Organizational culture is one of the important parts of the strategic thinking and it can impact on company’s employees, customers, suppliers and other different targets. The owner of the company can create their own strategy on the alignment of unique organizational culture with a competitive space. It also involves how organizational culture affects its strategic decision, options and actions. Culture of an organization refers to the unique configuration of norms, beliefs, ways of behaving and so on that characterize the manner in which groups and individuals combine to get things done. It also can define that the set of important assumptions that members of an organization share in common. There is other definition of the organizational culture involves assumptions, adaptations, perceptions and learning. Organizational culture have three layers. First layer includes artifacts and creations, such as annual report, a newsletter, wall dividers between workers and furnishings. Second layer includes values, Continue reading
Strategic Management Basics
Benchmarking as a Strategic Business Tool
Benchmarking is the process of continuously measuring and comparing the business processes against comparable process of the leading organization to obtain the information that will help the organization to identify and implement improvement programs. Benchmarking as a tool stems from the early 1980s when organisational specialists from Xerox were discussing the big performance gaps between Xerox and its competitors. These specialists found two major applications for the process. First, benchmarking can be used to understand competitors and any other organisation by isolating and analyzing common functions and comparing the company’s own practices with them. Second, benchmarking can be used to compare the details of processes used in design, manufacture, marketing and services, as opposed to just the ï¬nished result In simple words, benchmarking is an approach of setting goals and measuring productivity based on best industry practices. It developed out of need to have information against which performances can Continue reading
Importance of Strategy in Business Environment
Environment is defined as something external to an individual or organization. From this angle, business environment refers to all external factors which will influence the activities of business. However, some experts have used the term “environment” in a broader sense. They defined business environment as external and internal factors that have direct or indirect influence on business or business activities. Business environment consists of all the factors that affect a company’s operations, actions and outcomes. It is comprised of macro environment and micro environment, the former includes legal and political environment, social environment, economic environment and technological environment, and the later includes customers, competitors, stakeholders, suppliers, banks and so on. Strategy is a action plan designed to achieve a particular goal. It is the direction and scope of an organization over the long-term: which achieves advantage for the organization through its configuration of resources within a changing environment, to meet Continue reading
Strategic Human Resource Management Process
Human resource management (HRM) is that part of management process which makes, enhances, manages and develops the human element of the enterprise measuring their resourcefulness in terms of talents, abilities, total skills, creative, knowledge, and potentialities for effectively contributing to the organizational objectives. Human resources are precious and a source of competitive advantage. Human resources may be tapped most effective by mutually standard policies which promote promise and foster an inclination in employees to act flexibly in the interests of the adaptive organization’s pursuit of excellence. Human resource policies can be joined with planned business and used to reinforce appropriate culture. Human resources play a critical role in enabling the organization to effectively deal with the external environment challenges. The human resource management has been accepted as a strategic partner in the formulation of organization’s strategies and in the implementation of such strategies through human resource planning, employment, training, appraisal Continue reading
Four Major Elements of the Strategic Management Process
The strategic management process is made up of four elements: situation analysis, strategy formulation, strategy implementation, and strategy evaluation. These elements are steps that are performed, in order, when developing a new strategic management plan. Existing businesses that have already developed a strategic management plan will revisit these steps as the need arises, in order to make necessary changes and improvements. 1. Situation Analysis Situation analysis is the first step in the strategic management process. The situation analysis provides the information necessary to create a company mission statement. Situation analysis involves scanning and evaluating the organizational context, the external environment, and the organizational environment. This analysis can be performed using several techniques. Observation and communication are two very effective methods. To begin this process, organizations should observe the internal company environment. This includes employee interaction with other employees, employee interaction with management, manager interaction with other managers, and management interaction Continue reading
Strategic Thinking Dichotomies: Logical Thinking vs. Creative Thinking
It is mutually agreed that the converses of intuition and analysis generate tension during the strategic thinking process. Researchers and contributors to strategic management making the case for logic argue that for strategy to be effective, the strategic thinking process must involve extensive formal analyses and objective collection and processing of data both from within and without the corporation. Rational reasoning enables managers gain an accurate perspective on the different options available before identifying the strategic option that best serves the organization’s cause: achieving its goals and objectives. Logical analysis encompasses assessing internal and external risks, strengths and weaknesses, market need and so on; so that strategy can be thought out to fit each of the above factors. In contrast to logical thinking, creative thinking involves taking a “leap of imagination” without any logically defined reason for taking such a leap. Creative thinking is a divergence from the rules governing Continue reading