New Strategies for Reputation Management - Essay Example

Phase III Maintaining business operations in a financially constricted environment presents a number of unique issues to an organisation and presentsa number of challenges (Kao, 2007). While such an environment does create opportunities, exploiting those opportunities is often difficult to manage, most often due to a limited resource base. Additionally, such a constricted environment forces most organisations into a self-preservation mode where they focus resources and energy into developing strategies merely to continue business operations. This orientation on strictly maintaining operations then causes the business to lose sight of opportunities and miss the chance to exploit them (Shim, Siegel & Dauber, 2008). Therefore to not merely survive, but to grow throughout the crisis, K&X must develop mechanisms to benefit from opportunities that this environment has created. Prior to the crisis, K&X should have allocated resources to a crisis management plan that will maintain its current operations in a financially constricted environment with limited allocated of additional resources during the actual crisis. By conducting this preparation in more ordinary financial environments, K&X ensures that it will maintain relevance during challenging times while its industry peers are caught more unaware and must then engage in cost reduction measures to maintain their core business operations (Shim, Siegel & Dauber, 2008). Having already ensured its relevance and continuance in a challenging environment, K&X will then be poised to better recognize and exploit opportunities as they arise. This is particularly valuable as few new ideas, products, or processes are introduced to market in times of crisis. Most other organisations in the industry will be developing or implementing new services, allowing K&X a unique opportunity to fill that void (Griffin, 2008). In order to position itself favourable in a challenging environment, K&X must first develop and maintain a crisis management plan. A common misconception is that crisis in a business context is sudden and unexpected. However, even the current 2008 "global meltdown" was first anticipated as early as 2007, lending credence to the concept that forward looking organisations can anticipate and plan for crisis rather than being taken unawares by it (Drucker, 2008). With this in mind, K&X must develop a crisis management plan as a living document that is continuously revised with the most currently available data, particularly when the industry begins to forecast the potential for an economic crisis. The management of the crisis will then involve application of the mechanisms developed and specified in the plan and the updated data will ensure that the organisation is responding to the environment as it actually exists (Kao, 2007). The exact measures of K&X for crisis management have been fully explored in Part II and are aimed at mitigating the effects of the crisis and maintaining continuity of operations. This will allow the organisation to remain fully crisis conscious, making its management of the situation part of its normal operations rather than as a separate issue that is address only after the disaster strikes (Drucker, 2008). Once implemented, the first stage of the K&X crisis management plan will evaluate the current business environment, specifically to determine potential areas of failure that may have a significant effect on core business operations (Drucker, 2008). This evaluation process is particularly important as failure during this phase may result in an irrelevant plan of action that may contribute to the collapse of the organisation. As such, the evaluation phase will require the heaviest commitment of time and resources to ensure that subsequent phases of the plan remain pertinent and relevant to the current environment. The goals of the evaluation must be a high relevance as this will ensure accuracy and precision in the later actions of K&X (Chesbrough, Vanhaverbeke & West, 2006). This evaluation process will include an assessment of the broad market forces and specific industry conditions and will be used to forecast threats that the organisation may encounter. However, this is not a static process, and K&X must remain agile enough to continuously maintain an evaluation of the industry and markets to ensure that evolving changes are noted and their relevance to the operational environment determined (Shim, Siegel & Dauber, 2008). The key factors in this process are resource intensity and creativity. Once enacted, the evaluation will then progress to the development of relevant strategies and processes to ensure potential threats are effectively managed (Shim, Siegel & Dauber, 2008). Much like the evaluation process, these measures must remain dynamic in order to react to continuous changes in the nature of threats and the overall operational environment. In addition to merely mitigating the risks of threats, these developed measures must also contain strategies that are prepared to exploit any opportunities that manifest in the operational environment (Chesbrough, Vanhaverbeke & West, 2006). As noted earlier, creativity and adaptability are key concepts in any crisis management plan and the efficacy of the developed strategies is dependent on that level of creativity. Therefore, both innovation and creativity must be key aspects that the organisation is committed to develop and it must also ensure that mechanisms are in place to allow for their application throughout the crisis. To maintain relevance during the evaluation phase, individual and team insight directed towards assessing the operational environment is critical to the development of actual strategies. This team approach will ensure the creation and adoption tools and techniques useful from a quality management standpoint in a scientific manner. (Chesbrough, Vanhaverbeke & West, 2006). Examples of the team approach include brainstorming, cost effects analysis, and Pareto analysis that can then be incorporated into the development of strategies and their continuous assessment of relevance in meeting the challenges that the environment presents. Once the evaluation phase is complete, actual