US Airways Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

US Airways - Research Paper Example This research will begin with the statement that in the diversified airline industry that the developed world is experiencing, it is clear all types of challenges that the general economy has also affect the airline industry. The role of the management team in the midst of such challenges will continue to have a huge bearing on the operations and profitability of the players. Challenge identification coupled with the appropriate solution finding mechanism will prove to be the solution in the market marred by several uncertainties. Throughout the report, management intervention is informed by the identification of a specific challenge that the firm’s operations seem to be linked to. Offering a response to the challenges in a flexible management age is the way to handle these challenges. The US Airways is a merger of two players in the US airline industry since 2005 yet some of the challenges that characterize the market continue to pose operation threats to the firm. In this di scourse, an analysis of the challenges is made after highlighting the origin of the modern situation of the American commercial airline industry. From the highlighted challenges, a list of possible managerial interventions is introduced and briefly discussed. In another section, some of these interventions are discussed in detail, to clarify their relevance within the scope of US Airline Group. Finally, a roll-out plan of these alternatives is included, with clear timelines and projected expenditure. An order of merit is applied in the presentation of the practicality of the interventions.

Title Essay Example for Free

Title Essay The first 5 marks are based on your tutor’s monitoring of your contributions to the TGF discussions associated with B120 Book 2. Your tutor will introduce these at the appropriate time. We expect you to participate in all TGF discussions for Book 2. If your tutor does not feel you have participated in at least two of these, the 5 marks will be lost. The second 5 marks for Part II are based on another piece of work which will be a short report you will submit in the same file as Part 1 of the TMA, at the end. This will be a brief summary of one of the TGF discussions relating to Book 2 and what you have learned from it. It should not be any longer than 200 words. Remember that you must submit this short report at the end of your TMA through the eTMA system. demonstrate your understanding of HRM ideas by being able to show how they are relevant and useful to a particular example. This part of the TMA is worth 30 marks. Part (d) The final part of the TMA asks you to perform a simple web-based information search about the concept you have chosen and to present information succinctly. You need to include the URLs, the date the websites were accessed and why you chose them, and also state how trustworthy this information is to gain the full 5 marks available. 3. 4 TMA 02 Part II Part II of TMA 02 is worth the other 10 marks (the TMA is marked out of a total of 100). The first 5 marks are based on your tutor’s monitoring of your contributions to the TGF discussions associated with B120 Book 2. Your tutor will introduce these at the appropriate time. We expect you to participate in all TGF discussions for Book 2. If your tutor does not feel you have participated in at least two of these, the 5 marks will be lost. The second 5 marks for Part II are based on another piece of work which will be a short report you will submit in the same file as Part 1 of the TMA, at the end. This will be a brief summary of one of the TGF discussions relating to Book 2 and what you have learned from it. It should not be any longer than 200 words. Remember that you must submit this short report at the end of your TMA through the eTMA system.

