...Strategic planning process Part A 1) Explain the Strategic Planning Process For a firm to survive and prosper in this highly competitive business environment, a firm must engage in strategic planning process that could define its objectives and assess both the internal and external situation; allowing the company to formulate strategy, implement strategy, evaluate progress and able to make adjustment as necessary to stay on track. There are many approaches to strategic planning but typically a three-step process may be used: * Situation - evaluate the current situation and how it came about. * Target - define goals and/or objectives (sometimes called ideal state) * Path / Proposal - map a possible route to the goals/objectives The Strategic Planning Process Mission & Objectives Mission & Objectives Environmental Scanning Environmental Scanning Strategy Formulation Strategy Formulation Strategy Implementation Strategy Implementation Evaluation & Control Evaluation & Control Mission and objectives It describes the company’s business vision. It includes a firm values, purpose and goals that help to pursue future opportunities. Having a business vision helps firm’s leaders to define measurable financial and strategic objectives. Financial objectives involve measures such as sales target. Environmental Scan It involves the following components: * Internal analysis of the firm * Analysis of the firm’s industry (task environment) ...
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...together” are examples of which of the following? A. Objectives B. Internal alignment C. Externally competitive D. Employee contributions Difficulty: Medium 2. (p. 41) “Putting some skin in the game” refers to: A. employees paid entirely on commission B. being paid as a contract vs. a regular employee C. below market base pay with stock ownership D. above market base pay with low benefits Difficulty: Medium 3. (p. 41) A compensation system that pays employees such that “some skin is in the game” means that A. a portion of employee pay is at risk B. employers risk high labor costs C. level of base pay is below competitors D. base pay is low while benefits are generous Difficulty: Medium 4. (p. 41)______________ changed its compensation strategy as the company grew and matured? A. SAS B. Google C. Microsoft D. CNET Difficulty: Medium 5. (p. 42) At the corporate level, a strategic compensation perspective addresses the question: A. What business should we be in? B. What is our desired return on assets? C. How can our total compensation help gain competitive advantage to achieve organization success? D. How can job analysis help us select the most appropriate certain compensation technique(s) for our organization? Difficulty: Medium 6. (p. 42) What level of strategy is the question “how do we gain competitive advantage”? A. Corporate B. Business unit C. HR D. Departmental Difficulty: Medium 7. (p. 42) The social...
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...increase of daily operations and business transactions, the current legacy system has been creating lots of issues with financial statement and decision making process because of data from numerous sources have to be combined. Such a rapid growth needs a change in legacy system in terms of selecting new committee members. As a result and as per request from a President to form a new advisory committee has been proposed to provide assistance and guidance in creation of new integrated system. This will improve Spa works business process. Below stated five committee members presented with their roles and tasks: 1) Human Resources manager: Spa Work has been going through the stage of expansion. Human Resources Manager is the key member of this organization. Main goal of Spa Works is to improve their legacy system and these will only possible through people and HR. Human Resources manager is responsible for all people related activities like recruitment, training and retention of employees as well as their daily concerns that consists of payroll, tax provisions, and benefits. Human Resources team also needs to comply all government related policies and follow their rules and regulation for day to day business process. As a final point, Human Resources team will take a charge of gathering data from end users or from employees and these sources will benefit for other to improve business process. 2) Finance Manager: Finance is the blood of any business. Currently, due to legacy system...
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...IMPACT OF HR AND BUSINESS STRATEGY ALIGNMENT ON JOB PERFORMANCE AND EMPLOYEE SATISFACTION Abstract A company’s success is determined to a large extent by the nature of its employees as well as the level of devotion that employees demonstrate. Due to this, the top managers and executives are given the responsibility for maintaining control on employee’s activities as well as the employee’s management policies through the development of the Human Resource Management Department. This shows that how important role HR plays in maintain the employees satisfied within any organization. This research study is focused on studying the impact of HR and business strategy alignment on job performance and employee satisfaction. This research used deductive approach as this study find out the impact of aligning HR with business strategy and effect of job environment on employee satisfaction. The survey questionnaire method is used to get reliable and valid results based on close ended questions having a 5-Likert scale to measure the attitude of employees and employers towards the impact of aligning HR with business strategy and effect of job environment on employee satisfaction at Siemens. The research used SPSS for analysing quantitative information by using descriptive analysis and inferential analysis. Research shows that Siemens align HR practices and business strategy. From regression analysis, it is found that alignment of Human Resource practices with the business strategies of Siemens...
