Week 27 Journal

Week 27

1)       In your own words and using referenced quotes explain why strategy theories developed in the last 10 years tend to be quite different from those developed in the 1960’s.

2)      You attend a job interview for an entry level managerial position and mention that you completed a 30 week strategy module. Your interviewer seems interested and explains that this job role would enable you to become involved in the strategy making process. In 200 to 300 words explain to your interviewer how the module has helped to prepare you for a strategy role.

Answers

1)      Originating in the business community in the 1960s, strategic planning attempts to combine short-term and long-term planning. Organizations conducting strategic planning typically commit themselves to a formal process in which a group of "planners" articulates a mission statement, sets goals and objectives, audits the organization for internal strengths and weaknesses, assesses the external environment for opportunities and threats, evaluates strategic options, and then selects and operationalise an organizational strategy. The basic aim of strategic planning is to link daily organizational decisions with a vision of where the organization wants to be at some point in the future, usually five years hence. Back then, many organizations used to follow the same strategy and often the result is positive but not incremental.

The time change, people adapt the change and they change the process. Strategic theories look more complex at present.  Due to the stiff competition in the business, strategy theories are developing day by day.

Differences between the strategy theories developed in the last 10 years and 1960’s can be done through strategy theory responses:

1)      Complexity Theory:

If we look after recent strategies, it has been found that nothing is predictable. Flexibility has been seen as the major determinant for adapting to the change. The best example can be emergent strategy as every company is following this strategy. On the other hand, deliberate strategy takes so much time for implementation that the whole scenario might change at that moment.

2)       Rapid Adaptation:

From the last ten years new technologies have been developed and customer’s wants are also increasing day by day. It is wise to say that competitive advantage in today’s date cannot be achieved through a unique resources or positioning strategy. Today business organization are changing their strategy as per the change in the market it is very hard to use traditional tools such as SWOT analysis because it is difficult to analyze the changing market. 

3)      Options Theory: In the theory of porter’s five forces model the main source for competition was competitive rivalry depending upon the bargaining power of buyers and suppliers, the threat of entrants, and availability of substitute goods. Now today the concept has been changed. It is said that competition comes from flexibility. The market is changing unexpectedly. So opening up the door of flexibility for any time can be a biggest competitive advantage for any organization.

2)      This module “Strategy Choices and Impact” has taught many things about strategy, its procedure, theories and implementation and adaptation. Strategy becomes more complex within the past 10 years time period. Today the meaning of strategy has changed. So, strategy today is creating environment, rather than a series of procedures, where the companies find themselves in a flexible position. This module has covered all the basics and complex aspects of the strategy.  Use of different analytical tools like Porter’s Five Forces Model, 7s Model, PESTEL Analysis, SWOT ,TOWS Analysis, Ansoff Matrix makes this module more useful for students. This module is more about practical knowledge than the theoretical, lots of research and study over the internet as well as from the text books are needed to be done. This module helps to understand the nature and understanding of business and the strategies to tackle with the problems. This module provides the clear understanding about the risk-taking, management of strategic innovation processes, strategy formation and implementation, behavioral understandings of competition, global strategy and entrepreneurial strategy. The module also embraces a wide variety of methodological approaches that are important for strategic outcomes.

With case study and report included, this module aims to give the real understanding about the organizational situation or problems and strategy to cope with it.

Reference

·         Online available from http://hepg.org/her/abstract/310  [Accessed May26, 2013]

·         Clarke, C. J. (1997) ‘The Strategic Planning Society – The First 30 Years’ Long Range Planning 30(3) pp 327-333

Week 23 Journal

Week 23

1)      In your own words and using referenced quotes describe what is meant by the term “strategic leadership”.

2)      Identify two interesting similarities and two differences between the 5 Elements of Successful and Effective Strategic Leadership model and the Transcendent Leadership model.

