Long-term Objectives of FedEx - Assignment Example

Long-term objectives Corporate strategies can be classified into three groups or types. Collectively known as grand strategies, these involve need to enlarge business operations (growth strategies), maintain the prominence (stability strategies), or shrink the capacity of company operations (retrenchment strategies) (Pierce 122). The company has several long term objectives, for instance, growth strategy. Growth strategies are made in order to expand the business either attract foreign market or expand internationally attracting new market base which is wide, or either their centred to grow in concentration to the already existing market in that a company is geared towards providing efficiently and well to the market that it already has which at some point it can create a dominance, here it can also mean that the firm wants to start providing services or good that they did not supply earlier that had been supplied by their competitors (Pierce 131). Secondly, stability strategy. Stability strategies is achieved when a company is satisfied with the levels of their growth and wants to include a strategy that they can maintain this type of growth therefore having to employ factors to achieve this. This usually occurs in small business. Retrenchment on the other hand involves cutting down on the business operations or downsizing by selling part of the business where a management sells a poor performing entity. It can also occur that a business closes down completely in the case of liquidation which is usually greatly avoided (Pierce 56). In the case of FedEx in order for the company to be successful in the implementation of their objectives of course there was a combination of strategy to come up with the good results. The combination of all the sub strategies and measures to gear towards a single goal. This is usually like coming up with detailed ways in which to achieve the one goal and objective (Pierce 78). In the case of FedEx it’s to come up with growth in consumer index they had to strategise in more specific ways on how to achieve this. Just like in a war the combination of different factors to achieve a set goal is usually important to win a war. The idea of grand strategy is to combine all the key features towards an intended goal this also will include having to go through company’s vision statement, beliefs and statement and also environmental scan. Therefore, for the company to achieve the long-term goals it had to develop a grand strategy. This is to ensure achievement of short-term goals that necessitate achievement of the long-term goals. While a company has a detailed way in which it is going to achieve its set rules there is great odds that it’s going to achieve the long term objectives. Having first to integrate into small aspects of strategising ensures that one gets a greater and more efficient entry when it comes to realizing the final product (Pierce 109). The company could achieve the long-term objectives through development of several short-term strategies that necessitate achievement of the long-term strategies. There are several related short-term strategies that the company could develop. Among FedEx growth short-term strategies plans included the following Grow core package business: grow internationally, grow through their supply chain capabilities, and grow through e-commerce and technology. Therefore having identified this they need the action plan which is coming up with more and specific ways of how they are going to achieve the above growth it is through the identification of more particular ways of achieving the above that it’s actually achieved. The action plan developed has to ensure achievement of these short-term goals which leads to achievement of the long-term objectives of growing and stabilizing in the market (Pierce 125). The idea of a grand strategy is a great idea because it helps the management to approach the working towards and implementation of ideas in a more refined way. This means that a management comes up with the ingredient that should be used in order to bring about a certain aspect. In this way it would also help in case a certain objective was never realized by going through what they combined they can get the loophole and therefore rectify or do without it. It therefore helps in good strategising and realization of goals; better way of knowing what went wrong where in case of failed results and employment of more resources in so doing meaning it would be hard to fail. Achievement of long-term objectives is appropriate through the grand strategy because of several reasons. However, it is best because it leads to achievement of the objectives and allows for review of progress. This is because strategies in an organization are related and failure in achieving one strategy might lead to overall failure in the organization. Therefore, grand strategy is the most appropriate method in achievement of organizational goal because it allows for review of organizational goals (Pierce 109). Works cited Pierce, John. “Strategic Management.” New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010. Print. FILE: 2 B Course Name Tutor Date Strategic management Strategic management is important in any business corporation it helps and improves on the management yielding to better structural that are vital for the growth of any type of business. When a company has outlined goals they result to more have a more focused drive for the reason that they have a goal point that they are aiming towards. FedEx Corporation outlined its financial goals for the future that included: Grow revenue Achieve, 10%+ operating margin Increase EPS by 10%-15% per year, Increase cash flow, Increase returns. Growth Strategies outlined were as follows, FedEx plans to focus on these five strategies to grow as a business. Grow core package business: grow internationally, grow through their supply chain capabilities, and grow through e-commerce and technology, Sand grow through new services and alliances (Pierce 78). Objectives having been they cannot be measured, they been continuous in the sense that they do not have a time line. Among the key qualities of any type of objectives include are the objectives broad that means does is cover all the key branches of business that is planning, management, marketing, staffing etc they should all be provided for in order to say that the objective has served its purpose, another thing that is vital in setting an objective is are they continuous and ongoing that means that the objectives should not be having an expiry date in that it can stand the test of time that would mean that when a year ends the objective becomes stale or not in purpose again (Pierce 105). When setting objectives this should mean that the corporation is gearing towards achieving a competitive advantage over its competitors therefore an objective should be able to provide for this factor because all that a business is interested with among other things is profitability. With the knowledge of the above factor a good objective should provide for this. Companies have a mission and vision statement what they believe and provide for therefore an objective should never be in contrast with this. Objective should help convert a mission statement into a vision statement. Where objectives have been set and given it should in order to assign a human resource to manage supervise and uphold the set objectives (Pierce 69). This person should therefore work towards the realization of the objective, whereas objectives can be set but lack supervision or a person to direct them they end up been futile and waste of companies’ money and time. An objective should also be realistic and achievable it’s usually good to be ambitious but also realistic and reasonable considering all factors. Having gone through the FedEx long term financial objectives it can be concluded that a big part of them have met the qualities of objectives for instance objective of been able to have operative margin with 10% is an objective that is building on a strength. FedEx is an already established company and its already growing its goal of hitting 10% is both reasonable and achievable. It also passes for being continuous and ongoing and which means that it’s none dated (Pierce 70). Strategic objectives focuses on expanding market share, leading on the market in all areas including product quality or customer service or product innovation, achieving lower overall costs than rivals, boosting the company’s reputation with customers, winning a stronger customer loyalty and attracting the international markets, exercising technological leadership, gaining a sustainable competitive advantage, and capturing attractive growth opportunities (Pierce 119). It is therefore fair to conclude that FedEx as a corporation has been to be objective enough and also meet the qualities that are essential. It can also be conclusive to say that they have realized their said objectives having looked at their end of year growth and profits. Borrowing from what they posted in their website quarterly report they are said to have reaped from the benefits of the objectives that they executed increase in operating margins revenue growth by 13.2% and growth in free cash flow. When the objectives are translated into actual results it’s in all fairness that they were well executed. They say numbers don’t lie. Works cited Pierce, John. “Strategic Management”. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010. Print. Read More