Strategic Management and Leadership - Essay Example

? Strategic Management and Leadership Introduction Strategic management used to analyze the key initiatives taken by the top management of the organizations on behalf of owners that involves performances and resources of external environments (Williamson, Cooke and Jenkins, 2004). It generally involves an organization’s objectives, mission, and vision. Strategic management is a fragmentary process that controls and evaluates the business and industries in which the organization is involved (Koteen, 1997). Moreover, it assesses the strategy of the competitors in order to set the goals and objectives. On the other hand, strategic leadership offers vision and direction for the success and growth of an organization. In order to deal successfully with the change, each and every executive need the strategic tools and skills for both strategy implementation and strategy formulation. For the purpose of the study Sony Corporation has been selected. The study will explain and discuss the strategic reasons behind the success story of Sony Corporation. Sony Corporation is a Japanese multinational corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. It is one of the leading manufacturer and supplier of electronic products for the professional and consumer market globally. Sony Corporation is a leading and successful business unit. It is the parent company of Sony Group (Chang, 2011). The organization is engaged in business practices through four operating segments, such as Electronics, Music, Motion Pictures and Financial Services. However, in order to achieve the objective of the study, key reasons behind the success of Sony Corporation have been highlighted. Moreover, the study will evaluate the contribution of leadership behind the success story of Sony. Finally the study will analyze the internal and external challenges of Sony Corporation in order to provide an appropriate recommendation plan. This will help to overcome the challenges. A conclusion will summarise the analysis of the study. Measures of Success for the Company According to the brand message of Sony Corporation “make.belive”, the corporation has signified the spirit of creativity and ability in developing ideas into reality by introducing new innovative products and technology in them. The products of Sony Corporation are superior in quality and satisfactory to the customers. The organization has able to fulfill the narrow demand of modern people. The success of Sony Corporation can be measured through the introduction of a new innovative product and technology within the particular products (Trott, 2008). The product fame and achievements of Sony Corporation can be measured and estimated from the survey reports that are being extracted by the media houses. Sony Corporation has been ranked top 10 in the list of top 20 global brands. The relocation of electronic services has significantly raised the market of Sony Corporation by implementing its innovative strategies in business practices considering the global business area. People have also felt that the price range of Sony Corporation’s basic product is very much reasonable and the products are superior in quality. Several innovative electronic goods, such as Laptops, Mobiles, Walk-mans, TVs and many more are the successful products of Sony (Muhlbacher, Lehis and Dahringer, 2006). The quality of the products that are being manufactured by Sony Corporation is getting better and better in every year. More significantly, the innovative and creative product attributes of Sony is creating a huge brand awareness and large customer base in the global market place. Sony is one of the leading brands within this kind of product segment. As the price of the products is reasonable and the services are adequate enough, therefore, Sony Corporation gave the impression to retain its existing customers and acquire new upcoming potential customers with it. It helped the organization to maximize its business profit and stabilize the revenue of the organization. The corporation is implementing several new product and service strategies and following these strategies strictly in order to differentiate themselves to its competitors. Few of the recent successful news about Sony Corporations is being highlighted below. Sony Corporation has introduced new 3D technology in picture studio. The organization has developed world’s first wireless intra connection technology. Sony Corporation and FIFA have announced first 3D FIFA World Cup. Sony Corporation has produced single lens high frame 3D camera technology for superior quality 3D images. Reasons behind the Success Success Factors of Sony along with brief explanation Success Factors Brief Explanation Inbound Logistics The capability to carry out several in-bound logistics coupled with the ability to carry out smooth operations Operations The enthusiasm to innovate along with the technical knowledge to produce innovative products Outbound Logistics The ability to train and manage employees and channel partners to carryout complex out bound logistics functions in a smooth fashion. Marketing & Sales The ability to use the marketing mixes effectively, both on local and global basis. Services Providing the best possible after sales services along with product augmentation to increase customer satisfaction and retention Infrastructure & Finance Using the necessary physical resources to gin value driven competitive advantage Human Resources Treating the employees as the internal customers Technology Ability to gain strategic leverage by the use of technology better than the competitors Procurement Ability procure key resources at a relatively low cost Analytical Frameworks Value Chain Analysis In-Bound Logistics Sony has engaged itself in a number of complex in-bound logistics actions that is mostly provided by the third parties. This is become a lot more prevalent as the company has expanded the horizon and entered global markets. Third parties such as Solectron and Flextronics develop some of the products of the company. This helps the company to focus on the core business activities. In order to reduce costs of production Sony has revamped and closed down some of the production units. (Henry, 2008) As a matter of fact the company has shifted some of the production units to countries where the labor cost is relatively cheaper. Therefore the ability of the company to simplify complex in bound logistics is without doubt strength of Sony. Sony has also made strong partnerships with hardware and software developers and designers for product development. Operations Sony is a multinational company and the business of the company is spread across different countries. In general the company has been able to manage the business operations and has been able to attain success. Sony has been able to gain considerable amount of market share in segment such as PC, Video, TV, music and gaming market within a relatively shorter period of time. But the real course of concern has been the advertising