Week 3
The video demonstrated a basic conception for the word “strategy”. The word strategy in most cases has been confused with the objectives or goals of an organization. Strategy as described in the lesson is not the objective the organizations set in order to gain the desired result (Davies, 2010). Strategy is actually the tactics the organizations use in order to achieve the goals and objectives. For instance, if an organization is looking forward to enhance the amount of sales of their products in order to generate more revenue, it cannot be called a strategy. For, it is clearly just an objective that the company has set to accomplish for a successful business endeavor. Here, the strategy would be the alterations that the organization makes in their activities in order to achieve the objective. The alterations here refer to the tactics that the organization would implement in the business process in order to achieve their business goals (Frühling, 2009). In addition, learning the strategy of an organization provides an insight upon the activities that an organization does not incorporate. This would help rival companies to capitalize the market by bringing in those products and services in their operations which their competitive company is not providing. This could be the strategy of the rival company.
An example of the e-commerce company and an understanding of strategy have been presented in order to understand the concept better. The e-commerce company e-bay faces a stiff competition from its rival Amazon. To begin with it is first required to understand the strategy Amazon employs in its product distribution process (Henry, 2015). The reason behind Amazon’s successful business is the unique interdependency the company has created between itself and its suppliers. This interdependency allows Amazon to make sale and distribute its products at the most affordable prices and low shipping costs. Analyzing their rivals strategies e-bay would realize that when it comes to provide better discounts to its users upon multiple purchases Amazon simply is unable to provide so. Therefore, is e-bay is capable of creating an interdependency among its suppliers and distributers the company would be able to gain an upper hand against its rival.
Week 4
Innovation has become a leading factor for the success and survivability chances of businesses. This can be a challenge for the businesses if the concept of innovation is not understood properly (Andries and Debackere, 2013). The word innovation does not always mean that a company is required to come up with unique ideas for their product and service designs. Innovation can result from a simple recombination of ideas from other industries as well. It is not always possible for the companies to come with unique product ideas furthermore; it is not guaranteed that the product resulting from that unique idea is going to be appreciated by the customers (Bucherer, Eisert and Gassmann, 2012). Therefore, companies in regards to innovation are required to keep in mind the following for steps:
• Initiation: involves identifying the business model and targeting the customers.
• Ideation: involves analyzing 55 model business patterns and then develop new patterns.
• Integration: involves determining the consistency of the pattern.
• Implementation: involves the launch of the pattern in the market.
The above mentioned are the four key steps that the organizations should follow while coming up with innovative ideas. This would greatly help the businesses as they would be able to understand and analyze the market in a better way and design products that would compatible and appreciated by their customers (Four-Closure: How Amazon, Apple, Facebook & Google Are Driving Business Model Innovation, 2012).
The cell phone manufacturing company Nokia was a very popular brand name since the inception of mobile communication devices. However, with the passage of time and due to some rather inefficient and unpopular innovations the company lost its competitive edge in the market, which soon was capitalized by its rivals like Samsung, Sony Xperia, and Motorola etc. the reason behind Nokia’s downfall was the constant emphasis the company laid in creating unique devices that its products lost popularity among its customers (Lindgren, 2012). The company requires changing its innovative tactics and following the innovating trends of the other companies. Nokia should follow the market trend and identify the objects which they could innovate and recombine to create something unique that would be appreciated by their customers. This would help the company in their process of innovation of their products from time to time, and also create products that would help them regain their popularity.
Week 5
The CAGE framework has developed in order to analyze the possibility of business opportunity across the international borders. The acronym CAGE stands for:
• C: stands for cultural similarities or dissimilarities.
• A: stands for administrative and political similarities or dissimilarities.
• G: stands for geographic similarities or dissimilarities.
• E: stands for economic similarities or dissimilarities.
It has been watched that any kind of connection between individuals of two nations significantly rely on the elements that emerge from the aforementioned angles (96/01777 Informing leaders and recognizing specialty open doors for windpower. Use of multiattribute trade off analysis to evaluate non-dispatch, 2006). It has been established that the more similarities that one country bears with another one the more open and involved the interaction between the two countries become. This is similar in case of businesses as well. Organizations looking forward to establishing business centers in overseas locations would greatly benefit from this concept. This is because of the way that amid its usage the idea of CAGE was executed in breaking down the exchange relations between different nations. The end results denoted that the more similarities each of the countries had with each other the more amount of success they were able to gain from the trade operations.
Being a typical US based company Coca Cola would greatly benefit from this concept. The brand Coca Cola is well reputed for its programs to establish business operations overseas in order to capitalize overseas markets. Therefore, analyzing the similarities and the dissimilarities between the nation to which the company belongs to the nation it is looking forward to establish its new international trade operations would help greatly to transform the business endeavor into a successful one (Reardon, 2005). For, the more the similarities the nations have between them, the more success it will be able to reap out of the business endeavor.