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...Strategic Alignment and Core competencies Strategic alignment refers to how an organization can create sustainable competitive advantage by linking its business strategy to its core competencies. This shows how an organization can achieve superior performance by gaining alignment between its environment, strategy, core competencies and Organization structure. There are several frameworks, which can be leveraged in this process to assist a manager in building a high performance organization. The case highlighted how Singapore Airlines(SIA) navigated through the various challenges faced by the airlines industry such as over capacity, commoditization of offering and proliferation of low cost carriers through the execution of its business strategy and dispel the notion that competition advantage can only be created either by Cost leadership strategy or a differentiation strategy. The case show that SIA made a clear strategic choice of giving priority to profitability over growth and leveraged related diversification along with its operational practices, such as continuous people development and rigorous service design as drivers to achieve its strategic choice. SIA had unique challenges of competing solely on international routes due to the absence of domestic routes which acted as a catalyst in driving its goals of being just a little better than its competitors in the value chain and to achieve its strategic choice. The analysis of this case provides an insight into the...
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...Alignment - Using the Balanced Score-card to create Corporate Synergies By Robert S Kaplan & David P Norton, Harvard Business School Press, 2006 Introduction Most large organizations are divided into business units. The challenge is to coordinate the activities of these units and leverage their skills for the benefit of the organization as a whole Alignment is multidimensional in scope, involving financial synergies, cross selling of products and services to deliver unique solutions to customers and sharing of knowledge and expertise across the organization. Alignment needs to be planned and executed carefully to maximize shareholder value. Generating Synergy When an organization aligns the activities of its various business and support units, it creates additional sources of value in various ways. Corporate financial synergy revolves around issues such as where to invest, where to harvest, how to balance risk and how to create an investor brand. Customer synergy means enhancing customer relationships by offering a range of complementary products and services from different business units. Internal process synergies can be created by generating economies of scale in activities such as procurement, logistics and infrastructure. Learning and growth synergies can be generated by developing and sharing critical intangible assets including people, technology, culture and leadership. Despite various innovations in organization design, there is nothing like the best...
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...organizations view the department of Human Resources (HR) as an administrative function and ignore the need and opportunity to align it with its strategic plans. In circumstances where HR is included in the strategy of an organizatio n, its alignment does not go beyond a forecasting function. The main reason that HR is not aligned with the strategy of an organization is that it does not hold a seat at the strategic planning table. The irony with HR being left of out of strategy planning is that by its nature, HR is about people, which is the core of an organization and its strategic plan. The HR function not aligned with an organization’s strategy. My hypothesis is that it is hard to measure HR success and thus it is considered “soft” and not important in the strategy development. What gets measured gets done and/or receives the authority to contribute to an organization’s strategy. HR is often viewed as the organization’s “cop”, ensuring that benefits are properly administered and hiring/firing is handled to the letter of the law. In contrast to the HR administrative function, strategic HR practices are more contemporary concepts. Consequently, organizations are less likely to expect these practices to have an impact on bottom line business results (Huselid, Jackson, & Schuler, 1997). A definition of strategic HR management is the design and implementation of a set of internally consistent practices that ensure an...
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...INSTITUTE OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND MANAGEMENT (IPAM) UNIVERSITY OF SIERRA LEONE RESEARCH PROPOSAL PROPOSED MASTERS-MPA PROPOSED TOPIC THE IMPACT OF STRATEGIC INFORMATION SYSTEM PLANNING AND IT’S ALIGNMENT WITH THE STRATEGIC PLAN OF THE ORGANIZATION A CASE STUDY: PARLIAMENT OF SIERRA LEONE (STRATEGIC PLAN 2009-2013) SUBMITTED TO: THE DEAN OF POSTGRADUATES STUDIES SUBMITTED BY: JOSEPH CONTEH INTRODUCTION Strategic information system planning (SISP) is consistently identified as the most critical issue facing the Organization. Leaderer and Sethi define strategic information systems planning as the process of identifying a portfolio of computer-based applications to assist an organization in executing its business plans and realizing its business goals. Strategic information systems planning also include the search for applications with a high impact and the ability to create- an advantage over competitors. The use of Information Technology associated with proper planning would increase business success within the organization. SISP is considered to be the best mechanism that would support the organization to assure that IT activities are attuned with those of the rest of the organizational needs. The paper will focus on such factors that will assist the organizations to success in the strategic information systems planning. Background Information to the Research area Over the years, some organizations have made technology decisions and acquisitions...
