...11:32 AM Why is strategy important? • Because it leads the organization in the right direction to achieve its goals and objectives.( performance) • It outlines the means by which a company intends to create unique value for customers a other important stakeholders • If forces managers to think holistically ad dynamically about what the company does and those activities consistently attract customers over competitors • Compared to a rudder and a ship. • It is the ability to see 5-‐ 10 years down the road • Its all the competitive moves that the company engages in order to win over customers • Senior management is responsible for strategy ○ Business policy : is a concern about strategy that preoccupy their minds Health care is the number 1 growth engine Conglomerates : are companies having portfolio of business in unrelated industries Three critical questions for managers to think strategically 1. Where are we now? a. What is the company's...
Words: 2012 - Pages: 9
...False Questions 1. Companies today are successful when they combine the power of the information age with traditional business methods. True False 2. Competitive intelligence is information collected from multiple sources such as suppliers, customers, competitors, partners, and industries that analyzes patterns, trends, and relationships for strategic decision making. True False 3. The information age is the present time, during which infinite quantities of facts are widely available to anyone who can use a computer. True False 4. Technology provides countless business opportunities, but can also lead to pitfalls and traps for a business. True False 5. Top managers use social intelligence to define the future of the business, analyzing markets, industries and economies to determine the strategic direction the company must follow to remain unprofitable. True False 6. A variable is a business intelligence characteristic that stands for a value that cannot change over time. True False 7. Companies update business strategies continuously as internal and external environments change. True False 8. For an organization to succeed, every department or functional area must work independently to be most effective. True False 9. Porter's Five Forces Model outlines the process for a sales strategy. True False 10. With the Five Forces Model, companies should watch the forces...
Words: 28627 - Pages: 115
...obstacles about geographic boundaries. However, when computers, Internet, and computer applications (technology information - IT) were appeared, they have pushed society up to a high level. Geographic distance is not a difficulty. People can easily communicate via email, chat or call. Today, almost of work is automatic, and it totally depends on computers. This leads to development in IT. Nevertheless, in Harvard Business Review article, Carr (2003) wrote that “IT Doesn’t Matter”. This causes confusion and debates. The first point is that IT is as a commodity. A single company can own proprietary technologies and use them to build competitive advantage because it is hard to replicate. On the contrary, infrastructural technologies are the property which “when shared” in industries rather than “when used in isolation”. A technology that is broadly shared to use cannot create competition. Thus, in his opinion, due to minimize costs, reduce vulnerabilities and restrict risk, Carr (2003) admitted that “IT has all the hallmarks of an infrastructural technology” rather than a proprietary technology. IT can be easily commoditized. First, he said IT is “a transport mechanism”, especially in data. By comparing IT with other commoditized industries as railroads and electricity, Carr wanted to prove with executives and IT leaders (CIOs) that IT is not much different with any costs in a company. IT should be treat as a commodity or some cost. He said that IT “carries digital information...
Words: 1242 - Pages: 5
...linkages between companies designed to achieve an objective faster or more efficiently than if either firm attempted to do so on its own. The role of strategic alliances in shaping the future course of both industries and individual firms is likely to become even more profound in the next century. The traditional view about Strategic alliances is that they were formed for Defensive to protect profits, Means for preempting competition, and Competitive and win - lose orientation. Today there is a current perspective about strategic alliance that goes beyond the traditional view and it consists of Collaboration can create opportunities for all participants to be successful, Can create multiple sources of competitive advantage, Win - win orientation that relies on both collaboration and competition. Strategic alliances could be formed for the following reasons: 1) Technology exchange: most of the recent strategic alliances (more than 50 %) are formed for technology exchange. this is done to obtain the necessary capabilities and resources needed for creating new technology or using some technologies to develop the companies’ competencies. 2) Global competition: strategic alliances are formed in order to allow the partners to build up more strength and be able to be more competitive in the global market against a common enemy better than each one fights alone. 3) Industry convergence by this it means company gets together and become a single company in order to...
