Business Reinvention - Case Study Example

Author’s name Instructors’ name Course Date Business Reinvention Introduction Reinvention of a company or a business is reevaluating the performance and achievement of a company and strategizing on how it will ensure that it is on course in meeting its objectives and goals (Cragun 2016). Depending on the outcome of the revaluation process, reinvention may involve many aspects including recruiting news staff and reviewing the business plans. In this way, reinvention is about concentrating on the current and future business or company’s situation and avoiding clinging to decisions that have the performance of the entity back. The following paper seeks to discuss reinvention of a business with closer look at the factors influencing business reinvention and the rules of business reinvention. Key Factors Influencing Business Reinvention Notably, there are different reasons why a business should be reinvented to stay on course and achieve the objectives (Tracy 2009). The following section will highlight some of the main factors that influence the reinvention of a business. Firstly, historical performance over a couple of years or months can make the senior management to relook its business strategy and readjusts the business plan or overhaul the entire system based on the needed changes (Lovins 2011). Admittedly, there are different parameters that are considered when historical data is being used as the basis for reinvention. For example, the profitability of the company is instrumental in determining if it is on course in meeting the objective set. If historical data reveals that over a given business period the company has been making losses, it would be prudent to review the business strategy and make some adjustments and, where necessary, overhaul the entire system. The reputation of the company is also one of the key aspects in the historical data that a company can consider in order to determine if it would be necessary to review the company’s strategy (Harmon, 2007). The perception of customers and the entire public is instrumental from the historical data since customers are the foundation of any business. Secondly, geographical changes can also make a business be reinvented. Geographical change can come due to various reasons such as business expansion, mergers, among others (Mattone & Vaidya 2016). In this way, a company is expected to cope with the new market segment and integrated systems that will be suitable for the new region. Therefore, in order to meet the demands in new geographical location, the business strategy can be reevaluated, as the market segment could be different from the other branches. For example, if a company in Australia wishes to expand its business to Africa, it may be forced to review the business strategy so that both market segments can be fitted in the company’s business framework. If this is not the case, the company will have to be innovative enough to establish a different form of operations that fit the new market segment in Australia since the composition of the pollution, purchasing abilities , security issues, and other aspects could not be the same. Politics play a key role in determining if investors are going to open a business in a given region or expand the existing ones. In some cases, a company may find that a given market segment is important thus it will be required to adjust and review its polices and operation if political environment changes, provided there is security. Politics of a country determines the kind of laws that are going to be passed as well as the general business environment including the ease of doing business. Therefore, the implications of political changes in a country or regions determine if a company should review its business strategy or systems and innovate new ways of operating to meet customer demands. The role played by technology in today’s businesses is critical especially in spurring and enhancing serviced delivery to customers as well as employees. For example, the integration of Mobile Money Transfer in the banking sector is one of the key roles played by communication technologies for service delivery. However, in order to incorporate the new technologies in business operations, companies are forced to change their business strategy in some sections or overhauling the entire systems. The human resources need to be trained on the new technology, the customers should be empowered on how to operate in the new system, the necessary laws will have to bed followed, and the entire business culture may be affected due to the introduction of a new technology (Gewirtz 2014). In this way, a company is forced to review its policies and reinvent new ways of operations while at the same time enhancing quality delivery of services and the improving company’s reputation. Further, the operations of a company can be changed and readjusted and policies amended due to the customer demands and competition. Notably, today’s customers are sophisticated and keen to try new things. Therefore, they demand more efficient products and services that will enhance their business. A threat should be noted when a product or a service has matured, thus becoming uncompetitive in the market due to the prevailing external pressures or changing times. However, instead of viewing such a scenario as a business weakness, the senior management should consider it as an opportunity for discovering new niches and products that allow the business to evolve in new directions. Finally, business vision and organizational culture are also some of the common reasons why companies reinvent their operations. Important to note is that innovation does not only apply to services and products but to the vision and culture of a company, which is one of the key succeed factors of many businesses. Notably, failure to have core foundations of basing the company’s goals can harm the morale of employee since there is no clear direction, which should guide daily activities. Therefore, it is prudent for a company to review its vision and motivate its employees towards its achievement (Shefsky 2014). At the same time, the organizational culture will have to be reviewed in order to coincide with the