21st Century Competition

The fundamental nature of competition in many of the world’s industries is changing. The pace of this change is relentless and increasing. Even determining the boundaries of an industry has become challenging. The companies compete not only among themselves, but also with companies in other sectors. The pace of change among once-stable phone companies is as relentless as it is in the “traditional” grocery industry.

Still other characteristics of the 21^st century competition are noteworthy. Conventional sources of competitive advantage such as economies of scale and huge advertising budgets, are not as effective in the 21^st century competition.

The traditional managerial mindset cannot lead a firm to strategic competitiveness in the competitive landscape. In its place, managers must adopt a new mindset—one that values flexibility, speed, innovation, integration, and the challenges that evolve from constantly changing conditions. The conditions of the competition result in a perilous business world, one where investments required to compete on a global scale are enormous and the consequences of failure are severe.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

International Opportunities

International opportunities abound for the network organization with a global ambition. Companies have widened their perspectives to encompass the globe. The spread of privatization, and the impact of a general slowdown in growth and particular national economic recessions presents the acquisitive with a flow of new opportunities, while barriers continue to fall as a result of deregulation and market forces. The global integration of manufacturing and other activities within international companies means that ‘internal’ trade within international network organizations accounts for a significant proportion of cross-border trade.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

 

The Promotion Management Process

The Promotion management component of the total marketing communications mix consists of six major tools: personal selling, mass-media advertising, direct mail advertising, sales promotion, point-of-purchase communications, and public relations/publicity. These tools operate in concert with one another to help accomplish various marketing objectives.

The overall promotion management process consists of a logical sequence of decisions that must be made in order to implement effective promotional programs and achieve marketing objectives: situation analysis, marketing objectives, promotion budget, integration and coordination, promotion management program, and evaluation and control.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

 

Vertical Integration Strategies

Vertical integration extends a firm’s competitive scope within the same industry. It involves expanding the firm’s range of activities backward into sources of supply and/or forward toward end users of the final product. Thus, if a manufacturer invests in facilities to produce certain component parts rather n than purchase them from outside suppliers, it remains in essentially the same industry as before. The only change is that it has business units in two production stages in the industry’s value chain system. Similarly, if a paint manufacturer elects to integrate forward by opening 100 retail stores to market its products directly to consumers, it remains in the paint business even though its competitive scope extends further forward in the industry chain.

Vertical integration strategies can aim at full integration (participating in all stages of the industry value chain) or partial integration (building positions in just some stages of the industry’s total value chain). A firm can accomplish vertical integration by starting its own operations in other stages in the industry’s activity chain or by starting a company already performing the activities it wants to bring in-house.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

 

Generic and Grand Strategies

Many businesses explicitly and all implicitly adopt one or more generic strategies characterizing their competitive orientation in the marketplace. Low cost, differentiation, or focus strategies define the three fundamental options. Enlightened managers seek to create ways their firm possesses both low cost and differentiation competitive advantages as part of their overall generic strategy. They usually combine these capabilities with a comprehensive, general plan of major actions through which their firm intends to achieve its long-term objectives in a dynamic environment. Called the grand strategy, this statement of means indicates how the objectives are to be achieved. Although every grand strategy is, in fact, a unique package of long-term strategies, some basic approaches can be identified: concentration, market development, product development, innovation, horizontal integration, vertical integration, joint venture, strategic alliances, consortia, concentric diversification, conglomerate diversification, turnaround, divesture, and liquidation.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

 

Disambiguating Resources

Resources are inputs into a firm’s production process, such as capital equipment, the skills of individual employees, patents, finances, and talented managers. In general, a firm’s resources can be classified into three categories: physical, human, and organizational capital. Resources are either tangible or intangible in nature. With increasing effectiveness, the set of resources available to the firm tends to become larger.

Individual resources alone may not yield a competitive advantage. A sophisticated piece of manufacturing equipment may become a strategically relevant resource only when its use is integrated effectively with other aspects of a firm’s operations (such as marketing and the work of employees). In general, it is through the combination and integration of sets of resources that competitive advantages are formed.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

Learn from Operations of other Organizations

There is nothing wrong with learning from other organizations. You should search each reasonable source for ideas that you can adapt—don’t be afraid or too proud to borrow ideas from anyone. Remember that to copy from one person is plagiarism, to copy from lots of people is research. If you offer a service, you might start by looking at the operations of a highly successful service provider. You can learn a lot by walking around companies and thus see how they have tackled their decisions about location, layout, capacity, product design, process design, performance measures, logistics, stock control, technology used, staffing, pricing, amount of vertical integration, maintenance and replacement, and financing.  When you look for improvements, see how other organizations have solved similar problems, and don’t be afraid to borrow good ideas.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, Line of Sight

The March of Globalization

Globalization is the spread of economic innovations around the world and the political and cultural adjustments that accompany this difusion. Globalization encourages international integration, which has increased substantially during the last generation. In globalized markets and industries, financial capital might be obtained in one national market and used to buy raw materials in another one. Manufacturing equipment bought from a third national market can be used to produce products that are sold in yet a fourth market. Thus globalization increases the range of opportunities for firms competing in the 21^st century competitive landscape.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, Line of Sight

Just about Culture

Culture is a) a pattern of basic assumptions, b) invented, discovered, or developed by a given group, c) as it learns to cope with its problems of external adaptation and internal integration, d) that has worked well enough to be considered valid and, therefore, e) is to be taught to new members as f) the correct way to perceive, think, and feel in relation to these problems.

As a concept borrowed by organizational theorists from anthropology, culture can also be viewed as shared meanings or understandings that are largely tacit and unique to group members. It draws attention to facets of organizational life previously unattended to, and through shared interpretations it focuses action.

Managers use culture in a variety of ways. It can, for example, set the stage for the implementation of an organization’s business strategy. Culture can also prescribe acceptable ways for managers to interact with external constituencies such as shareholders, the government, or customers. Staffing decisions and performance criteria can flow from the organization’s culture. It can also guide the nature of acceptable interpersonal relationships within the company and the selection of an appropriate management style. It also has significance for organizational effectiveness: The culture’s strength and consistency, emphasis on employee involvement in decision making, facilitation of corporate adaptability to organizational change, and clarity of mission are key predictors of organizational effectiveness. Currently managers in many companies view the organizational culture as supporting team-based efforts.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please contact www.asifjmir.com, Line of Sight

Change and Challenges

Executing change presents major challenges. Many organizations underestimate the time and resources needed for change; do not attend sufficiently to coordination and integration of activities;  and fail to build capability for change execution. Typically, change managers get into a fire-fighting mode, waste precious time, energy and resources on dealing with crises, and then over a period of time get cynical and de-motivated.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please contact Asif J. Mir.