...Memorandum To: J.P. Wilkins, President From: Date: [ 05/11/2013 ] Re: Proposed Direction of the Company Introduction I am writing this memo as a member of the Andrews management team to notify you of the developments made on a preliminary business strategy that we are anticipating to be both successful and exciting. The sensor industry has experienced increasing product demand recently, as well as a universal desire for smaller and faster sensors in both the low and high tech market segments. Through the conduction of an external analysis, we have identified five major competitors within this industry, all sharing a similar control of suppliers and buyers to our company. The main goal of our strategy is to gain an advantage over other industry competitors in order to produce a successful business while consistently keeping customers satisfied. Internal/ External Analysis By performing a SWOT analysis, the company’s management team was able to identify the industry structure and the current market environment. This allowed for identification of the company’s internal strengths and weaknesses as well as our external opportunities and threats. From an internal perspective, our company’s management team is intuitive, intelligent, and hard-working. Although our team lacks extensive business experience, we believe that our resourcefulness and diligence will provide us with an opportunity to be successful in the sensor industry. Externally, several potential opportunities...
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...which strategy comes to be defined. The first strategy-making process is conscious and analytical, involving assessments of market structure, competitive strengths and weaknesses, the nature of customer needs, and the drivers of market growth. Strategy in this process typically is formulated in a project with a discrete beginning and end. Top-tier management consultants often manage these projects. The result of this process is an intended or deliberate strategy. The second strategy making process has been termed emergent strategy. It is the cumulative effect of day-to-day prioritization decisions made by middle managers, engineers, salespeople and financial staff – decisions that are made “despite, or in the absence of, intentions. In fact, managers typically do not frame these decisions as strategic at all, at the time they are being made; they have a decidedly tactical character. Intended and Emergent strategy: An Intended strategy is the strategy that an organization hopes to execute. Intended strategies are usually described in detail within an organization’s strategic plan. An Emergent strategy is an unplanned strategy that arises in response to unexpected opportunities and challenges. Emergent strategy is a set of actions, or behavior, consistent over time, “a realized pattern [that] was not expressly intended” in the original planning of strategy. When a deliberate strategy is realized, the result matches the intended course of action. An emergent strategy develops...
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...Chapter 1 – Indented and Emergent Strategies We have 5Ps as Plan, Ploy, Pattern, Position (Michal Porter) and Perspective. But the most contended issue is the concept of Intended/ Emergent Strategy. According to the Mintzberg’s model, a company’s realized strategy is the product of any intended strategies (those that are planed) that are put into action and of any emergent strategies (those that are not planned). In Mintzberg’s view, emergent strategies are the unplanned response to unforeseen circumstances. They often arise from autonomous action by individual managers deep within the organization (such as Richard Drew at 3M) or from serendipitous event (such as those that led Nokia into mobile phones). They are not the product of format top-down planning mechanisms. Mintzberg maintains that emergent strategies are often successful and may be more appropriate than indented strategies. Pascale describes how this was the case for the entry of Honda Motor into the USM motorcycles market. When Honda executives arrived in Los Angeles from Japan in 1959 to establish a US subsidiary, their original aim (intended strategy) was to focus on selling 250-cc machines to confirmed motorcycle enthusiasts, rather than 50-cc Honda Cubs, which were a big hit in Japan. Their instincts told them that the Honda 50s were not suitable for the US markets, where everything was bigger and more luxurious than in Japan. Sales of the 250-cc bikes were sluggish, however, and the bikes were plagued by...
