Criticle Issues in Business - Case Study Example

Critical Issues in Business Contents Contents 2 Introduction 3 Part Key challenges to today’s organizations 3 Meeting the challenge of Globalization: Role of leaders and managers 3 Meeting the challenge due to various risks: Role of leaders and managers 5 Part 2: Personal SWOT in business 6 Strength 6 Weakness 7 Opportunities 8 Threats 8 Conclusion 9 References 10 Introduction The business environment all over the world has changed in the last two decades due to the economic policy reforms adopted by several countries that have brought about the age of globalization. Apart from the benefits of economic growth, the process of globalization has posed major challenges to the organizations of today in terms of coping up with the changing business scenario and the trends of the consumer markets. The organizations of today have also faced challenges due to several risks like the country risk, financial risks, risks due to economic fluctuations and the prevailing business and regulatory framework. This topic would help the business managers and leaders to handle these risks, take informed decision in business by conducting an analysis of the business environment and the associated factors. The business leaders could lead their teams to attain competitive advantage over other players in the industry in this age of cut-throat competition. Part 1: Key challenges to today’s organizations The key challenges faced by organizations in today’s business are due to the prevailing trend of globalization and the need to cope up with the changing business scenario. The various risks in the business are crucial areas of challenges that need to be managed for business sustainability. Meeting the challenge of Globalization: Role of leaders and managers The prevailing trend of globalization in the today’s world has been largely due to the neo-liberal policies adopted by the governments over the last two to three decades that has reduced the barriers in the field of business for the organizations. On one hand, when globalization has increased the scope of investment of global enterprises, it has also exposed the organization to an era of cut throat competition (Fitzroy and Herbert, 2007, p.38). Due to the policies of globalization adopted by the countries and opening up of economies, the rise in investments by the foreign companies in overseas markets and developing economies was inevitable. The business sectors have been laid open for competition in terms of offering products and services to the market by the organizations irrespective of their size, market share, brand image, etc. Thus, the organization faced the challenge of providing highest quality of product and service to the consumers in order to make penetration in the market, retain market share or even attain sustainability in business (Reuvid, 2012, p.60). The organizations in most of the businesses today have lost their bargaining power with the shift of bargaining power in the hands of the customers with the rise of globalization. The various areas that today’s organization have to focus in order to survive in the industry is research and development of changing market trends, market demands, relative product qualities and services offered by the customers, competitive pricing in order to achieve the targets of revenue earnings and profitability. Thus globalization has offered the challenge to organizations which could be met only competitive advantage in the market. The leaders and the managers have an important role to play in order to meet the challenge of globalization. The top management is responsible for framing suitable strategies that are effective in meeting the challenges of globalization and fulfills the organizational mission, vision and goals (Coade, 1997, p.79). The challenges offered by the changing business scenario due to rise globalization needs to be identified with research and survey. The managers should look at the industry analysis and identify the trends of product and service offerings in the market. The strategies implemented by the management in order to bridge the gaps should be implemented by the managers and the team leaders in order to get competitive advantage (Kozami, 2002, p.68). The managers should ensure that any decision of technological implementations in the business process, harnessing available resources at lower cost, changes in the manufacturing designs, supply chain management and customer relationship management tools are implemented in the organization. Adequate training, sessions for knowledge management need to be held and importance of change management needs to be explained to the employees by their team leaders (Beerli, Falk and Diemers, 2003, p.47). The leaders of the organization play the important role of integrating new designs, technologies and management tools with the existing traditional structure and tools and pave the way for smooth transition to meet the challenges of globalization (Conrow, 2003, p.97). The change management implemented and enforced by the managers and leaders would motivate the workforce to deliver products and services in the market that are competitive as per the market demands in today’s age of globalization. Thus, the challenges due to globalization would be addressed and the organizations would be able to attain sustainability. Meeting the challenge due to various risks: Role of leaders and managers The various types of risks faced by today’s organizations have become more complex in nature due to the opening of internal boundaries of investments. In case of domestic investments, the organizations are faced with business risks in the national economy whereas in case of overseas