Strategic Management: Competitiveness and Globalization - Assignment Example

Running Head: Operations Management Operations Management Customer’s Name Customer’s Course: Tutor’s Name: 11th January 2013 Robin Hood’s like many other organizations may wish to thrive well in the business environment with no cases of being unable to cope with the current conditions of the environment. Many businesses though it is hypothetical like being ever at the top in every undertaking (Comai & Tena, 2007). This means efficient production and marketing therefore counting down profits all the time. An entrepreneur is always positive-hearted in all the risk-taking projects the entrepreneur invests in. This is the case with Robin hood’s being commenced with less resources and no good organization structure but the one who initiated the project was an entrepreneur who in mind it was either success or success. This means the entrepreneur gave no room for fail. Firms manage to grow like the Robin Hood’s but when it comes to the point of maintaining the rank, it proves to be a bit hard (Comai & Tena, 2007). Such organizations should dwell on three factors hence they will be able to remain viable in the current environment. The factors include: drawing a strategic plan and there after implementing it, working under strategic leadership and trying to determine the competitive advantage the firm may have in the environment. The advantage will always be over other firms and therefore, the firm will always remain on the forefront in its undertakings. Employing the tactics in the firm and having a good look at them guarantees the firm that it is going to remain in its current position or maybe it is going to move ahead further (Hitt & Hoskisson, 2013). Robin Hood’s may have started the strategy formulation process by first carrying out the planning process. This is done closely together with major decision making. The organization developed the goals and objectives that it required to achieve in the forthcoming projects. This assisted the Robin Hood’s in laying down the plans that it used to make the firm intact (Hitt & Hoskisson, 2013). In the formulation of the strategy, Robin Hood’s did stay set the required forces like capital for example to assist in putting the plans into action. The firm should also did put in place the measures that ensured effectiveness of the plans and management looked for persons initiative and the required skills. Robin Hood’s used to run their processes in a logical manner. In implementation, the firm generally used its own organizational and managerial tools in directing the resources for it to achieve its basic mission of remaining viable (Comai & Tena, 2007). This was possible through changes in leadership of the human resource, scanning the environment to determine whether the plans will work, developing the necessary control measures, and scanning the presence of threats that can hinder the implementation process, indentifying the strengths, weaknesses and opportunities available. These were the major concerns done during the implementation process. The organizational ensured that the leaders of this process were motivational and they had the leadership traits hence implementation was clearly done (Jan, 2002). Robin Hood’s should be considering change in strategy as there is a lot of technological change. Technology is core in many firms. Due to daily dynamism in the technology, many firms are taking the tread of changing technology to enhance efficiency. Most of the firms are adopting new technology to enhance and increase their output. Such a change should call for change in strategy that the Robin Hood’s had earlier applied (Hitt & Hoskisson, 2013). The second concept that calls for change in strategy is the changes in economy like trading conditions becoming tough and economic downturns. These will require attention as firm is still relying on the economy. Other reasons are government legislations which may have been initiated requiring some certain areas to be varied, entry of new organization behavior and skills hence may be more additional skills are required and also the challenges the firm may have encountered in its previous trading periods (Jan, 2002). Once there is change in the strategy the above factors will be taken care of and hence the firm will be able to continue with its day to day business activities. This will also enhance the firm in remaining in the current business rank or may be able to do better hence achieve more output. When revising the plan, Robin Hood’s should consider employing strategic leadership. This can be elaborated as the potential of the manager to bring forth and express a vision that is strategic for the whole of the organization or part of it and the manager motivates and persuades other persons to adopt the idea. The leader is the one who come up with the solutions. The leader should lead strategic issues, should be visionary and demonstrate expertise. As the leader the role of guiding and coaching the employees will be substantial. The firm should also look for a means to attain competitive advantage over other firms (Jan, 2002). This will assist in generating greater income as it will always be on the forefront. This will be attained through focusing on the cost of production once it will somehow be able to lower it; cost leadership which also aims at reducing the cost through producing at large scale hence the Robins will exploit the present economies of scale (Hitt & Hoskisson, 2013). Robin hood’s should also have a differentiation focus hence they will meet certain needs of clients on a given segment hence achieve the extra portion of market unattended and finally is differentiation leadership where it will select a criteria employed by other marketers and it will strategize itself to meet the criterion (Comai & Tena, 2007). With the above considerations in place, the firm will gain the competitive advantage. In conclusion, strategy is always good move towards the achievement of the goals and also placing the firm in a better rank over the others. Planning is the basic essence in every organization and is the first step in every project that is being done so far. It gives rise to the presence of the strategy for it to accomplish its goal of making the firm successful. Strategic management and also leadership ensure that the firm will always make it in its undertakings (Jan, 2002). If Robin Hood’s will be able to look at the two criteria that is, strategic leadership and competitive advantage it is going to have extent outcome (Hitt & Hoskisson, 2013). Razor Fish Internet industry is one of the best forums used by most of the firms in