Microsoft Word - BZ440V Assignment 4
ASSIGNMENT 04
BZ440 Quality Control
Directions:
Answer in complete sentences
Be sure to use co
ect English, spelling and grammar.
Sources must be cited in APA format.
Your response should be four (4) double-spaced pages.
Margins 1” all sides
Headings Bold Type Style and Size Times New Roman
12-point
Software MS Word
One of the philosophies mentioned in your text includes the strategy of Plan, Do,
Check, and Act. Please keep this philosophy in mind when considering the
information required below.
1. Discuss the premise of TQ. Then, design a TQ initiative for a company of
your choosing, outlining steps that will provide internal and external support
for your initiative.
2. Outline a plan for a team meeting with your managers and elaborate how
together you will disseminate this plan to the entire company.
3. Evaluate the potential impact of your meeting and the launching of your TQ
plan, including two (2) strengths and two (2) weaknesses of the plan.
Chapter 3 - Strategic Management - Planning and Execution for Competitive Advantage.pdf
Chapter Three Strategic Management: Planning
and Execution for Competitive Advantage
In today’s global business arena, even small companies can find themselves being challenged by
competitors from all over the world. Never has the world of business been so intensely
competitive as it is now. Consequently, it is important for business leaders to think strategically,
to plan for gaining and sustaining competitive advantage, and to effectively execute their plans.
This chapter explains the concept of strategic management, explains why this concept is so
important, and demonstrates how to plan and execute the strategy to gain and sustain competitive
advantage.
What Is Strategic Management?
To understand strategic management, one must first understand the concept of
organizational strategy. Strategies are defined as follows:
Organizational strategies are the approaches adopted by organizations to ensure
successful performance in the marketplace. These approaches are typically set forth in a
comprehensive document called the strategic plan.
Strategic management is management that bases all actions, activities, and decisions on
what is most likely—within an ethical framework—to ensure successful performance in
the marketplace. From the strategic manager’s perspective, resources are wasted unless
they contribute to success in the marketplace, and the more direct the contribution, the
etter.
Competitive Strategy
To survive and thrive in a globally competitive marketplace, organizations must adopt
a
oad strategy that gives them a sustainable competitive advantage. All such
strategies fall into one or more of the following categories:
COST LEADERSHIP STRATEGIES. Strategies in this category seek to
improve efficiency and control costs throughout an organization’s activity-
cost chain (supplier activity costs, in-house activity costs, and distribution
activity costs).
DIFFERENTIATION STRATEGIES. Strategies in this category seek to add
value, as defined by customers, to the organization’s products or services.
Such strategies typically involve gaining technological superiority over
competitors, continually outperforming competitors in the area of quality,
providing more and better support services to customers, and providing
customers more value for their money.
MARKET-NICHE STRATEGIES. Strategies in this category focus on a
na
owly defined segment of the market (market niche) and attempt to make
the organization in question the market leader in that niche. Leadership can
e achieved by adopting cost leadership or differentiation strategies or both
designed to appeal specifically to the target market.
Total quality relates to strategic management in that it enhances an organization’s
ability to gain a sustainable competitive advantage in the marketplace. Handled
properly, total quality can be the most effective cost leadership or differentiation
strategy an organization can adopt. This is because the total quality approach is the best
way to continually improve efficiency and cut costs throughout an organization’s
activity-cost chain while simultaneously improving the features of the product or
service that differentiate it in the marketplace. Total quality can also improve an
organization’s chances of becoming a leader in a given market niche.
Core Competencies and Competitive
Advantage
One task to be accomplished as part of the strategic planning process is identifying the
organization’s core competencies. This task is generally completed as part of the SWOT
(strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis, since an organization’s core
competencies should be part of its strengths. A core competency is something an
organization does so well that it can be viewed as a competitive advantage. A
competitive advantage is any aspect of the organization that (1) contributes directly and
significantly to increasing customer demand by achieving superior value (i.e., superior
quality, cost, and service) and (2) is difficult for competitors to replicate.
An organization’s core competencies might be based on its ability to achieve economy
of scale, proprietary access to a given technology, expertise in a given area that cannot
e replicated, ability to maintain world-class performance from critical processes,
market proximity, high-performance corporate culture, research and development
expertise, or ability to respond rapidly to market research or in any other factors that
contribute directly and significantly to the organization’s ability to provide superior
value consistently over time.