Analysis on week 3’s lesson
Analyzing the week 3’s module it has been gathered that the objectives and goals which most of the companies set in the operations portfolio are often misunderstood as the strategy of the company. It was elaborated in the module that the objectives and goals implemented by the company in its operations are actually different than the strategies. Now, the question arises as to what exactly are strategies? To answer this question it is essentially required to understand a few key concepts which are not exactly strategies.
In most of the cases it has been observed that the transformation that a company undergoes by means of altering a process method is considered to be a strategy (Meyer and Estrin, 2014). For instance, if a company is altering its orientation from product supplying towards product servicing, it definitely does not demonstrate the change of strategy with a new strategy. It simply demonstrates that the company has adopted a strategic thread in their business process.
The strategy that businesses employ largely relates to the tactics that the companies implement in achieving their goals and set objectives. This is apparent as the term strategy means actually tactics, and tactics are means of achieving goals. Therefore, it can be assumed that the alteration that the company incorporated in the illustration above was simply a strategic thread which further required implementation of strategy in order to create a new brand reputation for the company.
A good strategy provides the company with a clear conception of:
• The market it is competing in: include analysis of industry market, product market and geographic market.
• The unique value the company is bringing in: includes Customer analysis, cost and differentiation analysis (Oliver, 2012).
• Resources and capabilities: helps the company understand its potential and the extent to which it can perform.
• Sustenance: analyzing ways to sustain a successful business.
These are the four key conceptions that a good strategy provides to the businesses. Based on this the company is able to develop its strategies which in turn help them to gain success in their business endeavors.
In modern day businesses it is simply not enough to implement good strategies in the businesses. The companies are further required to assess the strategies implemented by their business rivals in order to gain insight upon the things that their rival companies are not doing. This is because of the reason that when organization is applying a specific system to help the Incrementing its sales, it exhibits that the organization is not giving legitimate client administrations. Therefore, gaining knowledge of this would enable the business to incorporate good customer services against the products it is selling to achieve a higher market value.
Therefore, it can be said that understanding the key element of strategy does not only help businesses in developing appropriate strategies for their businesses but also helps in understanding the success their rival is gaining out of the strategies that their rivals have incorporated in their businesses. Understanding the concept of strategy is the first step to implement it upon the business (ZZZiga Dede, n.d.). The final part is the execution of the strategy. For, this has been observed that despite of being a result of a good strategy business endeavors meet their untimely downfall. This is because of the reason that this technique was actualized at the wrong time and for wrong items. There businesses should also be certain of the timing and implementation of the strategy as well.
Week 4’s lesson analysis
The concept of innovation has been discussed in this context. As per the analysis on the module it has been developed that innovation is undoubtedly the key to business processes but, the meaning of innovation in businesses are often misunderstood and misinterpreted. This is because of the way that a hefty portion of the people trust that development is simply in light of and solely alludes to the making of items and administrations which are the final aftereffects of remarkable thoughts leaving imaginative personalities. This analysis upon the concept of innovation is somewhat true but is not absolutely true (Najmaei, n.d.). As, the concept of innovation deals with creation of unique objects which is similar to the popular conception among the individuals however, it is often overlooked that the concept of innovation also refers to the creation of unique products and services by means of recombining ideas and methods previously used by other companies as well.
The object of innovation is to create new things therefore; recombining things which already exist does satisfy the scope of innovation and helps the businesses in gaining popularity among its customers. This is because that often companies find that their new and innovative product is not gaining the expected popularity among the customers as it should have been (Taran, Boer and Lindgren, 2015). This is primarily because while implementing its innovative ideas on the product the company did not keep in mind on the most important aspect and that is whether the product matches the taste and preference of the customers or not. Therefore, it is quite expected that the product would not be appropriate to the liking of the customer. So, it is essential for the businesses to analyze the market appropriately before designing a product.
The process through which the companies would be able to accomplish this requires the business to follow the following four steps:
• Initiation: this procedure largely requires the businesses to identify the product it is going recombine and the purpose the product would serve. This step also requires the businesses to understand their customers’ need first and then implementing the alterations and combinations to the product.
• Ideation: this step requires the company to study a large number of patterns from the other businesses. This would provide them with a general idea of the kind of product being appreciated by the customers.
• Integration: consistency of the pattern adopted for the development of the product is very essential. This is as the consistency would affect the popularity and attractiveness of the product in the market (Zekavat, 2013).
• Implementation: this is the final step and it is in this stage the company launches its product and services to the market.
The above mentioned are simple steps that business can structure their product development process. This would help them to analyze the need and the requirement of the customers. Based on the analysis the businesses would be able to apply innovative ideas to their products, which would in turn be appreciated by the customers.