implementation of the proposed strategies then becomes an area of critical concern. In fact, one of the areas that most business fail in a constricted financial environment is that implementation. Poor implementation can arise from the nature of the strategies themselves or from an internal nature of an organisation that makes implementation problematic (Shim, Siegle & Dauber, 2008). Considering the importance of this implementation, the development of strategy must consider the nature of the organisation itself, which can include corporate culture and financial position and helps to ensure that actual implementation is never counter-productive. A proactive approach to the development of these strategies is one wherein the input of critical stakeholders is considered, particularly to ensure that the implementation maintains a relevance to those stakeholders. To achieve this, training may be required to effectively transmit the relevance and value of the strategies to those its impacts and gain their acceptance (Shim, Siegel & Dauber, 2008). Additionally, the dissemination of drafted strategies may also require the use of proper communication systems that not only consider the availability of communication resources, but also the relevance of those resources in effective transmission of instructions and information. Taking these factors into consideration, the development of a crisis management plan will not only ensure that the organisation maintains operations in a time of crisis, but will also be poised to harness the opportunities that such an environment creates. It will also give the organisation the necessary resources to identify and then exploit the opportunities that such an environment creates (Shim, Siegel & Dauber, 2008). This places the onus upon the organisation itself, particularly at the management level, to develop an effective plan that will implement customer-based strategies that will ensure growth of the market base and industry influence. Conversely, ordinary environments should be marked by continuous development in the market, establishment of a strong financial base, and crafting a crisis management plan to mitigate and exploit the conditions of a more adverse environment (Armstrong, 2008). The hallmarks of a good plan will include its ability to be implemented without strong financial backing, constant performance appraisal, and the development and implementation of customer-based strategies designed to exploit the unique conditions created by the current environment. Proper implementation of this plan will include team approaches, adoption of strategies developed using the most current market data, staff appraised and buy-in facilitated through training, effective management of resources, and factual decision making. Doing so will allow the organisation to focus on opportunity exploitation, develop of customer and investor confidence, and continuous development rather than self-preservation during periods of economic hardship (Armstrong, 2008). CONCLUSION The 2008 economic crisis may be the worst that current generates have witnessed. However, the very existence of this crisis is a point of fact that all business organisations must adapt to and learn from. When the crisis is concluded and economic recovery beings, some relatively obscure organisations will have arisen to the height of their industries while previous market leaders will no longer exist. Such occurrences are merely the ordinary results of a fluid, continuously evolving economic climate and the very nature of a capitalist environment is dictated by these high levels of volatility. Organisational logistics are a critical component of a business organisation and are therefore a significant determinant of the level of economic success that the organisation will achieve. When crisis in the operational environment strikes, it will affect logistics by reducing resource provision, increasing the cost of operations, and changing to the market and industry dynamics. As a crisis is always potential in any market, organisations must develop the skills to effective manage and then exploit these crises. Doing so requires the development of a strong crisis management plan, continuously updating that plan, and then effectively implementing it when the situation warrants. Doing so will ensure that the organisation is poised to not only survive the developing crisis, but is also ready to harness any opportunities that it creates. While other organisations are merely adapting to survive in the currently harsh environment, a prepared organisation will be prepared to survive and then flourish. APPENDIX - Additional information on the current crisis Some economic analysts and historians are considering the current 2008 crisis as an iteration of the 1929 economic failure. The relationship between the Great Depression and the current economic environment is somewhat similar and the current crisis is threatening to level a number of the world's largest financial powers and a developed nations. The current economic downturn has arguably affected the U.S. more so than other nations, however financial indicators beginning in early 2007 predict that the crisis will have a truly global impact. A factor currently being blamed for the failures of the financial markets and the general economic downturn is the high oil prices which then led to increased prices for food, global inflation, and a credit crisis that in turn declared some of the most well-established investment and commercial banks bankrupt. High unemployment is also blamed for the failure of a number of financial institutions. The Baltic Dry Index, one of the most trusted resources for statistics on global trade by measuring shipping volume, shows that the current crisis created a 51% decrease in trade during a single week. This fully illustrates how broader economic forces can have a distinct and, unwanted, affect on maritime finances. Bibliography Armstrong, M 2008, How to be an Even Better Manager: A Complete A-Z of Proven Techniques & Essential Skills, London, Kogan Page Publishers. Chesbrough, HW, Vanhaverbeke, W & West, J 2006, Open Innovation: Researching a New Paradigm, Oxford, Oxford University Press. 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