The basic framework for strategy analysis

The basic framework for strategy analysis 1. To what extent does McDonalds Corporation achieve a close strategic fit between its strategy, the characteristics of its external environment, and its internal resources and capabilities? Are changes occurring in its external environment weakening this strategic fit? If so, how should McDonalds adjust its strategy? The discussion of â€Å"The Basic Framework for Strategy Analysis† (pp. 12-13) emphasizes the importance of strategic fit. McDonalds strategy is based on the creation of standardized, tightly integrated business systems for the supplying a limited menu of hamburgers, fries, drinks, and several other items that are produced and served to meticulous standards of speed and consistency at low prices. The success of McDonalds reflects (a) the appeal of McDonalds offerings to mass-market preferences of individuals and families for low-priced, popular meals. (b) McDonalds ability to create a set of capabilities that allow the replication of McDonalds restaurants worldwide (e.g. highly standardized operational capabilities supported by meticulous human resource training and management). In recent years, changes in the external environment have upset this close fit: Competition has increased. A large number of fast-food chains have developed, most of them utilizing the same franchising model perfected by McDonalds. Expansion by McDonalds and other burger chains has also led to market saturation. In the developed world, consumers have become increasingly health conscious preferences have shifted away from burgers, fries, and milkshakes. McDonalds success has made it a target for a range of activist groups: environmentalists, Opponents of globalization, nutritional campaigners. Consumers are seeking greater variety and novelty in their diets. As a result, McDonalds is in the process of adapting its strategy. Changes include: Broadening its menu. Responding to health concerns with more salads, fruit, and lower calorie items. Moving from global standardization to greater local differentiation: McCroissant in France, Rice Burgers in Hong Kong (see p. 383, â€Å"McDonalds goes Global†). Not only fostering local initiatives and innovations, but then allowing the international transfer of these initiatives and innovations (e.g. â€Å"McCafe† gourmet coffee bars initiated in Australia, then rolled out in US and other countries). 2. The discussion of the evolution of business strategy (â€Å"From Corporate Planning to Strategic Management†) established that the characteristics of a firms strategic plans and its strategic planning process are strongly influenced by the volatility and unpredictability of its external environment. On this basis, what differences would you expect in the strategic plans and strategic planning processes of Coca-Cola Company and Google Inc.? The shift during the past four decades from â€Å"corporate planning† to â€Å"strategic management† was influenced, in part, by increasing volatility and unpredictability of the business environment. As a result strategic planning became less based upon forecasts of the future, less formal, shorter term, and concerned more with innovation and the creation of options rather than with incremental improvements to the status quo. These same influences are likely to create differences in the approach to strategy making among firms that face different industry environments. A company like Google has an industry environment characterized by rapid technological change, and the constant emergence of new market opportunities and competitive threats. A company like Coca-Cola faces a much more stable environment. The world market for soft-drink concentrates is dominated by two giant companies (Coke and Pepsi), and this is likely to continue for the foreseeable future: each firms m arket position is reinforced by long-term agreements with bottlers and massive brand equity. Consumer tastes change slowly; there is minimal technological change. Hence, each company is likely to have a strategy-making process that differs in formality, precision, time horizon, and scope. For example: Coca-Cola Google Medium term (e.g. 3-4 years) Short term (12 months?) Precise operational and capex budgets Budgetary processes flexible Strong emphasis on short- and medium- Little emphasis on performance targets; focus term performance targets on first-mover advantage and creating options, Strategic planning based on narrow market Strategic planning based on broad market focus: soft drinks what is our core business? Emphasis on design, with top management Emphasis on emergence, with top management Exerting strong hierarchical control orchestrating bottom-up initiatives 3. I have noted that a firms strategy can be described in terms of the answers to two questions: â€Å"Where are we competing?