Learning Journal

In your own words and using referenced quotes describe what is meant in strategy by the term “Organizational purpose”.

Answer:

Strategy is the systematic way of analyzing internal and external environment of an organization to devise a wining plan. Every organization has a vision and to reach the vision organization develop a strategy, hence in that strategy ‘organization purpose’ is the long term plans. Hence organization purpose is a core concept in a strategy because it reflects the organization vision, mission and reason of existence, (Olsen, 2014) Discussed that organization are established for a reason and the specific organization with the vision it established helps to develop strategic plan.

In strategy ‘organizational purpose’ is the principal activities that organization carries out (Basu, 2014).  For example HR company purpose may be to recruit suitable candidates for other small company. The organizational purpose directs the organization into what is to be achieved and what actions are to be taken to achieve success and goals. Hence in strategy organizational purpose is the path where organization develops best plan action for the success. (159 words)

 

 

 

 

Learning Journal

How does PepsiCo try to balance profit and responsibility? Do you think they have the right balance?

Answer:

PepsiCo came up with new motto “Performance with Purpose” to balance its profit, which is to provide broad range of healthy snacks, developing innovative ways of reducing impact on environment and operation cost, providing safe and inclusive work environment for workforce, valuing and respecting stakeholders and generating healthy financial return and high level financial performance (Hollender, 2014). Hence the Motto of PepsiCo act as a guideline because it focus on the product type as customer demand i.e. healthy snacks, environment impact reductions i.e. plastic waste and employees satisfaction and work culture, which will guide PepsiCo for balancing profit and sustainability of  organization.

For balancing the responsibility PepsiCo has developed PepsiCo Foundation in 1962 and continuously supporting victims of natural disaster by funding. In 2009 for charitable activities the foundation donated $27.9 million and for Haitian earthquake in 2010 the foundation donated $1 million with other resources like beverage and bottled water (Daniels Fund Ethics Initiative, 2014).

PepsiCo also started the campaign known as ‘we inspire campaign’ where women are empowered and provided a platform to share, communicate the ideas using Pepsi website. In 2010 PepsiCo announced partnership with waste management Inc. to develop the initiatives of recycling the waste products. This is unique social responsibility initiative because every time people recycle their products they will obtain a point which can be redeemed and points can be movie ticket, coupons etc which was a good idea for balancing the social responsibility.

Yes, PepsiCo has right balance because it has used its principle guide line ‘Performance with Purpose’ to balance its profit by providing low calorie snacks and non carbonated drinks. PepsiCo kept on valuing its employees and other stakeholders for the healthy financial return.  PepsiCo is organizing and developing different initiatives for the proper balance of social responsibility.

Hence in my view, PepsiCo have right balance of its profit and responsibility as it has followed proper guideline by valuing stakeholders, environment and healthy products. For the responsibility PepsiCo is developing environment friendly initiatives as well as funding to those who are helpless due to natural disaster. (345 words)

 

 

Learning Journal Part 1: Theme 3

Summarize the skills and traits that they have in common. what kind of skills and traits do you need for a strategy role?

Answer:

The skills and traits that these jobs have in common are excellent analytical, oral and written communication skills and the ability to extract meaningful and accurate information from potentially ambiguous business description. Relation building skills i.e. work effectively with diverse teams, collaborative and flexible in working individually and in team. Work ethic i.e. self motivated, focus on continual development, project management skills and strong quantitative skills with expertise in financial modeling, valuation and statistical analysis and ability to manage several projects concurrently. Lastly the common skills are multitasking and high proficiency in Microsoft office. The common qualification requirement is bachelor's degree in business field.

The skills and traits that I need for this strategy job role are strategic ability of excellent analytical, conceptual, communication and critical thinking skill so that I can make best decision in critical time. The skill that I need is strategic planning skill for project management and skills of making strategic choices and decisions. The other skills are technical skills of using Microsoft tools. Hence the skills and traits that I need in this strategy role is confidence management so that I can present my skills and traits with full potential. (195 words)

 

Learning Journal Part 1: Theme 1

Question 1

In your own words, using reference quotes, describe the similarities and difference between business strategy and military strategy.

Answer:

Strategy is the process of analyzing the past and present environment to collect the information and predict the future. Johnson and Scholes (2011) as cited by (Riley, 2012) describe strategy as the long term direction of an organization to achieve goal utilizing organizational resources to meet the stakeholder and market expectations.

Many organization use strategy for example military organization use their military strategy to develop best defense and offence power than other countries while business organization use their business strategy to develop specific plan to gain competitive advantages.

The similarities between business strategy and military strategy are both organization strategies need effective leadership to manage process and progress. Both strategies are concerned with ways to succeed against opponents. Human resource is one of the important factors in business and military strategy because without human resource strategy idea cannot come in action. Both business and military strategy main objective is to gain competitive advantage by utilizing competitor's weakness (Scribd, 2010). Both military and business strategy analyzes enemy strength and weakness and compare with own to develop winning strategy. According to Maeshall (2011) military and business strategy require unity of command that is good communication, understanding and agreement by all strategic members in order to get best result.

