Question: Organizational Strategy class
I need response to these discussion boards . Please keep in order as listed.
1. Porsche- Hello Everyone!
The one thing that is constant in this world is change. Change is inevitable and is happening every day. Specifically in businesses, and firms. To be competitive and stay competitive, businesses must adopt and adjust to change. However, this concept is not possible without having the right people in place. Leaders are very influential in facilitating this process as they work to help the business develop a new way of thinking. Staying competitive within the global market requires leaders and employees to be able to to think outside the box, and view the world from different perspectives. Furthermore, it entails critical thinking skills and a strategic plan that is innovative yet reflective of your firm's values.
To gain the upper hand in business, one must possess the ability to think strategically. Strategic Thinking is the foundation for the effective use of strategic management (Hoskisson, Hitt, Ireland & Harrison, 2013). Hoskisson et al., (2013) explains strategic management as a discipline that has emerged in response to the need for mental models and strategic planning tools that can help executives guide their firms in this challenging global business environment. Yet, ensuring that such processes lead to outcomes that are consistent with our firm values requires leaders to be active and knowledgeable of the direction, views, and actions of the company at all times, while monitoring the market. Subsequently, from the conception to the implementation of the strategic planning process, leaders must be actively involved.
Strategic leaders guide the strategy-creation process, help the organization acquire and develop needed resources, manage relationships with key organizational stakeholders, and develop adequate organizational controls to ensure that the process is successful in leading to desired firm outcomes (Hoskisson, Hitt, Ireland & Harrison, 2013, p. 3). Leader's efforts in this process is most effective when they recognize the power of effective communication skills. Leaders must work diligently with employees to identify their goals, mission, and vision for the company. What are the firm's values? Asking this question and having open discussions where employees are inclusive, allows all members of the firm the ability to gain understanding.
Understanding is the foundation to developing outcomes that are reflective of the firm's values. It provides us with a blueprint, and directs us towards ideas, processes, and methods that represent our vision best. In order for this process to work, leaders must communicate effectively, conveying their vision to employees in a clear and precise manner. Clear communication is vital amongst employees and leaders, as employees are relevant and useful in developing and implementing processes. If we want to ensure productivity and full participation, employees must understand the expectations and values of the company. Together, leaders and subordinates must pay close attention to the internal and external aspects of the company and its competitors, as a way to analyze their current market situation.
As a result, leaders and employees can utilize the information learned as a tool to align values and ethics with the action plans they are facilitating. From experience as a leader, I am goal- oriented. My firm's goal is to obtain and sustain a competitive advantage. Our mission and values are communicated through many channels throughout the company; rather it is weekly one on one meetings, all staff meetings, company challenges that promote the vision, or through evaluations. Subsequently, I am tasked with helping to achieve this goal. My method is doing so consist of strategic thinking and planning. It is crucial for my team and I to be fully aware of our surroundings and objectives before trying to reach a goal. We must be consider our resources, labor, time, and current trends within the market. We discuss actions plans and anticipate possible outcomes. In addition, we often monitor our current procedures and weigh them against the procedures in question.
Overall, we review our strengths and weaknesses and use the information to incorporate corrective action. Being a visual person, I also use models to illustrate our plans. Models provide clarity and helps employees understand the bigger picture. If they are able to see the end result, and the steps it takes to get there, they are more eager to participate in the implementation. Using models also helps me bring concepts and visions to light. Through models, I am able to connect our values to our plans and bridge gaps that prevent us from being successful. I am also able to develop efficient strategies needed to achieve our goals, while identifying possible limitations and setbacks. This is how we compete and become victorious in our planning.
Competition itself drives leaders to want more and to do more. There is not one measure to reach success, rather than several different avenues that can lead us there. Having strategic flexibility will allow us to adapt to the changes of the market and to respond to various demands and opportunities (Hoskisson et al., 2013, p.8). Moreover, Hoskisson et al., (2013) discusses the (industrial organization) model, which suggests that the external environment is the primary determinant of a firm's strategies. They explain that the key to this model is identifying and competing successfully in an attractive (i.e., profitable) industry. My theory is no one wants what no one wants. Therefore, we must enter a market that is worthy of competing in, and offer products, and services that are in demand. If we rely on our values that are ground in customer satisfaction, we will create strategies that fulfil our vision.
Hoskisson, Robert E., Competing for Advantage, South-Western Cengage Learning, 2013.
David, F.R. (2009). Strategic Management: Concepts and Cases. 12th ed. FT Prentice Hall, p. 36-37, 45-47, 93
2.Thomas- Senior leadership in most organizations today are challenged with a global economy that is changing very rapidly. Advancements in technology, communication, and transportation have dramatically increased competition in a global market. (Hoskisson, 2013) These changes accompanied with economic, political, and social pressure have created an environment filled with intense competition. To overcome this competition leadership must find creative methods to create a competitive advantage that offers value to their stakeholders (Hoskisson, 2013, p. 2).