Words: 1020 - Pages: 5
...Organizational Change management for competitiveness edge in Safaricom Kenya limited Introduction: In today’s uncertain economic climate, many organizations are forced to make changes in order to survive. They are needed to react quickly to the global revolution while at a local and national level have to keep up with new technology and competition if they want to stay ahead of the game. In an ever-changing global economy, Johnson and Scholes (2003) notes that organizations must find ways for operating by developing new competences as the old advantage and competences gained is quickly eroded owing to environmental changes. Because of the fact that changes are a necessity in private as well as public sector, every organization must change with the environment otherwise, it would become irrelevant. Kotter (2007,p 101) observes that changes in the service institutions arise out of the need for efficiency, economy, effectiveness, performance evaluation ethics and market concerns. Rising demand for services and expectations of quality of those services have placed extreme pressure on managers and their organizations, depicting change as a continuous episode in the life of corporations. This implies that an organization that fails to introduce their planned change successfully pays a high price. Failure leads to loss of market position and credibility with stakeholders as well as decreased morale among management and staff resulting in a de-motivated workforce...
Words: 2978 - Pages: 12
...The Strategic Use Of Information Technology in Business – Best Guidebook Posted by Admin April 13, 2009 [pic] X Welcome Googler! If you find this page useful, you might want to subscribe to the RSS feed for updates on this topic. You were searching forPosts relating to "strategic uses of information technology". See posts relating to your search »« Hide related posts • Information Security Technology We live in a world full of dangers. On one hand the world economy is going bonkers while on the... • fruITion Delivers a Novel Approach to IT Strategy Image via Wikipedia Around the world, an extraordinary new book about IT's ... • ShowClix Secures Series A Funding From Pittsburgh Equity Partners ShowClix, a Pittsburgh-based event ticketing company, today announced that it has secured an undisclosed sum of Series A funding from... • There is money in Internet Crime The BBC is reporting that Internet Crime is becoming quite the commercial activity. Apparently there is quite some money in... • So, there’s a nude font? This is a fun little thing I had to bring to your attention. It's a nudist font! Note... [pic][pic][pic][pic][pic][pic][pic]TEACHER: Hello, Student. What do you know about Information Technology (IT)? STUDENT: Well, I know that most software is full of “bugs”! By the way, why are these errors in programs called “bugs”? TEACHER: Computer “bugs” have been around since malfunctions...
Words: 3973 - Pages: 16
... 13 7) Conclusion 13 8) References 14 1.0 Executive Summary Business Strategy is the direction and future goal set for a business to achieve the competitive advantages which unique tailored with the available resources within an organization to the rapidly changing environment to achieved their objective. (Johnson & Scholes, 2002) More precisely the strategy involved in the following finding: * Identify the external environmental that give impact to an industry * Identify the internal environment that gives impact on competition and profitability * Evaluate the new opportunity from current and new market * Assess the industry life cycle and forecast future changes in industry * Identify Critical Success Factors This paper report transcript the introduction of the company Atlantic Zeiser (the numbering machine company in the old days) and its subsidiary operation in ASEAN. The report follows by the analysis of its situation analysis and critic the Vision and Mission set by the company. At the environmental analysis, PESTEL analysis explains how the external environmental factors affect the business. The competitive advantage analysis using Porter’s Five Forces and internal environmental factors finding the company SWOT analysis. Last but not...
Words: 3956 - Pages: 16
...MANAGING CHANGE 300 QUESTION 1 Discuss the reason of Kodak’s failure in the “digital revolution” by evaluating the nature of the digital products market Kodak is a 133 year old technology company, and was a world leading in camera film for decade. Today, Kodak is struggling as its facing bankruptcy, and the share price has fallen from as high as $94.75 per share in 1997 to as low as less than 30 cents per share in 2012. This happened as of due to the rise of competition in technology/camera industry, such as digital revolution, people are not using roll film anymore, people are using digital camera, even mobile phone has camera itself. Furthermore, Kodak is change slowly, does not agile, and quick enough. Although Kodak was a leading brand in camera, and had huge image, but it is lacking on the simplicity, means people prefer using digital with memory card as their “film”, and also it is simple, because they do not have to buy the film as the old camera does. In digital revolution, everything is changing. Not only technology, even newspaper and magazines affected, Kodak was one company that affected by digital revolution. However, Kodak does not respond to the changes, moreover Kodak tried to be an innovator in digital camera. Not only slow to change and adapt to change like competitors (Fujifilm, IBM) but also Eastman-kodak invested on digital printers and digital camera at the wrong time when the printing business in declining industry, which is worked. However, they...
