Financials, defines the medium-term financial expectations meaning that the company is aware of the threats present right now on the market and is trying to set clear and realistic objectives in order to have guidelines of how the future should look. Overall Gfk Romania is a company that is taking advantage of the present economic environment and that has realized how important a strategy for the future is in order to develop a plan and new ways of expanding and satisfying its customers.

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References
BOOKS: Fred, R.D.,2007, Strategic Management Concepts and Cases. 11th Edition. New Jersey: Pearson WEBSITES -Gfk Romania, 2010, About Gfk Romania, [online] Available at: < http://www.gfkro.com/about_us/index.en.html> [Accessed 7th of January 2012] -Dagmar Recklies, 2001, Porters 5 Forces, [online] <http://www.themanager.org/pdf/p5f.pdf> [Accessed 7th of January 2012] Available at:

-Director Firme, 2010, Companii de Cercetare de Piata, [online] Available at: < http://www.directorfirme.ro/firme/Servicii-Consultanta/Companii-de-Cercetare-de-Piata/pag-3 > [Accessed 3rd of January 2012] -PR Romania, 2011, GfK Romnia, prima companie de cercetare de pia ctigtoare a unui premiu la Romanian PR Award, [online] Available at:< http://www.pr-romania.ro/comunicatede-presa/1146-gfk-romania-prima-companie-de-cercetare-de-piata-castigtoare-a-unui-premiu-laromanian-pr-award.html> [Accessed 7th of January 2012] - ESOMAR World Research, 2011, Esomar Membership, [online] Available at:< http://www.esomar.org/membership.php> [Accessed 4th of January 2012] - Iulian Comanescu, The Industry, 2011, GfK Romania introduce Eye Tracker, [online], Available at:< http://theindustry.ro/advertising/2011/09/gfk-romania-introduce-eye-tracker/> [Accssed 8th of January 2012]

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-GfK Global Custom Research, London, 2010 [online] Available at: < http://www.gfkro.com/imperia/md/content/gfkromania/gfk_custom_research_en.pdf> [Accessed 5th of January, 2010] -GfK Retail and Technology 2008, Market Intelligence on the Retail and Technology Markets [online] Available at: < http://www.gfkro.com/imperia/md/content/gfkromania/gfk_retailandtechnology.pdf> [Accessed 6th of January, 2010]

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