† and â€Å"How are we competing?† (â€Å"Describing a Firms Strategy†). Applying these two questions, provide a concise description of Madonnas career strategy (see Strategy Capsule 1.1). Where does Madonna compete? Madonna derives revenue from a number of markets: recorded music, live concerts, movie/video acting, book author, and the management and production of other recording artists. In terms of size of revenues, then, recorded music is her â€Å"core business.† However, this does not recognize the links between the different markets in which she engages or the way in which Madonna positions herself in relation to them. At the broadest level, Madonna competes in the global entertainment business. However, her positioning within this is as a â€Å"superstar† Madonnas renown and appeal transcends the individual markets in which she competes. How does Madonna compete? Madonna is a trend-setter/trend-spotter. In music, fashion, and social attitudes, Madonna Identifies emerging trends then positions her in the vanguard. In the early 1980s, she recognized the potential for the music style sweeping New Yorks dance clubs to have an impact on popular music; in the late 1990s, she helped introduce world music into western pop music. Madonna creates integrated multimedia product offers that include music (a new album), a fashion look, an attitude and philosophy (sexual predation in the late 1980s, religious mysticism at the turn of the millennium), and worldwide promotion through a concert tour. Madonna uses a network of collaborators and partners to create her product offerings. These include musicians, song writers, fashion designers, actors, choreographers, vocalists, and dancers. Madonna acts as overall designer and systems integrator for these various contributions. Madonna relies heavily on the press and her own generation of news events to keep her continually in the public eye. Such instances include sexual bravado (kissing Britney Spears), high-profile liaisons (affair with Warren Beatty), personal events (adoption of African child), attacks on political and religious authorities, boundary crossing (mixing sexuality and religious iconography). 4. What is your career strategy for the next five years? To what extent does your strategy fit with your long-term goals, the characteristics of the external environment, and your own strengths and weaknesses? The same principles that we apply to business strategy can also be applied to individuals career strategies (as I note on pp. 11-12). Indeed, several prominent â€Å"self-help† books are essentially about strategic approaches to self-development. (E.g. Stephen Coveys Seven Habits of Highly Effective People is a systematic approach to life planning that begins with the choices about lifetime goals. Markus Buckinghams Go Put Your Strengths to Work is based on the simple observation that success results from individuals identifying and deploying their resource strengths.) This exercise involves using the basic framework of Figure 1.2. The principle stages are: Identify career goals: what are you seeking wealth, power, influence, fellowship, excitement, security, making a difference in the world? Which careers offer the best prospects in relation to your chosen goals? (Career opportunities may relate to work type (brand manager, financial analyst, general manager, entrepreneur, and politician) and sector (financial services, manufacturing industry, public sector, international organization.) For the most attractive careers you identify, what are the key success factors? What are your resources and capabilities? What are your strengths and weaknesses in relation to intelligence, skills and aptitudes, financial resources, qualifications, experience, contacts, etc.? On the basis of these considerations, outline the principal elements of a career strategy in terms of: Where? What type of job? In which sector? Where located? How? How will you acquire your next job? What will be your approach to performing in that job? What kind of job sequence do you anticipate? What kind of additional training or personal development do you see as desirable?

