It strategy vs business strategy Essay Example for Free

It strategy vs business strategy Essay In most organizations IT expenditure is considered as one of the larger if not the largest contributor to capital investment and expenditure. Technology has a significant effect on the business landscape of most organizations and the market place they operate in. The goal of IT as such should be directed toward the alignment of IT strategy with an organizations overall business strategy (Mulcay, 2001). It is argued though that the inability to successfully derive value from IT investment is, for the most part due to a lack of alignment between IT and business strategies. Johnson and Scholes cited by Riley (2012) define strategy as follows Strategy is the direction and scope of an organization over the long-term: which achieves advantage for the organization through its configuration of resources within a challenging environment, to meet the needs of markets and to fulfill stakeholder expectations. In unpacking the definition, simply the business strategy that the business has decided to follow needs accurate configuration of resource human resource, technology resource, financial resource etc., so as to gain competitive advantage, meet objectives and stakeholder expectation. Henderson Venkatraman (1999) argue that there is no IT application or system, regardless of how cutting edge or sophisticated it maybe, that will build and sustain a competitive advantage for an organization for a sustained period of time. Organizations, in order to sustain competitive advantage should continuously endeavor to exploit its IT functionality and resource to maintain an advantage. In my opinion this is achieved by out of the box, evolutionary thinking by both business and IT leaders. Furthermore, both business and IT leaders need to understand fully the role that IT can support and re-shape business strategy decisions and improve IT effectiveness and ultimately improve business performance. SHOULD A COMPANYS IT STRATEGY FOLLOW ITS BUSINESS STRATEGY OR SHOULD IT LEAD ITS BUSINESS STRATEGY? WHY In my opinion IT is vary rarely the core business unless of course we mention Microsoft or Google and the like where technology is the primary focus area  but it must noted that the actual business process for each is different and intellectual property is what is regarded most valuable. Hence, I agree with (Abate 2009, Henderson Venkatraman 1999, Skriletz 2013) and many other researchers and commentators, that ITs role should be regarded as the enabler or driver of the business strategy. ITs strategy, investment; architecture even projects all need be dictated by overall business strategy, but should be part of process that helps the formation of the overall strategy. IT leaders need to possess the knowledge of new enabling technologies and how these technologies can be integrated into the business. Very often the business strategy is formed and developed in isolation and IT is seen as a support function only, rather than as function that can contribute to forming the strategy itself. IT leaders need to be part of the process that delivers the direction the business chooses to follow. Luftman Brier (1999) echo this sentiment in that just as HR and marketing are important parts of strategy so to should IT. Venkatraman and Henderson (2000) assert that business strategists cannot be seen to take the leading role whilst the IT strategist is seen as a support role. It is imperative both take the lead in designing the business platform. Business and IT strategists working together to shape new business; IT is not subordinate to business strategy but an extricate part of it. FACTORS TO CONSIDER Technology is seen as one of key elements that drive change and transformation. Intelligent use of technology can deliver a competitive advantage, streamline processes create cost efficiencies and optimization for most organizations and as organizations strive for these competitive advantages and efficiencies it would really not be prudent to exclude the technology people from the process of strategy development as those organizations that do include them, will certainly claim the competitive edge and advantage. Regardless of what industry youre in, its hard to think about a business  that couldnt exploit IT for competitive advantage if they chose to, says Barbara Gomolski, an analyst at Gartner cited in an article by Moore (2011). The industries that have seen growth by aligning IT and business strategy and have used it as a driver and an enabler include the airline industry that has leveraged IT and now allows customers to book directly with carriers rather than involving third party agents. The banking industry has really embraced technology with the likes of online banking and transactions, which show true alignment and involvement of IT in business strategy and goal setting. Technology drives their growth. The sentiment shared and one that I agree with is that by including IT in the formulation of business strategy will certainly assist the organization in achieving its goals. The exploitation of technology as a means is key and if you dont necessarily feel that, then I guarantee IT is treated as being outside of the core business strategy and as a result the organization is not deriving value from one of its most if not the most valuable resources. References Venkatraman N Henderson JC. 2000: Business platforms for the 21st Century, in Mastering Information Management, edited by DA Marchand, TH Davenport T Dickson. Great Britain: Prentice Hall: 283-289 Mulcay K. 2001: The IT Dilemma. World Trade, 14(4): 48-48. Henderson JC Venkatraman N. 1999: Strategic Alignment: Leveraging information technology for transforming organisations. IBM Systems Journal, 38(23): 472-484. Luftman J Brier T. 1999: Achieving and Sustaining Business-IT alignment. California Management Review, 42(1): 109-122. Abate R, (2008) IT should be an enabler to business [Available online at] http://www.information-managem e nt.com/blogs/IT_business-10015571-1.html (Accessed 18 June 2014) Skriletz R (2013) How to make IT a business enabler [Available online at] http://www.b-eye-network.com/view/16788 (Accessed 18 June 2014) Moore J (2011) Make It part of your Business Strategy [Available online at ] http://www.cnbc.com/id/44818677 (Accessed 18 June 2014) Riley J, (2012) What is strategy [Available online at] http://tutor2u.net/business/strategy/what_is_strategy.htm (Accessed 18 June 2014)