Answers

1)       Strategic leadership refers to a manager’s potential to express a strategic vision for the organization, or a part of the organization, and to motivate and persuade others to acquire that vision. According to the Professor Richard Lynch, “Strategic leadership is the ability to shape the organization’s decisions and deliver high value over time, not only personally but also by inspiring and managing others in the organization”.

The main objective of strategic leadership is strategic productivity. Another aim of strategic leadership is to develop an environment in which employees forecast the organization’s needs in context of their own job. Strategic leaders encourage the employees in an organization to follow their own ideas. Strategic leaders make greater use of reward and incentive system for encouraging productive and quality employees to show much better performance for their organization. Functional strategic leadership is about inventiveness, perception, and planning to assist an individual in realizing his objectives and goals.  The strategic leadership requires skills and talent that goes beyond the normal thinking. Some essential skills can be pointed as:

a)      Anticipate

b)      Challenge

c)      Interpret

d)     Decide

e)      Align

f)       Learn

Holistic Theories of Strategic Leadership

a)           Five elements of successful and effective strategic leadership model

b)        Transcendent Leadership Model

Five elements of successful and effective strategic leadership model have been developed by Lynch in order to describe strategic leadership. Followings are the five elements of successful and effective leadership model:

a)       Developing and communicating the organizations’ purpose

b)      Sustaining Competitive Advantage over time

c)      Managing human resources & organizational decisions

d)      Setting ethical standards

e)       Defining and delivering to Stakeholders.

                                     Lynch, R., (2009) Strategic Management, 5th Edition, Prentice Hall, chapter 16, pp619

Strategic Leadership: Transcendent Leadership

a)       Leadership of Organization

b)       Leadership of Others

c)       Leadership of Self

 

Crossan, M., Vera, D and Nanjad, L. (2008) Transcendent Leadership: strategic leadership in dynamic environments, The Leadership Quarterly,

2)      The differences between the 5 Elements of Successful and Effective Strategic Leadership model and the Transcendent Leadership are mentioned in below table:

Elements of Successful and Effective Strategic   Leadership	Transcendent Leadership
1)    Lynch model is more flexible model as it focuses on the development of key skills of employees and emphasized in good relationship between employers.	1)   In other hand transcendent model is more    focused with the rules, procedure and structure of organization.
2)    Lynch model of strategic leadership believes that with a good relationship with both the internal and external stakeholders, organization may be able to adapt to change in a complex situation.	2)    Transcendent leadership model has not mentioned such relationship with stakeholders.

Similarities

Both leadership strategies serve for a common goal that is developing and maintaining the good relationship between the staffs and employees. These models believe that organizational goals can be achieved only with the cooperation in between leaders and followers. Leaders are the idol for its followers or employees. They need to motivate their follower with reward and incentives. Leaders have the responsibility to develop skills of their followers or employees.

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References:

   Lynch, R., (2009) Strategic Management, 5th Edition, Prentice Hall, chapter 16.

·         Online available from http://hbr.org/2013/01/strategic-leadership-the-esssential-skills/ar/1  . [Accessed May 21, 2013]

          Chemers, M. M. (2000). Leadership research and theory: A functional integration. Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, and Practice, 4, 27-43. doi:10.1037/1089-2699.4.1.27.

Week 21 Journal

Week 21

1)         What are the benefits and drawbacks of taking an “emergent” approach to strategy making?

2)       Did Honda’s entry strategy demonstrate the characteristics of “logical incrementalism‟?

Answers

1)      An emergent strategy is a pattern of action that develops over time in an organization in the absence of a specific mission and goals, or despite a mission and goals. Emergent strategy is sometimes called realized strategy. An emergent strategy differs from an intended strategy, intended strategy are develops with a specific visions to achieve the specific goal and targets of organization.

Emergent strategy implies that an organization is learning what works in practice. Mixing the deliberate and the emergent strategies in some way will help the organization to control its course while encouraging the learning process.