investments, the organizations are also affected by the country risk and macro-economic risks (Solberg, 2002, p.37). The organizations are affected by the country’s political environment. The outlook of the political parties in places where the business is established determines the prospects for growth of business. The organizations also face the risk due to the legislative and regulatory frameworks in the country. The labor laws, export-import risk and the restrictions on the business imposed by the regulatory frameworks are areas of challenge faced by the organizations. The economic performance of the country also imposes considerable risk on the businesses. The rate of growth of the economy and the demand of the market determines the level of risk for business sustainability. The fluctuation of the interest rates, currency conversion rates and cost of capital in the financial markets are the areas of financial risk for today’s organizations (Wagner, 2012, p.56). Higher the cost of capital, higher is the risk for the organizations. In places where the technological advancements are not high, the organizations face technological risk of failure to cope up with the global competition. The organizations of today have also faced the risk of negative impacts on the society due to the operational hazards that occurred during production or delivery. The leaders and managers have an important role to play in containing the risks that the organizations face in today’s business scenario. The managers should take active part in analyzing the business environment in which the organization exists. It is however, beneficial to undertake risk analysis in order to take informed decision for investments (Krayenbuehl, 2001, p.72). However, in case of changing economic environment, the managers should keep themselves update with the potential threats to business and identify useful opportunities for the business. The managers and the leaders should decide for investment in the economy that is favorable for them and offers incentives for business growth. The leaders should ensure that the business reduces the risk of political instability through constant discussions and negotiations with the political parties in case of interference. The risk of compliance with the legislative and regulatory framework needs to be reduced by the managers and the leaders through effective corporate governance and strict code of conduct (Shapiro and Glicksman, 2004, p.93). The financial risks could be addressed by selecting the appropriate source of capital. The investments should be done in a calculated manner through capital budgeting techniques in order to avoid losses in expected returns. The various financial instruments like derivative, forwards could be used in business to hedge economic and currency fluctuations. The managers and leaders should drive efforts of the workforce towards long term sustainability through development of strong brand equity for the organizations. Part 2: Personal SWOT in business My personal strength, weakness, opportunities and threats in the context of business management have been explained below with the help of a personal SWOT analysis. The Johari Window Model has been used for assessment of self in analyzing the relationships with self as well as others (West and Turner, 2010, p.274). This has brought to light the personal characteristic traits as given below. Strength Some of my areas of strengths are known to me as well as others and hence, fall in the first room of the Johuri window which is the open area. Some other areas of strength which are known to me but not others fall in the fourth room of the Johuri window which is the unknown area. The list of 56 adjectives provided by the Johari Window has been used to identify myself with those qualities that determined the areas I am good at and would help to attain a better career trajectory. The adjectives that have been picked by me from the Johari window are able, confident, logical, responsive, smart and spontaneous. I believe that I possess high abilities to undertake as well as manage complex work situations and perform relatively better than my peers. I am also confident of my abilities strongly believe that I would succeed in the assignments that I would undertake. A unique feature of my area of strength is that is that I am a smart worker and believe in outputs rather than man-hours. The other areas of my strength include my responsive and spontaneous approach in undertaking any assignment (Teague, 2009, p.57). I strongly believe that competitive edge could be attained by reducing work inventory and delivering work on time which has developed my strengths of quick response to work situations and also in taking spontaneous decision on the actionable. My areas of strength would offer a better career trajectory in the corporate world where smart people are preferred who are able to produce outputs to the expected level of the organization (Brown, 2006, p.103). My confidence in my abilities and the capabilities of managing complex work situation would help me grow through the hierarchy in quick time. My responsiveness and instantaneous decision making abilities would help me to take bigger responsibilities in my future career path. Weakness Some of my weakness are known but are not known to others and hence, fall in the fourth room of Johari window which is the unknown area. The remaining weakness of my personality which is not known to me could, however, be observed by others and hence, fall in the second room or the hidden area. There are also some weaknesses which are not known to me and also have not surfaced to my peers and these fall in the blind area or the third room of Johari window. My