Business level strategy is defined as an organizational strategy that seeks to determine how an organization should compete in each of its businesses. In contrast, corporate level strategy is an organizational strategy that seeks to determine what business a company should be or wants to be. At the heart of business level strategy is the role of competitive advantage. This is what sets a company apart from its competitors and gives it a distinct edge. Sustaining competitive advantage will be based on the interplay of the five forces in an industry. According to Porter (1990), these five forces are the threat of new entrants, the threat of substitutes, the bargaining power of buyers, the bargaining power of suppliers and rivalry among firms. By performing an industrial and internal analysis, a firm can then identify its competitive advantages so that it can pursue the right strategy. There are a few major Continue reading
Strategic Management
Strategic management is the art and science of formulating, implementing and evaluating cross-functional decisions that will enable an organization to achieve its objectives. It involves the systematic identification of specifying the firm’s objectives, nurturing policies and strategies to achieve these objectives, and acquiring and making available these resources to implement the policies and strategies to achieve the firm’s objectives. Strategic management, therefore, integrates the activities of the various functional sectors of a business, such as marketing, sales, production etc. , to achieve organizational goals. It is generally the highest level of managerial activity, usually initiate by the board of directors and executed by the firm’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and executive team.
Stakeholder Theory and Corporate Governance
In contemporary society, business organizations are taking on an increasingly complex and significant role. Some corporate giants control vast resources and possess enormous influence in human daily life. Especially when they enter areas such as health care and education, they can have a more deep relationship and powerful impact on society. However, the nature of business activities is to pursue the best interests and it could lead to some conflicts between different stakeholders. Thus, proper corporate governance needs to be used to ensure corporates continue operating on a normal track. In theory, corporate governance is a kind of system that could direct and control companies. The object of corporate governance is to make maximum profit for shareholders in the past. Unfortunately, it has been considered one of the most root causes of the governance crisis in recent times. On the one hand, excessive pursuit of share price performance has neglected Continue reading
Role of Employee Involvement in Organizational Change
Employee involvement is known as the direct involvement of the organizational staffs in the growth, development and benefits of the company. This involvement can be with voice, participation, engagement and in democracy. These factors help the organization to improve its decision-making, improve the attitude of the employees towards work, increase the job satisfaction, and empower their employees with facilities for better health and life. To engage the employee in the organization, they should be given with the authority to become effective to take participate in substantive decisions, providing the training for appropriate decision-making skills and provide them rewards or incentives with successful participation. On the other hand, the organizational change is a process that refers to the modification or transformation of the organizations structure, work culture and goods. It has impact on the working of the employees and can also affect the work culture, infrastructure or to the process of Continue reading
Hostile Takeovers – Definition, Strategies, Examples and Defenses
The replacement of poor management is a potential source of gain from acquisition/takeover. Changing technological and competitive factors may lead to a need for corporate restructuring. If incumbent management is unable to adapt, then a hostile takeover is one method for accomplishing change. The primary reasons for a hostile takeovers can be the analysis that the target company is undervalued or has few strategic assets that directly complement the business of the acquiring company. The synergy of the resources can boost the growth trajectory of the acquiring company and can also increase its overall market share. Hostile takeovers generally involve poorly performing firms in mature industries, and occur when the board of directors of the target is opposed to the sale of the company. In this case, the acquiring firm has two options to proceed with the acquisition tender offer or a proxy fight. A tender offer represents an offer Continue reading
Relationship Between Firm Performance and Competitive Advantage
The firm performance is a complex term which may include different shadows of meaning as long as it relates to organizational performance, functioning of the firm and outcomes of its operations. Normally, the firm performance implies the organizational performance, including manufacturing of products and services, functioning of different units of the firm, performance of its employees and outcomes of their work in total. At the same time, the firm performance can be viewed in a broader context as a part of the business development of the firm. What is meant here is the fact that the business development mirrors the firm’s performance and allows to assess the extent to which the organizational performance is effective. At this point, it is important to place emphasis on the fact that the firm’s performance is basically measured in terms of efficiency of the firm’s operations. In fact, the more effective the firm’s operations Continue reading
Using Information Technology to Achieve Competitive Advantage
The world has grown more than enough in the context of information technology in such way that organization work more efficiency to enhance and maximize their daily productivity. Storage devices, data protection, cloud application and faster communication are the main advantages that information technology can provide to businesses. IT/IS has big impact in computer application on which nearly every work environment is dependent, therefore, since those applications are computerized and widely used, it is advantageous to incorporate IT into business. Information technology is categorized into major three group known as operation, financial and strategic system. If the operation and financial system are well integrated may result strategic system for other enterprises, however, it depends on the core business objective of the enterprise. For instance, cloud application and cloud storage are advance technology where most of the organizations are not aware of it, organization don’t consider much about technology even though Continue reading