and mobile business of the company. The company has not done quite well as a matter of fact the company has incurred losses. According to sources there is room for improvement when it comes to the inter-organizational communication and collaboration is concerned. As a matter of fact the different business units of Sony has not been co-coordinating and complementing well which has had negative effect on the inter-organizational synergies and productivity (Kotler, 2001). Out-bound Logistics Sony has a well laid out distribution network. As a matter of fact to make sure on time delivery of the products the company has made investments on automated parts of the outbound logistics systems in order to track down orders, product movements and payments. It has also been reported in some prominent magazines like PC magazine and Info-world that the consumers also felt that the products were of highest qualities and the employees are very much well trained to handle various services and operations (Dey, 2011). Marketing and Sales The marketing strategy of Sony is to position the brand Sony as innovator and also as a company that provides quality products to the customers. This helps the company to adopt premium pricing strategy than the competitors. The idea of achieving innovation is backed by large scale marketing efforts that have helped the company to develop various successful sub-brands such as Walkman, WEGA and Trinitron (Hines, 2004). Sony is quite sensitive towards the actions of the competitors’ as the company keeps a close eye on the actions of the rival firms. In order to achieve an image of reputation and desired sales the company does not spending incurring additional expenses. For example, the Walkman brand was re-launched by the company in year 2000. The estimated cost fixed was US$30 million. The marketing budget has the provision for massive digital, print, TV, online ads, dealer events, sales promotional activities as well as basic public relations to make the brand as a brand for the generation Y. The re-launch proved to be a great success (Kotler and Keller, 2006). Services The company has been able to develop several services to increase the level of customer satisfaction. This mostly includes after sales services. The after sales services are usually carried out in the Sony service centers. The company focuses on providing friendly and knowledgeable customer service at the service centers. Also the company provides augmented services in the form of warranty and free installations. To summarize things it can be said that Sony has been able to develop competitive advantage that in-turn provides value to the customers and other stake holders. This business system is categorized in to a series of activities that are used to generate values. This is known as the value chain. However, Sony understands the need for better internal collaboration between employees and appropriate organizational activities are also being carried out by the company that has already started to pay rich dividends. As a matter of fact over the last year or so there has been dramatic change in the collaboration and co-operation level between the hardware and software managers. The company is looking to make good networking a part of the organizational culture to increase operational efficiency. Effective Logistics providing leverage to International Marketing Strategy Sony indeed is a multinational company and provides standard products across several countries. Being an international firm the company has been able to achieve growth as well as economies of scale. However one element of the value-chain of Sony has played a key role in the international marketing strategy of the company. That is the in-bound logistics. It has already been discussed that the company has halted several production units and formed partnerships with various players for product development. One prime example of this would be the creation of play station. Play station was the result of the strategic alliance between several creative game software, hardware and developers. Not only that. Creating of Compaq happened due to the strategic alliance with Philips; creating of mobile phones happened due to the strategic alliance with Ericsson. Such strategic alliances have helped the company alternate options to Microsoft products and reduce the licensing cost of the company. A part from this as discussed before the company also adopts the strategy direct investment; e.g. China. Capabilities leading to competitive advantage Sony corporation is committed towards the effort to come up with original technology that produces high degree of appeal to the customers due the quality and cost effectiveness in nature. Sony has been able to developed substantial foundation to increase the designing and manufacturing capabilities of the company. The helps the company to market original and mobile products at an affordable price. The R&D team of Sony plays a major role in the achievement of such feat. Such capabilities help the company to attain economies of scale on a global basis and attain competitive advantage. Contribution of Leadership to SONY’s Success Since the beginning of Sony Corporation, Akio Morita the founder of Sony Group believed that the future of the organization lay in capturing overseas business and brand building. Similar to the other Japanese organizations, Akio Morita did not try to put their organization symbol on the products. He decided to use the name of organization on the products or packages as the company logo. Now-a-days the logo of SONY is one of the most popular and recognized logo in global competitive market (McPhail, 2011). In the year 1952, Akio Morita during his business trip to US and Europe found out that the organization name “Tokyo Tsushin Kabushiki Kaisha” was very much difficult to pronounce and was really a tongue twister. Therefore, he introduced SONY as the brand name of the products within the organization. Sony Corporation has boarded a significant journey in order to develop effective leaders who can implements innovative organization strategies and goals in order to sustain their business in global competitive market place. Leaders and managers did not believe that Engagement in organization leadership strategy is not all about the engaging people on the board. It is all about help and motivates the employees to participate and make contribution to personal as well as organization’s growth (Merchant, 2010). As a result, it is evidenced that the employees always feel proud that they are part of a very prestigious organization. The major attribute of the engagement phase is self-confidence. Taking care of employees needs and motivate them is one of the important responsibilities of the managers of Sony Corporation (Parker, 2009). It is the organization philosophy that, employees can only give their 100% to organization’s work process when they are motivated and encouraged enough. Therefore, managers always try to increase the self confidence and motivation level of the employees. A