Traits Theory Of Leadership Management Essay

Traits Theory Of Leadership Management Essay Early research by Burns (1978) concluded that leadership is one of the most observed and least understood phenomena on earth (Burns, 1978). To enhance our understanding of leadership this chapter will critically review the early theories of leadership to current leadership research on transformational and transactional leadership style. It will also discuss how the current findings on leadership are likely to impact the commitment of members in National Union of Bank Employees (NUBE). 2.0 Leadership Leadership has become a hot topic with a burgeoning but fragmented literature in the past few years that draws on both the arts and the sciences. So far there is no agreed paradigm for the study and practice of leadership. The concept of leadership has seized the attention and concern of many researchers in the field of management, psychology, sociology, anthropology, and others in the last century. Such a concern is due to the important roles leaders play in facilitating organizational effectiveness and performance through their behaviors or styles they exhibit and competencies they posses. Indeed, in this context, one measure organizational effectiveness is members commitment (Meyer et al., 2002). It is the contention that the present study is conducted to determine how leadership style affects commitment amongst employees at work. So, what is leadership? The concept of leadership has been defined differently by scholars in terms of the emphasis on leaders traits, influence, competencies, individual vs., and group orientation and cognitive vs. emotional orientations. Burns (1978) defines leadership as a mobilization process by individuals with certain motives, values and access to resources in a context of competition and conflict in the pursuit of goals. More recently, Nigel Nicholson speaks of leadership as either a position or a process (Bradshaw, 2002). If a process, he says, it is about influencing other people, and this requires knowing oneself, knowing those other people, and knowing how to influence them. In order to understand how leadership is conceptualized, it is necessary to look at the leadership styles and variety of leadership theories developed, as follows. Traits Theory of Leadership Trait theories on leadership started in the twentieth century and formal theories on leadership were given by sociologists, experts in human behavior and psychologists. The researchers from 1920s to 1960s focused on the personality of leader and tried to find some traits as the basic of successful leadership (Adair, 1984). Frederick Taylor (1856-1915) cultivated the theory of leadership for the first time for leading in the formal organizations. His basic idea was to increase output by using scientific parameter. According to Bass (1990), successful leadership is determined by factors classified into six groups: achievement, responsibility, capacity, participation and situation. He also claimed that leaders are born but no made. The main assumptions of trait theory are the (a) the common features that characterize are considered as the criteria to define the suitability and successfulness of leadership; (b) an effective leader inherits and learns his/her traits, and (c) leaders are born and not made. To test the traits theory, Gordon (1987) carried out a study to define the relationship between characteristics of personality and leadership. He found a significant relationship between the ability of taking responsibility and leadership. He further found a weak but positive relationship between intelligence, authority and intelligence, and leadership. In a different study to illustrate the differences between leaders and non-leaders in terms of their personalities and traits, Beer et al. (1990) found that leaders were identified as being serious, self-dependent, confident of their competencies, best decision makers, and reasonable in expressing thoughts. They also revealed that leaders are characterized by being able to take responsibility, are self motivated, more persuasive, more capable in influencing others, more energetic, and more diplomatic. Stogdill (1974) carried out a survey of the factorial studies between 1945 and 1970 to define the main features of a leader. He found that leadership traits are defined into six main types: corporal traits, social background, intelligence, capability, personality traits, relevant to task, and social features. The results also showed that an effective leader has skills such as social and personality skills, technical skills, managerial skills, intellectual skills, friendship-achievements skills, being supportive for team work, and being defensive towards work. Situational Theories of Leadership Situational theories appeared as a reaction to the trait theory of leadership. Situational Leadership Theory Ability level of the officer High 5 4 3 2 1 Delegating Supporting Coaching Directing Willingness level of the officer Low High Low 1 2 3 4 5 The Situational Leadership Theory suggests that effective leadership requires both acts of leadership and management. Depending on the level of each of these acts necessary, four different styles of leadership can be utilized. These are delegating, coaching, directing, and supporting. For a leader to be purposeful in their direction, they must use the correct style by being able to evaluate a followers readiness level. In other words, they must meet a follower where they are. Fiedler Contingency Model Functional theory 2.3 Early Description of Relation- Oriented and Task-Oriented Leadership Behavior The study of leadership has an important place in the study of management and organization behavior for several decades. There is no other role in organization has been focused more interest than the leader (SchwandtMarquardt, 2000). The early study of leadership behavior separate those behaviors into relation-oriented and task oriented leadership. Relations-oriented leadership focuses on the quality of the relationship with followers, whereas task oriented leadership focus on the task to be accomplished by followers (Bass, 1990). Researchers have used various terms to describe relations-oriented and task oriented leadership behaviors. Bass (1990) provides an overview of terms used by several researchers. For example, descriptions of relations-oriented leadership behaviors have included participatory decision making (Ouchi, 1981), supportive (Bowers Seashore,1966), concern for people (Blake Mouton,1964), emphasizing employee needs(Fleishman,1957), people centered (Anderson,1974) and leadership (Zaleznik,1977). For both types of leadership behaviors, the most recent descriptions came from Bass Avolio (1995, 1997). They describe relations-oriented behaviors as Idealized Influence (attributed), Idealized Influence (behavior), Individualized Consideration, Intellectual Stimulation and Inspirational Motivation. Their task-oriented description include contingent reward, management-by-exception (active) and management-by-exception (passive) Burns (1978) comprehensive theory formed the foundation for Basss (1985) transformational-transactional differentiation which has become considerable importance in the study of leadership in organization. 2.4 Transactional and Transformational Leadership Leadership style is defined as a pattern of emphases, indexed by the frequency or intensity of specific leadership behaviors or attitudes, which a leader places on the different leadership functions (Casimir, 2001). Theorists have come up with various leadership styles, namely autocratic leadership, transactional leadership, transformational leadership, and servant leadership. Some have been widely studied of by researchers and their effects on organizations have been established. Transformational leadership is one of the leadership styles that have been studied and its relationships with various elements in management have been established. Transformational leadership is a style of leadership whereby a leader can motivate a subordinate to perform above and beyond what he or she had previously believed possible (Bass, 1985). A study performed by Parry (2003) in public sector organizations found that transformational leadership style has a positive effect on the innovation and effectiveness of these organizations. According to Bass Avolio(1995), transactional leadership refers to an influence process to exchange valued rewards for performance. Thus, transactional leadership embraces based exchange relationship. The leader promotes uniformity by providing extrinsic (positive or negative) reward to the collaborators (Cardona, 2000). Transactional leadership encompasses fairly traditional managerial styles where managers or leaders gain compliance and performance by either offering rewards or punishing deviations from standards. This is the pattern of leadership prevalent in most organizations and organizational situations because it contains a basic mechanism of exchange relations which becomes possible when there is no outstanding sense of impeding threat or anxiety. Bass (1985) conceptualized transformational leaders as unique motivators who encourage follower to go beyond their believed capabilities in pursuit of a shared, common goal. Transformational leaders are concerned about efficiency and the achievement of organization goal. They do so with a focus in supporting staff emotionally and intellectually. Basss initial views, characterized transformational leadership as the ability to elicit support and participation from followers through personal qualities. The significance of transactional and transformational leadership has been elaborated in the Full Range of Leadership Model (Avolio and Bass,1991) 2.5 The Full Range Leadership Model The full range leadership model is probably the most validated leadership model in use world-wide today. The originality of the full range leadership (FRL) model lies in the concept of a range of leadership behaviors which all leaders demonstrate. This model required a change for a balanced leadership behavior whereby moves away from the more transactional leadership towards the transformational leadership style. Bass (1999) was the one of the researcher to argue for a transformational style of leadership to transactional forms. Scholars have studied the full range leadership model (FRL) as a predictor of a variety of outcomes in organizations such as employees commitment, employee satisfaction, motivation, organizational effectiveness and performance. (Base and Stogdill, 1990; Barbuto et al., 2007) The Full Range Model describes three main types of leadership behavior to transformational behavior ranging from completely inactive (laissez-faire) to transactional behaviors to transformational behaviors. Thus, transactional and transformational leadership are seen to be in a continuum rather than being mutually exclusive (Yammarino, 1993; Bass and Avolio, 1994). According to Base and Avolio(1995) Laissez-faire is non leadership behaviors that imply the leaders indifference towards both followers actions and organizational outcomes, as well as demonstrating an attitude of abdicating responsibility (to make decisions, or address important issues). The laissez-faire leader, who is also referred to as non transactional is characterized by a relative lack of concern for his subordinates (Bass and Riggio, 2006). The Full Range Leadership (FRL) Model consists of three transactional leader characteristics. Contingent Reward Contingent reward is the classical transactional leadership style. Here the leader sets very clear goals, objectives and targets and clarifies, either openly or by inference, what rewards can be expected for successful completion. Contingent reward leaders are found to be reasonably effective, although not as much as the five Is in transformational leadership for motivating others to achieve higher levels of performance. These leaders assign agreements on what needs to be done and promise rewards or actually reward followers for satisfactory carrying out the assignment. Management by Exception (passive) Management by exception (passive) refers to the process of paying attention to the exceptional rather than the normal. Thus management by exception leaders tend to be relatively laissez-faire under normal circumstances but take action when problem occur, mistakes are made or deviation from standards are apparent. Leaders wait passively for deviances and errors to occur and then take corrective action (Avolio and Bass,1991) Management by Exception (active) Management by exception (active) leaders is found to be less effective than contingent reward leaders but is still required in certain situations. They arrange to actively to actively monitor deviances from standards, mistakes and errors in the followers assignments and to take corrective action as necessary. The leader pays very close attention to any problem or deviations and has extensive and accurate monitoring and control system to provide early warnings of such problems. In the Full Range Leadership (FRL) Model, Bass (1998) divided transformational leadership into four scales. Idealized Influence Idealized Influence is often associated with charismatic leadership (e.g Shamir et.al., 1993; Yulk,1999). Leaders portraying idealized influence attributes have the socialized charisma (Avolio and Bass, 2002). They are perceived as being confident and powerful, and viewed as focusing on higher-order ideals and ethics. Such leaders are often seen as being high on morality, trust, integrity, honesty and purpose. House and Shamir (1993) have said that charismatic leaders demonstrate determination, optimism, and confidence in them to accomplish the mission and realize the vision. For example, Dr Martin Luther King inspired people through his oratorical skills in the face of unpromising resistance. Leaders who exert idealized influence behave in ways that demonstrate high standards of ethical and moral conduct (Bass, 1998). Idealized influence is behavior that encourages followers to use their leaders role model. Inspirational Motivation Inspirational Motivation involves communicating the vision to followers, fostering follower identification with the vision, focusing follower efforts, arousing their self awareness of higher goals and motivations and sustaining positive emotional arousal and identification with these goals (Bans, 1990).Inspirational motivation leaders motivate and inspire followers by providing meaning and challenge to work. These leaders engage followers in envisioning attractive future states and created communicated expectations that followers want to meet. Intellectual Stimulation Intellectual stimulation essentially involves the leader stimulating the follower to think through issues and problems for themselves and thus to develop their own abilities. This leadership approach reflects in large measure the coaching, morale building strengths of individualized consideration. Leaders stimulate followers effort to be innovative and creative by questioning assumptions, reframing problems and approaching old situations in new ways. New ideas and creativity problem solutions are solicited from followers who are included in the process of addressing problems and finding solutions. Individualized Consideration Individualized consideration includes mentoring, coaching, continuous feedback, and linking the individuals current needs to the organizations mission (Bass, 1990).leaders pay special attention to the needs of each individual follower for achievement and growth. Leaders who use this style of leadership show consideration for their workers need and are prepared to encourage and coach the development of appropriate workplace behavior. Individualized consideration leaders pay special attention to the needs of each individual follower for achievement and growth. Followers are developed to successively higher level of potential (Fukushige and Spicer, 2007) In the Full Range Leadership (FRL) Model, the transformational leader follower relationship is viewed as one of mutual stimulation (Barbuto, 1997). The influence of transformational leaders was distinguished on the hierarchical scale of moral development measured by Kohlbergs conceptualization (Popper et, al., 2002). This in more study also reports transformational leaders are classified as more morally advanced than transactional leaders. Figure 1: Full Range Leadership Model 1 PASSIVE ACTIVE Effective Transactional Laissez-faire Laissez-faire Transformational Leadership Management Figure 2: Full Range Leadership Model 2 Increase impact on commitment Laissez-faire Management-by-exception Contingent Reward Intellectual Stimulation Inspirational Motivation Idealized Influence Individualized consideration McGuire and Kennerly (2006) identifies the relationship between organizational leadership and members commitment in the literature since 1950s. McGuire and Kennerly states that transactional and transformational leadership style provides a framework for interaction that might affect the employees relationship, commitment, and work environment. The leadership style adopted by the leaders of National Union of Bank Employees(NUBE) will influence all the activities of union.