Value can be perceived and interpreted in many ways and what is important to one customer or stakeholder may not be important to another. However, value, represents importance to the stakeholder and creates relationships that are based on trust and mutual satisfaction. Strategic thinkers understand that strong relationships based on value, can facilitate an organization implementing their strategic initiatives as a result of customers being actively involved in the process. When customers feel their input is valued and appreciated they are more likely to commit to a plan of action (Hoskisson, 2013, p. 19).
In my organization we created value for our customers by selling products that were solutions focused and created economic value for our customers. We trained our staff on the latest product technology which allowed them to make accurate product recommendations to our customers. Additionally, we trained our teams to be professional in conduct and appearance and to communicate in an open, honest, and transparent manner with character and integrity. Senior leadership also encouraged our team and customers to be agents of change and fight the status quo. Furthermore, we attempted to create an environment that fostered the cross collaboration of ideas and rewarded our team when they presented an idea that created economic value for our customers, or our organization.
Finally, we created a Strategy Statement for our organization that was shared with all of our team members to support them to think strategically. Our Strategy Statement consistently reminded our team of how we needed to do business to sustain our competitive advantage. Ultimately, it is the responsibility of leadership to be the primary engine of strategic thinking. Thinking strategically can be an extremely complex, but is an essential element of leadership and is an attribute that every organization requires. Unless leadership is fulfilling their responsibilities, important strategies cannot be formulated and implemented to help our organizations achieve exceptional results, meet the wants and needs of our customers and stakeholders (Hoskisson, 2013, p. 46)
3.Michael- Class,
For my specific organization to be successful with it's strategic management goals, top management needs to identify what is important. To achieve the appropriate goals, top manager need to follow a specific process to identify the organizations priorities. Top management needs to perform a strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats analysis to identify areas to improve. This process with also highlight areas of strategic opportunity that top managers can formulate a plan to decrease. My organization is privately owned and is the first generation. His management style is very hands on and he has built a multi-billion dollar company with old school business philosophy. However, the leaders of the company understand that those techniques will not sustain the business in the long term. For this reason, top management of my organization has adopted a strategic mind set to improve the long term success of the company. One of the ways my organization is trying to influence strategic thinking is to promote innovation by implementing a program a philosophy of preventing problems before they happen. This philosophy was rolled out to all nine of our production facilities to encourage employees to get involved with everyday operations. One of the principles is to focus on quality by doing the job right the first time and minimizing re-work of finish products. Another principle is to over communicate. My favorite is "do you know and are you sure" question to ask for every task completed on a daily basis. They are a few other principles, but all are designed to achieve the companies goal of being the worlds greatest dairy foods and ingredient company. My organization is very aware of best practices in the industry, but struggle with the internal culture. I have been with company for four years and we have been trying to change the companies culture for a year before I arrived. The challenge is that the owner of the company still believes does not see the value in some of the ways of strategic management because he built a successful business without it, (so he thinks).
As our text points out, for an organization to be successful in todays global economy, it should have a strategic plan. Hoskisson states, "Strategic thinking as discussed, is the decision-making medium through which the firm uses the strategic management process to shape its present and influence its future while pursuing value creation and high financial returns", (Hoskisson, page 22, 2013), this statement supports the idea that organizations need a plan in order to be successful in todays competitive environment.
Mike
Reference
Hoskisson, Robert E., Competing for Advantage, South-Western Cengage Learning, 2013.
4.Tammy- Class,
As with any organization top management must have goals, vision, mission and purpose. Strategic leadership is a method used to ensure positive outcomes. As our text states "strategic leadership is the ability to anticipate, envision, maintain flexibility, and empower others to create strategic change as necessary" (Hokisson, Hitt, Ireland, & Harrison, 2013, p. 35).
As a fee based management company the top-level managers have to keep both the property owner happy as well as the staff that work for that property. With a balanced focus on financials, customers, internal business process and learning and growth an organization is planning a strategic path to success. The four owners each focus on the four perspectives of the balance scorecard. Everyone working toward the same goal and having a direct focus on each area the outcomes have been positive and growth has occurred for the past ten years. This is also in line with the company values, the four relevant to strategic planning are listed below.
We hire and reward people who everyday display integrity, honesty, and caring behaviors in dealing with others. (learning and growth).
We foster relationships - We treat each other, our clients (owners and developers), our customers (residents), and our lenders and suppliers with respect, open, honest communication, fairness, and politeness. We don't do drama! (customers).
We seek to continuously improve by sharing knowledge, and improving the quality of systems. (Internal business processes).
We strive to be good stewards of our corporate resources. We leverage our individual and collective gifts with the intention of developing a harmonious and satisfying living and working environment. (financial) (KMG Prestige mission and values, 2016).
Tammy
Hokisson, R. E., Hitt, A. M., Ireland, D. R., & Harrison, S. J. (2013). Competing for Advantage (Third ed.). Mason, OH: South-Western.
KMG Prestige mission and values. (2016). Retrieved from KMG Prestige: https://www.kmgprestige.com/Mission_and_Values.html