doing their business. It is most accessed by persons of different walks of lives and therefore, it’s considered as it’s accessible by so many persons. People do access internet from different locations provided they are connected to the internet. Razor fish are thereby in a good rank to make huge profits from the growing internet needs. However, every firm in one way or the other is affected by factors such as industrial revolution and environmental conditions. This was the case with Razor as the mentioned factors impacted on the firms on it during the entry (Jan, 2002). The decline of the Razor Company may have been facilitated by both external and internal factors. The internal factors are: The first one is management systems that the organization employed. This includes the administration like the directors and the managers who may had done some mistakes somewhere along their daily duties and this impacted on the firm may be in terms of cost and other ways.. The human resource may also have not played their part as they were expected. Employees require being upright in terms of skills, morale and commitment towards work. They may have also been failed by failure of its machinery and other equipments that were used in offering services to its clients. Failure to give the clients the services they were looking for or giving substandard services may have scared away the clients. Other factors that could have led to the failure of the firm may include factors such as politics in the country where they had their headquarters hence it was unable to function continuously due the upheavals. Economic factors like economic depression which drained most of the firm’s resources that could have been for the next projects. Changes in the global economy where all firms were affected could also lead to decline. Social factors like the culture of the firm could also affect as it may have created a culture that was driving the investors away or one that was incurring them cost without their prior knowledge hence they noticed only after their decline. There could have been a culture like failure to follow up whether their clients to determine if enjoyed their services right after being served. They may have also used inefficient technology like employing sophisticated technology that was not favorable for their clients (Hitt & Hoskisson, 2013). Razor firm could also have been affected by legal factors such as the various governments denying their citizens entry to the razor’s sites. The government may also issue a decree that could hinder the operations like tedious procedures in the processes of the firm within its boundaries. There could also be environmental factors that affected its operations like certain weathers which hindered weather (Pearce and Robinson, 2005). Razorfish were able to survive in the industry due to the following concepts: the firm may have developed a variety of ways that it used in gathering the information from its clients. This enabled it to know what requires to be done where and when (Pearce and Robinson, 2005). This also made it easier for them to determine their weak points in the services they were providing hence improving on the bit. The firm could also have put in consideration that they were operating globally and therefore, they took care of global factors that could affect service provision such as economic global trends. They may also have sought for global alliances with other foreign companies hence making its global operations possible (Pearce and Robinson, 2005). Razor fish may have employed very good excellent marketing systems hence it was able to achieve a greater market share and profit followed. Marketing a firm and achieving a positive response after a marketing exercise assures the firm that it’s succeeding and this could have been the case with Razor fish (Hitt & Hoskisson, 2013). Investors could have been investing in such industries due to some of the following reasons: the investors’ technology could have been successful elsewhere in such a similar undertaking and they therefore felt at ease once investing in such areas (Pearce and Robinson, 2005). Second one is that there could have been presence of competent workers who ensured success. Such workers exhausted their skills in the work hence making the resultant output to be well appealing in the business. The investor in this case felt guaranteed that they are going to succeed no matter what. Staffs are main determiner because their work and skills is what ensured firm success. Presence of competent employees leaves no room for failure as such persons are obviously expected to bring forth success. Consulting expatriates also gave an added advantage. These are people who have the required skills gained through studies and experience. Once an investor is given adequate information regarding a concept, being an entrepreneur such a person will stop at nothing to make sure the undertaking is done. The greatest fear of each and every investor is to undertake a project which one is assured of not succeeding. With added knowledge from experts and experienced persons gives the one seeking information that there is possibility of success. Razorfish could have been predicted as a firm that will achieve a lot in the near future once it was started (Pearce and Robinson, 2005). Factors such as the one discussed do not affect the Razor fish company only but do affect even others. Firms should always take care when it comes to internal and external factors that affect the operations. During planning firms should be considering some of the possible factors both internal and external ones that could affect the business. In such a case analyzing the requirement of an industry gives an insight if the prerequisites of the particular industry. This ensures that even as the firm enters the industry has assurance that it is at least not going to be in the wrong end (Jan, 2002). References Comai, A. and Tena, J. (2007). Early warning systems for your competitive landscape. Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals, Volume 10, (3). Hitt, M. & Hoskisson, R. E. (2013). Strategic management: competitiveness & globalization. Concepts and cases / Michael A. Hitt, R. Duane Ireland, Robert E. Hoskisson. Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning. Jan, Y. (2002) A three-step matrix method for strategic marketing management, Marketing Intelligence and Planning, Vol. 20 Issue 5, pp.269-272 Pearce, J. and Robinson, R (2005). Strategic Management. New York: McGraw-Hill Rothaermel, F. T. (2013). Strategic management: concepts / Frank T. Rothaermel. New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin. Read More