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...“Strategy articulates the firm’s preferred environment and the type of organisations it is striving to become.” – Hiroyuki Itami. Discuss why an understanding of strategy and strategic management is fundamental to an organisations success. There is no one specific and definitive meaning to the word strategy. You would generally consider strategy to be the process involved in setting goals and objectives and then, ultimately the way's of achieving these goals through the designated and limited resources. Strategy describes how a firm will achieve their goals using the necessary resources. The firms Strategy will generally be established by the leaders in an organisation. Strategy can be intentional or emergent. Mc Keown argued that strategy is about shaping the future. Mintzberg thinks its a pattern in a stream of decisions. They both think strategy is a very important part of any firm and what the firm is striving to be. The key steps in planning a strategy is usually coordinated by the top management. This involve Mintzberg's 5 P's for strategy: The consist of…. A plan, A pattern, A position, A prospective, A ploy. Plan, Strategy is a plan, usually an intended course of action, a way to deal with a situation. By this definition, strategies have two essential characteristics, they are made in advance of the actions to which they apply, and they are developed consciously and purposefully. Ploy Like plan, a strategy can be a ploy too, its really just a specific manoeuvre...
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...Africa, the Near East, Asia and Latin America. This methodology emphasizes the importance of people's participation (i.e., intended beneficiaries such as fields extension workers and small farmers) in strategic planning, systematic management, and field implementation of agricultural extension and training programmes (see Fig. 2-4). Its extension strategies and messages are specifically developed and tailored based on the results of a participatory problem identification process on the causes or reasons of farmers' non-adoption, or inappropriate practices, of a given recommended agricultural technology or innovation. The SEC technology transfer and application approach is needs-based, demand-driven, and has a problem-solving orientation. The Strategic Extension Campaign (SEC) is not an alternative to the conventional extension programme or activity. SEC is, and should be, an integral part of the programmes of an agricultural extension service. The effectiveness and efficiency of such a service could be increased due to SEC's emphasis on its problem-solving orientation, participatory planning approach, intensive extension personnel training, multi-media materials development, and extension manage meet, monitoring and evaluation procedures. Its activities should be carried out by extension personnel and to support the Ministry of Agriculture's policies, strategies and priority programmes. The strategic extension campaign is useful and important to an agricultural extension service due...
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...implement the policies and plans, projects and programs. A balanced scorecard is often used to evaluate the overall performance of the business and its progress towards objectives. Recent studies and leading management theorists have advocated that strategy needs to start with stakeholders expectations and use a modified balanced scorecard which includes all stakeholders. "Strategic management is an on-going process that evaluates and controls the business and the industries in which the company is involved; assesses its competitors and sets goals and strategies to meet all existing and potential competitors; and then reassesses each strategy annually or quarterly [i.e. regularly] to determine how it has been implemented and whether it has succeeded or needs replacement by a new strategy to meet changed circumstances, new technology, new competitors, a new economic environment., or a new social, financial, or political environment." Strategic Management can also be defined as "the identification of the purpose of the organisation and the plans and actions to achieve the purpose. It is that set of managerial decisions and actions that determine the long term performance of a business enterprise. It involves formulating and implementing strategies that will help in aligning the organization and its environment to achieve organisational goals." As the...
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...Sept.14 : Chapter 1 Introduction to Strategic Management Monday, September 14, 2015 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...
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...The Strategy Concept 1: Five Ps For Strategy * Human nature insists on a definition for every concept * Strategic management cannot rely on a single definition of strategy * The word strategy has long been used indirectly in different ways * Clearly recognizing multiple definition of strategy can help practitioners and researches operate through this difficult field * Strategy is defined as 5 things in this article: * Plan * Ploy * Pattern * Position * Perspective Plan * Views strategy as some sort of consciously intended course of action and a guideline to deal with a situation * Under this definition, strategy is made in advance of the actions to which they apply, and they are developed consciously and purposefully * Ducker: Strategy is purposeful action * Moore: Design for action/conception preceding action * In the military: Strategy is concerned with “drafting the plan of war… shaping the individual campaigns and within these, deciding on the individual engagements”. * In management: Strategy is unified, comprehensive, and integrated plan… designed to ensure that the basic objectives of the enterprise are achieved. * In the dictionary: “A plan, method or series of maneuvers or stratagems for obtaining a specific goal or result”. Ploy * As plan, a strategy can be a ploy too, a maneuver intended to outwit an opponent or competitor * For example, a corporation may threaten to expand plant...
