Strategic Management In Global Context - Coursework Example

RUNNING HEAD: STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT IN GLOBAL CONTEXT Strategic Management in Global Context Part 1: Strategic Management Process & Context: The nature of strategy: Strategy of any organization I build that reveals how to respond to the customers, environments, competitors etc. the strategy of a company also helps in describing what kind of relationships to be made with the dealers, raw material vendors, customers, competitors, business partners, workers and also tells how to survive in the business market. Viewing strategy from multiple perspectives, different issues this reveals: The process that explains the process and functionality of any organization is strategic management process. This provides a roadmap for an organization to achieve its set goals and objectives. It is always significant to set the goals first and set up a method, following which they can attain their goals. The influence of culture on strategy: The culture has a great influence on strategy. The strategies of a business would be building according to the cultural in order to meet customer’s requirements as culture greatly affects the demands of a nation. Strategy Lenses/ Strategy Safari… & other concepts/ models/ theories to understand the significance of perspective: Different models are used to understand the significance of strategy. There are different models used within different organizations. Some of the key components are knowledge creation, knowledge transfer, knowledge utilization, exploration, tacit knowledge. etc. Managing Strategic Change: The need for & process of strategic change: There are no valid theories about business and the failure and success of the organization cannot be considered theoretically. The processes change according to the demands of the customer. Therefore it is need for strategic change. Approaches to managing Change: While creating strategies it should be kept in mind that they are adaptive and opportunistic. The planning is done according to the capabilities of a firm. Adaptive strategy is constructed in approach to handle changes thayt may occur with the passage of time. Obstacles/ resistance to change: It has been known for times that the companies that do not adapt according to the changes of the customers remain far behind. An industry not complying to the customers needs and not fulfilling the up to date requirements will loose its customers as well as market value. So the strategies for management should be well designed to adapt the changes according to requirements. Strategic Change & Culture: Mostly senior executives are facing problems that specific cultural changes affect their businesses. So there is always a need to manage strategies to handle such changes. Bottom up/ Top down Strategic change: Coping with change is a difficult challenge faced by every organization. It simply describes the change strategies from top to down or down to top. That is from planning and analysis to implementation or vice versa. Either of the strategy is adapted according to the requirement. Role of Change Agents: Change agents are those who are the professional for development within the organization. They are the middle managers who have the opportunity to bring about the changes in their organizations. The role of change agent is of a designer, developer, manger, educator, marketer etc. Introduction: Sony is the most important manufacturer of audio, video, communications, and information technology products for the consumer and professional markets. Headquarter of Sony is in Tokyo but it has almost about 928 strong and combined auxiliary offices throughout the world. Sony is well known for being the comprehensive company throughout the world because of it music, moving picture, television, video, computer entertainment, and online businesses. Sony is on rank 28, on the latest Interbrand scoreboard which ranks the top 100 global brands. Its rank reveals that Sony has a value of almost 11 billion dollars. Sony’s chief U.S. businesses include Sony Electronics Inc.; Sony Pictures Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. Sony has also its 50% interest in one of the largest recorded music companies that is Music Entertainment. Innovation and technical advancement are the major key roles of the company. Walkman, which has become a synonym in itself was the first major advancement by Sony. Sony has played an important role in different sectors, by developing vaio notebook with co-brand. Bravia high-definition (HD) flat screen television, which provides the better picture system than the older ones, is its latest technological. It is the aim of Sony to struggle for advancements in technology make important electronics and entertainment products. Europe is the world's largest market for games consoles, when Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) was in the position to its send forth of the newest version of the games console, PlayStation2 (PS2); the company wanted a directly connected to the customer presence in Europe to occur at the same time with a fall 2000 launch. But the draw back was that SCE Europe had dispersed so many Websites that were providing information but there were no capabilities for e-commerce transactions. The company had to build a channel for direct connection to the customer n only eight months and had to complete it in an only enfolded step. The was considered that the growth was slowing by a senior management of a world-class packaged goods manufacturer The senior management of a world-class packaged goods manufacturer felt that growth was slowing. The company felt a need for future growing in a mature feminine care market and therefore asked for help. They created a new segmentation model in partnership with the company marketing research team and McKinsey customer insights experts in a 3-D marketing framework. This practice had a great affect on influenced the company's overall classification and division strategy, as well as its branding strategy. SONY: Visionary leadership: Sony is the best example to explain the strategic significance of a creative thinker leader in order to take their products to the highest apex of fame. An environment was created to take care if experimentation and innovation under the responsibility of Sony’s management team along with the CEO. After that, Sony became one of the early Asian brands to be acquainted with the significance of production, which is obviously have been led by and supported the management team. Pioneer advantage: Sony came into sight as the breaker of new grounds in almost every segment of it’s in which it was operating, as it gave an innovative border to the industry. As Sony was the pioneer in the category of invention, and the first in delivering