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...Normality of the future: Trend diagnosis for strategic foresight (Liebl 2010) Table of contents 1. Summary of the article 3 2. Analysis of the strength and weakness of the argument 5 2.1 Strengths 5 2.2 Weakness 6 3. Implications for the top management 7 4. Conclusion 8 Appendix A 10 Appendix B 11 1. Summary of the article “In strategy it is important to see distant things as if they were close and to take a distanced view of close things” (Musashi 2009). * This article focuses on trend diagnosis for strategic foresight in its entirety. The author scrutinizes that although trend is an imperative concept in the strategic issue management, the interpretation of trend in strategic foresight is ambiguous. This paper conceptualizes, from a strategic point of view, trend as an innovation (socio-cultural) and elaborate the implications with respect to strategic issue diagnosis. (Liebl 2010) * * * * * The figure above (Liebl 2010) depicts an elaborate framework for conceptualizing trends. The strategic trend diagnosis has to deal with two different aspects of innovation: invention and diffusion. The invention aspect of a trend is identifying “The New” results from a transgression of contextual boundaries whereas the diffusion is a process of normalization (Normality and Abnormality) – i.e., a new socio-cultural practice becomes a social convention and...
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...CC-307-017 Dynamic Strategic Alignment This reference note was prepared by Professor Steven White to introduce basic concepts and a framework for discussing strategic management. Copyright © 2009 by CEIBS (China Europe International Business School). No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means – electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise – without the permission of CEIBS The CEIBS Case Centre is sponsored by McKinsey & Company. Dynamic Strategic Alignment CC-307-017 Dynamic Strategic Alignment This note introduces the concepts and frameworks that are commonly used in strategic analysis, integrating them within an on-going process of creating and improving strategic alignment. 1. FUNDAMENTALS The objective of strategic management is to create alignments—within the firm and between the firm and its environment—that give the firm competitive advantage and enable it to achieve its goals. Strategic change, therefore, is fundamentally a decision about what changes to make in order to create or improve alignment that moves the firm closer to its goals. Managers may increase alignment and performance by a) changing elements of the firm, b) changing features of the environment in which operate, or c) shifting to another environment. There will usually be multiple options, and managers must decide which changes are necessary, possible and worth the effort required. When making...
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...organizational strategy. Discuss with examples, how the organization can develop competitive advantage through superior Human Resource Management. In order to ensure organizational success, there are various things to keep in mind. Firstly we need to define the organization strategy. What is an organizational strategy? Kay states that strategy is about the achievement of competitive advantage which, in his view, is based upon an organizational identifying, developing and applying to relevant markets its distinctive capabilities, which are most often derived from the unique character of its relationships with its suppliers, customers or employees.’ The strategy would include aspects such as cost minimization which would involve optimum utilization of resources at minimum possible cost, this a traditional approach, on the other hand an organization could adopt profit maximization strategy which would involve taking risks and thus a more unconventional approach. Typically once the strategy is prepared the focus is on accomplishing these objectives. But how can this be done? Do you remember the first day at work? It’s a mixed feeling of nervousness and excitement. You get all geared up to commence our first assignment and go to the managers cabin and get all the required details of the assignment. But what is the most crucial thing in order to ensure successful accomplishment of the assignment? Alignment of Manager’s understanding of the assignment along with yours. This is essential...
