Business Operation And System - Essay Example

?BUSINESS OPERATION AND SYSTEM s SECTION ONE Importance of External Environment to Sony Ericsson Sony Company is one of the leading manufacturers globally. It manufactures products such as information and communications technology products, video and audio products. The company believes in technology power. Through technology power, the company has come up with new ideas and brand new experiences. The company is recognized due to its variety of products such as online businesses, game, music and picture. It is ranked among the leading company in the globe due to its customer brands. Sony-Ericson mobile phone segment serves a global communications market with original mobile phones, PC-cards and accessories (Worthington and Britton, 2006, p. 37). The company was established following a merger of Sony and Ericson in 2001. Its corporate functions are based in London although the company has a multinational workforce and has research and development centres in Japan, China, Europe and America (Lewis and Slack, 2011, p. 85). Mobile phone products produced by Sony-Ericson have to compete with other products from other major mobile phone manufacturers such as Nokia, Samsung and Alcatel among other manufacturers. Firms vary in many ways, but the common feature is that they are all involved in transformation of raw materials into output by combing various resources such as labour and technology (Worthington and Britton, 2006, p. 30). The transformation process occurs within a setting being influenced by external factors which affects the operation of a company. The external environment is usually volatile, complex, and interactive which cannot be ignored in the analysis of business activity. In the external business environment, PESTLE analysis is critical for it indicates the various external influences the company is facing. PESTLE is an acronym of political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental factors in the firm’s macro-environment (Worthington and Britton, 2006, p. 38). Following a PESTLE analysis, Sony has been able to respond accordingly to technological advancement to come up with Sony Ericsson Smart Phone. This demonstrates the influence of technological advancement on the operations of a company. Previously, Nokia and Sony had the most superior phones in the market. However, iPhone and Android introduced the smart phones in the market. In addition, there is increased demand for phones in the market and the lifestyle and level of education of the mobile phone users is changing with more users demanding smart phones. This influenced Sony Ericsson to turn to manufacturing smart phones in order to meet the customer’s demands. Legislative and prevalence of stability within the market it operates in allows Sony Ericsson to market its products in different countries and to decentralize its research and development offices to Asia, America and Europe (Georgiou, 2006, p. 450). Sony Ericsson never led the way in the manufacture of smart phones but only responded in a similar way to the way its competitors were moving as based on the CATWOE model. CATWOE is based on a principle where a company involved in systems development waits to be given a transformation and information on others involved in the transformation and they way they are involved (Georgiou, 2006, p. 450). Moreover, CATWOE seeks to know why transformation is important and the restrictions when planning to implement change. Sony Ericsson should carry out a CATWOE analysis where using a knowledge database it can analyze the proposal to transform its operations to manufacture smart phones. CATWOE analysis takes into consideration the external environment of the company and demonstrated that production of smart phone would benefit its customers whose demand for phones able to access the internet faster and run various applications could be met. In addition, Sony would be able to increase its sales. The company in developing its smart phone outsourced the services in developing the software to an external environment (Bergvall-Kareborn, Mirijamdotter and Basden, 2004, p. 56). Use of CATWOE analysis can help Sony Ericsson adopt change in a more sudden way since other companies had developed smart phones and therefore the risks in the operation had been identified to be low. Sony can use CATWOE to define the system of the operations and come up with root definition that shows which helps identify actions to be taken to fulfil the targets of all stakeholders who include customers, actors, and transformation. Moreover, use of business process modelling notation (BMPN) can help the company identify areas which require change. BMPN is a diagrammatic representation which specifies business processes in a business process model. A root diagram is them developed to show the strategies that require to be implemented to achieve competitiveness in the company and customer value. SECTION TWO Ways That Sony Can Use Business Process Plan to Deal with Technological Change There are four stages for developing competitiveness of a company as outlined in Hayes and Wheelwright model. Stage one and three deals with internal operations while two and four are influenced by the external environment. In stage one, companies target to release products but without causing surprise in the market while in stage three, companies have external partners supporting the company. In stage two, companies strive to meet the standards set by competitors while in stage four, companies are never willing to duplicate what is being done by their competitors but seek to produce excellent products world over. Sony Corporation being a multinational company and producing diverse products may deploy technology to transform from manufacturing Sony Ericsson to manufacturing smart phones. To successfully implement this change, Sony needs to map out the business process plan to ensure that its efforts are well coordinated (Lewis and Slack, 2011, p. 84). In the mapping the business plan, the company would identify all the technological processes needed to implement the desired change. Therefore, Sony would analyse the external environment and internal environment. Furthermore, this