Strategic Planning and External Analysis Tools Essay Example for Free

Strategic Planning and External Analysis Tools Essay Summary of key concepts and ideas from the lectures, tutorials and readings (500 words) Strategy is a roadmap designed to route the direction of the organization towards achieving its goals. Through an understanding of the organization’s vision and mission and the matching of resources and skills to the environment, the company can formulate and implement strategic plans to achieve long-term sustainable competitive advantage, meet the needs of consumers and satisfy stakeholder’s expectations (Johnson, Scholes and Whittington 2004). Before formulating a strategy, an organization has to gauge its current position in the market using strategic analysis. This involves the use of internal and external analysis tools to gain both an inside view of an organization and the macro environment. Internal analysis tools are used to identify and evaluate an organization’s strengths and weaknesses in terms of its resources, operational capabilities and core competencies. This gives the organization a picture of what strengths to exploit and develop further, and what weaknesses should be corrected to reduce market liability (Hill and Jones 2012). External analysis tools such as Porter’s five forces gives a view of the immediate competitive environment to reveal market opportunities and threats. It allows the organization to identify the market forces, which they have little to no control over, in order to develop contingencies into their strategic plans (Porter 1980). Dynamic capabilities such as SWOT analysis, is a combination of internal and external analysis to reflect an organization’s ability to adapt to volatile markets (Teece 2009). The strategic analysis process would provide a comprehensive overview of an organization’s competency, which then provides the basis for strategic formulation. A suitable approach to strategy formulation would strongly depend on the size and nature of the organization. One method that can be applied across different industries as well as organizations sizes is Porter’s generic strategy. It involves three different strategy classification; low cost leadership, product differentiation and target market focus (Porter 1980). Another method is Miles and Snow’s (1978) typology. It suggests that competing organizations are characterized based on their individual view of the competitive environment and how they allocate resources accordingly. The four basic categories are defender, prospector, analyzer, and reactor. Formulated strategies are not always acted upon, but may serve as a learning process towards more efficient strategy formulation. Allio (2005) states â€Å"immediately following the formal ratification of the firm’s vision and set of strategies, implementation can begin in earnest†. However, implementation of a strategy is considered the greatest challenge due to the risk of setbacks such as the lack of communication throughout the organization, unclear planning as well as poor monitoring and controls. Lastly, a key performance index is used to measure the current or future success of a strategy. It should be closely monitored as it measures performance aspects, which are critical towards the success of the organization (Paramenter 2007). Plans never always work out as anticipated, and contingency plans should be established to better prepare for unforeseen events (Steiner 1979). Therefore, strategy management should be treated with the utmost importance, as it differentiates between the success and failure of the firm. Section 2: Application of key concepts and ideas to the current business news (600 words) Griffin and Kucera (2012) article talks about PayPal’s tie up with Discover to achieve a competitive edge and strengthen its market position. By applying Porter’s five forces (1980) to access their strategic position, majority of forces are posing a challenge for PayPal and Discover. There is high competitive rivalry amongst major credit card companies with Discover  trailing after Visa, MasterCard and American Express (Barr 2012). Forecasted to surpass $171. 5 billion in 2012, up from a value of $105. 9 billion in 2011 (Gartner 2012), the burgeoning mobile payment market has attracted a high number of new entrants. Many major companies are creating their own individual systems to compete for a share of the market. One example is the Isis system by the major telecommunication companies (Johnson 2012). Finally, there is a high threat of substitute as consumers might find it more convenient to simply use cash or swipe their plastic card as compared to the new mobile payment method (Passy 2012). However, one market grabbing force is the low bargaining power of suppliers as the merchants supplying the service would be subjected to lower transaction costs under the PayPal system as compared to their counterparts (Hamblen 2012). Nevertheless, the bargaining power of customers in conjunction to new entrants and substitutes remains high, as there are just too many choices to choose from. Therefore, PayPal and Discover are in an unfavorable position. Welch’s (2012) article talks about how Campbell is innovating its soup products to meet the taste of a new generation. Through the use of the SWOT analysis (Andrews 1971), majority of factors prove positive. With the threat of a declining domestic soup market and difference in preference of a younger generation, it presents Campbell with an opportunity to innovate and differentiate its products in order to achieve market growth (Schultz 2012). Relying on its strengths to introduce new and innovative products fast, Campbell was able to generate a line of new products to address the needs of the new generation. However, Campbell’s weakness lies in the high selling price of its new line of products, three times the price of a can of normal soup. This along with the threat of cheaper alternatives by their competitors, such as Healthy Choice, may prove detrimental to Campbell’s success. Nevertheless, Campbell has had previous successes with higher priced products due to their strength to innovate their products towards the needs of the consumers. They also invest millions in target marketing and merchandising to extend its reach to consumers (Todd 2012). Therefore, it is a good strategy. Edwards (2012) article talks about GameStop’s shifted efforts into the refurbishing of Apple products to counter a declining market. Using the Boston Consulting Group’s Growth Share Matrix (Phadtare 2011), this strategy shows high return potential. With the decline of the gaming industry, sales fell by 25% from last year (Tassi 2012), GameStop’s former ‘Star’ which is the sale of new and used gaming hardware and software, has shifted into a ‘Cash Cow’ due to the decline of market growth. This shift presents an investment opportunity for ‘Question Mark’ to become a ‘Star’, through the conversion from a console game supplier, into the repair and resale of  Apple gadgets. However, with the dwindling interest of consumer to purchase overpriced resale items (Munarriz 2012), GameStop’s ‘Cash Cow’ would eventually shift to a ‘Dog’, providing difficulty in profit generation. There is also a risk that their ‘Question Mark’ would not become a ‘Star’ and just cost large efforts with little return. Nevertheless, Apple products still presents the biggest opportunity due to its large consumer base of over 230 million apple devices. Just by reselling 5 percent of the market, GameStop stands to gain $1 billion of new revenue over the next few years.