The difference between business and military strategy is business strategy focus on the stakeholder value and customer value where as military strategy focus on country and public security. Business strategy is mainly horizontal structure i.e. for strategy development business leader take ideas from lower level staff, but military strategy is mostly vertical structure i.e. well defined chain of commands and strategy is only made by top level of officers. Pappas (2010) states that business strategy is developed, implemented and evaluated depending on the market competition, inflation, economic growth etc but military strategy is devised depending on the assumption of international conflict. (307 words)

week 7

Activity Week Task

 

Competitive analysis of two local retail supermarket chain in Kathmandu

                                              

 

Bhat-Bhateni Vs Big-Mart

 

Bhatbhateni is a leading supermarket and departmental store chain in Nepal. It was established in 1984, and since then it has developed a reputation for continious improvements in retail store. It offers everyday low price and a product offer second to none. There are currently 9 stores centrally located in Kathmandu, Lalitpur  and Pokhara valley which was opened in 2012. Bhat-Bhateni has a growing customer base as they are creating the trend of convenient stores. More than 40,000 people visit the stores daily  and benefit from 7 - day return/ exchange policy. They have over 2500 combined store staff, who provides consistent merchandising  and guarantee  assured customer service. Bhatbhateni group operates as a private limited company and has been the largest tax payer in the retail sector since 2008 A.D. Bhat-Bhateni stores open at 7:30 A.M, 7 days /week  and offer a full range of 120,000 products from local and international suppliers(Bhat-Bhateni Supermarket and Departmental store, 2014).

 

Though Bhat-Bhateni stores have good management and physical ambiance , due to potential competitors  it needs to have more key success factors for competitive advantage. The competitors are 'Big-mart' and 'Gorkha departmental store'. These stores have been expanding in most of the cities in Nepal for a decade. They have created a competitive scenario in the Nepalese retail stores. The customers move to the stores which are near to them where similar kind of products and at similar price as compared to that of Bhat-Bhateni stores. Thus, there are some factors that causes shift in customer choice from Bhat-Bhateni to Big-mart stores and vice versa.

 

Key factors are:

• Difference in Price: Customers flows to the stores which offers lower price than that of the competitor’s offerings. The company should follow the appropriate pricing policy that attracts more customers, causing the shifting of choices from competitors to own stores.

• Access to the location of the stores: People choose to visit the stores that are nearby to them because it saves their time and cost of searching for the goods. It is very important to any retail stores like Bhat-Bhateni and Big-mart to have their stores centrally located where people have easy access to their location.

• Availability of products: Another factor is the availability of the varieties of products available in the stores. If the customer didn't find what they want to buy then they shift to other stores. It may have a bad impact on the image of the store.

• Discounts and offers: People usually are looking for the discounts and product offers and it is the best way to attract the customers in the retail stores like Bhat-Bhateni and Big-mart. It increases the customer loyalty and positive word of mouth.  

• Physical ambiance: People also love to have good physical ambiance in the big stores like Bhat-Bhateni and Big-mart. Good physical ambiance creates better shopping experience in the customers and customize the shopping standards. 

Bench-marking 

 

Bench-marking is the measurement of two companies with respect to the quality of company policy, product, programs, strategies,etc. 

 

Here, we determine the Key Success Factors of both the retail chains for bench-marking.

 

        KSF's                                       Bhat-Bhateni Supermarket                 Big-Mart

1. Ease of access                          Yes                                                  Not every stores
2. Size                                           Large                                              Medium
3. Variety of Products                   Large                                              Limited
4. Price                                          Moderate                                        Moderate
5. Quality assurance                     Yes                                                  Yes
6. Physical Ambiance                   wide                                                Mostly narrow
7. Favorable image                       Excellent                                         Good
8. Media Presence                        Yes                                                  Yes

 

So,  with the above analysis it can be said that Bhat-Bhateni has the dominant position in the retail chain industry.

 

References:

References:

Bhat-Bhateni Supermarket and Departmental store, 2014. BBSM - Bhat-Bhateni Supermarket & Departmental Store. [Online]
Available at: http://www.bbsm.com.np/
[Accessed 29 December 2015].

 

Big mart, 2015. BIGMART. [Online]
Available at: http://www.bigmart.com.np/
[Accessed 29 December 2015].

 

 

 

week 8

How might you undertake ‘Internal Strategic Analysis’? What models would you apply and why? Where would you go to find the information you need?

Answer:

 

Internal Strategic Analysis is the systematic evaluation of the key internal features of an organization. It helps in the identification of internal strengths and weaknesses that are key to successful organizational performance.

For the internal strategic analysis Mckinsey 7-S framework would be best because McKinsey’s 7s model analyses the organization culture by reviewing its capabilities and performance from different viewpoints (Hanlon, 2014).  It provides the framework of seven different context, they are as follows

Strategy: the plan devised to maintain and build competitive advantage over the competition.

Structure: the way the organization is structured and who reports to whom.

Systems: the daily activities and procedures that staff members engage in to get the job done.

Shared Values: the culture that binds the people to achieve the goals.

Style: the style of leadership adopted.

Staff: the employees and their general capabilities.

Skills: the actual skills and competencies of the employees working for the company (Mindtools, 2015).

I would use the Google to find more information as it is easy to use and has huge amount of information.

week 6

Complete your strategic grouping diagram for Islington College

 

Here Islington College is at the top position for providing high quality educational service and medium position for price where as The British College is a high competitor for Islington College as its quality and service is little bit lower than Islington College. The other college are also providing some competition for Islington College but ISMT College is at the low position in the strategic grouping of Islington College.