Advantages of Emergent strategy

a)      Unexpected benefits: Emergent strategy can be designed to address problems, but it can also be used to capitalize on unexpected marketing benefits. One of the advantages of latching on to an emergent strategy is that it could be something that your company has discovered before the competition does.

b)      Product development: Emergent strategy is critical in the advancement of the technology being offered in the marketplace. When companies refine and develop their products, they look for new features to offer that allow their products to stand out from the competition. The company attempts to employ emergent strategy to capture product developments that could help it become a technological leader in its industry.

Disadvantages

a)      Tangents: Emergent strategy is something that a company should keep an eye on, but the original strategic plan is what should be used as a blueprint for success. If a company continually focuses on emergent strategy to try to capture that one idea that could create success, elements of the strategic plan can go off course and create an entirely new set of problems that the company did not count on. Emergent strategy should be analyzed and carefully assimilated into strategic planning. Trying to force emergent strategy to occur normally results in a new string of problems that may not lead to significant business benefits.

b)      Bad Planning: Emergent strategy does not happen by accident. A corporate strategic plan should allow for the emergence of potential benefits that were never anticipated. When those benefits are discovered, an emergent strategy is in place to analyze them and see if the benefits should be explored further. To use emergent strategy properly, there needs to be a strong strategic plan in place with a focused goal and accountability for results. Emergent strategy can sometimes be misinterpreted as a lack of structure. The disadvantage to emergent strategy is the inability of some companies to plan properly for it and the damage it can do to the organizational structure.

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2)      With studying all the case study we can easily say that Honda’s entry strategy demonstrate the characteristics of logical incrementalism. Logical incrementalism is a management philosophy which states that strategies do not come into existence based on a one time decision but rather, it exists through making small decision that is evaluated periodically. These small decision are not made randomly but logically through experiment and learning.

In the case of Honda, they learn from every failure strategy. Every time it failed it goes for another strategy again and again and finally that experience helps them to grow in the market.

At the very beginning stage of business in U.S, the people there used to believe the motorcycles are for bad guy or rowdies, so in order to remove the misconception Honda introduced “You Meet the Nicest People on a Honda" slogan. Further, they knew that Motorcycle business was seasonal in U.S and after knowing this some Honda’s motorcycles began to sell but after some month’s complaint were coming about the machines. They again ran test and redesign the machine. In such a way Honda continuously scanned the US motorcycle environment and it was successful in adapting with changes.

For 5 years Honda struggled a lot to get in U.S. markets.  As it turns out, even Honda's larger bikes were not robust enough for American riders and they started having engine failures. While waiting for the engineers to upgrade the design, the staff in the U.S. continued to hit the streets. They rode around doing errands in Los Angeles on Honda's small lightweight bike, the 50cc Super Cub. The success of the Super Cubs eventually translated into success with larger bikes, and Honda went from no presence at all in the U.S. market in 1959 to 63% of the market.

The conclusions from the successes of Honda and Grace Manufacturing are to have humility about what you don't know about an unfamiliar market, to not over-plan and to stay adaptable to emerging information and circumstances. This doesn't mean being wishy-washy or directionless. Your objectives must be clear, but the shape in which success takes shape within them may be quite unexpected.

References:

     Abrahamson, Eric (1996) ‘Management fashion’,Academy of Management Review 21.1: 254-285.

     Abbeglen, James C. and George Stalk Jr. (1985) Kaisha, The Japanese Corporation. New York: Basic Books.

       Lessons from Honda's Early Adaptive Strategy, 2011, Available from 
<http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/02/lessons_from_hondas_early_adap.html>

Week 18 Journal

Week 18

1)      How can using the Change Kaleidoscope and Force-field analysis help an organization to deliver its intended strategy?

2)      Add your Change Kaleidoscope diagram for Hewlett Packard (Exercise 1 – slide 21) to your Learning Journal.

