Value discipline, a term coined by Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema in their book, “The Discipline of Market Leaders” to describe different ways companies can differentiate itself from competitors. A value discipline is more than just a benefit statement–it is a statement of strategic focus and provides a context for a company to set its corporate vision and objectives, to target its most profitable customers, and to focus and align its activities. Treacy and Wiersema identified three different ways of bringing together a compelling value proposition with an effective operating model. The basic idea is that any company can deliver value to its customers in three value disciplines. Operational Excellence: Delivering quality products or services at the lowest total cost with the least inconvenience and always on time. Companies pursuing operational excellence are relentless in seeking ways to minimize overhead costs, to eliminate intermediate production steps, to reduce transaction and Continue reading
Strategic Management Concepts
Strategic Planning Process – Five Stages of Strategic Planning Process
Any company who is trying to become major power in market has to have a properly defined strategy. Strategy is the term which is used to define specific outline according to which the company is going to act in future. It gives a well designed structure that the company will follow in coming time. Strategy is decided according to changing market trends, changing customer’s needs, changing stake holder’s interests and changing actions of competitors. Company need to have proper information about the target they are going to achieve. As per the target they set a strategy. Organizations have definite values and missions. Their stakeholders have several expectations from the company and its operation. Company should regulate their proceedings under some stretch or domain. The management of the company work, regulation of its actions, deciding the proper strategy for future, and successful implementation and evaluation of all the strategy comes under Continue reading
Stakeholder Analysis – Stakeholder Power and Interest Mapping
We can classify an organization’s stakeholders into Primary and Secondary. The primary stakeholders are those without whose continuing participation a firm cannot exist. They include shareholders & investors, employees, contractors, customers & suppliers. On the other hand, secondary stakeholders are those who influence or affect or are influenced by, the corporation, but they are not engaged in transactions with the corporation or essential for its survival. They include media, action groups, government agencies, trade unions, regulatory authorities. Stakeholder management is the process of managing the expectation of anyone that has an interest in a project or will be effected by its deliverables or outputs. Any company which aims to achieve long term success has to chalk out a strategy for managing its stakeholders. There are two major elements to Stakeholder Management: Stakeholder Analysis and Stakeholder Planning. Stakeholder Analysis is the technique used to identify the key people who have to Continue reading
Moving to Blue Ocean Strategy – Shift from Red Ocean to Blue Ocean
In global market today, it can be supposed that there are two typical kinds of oceans: read oceans and blue oceans. Of two sorts of market, red oceans are defined as a known space for all existent industries nowadays. On the contrary, blue oceans are regarded as an unknown area for industries which do not exist. As a result, red oceans present all existing rules related to business competition and industrial regulations. This market defines and determines the boundaries for all games and rules. In this market, companies strive to compete with their competitors and rivals in order to gain better benefit and dominate more market share of current demand. Therefore, red oceans provide for space for enterprises to focus on their competition for decades. However, the space is limited while competitive battles are becoming increasingly fierce. There are more and more participants wanting to invest in the same products. Continue reading
Economic Environmental Scanning
Firms that anticipate economic change and identify the constituents through which that change will be applied; can better adapt goals and action plans. Shareholder expectations of financial return are dictated in part by alternative investments and their associated return and risks. Interest rates, tax policies, shareholder incomes, availability of funds for margin-purchased equity investments, and expectations of future economic circumstances will shape changes in equity investor profiles and/or the financial performance expectations of the firm’s owners. Personal income, savings, employment, and price-level trends can have dramatic effects on the attractiveness of a firm’s products or services in output markets–not only final markets, but intermediate markets as well. Similarly, total sectoral outputs, movements in private-sector capital replacement and expansion, government spending, and the allocation of the consumer dollar can have dramatic impacts between and within industrial sectors. Each can be set off macroeconomic changes well outside the control of the firm, Continue reading
Strategic Control Process – Meaning and Process
Strategic Control “ It is the process by which managers monitor the ongoing activities of an organization and its members to evaluate whether activities are being performed efficiently and effectively and to take corrective action to improve performance if they are not” -Sam Walton Managers exercise strategic control when they work with the part of the organisation they have influence over to ensure that it achieves the strategic aims that have been set for it. To do this effectively, the managers need some decision making freedom: either to decide what needs to be achieved or how best to go about achieving the strategic aims. Such decision making freedom is one of the characteristics that differentiate strategic control from other forms of control exercised by managers (e.g. Operational control – the management of operational processes). Strategic controls take into account the changing assumptions that determine a strategy, continually evaluate the strategy Continue reading