McFarlene Solutions - Strategies - Assignment Example

Question 1 The success of any organization is largely dependent on the manner the organization is able to develop strategies and processes through which the vision of the organization can be achieved. This requires that the vision and mission objectives of the organization is aligned in such a manner that it looks towards gradual transformation which is possible only if the process followed for strategy development is properly developed. This essay looks towards presenting the manner the different strategies were used in McFarlene Solutions and the manner in which the business looked towards developing the process through which strategy development for the future will become possible. This will thereby help to prepare employees for the future and ensure that the business is able to continue in its endeavor without any problems. McFarlene Solutions highlights an excellent case where the CEO Bill McFarlene looked towards developing strategies which fitted their business model. The strategies adopted by the company highlighted foresightedness as the CEO was able to understand the evolving market environment and based on it find out the future business propositions. This enabled McFarlene Solutions to be able to work in the same manner as the effect of the changing business environment was largely limited. This enabled McFarlene Solutions to change with the changing business environment and provided an opportunity through which the business was able to work in the correct direction (Chew, Cheng & Petrovic-Lazarevic. 2006). The most important aspect that McFarlene Solutions considered while looking towards developing strategies for the future was that the CEO was able to align the vision and mission statement. Identifying the resources and using them in a manner through which the business was able achieve its mission helped to ensure proper strategies according to the evolving business circumstances (Jay, 2010). The fact that the CEO was able to find out different opportunities and while looking to do so didn’t deviate from their core business ensured that the business was able to keep their core strengths and looked towards developing the entire business acumen around it. This helped the strategies to be better developed as it matched the changing business environment and enabled McFarlene Solutions to be able to deliver higher standards. In addition to it McFarlene Solutions also looked towards ensuring clarity and delivering performance which matched the brand image of the company. This helped the company to work in the direction and enabled to identify the best alternative which will help to multiply the value of the strategies which were used by the organization. The only loophole which was prevalent in the strategy development of McFarlene Solutions was that the involvement of people from the entire department was limited. This was the problem which McFarlene Solutions will have to encounter when their CEO retires as the lack of experience and process in this direction will have an impact on the future potential of McFarlene Solutions. The fact that Bill looked towards taking all decisions by himself resulted in lack of succession planning due to which the company was finding it difficult to find a successor who would be able to lead the company in the absence of Bill. This was an area of concern as the present strategies are providing large benefits to the company but the future potential of the company in the same arena is doubtful as the lack of knowledge and expertise will hamper the future prospect and will provide the competitors and opportunity through which they will be able to move ahead. To deal with the issues McFarlene Solutions has appointed the services of a specialized person who looks towards facilitating the process through which strategies can be developed within the organization. This will help to bring widespread changes and will look towards ensuring that the business is able to find out the process through which the business will be able to develop ways to develop strategies in the future (Edwards and Wright, 2000). McFarlene Solutions as a result has undergone transformation and has developed a process where they have looked towards making different groups within the organization. Care has been taken while making groups as the organization has ensured that each group has representation of people from technical and business field which will help to analyze the actual business condition and will help to come with better solutions. This will also make each member to think differently and come with different ideas which can be discussed within the organization and based on it the best strategy which all the members think to be the most benefical for the company can be picked. This process of strategy development will be beneficial for McFarlene Solutions as it will look towards the involvement of people from the organization. This will ensure that the employees are able to associate with the company and based on it frame better policies and rules which will help to brighten the long term future. Since, this process involves brainstorming it will ensure that the employees discuss different issues at length and based on it come up with the best alternatives. This will help in the evaluation of different alternatives which might not have been possible if a single member would have taken decisions and will reduce the changes of the strategies failing as the entire issues will be discussed from different angles (Franco, 2009). This will help McFarlene Solutions to ensure that the strategy development is better and looks towards encountering the different prospect and changing business environment. In addition to it McFarlene Solutions