Words: 2394 - Pages: 10
...issues often discussed in our day-to-day lives. How important is Information Technology (IT) in our lives? Does it ease or complicate our activities. The author shares his opinion that Information Technology should be treated as a commodity and as a strategic position is losing its value. The author compares IT with electricity and railroads and concludes that they follow the same path. He illustrates phases of electricity and railroads and how they moved from having high opportunities to becoming invisible so much so that they did not matter. The author feels that IT does not have a competitive advantage and the importance given to IT management should be reduced. Although, the author raises some valid points I disagree with the author. In my opinion, Information Technology is an enabler and if used effectively and efficiently can bring remarkable success and help achieve a sustainable competitive advantage for an organization. In order to prove his point, the author distinguishes between proprietary technologies and infrastructural technologies. According to him, proprietary technology can reap high profits but infrastructural technologies are meant to offer more value when shared than when used in isolation. After few years the infrastructural technologies become known to everyone, thus eventually becoming a commodity and losing value. The author describes IT as such an infrastructural technology that is deemed to become a commodity. He gave three reasons for it. First,...
Words: 1484 - Pages: 6
...LinkedIn • Share on googlePlus • Share on facebook • Share on twitter • Share by email [pic] “Strategic” may be one of the most over-used words in business today. This observation is especially valid in the world of alliances, where managers must distinguish between those alliances that are merely conventional and those that are truly strategic. This author outlines the five factors that make an alliance “strategic.” As companies gain experience in building alliances, they often find their portfolios ballooning with partnerships. While these partnerships may contribute value to the firm, not all alliances are in fact strategic to an organization. This is a critical point, since, as this article will explain, those alliances that are truly strategic must be identified clearly and managed differently than more conventional business relationships. Due to the levels of organizational commitment and investment required, not all partner relationships can be given the same degree of attention as truly strategic alliances. The impact of mismanaging a strategic alliance or permitting it to fall apart can materially impact the firm’s ability to achieve its core business objectives. The five criteria of a “strategic” alliance What is it that makes an alliance truly strategic to a particular company? Is it possible for an alliance to be strategic to only one of the parties in a relationship? Many alliances default to some form of revenue generation—which is certainly...
Words: 2112 - Pages: 9
...the organization to determine the best course of action to achieve its goals. The role of all managers is to help develop organizational strategies that encourage and achieve those goals. Information systems (IS) is the top-level term that refers to computer systems used within organizations that help them collect, store, retrieve, and analyze data for the purpose of supporting and extending the business side of an organization; information technology (IT) is the term that refers to the technology side of IS, responsible for the hardware, software, and networks of computer systems. At one time it was commonplace to link strategy with IS. Statements about information systems were taken as true and at face value, simply because they sounded so right. What an IS department wanted, it usually got, because what was wanted often seemed strategically important to the organization. The bursting of the ―tech bubble‖ in 2001 changed the way that companies regarded their investment in information systems. The effective management and use of information systems is essential to the future growth and prosperity of any organization. Or is it? In his 2004 book, Does IT Matter? Information Technology and the Corrosion of Competitive Advantage, Nicholas Carr asked if, since the tools that once gave IT competitive advantage are now widely available to all organizations, we can truly say that IT matters as strategically as it once did. Today, IT has entered a new...
