Strategic Information Management - Essay Example

?Strategic Information Management Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Question 3 Strategic Planning Process 4 Question 2 11 Part A 11 Rate of Growth of Internet Globally 11 Contribution of Internet to the Business Environment 12 Part B 14 Categories of Cybercrime 14 Measures for Curbing such Cybercrimes 15 References 17 Question 1 For any organisation, the strategic planning begins with clearly demarcated missions. The mission of an organisation defines the fundamental purpose of the company in the industry with respect to products or services it provides to the customers. It is the mission of an organisation which describes the cause for existence of the company in the market. Furthermore, the mission statement also tells about the abilities by which organisations seek to compete in the market and peruse success. On the other hand, strategies initiated by any organisation explain the limitations under which the company can conduct its business operations. The strategies of organisations are developed and implemented by management which describe the geographic restrictions, market operations, methods of conducting business and development of products or services. The mission of an organisation is translated in every deeds of organisation, and therefore the strategies are developed in such a way so that it can provide a framework about accomplishing the mission. There is a direct relationship with adoption of any strategy and mission (Krishnan, 2008). Apart from the mission of an organisation, the business environment on which the organisation operates its business also has direct relation with the adoption of strategy. The business environment levies several restrictions on an organisation and therefore has substantial impact on the possibilities and activities of organisation. Before developing a strategy, organisations need to identify the business environmental forces which can impact on the business. Therefore, it is the duty of an organisation to develop strategy which can successfully tackle the environmental threats or opportunities. Every organisation deals with two kinds of environment i.e. internal business environment and external business environment (Saleem, 2006). Thus, strategies are adopted in such a way so that the internal resources are used in best possible way to deal with the external aspects of business. Numerous environmental aspects such as political, social, cultural, and competition among others have significant impacts on the strategies taken by organisation. It is significant for any organisation to understand purposes, scopes and objectives of business through mission statement, to recognise the internal and the external business environment and accordingly develop strategies which are consistent with the industry as well as the business. The following diagram will describe the relationship between strategy, organisational mission and business environment: Source: (Saleem, 2006). Strategic Planning Process A recognised strategic planning procedure has five basic steps which are illustrated in the following diagram: Source: (Hill & Jones, 2009). Formulate The Mission And Major Business Objectives: The first phase of strategic planning is creating the mission statement which delivers the outline or background within which the strategies will be framed. The mission statement of an organisation has four key components which are: 1. Statement for cause of presence for an organisation in the industry 2. Statement of few anticipated future circumstances 3. Statement of crucial values that the organisation will promise to the stakeholders and, 4. Statement of main objectives The mission will provide what an organisation is for, such as the mission statement of Kodak provides customers with the solutions they require to capture, save, and share images, or in other words, the presence of Kodak in the industry is to deliver solutions reading photos to the consumers. The mission of Kodak is customer centric which concentrates on fulfilling the photo requirements of customers (Hill & Jones, 2009). The first phase of developing mission statement is to understand the business of organisation. An organisation needs to define the business with respect to the customers which the organisation is going to serve, the requirements of customers and the way of satisfying their requirements. The following diagram will describe the scopes to understand the business of an organisation: Source: (Hill & Jones, 2009). The above aspects can define if a business organisation will be taking product oriented mission or customer oriented mission. The product oriented mission concentrates on features of products or services as well as the market. On the other hand, the customer oriented mission focuses on which kinds of customers are going to be affected by the products or services (Hill & Jones, 2009). The second step of selecting the mission is to develop a vision for the business organisation. The vision of an organisation provides the desired future condition which the company will seek to accomplish. For instance, Nokia has a powerful vision which not only implies the voice call services, but also other services such as imagining, internet surfing, controlling personal data, and gaming among others. The vision of Nokia has helped the company to become a leader in mobile phone industry (Hill & Jones, 2009). The third step is to describe the business with respect to ethics and values that the business leaders will obey. It can provide the restrictions and the margins for the activities of leaders while pursuing the mission and the vision. Developing the value can describe the method of conducting business activities. After describing the value, the final step is to choose the mission of the business organisation (Hofstrand, 2009). After formulating the mission of the organisation, there is need for creating the objectives that will be perused from accomplishing the mission. The objectives of an organisation denote the extensive aims of business. The objectives of business organisation generally outline the extent of target that the company will seek to accomplish (Nagy & Fawcet, 2012). Organisations can develop three kinds of objectives which are described in the following diagram: Source: (Nagy & Fawcet, 2012). Examination of External Business Environment The second phase of strategic planning procedure is the study of company’s external business environment. It is crucial for any business organisation to find the strategic opportunities and threats it can face during accomplishing the mission, vision and objectives. For effective strategic planning, organisations need to analyse the external environment in terms of three perspectives which are the industry context where the organisation operates its business, the national background where the business is situated and the microeconomic environment i.e. in which culture the business is going to take place (Hill & Jones, 2009). Examination of Internal Environment The third phase of strategic planning procedure is assessing the internal environment. The internal environment concentrates on revising the resources, skills and capabilities of organisation. Analysing the internal environment can help to develop the unique skills and organisation oriented distinctive competencies