Strategic Management Enhance Your Companies Productivity

Questions: 1) How would the strategic management model be helpful to you in identifying and securing the most promising position? 2) Critically explain how you might use value chain analysis, resource-based view and SWOT analysis to get a better sense of what might be a firms key building blocks for a successful strategy? 3) Describe two organizations you have been part of based on differences in their organizational cultures? 4) Think about your post graduation job search as a strategic decision. How would the strategic management model be helpful to you in identifying and securing the most promising position? Answers: 1. The business strategies relating to international investments vary from the domestic ones because of many differences within the business environment. Several factors are responsible behind adoption of strategies such as political environment, legal constraints, cultural differences, economic environment, etc. Thus, for any firm that aims at investing abroad needs to make several strategic decisions. The very first decision that a firm must make is regarding the need to expand business abroad or not. The decision is based on several factors like present as well as future opportunities, market opportunities, company resources like competencies, skills, production, financial support, marketing capabilities, key objectives of the firm, etc. Some of the key strategies that would be discussed in terms of competitive strategies of firms aiming at international markets are niche market exporting, licensing as well as contract manufacturing, joint ventures, and wholly owned subsidiaries. Niche market exporting The primary approach of niche market exporting for a specific organization which needs to export is by modifying selective product performance or measurement attributes to special demands of international markets. This is the most traditional mean to enter a new international market. It is referred to as a perfect strategy in the presence on or more of the given conditions size and volume of the international market is not big enough for justifying production within the international market, production cost is quite high in the international market, international market is attributed by problems such as infrastructural, material supplies, etc, political risks in the host country, and lack of interest of the company to continue with the host country to continue long period. Within international licensing, an organization in one country allows another one in another country to utilize its own intellectual property such as trademarks, patents, technology, copyrights or any specific skill. The financial benefit that the licensor enjoys is the royalty that the licensee pays. This strategy enables and organization in one country to get easy access to a firm in a different country with much convenience. On the other hand, management contracting is a strategy that brings supplier together with the package of skills for providing integrated service to customers without any risk or benefit of the ownership. This allows a firm to commercialize present conditions which have been developed with significant investments as well as effect of fluctuations within business volumes may be lessened by hiring experienced personnel. Joint ventures This is the most common strategy to enter the international market. It presents combination of subsets of assets as contributed by business entities for specified business demands. This has specific attributes like all the partners contribute by finance, effort, property, skill, knowledge or any other assets. The partners have joint property interest in all ventures, and they possess the right to share property and right to mutual management of property. Firms that possess long term substantial interest within international market usually create wholly-owned subsidiaries. This provides the firm with full control upon production as well as quality. Such a strategy does not have the risk of growing key competitors unlike that of licensing or contractual manufacturing. If increased capital investment is to be rewarded, organizational managers need to achieve excessive knowledge about the market, the host nations language, and culture and environment. Alterations in standards mandated by foreign regulations can remove a firms protected market niche. This strategy enables and organization in one country to get easy access to a firm in a different country with much convenience. 2. It is important to focus on the analyses on an individual basis for effective usage of those analyses in determining the key strategies for an organization. Firstly, as per the resource-based view of the a firm, it is lot more feasible for exploiting external opportunities by using present opportunities in innovative way instead of acquiring new skills for each opportunity. In this model, resources such as tangible and intangible assets play key role in supporting firms to attain increased organizational performance. For any firm to exceed in the long run, it must leverage its core resources as well as capabilities of establishing differentiation within the marketplace. Effective analysis of resources enables maximization of the resources and elimination of lesser valued ones. Similarly, value chain analyses deals with all profitable activities that a firm engages in, right from inbound logistics, moving through operations, outbound logistics, sales and marketing, and finally serv ice. With this analysis, firms may develop competitive advantage. With controlling costs as well as improvement of efficiency in logistics processes, a firm may be at a better position to earn more profit. Effective marketing and sales lead to increased profits. Potential customer management adds to the business profitability. An optimized value chain serves a business in the best manner. On the other hand, SWOT analysis is a useful framework used to analyze a firms strengths as well as weaknesses, opportunities and threats. This analysis enables a market researcher to emphasize and use strengths, reduce threats, and make the most of the available opportunities. It is greatly useful in effective strategy formulation in a much sophisticated manner. It provides understanding of the key competitors and gives an insight into the approach to craft successful competitive position. The above mentioned analyses majorly focus upon the internal activities. The analyses that would determine the competitive advantages as well as disadvantages of a firm include the following: By analyzing series of internal activities as well as enhancing these to add value to the final product By effective management of available resources, capabilities, and skills, based on the strengths as well as weaknesses of the firm With analysis of the customer needs, how key competitors offer, and ways to satisfy customers in a more effective way By altering the strategic approaches based on the product life cycle, for instance creating awareness within introducing and causing brand awareness in leading to growth By analyzing all available internal sources as well as abilities, and responding effectively to the key threats that enable a firm to develop strategic competitive advantage To sum up, a single building block is deeper insight into the starting position of a firm, how it was created. It is also important to view upon how the future can unfold by means of forecasting. By combination of both the aspects of early initiation and that of future perspective, several alternative ways may be developed and implemented. Once a strategy is selected, the firm needs to create an action plan as well as allocate resources for delivering those. Creation of strategies in the present environment is quite complex, and thorough study and analyses are required before