Strategic Management Task one PDF

Preview

Summary

This was the first task for the class, I passed the class....

Description

Running head: STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT – C209 PRFA – JRM1

Strategic Management – Task 1 Western Governors University

1

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT – C209 PRFA – JRM1

2

A great strategic plan starts with understanding where we are today and assessing the organization's current state by gathering external perspectives, opportunities and threats, and internal perspectives, strengths and weaknesses. Once the organization is clear about where they are today, it can move into the other steps of designing the strategy and summarizing all the information into a SWOT analysis. A1. Discuss how the creation of the vision, mission, and values statements are critical in the formation of the overall strategy. Creating the mission, vision, and values statements of an organization are critical in forming a successful strategy and starting with the mission statement's most innovative and costefficient provider of memory-based solutions. The mission statement describes the scope and purpose of its present business, and it tells why we exist as an organization, our core purpose, and why we are here. With a clear mission, the organization can move to cast its vision. The vision statement describes the company's desired future position and answers what we want to achieve in the future and whom we want to become. When defining the vision statement, a company should include specific goals and objectives to define what they want to achieve. A vision statement provides views into the organization's future with a positive outlook into the long-term plans and what they hope to achieve in the long run. The organization's core values are how the organization and its personnel are going to behave. These values assist in shaping and defining the culture of the organization and the ethical foundation. These three statements are the framework that holds the organization together. Without accurate and precise statements, the organization will not have a set structure that will lead them and bring a higher risk in its strategic plans for the organization's future.

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT – C209 PRFA – JRM1

3

A2. Discuss the importance of leadership team buy-in of the strategy. When an organization is getting leaders buy-in for a new strategic plan, it must ensure the organization's goals are clearly defined and linked to specific measures and projects. If managers are assigned ownership of various strategic plan tasks, they will look more carefully at the strategy's task that they have ownership.

Holding one-on-one interviews with every team

member or getting all leaders together for an initial strategy workshop will give them the knowledge and excitement to make other team members excited about the new strategy implementation. A3. Discuss the use of at least two analytical tools in performing a situational analysis. It is vital to use analytical tools in performing situational analysis. In this report, the two tools I will discuss are the PESTEL analysis, which assesses the strategic relevance of the microenvironment's six principal components: political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal regulatory faces. Another tool is Porter's five forces. 1A. The purpose of the PESTEL analysis is to help an organization to analyze the external environment; this is especially useful when starting a new business or when entering a foreign market or a different industry with an existing company. PESTEL analysis is looking at external factors more general environment, the macroenvironmental factors that can have a massive impact on a company but not the other way around. Pestle is an acronym that stands for political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal factors. These six factors combined when scanning the organization's environment are less likely to miss any essential macroenvironmental factors.

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT – C209 PRFA – JRM1

4

1B. The political factors talk about how and to what degree government can intervene in the economy or a specific industry, government policy, political stability, instability, corruption, foreign trade policies, and tax policies. These are all factors considered when assessing the attractiveness of a potential market. These factors may directly or indirectly impact a company since it affects consumers' purchasing power and could change the economy's demand and supply. Therefore, it also affects how companies price their products and services. 1C. The general environment's social dimension represents the demographic characteristics, norms, customs, and values. Some people like to distinguish these factors by separating social factors into demographics, cultural or intercultural factors that explain these different versions of the PESTEL analysis. 1D. The Technological factors pertain to innovations in technology and the regulations surrounding technology that may affect the operation of the industry in the market favorably or unfavorably. Growing awareness of climate change's potential impacts affects how companies operate and what products they offer. It has led to many companies getting more and more involved in the practice, such as corporate social responsibility and sustainability. 1E. Finally, the legal factors which list the importance for companies to know what is and is not illegal to operate successfully, even when trading globally. Laws get tricky since each country has its own set of rules and regulations; also, the organization wants to be aware of potential changes in legislation and its impact on business in the future. Porter's five forces strategy framework came to light in 1979 when Michael Porter published an article called how competitive forces shape strategy. In this article, he

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT – C209 PRFA – JRM1

5

argued that we often view competition way too narrowly and, as a solution, came up with five fundamental forces that shape the industry structure and determine an industry's competitive intensity. In the end, these forces affect the long-term profit potential in an industry. 2A. Porter's five forces include rivalry among existing competitors, the threat of new entrants, the threat of substitute products or services, suppliers' bargaining power, and the bargaining power of buyers. Porter force draws a connection between competition on the one hand and profitability, on the other hand, if competitive forces in an industry are high or intense. The profit potential in that specific industry will decrease and affect its profit potential, both positively and negatively. 2B. In the horizontal section of the framework, the suppliers and buyers, this section is illustrating a company's supply chain. This force's bargaining power analyzes how much power and control a company's supplier has over the potential to raise its prices or reduce the quality of purchased goods or services, which would lower an industry's profitability. Therefore, the model is a great tool to develop strategic actions on what to do in the future. 4. Discussed the importance of having the appropriate alignment between strategy, people, and corporate culture. Corporate culture is a product of the core values and beliefs, the standards of what is ethically acceptable, and its traditions. It is also the stories that get told repeatedly to illustrate and reinforce the company's shared values, business practices, and traditions. Culture is visible in how the company's approach to people management and the official policies, procedures, and operating practices provide guidelines for company personnel's behavior. Suppose an

