Portable Electric Power Tools
Mission Control @ ABLECorpAnalyze and
Assess Information Available
By Patrick Darnell
Introduction
It is unwise to label the ABLE Company at this time. Although by definition it appears the company is leveled off in a vulnerable position of weakness. I do not perceive leadership is lethargic, or willing to let go any time soon of what they still claim to have.
This paper is a preliminary to more in depth team driven discussion forum. The task is to develop a strategy for ABLECo. What and why we will be recommending will have been hollowed out by the time we are ready to present to Strategic Officers Steering Committee. Our strategic assessment will be also a result of research in secondary sources, and any primary data that applies to our strategy development.
Each agent in the development will be asked to arrive at a recommendation that is:
· Plausible
· Defensible
· Rational
· Feasible
No team member should try to achieve consensus on his recommendations, rather think in terms of the best reciprocating strategies each other will have developed. This initial appraisal refers to the first four chapters of text: Strategic Management in action, by Mary Coulter. Those sections explain concepts and context of strategic management. Also, the author addresses external and internal analysis frameworks for strength, weakness, opportunity, and threats applicable of ABLECo’s new strategy.
Task Objective
· Explain strategic management process within global environment
· Integrate and apply knowledge gained in other courses in business administration curriculum
· Use effective communication techniques
Task Detail
As a preliminary step in preparation of business plan, brainstorm major elements of strategic management processes. Using questions as guides, items to include might be:
· Insights
· Issues that need to be addressed
· Questions that need to be asked
o How would you go about defining the identity of Able Corporation and creating its mission statement?
o Where would you look for the information?
o What do you already know about Able that can help?
o What are some of the key elements that might be contained in ABLECo value propositions?
o What principle would you use in order to prioritize the implementation steps needed to accomplish the strategic objectives?
o What post implementation and feedback mechanisms would you have in place to evaluate the effectiveness of the process?
o What measures would you use?
For the ensuing presentation the deliverables are: mission statement, operating principles, market analysis, company strengths and weaknesses analysis, one-year, five-year and ten-year strategic objectives, sales forecasts, financial and operational objectives, and pro forma financials.
Discussion: Driving Force
Besides market demands what is the driving force of ABLECo? In many cases, a manufacturer in need of help will initially take on too much internal clamor. “The monthly meetings of senior management team have been reduced to arguments over attainment of company metrics [measurements] with each department pointing to its own set of reports to support its positions” (CTUOnline; April/2007).
Internal operations have evolved for many generations at ABLECo and those divisions may be change averse. If the firm depends on its own strategies it will create too much strife.
Organized by the senior management at ABLECo a future position is envisioned that sets the tone for a new channel of marketing. That channel is of end-users of industrial PEPT, Portable Electric Power Tools, who are drifting into the consumer PEPT channels of distribution. A shift in the gap between higher costing industrial tools and lower consumer tools is significant, so reports say. In this instance the gap is closing.
The senior staff has formed the position for Director of Strategic Planning and Analysis for our emerging ABLECo. The text defines the position as: “...management of a series of interrelated continuous steps that lead to the outcome” says the author. “Situation analysis, strategy formulation, strategy implementation and strategy evaluation” point the company in navigating its course (Coulter, M; 2005).
For help we look at levels of strategies on different organizational echelons and what they will divulge in context of driving forces.
· How would you go about defining the identity of Able Corporation and creating its mission statement?
Our firm has one vision, though yet to be assessed, but has several missions. Functional areas at ABLECo are ideal in finding the various missions emerging for the now strategically employed company. Major function areas are commonly:
o Production
o Financial
o Distribution
o And, unique areas to ABLECo
To establish competitive advantageous mission statement for ABLECo we will have evaluated our competitive levels in all departments. Once done we will attempt to implement, and evaluate our changing competitive strategy in a continuous improvement cycle. Competitive business unit strategy levels are comprised of:
o Resources
o Capabilities
o Core competencies
“Each [business strategy] unit’s mission statement still provides an overview of the unit’s purpose, what it does, and its goals,” says Coulter. “Ideally what you have is a broad framework within which organizational members know what they are doing and why they are doing it... aligned with the vision statement, ...with commitment to social responsibility, and ethical decision making” (Coulter, M; 2005 p48).
