“Organizations need to understand their operational world. In the classic definition, the two concerns of strategy are the ‘external environment’ and the ‘future’. (1994) states that ‘an organization needs a sense of where it is going and what forces in its environment are going to help or hinder it in achieving its goal’. (1985) suggests that it helps the organization to explore a limited number of possible directions and create a model of how their actions are going to affect that environment”. – This can provide basis for Venetian Macao in terms of their strategic marketing operations
Strategic Marketing and Operations
There can be effective opportunity for Venetian Macao in their strategic direction that can be supported by such model presented by along with applicable contribution that may suggest strategic business upon demonstrating competence levels within positive ability to distinguish Venetian operational effectiveness and strategy and that, claims, (1996) the quest for productivity, quality and speed has spawned such remarkable number of management tools and techniques even though operational improvements were dramatic to translate strategic gains into sustainable profitability within the Macao project. From the interest of marketing decisions within context of strategic planning and implementation as well as operations technology and that, the contribution to Venetian Macao strategic planning are described: (, 1991)
- to minimize business potential
- to provide credible support to the business strategy
- to develop sustainable competitive advantage
Thus, the role of operations management is to contribute to value by structuring its activities such that their decisions maximize the impact of the value driver influence. Tourism-based technology can be effective for the Macao project as there offers marketing opportunities in lowering differentiation costs of such capabilities to realize market segments and mix upon setting up valid economies (1994). Marketing is seeking to respond to customers seeking standardized products, ideally in volume quantities. Operation focuses on high volume production with stringent cost controls.
Porter’s Five Forces
Rivalry is considered to be the strongest and most important force in Porter’s model. For instance, the competitors of Venetian Macau can be noted as very aggressive in making innovative moves so as to increase sales and market share, also targeting similar market segments, making the level of rivalry even higher.
The threat on entrants is highly dependent on the presence of factors known as barriers of entry. For the Macao project, the entrant factor can be considered as fair due to a number of reasons. One of which is the fact that operating such business demands a considerable capital. A great deal of capital will not only be necessary for putting up the business itself but also in acquiring the best professionals and technology for product development as well as marketing, entering the same industry and competing with existing tourism approach can be difficult due to customer loyalty and strong service preference factors.
This aspect of Porter’s five forces pertains to the power of the buyers over the manufacturer or the company, Macao assessment is based on the nature of buyer power sources surrounding the company. In particular, the demand for the products produced by the company is reduced due to a number of economic factors. As these factors are difficult to predict, the demand can then decrease at any point. In addition, due to several competitors, products and services offered to consumers are undifferentiated.
The power of the suppliers with the company is fair. This is because supplier concentration for tourism industry needs is low. Considering that Macao is to recognize tourism value upon supporting quality services several suppliers will be very willing to supply goods to the Venetian and should also note that healthy relation with suppliers is as important as those with its customers.
Aside, promotion market mix is indispensable through the various promotion strategies, one is able to acquire as well as retain customers means to achieve an effective promotion strategy does not necessarily imply a high cost. Venetian then, may require unlocking their true potential by optimizing better financial performance, improving business operation policies for suitable market dominance, there has to be execution of specific market approach such as those improving their marketing operation in support for business to business and business to customer paradigms.
SWOT
One useful method of presenting Venetian Macau information in way that ensures evaluation is to perform SWOT analysis as there allows Venetian Macau management to signify the decision’s relevance to the organization is it something to build on, to eliminate, to anticipate and something to outmaneuver well. The SWOT analysis will provide enough awareness for Venetian Macau and its business management operations implying relevant points for their resources as well as market approaches and processes in order to stay in shape and in control of their business environment.
