Strategic Management


 


The advances in technology and the fast modernization of the world, in general, opened new and very promising avenues of business opportunities not just in an individual’s locale but also abroad. A lot of business-minded individuals from different countries with different nationalities and cultural orientation have and continuously defied the geographic boundaries that exist between continents. This is evident in the growing number of internationally-operating business firms all over the world run by entrepreneurs of varying race and culture. The information man has successfully rebelled against intercontinental borders and the challenge that confronts him the most, deals with how to fit and blend in the new cultural environment in which their businesses are situated.


Organizations are neither the rational, harmonious entities celebrated in managerial theory nor the arenas of apocalyptic class conflict projected by Marxists ( & 1980). and (1996) believe that modern organizations passed by the guild structures and as organizations grew larger, skills become increasingly fragmented and specialized and positions become more functionally differentiated. Organizational change is part of and a result of struggles between contradictory forces, also change management practice is related with endeavoring to manage their competing demands. To understand why and how to change organizations, it is first necessary to understand their structures, management and behaviour.


These systems of ideas, or organizational theories are crucial to change management in two respects. First, they provide models of how organization should be structured and managed. Second, they provide guidelines for judging and prescribing the behaviour and effectiveness of individuals and groups in an organization. It is clear that in many organizations there is no clear understanding if the theories. Change cannot hope to be fully successful under circumstances ( 1996).


          It can be said that organizational change is one of the critical determinants in organizational success and failure1998l (1998) stated that the focus of successful organizations is on customers and their needs, which includes investing in ways to improve sales and provide superior service to clients, and they do not forget that their customers and their customers’ needs underlie their organization’s existence. In addition, adapting factors crucial to the success of certain missions and the implementation of solutions to problems are common traits of a successful organization a(l 1998). The lack of such initiatives can throw an organization into confusion, being stuck in traditional practices that cannot solve or handle the current problems faced. Thus, the lack of such factors stresses the need for a strategic organizational change. It is basically a flexible strategic planning process as opposed to a static form of strategic planning.


Business administration and management characterizes the process of leading and directing the systems within an organization by exhausting available resources extensively so as to achieve the objectives of the business operation. It most of the time includes the conceptualization of business plans and monitoring its execution for assessment and evaluation of the efficiency and effectiveness of the business transactions. Strategic management is the process of identifying and enumerating the aims of the organizations in order to come up with sound business policies and plans from which the profit of the business organization will be fully maximized. Proper allocation of funds and investments on business ventures is practiced in order to achieve the expected results of a specific business plan thus providing direction to the whole enterprise. Conceptualizing the business strategy should be always in sync with the available resources of the company, recognizing the circumstances of every business move which the company will be responsible in the future. Strategic advantages in the business environment determine the success of the conjured business plan of the company putting the organization into a position that will make its mission a reality. A good business strategy makes it a point to integrate and harmonize the goals, policies and actions of the organization into a tactical coherence in order to ensure and guarantee the success in the industry ().   


Multi-business organizations and firms are constantly facing pressures brought about the varying unpredictable factors that hinder efficient and effective business operations. This results to graver responsibilities faced by the business executives as board of directors; capital markets and shareholders push for effective and powerful corporate strategies.  The competitive business environment within particular industries, intensifies the need of business organizations to diversify the operation systems of the company recognizing the importance of t6he conglomeration of assets, skills, and capabilities of the available resources that the company has in order to be successful. Business executives maximize the value of shareholders in order to present the worth of the cooperation and participation of the different arms and departments within a business firm. For these reasons, creating corporate advantage through strategic business decisions among multi-business firm were designed and practiced for them to confront the challenges by exposing executives to state-of-the-art thinking and research on corporate- and sector-level strategy.


According to the Department of Corporate Strategy and International Business of Stephen M. Ross School of Business in the University of Michigan, corporate strategy or strategic management is concerned with the management of a corporation as whole, integrating the marketing, finance and accounting departments into a single and specific aspect of a firm ).  It is the strategic planning or management decisions that affect the direction of the company used primarily in order to promote company diversification, reorganization, restructuring or reengineering initiated by the company ().


 (2002) provided further understanding on the corporate strategy formulation which includes recognition of the market opportunity, character and competence of available resources, values and objectives of the company and proper consideration for the stakeholders. The implementation of corporate strategies should identify the internal and external structures and relationships of the company, the processes that should take place and its monitoring as well as the expected behaviors and circumstances of the decisions and actions, and personal leadership. Evaluation enumerates and examines the timely and relevant feedbacks, and financial reports and subjective assessment ().