· Where would you look for the information?
In hope of finding useful information that has a thread of continuity for ABLE Co’s survival; strategic planners will ask management of functional strategic levels “What direction are we going and what businesses are we going to be in? What business do you want to be in” (Coulter, M; 2005, p7).
Tools to utilize for this stage of conceptual thinking are those already in use by crews. Tools for dynamic change and organized culture that have been in use for the life of ABLECo can be our best inroads.
Otherwise searching for the right path is in generating questions and weighing of ideas springing from those findings. Research questions, means questions about which you will be conducting qualitative research. The outcome of facilitated strategy on internet and secondary findings will lead to develop quantitative strategy that would help ABLECo make its business strategy decisions:
Should explain how statistical tools can be valuable to our business
- Should provide specific examples where we can effectively use statistical tools
- Should create a list of research questions that apply to our ABLECo situation
- Should use persistent links to help generate ideas for research questions
Also, generate research question ideas by conducting research in library and the Internet to find information about strategy management.
Should study and apply benchmark cases of similar companies so Strategic decision makers will find plenty of information, too much in fact, when they:
o Explore Additional Marketing Opportunities
o Explore Alternative Marketing Channels
o Set Up Comparison Shopping Campaigns
o Optimize Marketing Channels
o Pursue Credibility Indicators, such as
- * Improve Order Process
- * Optimize Product Offer
- * Optimize Presentation, and
- * Implement information technologic Metrics and Testing Platforms
With a little generous help from researchers, and strategic planners specialized in manufacturer’s unique battery of recent successes, ABLECo will find enormous amounts of information (Alt, B and Usborne, N; 25 April 2006, paraphrased).
·
What do you already know about Able that can help?
What is already known about ABLECo is found in its historical natural attraction minus the new competitive threats. In context of analysis, a preliminary SWOT discloses weaknesses of our firm. Further study into complement context reveals threats, opportunity, and strengths, of this table and will clear up much of “what” is going on.
Evaluation of major strengths will characterize ABLECo culture from the early days and contrast it to cultural actions today. And how that will make our firm prevail?” (Alt, B and Usborne, N; 25 April 2006, paraphrased) This table is paraphrased from CTUOnline Task Details, 2007.
Remember “ABLE Corporation has come to a decision to not let itself be manipulated in its market without some better reference” (CTUOnline; April/2007). Since stakeholders are timid about re-investing in ABLECo, senior staff turns to strategic planners. Upper Management hopes to distinguish itself and see if it helps boost interest
of investors. Knowing it has weaknesses will motivate staff to identify strengths and opportunities.
·
What are some of the key elements that might be contained in ABLECo value propositions?
ABLECo has lost track of its original Value Proposition, VP. In manufacturing we are an innovator of PEPT. However, defining VP is paramount to market penetration; actually the whole purpose of the VP is market penetration. Is innovation our value proposition?
If ABLECo were only interested in putting a spin on its marketing it would hire a marketing specialist, and innovation would be the spin. The firm is not looking for a patch. ABLECo has hired a strategy management specialist.
Value proposition is to be made using all measurements, Optimized search produces ratio of our value proposition to truth.
That said, it turns out the key elements will be derived from the internal functions of:
o Human resources
o Business Historical perspectives
o Brand values
o And core competencies
We could at ABLECo devote extraordinary time and resources “developing and fine-tuning the product delivery chain; sales, marketing, distribution, customer service, and all, but fail to assess the most fundamental of business success factors: our Value Proposition. So how did we survive?” Our VP will be the concise statement of the uniqueness of our business that sets it apart from all competitors. Without our Unique Value Proposition, ABLECo “risks becoming lost at sea with a host of similar businesses” (Alt, B and Usborne, N; 25 April 2006, para).
o Analyzing our competitors further identifies our strengths, weaknesses to strengthen our bottom lines
o Competitive analysis helps to develop our VP
o VP forces us to Test validity of claims we make about our business
o VP statement must contain quantitative statements about uniqueness of ABLECo
o What percentage of our market channels truly has an effective value proposition?
o How will this affect competitive marketing in our channels?
o Our primary research question will have to be this:
*
How do we evaluate our own value proposition?
