You are the Strategic Team Manager for Middle East Aluminium (MEA), a multi-national aluminium products manufacturing company, with headquarters in Bahrain, and operating divisions in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Kuwait. The organization manufactures a variety of different alloy aluminium billets in the 2024, 5052, 6061, 6063, and 7071 grades that are used to produce extruded aluminium street light and telephone poles, lightweight bicycle frames, aircraft parts, quality metal cased flashlights, and high-end golf clubs along with variety of other products and customized finished products for customers. The billet alloys are made from a variety of purchased raw materials (iron, copper, aluminium, magnesium, etc.) and are made only in the Cast House at the headquarters location in Bahrain.Presently, billets (that weigh approximately 2000 pounds each) must be shipped to the other MEA locations to meet manufacturing demands since no Cast Houses exist in the other locations.

MEA has been experienced successful business growth since its inception only five (5) years ago, but rapid growth has now resulted in the need to identify its internal capabilities, structure and hierarchy as well as assess its external macro-environmental influencers.

The organization is looking to expand operations and market share, competing against larger international firms located in the UAE, China, Russia, Australia and the U.S.The CEO has tasked you with creating a strategic plan and roadmap that will fulfil this expansion vision and help the organization to build the strategic capabilities to become competitive in the global market. This will require a thorough internal and external organizational analysis, assessment, strategy formulation, implementation and evaluation.

You and your team will follow the standard strategic planning steps, culminating in a strategic planning report for the CEO that includes the following:

Q1: Considering the external environment, provide a brief SWOT analysis of your organization as well as a PESTLE analysis as it relates to a strategic plan for future company global expansion?