will be able to ensure that they don’t have to look towards finding people for the job of strategist in the future as they have a pool of talented people who will be able to perform the relevant duties (Ashton & Sung, 2002). This will help to reduce the risk for McFarlene Solutions which they are encountering at the present moment when Bill is retiring. This will also ensure that McFarlene Solutions develops a pool of people who can take different responsibility within the organization and can facilitate the overall growth and potential of the organization for the future. The process of strategy development will fit the requirements of McFarlene Solutions as it will help to bring out the talent which the employees have and is unknown at the present moment. This will thereby facilitate in the process of developing the required training program through which the organization is able to find better mechanism through the employees will be able to justify their roles and position and ensure that they are able to contribute positively towards the goal of the organization. This will help in the long term prospect of the organization and will help to transform the manner in which the organization is working and ensure better use of the resources in the future as the hidden talent of the employees will be identified and will help to improve the long term prospect of the business. McFarlene Solutions has been able to grow from the strategy which has been formulated by their CEO but will require development of a process through which strategy development takes place. The present strategy of brainstorming by involving the different members will ensure that the process is developed effectively and will ensure that McFarlene Solutions is able to develop sounder policies for the future. This will thereby ensure that McFarlene Solutions is able to deliver performances on the same standards and will be in a place where they are able to develop talent for the future which will enable the business to be able to grow and ensure that the strategy developed by the business fits the business model. This will help McFarlene Solutions over a long period of time and will help to maintain efficiency in the manner the resources are used and strategies are formulated within the organization. Question 2 Organizations looking towards developing new processes and strategies have to look towards building positive relationship within and outside the organization. The importance of relationship increases when organization takes the help of specialist who will guide them in the process of developing new strategies. This requires that every help is provided to the specialist and a mechanism is developed through which the specialist and the management is able to work together so that better alternatives can be developed and based on it the best one can be selected. The essay presents the case of McFarlene Solutions highlighted the manner in which the organization wasn’t able to develop the required relationship between Jane the specialist who had been hired to develop a mechanism through which strategies are formulated and Bill the CEO of McFarlene Solutions. This resulted in the entire process of developing a process through which strategies are formulated was wasted as the lack of relationship resulted in the entire process to be wasted. The consultant-client relationship in McFarlene Solutions wasn’t up to the required standards and the attitude of Bill was very cold towards the consultant i.e. Jane. This resulted in the entire process which was developed was Jane through which McFarlene Solutions will be able to find out future talent and develop a process for strategy formulation failed. The lack of positive relationship between consultant-client is very similar to the lack of relationship that existed between the employees and the management. The fact that the management didn’t look towards accepting the advice of his employees and were hardly heard was reflected in the relationship between Jane and Bill. The relationship clearly depicts that Bill considers himself superior compared to other and doesn’t want others to hold the same reputation within the organization as he has. This has resulted in the lack of involvement of employees in the decision making process. The fact that Bill wants people both within and outside the organization speak about him and his contribution and doesn’t want any one else to gain the same position has resulted in such an attitude which is self centered (Ackers, 2002). This had affected the entire process and had made it difficult for the organization to develop a positive relationship through which the long term benefit of the organization can be gauged. It is important that McFarlene Solutions understands the importance of building positive relationship between the consultant and client as the entire efforts of the consultant will otherwise go waste. This will also have an impact on the resources of McFarlene Solutions as the company had invested in hiring the services of the consultant which will be wasted. This will result in the company paying the consultant without having any benefits from his services. In addition to it McFarlene Solutions will also find that the time and efforts of their other resources like managers and employees are wasted (Beardwell & Holden, 1994). This might also create a situation where the employees might feel that their contribution won’t be recognized and might reduce their efforts and contribution towards the goal of the organization. This might also make the employees and other consider that their views were inappropriate and might thereby result in affecting the manner in which they work towards working for the organization. McFarlene Solutions instead will have to