It seems that many firms try to incorrectly “out-market a poor value proposition” over the top. Messily, if their VP is improper, it is like saying “We can cross over to the island when the tide is out.” The researchers at Marketing Experiments say, “[Those with poor VP’s] use the heavy force of marketing to try to overcome the weak force of their value proposition” (Alt, B and Usborne, N; 25 April 2006, para).
·
What principle would you use in order to prioritize the implementation steps needed to accomplish the strategic objectives?
Because ABLECo is innovator in PEPT, it deserves to reap benefit of better design by being rewarded in large volume of sales. This could be developed in a closed circuit of defining market potential and planning each release to that volume. A little bit more work for accounting management, and operations, but is worth the effort in reduced waste.
Our firm wants to carve out its own niches using service supported sales, and matching competitors’ pricing. Our strategic decisions will be based on a “five forces model as posed by Michael Porter in the text.” Our strategy will find exit barriers that threaten and provide opportunities for ABLECo, such as: Buyers; Suppliers; Substitutes, and Potential new entrants creating natural rivalry amongst firms in the PEPT industry (Coulter, M; 2005, p 70-75).
Volume can be created several ways. One way is to create opposing lines, each with its own curve and completion. Each is the nemesis of the other. While the border of each line defines a whelk, or spiraling development, a well-placed opposing line will complete the strategy. Only a large venerated company like ABLECo could get this to work for them for each generation of innovative tools.
Another way is to create shading and spin. One technique is no more effective than the other, because each must be implemented at the time it best fits. Therefore, the implementation is all about the timing and space the market has for the co-functional operations of these strategies.
Priority for implementation can spring back from force that is working against ABLECo at any given time. The forcers designated are then like this:
Search for market stability
- Produce only a limited product line for a narrow segment of total potential market
- Seek to protect and defend its well established business
- Do whatever is necessary aggressively to prevent competitors entering our turf
- Carve out, maintain niches within our industry that competitors find difficult to penetrate
This is paraphrased from the text where is described the characteristics of a Defender Strategy of competitiveness. (Coulter, M; 2005, p 188-190)
· What post implementation and feedback mechanisms would you have in place to evaluate the effectiveness of the process?
Once the company launches its satellites, it will have a mission control set up. At mission control will be the senior management, directors and investors. Success will have been dependent on strategic continuous improvement of functional levels at ABLECo; therefore monitoring will be a similar process, a common thread running between all divisions.
Team building is our first organization-wide strategy put into practice at ABLECo. For that to come about workers will be needy, demanding much more encouragement and follow-up. I have found one company that comes up in a majority of benchmark discussions: IBM, big blue. “Everyone talks innovation but IBM helps with a: Six Different Potentially Innovative doorways,” says the authors at IBM website. “Responding to competitive pressures and market opportunities requires business systems — and supporting technology infrastructures — to be quickly adaptable and flexible in structure,” claim IBM Partners (IBM Global Services; 2000).
Post-evaluation is the first functional strategic consideration because the firm must make a decision about its information technology systems right now. In best interest of efficient tracking, the entire company needs a trustworthy, helpful, friendly measuring system that ties functional, competitive and corporate strategies together. Useful strategy evaluations can not be made otherwise. Organizational context and external and internal contexts are not going to be explained properly unless the post-evaluation implements are in place from the beginning.
