Blog

Charles 

A marketing blunder that cost a business, because they didn’t trust their industry research was Kodak.  Kodak had spent a lot of money on paper and chemicals, not to mention on the film that either you could have developed, or if you had the equipment to develop it yourself, that could be done as well.  Kodak in 1980 even had a design for a digital camera, but it didn’t use any picture paper to capture images on it.  So the idea was permanently shelved, thinking it was a crazy idea, how wrong they were.

Other camera companies in the industry was slowly heading into the digital world, however Kodak had chose to ignore the trend that was about to take place 20 plus years later.  Kodak continued to use their old ways of doing business, and continuing with making picture paper, film, and chemicals to have it processed.  Sales began going down in the mid to late 1990’s, after the beginning of the year 2000 (Y2K), the sales really began to drop.   Companies like Samsung, LG, and others began showing up with digital cameras, which sales took off fast, leaving Kodak in the dust, so to speak.  The market research had shown Kodak a reality that they saw coming, but did nothing to counter it.  Don’t dissuade your business not to access and invest in something digital, otherwise, why do market  research at all?

Sierra 

Hello class,

In this discussion post, I will address the first two questions.

1. What competencies were you able to develop in researching and writing the course Comprehensive Project? How did you leverage knowledge gained in the intellipath assignments (Units 1- 4) in completing the Comprehensive Project? How will these competencies and knowledge support your career advancement in management?

The comprehensive project was a little more difficult than I thought it would be, due to personal issues. I know that communication throughout the entire process is very important, but it was tough. I am such a social person, that sending an email or discussion post was difficult for me to communicate, but I overcame and adapted. The intellipath assignments help me incorporate much of the classroom material into the final research project. I enjoyed learning how business processes are continuously improving, but change isn’t always accepted. For a company to grow, there are so many details and plans that need to evaluated first. The managers and CEO’s really need to grasp the whole idea of business expansion, and then it needs to be presented in a business report. All details matter, so being thorough is important. I learned that communication, organization, and research are key to being successful. In management, everyone needs to be on the same page- however you make that happen is up to you.

2. What are the important elements of strategy? Why?

Important elements of strategy are to know the ‘Why?’ and how is it going to benefit the consumers and stakeholders, what are the future goals of the company, and how is everyone going to get this training? To strategize, the internal and external sources of the company need to be evaluated. The objective, the scope, and the competitive advantages need to be assessed to form a successful strategy.

Micah 

Hi All,

For this course, I strengthened several competencies but the top two were: (1) create plans to improve business and (2) accessing the importance of global management (strategic).  For example, technology is a good tool in looking at global strategic management options (Roberts, 2001). I can use technology to help coordinate initiatives.  I am able to leverage knowledge from Intellipath to apply strategic and content enhanced concepts to help fully explain and analyze product details. This includes the ability to make connections to real-life scenarios and create a business plan and scaffolded projections. This helped in creating a dialogue for the project and devising a way to explain content that reflects a deep understanding of the project concepts. My advancement in my field is enhanced by knowing this information so I am able to apply concepts and methods in real-life situations. This is important and significant, for me, because I am able to make decisions and collaborate with others to better the organization.

The important elements of a strategy are the purpose and the structure because a strategy can be effective if it is for a specific purpose that aligns with the goal set for success. There are many strategies that exist; however, not every strategy would be a good one to use for an organization. This makes it important to select a strategy that aligns to the purpose of its use in correlation to the organizational goals, leadership, structure and system for checks and balances to ensure the strategy is implemented correctly and there is a consistent and effective way to monitor and evaluate its success. The purpose must align to the structure of the strategy. The ease or difficulty in establishing and executing the strategy is closely tied to structure and purpose (Roberts, 2001). If the strategy is complex, it may take too much time or be to cumbersome to execute which can lead to employees not being willing to put forth the effort. If the structure is easy to understand and employees feel confident to implement it, then the ability to see success and make adjusts as needed will be easier to accomplish and employees will feel able to take ownership of their efforts.  The significance is that the elements of a strategy is vital to establishing successful means of implementation for success.  The implication is that an organization can achieve goals through appropriate selection and use when the strategy aligns to the organization’s needs.

LaToya 

Hello Dr. Henderson and peers:

To assess what the important elements of strategy are, a clear definition of strategy is required. According to our textbook, strategy for a company is “the set of actions that its managers take to outperform the company’s competitors and achieve superior profitability” (Strategic Management, 2017, p. 3).    Based on this definition, at a minimum, the following areas must be in mind when a strategy is created customers, products/services, competitors, economics, marketing, company SWOT attributes, resources, and stakeholders. These components can be grouped into five facets that cover the important elements of a strategy.  These five facets with explanations of their importance are below:

• Arenas. Identification of the specific geographic markets and the channels and value-chain activities in those markets.
• Differentiators. What differentiates the organization from competitors, makes products or services more attractive to future customers, and strengthens the effectiveness of the differentiators in the chosen arenas are uncovered.
• Vehicles. The preference to use organic investment and growth, alliances, or acquisitions as expansion vehicles are revealed.
• Staging and pacing. When you start expanding, how quickly you expand and the sequence of your expansion efforts are divulged.
• Economic logic. How your strategy contributes to the overall economic logic of your business and corporate strategies is provided.

(International Business, 2012, p. 10.4)

Ensuring each of these items is appropriately and fully addressed will ensure the strategy’s effectiveness to achieve or retain a competitive advantage and improve company performance, which is the goal of all strategies.