which are required to take the advantage of any opportunity identified or deal with any threat in the market (Hill & Jones, 2009). Choice of Strategies The fourth phase of strategic planning process is to produce a chain of strategic options or varieties of strategies which a business enterprise will follow in the future. The first phase of developing varieties of strategies is to recognise the strengths and the flaws of business organisation. It can help to understand how an organisation is going to counter the risks in external environment by minimising the flaws, and how it can respond with the market prospects by exploiting the strengths. After identifying the strengths and the flaws, the business organisation can develop, encourage and adjust a company oriented detailed business plan which will best fit and adapt with the assets, aptitudes, and demand of the external business environment. Finally, the management of business organisation compares and contrasts the several strategies which can build a competitive advantage in the market. A business organisation can take four types of strategies which are: Functional Strategy: The functional strategies are focussed towards improving the efficiency of business conducts within organisation which includes production, marketing, inventory management, and development of products and services (Hill & Jones, 2009). Commercial Strategy: The commercial strategy of an organisation includes the overall competitive context i.e. in which way an organisation will position itself in the industry in order to accomplish competitive advantage. In commercial strategy, organisations use numerous positioning approaches, such as differentiation or cost advantages or blend of both the approaches (Hill & Jones, 2009). International Strategy: Business organisations that desire for increasing the business in foreign countries use international strategies. This kind of strategies focuses on the methods of competing in international context (Hill & Jones, 2009). Corporate Strategy: The corporate strategy of a business organisation denotes the activities which can ensure long-term profitability and revenue growth in the organisation. Organisations use corporate strategy to enter into new market or increase the existence or strength in their respective businesses (Hill & Jones, 2009). Strategy Implementation After selecting the congruent strategies which can help to accomplish competitive advantage and raise the performance of an organisation, a business organisation should execute them. Implementation of strategy includes planning the optimum organisational arrangement and effective working culture. There must be strong control system which can regulate the strategies. For instance, the senior executives should develop grievance structure to ensure that everyone in the organisation performs in such a way which is related with increasing the productivity and there are no unethical or illegal conducts within organisation (Hill & Jones, 2009). . The strategic planning is a continuing procedure because business organisations never stop formulating strategies and bringing them into practice. After successful implementation of strategy, its performance must be observed by the business organisation to understand as to which level the aims and the objectives of organisation are fulfilled by those strategies. The information about the consequences of strategy implementation becomes an input for management to use in the next strategic management process. The performance of business organisation after implementation of strategy determines if the management will continue with existing business model and strategies or make changes in the organisational system for future prospects (Hill & Jones, 2009). Question 2 Part A Rate of Growth of Internet Globally From the inception of internet in the global culture its uses has grown enormously. In the year 1994, the total internet servers were almost two million which had increased to above 110 million by 2001 (Montgomery & Faloutsos, 2001). It is apparent that internet is changing the regular life of people not only from the perspective of business, but also from the perspective of society. In present days, people work, purchase materials, search information and communicate by using internet. The number of internet users is growing at a rapid rate (about 200 million per annum). However, the greatness of internet related actions are unclear, as people use internet for several purposes. In almost two decades, internet has changed the approach by which people live, work, entertain and meet (McKinsey & Company, 2011). The usage of internet is enormous and its application can be seen in almost every industry and organisation. The spending on internet is larger compared to spending on agriculture and energy. A research by McKinsey & Company on 13 nations in the year 2011 depicts that internet revenue represents almost 3.4% of total Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in those nations (McKinsey & Company, 2011). According to the data of “Internet World Statistics”, in the year 2011 there was almost 2 billion internet users which accounted for 30.2% of global population. The rate was 480.4% more than the year 2000 (European Travel Commission, 2012). The following graph will describe the growth of internet users worldwide from 2000 to 2011: Source: (European Travel Commission, 2012). Contribution of Internet to the Business Environment Internet has contributed several prospects for business organisations. The business-to-business (B-2-B) salespersons can take the benefits of internet in order to enhance the business operations. For instance, by using internet business organisations can easily transfer the money though net banking which is much convenient and faster than traditional methods. An apparent example of contribution of internet to business environment is Dell. By using the advantage of internet in their B-2-B procedures, Dell has successfully achieved huge market share in the computer industry (Sharma, 2002). Across industries, several business organisations are implementing internet initiatives for effective management of internal business procedures as well as their boundaries with business environment (Wu & et. al, 2003). Internet is equipped with several contemporary collaborative tools such as e-mails, messaging and it is one of the fastest and trouble-free communication techniques. In comparison with other traditional methods of communication such as post or telephone, internet is accessible from anywhere around the globe, thus business organisations can provide constant services and assistance to the customers (Stroud, 1998). Nowadays, only an improvement in product or service quality or increase in quantity of products manufactured is not sufficient for future growth and development of business. The visibility in the market is also important for success of any business organisation. Organisations need to reach to the larger customer segments so that the products or the services can be visible by people. For this reason, the brand promotion is considered as a key element of business which helps to promote the products or the services to the large number of customers. In this context, internet contributes modern tools which help to promote brands to the customers (Stroud, 1998). Internet has transformed the