well maintained relationship with the low level of organization is one of the key success factors of Sony Corporation. Providing rewards, quarterly performance appraisal and promotion according to the performance of the employees is an example of effective leadership quality. Sony Corporation always tends to hire effective and experienced leaders in order to implement this employee engagement in better way. Formulating and executing the strategies in order to achieve the business objective is an important element for the success of Sony Corporation (Rickards, 2012). What the organization and the team have achieved through the formulation and execution of strategy is a measure point of the capabilities of leaders. As it is discussed earlier, the employees of Sony Corporation feel proud that they are the part of so prestigious organization. Within the great and vast corporate network of Sony Corporation the employees have worked on the strategy execution that managers and leaders need to experience. From the perspective of corporate culture, Sony Corporation in general exposes its employees to an internal and external context as it is the important part of their methodology in order to develop employee contextual intelligence. According to the management and the experience leaders of Sony Corporation, leadership is all about constructing the environment and dreams which allow the employees to excel (Cameron, 2007). Apart from these, effective customer relation strategy, adequate product and service quality, process of manufacturing and supply chain and several financial, HR and marketing expertise within the organization has created the success story for Sony Corporation. Difficulties and Recommendations to overcome them Internal and External Courses of Concern Unrelated Diversification Many major companies such as General Motors or Samsung have become global forces have become distended conglomerates. Such companies have become a lot more selective and trimmed down the product line and have focused on the core competencies. However, Sony seems to be still carrying on being an extremely diverse conglomerate which is still draining the resources of the company (Kazmi, 2010). Innovation drought Walkman made Sony the undisputed king in the portable music player segment. However, the company failed to follow it up with continuous innovative product line to continue with the momentum. This has lead to the loss of market share as other competitors came to the market such as Apple. Unlike Sony Apple has been able to follow up the momentum it gained from the initial success of the I-Pad. Again this may be a byproduct of the product of the exhaustive product mix of Sony with relatively unrelated products (Chattopadhyay, 2009). Attaining flawless Cooperation between business units The lack of co-ordination and co-operation among the different business units of the company is not a secret at all. In order to achieve better operational efficiency the company has to improve the level of interactions among employees belonging to different business units. The blight of Piracy Piracy is a by-product of the rise of the digital medium and gadgets. This has made it relatively easier piracy of the copyrighted digitized contents. Despite of an increase in anti piracy activities across the globe the global music and video business have been badly hit by the pirated contents. Illegal copies continue hurt the movie and music business each and every year (Nargundkar, 2010). Probable Actions to overcome the courses of concern The company had already started to take various initiatives such as organizational integration to bridge the gap between the different business units. In order to foster communication among different SBUs the company may increase the frequency of direct contacts among employees of different units. Also the company may decide to make the workers work in small cross functional groups for certain projects to increase the level of interactions (Kolb, 2008). It is the era of the smart phones. Therefore the company should focus on launching smart phones via focusing on the core attributes. Sony has always been known for providing great sound quality. But, customer feedback regarding other attributes of the Sony Phone is not so great. Hence, this needs to be improved. The situation calls for a trimmed product line with a lot varieties while maintaining the desired level of quality. Also Sony should work cohesively with different local governments to fight against piracy. In the US Sony had teamed up with AOL- Time Warner to urge the government to take antipiracy measures. Similar activities need to be carried out in other countries also (Brown, 2009). Conclusion The product fame and achievements of Sony Corporation can be measured and estimated from the survey reports that are being extracted by the media houses. Sony Corporation has been ranked top 10 in the list of top 20 global brands. As the price of the products is reasonable and the services are adequate enough, therefore, Sony Corporation gave the impression to retain its existing customers and acquire new upcoming potential customers with it. Taking care of employees needs and motivate them is one of the important responsibilities of the managers of Sony Corporation. It is the organization philosophy that, employees can only give their 100% to organization’s work process when they are motivated and encouraged enough. Sony indeed is a multinational company and provides standard products across several countries. Being an international firm the company has been able to achieve growth as well as economies of scale. However one element of the value-chain of Sony has played a key role in the international marketing strategy of the company. The company has not done quite well as a matter of fact the company has incurred losses. According to sources there is room for improvement when it comes to the inter-organizational communication and collaboration is concerned. Sony Corporation seems to be still carrying on being an extremely diverse conglomerate which is still draining the resources of the company .Sony Corporation had already started to take various initiatives such as organizational integration to bridge the gap between the different business units. References Brown, L. (2009). Marketing and Distribution Research. US: Ronald Press Company Cameron, K. (2007). Competing Values Leadership. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing. Chang, S. (2011). Sony vs Samsung. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. Chattopadhyay. A. (2009). Marketing Management. India: Matrix Educare Pvt. Ltd Dey, B. (2011). Strategic Management. India: Matrix Educare Henry, A. (2008). Understanding Strategic Management. UK: Oxford University Press: Hines, A. (2004). Supply chain Strategies. UK: Oxford Kazmi. S. (2010). Advertising and Sales Promotion. India: Excel Books Kolb, B. (2008). Marketing Research: A Practical Approach. UK: Sage Kotler, P. and Keller, K. L. (2006). 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