American History X :: Movies Film

Recently we watched a movie called American History X. It touched on a lot of major subjects such as gang violence and racism, which has been passed on from generation to generation. It also asked questions like, what were their racist ideas really based on, how did racism effect the community, can racism be reshaped by actual experiences, and how or why racism to begin with? Racism has been the main topic in the judicial system, police affairs, and racially divided communities for years but it's neither disappearing nor growing to this today. In this movie the main character was a man named Derek. After the death of his father, due to gang violence, he became a racist to all others but white people. He blamed the lack of jobs and poor wages on the blacks and immigrants. In an interview he had after the death of his father he stated that, it's all the blacks fault for all the violence in their neighborhood. He also said that, they brought all the diseases like AIDS and it's their problem and why did they have to bring it to the white people. Before he vandalized a store, owned by a Chinese man, with his other racist friends he told them why they were doing this. He told them that these immigrates come here an instead of looking for the American dream they come and take advantage of it and by firing those who worked there before and hiring Mexicans and blacks, that are willing to work at a low-wage, they make more money. So he and his friends need to show them that they indeed don't belong here and no one wants them her e. After brutally killing two people, in cold blood, Derek was arrested and sentenced to six years in prison. In prison, there were some like him and had the same thoughts but didn't stay true to their beliefs. He wondered why did his fellow skin-heads had confrontations with others outside of the group for product and merchandise and then turned around and sell it to his own. This kind of activity puzzled Derek who later in the movie came to the realization that there is nothing wrong about talking to blacks and others. Slowly, as the months passed, in jail he started developing a new found respect for everyone no matter their color or race, he started talking to his black laundry folding partner, and stopped hanging or talking to his Nazi friends . American History X :: Movies Film Recently we watched a movie called American History X. It touched on a lot of major subjects such as gang violence and racism, which has been passed on from generation to generation. It also asked questions like, what were their racist ideas really based on, how did racism effect the community, can racism be reshaped by actual experiences, and how or why racism to begin with? Racism has been the main topic in the judicial system, police affairs, and racially divided communities for years but it's neither disappearing nor growing to this today. In this movie the main character was a man named Derek. After the death of his father, due to gang violence, he became a racist to all others but white people. He blamed the lack of jobs and poor wages on the blacks and immigrants. In an interview he had after the death of his father he stated that, it's all the blacks fault for all the violence in their neighborhood. He also said that, they brought all the diseases like AIDS and it's their problem and why did they have to bring it to the white people. Before he vandalized a store, owned by a Chinese man, with his other racist friends he told them why they were doing this. He told them that these immigrates come here an instead of looking for the American dream they come and take advantage of it and by firing those who worked there before and hiring Mexicans and blacks, that are willing to work at a low-wage, they make more money. So he and his friends need to show them that they indeed don't belong here and no one wants them her e. After brutally killing two people, in cold blood, Derek was arrested and sentenced to six years in prison. In prison, there were some like him and had the same thoughts but didn't stay true to their beliefs. He wondered why did his fellow skin-heads had confrontations with others outside of the group for product and merchandise and then turned around and sell it to his own. This kind of activity puzzled Derek who later in the movie came to the realization that there is nothing wrong about talking to blacks and others. Slowly, as the months passed, in jail he started developing a new found respect for everyone no matter their color or race, he started talking to his black laundry folding partner, and stopped hanging or talking to his Nazi friends .