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT – C209 PRFA – JRM1

6

organization operates in a toxic environment. It can affect the whole company internally and external reputation and run the risk of having many staff unhappy, negatively impacting their work behavior and a negative rate in the public eyes. 4A. Discuss the role that this alignment plays in determining the success or failure of the business strategy. The role that this alignment plays in determining the success or failure of the business strategy is crucial. A clear and aligned workforce at every level and from every part of the organization harnesses every individual's skills and collective intelligence. "When people are aligned, there is a palpable sense of momentum and the focus needed to address the range of challenges that strategy implementation requires" (Adkins B., (2019). When a strategy and culture are aligned, they create a sort of compass effect that gives employees a sense of direction and a mission that guides their actions and decisions. Mixed signals from leaders can confuse and not align with the organization's goals, giving a sense of a loss mission. If the employees feel they fit into the organization's mission, culture, and goals, they can take more pride in the work they perform, and the company benefits from it. B. Perform a SWOT analysis. Roads to Excellence is a not-for-profit organization located in Union County, in the northern section of New Jersey, created in 1959. After realizing there were citizens with limited work skills, the organization opened to help those who had a hard time entering the private sector job market. After doing a study, the organization started providing services to people with disabilities the services they needed to either work in a sheltered workshop or helping students

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT – C209 PRFA – JRM1

7

with a disability be able to transition from special needs schools to either higher education or the work market. B1. Strength, Road to Excellence has many strengths and weaknesses, and the following will discuss both sides of the analysis. 1. Roads to Excellence has multiple strength, but the one that stands out more is staff longevity. The organization has a well-equipped staff working with the company for more than 20 years, which decreases the turnover ratio and show positivity to new customers and new hires. 2. It also has a team that has a dedication to the company and its mission of creating a tight community that appeals to other organizations. The overall investment leads to employees feeling valued, heard, and engaged. Having these two strengths enabled the company to celebrate its 60th years of servicing the disabled population in our area; with the parents and the government's help, our company has maintained its mission and service more than 260 participants. B2. Weaknesses, The two weaknesses the Road to Excellence present at this moment are: 1. The weakness the organization has is the overdependence on State/Local funding. New local and federal rules could close organizations like Roads to Excellence because of the subminimum wage pay and how the government believes participants are isolated from the general population. The government is committed to integrating people with disabilities into the broader community as much as possible. The new rules are raising the risk of our funding to be reduced or taken away. Under this new

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT – C209 PRFA – JRM1

8

regulation, the students that attend our center are no longer allowed to be trained in our facilities, forcing us to partner with other businesses in the community that will enable them to prepare at their locations. 2. Another weakness the organization presents in the disregard some managers have towards the employees in their area. Managers give orders and expect the staff to act without understanding or having the opportunity to have questions answered.

B3. Opportunities, Inroads to Excellence have many opportunities that give the organization a chance to grow in the market. 1. One of the organization's opportunities are the three buildings fully paid that frees the organization from any debts and gives the organization the freedom to do what is best for them. It provides the organization with some financial securities in case if in the future if we face any difficulties in which we need to sell one of the buildings to keep us afloat. 2. The building's extra space has allowed the new management to reorganize and utilize the spaces better and meet the new regulations of maintaining the student away from the workshops. It also has open new service opportunities that will increase organization revenue. B4. Threats, The organization's threats have been long coming, and the organization has been making changes to minimize its negative impact.

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT – C209 PRFA – JRM1

9

1. One of the threats the organization faces is the lack of a compliance officer. The company does not have an officer that makes sure the organization complies with regulatory requirements. We need an officer that ensures the business agents, employees, and other stakeholders are protected while providing the company acts appropriately and in compliance with local, state, and federal laws. 2. Many of the participants are getting older and have problems keeping up working in the workshop area. They are either retiring or moving to other programs the organization offers to the older population, like DayHab, which offers daycare services to older participants unable to work and still assist in the programs. If the organization does not meet the minimum attendance due to these changes, the organization will lose government funding’s. C. Discuss how the SWOT analysis from part B impacts your company’s strategy decisions. A SWOT analysis gives the organization ways to identify parts of the strategic plan, which can be modified to achieve its goals and continue its mission of helping people with disabilities. Roads to Excellence has a well-equipped staff loyal to its mission for over 60 years. Studying the strength of the SWOT analysis will help the organization reach its best practices for incentives and morale-building to keep the staff engaged for many years come. Additionally, it will also give managers better insight to develop methods to use the three debt-free buildings in order to create an environment of continuous improvement. This offers the opportunity to optimize physical space where additional programs could be created, or existing programs be expanded. When it comes to its weaknesses, Roads to Excellence can use a SWOT analysis to implement the best way management can improve their communication skills. Options for

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT – C209 PRFA – JRM1

10

growth can be facilitated through anonymous surveys, in which employees are able to share their concerns or ideas without the fear of judgments or unfair treatment.

When it comes to opportunities and threats, a SWOT analysis will help Road to Excellence reduce the chances of failure by understanding what opportunities we have over our competitors. For instance, contrary to what other facilities offer, we allow participants with an environment they can work and feel they are contributing to their self-purpose. We do this while still meeting the organization's customer requirements. We decrease the chances of any threat going unnoticed in time by establishing a process to periodically review the market and competitors, therefore creating abilities to adjust as needed. By implementing its strategic plan, Road to Excellence will continue to offer its effective services for years to come. The stronger a company's current overall performance, the more likely it has a well-conceived, well-executed strategy.

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT – C209 PRFA – JRM1

11

Reference Adkins, B. (2019) Strategic Alignment- Key Elements https://www.denisonconsulting.com/the-impact-of-culture-on-strategic-alignment/...