President Noynoy Aquino’s Sona Essay

It’s not easy to make a change, but it’s god that we take even a single step to achieve change. The mainstream of Aquino’s Sona is about the utak wang-wang of the government officials not just in streets but also in government and our economy. He is persistent to end the culture of wang-wang, or I may say his obsession to remove the utak wang-wang in our government. To end the â€Å"wang-wang† culture in the government, there are some of the ways or solutions that our government had achieved. The ratings of hunger has dropped from 20. 5% in March to 15. % this June, as said by the Filipino families who used to be hungry but now can eat properly every day. The upgrade of credit ratings. proper taxation. Solutions for anomalies in Region 4B. From 1. 3 million metric tons of rice storage, it has gone down to 660 000 metric tons as Aquino said â€Å"Ang gusto nating mangyari: Una, hindi tayo aangkat ng hindi kailangan, para lang punan ang bulsa ng mga gusting magsariling-diskarte ng kita sa agrikultura; Ikalawa: Ayaw nating umasa sa pag-angkat, ang isasaing ni Juan dela Cruz ditto ipupunla, ditto aanihin, ditto bibilhin†. He also implemented the pabahay for the policemen and soldiers by awarding 4000 Certificate of Entitlement to Lot Allocation. Also, soon we will have the possibility in upgrading modernization of equipments for our armed forces, this goes to show how far our economy will go with good governance, and we can buy equipments at good prices without having to place envelopes in anyone’s pockets. Walang tayong balak mang-away, pero kailangan ding mabatid ng mundo na handa tayong ipagtanggol ang atin†, our government is now studying the possibility of elevating the case on the West Philippines Sea to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea. Another is to decrease the incidents of car napping; create jobs for the jobless is somewhat achieved, because it was said that in April 2010 the unemployment rates was 8%, in April 2011 it was at 7. 2%. here is hope, there is always hope indeed because the ambition of the Filipinos is to work abroad but now Filipinos can take their pick, as long as we pursue our dreams with determination and diligence, we can realize them. Another achievement is the law Synchronizing ARMM the national elections. He discussed the issue in PAGCOR who spent 1 billion on coffee alone. The assigned a new Ombudsman and he expect that this year they will fill the first major cases against corrupt and their accomplices. Now the DOJ is fulfilling its role in cases regarding tax evasion, drug trafficking, human trafficking, smuggling, graft and corruption, extrajudicial killings and etc. â€Å"Good governance yields positive results†, our president said, they will ensure that the people’s money is put in rightful place. Aside from what I listed, there are a lot of things that our government has achieved as stated in Aquino’s Sona . Aquino strongly stand that â€Å"May mga nagsasabing pinepersonal ko raw ang paghahabol sa mga tiwali. Totoo po: Personal talaga sa akin ang paggawa ng tama, at ang pagpapanagot sa mga gumagawa ng mali – ino man sila. At hindi lamang dapat ako ang namemersonal sa usaping ito. Personal dapat ito sa ating lahat, dahil bawat Pilipino ay biktima nito. † Truly, corruption affects us all. Corruption is a personal thing to Aquino for everyone should not repeat the mistakes we committed in the past; instead of forgiving those corrupt officials they must face the consequence of their action. It is good to know that our government headed by our president is taking actions to this angst and major dilemma. We heard different allegations of corruption in AFP, Department of agriculture, PCSO, PAGCOR, DPWH, BIR, Bureau of Customs and etc. Corruption is everywhere, from national government to local one’s, making it a number one priority is a good thing or an obsession to totally terminate it. â€Å"Bibigyan natin ang mga maralitang pamilyang ito ng pagkakataong makahaon sa buhay, dahil ang pag-asenso nila ay pag-angat ng bung bansa. † â€Å"Nagtatag ng pagbabago upang mas mapatibay ang pundasyon ng maaliwalas na buhay para sa lahat. â€Å"Mamumuhunan tayo sa taumbayan, habang namumuhunan din sa kalikasan. † Huwag po nating limutin: inasasayang lang ang lahat n gating narrating kung hindi tuluyang maiwawaksi ang kultura ng korupsyon na dinatnan natin. † Those are just some of the words of wisdom and priorities said by Aquino which can be achieved in his term as he promised, thus, making it one of my favorites. â€Å"Kailangan manatiling magkatugma ang ating mga programa, dahil ang ikauunlad ng buong bansa ay manganganak din ng resulta sa inyong pook†. According to him there are laws that the congress has approved such as GOCC governance, ARMM synchronization, Lifeline Electricity Rates Extension, Joint congressional power commission extension, children and infant’s mandatory immunization and women night workers. He also promised that they will deliver to the congress their budget proposal