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...Functional strategies mainly focused on the events associated in practical areas of a business that support the anticipated competitive business level strategy and balance each other. These strategies describe the methods selected to be used within the practical areas of a business that’s utilized in the corporate level or business strategy. Functional strategies recognize and organize temporary actions, usually under a year. Structure of functional strategy is normally delegated by the business manager to lower management teams that oversee the operations of the business. Businesses vary in structure as well as the roles and responsibilities of their practice areas, these areas are research and development, marketing, finance, purchasing...
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...(Definition of Strategy) "Strategy is the direction and scope of an organisation over the long-term: which achieves advantage for the organisation through its configuration of resources within a challenging environment, to meet the needs of markets and to fulfil stakeholder expectations.” (Johnson and Scholes) Mintzberg starts off by identifying that there are differences in strategy, some are ‘intended’ and others ‘realised’. He states that this diagram allows the distinction of deliberate and emergent strategy to be identified. (Definition of Deliberate) It follows a calculated formula, where they set a goal, define a set of steps to reach that goal and then methodically act on each step, formulated by central leadership. This is a conscious and rational process that involves assessment of market structure, competitive analysis and detailed market research to determine specific customer needs, so much so it is a ‘surprise free situation’. (Definition of Emergent) On the other hand, an emergent strategy is a pattern of actions that develops over time in an organization in the absence (or despite) a specific set of goals. The extent to which change can be differentiated depends on whether a company chooses to implement developmental, transactional or transformational change (Ackerman 1997) As Mintzberg says, it is unlikely for a firm to be operating a ‘purely emergent’ or ‘purely deliberate’ strategy. Firms lie in between the two, which could be seen as the...
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...International Business Strategies TBS 984 Dr Alan Pomering T2, 2015 Week 1 Global Strategy: Preface Not a particular multinational enterprise (MNE) strategy, but “strategy around the globe” Most fundamentally about “strategy” before being “global” About entering foreign markets, but also how domestic firms strategise by competing against each other and dealing with foreign entrants 1 27/05/2015 Outline • A global global-strategy book • Why study global strategy? • What is strategy? • Fundamental questions in strategy • What is global strategy? • What is globalization? • Global strategy and globalization at a crossroads 3 Why Study Global Strategy? • Job and career aspiration opportunities • Awareness of what is going on in the world • Avoid downside risks of globalization 2 27/05/2015 Porters Critique Too Many Firms Pursue Best Practice and Seek Operational Effectiveness Through Benchmarking, TQM, JIT Etc. But This Is Not Strategy. Strategy Is About Being Different, Not Being ‘As Good As’. What is Strategy? • Origin-Greek word (strategos)-art of the general Sun Tzu, Chinese military strategist in 500 B.C. Modern-day application to business and competition dates to the 1960s • Plan versus Action - strategy is “explicit, rigorous formal planning” versus “a set of flexible, goal-oriented actions” • Strategy as Theory-how to compete successfully Firms have both intended and emergent strategies One...
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...Chapter 1 Mastering Strategy: Art and Science LEARNING OBJECTIVES After reading this chapter, you should be able to understand and articulate answers to the following questions: 1. What are strategic management and strategy? 2. Why does strategic management matter? 3. What elements determine firm performance? Strategic Management: A Core Concern for Apple The Opening of the Apple Store Image courtesy of Neil Bird, http://www.flickr.com/photos/nechbi/2058929337. March 2, 2011, was a huge day for Apple. The firm released its much-anticipated iPad2, a thinner and faster version of market-leading Apple’s iPad tablet device. Apple also announced that a leading publisher, Random House, had made all seventeen thousand of its books available through Apple’s iBookstore. Apple had enjoyed tremendous success for quite some time. Approximately fifteen million iPads were sold in 2010, and the price of Apple’s stock had more than tripled from early 2009 to early 2011. Saylor URL: http://www.saylor.org/books Saylor.org 4 But future success was far from guaranteed. The firm’s visionary founder Steve Jobs was battling serious health problems. Apple’s performance had suffered when an earlier health crisis had forced Jobs to step away from the company. This raised serious questions. Would Jobs have to step away again? If so, how might Apple maintain its excellent performance without its leader? Meanwhile, the iPad2 faced daunting competition. Samsung...