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...Strategic human resource management has been defined as ‘the linking of human resources with strategic goals and objectives in order to improve business performance and develop organizational culture that foster innovation and flexibility’ (Hussain, 2010). It is for certain that when a company decides to change directions in it strategy the HRM practices needs to change to support the new strategy. In order to effectively gain competitive advantages though HRM practices; the HRM practices needs to change in three major areas: knowledge workers, employee empowerment, and teamwork. Knowledge workers are employees whose main contribution to the organization is specialized knowledge, such as knowledge of customers, a process, pr a profession (Noe et al, 2009). Employee empowerment means giving employees responsibility and authority to make decisions regarding all aspects of product development and customer service (Noe et al, 2009). Teamwork is the assignment of work to groups of employees with various skills who interact to assemble a product or provide a service (Noe et al, 2009). Redmond Minerals gained a great competitive advantage by utilizing their understandings of how important the HRM practices are to it company. The company’s HRM practices allowed his company to maximize its productivity of the organization by optimizing the effectiveness of its employees. Technology/Internet Advances in computer-related technology have had a major impact on the use of information...
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...Alignment of HRM and Business Strategies Assignment 1 Strategic Human Resources Management- HRM 530 Ford Motor Company believes it is one of the greatest automobile manufacturers of all time. One Ford, One team, One Plan, One Goal is the mission and vision for its company, which is an American diversified global automobile industry, and that was founded in 1903, by Henry Ford (“History of Ford Motor Company”, 2015). These vehicles have changed how the world view and drove automobiles. Their core values are putting people first, pursuing excellence, embracing the change, acting with integrity and serving our world. They have always worked on the base of founding principles and their heritage. Propose how you would ensure the HR strategy is in alignment with the business strategy. According to the OPM, HR (1999), alignment means to incorporate decisions about people with decisions about the results an organization is trying to obtain. Companies that successfully align HR with the business mission accomplishments do so by integrating HR with the planning process and activities that support the mission and goals of the company, while building a strong relationship. Aligning Human Resources (HR) Strategy with the Business Strategy, Ford is committed to ever changing upgrades and developments to help ensure the company can realize its goals. This company’s values and vision will provide the groundwork for everything it does to include its employees, what’s right for the customer...
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...Dictionary describe strategy as A plan of action designed to achieve a long-term goal or overall aim; or the art of planning and directing overall military operations and movements in a war or battle; It is derived from the Greek word “stratégia” that means generalship (Oxford dictionary. 2015). A company’s strategy consist of the competitive moves and business approaches that managers are employing to grow the business, attract and please customers, compete successfully , conduct operations and achieve the targeted levels of organizational performance (Hough et al. 2008:4). Strategy is all about how the anticipated goals will be achieved. It works like a recipe where different elements are used in a more or lesser manner to achieve an end result. In an organisation the leader ensures all members are heading in the right direction and completing their goals and objectives. Organisations lacking leadership quickly implode as members scatter in all directions attempting to achieve conflicting goals in a silo-orientated environment. However, this can be overcome if leaders communicate and execute business strategies. A business strategy is a leadership plan that achieves a specific set of goals or objectives such as: * Developing new products or services. * Entering new markets. * Increasing customer loyalty. * Attracting new customers. * Increasing sales. * Decreasing costs. (Baltzan, 2013:16) Leaders also work with the realities of their environments...
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...organizations view the department of Human Resources (HR) as an administrative function and ignore the need and opportunity to align it with its strategic plans. In circumstances where HR is included in the strategy of an organizatio n, its alignment does not go beyond a forecasting function. The main reason that HR is not aligned with the strategy of an organization is that it does not hold a seat at the strategic planning table. The irony with HR being left of out of strategy planning is that by its nature, HR is about people, which is the core of an organization and its strategic plan. The HR function not aligned with an organization’s strategy. My hypothesis is that it is hard to measure HR success and thus it is considered “soft” and not important in the strategy development. What gets measured gets done and/or receives the authority to contribute to an organization’s strategy. HR is often viewed as the organization’s “cop”, ensuring that benefits are properly administered and hiring/firing is handled to the letter of the law. In contrast to the HR administrative function, strategic HR practices are more contemporary concepts. Consequently, organizations are less likely to expect these practices to have an impact on bottom line business results (Huselid, Jackson, & Schuler, 1997). A definition of strategic HR management is the design and implementation of a set of internally consistent practices that ensure an...
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