for 2012 and is looking forward to its early passage so that they can build on our current momentum. To sum it all up, here are the topics that had been tackled in Aquino’s 2nd Sona . He vows to end the culture of wang-wang; he aims that our country will have a cheaper, more reliable source of energy; more honest DPWH; no more over-importation of rice; better benefits for police and military; better implementation of anti-traficking in persons act; employment; good health programs for the poor; law synchronizing ARMM with national elections; solution to flood problems; development of prototype monorail system for our country; he calls private sectors to pay proper taxes; he said that â€Å"Spartly islands are ours and the government will defend the country’s territory and sovereignty†; his administration is ready to submit the national budger to congress; he appoints the new Ombudsman; lastly, he asks the Filipinos to stop crab mentality, as he verbalized â€Å"let us make the effort to recognize the good that is being done. If you see something right, do not think twice, praise it. † There is a praise that strucked me: â€Å"Bago ka umuwi galling sa eskuwela, lapitan mo ang guro mong piniling mamuhunan sa iyong kinabukasan kaysa unahin ang sariling ginhawa, sabihin mo, salamat po. † As a student teacher, these made my heart warm; I was somewhat astonished that our president recognized the teachers who are working hard in imparting knowledge and values to the students despite of the small salary. As a student teacher I will take this as an inspiration, to be a great teacher someday. For me, I do believe that we already made a change. With an honest and rightful government, it is possible, with the government headed by our president’s way of making a right path or tuwid na landas. It’s only been a year since Aquino stepped into the position of presidency, but as we can see there are changes, good changes. I know this is just a beginning; there are many things for all of us. Yes, we do still have five years left to make a change and progress in all aspects of our economy, but one thing we must know, change and progress should come from ourselves, change over wrongdoings then impart the good ones to be better and have a great and better life someday.

People Skills or Technical Skills Essay

There are many efficient engineers working in software companies and the commonplace utterances like ‘coding error’, ‘build not functioning’, ‘new feature is not getting integrated’ , etc. are often heard in their workplaces. Soon after, one might witness meetings after meetings followed by night stay to fix the errors on a stringent deadline. All this is due to lack of people skills. People skills are the most valuable nowadays because large complex projects demand highly efficient people skills to assist in bringing an integrated final product. Bill Gates of Microsoft acknowledges the value of people skills, â€Å"Communications skills and the ability to work well with different types of people are very important. † he said, â€Å"Software innovation, like almost every other kind of innovation, requires the ability to collaborate and share ideas with other tasks, and to sit down and talk with customers and get their feedback and understand their needs. Interpersonal skills are more important in the workplace than IT skills. † In a way projects are technical, but complexity arises as a result of cross-cultural variables, virtual teams, and the necessity to achieve more in less time. To resolve issues and gather technical skills in the competitive world, people skills are crucial. People skills can be defined, practiced, improved continually, and best learnt experientially (Flannes, 2006). A professional can be hired to assist with technical details but a manager with people skills are difficult to get. One of the quick turnaround time project experience shared by Charlie Poole (2001) on the website proves that people skills are more important to a team manager in a software development project. He was focused on rolling out a workable project structure with a set of stories as part of one integration cycle. For this he selected four programming core practices like continuous integration, small releases, onsite customer, and planning game. He did it successfully. When the project was kept in front of him, he had a few thoughts (all of which can be co-related to the seven important skills shown in bracket) about the project that had to move forward in just over three week’s time. He decided: I won’t waste time – (Responsibility) I’ll have to quickly turn tasks over to other people – (Communication Subtleties) I’m forced to recognize what parts of the project have most value – (Ability to Assess) I’ll do the simplest thing that works – (Innovative and Caring) People may be more willing to try out a new approach – (Individuals are not Fixed Objects). An effective team structuring, clarifying requirements before entering into real working scenario, effective planning are some