plunging into the action plan. 3. Organizational culture refers to the basic pattern of shared assumptions, beliefs, and values which means the exact way to think of and also act on problems as well as opportunities that an organization faces. This defines what is important and what is not within an organization. It is a common phenomenon that organizations would have different cultures and beliefs. Often organizations differ in the respective cultural content or the relative ordering of beliefs, assumptions, and beliefs. In this context, two organizations can be mentioned of that differ in their organizational cultures. These are Nokia Corp. and Amazon.com. The corporate culture of Nokia is one of the strategic as well as competitive advantages. Its catch phrase Connecting People has been symbolic of its culture that enables defining of the purpose of the available physical facilities. It has built a strong corporate image for itself. It has the utmost potential ability to sustain high product style as well as demonstrating its worldwide technological leader. Nokia prides itself upon four core values as well as principles that places within the heart of its cultural philosophy: customer satisfaction, individual respect, goal achievement, and continuous learning. With creation of opportunities for the fluid exchange of innovative ideas as well as empowerment of employees, clients, suppliers, business partners, and others for developing and also expanding effective relationships. The company had defined a new model not just to assure corporate success, but to manage its needs for corporate real estates. Ever since the beginning of the jou rney, the company had faced the challenge to develop a clear, desirable workplace, along with a design which mirrored the effective culture, vision, and values of the Nokia group. The company had been actively considering the development of a touch-screen smart-phone some few years ago, that may have killed off the iPhone within its very tracks. However, the prevailing culture of avoiding of risk, conservatism, inertia, all acted against the investment. The company emphasizes upon the speed as well as flexibility of its decision-making processes. It is said to be somewhat flat-networked organization with some level of bureaucracy. There is availability of equal opportunities as well as active employee participation. It has been identified from the culture of Nokia Corp that the management is well aware of the fact that one of the key ways to align culture to organizations strategy is by practicing leadership. The leaders at all level must know about the required culture and graduall y set plans to follow those procedures and practices which would reflect the aimed culture. The leaders know the importance to pay close attention to the means and processes of communication. On the other hand, the organizational culture of Amazon.com may be reflected upon to contrast between the two cultures. The leadership principles of Amazon are varied for several reasons. Firstly, these are practically usable. These may be used at most situations of trade-offs, strategic development, and areas to be developed. The culture is quite authentic that leads to its increased growth. One of the key attributes of Amazon.com is customer obsession. Unlike many other companies, the motive to customer satisfaction holds quite true for Amazon, as per the research study. The motive has a real value at Amazon, but not certainly the only one. Another value of the company is ownership that is referred to the idea of not compromising the long-term goals for achieving short-term achievements. By incorporating favorable terms as well as increased use of leverage within the market, the company has been balancing all its long-term benefits towards customers as well as shareholders along wi th quick customer effect. To contrast the organizational cultures amidst the two organizations, Nokia Corp. and that of Amazon.com, it may be identified that since Nokia is a company that has strengthens in the product development, the organizational culture is aligned to the needs of the customer demands and market requirements. With innovative product development, the company aims at achieving strong customer base. On the other hand, in Amazon, the company aims at serving the customers in the best way possible to capture a large target group. The culture is dedicated to understand the customer behavior and that of the ethical aspects of services. The culture at Amazon is much more practically viewed and pursued as compared to that of Nokia. The company Nokia emphasizes upon the speed as well as flexibility of its decision-making processes. It is said to be somewhat flat-networked organization with some level of bureaucracy. However, the motive of customer obsession has a real value at Amazon, but not certai nly the only one. Another value of the company is ownership that is referred to the idea of not compromising the long-term goals for achieving short-term achievements. 4. Strategic management model means the mode or pattern of strategic approach. As per such a model, various steps are designed for achievement of desired objectives of a firm. As mentioned in the given situation of post-graduation job search as a strategic decision, a model of strategic management may be developed for the purpose of job search. It involves formulation as well as implementation of plans of strategic management. In case of my post graduation job search, I need to use a model of strategic management that may be useful for me to secure the most promising position. The strategies would be based on the convenience and feasibility of the access to desired organization. For securing the promising position it is important to compare and contrast personal qualifications, skills and competencies, with that of the organizational requirements and specifications. There are some steps in the development on such a strategic management model, namely: Mission To initiate with the model, the first step is to specify the mission. The mission here is to attain a job after post graduation course. Not only attaining a job, the mission also includes achieving a promising position in the professional field. Objectives The process of post graduation job search has been considered a strategic decision. This strategic decision therefore needs a strategic planning model. The key objective is to seek a job after the post graduation course and also secure a promising position in the professional field. Situation Analysis Once the objectives have been laid clearly, various situations are to be analyzed like that of availabilities of various opportunities at different organizations, job descriptions, and job specifications. This analysis is carried out by either Pest analysis, SWOT analysis to assess the internal as well as external environments of the organizations, related customer and stakeholder information, and also products and services. The acquired information is to be compared with the desired objectives and aims, and then decision is to be taken regarding which organization to join to pursue further accomplishments. Formulation of Strategies Once the organization is decided upon to be pursued, it is important to formulate strategies to access entrance to the specific organization. The strategies would be based on the convenience and feasibility of the access to desired organization. For securing the promising position it is important to compare and contrast personal qualifications, skills and competencies, with that of the organizational requirements and specifications. The post graduation job search seeks to go through a series of steps to approach different organizations of preference. Actions plans are suitable for converting general strategies into desired actions. 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