(Naude and McCabe,2005). According to Bass (1990), transformational leaders demonstrated the four characteristics of idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration. Transformational leaders inspired others to improve performance, satisfied and achieved outcomes beyond expectations. McGuire and Kennerly (2006) reported increased loyalty, organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and morale with transformational leaders compared with limited levels of job satisfaction and lower levels of organizational commitment with transactional leadership. Many studies involving the broad categories of transformational and transactional leadership behaviors, as well as specific behaviors within those categories have demonstrated that these behavior impact both individual and organizational effectiveness. Organizational commitment is a construct that explores effectiveness outcomes in similar areas. 2.6 Organizational Commitment Organizational commitment plays an important role in the study leadership. This is in part due to the number of works that have found relationships between organizational commitment and attitudes and behaviors in the workplace (Porter et al, 1974, Angle and Perry, 1981). Organizational commitment has linked to leadership behaviors that are relations-oriented and task-oriented. DeCotiisSummers(1987) found that when employees were treated with consideration they show greater level of commitment. Jermier Berkes (1979) discovered that employees who participate in decision making had higher levels of commitment to the organization. Organizational commitment provides a broad measure of the effectiveness of leadership behaviors. This relationship offers a way to further explore the subject of leadership. Bycio, Hackett, Allen (1995) reported positive correlations between the leadership behaviors of charisma, intellectual stimulation, individualized consideration, and contingent reward and affective, continuance and normative commitment. Studies suggest that committed workers contribute to the organization in more positive ways (Meyer and Allen,1997). 2.6.1 Definition of Commitment Organizational commitment has been defined differently by different scholars depending on their background. Multiple definitions of organizational commitment are found in the literature. However, Mowday et al (1979) defines organizational commitment as the relative strength of the identification of the individual and his involvement in his particular organization. According to this definition, organizational commitment has three basic components: A strong belief in and acceptance of the organizational goals and values(identification) A willingness to exert a considerable effort on behalf of the organization(involvement) A strong desire to remain with the organization. Sheldon (1971) defined commitment as being a positive evaluation of the organization and the organizational goals. According to Buchanan (1974) most scholars define commitment as being a bond between an individual (the employee) and the organization (the employer). In explaining the significance of organizational commitment, Bateman and Strasser(1984) state that the purpose of studying organizational commitment are related to (a) employees behavior and performance effectiveness, (b) attitudinal, affective and cognitive constructs such as job satisfaction, (c) characteristics of the employees job task, such as responsibility and (d) personal characteristics of the employee such as level of education. Commitment involves a willingness to exert considerable effort on behalf of the organization and acceptance of the values and goals of the organization (Ingersoll et al., 2000). Organizational commitment is influenced by such factors as individuals and organizational characteristics (Angle and Perry, 1983). For example organizational members continued commitment towards an organization could be influenced by such factors as benefits, status, monetary and interpersonal rewards. 2.6.2 Three Types of Organizational Commitment Meyer and Allen (1991) and Dunham et al (1994) identified three types of commitment; affective commitment, continuance commitment, and normative commitment. The differences between these three types of commitment reflect the psychological state that binds the individual to the organization. They argued that the affective component is determined by work experiences relating to the job of the person and structural characteristics. Continuance is determined by the magnitude and number of investments that have been made in the current organization and the number of perceived alternatives. Lastly, the normative component is determined by an individuals experiences prior to entry and during employment in the organization in terms of familial, cultural and organizational socialization. Affective commitment is defined as the emotional attachment, identification, and involvement that an employee has with its organization and goals (Mowday et al., 1997, Meyer Allen, 1993). They further state that affective communication is when the employee identifies with a particular organization and its goals in order to maintain membership to facilitate the goal. Meyer and Allen (1997) continue to say that employees retain membership out of choice and this is their commitment to the organization. Continuance commitment is the willingness to remain in an organization because of the investment that the employee has with nontransferable investments. Nontransferable include things such as retirement, relationship with other employees, or things that are special to the organization (Reichers, 1985). Continuance commitment t also includes factors such as years of employment or benefits that the employee may receive that are unique to the organization (Reichers, 1985). Meyer and Allen (1997) further explain that employees who share continuance commitment with their employer often make it very difficult for an employee to leave the organization. Normative Commitment (Bolon, 1993) is the commitment that a person believes that they have to the organization or their feeling of obligation to their workplace. In 1982, Weiner discusses normative commitment as being a generalized value of loyalty and duty. Meyer and Allen (1991) supported this type of commitment prior to Bolons definition, with their definition of normative commitment being a feeling of obligation. Normative commitment can be explained by other commitments such as marriage, family, religion, and etc. Therefore when it comes to ones commitment to their place of employment they often feel like they have a moral obligation to the organization (Wiener, 1982). In arguing for their framework, Meyer Allen (1991) contended that affective, continuance, and normative commitment were components rather than types because employees could have varying degree of all three. For example, one employee might feel both a strong attachment to an organization and a sense of obligation to remain. A second employee might enjoy working for the organization but also recognize that leaving would be very difficult from an economic standpoint. Finally, a third employee might experience a considerable degree of desire, need and obligation to remain with the current employer (Meyer Allen, 1997). Even though the authors present this argument, they do not imply that there is a rationale for summing all the scales to obtain an overall score for organizational commitment. 2.6 Previous Studies Ooi Chai Liang(2002) has conducted a research to identify whether there is a significant relationship between transformational leadership style and commitment in the organization. Research sample consist of 35 employees under the supervision of supervisors in Hotel Mercure Ace,Johor Bharu. Results from this research have proven that when situational factor is taken into consideration, motivation does not show significant effect on the relationship between transformational leadership and commitment in the organization. Whereas, situational motivation factor act as a predictor to the commitment in the organization. Research result also shows that there is no significant relationship between transformational leadership and commitment in the organization. Tan Bee Hong (2000) has conduct a research to identify the relationship between transformational and transactional leadership style with job performance. Research sample consist of 282 employees of blue collar in Technocom System Sdn Bhd(TSSB), Johor Bahru. Statistical technique such as Pearson Correlation Analysis used to determine the relationship between transformational and transactional leadership style with job performance. Research result shows that there is a significant relationship between dimensions of transformational and transactional leadership style with job performance. Wee Kok Cheng (2000) carried out research to identify the relationship between transformational and transactional leadership with job satisfaction. The researcher has concluded that transformational leadership style show a greater relationship with job satisfaction compared to transactional leadership. The study has been conducted on 45 respondents who are nurses and assistant nurses. The purpose of the study is to identify the leadership styles and job satisfaction of nurses in the department of Hospital Daerah Mersing, Johor Bahru. Research result shows that there is a positive relationship between transformational and transactional leadership style with job satisfaction. There were two dimensions of transformational leadership (Idealized Influence and Intellectual Stimulation) which shows the highest significant relationship with job satisfaction. Othaman Mohd Yunus(1994) has conduct a research to study the effect of transformational and transactional leadership between organizational culture and inspiration of a police and job performance and work stress among Polis Diraja Malaysia. Findings of the study shows, in certain situation dimensions of transformational and transactional leadership style plays a moderate role especially in the relationship of PDRM cultures with performance and work stress. Liong (1990) has carried out research to identify the validity of the transformational leadership in a sample of principles and teachers who were selected from 90 secondary schools in Singapore. According to the researcher, principals and teachers who adopt the characteristics of transformational leadership shows high level of job satisfaction and commitment towards schools. Effectiveness of leadership is manifested indirectly through measuring the effectiveness of schools such as higher academic achievement in public examination and success in the field of curriculum. Wiener Vardi(1980) states the impact that organizational commitment had on commitment to the job and career commitment. Their respondents were 56 insurance agents and 85 professional staffs. The researcher reported positive relationship between organizational commitment and the other two types of commitment. In nine studies involving 2734 people, Dunham, Grube Castaneda (1994) examined how participatory management and supervisory feedback influenced employee level of commitment. The researcher founds found that when supervisors provided feedback about performance and allowed employees to participate in decision making, employee levels of affective commitment was stronger than both continuance and normative commitment. It indicated employees staying with the organization were more related to wanting to, rather than needing to or feeling they ought to. In the study of 238 nurses, Cohen (1996) investigated the relationship between affective, continuance and normative commitment and the following other types of commitment: work involvement, job involvement, and career commitment. Findings revealed that affective commitment was more highly correlated with all the other types of commitment. In other words, exhibit higher levels of commitment to their work, their job and their career. Irving, Coleman,Cooper(1997) investigated the relationship between affective, continuance, and normative commitment and the outcome measures of job satisfaction and turnover intervention. Total participants for the study included 232 employees. Results revealed that job satisfaction was positively related to both affective and normative commitment. However, job satisfaction was negatively related to continuance commitment. All three types of commitment were negatively related to turnover intentions, with continuance commitment having the strongest negative relationship. . 2.2 Leadership Styles(Intro)chap 1 Grint (2000) has underscored that a clear understanding of leadership requires an historical approach. He stresses that a particular leadership style during a process of change is time based and that every period has room for a limited palette of leadership qualities (Velde, 2002). A style organizes the pragmatic activity of a leader, indicates how his actions are coordinated and how things and people that matter are determined and changed (Spinosa et al., 2001). It has been argued that organizations beliefs, values and assumptions are of critical importance to the overall style of leadership that they adopt (Bunmi, 2007). Leadership style is the behavior pattern used by leader to resolve the organizational issues. There are several different leadership styles that can be identified in various leaders.