Analysis of National and Cultural Stereotypes

Academic English for Business and Management Compare and contrast the two articles, making clear your criteria for comparison. To what extent do these articles show that national and cultural stereotypes are no longer a useful way of examining the human condition and economic activity? Choose an element in the articles which you find interesting and explain your reaction to it by giving examples from your own experience. Your full name: Binjie He Word count: 1152 As the development of globalization, world becomes smaller and smaller.People who lived with each other become closer. Meanwhile, international trade is booming, and products could be bought in supermarkets from almost every area in the world. As a result, national and cultural stereotypes attract more attentions than ever before. This essay will compare and contrast two articles, â€Å"East meets west† (Yong, 2009) and â€Å"International Communication† (Piller, 2011), discuss the two authors’ opinions towards national and cultural stereotypes and present my own opinion from personal experience.However, before the discussion I will summarize the similarities and differences based on their type, audience, tone, structure, focus and the attitude to stereotypes. The final section will give an example of Haier, China. My aim is to eliminate people’s misunderstanding of stereotypes. There are two similarities according to the two articles. Firstly, both the two articles describe different reactions of people belonging to the same situation from different countries through examples.Secondly, both of them admit that the mindsets of people are different from various areas, and offer evidences for national and cultural stereotypes. As well as the above-mentioned similarities, there are several differences. At first, the types of these articles are various. Yong’s is an article, while Piller’s is a textbook. Next, the audiences of Yong’s are general public and in terested amateurs. On the contrary, Piller’s are students and academics. In terms of the tone, Yong appeared to be a professor, while Piller spoke as a friend of the audiences. What’s more, Yong states the opular notions and his own opinion at the beginning of the article. He cites several experiments which supported popular stereotypes, then recent research is used to prove his opinion in the body, and a conclusion of his view is presented at the end of the article. Piller’s structure differs from Yong’s in that Piller gives an overview of the article at first, positive and negative examples are enumerated in the middle, and finally key points of the article are clearly listed. Moreover, the focuses of these articles are different. Except stereotypes, Yong emphasizes much on psychology.Conversely, Piller pays more attention on business, especially advertising. What’s interesting is that Yong opposed to stereotypes, which is different from Piller. The comparison of the two articles have been clear, and it will be vital to discuss to what extent do these articles show that national and cultural stereotypes can contribute to the human condition and economic activity. Yong doesn’t agree with stereotypes in his article. He argues the popular stereotypes that easterners and westerners have distinct world views are far too simplistic.There are pieces of research he conducted as follows. First of all, Yong agrees it is the contexts that evoke people’s mindset rather than history. Then, he suggests â€Å"while the psychology of westerners may be superficially distinct from easterners, when social isolation is an issue there is little difference between the two† (Yong, 2009, p. 34). It is indicated in Trey Hedden’s research that east Asians used the same brain areas with Americans when working harder, and people had to think harder to perform tasks outside their cultural comfort zone.Which was also found by Hedden is that it’s easy to flip between different modes of thinking in people with roots in more than one culture (Yong, 2009). It is generally said that easterners have a holistic world view and westerners are more analytical, while Yong reveals â€Å"we are all capable of both analytic and holistic thought† (Yong, 2009, p. 35). Greatly various from Yong, Piller argues that the stereotypes in advertising should be better utilized. She believes the use of language other than the national one is the key means to achieve intercultural commodification rather in branding and promotion.The most significant she stated is that although the commercial use of English rarely connoted an ethno-cultural stereotype, the use of other languages can connote stereotypes, which is beneficial for advertising. In the same way, the using of exotic languages in brands and advertising is popular in China. One of the examples is Chinese famous major appliances brand Haier. The company only had a Chinese name at its first stage. As the development of business, it entitled an English name of ‘Haier’, which is a word does not function linguistically in English but the pronunciation of it is similar to its Chinese name.What’s more, it seemed modern and international to the customers and easy for them to distinguish it from all the national brands at that time. It is also the first step to be an international enterprise to Haier. After that, the brand Haier was gradually accepted in and abroad. Up to now, Haier has been providing customers with high quality products for 27 years and is the number one brand of Major Appliances in the world with 7. 8% retail volume share in 2011. It also ranks number one for several of its product ranges including refrigeration appliances, home laundry appliances and electric wine cellars.As a forerunner in the industry, Haier emphasize much on customers’ needs and innovation. Since different people will have vario us requirements to the same appliance, what is the most important is satisfying the needs of local customers. Their global presence allows Haier to localise their production and build high-quality products tailored to local needs. Such examples about language using in brands and advertising are too numerous to mention one by one. Another element that I interested in is cultural differences’ relationship to logic, which apparent obviously in China.Logic is based on education and culture. â€Å"Harmony† is our traditional mindset which is taught at their early ages. That’s why Chinese always try to find a middle ground between two opposing positions to avoid conflicts. That’s why most Chinese students assessed the situation from both sides and try to reconcile the differences between mothers and daughters, while Americans are tend to inclined to reject one proposition for the other (Yong, 2009). Owing to this mindset, Chinese are afraid to be different from others.They want to be the â€Å"middle† people, who are neither the first, nor the last. In conclusion, I agree with the two authors’ opinions in these articles. As far as I am concerned, we should avoid racism because there are few differences between easterners and westerners. It is hoped that national and cultural stereotypes could be used on a positive way. In recent days, numberless examples of the using of languages in brands and advertising could be seen everywhere. What we should not ignore is that numerous of exotic languages benefit advertising a lot if sed properly and accurately. In my opinion, if an English name was used in brands or advertising, people could distinguish it from other national brands easily, and an international stereotype could also functional well. Finally, people’s logic is greatly based on their education and culture. It is the â€Å"harmony† education in China that makes Chinese ‘middle’ people. References Piller, I. (2011) ‘Intercultural Communication for sale’ in Intercultural Communication: A Critical Introduction. Edinburgh University Press Yong, E. (2009) ‘East meets west’ New Scientist March 2009 issue

