All organizations will encounter strategic challenges over their duration of years in business. These challenges will come at all different levels across the company. Knowing that these challenges have happened in the past and will happen in the future, it is important to see how an organization will react to overcome the challenges.
For an organization to perform well in a competitive environment there must be internal consistency among the four dimensions of
Edmundson (2013) explains that companies that consistently expand in a profitable manner have learned to take their strength and transform them into a competitive advantage. Edmundson (2013) list nine principals that will help companies turn their strengths into competitive advantages. The nine principals are to be quantifiable, stay objective and creditable, be true and accurate, not stated by you’re competition, contrast, use concrete facts and tangible data, emotional, focused and simple, and tell stories to make your audience relate. Edmundson (2013) continues that typically companies that have
Analyze the external and internal environment for opportunities, threats, strengths, and weaknesses that impact the firm’s competitiveness.
A business has many influences that provide a duel effect on its operations. Not only can they cause the business to undergo change and continually adjust to the external factors in the business environment, but they also provide threats and opportunities in the operations process.
The learning and growth perspective uses the organization’s resources to adapt to the changing wants and needs of customers. The organizations must ask itself whether it can continue to improve and create value for its customers (Kinney and Raiborn 2013, 11). An organization’s ability to innovate and improve their products or services directly affects its value. An organization can create economic growth by developing new products and services, improving existing products and services, and developing more efficient operations (Kaplan and Norton January/February 1992, 75).
Former president and chief executive officer of the online auction site eBay stated, “A business leader has to keep their organization focused on the mission. That sounds easy, but it can be tremendously challenging in today 's competitive and ever-changing business environment. A leader also has to motivate potential partners to join” (Whitman, n.d.). These wise words expressed from a wise and highly successful business leader speak soundly in relation to motivating employees and a sustaining a competitive business advantage. Along with a competitive advantage arises the need to assess the firm’s internal risk. Departmental strengths and weaknesses,
For a company to be successful in the long term today, they must be diverse. The company needs to be able to adapt to changes. The need for these changes can present themselves from many angles. Some would include changes in the economy, marketing, or even a change in the target audience. A company has to look at more than just the four levels of management. Organizations must look at how internal and external factors can affect the four levels of management, and adjust accordingly for these changes to be successful in today 's world.
Businesses continually adapt to a changing environment to maintain their market position (Appelbaum, Habashy, Malo, & Shafiq, 2012; Biedenbacha & Soumlderholma, 2008). Change is inevitable considering the current rate of technological advancement and the growth in global competition (Appelbaum et al., 2012; Armenakis & Harris, 2009; By, 2007). Increasing competition and the need for strategic flexibility and globalization is affecting almost every organization today, regardless of size, market, focus, and so on (Jaros, 2010).
An organization’s survival depends on factors such as increasing their market share in the industry, eliminating competitors, increase bargaining power with customers, successful collaboration; etc. However, perhaps the best way to
The world today is constantly changing. Certain aspects of the world are beginning to advance and transform more rapidly than others, such as technology. These modern transformations of society are important to take into account when developing a strategic plan for any organization. This is because these advances in society can pose “threats, challenges, or opportunities” to the organization at hand (Bryson 2011, 151). Furthermore, according to Bryson assessing the strengths and weakness of an organization in relation to these different features that were just mentioned is an important step in the strategic planning process (Bryson 2011, 151-152). Assessing these strengths and weakness involves members or an organization to identify and analyze different external and internal trends and then develop a SWOC/T analysis of how these external and internal trends can come together to affect the impending organization.
We as leaders in all aspect of business must consider our internal strengths and weaknesses when trying to accomplish a goal and also consider opportunities and outside threats in order to complete the mission.
Through an internal environment analysis, companies can identify and understand their own unique resources, capabilities, and competencies that are required for their sustainable competitive advantage. Resources, capabilities, and core competencies are the foundation of competitive advantage. There is no competitive advantages are permanently sustainable in any companies, so they have to consist on their current advantages and develop new advantages by internally understanding and analyzing their resources and capabilities. Competitors have their own unique resources, capabilities, and core competencies to create values for their customers. Both tangible and intangible resources, which include individual, social and organizational phenomena, are combined to generate capabilities. In turn, company’s capabilities are used to build core competencies. Also, core competencies are as a source of competitive advantage for a company to win in the competitive market.
To begin with, Chapter two covers three important aspects of the business world which are competitiveness, strategy, and also productivity. These particular aspects are very important for any company to succeed in the world of business. With that being stated, any type of firm such as a manufacturer or a service provider, they must employ these three aspects because they play an important role in growing revenues. For an organization to even be considered successful, they must have a competitive advantage which leads to a strategy that will meet the company’s goals, while having the knowledge-ability to help produce the goods and services in a cost effective manner. Also, it is known that most organizations have a single state called the Mission Statement. The mission statement basically summarizes these three aspects of a company. One question that the Mission Statement should address is, “What level of business are we in?” This mission statement is categorized as the absolute basis for the organizational goals.
A company that pursues and achieves strategic outcomes that boost its competitiveness and strength in the marketplace is in much better position to improve its future financial performance.