services in many cases, Sony had breathing space in resolution of the rules of the strategy as they were. It set the prospect for the other corporations that get into the group. Also, the product representation was improved every time a contestant duplicated Sony as it became a roundabout way to recognize Sony’s management point. Still it gave the way to make more mistakes, check new thoughts, and trial with pioneering perceptions, as the Sony is being the pioneer. Analysis and Teamwork A precise survey of customers was conducted. And a new segmentation model was created in 3-D marketing framework, in partnership with client marketing research team and our customer insights experts. Many internal workshops were held in order to describe and check the capabilities of these segments in order to produce profitability and select the number of these segments. The need was to uncover the hidden and dormant process which would e advantageous to the company. The focus of the team was on two or three key portions that could be more likely to respond to relationship benefits that had the most potential and could lead to numerous vigorous and healthy business cases. The concepts were design to refine further, and financial protrusions were established. There were many points that were included in the analysis and teamwork. One of them was unrelated diversification. It is an important and exclusive feature that has renowned more than a few Asian businesses from other Western business is the degree of several enterprises. Companies gust up into multinationals that do business in very varied and unconnected industries, where proscribed directed largely by business families. Many Asian companies such as Samsung and LG that have become global forces to deem with also started as overstuffed corporations. But these companies appear to include learning the magnitude of meeting point on central part of competency. As, Samsung tapered down its business and came out of dissimilar businesses and directed its possessions around one or two leading businesses. But Sony still seems to have trapped up in numerous businesses. These kind of unconnected varied and spread businesses not only exhaust the brand’s property to a huge scope but also redirect the product focal point from the heart of the brand. Another point being analyzed was Innovation dearth which can be explained well by Case of Apples’ iPod .Sony became the certain leader in portable music player category by the development of walkman. As is the common case, achievement sorts business contentment. Sony did not continued action with any exceptional and pioneering manufactured goods line up to maintain the preliminary victory. Apple came out with iPod that plead to the not yet old age band international and also well thought-of its normal iTunes from where patrons could download songs for only an in name expense. This not only recognized Apple as the undoubted organizer in mobile music market but also helped Apple to set up the manufacturing set. This injured Sony’s trade name status. And made Sony suffer alike confronts from many brand names such as Samsung, Nokia, LG and others in diverse manufactured goods categories. Sony has faced a great decline in past few years just because it short of consumer oriented innovation. The decline of Sony in the past few years was also because of the Lack of brand evolution. Sony’s is well known for its past that surely made lager contribution for a huge amount of legacy, history and success into the brand identity. But it is not enough, for the brand, to be successful in the current particularly ready for action globalized market place but rather it has to make itself very appropriate to the in progress customer section. Getting repeatedly and tediously about back on past glory and looking towards the customers to still hold up the brand due to its past magnificence will be a severe mistake as has curved out in Sony’s case. The bigger mistake committed by Sony is that it has not been very triumphant in developing gradually and naturally as the product for the customers as the new masses having requirements according to the demand of the twenty first century. That is how Sony has handed over its reputation to Apple, Samsung and a few others, just because the brand has not been in with the times as it were and that led it to aside from its top position and let the others took over it. PART 2: Industry’s growth: The extra ordinary and natural growth in the consumer electronics industry over the past few years can chiefly be regarded as belonging to the condition requiring immediate action of a new fact or occurrence that appears called convergence, as the online magazine for digital imaging ´Let’s Go Digital` pointed out in this years March issue. Now because it is quite impossible for companies to really come up with new products wholly, anymore, they markets share of these companies are increased as they invent products by combining the separate features of the older products that were previously being used as the separate products only. The coming together and gradually blending of apart existing markets of digital-based audio, video and information technology, by doing so the barriers across the market are removed and industry boundaries are no more limited, thus providing a vast range of manufacturing. Due to this approach of convergence of technology, a greater demand is created from the customers requiring consumer devices that provide multiple functionalities. The involvement of great and often violent changes in the digital technology as well as the emergence of mobile telecommunications technology has a great influence in contributing in the increase of global sales of such consumer electronic industry. Projects, estimated beforehand, that there would be an increase in the sale and that in 2008 they will have increased by 65% over 2002. As a result of this, the biggest part of the market is taken up by the Asia Pacific region, very close together supported by Europe. Japanese companies like Sony have taken hold on the consumer electronics market. Sony is listed as the most popular brand, according to the current international survey, measuring the rank of the world’s most famous consumer electronics brands Innovation: Sony of Canada, has long been a predecessor of innovation as it is the only company that is chiefly providing the solutions for electronic and computer products for Canadian consumers and businesses. Swift product article of trade makes the consumer electronic and computer products market an area involved in great competition. It is a continuing challenge for the companies to find a desirable kind of way to get the right products at the right place at the right time for the right price. Sony of Canada put into effect SAP R/3 for its central and most important