Regional Band Competition :: Example Personal Narratives

Regional Band Competition The situation was insane. Not only did I have to make time in the busy schedule of my junior year to take a few days off from school to attend the District One East High School Band Festival, but I actually had to audition to get a decent seat. Don't get me wrong; I was thrilled about attending. I just wasn't looking forward to having to make up two day's worth of schoolwork. For once, I would be attending a festival where the seating arrangement wasn't based on how fast you could sprint to the stage from your seat in the auditorium, but on how talented of a musician you were. And the music for the audition? Amazingly difficult. I knew many of the other students from other competitions and festivals, so I was familiar with their talent and ability. Based on that knowledge, I decided that I had no chance of placing higher in the rankings than, say, a jar of mayonnaise. After diligently practicing - or cramming - the night before the audition, I felt I was as prepared as I'd ever be. Out of all the pieces we were given for the audition, my friends and I had narrowed it down to a few choices that the judges would most likely pick for the try-outs. From the three or four that we picked, we determined that the hardest song was Gustav Holst's "Second Suite in F." Fortunately, this song was one that I was familiar with already from concert band. I felt somewhat confident about the audition, but managed to convince myself that I'd be ecstatic if I placed any higher than last chair. I didn't even dream of placing high enough to be selected for Regional Band. The students with the highest scores at the District festivals were chosen to advance to the Regional competition. The first night of the District Band Festival, held at Yough Senior High School, took place on the evening of January 19, 2000. Cramming seven Hempfield students and one tuba into a mini-yellow bus, which we dubbed "The Sped Sled," we trekked through the blustery winter weather to the school. Surprisingly enough, we were early, giving us all a little more time to relax, warm-up, or practice music.

Midsouth Chamber of Commerce

Midsouth Chamber of Commerce (MSCC), a non-profit member supported organization that lobbies state government for local businesses, needed to update its IBM AS/400 based UNITRAK system to a more advanced structure to meet the growing demands of employees and members. Dick Gramen, a former computer trainer for an insurance broker, who had no experience with the AS/400 computer or the UNITRAK software, was hired for the job. After struggling to learn the previous hardware, software, data structure and organization operations, he urged MSCC's executive committee to purchase the IBM RS/6000 computer system (a system he was familiar with) to enhance MSCC's computing capabilities. Despite Leon Lassiter’s (vice president of marketing) admonition, the executive committee unhesitatingly granted Gramen's request. Shortly thereafter, Gramen accepted a contract with the inapt and inexperienced vendor, Data Management Associates (DMA) to develop the software and convert the UNITRAK database into the new system. Gramen did not review the contract in great detail and sent it to MSCC president, Jack Wallingford for approval. Even worse, Wallingford, without having any outside specialist or corporate counsel to review the document, blindly signed the contract. The contract later revealed no explicit or quantifiable performance standards for the services to be provided, and that DMA only offered a certain number of free development hours for the creation of the software. Moreover, DMA had the right to increase the price of services and products provided at its discretion, while limiting its financial and performance liabilities. Not surprisingly, DMA encountered a myriad of problems from the moment of implementation. And as difficulties with the software conversion mounted, DMA quickly used up the development hours, and started billing the MSCC for the work beyond the free hours guaranteed. Consequently, the relationship between DMA and the MSCC declined. The software installation was subsequently stopped within a few months due to erroneous billing issues and the lack of progress. Additionally, the MSCC could not receive reimbursement from DMA to buy another system or hire another vendor to formulate the required software since it had already made full payment (which implied acceptance of the software system). Before long, it became apparent that Gramen did not possess the necessary expertise to maintain and support the hardware platform or solve problems regarding software implementation. In my opinion, MSCC could have avoided this predicament if upper management had initially chosen a qualified individual to manage its Information Systems. Gramen failed to carefully assess the existing data resource and rushed to install a new system. He also overlooked the organization's operations, and disregarded meaningful feedback from Lassiter, one of MSCC’s senior business leaders. Needless to say, the agreement with DMA ought to have been reviewed by someone who specializes in computer software contracts prior to signing. When Lassiter officially took over as President, he hired Sage Niele as financial officer and vice president of operations. This was a prudent maneuver by Lassiter given that he could no longer afford to leave Gramen in-charge of MSCC's information systems. Niele earned her MBA from Wharton School of Business, and had formerly performed systems management tasks for a large pharmaceutical company in the Midsouth area. She also managed her own information systems and financial consulting business. Niele began gathering information from the MSCC staff on the deficiencies of the computer system as well as the needs of the organization. At the same time, she sought support from the executive committee and key board members to determine the vision of the MSCC for the operational future. This bottom-up and top-down approach was effective, and it flattened her learning curve about the MSCC and its current information systems. She also identified several RS/6000 compatible software packages that were worthy of further investigation, and sent only ‘billable' payments to DMA. I believe Niele is off to a pretty good start. By analyzing the present information system and understanding the organization's needs, she will eventually be able to develop a well-organized strategic plan that will put an end to MSCC's long history of poor operational decisions. In conclusion, Niele must consult other vendors for the development of the needed software seeing as the DMA software module will most likely never become operational. On the other hand, if this option is not viable and proves to be more costly in the long run, she must recommend the acquisition of a suitable up-to-date computer system, and ‘reengineer' MSCC's entire information system in order to improve efficiency. References: 1. Brown, C. V. , DeHayes, D. W. , Hoffer, J. A. , Martin E. W. , & Perkins, W. C. (2009). Managing Information Technology (6th ed. ). (pp. 192-200). New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc. 2. Brown, J. (2002). Midsouth Chamber of Commerce. Retrieved from http://docs. google. com/viewer? a=v&q=cache:JUu8KurO1bcJ:www. obscure. org/~perky/uofr/fall2002/ISYS203U/MidSouth. pdf+midsouth+chamber+of+commerce&hl=en&gl=bh&sig=AHIEtbQeM3WcQZul-rFxO4h0x5-OQb7qtQ