Table One: SWOT Analysis
Strengths
Strong customer-based Operation and Services
Better business standards and disciplined approach towards increased indication of sales and profits
Weaknesses
Reliance on effective hospitality and tourism market
Reliance on technology
Problems in certain global operation strategy stance
Opportunities
Execution and growth in human resource activities
Deliverance of innovative services for casinos and other leisure programs
Ideal avenue for tourism sustainability and effectiveness
Threats
Presence of tourism business risks and issues
Rising hotel prices and high service charges and costs
Slow sales and profits due to competitive markets
Business operation regulations have strict norms to achieve
Venetian Macao provides it with widespread brand recognition and strong customer base. The significant rise in revenues and profits provides the company with strong financial base and enables it to undertake new business opportunity. Venetian Macao must be aware of competition and maintain its good business performance, the role of marketing information in such business to business and business to customer can be vital in conducting and analyzing the market. Venetian Macao will need to apply appropriate marketing communication tools in order for them to relate well to potential clients as such it can be through online advertisements and other ways.
Figure ONE: Conceptual model of integration, strategy, creativeness and performance
Changes in the business environment are leading to new and greater demands on strategic planning systems. Moreover, given that strategic planning’s sole purpose is to improve strategic performance, improving, assessing and monitoring the effectiveness of the strategic planning process would appear to be a key managerial task. However, our research has noted that many organizations do not perform the task. When questioned, many practitioners complained that little guidance has been available to assist them in understanding and measuring strategic planning effectiveness (1998a). The tool provides a balanced framework for identifying the salient dimensions of strategic planning effectiveness by addressing three critical areas. The tool helps managers design and implement a more effective planning process, and helps create more effective people. Despite the increasing interest in organizational effectiveness there is little consensus over what constitutes a valid set of effectiveness criteria (Smith, 1998). This is somewhat surprising given that the effectiveness of the overall planning process may be as important as formalisation and comprehensiveness ( 1990). The traditional approach which involves measuring effectiveness in terms of objectives poses a number of problems. For example, effective performance must be determined, in part, by the objectives of the organization itself rather than by an externally imposed standard (1980). Even within the same organization common objectives may differ.
The effectiveness of the nature of strategic planning in firms, as opposed solely to performance outcomes has been highlighted as a major problem, ( 1980; 1983). Some writers, have proposed methods to evaluate the strategic planning system (SPS), (1977;1981; 1992;1994). There have been two main approaches to evaluate the effectiveness of a strategic planning system process and ends-oriented (1994). The process approach considers the whole system and provides users with a means of identifying weaknesses, while end-oriented focuses on the outputs of the system. While Foster recommends the sole use of the first approach, (1998b, 1998c) have shown that perhaps the best measure of effectiveness is to include a combination of both approaches. Organizations can enhance their planning effectiveness by using management and planning tools that make the details of their plans visible (1998). This visibility facilitates vertical integration, horizontal, and cross functional alignment. However, initiating, managing and sustaining a corporate transformation requires close attention to: top-down direction setting; horizontal process redesign, and bottom-up performance improvement ( 1998).
Researchers have empirically verified positive effects on performance resulting from consistency in operations and marketing strategies (1987; 1991). However, substantive relationships between dimensions of manufacturing strategy and marketing strategy have not been clearly established. According to (1996,), this lack of linkage continues to be “the first and most serious problem and the main weakness in Venetian Macao. There suggest that the lack of linkage in strategic models is due in large part to the ambiguity surrounding the essence of manufacturing strategy. The elements of manufacturing strategy have been characterized in many different ways, including manufacturing tasks, competitive priorities, order winners and qualifiers, and components of production competence.
Recently, researchers have argued that capabilities form the primary basis for competition between firms. It has been said that in the current business environment, the essence of strategy is to develop hard-to-imitate organizational capabilities that distinguish a company from its competitors in the eyes of its customers” (1992). Core capabilities contained within a firm’s manufacturing processes enable it to differentiate its products from competitors’ products. Like other elements of manufacturing strategy, core capabilities have not been well-defined. (1996) suggest that capabilities are activities that a firm can do better than its competitors. Further, a capability is not something a firm can buy. Capabilities are organizationally specific; they must be developed internally. The fact that they are difficult to imitate or transfer is what makes them valuable. Thus, capabilities derive less from specific technologies or manufacturing facilities and more from manufacturing infrastructure: people, management and information systems, learning, and organizational focus.