part of financial, complete list of goods management and sales commercial dispersion of components to provide better functionality, in 1997. Corporately, Sony had resolute to move to world wide supervision for ERP. As the market leader for ERP even then, SAP was acknowledged as the corporate direction, The traits of Sony brand are up to great extent, defined by the innovation. Sony’s capability to consistently creating products even before other companies could put them for concept or idea of business, and had led Sony grew to global jutting outcrop. Further, Sony had the capacity and power to regain consciousness about the uncover demands of consumer and bring into existence the whole product categories through its innovative products. When Sony introduced the Walkman into the market, previously there was no existing market for such easily movable music. An entire generation of products had been brought out by Sony, and has created a totally new category. That is how Sony had been differentiated from many other consumer electronic brands for over many years in past, just because of its innovative culture. External environment: The operations of firms are done within the business environment, whereas the business environment lies outside the firms. It is the external environment of the firms that is continuously changing. Some changes are so spectacular that everybody notices them, but there are also some changes that may move stealthily up on an industry over the years and are not being noticed for very long times. The changes get into many forms and put the firm into many challenges. For an industry as a whole, it may well be that, with the passage of time customers needs and requirements are changed hence the customer look for new, better and cheaper products. As the new technologies are becoming more and more popular, they may let many new firms to enter into the industry with innovations and different but better products. Also they enable the inexpensive ways of doing things. As the new technology is used now employees are required to up date their skills to take advantages of new technologies. Business operations require changes by times for which many new laws are passed. Such as introducing minimum salaries, limits in functioning hours and stronger health and safety necessities. Conventional starting places of provisions of raw material components commence to look less unswerving. New supply sources come forward. There are cases where banks and other shareholders start to lose attention in investing into the industry. Sometimes the pressure groups start to pay a larger attention in the industry's activities. The major change is that if the industry is no more able to pull towards new, high talented human resources. Competitive Pressures Exist within the Industry: For individual firms within an industry, the external business environment also includes their contestants, who may bring in new, better techniques of production. Or they change the habits in which they struggle for business. There is a chance to enlarge their target markets by competitors. Or they may find new habits of pulling towards the attraction of key employees. The firm or the industry can be tested as how well it responds to the important changes and produce well strategies according to them. Brief Statement of the Current & Future Strategic Issues: Recuperate Focus: Belongings of not linked diversions of several enterprises have been very well-defined for many Asian corporations that are owned by the families. It is often able to be justifying on the reason of level and extent cost-cutting measures, in working in a number of dissimilar businesses. But such diversification will be more disadvantageous than helpful, from a brand point of view. As doing Samsung, Sony also should carry out a suitable conscientiousness to appraise the monetary and product significance of its diverse trade components. It is beneficial for Sony to come out of such unrelated businesses before these business components wear down the evenhandedness of the central part of Sony brand. Retrieval of center of attention and endowing in development and expanding its center capabilities will be the first essential stride towards recapture of brand headship. Promote marketing to the boardroom: In order to promote marketing to the boardroom Sony should refurbish its branches that have a straight contact on generating physically powerful customer insight for the product, research & development, design, and marketing. Consumer first choice is to be reproduced in any innovation to make brand intelligence. Innovation has to show the way to products and services that would improve the affiliation between the product and the consumer. This largely depends on the strong and customer centric research & development, design and marketing. It can be said that, Sony needs to lift up the advertising purpose to the hall and allow marketing to take a guide of the trade and the approach. For now onwards, marketing and branding can now be downgraded to a strategic level griped by marketing managers who barely have a positive reception of the better representation. Brand oriented leadership: Sony has faced tough competitions through brands emerging from Asia in the last couple of years and after wards as many American brands had rose again, the market became really tough and competitive on extreme. Sony’s trail reverse to brand preeminence, in such a condition, can happen only if it is directed by a brand oriented leadership. It is the responsibility of CEO and the top management of Sony to assess the sense and individuality of the Sony brand to its customers in these varying eras and allow the brand squad to innovate and direct the businesses in which Sony functions in. Design, features and the cool factor: It becomes very significant for Sony to recoup the cool factor and grumble up its intentions and characteristics, customer leaning traits and the faithful subsequent of “cool” customers, as it has been seen that the violent policies of Apple, Nokia, Samsung and others along with their dominance in plan, have done. Significance to present customers and the aptitude to morph into a brand that can reproduce customer wants demonstrate very vital for Sony as it plans its pathway back to the top most position. Conclusion: In the long run, Sony, by systematically appraising its brand civilization and following the methods described above, could surely revive itself. This attempt prejudiced the clients on the whole category strategy, as well as its branding policy. Particularly, the company took a new move towards the overall placement of two dissimilar brands within the feminine care category. The consequence was a 5 percent pretax profit augment in 18 months, without any noteworthy scheme or managerial modifications. Read More