would call for one to define the mission of the transformation and develop strategies to implement the change. When undertaking any project, the management should create a brand and 5Ps strategy is a critical component for creating a strong brand. This strategy entails plan, pitch, platform, performance and payoff (Brown, Ettenson and Hyer, 2011, p. 65). They assert that by following the 5Ps strategy, there are chances of a development process and satisfaction of project team members since they are able to work as a cohesive group. Pitch refers to project proponent’s efforts to sell the idea by convincing decision makers in the company of the strategic advantage that the company stands to gain by implementing the idea. In the case of Sony, one would have to convince the company of the underlying opportunity in developing a Sony smart phone. Planning in the 5Ps strategy involves defining the objectives and activities of the project. Additionally, the project team requires analyse the resources required and risks involved in the project (Brown, Ettenson and Hyer, 2011, p. 67). Platform involves launching the project and getting the team to develop emotional and intellectual association with the project. This is followed by performance which involves delivering the project deliverables. The last stage in the 5Ps strategy is usually the payoff which describes the project closure and proofing that the project meets the preconceived intentions (Brown, Ettenson and Hyer, 2011, p. 68). In analysing the technological change, the company would assess the external environment to identify whether the desired transformation will be supported by the present technological innovation (Lewis and Slack, 2011, p. 85). This calls for assessments of the mobile application platforms available and their ability to run in the new phone. Assessing the internal environment helps to identify whether the company has employees having the desired skills to make the smart phone (Martin and Bryan, 2011, p 37). Moreover, assessment of the internal environment helps to evaluate whether the company has the required finances for the investment (Martin and Bryan, 2011, p. 37). To deploy technology to achieve develop smart phone, Sony-Ericsson must also identify the inputs and outputs of this process. Inputs include both the tangible and intangible items that are required in the process. This may entail the software and the people involved in the process. Sony must also envision the kind of product they aim to produce into the market. Therefore they must define the specifications of the phones early in the process so that they can develop strategies to achieve this. To achieve the desired product, Sony ought to develop ways to control and direct the process. Consequently the management must develop strategies to evaluate process. To assess the performance of technological transformation, Sony should carry this on a quantifiable scale (Lewis and Slack, 2011, p. 97). These are be based on either financial, internal or external performance. External measures to appraise the smart phone would call for Sony-Ericsson to track its customers and get an experience in using its smart phone (Amatucci & Grimm, 2011, p. 159). This can be achieved by allowing customers give their feedback on using Sony Ericsson on its website and this data would be used by the company to propose improvements. Internal measures are also employed by the team developing the smart phone to anticipate the customer satisfaction in using the new product. SECTION THREE Technological change that Erickson Company Needs to Achieve Technological change helps a company in coming up with new services, products and sometimes a new package of industries. In addition to that, it can impact significantly on the society’s character and what it really expects. In that case, Sony Company is not an exception. Technological innovations such as hand-held computers, internet, cellular telephones and direct satellite system have experienced a growth that is extraordinary in current years. Thereby, challenging industries that have on the long run been well established. Consequently, technology change impacts on the way individuals perceive leisure and work (Martin & Bryan 2011, p.2). Sony Corporation is an extremely wide brand name characterized by the production of numerous articles. Thus, for it to fit in the competitive market and meet society expectations, it should change its name from Sony Erickson to Sony Smartphone. Technology change is not an easy thing and managers should be ready always to face various challenges. It is a step by step process until the final results are achieved. Managers should keep in mind that, new inventions emerge every day and only a few go past the invention stage. Majority of technological innovations takes new forms of products or service. For the case of Smartphone, the process would result to, individual computing devices, internet and mobile telephony convergence to come up with mobile internet (Ishii 2004, Funk 2001). The innovation of smart phone would result to production of computing services that are very powerful. They will facilitate traditional wireless service and software application that are native. In addition to that, it will enable the running and connecting of internet based myriad services such as streaming video, geo-location, email and social networking. Furthermore, it will have the capability of promoting user experience and gaining competitive advantage. The Smartphone nature and industry should be analyzed from the perspective of technology platform. Platform control has been identified as a principal feature for businesses that need to succeed in the ICT sector. Thus, if Sony Erickson Corporation really needs to succeed, it should strive to become the best among technological competitors. This can only be possible through initiation of a perfect platform strategy and an efficient ecosystem to give it support (Cusumano 2010, p.34). The team responsible for the task should have a vivid idea on how to go about it. For example, they should comprehend that, an excellent opportunity to develop a platform presents itself in industries’ early development phase. In some