Thinking about strategy requires thinking vertically, from high altitude to low altitude. Strategy looks at effectiveness and success through the eyes of customers and other stakeholders who are receiving a product or service or who impact the delivery of a product or service. Actionable strategy links a shared vision of the future to strategically important products, programs, services and activities. The figure to the right shows how an organization’s strategic elements come together to form strategy. The strategic Strategy Starts With the End in Mind elements needed to create effective strategy include: vision, mission, core values (guiding principles), organization pains and enablers (from a SWOT analysis), customer value proposition, perspectives, and external environmental factors affecting the organization.
Strategy exists at different levels in an organization. First there is high-level, organization-wide strategy. Starting with the mission and vision, strategy at this level can be defined as a collection of a few (i.e., three or four) high-level themes that break a shared vision into actionable focus areas. These strategic themes are complimentary, and, taken together, strategic themes represent the organization’s “pillars of excellence”. Some common examples of strategic themes are operational excellence, strategic partnering, service excellence, and a compelling place to work. How can a shared vision of the future be translated into a set of three or four strategic themes that focus the organization on results and excellence? Remember the strategic planning workshop discussed earlier? Instead of “business as usual”, design your strategic planning workshop by starting with the end in mind. “The end” is an overarching strategic result that allows the organization to work toward something measurable. The overarching strategic result is tied to the vision. With your vision and overarching strategic result defined, a set of complimentary strategic themes can be developed that help make the vision actionable. Each strategic theme will have one strategic result. So the vision breaks down into several strategic themes, and the overarching strategic result breaks down into theme strategic results. Instead of 6 to 12 “strategic goal buckets” in a typical strategic plan, a more manageable three to four strategic themes and strategic results are developed that form the basis of the organization’s strategy. And so far, you have not talked about current programs, products, services, or projects. The mantra should be mission, vision, and strategy first – operations and tactics second. The next step in the process of becoming more strategy focused organization is to determine strategic perspectives, or performance dimensions, that can help transform organization mission and vision into actionable strategy. It takes several perspectives to understand an organization as a system, composed of human capital, infrastructure and processes that are linked together to create customer value. Think of perspectives as different lenses through which strategy can be viewed. In a strategy-based planning and managing system, strategy is analyzed through four perspectives. Typical perspectives are: financial/stewardship, customer/ stakeholder, internal business processes, and organization capacity. Once the strategic themes, results and perspectives have been developed, strategic objectives are developed for themes.
Strategic objectives are the building blocks of strategy, as strategic objectives are expressed as continuous improvement actions, and can be documented, measured, and made actionable through initiatives and projects. One of the most significant contributions to management science over the past fifteen years is something called a “strategy map”. A strategy map is a key component of a balanced scorecard, and shows graphically how the organization creates value for customers and stakeholders and employees. The strategy map is constructed by linking strategic objectives using causeeffect relationships among objectives placed in perspectives. The resulting map shows, at a high level, how an organization creates value strategically for its customers and stakeholders. A strategy map is one of the most effective communication tools an organization can use to build alignment, accountably, and a focus on results. The figure above shows an example of a strategy map for a consulting business. In businesses, the strategy map represents a value chain of continuous improvement activities (strategy) that the organization needs to pursue to be successful. Once the organization’s strategy map is constructed, critical performance measures can be developed for each objective. Once the measures are defined, targets and benchmarks can be developed to track success of the organization’s strategy against expected performance. The highest priority strategic initiatives are the ones to which we should allocate resources in order to achieve desired strategic results. The figure below shows how the elements of strategy align to form a true strategic planning process, rather than just a program justification process. Strategy is the common thread of an integrated planning and management system, and forms the basis for communicating the organization’s approach for improving mission effectiveness for stakeholders. The finished strategy-based planning and management system translates customer and other stakeholder needs, vision, mission, and values into organization strategic results, strategy, objectives, performance measures and targets, and new initiatives. The process of developing strategic themes and results from the vision and overarching strategic result is a process of strategic discovery and critical thinking. Rather than just looking for a home for the organization’s favorite activities, this process leads to new ways of thinking about the organization from customers and stakeholders downward, rather than from the sum of all the organization currently does upward. It’s a difference between night and day in the outcomes of the process.
REFERENCE
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