weaknesses that have been identified with the help of Johari window are my shyness, silliness, sentimental mindset and being tensed in cases of team performance. These areas of weakness in my personality could pose challenges to my career progress as there would be some areas of operations that would pose limitation to my career due to these inherent weaknesses. My weakness could add to my limitations of performing as a team leader and managing the team performance. My shyness could hold me back in enforcing the business decisions that require extra effort from the team. My shyness could also affect my attitude as a leader and may hamper open communication within the team as well as public speaking for addressing conferences (Sutton and Stewart, 2002, p.21). My silliness in the work place at times may also lead to lead to crucial errors due to lapse of concentration which could hamper the productivity of the business. My tensed nature could restrict me from observing minute details of the work which is required for taking right decisions in managing business and work. My sentimental attitude also could give way to undue favor to other team members which could be viewed as actions against the team spirit in the business place. In order to address these areas of weakness, I would need to apply conscious effort and attain a balance in emotional quotient at workplace. I would need to maintain my concentration level to refrain from silly efforts. I would also undertake self-practice of public speaking in order to remove shyness and believe in my team members as a leader to reduce the tension over the team performance (Lall and Sharma, 2009, p.23). Opportunities The opportunities that could viewed against my profile in context to the Johari window are the positive features of my characteristics that my peers could observe but could, however, but could not be consciously recognized by myself. These characteristic strengths of my personality could be potential opportunities that could lead to further development of my career path. These characteristics are adaptable, dependable, friendly, warm and knowledgeable. These personality traits have been known by me after due consultation with my peers and identification of the areas of my personality that have received acceptance beyond my knowledge. These qualities of my personality would provide me the opportunities of rising through the management hierarchy due to the wide acceptability among the peers and recommendations by the top management. My friendly and warm nature would lead to better team handling and thus has the potential opportunity to increase business outputs. The top management of the business would view me as a knowledgeable person and would depend on me by assigning higher responsibilities (Throop and Castellucci, 2009, p.95). These opportunities would need to be handled by me in the right manner in to be successful in my career path. Threats The threats to my career path in business and management could be identified with the help of drawbacks in my personality that lie in the third room of the Johari window which in the blind region and could not be viewed by me as well as my peers. The personality traits in my character that could threaten my career progress in managing the business operation are my risk-prone nature and witty approaches undertaken by me in the workplace. It is known that the return in business is achieved more at the cost of undertaking risk. But risk-prone decisions taken for business operations could prove to be costly if all the relevant factors and the cost of business are not calculated before incurring the risk. This could threaten my place as a business manager as I would have to pay the penalty in case of uncalculated risk (Mcshane, 2008, p.82). In order to handle the situational threats, I would need to take a calculated and practical approach to defend my risky decisions aimed at growth of the business. My position in the workplace could also be threatened due to the witty approaches that aim at instantaneous success. This may lead to weakness of the business process in long term and thus would question my approaches in the best interest of the business. In order to handle these threats, I would take a balanced approach of smart work as well as hard work to manage both short term and long term goals of the business. Conclusion In order to cope up with the key challenges and the risks in today’s business environment, the organization should take necessary measures to channelize the energy of the workforce in the right direction for implementation of business strategies for meeting the challenges of globalization and business risks. The process of globalization has brought employees from diverse backgrounds to a common business platform and they vary in terms of their personalities. The Johari window model which presents the tool for assessment of personality and relationships with the peers could be used by the employees to assess their areas of strength, weakness, opportunities and threats. This would help the employees and the organization, at large to create a favorable work environment that drives the forces of production to maximize its output and reduces the business risks to attain competitive advantage in the competitive market. References Solberg, R. L. 2002. Country Risk Analysis: A Handbook. London: Psychology Press. Wagner, D. 2012. Managing Country Risk: A Practitioners Guide to Effective Cross-Border Risk Analysis. New York: CRC Press. Krayenbuehl, T. E. 2001. Cross-Border Exposures and Country Risk: Assessment and Monitoring. London: Woodhead Publishing. Shapiro, S. A. and Glicksman, R. L. 2004. 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