cases, it occurs when there is a market or technological discontinuity. In that case, Smartphone should utilize discontinuities to conquer a niche and displace its incumbents. Alternatively, it can use unique business models for purposes of transforming the equation of value culture How the Business Should Respond To Technological Changes To evade being overshadowed with technology changes, Sony Company should scrutinize industries’ technological developments other than their internal development. In addition to that, brain storming sessions should be conducted and should touch on the possible outcomes for the company’s markets and products. For purposes of identifying trends and time anticipating, Sony as a company should indulge itself in various technological forecasting activities. This can be achieved via going through research journals, patent filings and government reports for purposes of monitoring trends. Alternatively, the company should outsource opinion from expertises outside the environment of the organization before implementing any technological change. Opinions from expertise can be through direct interviews or as part of survey to be conducted. As a matter of fact, the company should establish future alternative technological scenarios. They should capture innovation different rates and distinct emerging technologies. Development of scenarios aids a company in conducting what-if analyses and coming up with alternative plans. Alternative plans are meant to respond to new innovations. The company should form alliances that are strategic with various organizations such as universities and research companies. This will enhance the joint efforts in conducting research projects. This will be beneficial to Sony Company as it will have knowledge on the current trends in the market and act accordingly. For instance, information on society test and preferences, competitors in the market, emerging technologies among others will be recorded. With an effective and efficient work plan for technological trends monitoring, Sony Company will be in a better position to prepare itself early enough on how to deal with trend warnings that creates threats and opportunities. A Balanced Score Card A management and planning system that is strategic for purposes of aligning business activities to an organization vision statement is referred to us balanced score card. It attempts to streamline company’s mission and vision statements that are pious and vague into manageable practicalities at each and every level. A balanced score card procedure can be achieved via taking a holistic perspective of a company, and coordinating Metric-Driven Incentives for purposes of experiencing efficiencies across all the departments in a collaborative manner(“ Kaplan and Norton’s organizational performance management tool”). An effective scored card can be achieved after an individual has a clear understanding of the following items. These are such as, the mission statement of the company, the vision/strategic plan of the Company, the company’s financial status, the current operation and structuring of the company, employees level of expertise and customer level of satisfaction. For purposes of improving the Companies performance, the following should be achieved as shown in the balanced score card Department Areas Finance -Investment return -Cash flow -Capital employed Returns -quarterly/ Yearly financial returns Internal Business processes Per function number of activities Activities duplicated across functions Alignment of processes( Is the department carrying out the right process Process limitations Automation of the process Learning and Growth Is there expertise correct level for the available jobs Turnover of employees Job satisfaction Learning/training activities Customer Performance delivery to customer Performance quality to customer Satisfaction rate of customer Percentage of market customer Retention rate of customer After analysis of quantifiable and specific outcomes of the items represented in the balanced score card, the company should be in a position to improve in areas exhibiting deficiencies. The outcomes should be measurable, realistic, achievable, specific, commonly and timely. This is because; improvements cannot be performed on immeasurable outcomes. Bibliography Amatucci, F.M. & Grimm, R. (2011). Reinventing the Business Plan Process for Sustainable Start-Ups, Journal of Strategic Innovation and Sustainability, Vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 154-159. Bergvall-Kareborn, B., Mirijamdotter, A and Basden, A. (2004). Basic Principles of SSM Modeling: An Examination of CATWOE from a Soft Perspective, Systemic Practice and Action Research, Vol. 17, no. 2, pp. 55-73. Brown, K.A., Ettenson, R. and Hyer, N.L., (2011). Why Every Project Needs a Brand (and How to Create One). MIT Sloan Management Review, 52(4), pp. 61-68. Cusumano, M (2010). Technology Strategy and Management: The Evolution of Platform Thinking. Communications of the ACM , Vol.53, no.1, p.32-34. Funk, J (2001). The mobile Internet: How Japan dialed up and the West disconnected. Pembroke, Bermuda, ISI Publications. Georgiou, I. (2006). Managerial Effectiveness from a System Theoretical Point of View, Systemic Practice and Action Research, vol. 19, no. 5, pp. 441-441. Ishii, K (2004). Internet use via mobile phone in Japan. Telecommunications Policy, Vol.28,no.1, p.3-58. “ Kaplan and Norton’s organizational performance management tool”. Viewed 17 March 2012, from http://www.businessballs.com/balanced_scorecard.htm. Lewis, M. and Slack, N. (2011). Operations Management: Critical Perspectives on Business and Management. Routledge Publishers. Pp. 70-120. Martin, K.,& Bryan, P (2011). Structuring the Smartphone industry: Is the mobile internet OS platform the key. ETLA Discussion Paper, p. 1-111. Worthington, I. and Britton, C., (2006) The Business Environment. Prentice Hall 5th Edition. pp 1-50. Appendices Use new technology Develop Sony smart phone improve Performance Customer satisfaction Transformation Employees motivation Enhance competitiveness in the company Fig 1: A conceptual model showing an operational strategy that can help Sony solves its problems Read More