It is important that organizations understand their core competencies. Too many
organizations give in to the temptation to pursue business that is outside the realm of
their core competencies rather than finding new marketers for their core products and
services. This approach typically leads to quality and productivity problems that
invariably undermine the value of the organization’s new products and services.
Perhaps the best way to understand what happens when companies decide to operate
outside the realm of their core competencies is to consider a sports analogy. There have
een several examples in which professional athletes whose core competencies were in
one sport attempted to cross over and play another sport. Two that come immediately
to mind are Michael Jordan, one of the greatest basketball players in the history of the
National Basketball Association, and Dion Sanders, a Hall of Fame–caliber defensive
ack in football. Both of these gifted athletes left their core competencies relating to
asketball and football behind and attempted to play professional baseball.
It was not that these two high-profile athletes were not good at baseball—they were; but
they were just not good enough to compete with other professionals whose core
competencies were in baseball. As a result, both had a measure of success playing
aseball, but neither had a stellar career. They simply could not perform in this new
“market” at the world-class level that they could in their core sports. This same type of
thing often happens to companies that try to operate outside the realm of their core
competencies.
Components of Strategic Management
Strategic management consists of two inte
elated activities: (a) strategic planning and
(b) strategic execution. These two primary components of strategic management are
described in the following sections.
Strategic Planning
Strategic planning is the process by which an organization answers such questions as the
following: Who are we? Where are we going? How will we get there? What do we hope to
accomplish? What are our strengths and weaknesses? What are the opportunities and threats in
our business environment? Strategic planning involves developing a written plan that has the
following components: an organizational vision; an organizational mission; guiding principles;
oad strategic objectives; and specific tactics, projects, and activities for achieving the
oad
objectives. Specific tactics, projects, and activities are often refe
ed to as the “action plan.”
Strategic Execution
Strategic execution involves implementing strategies set forth in strategic planning, monitoring
progress toward their achievement, and adjusting the plans and strategies as necessary. Strategic
execution is implementation that achieves maximum efficiency and effectiveness.
Monitoring involves constantly checking actual performance against performance benchmarks.
Strategic monitoring answers such questions as these: Are we achieving our objectives? This is
the effectiveness question. Are we performing as well as we need to perform? This is
the efficiency question. Adjusting as necessary involves making co
ections when the specific
strategies or tactics adopted are not producing the desired results. Such adjustments can involve a
minor tweaking of plans, a search for ways to overcome unexpected ba
iers that are
encountered, or even the adoption of a whole new set of specific strategies.
Strategic Planning Overview
Strategic planning, as described previously, is the process whereby organizations
develop a vision, a mission, guiding principles,
oad objectives, and specific strategies
for achieving the
oad objectives. Before even beginning the planning process, an
organization should conduct a SWOT analysis. SWOT is the acronym
for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. A SWOT analysis answers the
following questions: What are this organization’s strengths? What are this
organization’s weaknesses? What opportunities exist in this organization’s business
environment? What threats exist in this organization’s business environment?
The steps in the strategic planning process (Figure 3.1) should be completed in this
particular order because each successive step grows out of the preceding one. The
SWOT analysis provides a body of knowledge that is needed to undertake strategic
planning. The mission grows out of and supports the vision. The guiding principles,
which represent the organization’s value system, guide the organization’s behavior as it
pursues its mission. The
oad objectives grow out of the mission and translate it into
measurable terms. Specific strategies tie directly to the
oad objectives. Typically, there
will be two to five tactical goals for each objective, but this is a general guideline, not a
hard and fast rule.
Figure 3.1 The Strategic Planning Process.
Creative Thinking in Strategic Planning
In the age of global competition, it is even more important than ever to think creatively when
developing strategic plans. Should we attempt to find new markets that take advantage of our
core competencies? Should we undertake an acquisition that will give our organization a new
and additional core competency? Should we adopt a local, regional, or global strategy? Part of
the purpose of strategic planning is to fe
et out things that are done the same way year after year
simply because that is always what the organization has done or how it has done it.
In a speech given in Sandestin, Florida, author and business consultant Robert Kriegel labeled as
“sacred cows” these things that organizations keep doing simply