traditional marketing environment. Most business organisations can reach to the people through developing websites where people can easily view and understand about the products or the services they offer. Numerous applications of internet provide exceptional ways for maintaining good relationships with customers and making communication easier compared to traditional techniques. Furthermore, through internet an advanced flow of information can be diverted towards different customers once business organisations recognise their requirements. For sectors such as Information Technology (IT) or finance or entertainment, internet provides an opportunity to have a trial of the products or services before purchasing (Stroud, 1998). Internet has also transformed the sales environment. Implementation of internet in the sales process can have fundamental impacts on the sales force of business organisations. One significant advantage of using internet for sales is reduction of middleman between an organisation and customers. Internet has provided a significant benefit for business organisations i.e. an opportunity to sell directly to the customers, which considerably reduces the cost of sales and management (Stroud, 1998). For effective business operations, consistent communication among all business units is crucial. Through the use of internet, business organisations can easily interconnect with the producers, suppliers, customers, venders and dealers. Internet helps to strengthen the supply chain procedure and maintain a close relationship with all business units. As a result, it can ensure rapid business operations. Internet has initiated a new phase of development in business environment. Today, it has become possible for “World Wide Web” or WWW to provide different kinds of information in suitable layouts which are best matched for varied customers. Business organisations are tailoring their websites according to customers’ requirements. Internet can enable any start-up organisation to globalise and achieve high revenue (Poon, 2000). In the year 2011, almost two- thirds of business organisations had presence in the World Wide Web and one-third of small and medium enterprises had extensively used internet facilities to enhance their business performances (McKinsey & Company, 2011). Part B Categories of Cybercrime The quick growth of internet has let several organisations to transform their business operations, most significantly having the scope of quick transfer of funds through internet. This huge utilisation of internet among people has generated several criminal activities which are also regarded as cybercrime. Cybercrime is not a new occurrence. Uses of computer always have provided to be one of the primary targets for any criminal activity as it can store confidential information, and the increasing necessity of internet has accelerated those criminal activities as people have started to share information with each other (Crown, 2010). Cybercrime is established globally in numerous forms during recent few years. The four common categories of cybercrime which impact on business are: Online fraud, phishing, information theft, and service disruption. Online Fraud: Internet has made easy for offenders to conduct fraudulent activities through internet. In the commercial sector, online fraud is considered as a significant crime which is a major concern for business organisations. In the year 2004, there was above 390,000 cases which were related to online fraud representing almost a loss of 540 million USD (Mittal & et. al., 2005). Phishing: Phishing is the other cybercrime which has received much popularity in recent days among impostors. In phishing, the offenders develop email and endorse a brand in order to induce users and make them to reveal sensitive information. The major goal of phishing is to acquire confidential data and use them for monetary profit (Crown, 2010). Information Theft: The most harmful cybercrime is information theft. Information theft can occur in numerous methods. Through internet, offenders can extract documentation or get credit information from the record of an organisation’s computer system which can negatively impact on several customers. Cyber criminals can also extract commercial information or take worthy intellectual property by illegal copying (Crown, 2010). Service Disruption: Cybercriminals can also interrupt important services to someone who are approved to use them. Service disruption can essentially immobilise the network of an organisation. Depending on the type of business, service disruption can successfully disable the business operations of an organisation or delay the management processes. Service disruption can occur through consumption of inadequate resources or illegal adjustment of network structure which prevents the connection between host computers with the network (Carnegie Mellon University, 1999). Measures for Curbing such Cybercrimes Though it is inevitable that cybercrime cannot be stopped completely and it will explore new courses in future, there are several measures which can be taken in order to curb the cybercrimes. The most significant solution for curbing cybercrime is using better antivirus, antispyware and firewall software in an organisation’s networking system in order to prevent intruders from acquiring significant information. Using these, software can help to provide a solution for criminal activities such as phishing or identity theft (Kumar, n.d.). Business organisations and internet users can use intrusion detection programs in their system which can help to recognise any gap in network security. These programs can detect any unusual activity on the network and help to prevent them before they actually occur. Using encryption is one of the most significant measures business organisations can take for curbing cybercrimes. Encryption helps to convert the organisational data into other formats which is impossible for intruders to use unless they get proper encryption key. Therefore, organisations can easily transfer confidential documents through internet where only the right person having the encryption key will be able to view them. As a result, encryption can help to reduce the risk of information theft for any organisation (Kumar, n.d.). Finally, one of the actual ways to curb cybercrime is to stop it from happening from the first place. People and organisations can defend themselves by regulating the level of private information they make accessible in the internet. However, there is need for using privacy improvement technology in the system which can increase the confidentiality and decrease the threat of privacy breakdown (Crown, 2010). People should avoid providing personal details in any kind of email messages. During payments though internet dealings, there is need for extra caution about selection of websites. Using websites that have coded link and security certificate can help to curb the cybercrimes from occurring. With the increase of cybercrimes, several new methods will appear in future to prevent them. However, above all, self-awareness is the most crucial aspect which can actually help to prevent the risk and the loss associated with cybercrimes. References Carnegie Mellon University, 1999. Denial of Service Attacks. Software Engineering Institute. 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