good plans that helped him accomplish the desired results. Besides, Charlie had the ability to manage conflict and agreement in the first place to undertake a project and bring results in three weeks. Earlier, Charlie had the experience of being a team member himself and had grown as a lead and then as manager which gave a certain advantage in bringing the project to closure. By sharing his feelings on the web, Charlie aptly follows â€Å"Writing about thought and feeling in a journal,† which is considered to be one of the seven skills required for a manager. The rate of success in achieving people skills rely on how perfect one has been nurtured with the following seven important skills: 1) The ability to employ four interpersonal communication techniques. 2) The ability to conceptualize and apply four distinct leadership roles. 3) The ability to access individual differences. 4) The ability to motivate individual stakeholders and teams. 5) The ability to manage conflict and agreement. 6) The ability to mediate and manage professional and personal distress. 7) Writing about thoughts and feelings in a journal and competency in six active management skills. Acquiring these skills does not happen overnight. People who have been experiencing in the same domain performing at various levels will have the advantage of handling any crisis situation like Charlie as in the example above. Technical skills are typically easy to observe, quantify and measure. They’re also easy to train, because most of the time the skill sets are brand new to the learner and no unlearning is involved. The case with People skills is different. Another expertise, Russ Finney (Finny, White Paper) advises that having someone on the team who is familiar with the specialized knowledge surrounding selected technical environment provides confidence. Technical skills too have great values in assisting others, making suggestions, developing standards, and finally leading to leadership qualities. This implies that technical skills and people skills are not something far apart. A good technically skilled person has the chances of becoming a capable manager with people skills. If one wants to advance, he or she should never neglect People Skills Training. If you are like most IT professionals, pressed for time, overwhelmed by pending deadlines and working with limited budget dollars your training efforts should focus exclusively on acquiring new technical skills along with your people skills. References Finney, R. Winning Project Teams. Information technology management, White paper. Retrieved April, 18, 2009, http://www. itmweb. com/essay003. htm Flannes, S (2006). Effective people skills for the project manager: a requirement for project success and career advancement. Planning, Development and Support 131-29, 19. Poole, C (2001). Three week project turnaround. Retrieved April, 18, 2009, http://c2. com/cgi/wiki? ThreeWeekProjectTurnaround Retrieved April, 18, 2009, http://www. zdnet. com. au/insight/business/soa/Tech-skills-not-as-valued-as-people-skills-/0,139023749,339284581,00. htm

Rhetorical Analysis My Writing Skills - 894 Words

Dear Professor Maureen and others who may concern this: I would say I am always a horrible letter writer. I am tearing my hair to squeeze every single word from my poor mind to finish this letter. Yet deep in my frontal cortex, there is no part of mechanisms that is designed for writing a self-analyzing letter to my instructors. However, it has been ten weeks I studied in this course, and all my favorite works in these ten weeks are gathering in this tiny portfolio. I have wrote a several rhetorical practices that taught me basic rules of rhetorical essays. I have wrote a rhetorical analysis, which explained both the thesis of the reading and my own arguments against the reading. I finished my last rhetorical project three days ago with telling another interesting story. All these assignments were tiny pieces of my writing style and they built up together to present me a general concept of being a successful writer. 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I still struggle a bit remembering some of the rhetorical terms, but I am way more comfortable and familiar with them now. In high school I never really summarized pieces, instead I would quote them. I now feel confident in my abilities to summarize and paraphrase accuratel y which is a really useful skill to have. Before this course I knewRead MoreRhetorical Analysis Reflection1032 Words   |  5 Pagesof writing. I have learned how to draft and compose a rhetorical analysis based off of an author’s ethos, pathos, and logos strategies. Not only have I been able to critically analyze rhetorical papers, but I have been able to search for more information to support my ideas or beliefs. Even though this can be time consuming it is well worth it to have a lot of support and evidence to back my ideas or beliefs on a topic. Throughout this semester I have more of a general knowledge on rhetorical goals