look towards passing on the baton to the consultant and should look towards developing a positive relationship with the consultant. This will require that the consultant is provided with both authority and responsibility so that they act in a manner they consider the best for the organization. This will enable the consultant to use different methods and process on a trial and error basis and based on it the best possible one can be selected. This was the same which was seen in McFarlene Solutions as the consultant Jane looked towards using different process through which strategy development process could be developed and would help the organization to find out the required talent for the future. The consultant was nearly through in the process but the clod attitude of Bill towards Jane resulted in the entire process to be wasted. The approach that the consultant took in the process of strategy development was appropriate as it looked towards removing the gap which existed between the management and employees. Further the approach of the consultant has developed a process where they have looked towards making different groups within the organization. Care has been taken while making groups as the organization has ensured that each group has representation of people from technical and business field which will help to analyze the actual business condition and will help to come with better solutions (McGraw, 2004). This will also make each member to think differently and come with different ideas which can be discussed within the organization and based on it the best strategy which all the members think to be the most beneficial for the company can be picked. This process of strategy development will be beneficial for McFarlene Solutions as it will look towards the involvement of people from the organization. This will ensure that the employees are able to associate with the company and based on it frame better policies and rules which will help to brighten the long term future. Since, this process involves brainstorming it will ensure that the employees discuss different issues at length and based on it come up with the best alternatives (Clunies, 2007). This will help in the evaluation of different alternatives which might not have been possible if a single member would have taken decisions and will reduce the changes of the strategies failing as the entire issues will be discussed from different angles. This will help McFarlene Solutions to ensure that the strategy development is better and looks towards encountering the different prospect and changing business environment (Ryan & Schmit, 2003) This was matched by the fact that the consultant also looked towards involving both the management and the employees together so that they were able to function as a unit. This was the prime reason that the consultant looked towards ensuring that the entire result was present before Bill the CEO. The entire process could have fetched positive result for the organization but the lack of relationship between the client and the consultant affected the entire process and resulted in the gap to persist which thereby had an effect on the manner the organization looks towards working (Clegg, 2005). The essay thereby highlights the importance of client-consultant relationship which was lacking in McFarlene Solutions which affected the entire process of developing the process through which strategy formulation in the future was wasted. This makes it important that the organization understands the importance of building positive relationship every where in the organization i.e. within and outside the organization which will help to ensure that the goals are better achieved. McFarlene Solutions has to look towards understanding the manner in which the business environment is changing and the manner it will further change. This will require that the organization has in place different strategies which will help them and requires a change in their process of doing thing. This will thereby require that McFarlene Solutions looks towards developing relationship so that they are able to build positive relationship and based on it develop strategies which will help the organization over a longer period of time and help to increase the chances of success in the future. References Ackers, P 2002. Reframing Employment Relations: the Case for Neo-Pluralism. Industrial Relations Journal, 33 (1), 2-19 Ashton, D. and Sung, J. 2002. Supporting Workplace Learning for High Performance Working, Geneva: International Labour Office. Beardwell, I. & Holden, L. 1994. Human Resource Management: A Contemporary Perspective, Pitman, London. Clegg, H. 2005. Pluralism and Industrial Relations. British Journal of Industrial Relations, 13 (3), 309-16 Chew, M.M.M., Cheng, J.S.L. & S. Petrovic-Lazarevic. 2006. Managers’ Role in Implementing Organizational Change, Journal of Global Business and Technology, 2 (1), 23-29 Clunies, J. 2007. Benchmarking succession planning and executive development. Academic & Leadership Journal, 2 (4), 23-27 Edwards, P. and Wright, M. 2000. High Involvement Work Systems and Performance Outcomes’, The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 12:4, pp. 568-585. Franco, G. 2009. Training and development in an era of change management. Journal of Management Research, 9 (1), pp. 37 Jay, J. 2010. Lead & Motivate: not just your team but yourself too in case of change management. Super Vision, 71 (6), pp.11 McGraw, P. 2004. Influences of HRM practices in MNC’s. International Journal of Manpower, 25 (6), 535-546 Ryan, A. & Schmit, M. 2003. Assessing organizational fit in employee selection. Paper presented at the 8th Annual Conference of the Society for Industrial & Organizational Psychology, San Francisco, CA Read More