Words: 5454 - Pages: 22
...Strategic entrepreneurship - Innovation as source of competitive advantage Global organizations face the challenge of adapting frequently to meet the needs of their customers, suppliers, and share-holders. Creating value for stakeholders is becoming increasingly difficult even for leading players like General Motors (GM) and Ford. A stream of continuous value-creating innovations by global competitors (e.g., Toyota and Honda) has challenged GM & Ford to reinvent themselves continuously. The challenge of continuous and dynamic change is affecting firms across multiple industries. These include even the IT Services Industry such as Accenture / IBM / Infosys & TCS and their business models & Service models are changing the nature of competition. The winners and losers resulting from changes in this particular industry remain unknown. Consider a situation where Complete Customer relationship management service for any organization ( which will have been implemented, supported & serviced ) by any of the traditional players being replaced by a cloud offering from an organization Salesforce.com for which payment can happen on pay-per–use model & supported by niche player whose entire business model is predicated on this. Being able to create a more attractive value proposition for customers is making it quite difficult for some of the more traditional players like IBM or Accenture since that means cannibalization of their existing revenue stream, changing the Business model...
Words: 4639 - Pages: 19
...GLOBAL BUSINSESS OPERATION ADEGBENRO ELEWADE MIB 34- 130226 INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT QUESTION- You have been employed as a business consultant to advise a company manufacturing smart phones who wishes to explore the potential of doing business in one Latin American emerging market. You must produce a report that identifies the key issues that the company will face in your chosen market and secondly offer expert advice to attain business success in that market. CONTENTS- 1. Introduction. 2. View of Brazil’s economy. 3. Brazil as a BRICS Economy. 4. Market for smart phones in Brazil. 5. Using the porter’s five forces to analyse the market for smart phones in Brazil. 6. Competitors existing in the market. 7. How to enter the market. 8. Constraints to success for the company (using PESTLE model). 9. How to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. 1. INTRODUCTION The Cost (this involves the legal cost, corruption, lack of infrastructure), Benefits (size of the economy or economy growth),Risk (political-social unrest, economic mis-management) analysis has been used to analyse the favourable emerging market in Latin America which is Brazil. The main reasons for choosing this market will discussed in details. 2. OVERVIEW OF BRAZIL’S ECONOMY The chosen market is BRAZIL which is an emerging market and also the largest of the Latin American nations and the second largest in the western hemisphere with...
Words: 2630 - Pages: 11
...formulation, and implementation. Strategic management is an ongoing process to develop and revise future-oriented strategies that allow an organization to achieve its objectives, considering its capabilities, constraints, and the environment in which it operates. Diagnosis includes: (a) performing a situation analysis (analysis of the internal environment of the organization), including identification and evaluation of current mission, strategic objectives, strategies, and results, plus major strengths and weaknesses; (b) analyzing the organization's external environment, including major opportunities and threats; and (c) identifying the major critical issues, which are a small set, typically two to five, of major problems, threats, weaknesses, and/or opportunities that require particularly high priority attention by management. Formulation, the second phase in the strategic management process, produces a clear set of recommendations, with supporting justification, that revise as necessary the mission and objectives of the organization, and supply the strategies for accomplishing them. In formulation, we are trying to modify the current objectives and strategies in ways to make the organization more successful. This includes trying to create "sustainable" competitive advantages -- although most competitive advantages are eroded steadily by the efforts of competitors. A good recommendation should be: effective in solving the stated problem(s), practical (can be implemented...
Words: 6467 - Pages: 26
...The Competitive Advantage of Nations Michael E. Porter Harvard Business Review 90211 HBR MARCH±APRIL 1990 The Competitive Advantage of Nations Michael E. Porter National prosperity is created, not inherited. It does not grow out of a country's natural endowments, its labor pool, its interest rates, or its currency's value, as classical economics insists. A nation's competitiveness depends on the capacity of its industry to innovate and upgrade. Companies gain advantage against the world's best competitors because of pressure and challenge. They benefit from having strong domestic rivals, aggressive home-based suppliers, and demanding local customers. In a world of increasingly global competition, nations have become more, not less, important. As the basis of competition has shifted more and more to the creation and assimilation of knowledge, the role of the nation has grown. Competitive advantage is created and sustained through a highly localized process. Differences in national values, culture, economic structures, institutions, and histories all contribute to competitive success. There are striking differences in the patterns of competitiveness in every country; no nation can or will be competitive in every or even most industries. Ultimately, nations succeed in particular industries because their home environment is the most forward-looking, dynamic, and challenging. These conclusions, the product of a four-year study Harvard Business School professor Michael E. Porter...
Words: 13589 - Pages: 55