vision set. For example, a company can be forced to train employees on the new culture such as work discipline, communication, among others. Empowering employees and stakeholders as well as making them understand the direction of the company is instrumental in achieving the vision. Example of a Business Reinvention Although there are several companies across the globe that have successfully reinvented themselves and become profitable and competitive in various industries, one cannot fail to list Burberry as the Reinvention of a British Icon. Notably, Burberry is famously known across the globe for its trenchcoats products. The success of the six-year reinvention process of Burberry is attributed to different ideas, experiences, actions, and inspirations of senior executive officers including Ahrendts and Bailey. The two, Ahrendts and Bailey, understood that for Burberry to reinvent itself, it needed greater passion through making brand the focus and informing this art to the executives. Consequently, they reconnected employees across the world to the legacy of the iconic 150-year-old British brand as well as constantly working on its brand since 2006. Some of the changes instituted included hiring competitive employees, integrating social media marketing in their strategy, boosting customer luxury experience, and addressing customers’ needs globally. The Rules of Business Reinvention Reinventing a company or a business requires careful understanding of analysis of the factors that determine the achievement of the set goals. Therefore, this section outlines few and basic requirements for having a successful reinvention process. The first key rule is reigniting the passion (Leibold et al. 2006). Admittedly, too many companies try to spark a reinvention with an over simplified vision or a strategic statement such as "achieve an ROI of 15% by 2016" or “double sales by 2016". Although the company may achieve such goals, they are not inspiring, rather providing a measure of evaluating strategic outcome. The objective of simplified vision or strategy is to achieve a short-term goal and pursuing efficiency in operations. However, the technique does not suit well for a company that needs to encourage innovation. Therefore, reviewing the vision of a company by making it more sound and strong enough to inspired hope among all stakeholders is instrumental. The second requirement is refreshing the brand core in addressing the company’s strategy. Critical to note is that having a globally recognized brand is one thing, but making it magical is something very different (Mccrorey 2012). Based on the vision and mission of an establishment, it is important to review the branding aspect of a company by redefining the meaning, promise, purpose, as well as history of the business. However, the correlation between the brand and the operations must be strong enough to push the dream forward. The stakeholders in the reevaluation process need to reinvent the brand experience (Dussart 2010). Reinventing brand experienced refers to the application of efforts to create good customer experience. For example, companies need to be quick in adapting new technologies in order improved service delivery. As noted above, the have a news brand may be simple but actualizing it in daily operations can be the greatest task for any company. In addition, it is prudent to develop and reinforce a balanced culture (Lovins 2011). In this way, companies need to not only producing the right products or services but also producing in the right way. Therefore, organizations need to relentlessly promote a uniform way of thinking and doing things for the achievement of goals. Finally, any company that wishes to have long term success after undertaking reinvention process should reimagine the future (Harmon, 2007). Admittedly, making trade-offs between starting a business today or tomorrow is one of the most challenging aspects of any businessperson or entity. In this case, there are few organizations with the capability or cultured of trust that is able to empower mangers in making the right trade-offs in order to balance the needs long-term strategic expectations. Therefore, if companies do not have such abilities, they can outsource these services from a consultancy firm or hire people with such skills. Other considerations when reinventing a business include having solid marketing strategy, having well stipulated objectives, and communicating the plans expectations to the relevant stakeholders. Conclusion As a way of readjusting the business strategy, reinvention plays a critical role of reevaluating the performance of an organization and putting it on the right course. As noted above, there are different reasons why reinvention needs to be undertaken but the starting point is ensuring that the main factors, which have contributed to the current situation, are established. References Cragun, S. (2016). Reinvention: accelerating results in the age of disruption. Greenleaf Book Group Llc. Dussart, C. (2010). Creative cost-benefits reinvention how to reverse commoditization hell in the age of customer capitalism. New York, Palgrave Macmillan. Lovins, A. B. (2011). Reinventing fire: bold business solutions for the new energy era. White River Junction, Vt, Chelsea Green Pub. Gewirtz, D. (2014). The flexible enterprise: how to reinvent your company, unlock your strengths, and prosper in a changing world. New York, John Wiley. Harmon, R. L. (2007). Reinventing the business: preparing today's enterprise for tomorrow's technology. New York, Ny, Free Press. Leibold, M., Probst, G., & Gibbert, M. (2006). Strategic management in the knowledge economy: new approaches and business applications. Erlangen, Publicis. Mattone, J., & Vaidya, N. (2016). Cultural transformations: lessons of leadership and corporate reinvention. Mccrorey, D. (2012). Innovation in a reinvented world 10 essential elements to succeed in the new world of business. Hoboken, N.J., Wiley. Shefsky, L. E. (2014). Invent, reinvent, thrive: the keys to success for any start-up, entrepreneur, and family or small business. Tracy, B. (2009). Reinvention: how to make the rest of your life the best of your life. New York, American Management Association. Read More