Forming Strategic Position for MobiTech - Case Study Example

Forming strategic position for MobiTech [Name] [Professor Name] [Course] [Date] Summary: This paper describes the processes I used in developing the vision, mission, values, and strategies for this business I created, and which is yet to start operation. It justifies the rationale behind the strategies I used while restructuring the Michael Porter argument in his HBR 1996. In developing the business strategy, the premise was that the business logic is analogous to mathematical logic used in solving equations. The strategy had to be framed on this outline: “Values should emphasize vision, which determines the mission, which dictates the strategy, which reveals the goals, which frame objectives, which compels the tactics that specify to the company the resources and processes necessary for execution a certain endeavor (Tracy 2000). MobiTech Technologies Business Description Set for official launch in December this year MobiTech Technologies is technology and business solutions firm. It plans to operate in business segments namely business management solutions, health systems management and mobile money solutions. The company will also offer business and ICT research and consultancy services, web design services, mobile solutions, Internet marketing, branding. The services and products will focus on providing business management software and ICT solutions to the emerging markets. The company will work as a reseller of the products and will leverage on e-commerce to enhance its distribution chain. The company is in the processing of seeking partnership with major brands, such as Dell, HP, IBM and Acer, ahead of launch to supply a wide range of servers to customers in the emerging markets. The company will be based in Victoria Melbourne. Vision: “To become the global leader in technology solutions centered on seamless customer satisfaction.” Mission: “To offer the society superior innovative solutions by developing technologies that enhance the quality of life and suits customer needs, and to offer employees meaningful working environment and career progress and to offer investors greater rate of returns.” Core Values • Excellence • Satisfaction • Innovation Goal: “To grow steadily expansion, becoming profitable at the end of first year of operations.” Marketing and Sales Techniques MobiTech believes that by focusing on range of products, multiple market segments and wide geographical area, it will be able to deliver divergent services cutting across all sectors of business operations and customer needs. Competitive Environment Currently, the quality of services and the number of ICT ad business solutions from enter and leave the field rapidly. The company’s built a competitive edge on providing a range of services that are customized to customer’s needs. It will also seek partnerships with major brands across the globe to find a basis to launch its subsidiaries in the emerging markets. The current lack of industry leaders in the field presents an exceptional growth opportunity for MobiTech. The driving force for the business will be mobile solutions, business solutions, management solutions and a range of other ICT accessories MobiTech Strategy Map Forming strategic position for MobiTech Strategy development In developing the business strategy, my premise was that the business logic is analogous to mathematical logic used in solving equations. The strategy had to be framed on this outline: “Values should emphasize vision, which determines the mission, which dictates the strategy, which reveals the goals, which frame objectives, which compels the tactics that specify to the company the resources and processes necessary for execution a certain endeavor (Tracy 2000). After establishing the ICT solutions firm, the next stage involved scrutiny of the strategy development process as a black box that would bear a strategy that would be implemented using balanced scorecards and maps. The first action was to review the strategy development practices by a number of leading organizations in the ICT field. This was for the purposes of hedging competitive convergence, such as in cases where the company could incorporate strategic choices already made by other companies (Porter 1996). This way, we were to explore other parameters that would stimulate our investment efficiency as well as concentrate in high-end segment. The decision was to deal in mobile solutions as it seemed the most generic solution of the options that we had. In essence, it has the highest penetration across the globe, meaning it is used by almost every adult on the planet. It can also be used for different purposes such as calling, messaging, browsing the Internet or sending money, meaning the solutions would be unlimited. It was later observed that while the tangible selection of a strategy is more of an art, for instance that which defines the purpose and objectives of the organization, as well as carefully evaluates the internal and external environmental factors to watch out for the potential constrains and opportunities with regard to that strategy. The process played a major role in developing a corporate strategy. The process entailed reaffirming the company’s vision, mission and values (Tracy 2000). What followed is the identification and analysis of the key issues such as the internal and external forces that influence the strategy of the company. Here, a new strategy was created particularly for new transformational purposes, prompting the necessity for change across the departments of the organization. The four strategy development steps consisted of the kind of business venture we are in, where the business is going, the key issues the strategy must address, and lastly, how the business can be made competitive (Tracy 2000). 1. Creating Mission, Vision and Values Vision, core values and mission are significant elements of a company’s strategic planning. Typically, mission is one-sentence concise statement that seeks to define the elementary purposes of a company. An effective one should include what the company offers to in its venture as well as inform the employees or the executives of the overall goal they must jointly pursue. The mission settled on includes: “To offer the society superior innovative solutions by developing technologies that enhance the quality of life and suits customer needs, and to offer employees meaningful working environment and career progress and to offer investors greater rate of returns.” This missions falls within the company’s commitment to build long lasting relationship with customers through quality customer support. The Values, or commonly known as the core values, spell out the company’s desired culture, behavior and character (Porter 1996). From this perspective, the company settled on the core values namely satisfaction, innovation and excellence to form the statement: “Supporting innovation, excellence, and satisfaction.” The vision is a brief statement that