Value vs. Vanity Marketing Metrics With Andy Crestodina From Orbit Media

Value vs. Vanity Marketing Metrics With Andy Crestodina From Orbit Media Marketers have unprecedented access to marketing measurables. They’re inundated with data. So, which marketing metrics matter the most? Today, we’re talking to Andy Crestodina, co-founder and chief marketing officer of Orbit Media Studios. Also, he’s the author of Content Chemistry. Andy believes that the most visible marketing metrics are usually the least useful. He identifies and ranks metrics that matter. Inverse correlation between the visibility of a metric and its importance/success Metrics correlated with business success are difficult to get and require analysis Social, Search, and Email Metrics: Easy-to-see metrics that offer low to medium importance that correlate to business success Easy to see which post gets the most traffic, but it takes analysis to calculate conversion rate from visitor to downloader/subscriber/registrant per article Critical Metrics: Revenue, margin, profit, utilization, and capacity are difficult to measure, but are critical to business success Rather than trying to get reviews, try listening to your customers to make them happy enough to give testimonials and referrals Deliberately seek out sales, revenue, invoice, leads, and other critical metrics Look at your own biases as a marketer; deeper down you go in your funnel, the more impact of each action Best ways/tools to track metrics include UTM campaign tracking codes and Google Analytics; avoid influencer marketing Links: Orbit Media Studios Content Chemistry A Guide for Content Marketing Metrics: The 37 Most (and Least) Useful Metrics SEMrush Google Analytics Garrett Moon at Content Marketing World Barry Feldman QuickBooks How To Avoid The Most Costly Mistake In Influencer Marketing With Shane Barker [AMP 115] Write and send a review to receive a care package If you liked today’s show, please subscribe on iTunes to The Actionable Content Marketing Podcast! The podcast is also available on SoundCloud, Stitcher, and Google Play. Quotes by Andy Crestodina: â€Å"The problem is that those super visible metricsare the ones that are the least closely connected with business success.† â€Å"We tend to overvalue things that we can easily find. The hardest-to-find stuff is where we should be focused more.† â€Å"I don’t think you should start by trying to get reviews. Start by trying to listen to your customers.† â€Å"We all have to look for our own biases as marketers. The deeper down you go in your funnel, the more impact each action has.†