Summary Of Crime And Punishment By Fyodor Dostoyevsky

The book Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky takes place in St. Petersburg, Russia in the 1860s. It is about Raskolnikov, an impoverished former student, who devises and carries out a plan to kill Alyona Ivanovna, a pawnbroker, and unexpectedly killed her sister as well. The rest of the story follows him as he deals with his guilt. Eventually, he confesses to the crime and goes to prison. Although Crime and Punishment is about the fictional actions of a specific character, it does reveal details about the specific time and place. Since Raskolnikov is poor, the book provides information about the lives of people of that financial status. It also supplies information about marriage and relationships. Dostoyevsky was born in Moscow in†¦show more content†¦When Raskolnikov goes to sell his watch, he walks up to a large house. Instead of just one family living in this house, it was divided into small apartments. The people living there were all working people. He makes his way up to the room of the pawnbroker. The living quarters of the pawnbroker and her sister was made up of two small rooms with yellowing wallpaper. After he leaves the pawnbroker, Raskolnikov enters a tavern where he meets Marmeladov, who is drunk, and he eventually helps him get back to his home. Marmeladov and the other five people in his family lived in a room that was exceptionally small for that amount of people. The whole room was small enough so that everything could be seen from the doorway. In addition, there were rags and various articles of clothing thrown around. Furthermore, the only pieces of furniture were two chairs, a couch with holes in the leather, a kitchen table, and a bed. Furthermore, even though Marmeladov had been gone for several days, his wife’s first concern was what he had done with the money. Marmeladov’s family and the pawnbroker were not the only ones in poor living conditions, Raskolnikov also lived in a very tiny room. in fact, his room is described as so small that he could undo the latch without leaving his bed (75). Also, the ceiling was low enough that a person taller than average height could easilyShow MoreRelatedThe Themes of Dostoyevsky2976 Words   |  12 Pages The Themes of Dostoyevsky Fyodor Dostoyevsky, born in 1821, would become one of the greatest writers in Russian literature. Fyodor received an education in engineering in St. Petersburg, but decided to follow a literary career. He was a person who wrote how they felt about certain topics, and felt that everyone should know about the government. Dostoyevsky joined the underground group, the Petrashevsky circle, the to bring out the truth in these books, which were forbidden in the public. Through