outlines the mid-term and long-term goals of a company (Porter 1996). The vision should be market-oriented and should be expressed from an inspirational basis and how the company looks to be perceived. From this perspective, the company settled on the vision: “To become the global leader in technology solutions centered on seamless customer satisfaction.” Quantification of Vision Since vision statements serve as guide to strategic development, in addition to being inspirational, they have to be aspirational and measurable (Porter 1996). After analysis of visions by a number of companies already in operation, it was obvious that a large number of the visions are vague, with some having visions such as: “to be our client’s preferred services provider.” Visions that are vague fail to represent a creditable objective of the company. A quantified vision offers a clear focus for strategy by evoking measurable targeted value and outcome. This meant the vision statement of our company had to have a quantified indicator for success, had to have a definition of niche, and lastly, a projected timeline for execution. In the end we settled on the vision, “To become the global leader in technology solutions centered on seamless customer satisfaction”, seemed the most fitting. This is because the vision statement offer a clear set of directions as well as expectations that the entire strategy of the company could be structured. In addition, our company vision had to describe a definite measure of success. By incorporating these features, the vision statement of our company seemed to increase the intelligibility of the message, adding a noticeable emphasis on success that could be interrelated with every department of the organization. It also established the time frame in which the envisaged success would occur. Lastly, it identified an ambitious goal for the strategy early in the planning stages of the organization. By nature, the company’s core values and mission have to remain stable over time. We had to come up with a vision that painted a bigger picture of the future, as well as clarify the path the company sought in the short-term (three years) and the long-term (ten years). The main objective here was to stimulate an understanding of the company by outsiders and insiders to enable them support the company. It also had to be concise, clear and more memorable. The idea here is that, though vision and mission are always confused, they are not interchangeable. Confusing the two can lead to inconsistent leadership and inevitable bad results. Even as the core values, vision and mission are intended to be considerably stable, most organizations tend to commence their yearly development strategy development process by examining and reiterating them. We developed the vision statement basing on what we envisioned our company to become. In all, the strategy was that it should resonate with stakeholders of the company, as well as help them feel motivated to be part of the organization. The idea was to also enable it to extend the company’s image and capabilities. It had to also give the direction of the company’s future. Quantifying the Mission The mission statement illustrates what the company does in order to achieve its vision. Since the vision should be expressed as an ideal or a dream, this reality was put into perspective while developing the company’s mission statement. To emphasize action, we had to use actionable verbs such as “provide.” In addition, we had to make it compatible with purposed of the organization as well as to meet the requirements of a technology services provider. The reason it was brief was to make it more memorable and effectively clear. In addition, to include prospective stakeholders into the interests of the company, we named them in the mission. Setting Goals The outcome of the strategic planning and mapping after the necessary information in gathered is the formulation of goals of the company set based on the established mission and vision statement. A goal here describes the long-range aim of the company for specified time frame. In the case of our company, we had to make it realistic and specific; in addition, they had to translate into activities that would ensure the goals are attained via operational planning. Strategic analysis Quantifying the vision enables easy integration of the target setting through feasible strategies. Its quantified success factor is used as the yardstick for measuring the efficacy of the strategies. Once the strategies were formulated, what followed was to perform a strategic analysis. In essence, once the strategy envisioned a picture of what the company must now perform, an external and internal analysis, which involved the assessment of the impact on the trends in the industry and its individual performance and position in relation to the competitors. With regard to the external analysis, we had to base our focus on what the executive team should understand regarding the industry level trends on the formulated strategy and operations. Therefore, we used the PESTEL analysis to assess the domestic and international ICT industry growth trends and found that our company would focus on mobile solutions as it has the highest penetration compared to personal computers. In addition, there is great demand for mobile applications. Further, we had to use Porter’s five forces to reveal that ICT solutions were highly favorable given the dynamism of technology and perceived interest in ICT solutions worldwide. These two devices will help establish the drawbacks, possible malfunctions and in the end, offer a means to come up with recommendations that could be incorporated into the strategy to ensure discipline and continuity, as well as avoid distractive elements (Porter 1996). The most suitable performance metrics for measuring the operational effectiveness of the ICT solutions firm would focus on the strategic objectives. In which case, the lagging and the leading measures would have to be created for each one of the strategic objectives (Porter 1996). In a addition, the expected targets and entrances have to be established. Lastly, the baseline and the benchmarking data have to be created. This process would be suitable for monitoring the execution and efficacy of the company’s strategies, as well as establish the divide between targeted and actual performances. Porter (1996) posited that a good strategy can make trade-offs in competing”. This way, it offers a way to ensure that the strategies are working, concentrate the stakeholders’ attention on what is most important to realize success and to make it convenient to measure accomplishments (Gamble, Strickland & Thompson 2007). References Gamble, J., Strickland & A, Thompson, A 2007, Crafting & Executing Strategy, 15th Ed., New York, McGraw-Hill Porter, M., 1996, What is Strategy?, Harvard Business Review, November-December: 61-78 Tracy, B 2000, The 100 Absolutely Unbreakable Laws of Business Success, Berrett, Koehler Publishers. Read More