Tesco Essays

Tesco Essays Tesco Essay Tesco Essay Executive Summary Starting from a small stall in the east end of London, Tesco today is the largest retailer in the UK with over ? 59 billion sales in 2008. In this dynamic environment, Tesco has managed to stay ahead of its competition through focus on people, both customers and employees. However, in today’s rapidly changing globalised environment, anything could happen. Companies today need to always innovate and reinvent themselves in order to maintain their competitive advantage. The macro environment that Tesco operates in provides both opportunities and threats. Therefore, for sustainable growth and development, Tesco needs to have proper strategic direction that addresses these macro environmental challenges. Though the company has extensive operations worldwide, Tesco’s largest market is still the UK. This report analyses the macro environment that Tesco UK operates in using the PESTEL framework and its interconnectedness to external opportunities and threats. Competitiveness of Tesco UK is analyzed by applying Michael Porter’s five forces model. The paper is further expanded by linking both the PESTEL framework and the 5 forces to understand Tesco’s dynamic macro environment. A stakeholder analysis is carried out in order to understand the expectation of Tesco’s stakeholders. Strategic capabilities of Tesco are explained through the identification of core competencies of the firm. Justification of these competencies explains how Tesco manages to stay ahead of its competitors. Table of Contents 1. Introduction to Tesco Plc6 1. 1. Tesco UK7 2. The Macro Environment Analysis8 2. Political Factors8 2. 2Economical Factors8 2. 3Social/Cultural Factors8 2. 4Technological Factors8 2. 5Environmental Factors8 2. 6Legislative Factor8 2. 7Overall impact of the PESTEL factors8 2. 8Potential opportunities from the external environment8 2. 9Threats from the external environment8 3. Competitive Analysis on Tesco Using Porter’s Five Forces Model8 3. 1. Threat of New Entries8 3. 2. Competitive Rivalry8 3. 3. Substitutes8 3. 4. The Power of Supplier8 3. 5. The Power of Buyer8 3. 6. Summary of the 5 Forces Model8 4. Stakeholder analysis8 . Core Competences8 5. 1Value8 5. 2. Rarity8 5. 3. Inimitability8 1. 4. Non-substitutability8 6. Conclusion8 7. References8 Introduction to Tesco Plc Founded in 1919 by Jack Cohen, Tesco Plc is the largest British based international grocery and general merchandising retail chain, and is the world’s third largest retailer, after Wal-Mart of the US and France’s Carrefour. The Tesco brand first appeared in 1924. The first store was opened in 1929 in London. Tesco floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1947 with a share price of 25p. During the 1950s and the 1960s Tesco grew organically, and through acquisitions. Most of this early growth was in and around London. The â€Å"pile it high, sell it cheap† strategy of Cohen had left the company â€Å"stagnate† which resulted in his resignation in 1973. In 1977, Tesco launched â€Å"operation checkout† which included price reductions and centralized buying for all stores. The result was a rise in market share of 4% in two months. Today, the company operates over 3000 stores in several countries including the U. S ad Japan with over 440,000 employees. Tesco has diversified their business into other areas such as clothing, consumer electronics, financial services, telecommunication, insurance schemes etc. With their core purpose of â€Å"create value for customers to earn their lifetime loyalty†, the company has been able to build a multibillion-dollar empire. Operating income for 2008 was ? 3. 12billion. (The Guardian 2009). The ability to appeal to all market segments through their own brand products with up market and low price value range has been a key element of their success. The two key values of Tesco are 1. No-one tries harder for customer, and 2. Treat people as we like to be treated With their â€Å"Every little helps† strategy, they regularly ask their customers and staff â€Å"what we can do to make shopping with us and working with us that little bit better† (Tesco. com) 4 Tesco UK Tesco UK is the first and largest operations under Tesco PLC. Tesco UK contributes approximately 70% to the group’s sales and profit. Its business is significant in the UK, with over 285,000 employees and over 2,200 stores. UK business’s growth comes from new space, extensions to existing stores and a multi-format approach. The overall growth in UK was contributed by the sales of non-food, which forms another key part of Tesco strategy. Tesco customized their store formats to satisfy customers needs. It has more than 1960 Express stores offering a range of approximately 7000 quality, great value, and fresh food close to where customers live and work. Tesco opened its first Metro in 1992 catering to the needs of busy customers, bringing Tesco nearer to customer in town and city centre locations. The superstores which began in the 1970s is an ongoing program of extending and refreshing their superstores to improve the overall experience for customers, including introduction of new non-food ranges such as DVDs and books. Since 1977 the one-stop Extra destination store has proved extremely popular and Tesco now have more than 175 Extra stores offering the widest range of food and non-food lines. The 10 Homeplus stores (approx 35000 to 50000 sq ft) are dedicated to non-food, including clothing, with more available through Tesco Direct order and collection points. In addition to array of formats, Tesco continually innovate and invest in new lines to increase choice for their customers, such as, lifestyle ranges like organic, healthy living. Various own brand also enable customers to purchase product to compliment their lifestyle. Value-adding service, such as Tesco nutritional signpost labeling targets to provide customers with the key information they need to help them choose a balanced diet. Tesco innovatively counteract the recession challenge by launching around 500 new ‘discount brands’ products because customers were shopping around for best prices without compromising on quality. The Macro Environment Analysis The Macro environment gives organizations their means of survival as well a source of threat. Understanding the strategic position is concerned with identifying the impact on strategy of the external environment, an organizations strategic capability and the expectations and influences of stakeholders. Organizations exist in the context of a complex political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal world. The PESTEL framework will be used on Tesco UK to identify how future trends in these environments might impinge on the organization. This analysis aims to provide the broad data from which to identify key drivers of change and understand the interconnectedness of the macro environment. (Johnson, Scholes, Whittingon, 2008). 1. 2. 6 Political Factors Even though, this paper is concerned with the Strategic perspective of Tesco UK, it is important to consider the global political scenario considering Tesco’s scope of operations. The company has over 3000 stores in 13 different markets outside the UK including Europe, North America and Asia. Tesco therefore, is greatly influenced by political and legislative circumstances among these countries as well as European Union (EU). ‘As Tesco grows ever bigger in more countries, it has inevitably faced criticism from consumer activists and environmental groups and also regulators. Brussels recently referred Tescos acquisition of three stores in Slovakia to domestic regulators, claiming the deal could potentially reduce competition in certain areas. ’ (BBC 2006) Another important aspect to consider is the policies and regulations governing monopolies and dominant market shares within the EU. Even though, Tesco is yet to be recognized this way, it is an important factor to note considering it’s scope of operations. In the UK, planning permission is an important political factor. There have been several cases where Tesco’s request to build new stores in the UK have been denied by the Town councils due to oppositions by the public. Therefore, careful analysis of the political factors when opening stores in UK is critical. 7 Economical Factors Considering that Tesco is UK’s largest private sector employer, economic factors such as unemployment rates and purchasing power are important factors to take note of. The recessional period that the world has been experiencing has had quite an impact on western countries such as the US and UK with high job lay off’s etc. Unemployment rate in the UK has increased by 2% when compared with 2008. (National Statistics UK 2009). Unemployment rates affect Tesco in two ways. One is that it reduces demand for products and can affect Tesco’s sales. However, average earnings including bonuses rose by 1. 2 per cent in the year to September 2009 which is an indicator that the UK economy is picking up. The other issue is that with Tesco being the leading private sector employer, it will be under severe pressure on job lay off’s. Tesco’s strategy of catering to many segments of the market has been able to keep them afloat in the rise of the economic recession. According to the research firm TNS WorldPanel, The UK number one, who has reaped the benefit of its double Clubcard points promotion, took 30. 7% of the grocery market in the 12 weeks to 1 November 2009. (Press Association 2009) The recessional period is slowly picking up with UK’s retail sales showing an increase of 2. % as of September 2009 when compared with the previous year which indicates a positive outlook for Tesco. (National Statistics UK 2009). 8 Social/Cultural Factors UK has a population of 61. 4 million and considered an ageing population with a relatively equal split between male and females with 62% representing the workforce. The proportion of people aged 65 and over is projected to increas e from 16 per cent in 2008 to 23 per cent by 2033. (Statistics online). Therefore, Tesco will have to consider this an important aspect of future strategic direction. The increase in employment among older people and females have created a demand for value added products and convenience goods and meals The need for bulk purchasing and one stop shopping has prompted Tesco to have more non food items available for sale. However in recent times, there seems to be a decrease in this trend as more and more people are pinching their pennies in times of recession and reducing the use of such convenience products. While money is tight, women will feel obliged to forgo the price premiums they have been paying for this kind of help and take on the labour themselves. Euromonitor 2009). Therefore moving into house brands with different market segmentation and the focus on own label share of the business mix and supply chain which reduces cost as Tesco has done is an important element of their corporate strategy. According to Eurominitor international, Value rather than cheapness will now count when consumers have to choose between brands when making purchasin g decisions in the year ahead. Hence consumers will reward brands focusing on quality with loyalty. (Euromonitor 2009) Tesco’s focus on retaining customers is evidence to this trend. Another important socio cultural aspect to consider is the migration of eastern Europeans and Asians to the UK. There is a large community of Indians living in the UK. Tesco needs to ensure that they are able to cater to this segment with product differentiation. Consumers in UK are also being more health conscious and therefore increased their use of organic products. Also offering products which has been manufactured in an ethical and socially responsible way is also becoming increasingly important in the UK consumers mind. 9 Technological Factors Technology is an important macro environmental factor that affect any organization. Tesco has been successful at exploiting the widespread phenomena of internet purchasing. Their comprehensive website and online catalogue with easy checking out options have boosted their sales. To retain their competitive advantage it is important for Tesco to always reinvent and re-innovate and to be abreast of the rapid technological changes. Adoption of technologies such as intelligent scales, electronic shelf labeling, self checkout and RFID as helped the company to maintain its competitive advantage. In order to make maximum use of strategic capabilities, Tesco UK has transferred their IT support structure to Bangalore India. 10 Environmental Factors Today, environmental issues play a key role in business. Matters such as global warming and pollution have pressured companies into being more socially responsible towards the environment they operate in. Tesco has been instrumental in supporting carbon reduction and has created a a ? 100 million Sustainable Technology Fund for this purpose. In order to be carbon free, Tesco is revamping their own stores and building new low carbon stores. Their target is to halve carbon emission totally by 50% by the year 2020. Tesco is also encouraging their customers to go green by introducing a new ‘Greener Living’ brand. The range comprises 200 products as diverse as energy-saving light bulbs, paper goods and kitchenware TESCO’s corporate social responsibility exceeds the minimum expectation levels set by the industry. 11 Legislative Factor In 2000, the government introduced legislation that allowed schemes, set up in line with the regulations, to offer employees savings on tax and national insurance contributions when buying and selling shares in the employing company. Tesco has used this legal framework to provide comprehensive share schemes and has had considerable success in retaining their employees as shareholders and potentially reaping the benefits from their increased commitment to the company. (Eurofound 2008) The UKs Competition Commission is to introduce a code of practice for supermarkets in a bid to ensure the fair treatment of suppliers and address issues hindering competition in the market. The commission believed that this food control the buying power of certain supermarkets. (Justfood. com 2009). This affects both Tesco and the industry in general; in terms of higher cost. 12 Overall impact of the PESTEL factors Identifying the PESTEL factors for Tesco, has given insight to the environment they operate in and the interconnectedness of these factors. Identifying these factors are important in creating future strategic direction and growth. The political impact of the EU and the UK is an important factor for this British Retail giant in terms of market growth and monopoly. The present economic crisis has increased unemployment levels which is a negative indication. However recent reports on increased sales and changes in socio cultural patterns are an indication for new prospects for Tesco. 13 Potential opportunities from the external environment The recovery of the economic situation means that there will be increased market potential and increased spending power. This is already in evidence by the increase in sales of Tesco UK in September 2009. The demand for non-food retail items is increasing and is in favour of Tesco. Their health and beauty products are top of the range and there is further potential to grow. The increasing population of Asians and Eastern Europeans is also an opportunity for Tesco to explore this particular market segment. Increased focus on ‘going green’ is beneficial to the company considering their many steps towards this process both in terms of influencing the consumer and improving the processes within the company. The increased use of online purchasing means the reduction of related costs and processes could be more efficient. This would also enable Tesco to provide other services such as banking, delivery etc. 14 Threats from the external environment Consumer behavior patterns are slowly changing towards organic and ethically produced goods. This creates both opportunity as mentioned above as well as threat. More and more research and capital will need to be allocated to sourcing these products. The company has made substantial investments in energy saving projects around the business. The price war between the supermarkets is another cause for concern which will be later discussed under competition. The possibility of increased regulation in terms of pricing is a threat to Tesco and other supermarkets in the industry. Competitive Analysis on Tesco Using Porter’s Five Forces Model Porter’s five forces framework were developed to determine the competitive intensity and market attractiveness of an industry. (Porter, 2001) Market attractiveness refers to whether a company will have the profit potential in an industry. Porter’s five forces structure (as shown below) constitutes of the threat of new entrants, the threat of substitute, the power of suppliers, the power of buyer and competitive rivalry. [pic] 16 Threat of New Entries According to Johnson, Scholes and Whittington (2008), threat of entry depends on the extent and height of barriers to entry such as economic of scales and experience, access to supply or distribution channels, legislation or government action and differentiation. The combination on two factors: Tesco, having 85 years of retail experience since the â€Å"TESCO† brand name started and with the existance of the incumbent retail giants (i. e. Asda, Sainsbury, Mark Spencer) make it difficult for new entrant to penetrate into the UK retailing market. Potential entrants will find that barriers are imposed on them, either explicitly or implicitly, by the conglomerate incumbents. (Tesco Porters Five Force Model , 2008) Tesco, as the largest retailer in UK has control over supply and distribution through customer or supplier loyalty. They have the established loyalty program such as offering loyalty card, point card, advantage card or club card to attract and retain the customers. Besides that, Tesco has direct ownership (vertical integration) for some of the products that they are selling with the brand â€Å"Tesco†. The new entrants will find it challenging to find the new supply and distribution channel as the more common ones had been cornered by Tesco and other giant retailers in UK, who have the advantage of economies of scale. While the new entrants find it easy to enter into UK market, they may face many challenges in the operating environment. Therefore, it can be said that Tesco has a considerately low threat of new entrants in UK. 17 Competitive Rivalry Competitive rivalry refers to the direct competition between organizations that sell the similar products aimed at the same customer group. Johnson, Scholes, Whittington, 2008) Tesco has many direct competitors who do the same business as them, namely the Asda Group Limited, Carrefour S. A, J Sainsbury PLC, Marks and Spencer Group PLC, The Big Food Group PLC and etc. As the number of competitors increases and become roughly equal size, the rivalry become intensified and competitors attempt to gain dominance over others. Though Tesco is presently the largest retailer in UK, many other upcoming retailers mentioned above are trying to gain more market share by dominating the market. Rivalry is also stronger when demand for the product is growing slowly. (Tesco Porters Five Force Model , 2008) With the rivalry intensity, each competitor is tempted to use price cuts to boost unit volume and hence create price war between rivals. Besides that, Tesco’s business and products are also weakly differentiated that customers do not require any cost switching from one retailer to another. The intensity of rivalry in the retailing industry where Tesco belongs to is great. Therefore the threat of competitive rivalry is high for Tesco. 