Strategic Direction and Policies of the Firm - Essay Example

ATTAINING BUSINESS EXCELLENCE AFFILIATION: Commitment to excellence and continuously improving business practices The world that we are residing in is the world of global era. All organisations are striving towards becoming a global organisation (Worthington & Britton 2003). Quality needs to be reflected in all the business working procedures so that successful business results can be achieved. Attaining a level of commitment to excellence and continually improving business practices has been a new trend in the management philosophy and is important to be considered by all the organisations for surviving in this world of such cut throat competition (Bowen & Wiersama 2005). The concept of total quality management is implemented in organisations so that a sheer level of business performance is obtained and also the culture of the business is constantly improved. If customers are not satisfied with the product or service quality then they may have a negative image of the organisation and this may cause the organisation to face heavy consequences. Quality should be considered as success by organisations and should be given an optimum level of importance. Essential standards need to be set so that excellent and outstanding performance can be achieved (Kanji 2002). If high quality trainings are provided to organisations then this will be reflected in the results and outcomes. This may enhance the quality level of work delivered by the employees. All the alliances and networks of the organisation should be strategically used for success. Trainings being provided to employees also tend to be costly for the firm because employees are at par of leaving the organisation at any point of time and they may utilize their learning from the training process in some other competitor firm. So providing quality trainings on the counter side may prove to be costly for the firm as well. Strategic direction and policies of the firm allow the organisation to be in a phase of constant commitment of excellence for the firm. If employees are unclear about the goals and the direction of the organisation then they may not perform up to the required level and this would result in unsatisfied customers (Shari 2007). In the midst of competition, continuous improvements and innovations need to be implemented in the organisation so that they can remain competitive (Fiona et al 2001). Team work and managing workplace culture are important continuous improvements for organisations to focus. Investing in providing influential leadership and quality marketing activities has shown that it develops the workforce and accordingly evidence based reviews may be obtained for the services provided by the organisation (Lansiluoto & Eklund 2008). Managing performance and motivating the human resources in the organisation are other factors for organisation success (Bates et al 2003). Employees that are not qualified have proved to be a major cost for the organisations especially in the service industry because they are unable to satisfy the customers. Motivated employees may have their own goals as well but they need to be controlled by the management so that their motivation level remains in alignment with the interest of the firm. For achieving excellent business practices all management departments need to be constantly reviewed and improved and be resourced with all the latest technologies so that all work processed take place efficiently and effectively. With the implement of advanced technology the products and services can be categorized of a more qualitative element and it can be distinguished from competitive products. The framework for the model that has been created by the The European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) is now known as the Business Excellence Model. This Business Excellence Model is mainly used for the purpose of assessing and evaluating the business practices and furthermore quality standards are managed and maintained (Jha 2005). The business excellence model has basically five elements on which they have their main focus and those are the leadership qualities of the firm, the people, the policy and strategy of the firm, the partnership and resources elements, and the way the processes are being carried out in the organisation. All these elements when are operating at their optimum level provide quality results (Jha 2005). This model has a major focus towards the level of quality delivered by the organisation. Hospitality related industries have focused on a proper department of TQM so that they can avoid any difficulties. It has been observed that unsatisfied customers tend to discuss this more in their gatherings and this affects the image of the organisation. If customers are satisfied with the organisation then the organisation needs to work constantly for maintaining their position as the expectation level then increases and innovation becomes the priority for organisations furthermore. At times by implementing many of the business excellence elements does not provide the desired results because the firm may not be taking the right direction or may not be implementing the elements as required. Such as the leadership may be present but not be influential enough to control and command the employees (Shari and Seddon 2007). Businesses need to formulate strategies according to the market changes that are taking place so that they can remain competitive and should not be creating problems or increase the costs for the business. They for example can implement the balance scorecard strategy in their business and monitor and evaluate the performance level accordingly (Cobbold et al 2004). It is highly essential for both products oriented and service oriented organisations to be able to implement continuous innovation and strategies in their business processes because the ultimate goal of every organisation is to focus on customer satisfaction and provide their services according to the demand of the customers (Buonocore 2004). Implementation of benchmark practices tend to provide successful results for firms (Lansiluoto & Eklund 2008). Benchmarking practices are always good to implement if the organisation is of the same nature and is facing the same situation so that the benchmarking practice can be implemented else it may not work well if the organization is not facing the same situation. Knowledge management is also one of the recent trends and also strongly reflects upon the level of quality performance. The above mentioned strategies and the business excellence model can allow the organisations to be committed in providing excellent services and also can focus on having continuous improvements in the way they conduct their business practices in the business environment. For being successful it is extremely important for organisations to focus on the element of quality in their organisation and cope up with change, as being up to date will allow the organisations to be taking the path of becoming market leaders. References Bates, K., Bates, H., and Johnston, R.; (2003) “Linking service to profit: the business case for service excellence”; International Journal of Service Industry Management; Vol. 14, No. 2, pp173-183. Bowen, H.P. & Wiersema, M.F (2005). “Foreign-based Competition and Corporate Diversification Strategy”. Strategic Management Journal, 26: 1153–1171. Buonocore D. (2004) ‘Creating a change in practice’. Leadership in Action.15, (2), p.170-181. Cobbold,I., Lawrie, G., Issa, K. (2004) “Designing a strategic management system using the thirdgeneration balanced scorecard: A case study;” International Journal of Productivity & Performance Management, Vol. 53 Issue 7, p624-633. Fiona, Nah Fui-Hoon Janet, Lau Lee Shang & Jinghua, Kuang (2001). “Critical Factors for Successful Implementation of Enterprise Systems.” Business Process Management Journal, Vol. 7 No. 3, pp. 285-296. Jha, Vidhu Shekhar, Ph.D. (Doctoral) Research Thesis, (2005), Study of Business Excellence Models (TQM) Implementation Strategies and Impact on Human Resources in Select Indian Companies, Department of Studies in Business Administration, August 2005, Mangalore University, Karnataka, India. Kanji, Gopal, K. (2002). “Business Excellence: Make it Happen.” Total Quality Management, Vol. 13, No. 8, pp. 1115-1124. Lansiluoto, A. & Eklund, T. (2008). On the Suitability of the Self-Organizing Map for Analysis of the Macro and Firm Level Competitive Environment. Benchmarking: An International Journal. Vol. 15, No. 4, p. 402-419. Shari, Shang and Seddon, Peter B. (2007) Managing Process Deficiencies with Enterprise Systems, Business Process Management Journal, Vol 13, No. 3, pp. 405-416. Worthington, I. & Britton, C. (2003). The Business Environment. Fourth Edition, Pearson Education Limited, England. Read More