IBM proclaims that they can help with at least six doorways of “Service oriented architecture, SOA that helps clients create business value by helping them develop a more on demand IT infrastructure.” If this sounds familiar, it should: “IBM introduced the idea of On Demand Business.” Continuous managed improvement means to continually:
o Continually re-consider your business model
o Re-examine your processes
o Constantly challenge your management culture
o Make your products special
o Make your services special
o Respond to changing conditions
(IBM Global Services; 2000, paraphrased)
IBM global Services may have the most recent word on implementing evaluative systems: “But the demands of an increasingly competitive global marketplace — driven largely by the networked world — are driving companies to find new ways to grow their businesses, while at the same time they must operate as efficiently as possible.” If IBM’s logic prevails then the Unique Value Proposition at ABLECo will have to include its new attitude on strategic post-evaluation. I am going to support continuous improvement with post-evaluation in mind at ABLECo throughout my own assessment.
· What measures would you use?
Initially our post evaluations will have been structured around our internal and external analyses. However fine tuning of a more universal review to respond to each business unit’s unique function is our goal. With losses showing up in the last few years, ABLECo must support cost of strategic command with senior Mission Control, to curtail awkward downward spirals of functions and business. Rather ABLECo will show compounding gains over all to thwart bad press.
In a previous brief we showed how small, incremental gains can produce significant gain when compounded in a sequential manner. When the gains themselves are significant, the compounding effect is quite impressive. Albert Einstein is widely rumored to have once said that the most powerful force in the universe is compound interest, and we can clearly see why from the above data (Alt, B and Usborne, N; 25 April 2006, paraphrased).
Making ABLECo products special for future generations is the purpose of this strategic analysis after all:
Do customers demand our products?
- Do they convert their friends to use our products?
- Are we innovating products that can “best our existing products?”
- How will we be ahead of our competition, when the next big idea emerges?
- Will ABLECo be attractive to investors and acquisitions when we finish?
- (IBM Global Services; 2000, paraphrased)
Conclusion
Concluding arguments are pointing to a many-branched, multi-faceted strategy workshop environment for ABLECo. It includes the following, but is not limited to this list. In fact the condition today in the business environment is that there is too much information to sift. Therefore the planning and adopting an efficient outline of strategic objectives that is unique to ABLECo will prove very effective.
Consider our business value proposition, vision, mission models:
Has the world evolved faster than our business models?
- Has our market changed?
- Is new technology enabling new competition, and new opportunities?
- Could we leverage our strengths, or the scale and skills of ABLECo partners?
- Will we identify where we are competitive and not, then restructure for optimum performance and return?
Examine processes
Which processes run smoothly, and, which are bottlenecks?
Are systems and processes outdated?
Do we have duplication of processes?
Do we have adequate infra-structure communication; do we speak to one another?
Do we speak to our partners’ and customers’ processes and systems?
Challenge management culture
Is encouraging innovation in your company more than a gesture?
So the employees share in opinions and sharing ideas?
Do we have collaborative projects in the works?
What companies, industries suppliers force ABLECo into exit barriers?
What is labor forcing ABLECo to do?
Make sales support and services special
How do our customers rate us?
With real-time feedback form our customers could we respond faster, with more services? And, Plan better?
Drive loyalty through the roof.
Respond to changing conditions.
Put in place comprehensive external studies for each strategy adopted
Summary
- Adopt and install a company-wide evaluation system
- Find a business partner like IBM to help expedite our information tech
- Utilize exit barriers to motivate the strategic decision makers into action on IT
- Conduct a Competitive Analysis and Price Testing, but also cover market analysis, quantitative analysis, product and program strategy, usability testing, and similar efforts unique to ABLECo way of doing business (IBM Global Services; 2000, paraphrased)
References
Alt, Brian and Usborne, Nick; (25 April 2006, para) In Search of a Value Proposition Tuesday, 25 April 2006; Editor Flint McGlaughlin; Writers Brian Alt, Nick Usborne; Contributors: Jalali Hartman; HTML Designer: Cliff Rainer; retrieved from April 12- 14, 2007 at: marketing experiments com improving website conversion value proposition
Coulter, M; (2005) Strategic Management in action, 3rd Edition, Pearson/ Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458
IBM Global Services; (2000) IBM Corporation 2000 -- IBM Global Services; Route 100 Somers, NY 10589 USA; Printed in the United States of America 01-00; retrieved April 10-14, 2007 at 935 ibm com services us index wss it service cases its a1002583