18 Substitutes The accessibility and availability of acceptable substitutes for products that Tesco offers are easy and abundant. For example, Sainsbury can match the low prices that Tesco offers in the market and even equal the quality of products they offer, making the substitute force high in the retailing industry. (Tesco Porters Five Force Model , 2008) This drives Tesco to upgrade the product quality, reduce prices and differentiate their products from its substitute in order not to be affected by the threat. The upcoming trend of online shopping and free delivery also pose a substitute threat for the conventional shopping. Busy working adults can order their groceries or anything they need with just clicks on the PC. E-bay for instance, can offer a wide range of products from all over the world to its customers. However, Tesco had anticipated this new trend and has an online shopping website to cater the needs of this group of people. Hence, Tesco faces low threat on substitutes looking at the fact that Tesco affords to go on the price war since they are the biggest retailer in UK and most of the people still would want to go on the conventional way of shopping. 9 The Power of Supplier The factors increasing supplier power are the converse to those for buyer power and the supplier power is likely to be high where there are concentrated suppliers, high switching cost and supplier competition threat. (Johnson, Scholes, Whittington, 2008) However, this is not the case for Tesco who has the power over the suppliers. Suppliers are clamoring attention from giants like Tesco to buy their products. Suppliers understand that the purchasing volume from Tesco will be enormous if they clinch on any deal with them. With this, giant retailers have the overwhelming advantage to dictate the price and if the suppliers do not give in to the price that they are willing to pay, the suppliers are left only with the small supermarket chains that do not give them huge orders. Besides that, suppliers will have to maintain good services and prices with Tesco to sustain the order. This is due to the fact that switching cost from one supplier to another is low and therefore creating stiff competition among suppliers. With the above explanation, it is clear that Tesco faces low threat from the suppliers as they has much more negotiating power than any others would have. 20 The Power of Buyer Customers are essential for the survival of any business and buyers will normally have strong position when there are only a few concentrated buyers who buy in bulk and low switching cost from one supplier to another is low. (Johnson, Scholes, Whittington, 2008) In the retailing business, the number of customers is very large and they do not purchase in bulk. Therefore, the buyer’s power is not that strong. However, the switching cost for a buyer is virtually none. Buyers have the freedom to choose supermarket that can offer good prices since the things that all supermarket sells are almost the same. Fortunately for Tesco that all competitors have a disciplined approach in price setting, partly due to the government regulations. (Tesco Porters Five Force Model , 2008)The prices may differ, but it would not be a huge difference. Therefore, it will be more economical for customers to buy all the things they need in one place, rather than hopping around for the retailer that sells the cheapest in certain items. With the mentioned reason, it can be said that the threat of buyer is relatively low. 1 Summary of the 5 Forces Model |Porter’s Five Forces |Level | | |High |Low | |Threat of New Entries | |v | |Competitive Rivalry |^ | | |Substitute | |v | |The Power of Buyer | |v | |The Power of Supplier | |v | From the above analysis, Tesco clearly has a strong position in the retail industry in UK. The business is attractive to Tesco in UK and Tesco is enjoying the profit from the business. The only high threat that Tesco faces is the threat of competitive rivalry from the rivals. The following statistic shows the market share of the closest rivals that Tesco has. Supermarket in UK |Market Share | |Tesco |30. 6% | |ASDA |16. 6% | |Sainsburys |16. 3% | |Morrisons |11. % | |Somerfield |5. 4% | |Waitrose |3. 7% | |Iceland |1. 8% | (Source TNS cited by BBC 2006) Though Tesco has the largest market share, other retailers are coming up quickly. Tesco must keep an eye on these rivals so that the threat of substitute will not become high over time. Besides that, the easy entrants to UK also increase the rivalry for Tesco. It is good that Tesco is already well established in UK and the new entrants will require time to build up their experience and network to compete with Tesco. The rivalry forces can also affect the power of buyer. For example, if ASDA does some promotion that can attract the customer, Tesco will lose some of the market share to their rivals. Therefore, it is clear that Porter’s five forces are inter-related to each other and Tesco must always be alert to any of the forces. The macro environment give an impression of the political, economic, sociological, technological, legal and environmental factors that influence Porter’s five forces. The government regulation on the price setting actually had help Tesco to manage the threat of rivalry and substitute. UK is also getting more open in their economy, hence, Tesco is able to source from the cheaper suppliers from other countries and lower the threat from local suppliers. The buyers are now consisting of diversified people and Tesco must take into consideration of the new goods that can be sold to this group of people. This is one of the tactics to reduce threat from buyer and rivalry from other retailers who had catered into this new need. In addition to that, Tesco can make use of the latest information technology to sell their products online to avoid the substitute threat from retailers who do online business. Stakeholder analysis ‘Stakeholders are people or groups with a legitimate interest in a company. Since stakeholders are interested in and affected by the organization’s action, they have a ‘stake’ in what those actions are’ (Williams, C. 2000). Therefore it is important to understand the role stakeholders play in terms of Tesco as a business. Applying the concept of stakeholder mapping provides better understanding to the influence of stakeholders on corporate strategy. This can help to identify potential risk, establish the political background to the area, seek to influence the decision-makers, and provide intelligence about competitors, key themes and area of potential risk. The availability of the source of power determines the extent of power that can be exerted by both internal and external stakeholder group, this includes key position in the hierarchy or the decision-making process e. g. key managers, key role in strategy implementation or important shareholders; control of strategic resources and possession of know-how, or information. At Tesco, a big part of that is listening to the people around them, and making sure they act on their concern. Engagement helps Tesco identify new risks and opportunities to ensure that long-term strategy is sustainable. In some instances working with stakeholders in partnership can help deliver shared goals. Tesco acknowledge that customers need to be able to trust their business and customers will only trust them if they do the right thing by all their stakeholders Key players: Tesco core value defines â€Å"people† as a critical success factor. People includes customer, employees. Customer question time meeting are invaluable to Tesco. Staff hears customers’ views on everything from how they are being served in their stores to Tesco’s role in the community. Employee gives feedback through viewpoint staff survey, staff question time sessions and staff forum process. Tesco core value is â€Å"treat people how we like to be treated†. And its something Tesco applies firmly to their supplier relationships. Tesco loyalty card scheme – â€Å"Clubcard† enables Tesco to better understand their customers and show appreciation to customer for shopping with them. Tesco creative marketing created more than eight million unique coupon variations of Clubcard mailing, to ensure that each Clubcard member receives the kind of offer that is appropriate for them. (Tesco, 2009) Tesco employs more than 285,000 employees in the UK, besides market-leading package of pay and its employees are entitled to fringe benefits such as childcare vouchers and share schemes. (Tesco. com) Tesco shareholders are also key player, the investor relations team regularly meets analysts from the financial institutions which invest in them or represent Tesco shareholders. Keep Satisfied Non-Government Organization (NGO) have less power but bear high interest on the organization, regular meetings with NGO to understand and respond to issues of concern will keep this group satisfied as getting their ‘endorsement’ is critical to the success of a strategy. Keep Informed Rival retail chain and trade magazine also have influencing power to their corporate strategy, therefore need to take them into account. Minimal Effort This group exerts low power and low interest. Core Competences Core competences are defined as the â€Å"skills and abilities by which resources are deployed through an organization’s activities and processes such as to achieve competitive advantage in ways that others cannot imitate or obtain†. (Johnson, Scholes, Whittington, 2008, p. 97) Tesco’s core competence is to create value for customers to earn their lifetime loyalty. Its success depends on people, the people who shop and work with Tesco. If the customers like what Tesco offer, they are more likely to come back and shop again. And if the Tesco team finds what Tesco do rewarding; they are more likely to go that extra mile to help the customers. To achieve and sustain the competitive advantage, Tesco own its strategic capabilities which are valuable to customers, rare, inimitable and non-substitutable. Value No-one tries harder for customers like Tesco does. Tesco regularly ask the customers how to make shopping in Tesco better. Tesco creates value by listening to what the customers have told them, understand and be the first to meet their needs. Therefore, Tesco has created the â€Å"Every Little Helps† strategy which to ensure the aisles are clear, the customers can get what they want with a good price, customers need not to queue and the staff are helpful and great. With the aim of become the â€Å"best value retailer† and customer deserve best value for money, Tesco had worked hard to find ways of keeping the prices down which has resulted in 17% of price reduction between 2000 and 2006. (Tesco 2009) The company has also been successful in creating a great place to work which is â€Å"treat people how we like to be treated†. Staffs are treated with respect, managers who always help, opportunities are provided to get on. The better the staffs are treated, the better services they would provide to the customers. 25 Rarity To win over other competitors means one company must possess a unique and rare capability. Tesco has been so successful in capturing leadership of the market for online grocery shopping by designing and implementing supply systems that effectively link existing shops with Tesco. com web site. (tutor2u, n. d. ) Although online shopping is a feature of competitors such as Wal-Mart and other competitors, Tesco’s ability to design and deliver a â€Å"customer interface† that personalizes online shopping and makes it more efficient has resulted the customers valuing the Tesco. com experience highly. Customer’s confidence has been built up with Tesco’s reliable and efficient delivery infrastructure from product picking, distribution to customer satisfaction handling. 26 Inimitability To create sustainable competitive advantage over time is not so straightforward and it must be competitively unique and difficult for competitors to imitate. (Kotelnikov, n. d. ) Tesco PLC of the United Kingdom has greater market share than its rival ASDA Group PLC in Britain. The market share for groceries is 31 percent for Tesco PLC compared to 16 percent for Wal-Marts Asda chain. The supermarket chain has introduced a loyalty program called Tesco Clubcard that collects detailed market information. (Advameg Inc. , 2008) Tesco pioneered the Clubcard rewards program to gather customer detail information, which it then used to accommodate to specific customer needs and potential desires. When shoppers signed up for the card, their age, gender, and income are automatically provided. Tesco was then able to segment their shoppers based on these factors. As long as the shopper used the card when shopping online or in-store, purchased product information was automatically captured into Tesco database. This enables Tesco to collect data about the spending habits and product choices of the customers allowing Tesco to target goods and services effectively such as grocery delivery services. (Knowmore. org, 2008) Apparently Tesco has done significantly better than competitors in winning customer’s loyalty. 27 Non-substitutability In order to maintain a big market share in this competitive environment, Tesco has to provide value to customer and possess competence which is non-substitutable over time. Hence, Tesco has evolved from merely food supply store (Tesco Express and Tesco Metro) to a wide range of food and non-food provider (Tesco Superstore, Tesco Extra and Tesco Homeplus). In addition to a variety of store formats, Tesco also provides a broad appeal by continually innovating and investing in new lines to increase options for customers. â€Å"From Value to Finest and lifestyle ranges like Organic, Free From, Healthy Living and Wholefoods, our various own brands enable customers to buy products to compliment their lifestyle. Our nutritional signpost labeling aims to provide customers with the key information they need to help them choose a balanced diet. † (Tesco 2009, The recent recession has shown a new challenge to Tesco because although customers tend to shop around more for the best prices when times are hard but it doesnt mean they want to compromise on quality of the shopping trip or on choice. â€Å"That is why last year we made the biggest change to our range in a decade, launching around 500 new products as part of our Discount Brands at Tesco initiative. (Tesco 2009) This new range of products enables customer to match their budget without compromising on quality or choice. This act managed to retain the customer to continue to stay on Tesco. Core Competencies need to be flexible and evolve overtime with adaptation to the environment. As a business evolves and adapts to new circumstances and opportunities, so its core competencies which underpin the success will have to adapt and change . With the capabilities of which are valuable to customers, rare, inimitable and non-substitutable, Tesco manages to sustain as British largest retailer over its competitors. Conclusion Today, companies operate in a dynamic global environment whether they are domestic or international players. In order to stay competitive, companies need to innovate. ‘Innovation requires pressure, necessity and even adversity. The fear of loss often proves more powerful than the hope of gain’. (Porter, 1999,p. 164). In these changing times, Tesco has been able to maintain their position as Britain’s number one retailer through innovative approaches in all aspects of their business, from customers to employees to supply chain management. The dynamic macro environment that Tesco UK operates in provides both opportunities and threats. The present economic situation in UK is an important indicator that would and is affecting Tesco’s operations. Though the country has been experiencing high unemployment rates presently, recent statistics show an improvement in sales figures which is an indication for future growth. Changes in consumer behavior patterns and socio cultural changes such as increased migration will no doubt play an important role in creating strategies to have a sustainable competitive advantage for the company. Through Porters 5 Forces Model, we have gained a better understanding of Tesco’s competition. The biggest threat is the existing rivalry in the UK between the supermarket giants such as Asda, Sainsbury, Safeway, Marks and Spencer ad Tesco. Price competition is still the main form of competition existing within these giants. However, Tesco has understood the importance of their stakeholders, mainly consumers and employees and focused their strategic direction towards creating a loyal consumer and employee base with long term commitment. Constant changes to meet customer demands and high response to consumer feedback are important core competencies of the company. Value for money and being able to cater to all market segments have also been vital in maintain their competitive advantage. With the identification of these competencies and the environment analysis, Tesco now could align their future strategic direction to achieve long term sustainable growth as a responsible leader in the UK retail industry. References Johnson, G. , Scholes, K. , Whittington, R. (2008). Exploring Corporate Strategy. Harlow: Prentice Hall. Kotelnikov, V. Core Competencies: Things You Can Do Better Than Your Competition. Retrieved November 15, 2009, from 1000 Ventures: 1000ventures. com/business_guide/crosscuttings/core_competencies. html Knowmore. org. (2008, May 21). Tesco PLC. Retrieved November 17, 2009, from Knowmore. org: knowmore. org/wiki/index. php? title=Tesco_PLC Tesco 2009. Core UK. Retrieved November 17, 2009, from Tesco PLC: tescoplc. com/plc/about_us/strategy/coreuk/ tutor2u. Strategy Core Competencies. Retrieved November 15, 2009, from Tutor2u: http://tutor2u. net/business/strategy/core_competencies. htm The Press Association, Tesco sees market share growth, 10 November 2009. Retreived on 17 November from google. com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5hBp-Szv5JTubP4tXxSQSQdL3bsMw Office for National Statistics, UK Statistics Authority 2009 retrieved on 19 November 2009 from statistics. gov. uk/instantfigures. asp Just-Food. com, Sound Bites – The UK Grocery ‘code of practice’ . Russel Michelle, 3 March 2009 retreived from ttp://www. just-food. com/article. aspx? id=105666 The Guardian, UK 21 April 2009. Wearden G. Tesco unveils record profits of ? 3bn. Retrieved on 19 November 2009 from guardian. co. uk/business/2009/apr/21/tesco-record-profits-supermarket Eurofound 2009, Tesco, UK: Make work pay – make work attractive retrieved on 19 November 2009 from eurofound. europa. eu/areas/qualityofwork/betterjobs/cases/uk04tesco. htm BBC News Online, Stamp Gavi n 25 April 2006 Foreign growth jey to Tesco goals retrieved on 19 November 2009 from http://news. bc. co. uk/2/mobile/business/4781458. stm Tesco corporate responsibility report 2009 retreived on 17 November 2009 from investis. com/plc/cr09/crr09. pdf Porter, Michael. E. (1999) On Competition. Harvard Business Press Williams, C. (2000). Management, Cincinnati Ohio, South-Western College Publishing Advameg Inc. . (2008, n. d. n. d. ). Abstract. Retrieved November 17, 2009, from Internet FAQ Archives: Online Education: faqs. org/abstracts/Business-international/No-1-retailer-in-Britain-uses-Clubcard-to-thwart-Wal-Mart. html

