Competitive Strategy Objectives and Business Goals

Question: Discuss about theCompetitive Strategyfor Objectives and Business Goals. Answer: Key Ideas: In the video, author explained various aspects of strategy. One of the key learning from the article is that the strategy should be all inclusive in nature. There are various parts of strategy like tactics, objectives, business goals, etc. It is critical that business leaders and organizations should not consider strategy as only one of these elements but a combination of various elements. In the video, author explained that generally strategy would focus on the overall organization or business units (Kryscynski, 2015). Obviously, there would be various tactics and small milestones. However, these small milestones should not be considered as strategy. For example, increasing the brand awareness for a product should not be considered as a strategy of organization. The strategy is something that would have a vision attached to it. It is critical that all the employees in the organization should align well with the vison. In an organizational setting, leaders may have the responsibility to develop the strategy. However, when it comes to execution, leaders must have the support of various stakeholders. It is important that the leaders must communicate the drivers of strategy to all the internal and external stakeholders (Kryscynski, 2015). In an organizational setting, the strategy development and execution could be compared to strategy development and execution in war front. In the war front, strategy would help the troops to win the war. Likewise, in an organizational setting, strategy is something that would help the organizations to gain competitive advantage over its competitors. Application: The learning about the strategy and the inclusive nature of strategy could be applied to a large variety of organizations. This information and knowledge is particularly more useful for the organizations that wish to change their business operations and underlying strategy. Lets take the example of Dell Inc. The company, Dell Inc. is moving from PC company to new one like the cybersecurity, and data centre design and management. According to Daft, (2015). As it transitions from a PC company to a solutions company, founder Michael Dell is trying to return Dell to its entrepreneurial roots. Dell is moving into new areas such as cybersecurity and data centre design and management, and letting those new units operate more autonomously. I would argue that Dells strategy can be effective, as long as the parent organization is willing to take a more hands-off approach than perhaps it is accustomed to and can tolerate a shift in power from the corporate body to the entrepreneurial sub-unit. Another great aspect of going this route is that it inspires employees to get creative and take pride in the company while adding value in the process. By giving divisions autonomy people will feel comfortable sharing their ideas. The end goal of this creativity is developing better or new ways of doing things (Brown, 2015). This effectively brings the organizational life cycle full circle, but without the level of risk that a startup company would have. Business Model Innovation Key Ideas: The video focuses on the use of innovation as part of the business model. One of the key learnings from the video is that the innovation should be based on the combination of internal and external environments or factors. Generally, the organizations would only analyse the internal factors to develop or to focus on their innovation. However, it is important that the organization and leaders should also analyse the external factors before analysing their innovation with business model. Martins Rindova (2015) concluded that organizations are reliant on external environmental factors to advance the process of interpretation. Organizational interpretation is synonymous with the learning process for people. In agreeance with Martins Rindova (2015) some organizational interpretation of the environment yields outcomes that do not require open systems framing because operations are not complex and the inputs are easily transferred into organizational outputs. In the video, author explained that innovation should also be a source of competitive advantage for organizations. The true value that is delivered from business model innovation is the core competency of organizations (Gallen, 2013). The unique core competency would eventually help organizations to have something in the market that cannot be imitated. The use of innovation in business model is useful only when the competitors cannot imitate the products and services. Application: There are various examples of innovation lead business model. One highly successful company that continues to maintain tight control over new product development and design is Apple, Inc. In fact, the company signs all of its products with the tag line Designed by Apple in California. For Apple, the closed innovation approach clearly works, as the company has been recognized repeatedly for its innovative technology and elegant design. From its pioneering work with the graphical user interface (GUI), to its products that revolutionized music players and cellular telephones, Apple has succeeded, in part, as a closed system, and perhaps because it employs elements of the closed system approach. Organizations operating on the pretense of being a closed system exist, and can be successful. Apple, Inc. has tried to maintain a closed system approach to its products so that the innovation formula is not imitated by the competitors. They are highly successful in their business. Using closed s ystem approaches of innovation in business model allows the company to deliver state of the art products to their consumers. However, it could be argued that given Apples ongoing relationship with Samsung, Inc. products, that Apple is not a true closed system. It is expected that Apple would continue to focus on its innovation lead product and it would continue to be a source of competitive advantage for Apple Inc. References Brown, N. (2015). Why you absolutely need creative employees. Fortune. Retrieved from https://fortune.com/2015/08/05/nancy-brown-creative-thinking-at-work/ Darkow, I.L., 2015. The involvement of middle management in strategy developmentDevelopment and implementation of a foresight-based approach.Technological Forecasting and Social Change,101, pp.10-24. Gallen, S. 2013. Business model innovation. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4ZSGQW0UMI Kryscynski, D. 2015. What is strategy. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TD7WSLeQtVw Martins, L.L., Rindova, V.P. and Greenbaum, B.E., 2015. Unlocking the hidden value of concepts: a cognitive approach to business model innovation.Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal,9(1), pp.99-117.