Answers

1)      Change Kaleidoscope

A change kaleidoscope is a diagnostic structure that aims at monitoring and seeing through a change process that is situation sensitive. The particular function of a change kaleidoscope makes it bear immense importance in the organizations management process. Change kaleidoscope was developed by Hope Hailey & Balogun in order to consider different factors and implementation options that need consideration during change. The change kaleidoscope has an exterior ring composed of organizations strategic context, a central ring that encompasses the change context and an interior ring that has the design choices at disposal.  Using change kaleidoscope organization can constantly monitors and examines the change under implementation.

Change kaleidoscope (Change Mixture)

Source: Adapted from J. Balogun and V. Hope Hailey, Exploring Strategic Change, Prentice Hall, 2009

The contextual features shown in the box have their own meaning and importance in making the strategy. These contextual features can be defined as:

1)      Time: This is the time that an organization has to achieve change. Organizations in crisis have little time, and they need to change reactively.

2)      Scope: The scope is the degree of change required in terms of realignment or transformation. It is also necessary to consider how much of the organization is affected. Is the change restricted to a particular division or department, or is it organization wide?

3)      Preservation: Preservation relates to the extent to which it is necessary to maintain certain ways of working and certain aspects of culture retain particular groups of staff, preserve specific organizational competencies.

4)      Diversity: This is the degree of diversity among the staff groups who need to undertake change. Divisions and departments, for example sales and R&D, may have different subcultures. Divisional cultures may also be affected by national cultures.

5)      Capability : There are three levels of capability :

i)                     Individual: the abilities of individuals to cope with the transition that they will have to undertake.

ii)                   Managerial: the ability of managers to help their staff through the transition process.

iii)                Organizational: the existence of organizational resources with the knowledge and ability to manage change required.

6)      Capacity: This relates to the resources that are available for investment in the proposed change.

7)      Readiness: This is the extent to which staff is aware of the need for change and committed to making the personal changes required of them.

8)      Power: This is the amount of power, or autonomy, that the key change agents have to implement change as they wish.

Force Field Analysis

Force Field Analysis is a general tool for systematically analyzing the factors found in complex problems. It frames problems in terms of factors or pressures that support the status quo (restraining forces) and those pressures that support change in the desired direction (driving forces). A factor can be people, resources, attitudes, traditions, regulations, values, needs, desires, etc. As a tool for managing change, Force Field Analysis helps identify those factors that must be addressed and monitored if change is to be successful. Force field analysis focuses on the certain procedure which helps to deliver the intended strategy to any organization. The procedures are as follows:

Step 1 Defining the Problem

What is the nature of our current situation that is unacceptable and needs modification? It is useful to separate the specific problem from those things that are working well.

Step 2 Defining the Change Objective

What is the desired situation that would be worth working toward? Be as specific as possible.

Step 3 Identifying the Driving Forces

What are the factors or pressures that support change in the desired direction? What are the relative strengths of these forces? Place these driving forces on the chart on the Force Field Analysis diagram as labeled arrows with the length of the arrow reflecting the relative strength of each force.

Step 4 Identifying the Restraining Forces

What are the factors or pressures that resist the proposed change and maintain the status quo? Represent these forces on the diagram as you did those for the driving forces. What are the inter-relationships among the restraining forces?

Step 5 Developing the Comprehensive Change Strategy

The Status Quo figure is shown below.

2)       Change Kaleidoscope diagram for Hewlett Packard

References

• Chris, R. (2009), 'Working with Emergent Change in Organizations’, available at: http://www.oikos-uk.com/docs_influences/Emergent%20Change%20print.pdf (accessed 20 November 2009)

·         J. Balogun and V. Hope Hailey, Exploring Strategic Change, 3rd edition, Prentice Hall, 2009

• Hayes, J. (2002), The Theory and Practice of Change Management, Palgrave, New York, N.Y.
• Hughes, M. (2006), Change Management: A critical perspective, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, London

·         Online available from http://www.tutor2u.net/business/strategy/change-management-force-field-analysis.html/ [Accessed May1 6, 2013]