Gm Business Environment Essays

Gm Business Environment Essays Gm Business Environment Essay Gm Business Environment Essay 1. INTRODUCTION OF GENERAL MOTORS 1. 1 Brief introduction General Motors Company or better known as GM is an American multinational auto manufacturing corporation traded as NYSE:GM, TSX: GMM. Its headquarter is in America. The company was found first in 1908. In 2008, the major recession and global credit crisis drove car sales to near depression levels and dried up private sources of capital. GM, critically short of operating cash, received a bridge loan from the U. S. Treasury, under conditions that the company further accelerate a tough restructuring of its operations that had been underway for several years [1]. General Motors Corporation then filed for bankruptcy on June 1, 2009. In June, 2009, with a support from the U. S. Government, a new GM was reborn with four brands in the U. S. : Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac. Since then, the company has grown up rapidly with more than 70% of its sales coming from outside of the U. S and become one of the world’s largest automakers. GM now employs over 209,000 people in every major region of the world and does business in more than 120 countries. GM and its strategic partners produce cars and trucks in 31 countries. They sell and provide services for the brands: Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, Cadillac, Daewoo, Holden, Isuzu, Jiefang, Opel, Vauxhall and Wuling and China is the biggest market. After the bankruptcy and getting support from the US government, GM has changed their strategy and now re-emerging at the new GM is a very competitive spirit. 1. 2 GM mission and vision statement The New York Times evaluate that for most of the 20th century, General Motors was the biggest company in the most important industry in the world. : And after one of the biggest corporate collapses in history, the new GM made one of the biggest rebounds ever[2]. â€Å"Vision statement is concerned with what the organization aspires to be†. (Johnson et al. , 2010; p164). GM’s vision is to design, build and sell the world’s best vehicles[3]. ‘A mission statement aims to provide employees and stakeholders with clarity about the overall purpose and raison d’etre of the organization†. (Johnson et al. , 2010; p164). GM works to be the leading auto manufacturer in style, technology, services and marketing of the auto business and surely in innovation. 1. Company’s core values According to Johnson, Scholes and Whittington (2008), core values are the underlying principles that guide and organization’s strategy[4]. GM has some main core values focusing on five main areas: customers, employees, communities, dealers and suppliers. (1) Customers. the company always keep in mind that motor vehicle safety begins with the driver and convince customers with quality and safety. GM listens to their customers and the relationship with customers is critical to their vision. (2) Employees. GM’s business can not be developed well without innovative and skillful employees. GM welcomes and encourages all employees to perform at their highest potential toward achieving the company’s business objectives and each individual’s professional goals. The company invest in educating and training their employees. (3) Communities. GM support communities in various ways including sponsorships and participation in events such as Education, Health and Human services, Environment and Energy and Community Development [5] (4) Dealers: GM wants to create a profitable dealer network across all GM bands that reflects consumer diversity. (5) Suppliers. GM has developed and grown competitive, diverse supply base that will work together with GM to design, build and sell the world’s best vehicles. 1. 4 Company’s objectives â€Å"Objectives are statements of specific outcomes that are to be achieved. † (Johnson et al. , 2010; p55). Like other companies in the industry, GM’s objectives are (1) maintaining consistent levels of investment in engineering and product development to provide clients world best vehicle, (2) become profitable and minimal level of debt, (3) maintaining cost discipline to achieve bigger market share and (4) be responsible and sustainable to community and environment. . GENERAL MOTORS’ BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT ANALYSIS 2. 1 External environment PESTLE To analyze the impacts of external environment on GM’s business, the framework PESTLE will be used. â€Å"The PESTEL framework categories environmental influences into six main types: political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal. † (Johnson et al. , 2010; p55). Political factors: More laws and regulations are applied in different countries due to the economic downturn, import policy, fuel policy and consumers’ concern for environment and safety. For example in tax policy for importing cars in Vietnam is very high 100% 200%. In some poor countries where GM has office or branches, politics problems also affect auto industry. Economic factors: the economic downturn, inflation and unstable exchange rate have reduced the spending power of consumers. The credit crisis in Europe and economic problems in many other countries. Social factors: many people are jobless and reduce their spends or change the demand of vehicle. The gap between the rich and the poor is bigger and bigger in the world. Owning and driving a car shows the owner’s wealth and social status. Moreover, more people like environmental friendly vehicle. Technological factors: Technology is changing everyday and it requires the company to be updated and be more eco-friendly due to the trend of consumers. Many people have habit of using internet to look for a car before going to the shop and buy it so internet is really need to be focused on. Legal factors: more rule and regulations for safety standards and environmental impacts are being applied in many countries. Environmental factors: The environment is more and more polluted, too much smoke from factories and transport vehicles. This means that too much fuel has been used and need to be reduced. Therefore, many recent disasters like typhoons in Thailand, China, Earthquake in Japan and China where GM has the biggest markets really affected to the company’s business. 2. 2 Competitive environment Porter’s five forces framework â€Å"The Porter five forces framework helps identify the attractiveness of an industry or sector in terms of competitive forces. The five forces are the threat of entry into an industry, the threat of substitutes to the industry, the power of buyers, the power of suppliers and the extent of rivalry† (Johnson et al. , 2010; p55). Firstly, the threat of entry into an industry is low because there are many existing competitors in the industry and it costs lots of money to jump into the automobile business. Secondly, threat of substitutes to the industry is fairly high. Because of the economic downturn, the trend of using eco-friendly vehicles to save fuel and protect environment and traffic jams, other vehicles such as public buses, MRT, BTS are more preferable in many countries now. Thirdly, even the many consumers reduce their demand of buying a car, however, the bargaining power of buyers is low because simply they can not make a car themselves. The power of suppliers is fairy low because they can not produces a completed vehicle and really depends on its the company and the market. Raw materials are also easier to find in the high technology world. The last one is competitive rivalry which is really strong in automobile supplying market. Toyota, Ford, Volkswagen, Nissan, Huyndai and many other companies are competing with GM everyday with new models, new shops, new plants For example, Ford is going to set up more plants in India and Huyndai have created more cheaper cars. In general GM is now facing very competitive environment with high power of buyers, threat of substitutes to the industry’s products and services and very strong competitive rivalry in the automobile market. In general the industry is not favorable to profitability and the core competence of GM is innovation. 2. 3 Competitors and markets Even now there are not many new entrants to the industry but there are many existing competitors in the automobile business. They are all big and developed such as Toyota, Ford, Volkswagen, Nissan, Mazda, Huyndai, Mercedes and BMW, etc The three biggest competitors of GM are Huyndai Toyota and Honda Motor. Please see the financial report of GM for the last 3 quarter in 2011 and you can see. Toyota Motor Corp is a Japanese auto manufacturer that is the closest competitor to GM, especially in terms of number of cars produced and market share. In 2008, when GM was in the bankruptcy, Toyota Motor Corp. became the largest automobile manufacturer in the world continued remaining in 2009 and 2010. Huyndai Motor Corp is a Korean company that is also close competitor to GM in terms of product lines and competitive price. Huyndai Motors also focus on mini and mid-sized sedans which are more preferable by the middle class consumer. Ford Company is a very closer competitor to GM in terms of its size and innovation. With a long history, Ford has become the leader in harnessing nature as an energy source and using zero-emission hydroelectric energy. Looking at the US News Ranking for cars, Ford is the company who has most cars at the top lists[6]. In 2010, massive recalls from Honda and Toyota caused an alarm to the auto industry and really shared GM more markets. GM is now attracting more customers by innovating their existing products and selling them at very competitive prices; and positioning themselves better into the new markets. 3. COMPANY STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES 3. 1 Strengths Beside the external and competitive environment, the internal strengths of GM has really helped gain lots of its lost market share since they got back to their business in 2009. GM is still one of the leading company in the world automotive industry. These are the strengths of the company: Large market share is the core strength of GM. According to the Wall Street Journal, by the end of October 2011, GM had achieved the biggest share of the total market (18. 3%) in the US market[7]. [pic] [pic] Technology potential: GM’s global research resources allow the company to quickly investigate and integrate new technical areas of expertise. Safety and quality commitments: GM has announced that quality and safety are at their top of the agenda. GMs Passenger Sensing System is designed to help reduce the potential for inflation-induced injuries or fatalities to smaller occupants New business model centered on GM’s vision of designing, building and elling the world’s best vehicles. Good reputation of many brands such as Chevrolet, Cadillac, GMC, and widely global distribution networks. Innovation and responsibility: GM is now providing more and more eco-friendly and sustainable vehicles to reduce impacts on the environment. This is absolutely suitable with the new trend of consumer. GM has the new team focused on results. The company has gathered and promoted many strong engineering talents with rich education. 3. 2 Weaknesses Many people said that retail was GM’s strength. Yes, it was. However it has turned to be a weakness as the company has invested too much money to maintain the their global distribution system for so many brands without getting profit back. GM has launched many new brands recently and spent a lot of money to promote, do marketing and maintain them together with existing brands while many of them don’t make any profit. Looking at GM’s annual reports[8] and comparing with the other competitors, GM has a poor financial strength. [pic] Source: Automotive Industry Competitor Analysis (CPM), available at www. carfreaks. info 3. 3 Value chain Analysis The value chain describes the categories of activities within and around an organization, which together create a product or service†. At GM, the value chain can be analyzed as the table below: (4) 3. 4 Managing people for capability development GM is an multinational corporation and employs about 210,000 employees in all over the world. Their employees are from more than 120 differ ent countries with different history, culture and lifestyle. So to manage well and develop the strategic capability of the company is very important. GM has done quite well educating and training. The company provide and encourage their staff to a lot of education and training. GM has built the content and classroom-ready lesson plans to help inspire students to pursue Science, Technology, Engineering and Math careers[9]. GM also applies staffing policies to develop an motivate their employees. The company also develop people’s awareness to direct people doing their right job to achieve company’s objectives. The new business model and the new leadership at GM have changed their management style to manage, value and motivate well their followers. 4. STRATEGIC RECOMMENDATIONS FOR GM To implement the above portfolio strategy for GM, we use tools to put strategy into action. Implementation strategy is the final step of the strategic management process and many people said that this step is the most difficult step and it’s even more important than the strategy because if the company creates right strategy but implements it incorrectly, the strategy can not be supported to achieve the company’s objectives and vision statement, sometimes seriously the company probably goes to bankrupt or gets bad problems with the business. The tools to implement GM’s strategy can also be seen as the strategic recommendations for GM. They include structural type, leadership, information and control system and human resource. 4. 1 Structural type GM is a multinational company and structure is a key thing for success. The transactional structure which â€Å"combines the local responsiveness of the international subsidiary with the coordination advantages† (John et. al. , 2010, p441) will be a suitable type for GM. Because with this structure, each national unit such as in Vietnam, China and Thailand can operate independently following the strategy of the mother company and be more responsible for their business. Each country manager and management board must understand the culture where their customers and their employees live. GM should use Balanced scorecard to acknowledge expectations of different stakeholders who affect GM’s business, and to learn short-term innovation as well as long-term success. Balanced scorecard can be used at different levels, criterion and perspectives. 4. 2 Human Resources GM is a big company and their employees live and worked from over 120 countries in the world. GM recruits, chooses and employs right local people to work for the company and follow the overall strategy. However, human is not like other resources. Human Resources (HR), managers and management board should understand the local culture and diversify. Employees are very important for GM’s business. Good employees should be valued, motivated and given chance to education and promotion. In each country, GM should have different and specific rules and regulations for employees there. HR also needs to be sensitive with employees’ expectations and difficulties to encourage and motivate them well. 4. 3 Information and control systems GM needs to update and control information to make sure that the strategy is processing correctly. Moreover, information should be shared and communicated between staff in the company to make them feel comfortable to catch up any changes or problems. Information systems are to provide strategy-critical information on a timely basis, and whatever inventory, materials management, customers services, cost accounting and other administrative systems are needed to give the company important strategy-executing capability. These internal systems must support the management process, the way the managers at GM work together, as well as monitor strategic progress. [10] 4. Finance factors Finance is an important determinant of strategic success. To implement the strategy, it may cost the company money and it should be budgeted, estimated and control carefully because financial statement of GM has not been brightly yet. The company still have debts and financing need to be taken care carefully. 4. 5 Market leader GM has many well-known brands and another suggestion for GM to develop their mar ket to be the market leaders is that GM should increase their existing market share to high their growth also find new markets for the existing vehicles. Beside the Red Ocean Strategy which focuses more on head-to-head competition, GM should apply and develop Blue Ocean Strategy to create new markets by developing products, building good relationship with dealer networks and customers, finding niche market to focus on 5. CONCLUSION General Motors Company (GM) with a long history in the automotive industry has got back and step by step gaining its lost market share in the bankruptcy in 2008. With many strengths and competitive advantages, GM has gained huge market share in the U. S. nd many other countries such as China, Russia Moreover, in 2010 Toyota and Honda fell into many recalls which gave GM more opportunities to recover more quickly. [1] Company history and heritages, Globalization section, available at GM’s website: www. gm. com [2] Retrieved from topics.. [3] Akerson D. , â€Å"We are building a New General Motors†, General Motors Company 2010 Annual Report, p. 2 [4] G. Johnson, K. Scholes and R. Whittington, ‘Corporate value’, Exploring Corporate Strategy, 8th edition, Pearson Education, 2008, p 163 164 5] More information at gm. com [6] U. S. News Ranking for cars, trucks, SUVs and hybrids can be viewed following this link: http://usnews. rankingsandreviews. com/cars-trucks/rankings/cars/ [7] Source retrieved from http://online. wsj. com/mdc/public/page/2_3022-autosales. html [8] General Motors Company annual reports are available at gm. com [9] Company Innovation, information is available on GM’s official website gm. com [10] Information retrieved from: strategy-implementation. 24xls. com/en106