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...Schiller International University MULTINATIONAL BUSINESS MANAGEMENT – BA 529 Chapter – 9 Ramesh rangasamy Week 3 & Day 9 , 88725 ------------------------------------------------- Assessment 1) Understanding the ways in which companies in a supply chain improve performance by forging strategic links with other firms requires a close look at the nature of the relationships and how the partners behave. Strategic alliances have become a common feature of supply chains, with managers of companies along the chain integrating their processes to enhance competitiveness. Yet research shows that alliances do not guarantee success – and little is known about why some strengthen the market position of the partners while others do not. Evelyne Vanpoucke and Ann Vereecke set out to understand which aspects of an alliance are more likely to deliver success. Their paper – “The Predictive Value of Behavioural Characteristics on the Success of Strategic Alliances” – explores how behavioural features of an alliance – such as trust and commitment, and how partners communicate and manage the relationship – impact performance. Their research provides valuable insights into ways supply chain managers can structure their partnerships to increase margins in complex markets. Strategic Alliances: Collaboration as a Resource Companies in a supply...
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...(30 marks) 2. In what ways can organisations develop strategically useful performance management systems? What is the nature of the link to SHRM thinking? (30 marks) 3. Why is reward management potentially so problematic for SHRM? In what ways can organisations integrate reward management in to the HRM strategy? (30 marks) 4. The best approach to modern employment relations is through the use of partnerships and partnership agreements. Discuss this statement in relation to a country of your choice. 5. How can HR functions deliver strategic organizational change and what difficulties may they face in doing it? Use theories, models and organizational examples as appropriate to develop your answer. 6. Critically evaluate the use of competency based approaches in modern HR strategies. Explain in details how they may be used in recruitment and selection. Use organisational examples as appropriate to support our answer 7. Evaluate the main theoretical views of the nature of HRM strategy? 8. Critically evaluate ONE of the following a) In what ways can HR strategies provide the level of organisational flexibility required by modern organisations? OR b) Should reward strategies always include an element of performance related pay. Justify your answer in relation to both theory and practice 9. How would you present the case for an organization to adopt a strategic approach to the management of people? What would be the potential advantages and disadvantages that an organization...
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...given case study. You should submit your answers in printed form on or before 19th March 2016. This assignment carries a total of 15 marks whereas 10 marks allocated for the submitted answer and 05 marks allocated for the presentation. The date of presentation will be announced on 19th March 2016. Integrating McDonald’s Business, Human Resource, and Staffing Strategies McDonalds is a restaurant chain that operates in most of the countries including Sri Lanka. It has recognized its human resources as the most important asset. The company’s success depends on the satisfaction of its customers, which begins with workers who have the attitudes and abilities required to work efficiently and provide good customer service. To execute its growth strategy, McDonald’s has identified people as one of its three global corporate strategies. McDonald’s claim that’s that as an employer, it wants “to be the best employer in each community around the world”. It also makes a “people promise” to its employees that “we value you, your growth, and your contributions”. Its five “people principles” reflected by its human resource strategy are: respect and recognition; values and leadership behaviors; competitive pay and benefits; learning; development; and personal growth; and ensuring that employees have the resources needed to get the job done. The company has also identified its people practices and approaches that substantially impact the firm’s performance. This has allowed it to develop a business...
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