Before the advent of new media technologies like the Internet and the wireless mobile communication, advertising firms has been using the traditional business strategies in order to answer to the demands and needs of the customers ensuring efficient and effective business operations. But the introduction of technological innovation and advancements resulted to an opportunity for more efficient and effective business handling through the networking strategy. According to (2000), the introduction of World Wide Web, Mosaic, and an aggressive Internet upstart, Netscape, has altered the industry structure which ensured mass marketers’ profitability in the next 40 years. The Internet, as one of the most popular form of new mass communication technology, has long been of full use and advantage to all sorts of businesses.  Business, information and entertainment have been communicated with ease through such technological revolutions. The Internet is changing the way we do business, whether it’s finding new streams of revenue, acquiring new customers, or managing a business supply chain.


Networking is establishing, maintaining and utilizing a broad network of contacts (e.g., in government, media, and the community) in order to keep a pulse on public, political and internal issues and to make informed decisions. It includes identifying who to involve, as well as when and how to involve them in order to accomplish objectives and minimize obstacles thus, developing a way to increase dynamism and strength of networks without retreating to the unsuccessful formula of the coordinating umbrella body. The challenge, therefore, is to develop information systems which facilitate and catalyze, rather than organize, the development of such networks to the benefit of all participating bodies and the social system within which they function ().


This Means…


This Doesn’t Mean…




  • developing a network of support with stakeholders to help attain organizational goals






  • contacting stakeholders only when you need to solve a problem or gather information






  • cultivating useful contacts with a broad range of people in a variety of strategic positions






  • networking without a purpose






  • serving on community committees whose membership includes influential people within your service area






  • turning down invitations or not being involved in community groups






  • establishing a long-term relationship with internal and external stakeholders






  • focusing on the short-term with a stakeholder to build immediate project support without considering the long-term implications






  • seeking the ideas and concerns of colleagues for mutual benefit






  • ignoring the opinions and ideas of your colleagues and believing your ideas are always the right ones






  • building and nurturing relationships with people in other departments that may have a direct impact on one’s work






  • keeping only internally focused




 


With the never-ending possibilities of new inventions and innovations in the field of communication technology, much is expected in the future especially in the ever-increasing complex needs of clients and customers of different social segment from service and product providers.  The complex and demanding needs of the information age man will push creative and intellectual minds to continue their quest of improving the available convenient lifestyle of man. Computer wizards will continue exhausting resources and trying out things to find new and alternative ways of supplying services for the comfort of the Internet users to advance the modern man further in the use of the virtual communication as well as to increase the profit of online communication businesses. Dell Computer best illustrates the CSDM business transaction system as a direct marketing company, without distributors or agents that markets its products through the cyber shop. Analyzing the case of Dell Inc and the company’s profit is of interest to this particular thesis topic.


The Cyber Shop and Direct Marketing (CSDM) is a designed virtual trading system operation for the simultaneous practice of operating business transactions via cyber shop and direct marketing. It operates by combining the actual sales through the Cyber Shop and the logistic system through the Direct Marketing. This virtual operating system is directly employed and utilized by Dell Inc in the transaction mode of the company. Customers of Dell Inc buys a computer unit through Dell’s website through direct online orders and purchases and enjoys the delivery services offered by the company. CSDM is different from that of the traditional purchase system flow wherein customers could not reach the source company directly. The figure below illustrates the detail of the system architecture simulated with a simple trading operation as customers buy products from the company through the CSDM system in Dell Inc.


 


 


 


 



 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


Direct reaction and simplified purchase for consumer, direct sell, direct service, and direct support from vendor; these are just a few of the common terms and concepts linked with cyber shop business transaction and direct marketing strategy in the advances in communication technology. The success of this research project provides the general idea of how both the customers and the business organization benefit from the utilization of the Cyber Shop and Direct Marketing (CSDM) system.


In the traditional supply chain management used by businesses that import materials for production, a lot of people, time and money are invested upon to ensure that the demands of the manufacturers will be handled in the specified date and time required. Before being able to place an order of shipment of raw materials, several transactions are consulted between the supplier and the manufacturer that eats up their valued time. Great amount of time is consumed in the mere planning of the purchase orders of a manufacturing company. And since most of the time the transactions involve not only a single supplier, especially in the case of huge international producers, manufacturers deal with sub-suppliers with several forwarders from which a number of consolidations are exchanged. The workload and time that defines the proceeding business processes that will follow predicts and maintains the success and profit of the whole business organization. As such networking strategy is replacing the traditional corporate strategies being practiced by business organizations in this era of information and technological advancements. Networking strategy aims to promote continuous survival and growth among business organizations.


 


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