Interpreting Hamlet’s Ophelia Essay examples -- GCSE English Literatur

Interpreting Hamlet’s Ophelia Was Ophelia in love with Hamlet, or did she have more feeling for her father than for her boyfriend? In Shakespeare’s Hamlet was Ophelia’s madness contributed to by the prince’s rejection of her? The answers to these and other questions about this tragic figure will be given. Rebecca West in â€Å"A Court and World Infected by the Disease of Corruption† argues that Ophelia has no love for Hamlet, but only for her father: For the myth which has been built round Hamlet is never more perverse than when it pretends that Ophelia went mad for love and killed herself. No line in the play suggests that she felt either passion or affection for Hamlet. She never mentions him in the mad scene, and Horatio says of her, â€Å"She speaks much of her father.† Indeed she was in a situation which requires no sexual gloss. Her father had been murdered by a member of the royal house, and she found herself without protection, since her brother Laertes was in France, in the midst of a crisis such as might well send her out of her wits with fear. For the Danes hostile to the royal house made of her wrong a new pretext for their hostility, and the royal house, noting this, turned against her, helpless though she was [. . .]. (109) Beginning now with the play, the reader/viewer sees that the protagonist of the tragedy, Prince Hamlet, initially appears dressed in solemn black. He is mourning the death of his father, supposedly by snakebite, while he was away at Wittenberg as a student. Hamlet laments the hasty remarriage of his mother to his father’s brother, an incestuous act; thus in his first soliloquy he cries out, â€Å"Frailty, thy name is woman!† Ophelia enters the play with her brother Laertes, who, in parting for s... ...ies.† Readings on The Tragedies. Ed. Clarice Swisher. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1996. Rpt. from Shakespeare’s Women. N.p.: n.p., 1981. Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 1995. http://www.chemicool.com/Shakespeare/hamlet/full.html Ward & Trent, et al. The Cambridge History of English and American Literature. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1907–21; New York: Bartleby.com, 2000 http://www.bartleby.com/215/0816.html West, Rebecca. â€Å"A Court and World Infected by the Disease of Corruption.† Readings on Hamlet. Ed. Don Nardo. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1999. Rpt. from The Court and the Castle. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1957. Wilkie, Brian and James Hurt. â€Å"Shakespeare.† Literature of the Western World. Ed. Brian Wilkie and James Hurt. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1992.

Marketing plan †Huawei Essay

This marketing plan is specially measured to the company Huawei. Huawei is an international company which produces devices for telecommunication, with their phones being the most important product. Their vision is to deliver electronic communicating solutions to make the life of their consumers better. This marketing plan is requested by Huawei to find a way to accelerate the sales of Huawei’s phones internationally, with a targeted 10% raise in market share in Europe. In this report the proposition of the marketing plan can be found, with specific data about the different subjects and explanation of a market winning approach. We will start by analysing the company and the environment, to define the SWOT of the organization. Afterwards we will introduce these conclusions into a matrix where it will be visible what the company’s best aspects are. Then we will choose strategic options and further instruct on the matter. Next, we will create a mix of strategic marketing as pects that will further help to develop the importance on how and where to place the advertisements and stores and so on. Finally, a financial analysis will be done in order to predict the costs Huawei is going to make on this venture, and whether or not their new mission seems feasible. This report has been created by Quirijn, Ruben, Robbert, Amine and Erim. Management summary This marketing plan gives answers to the question whether it is feasible for Huawei to increase brand awareness in Europe by launching a market campaign and to increase market share with 10% within 4 years. The research phase had various angles. Based on micro, macro and meso level some interesting strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats are revealed. The most important ones are: (Strength )Huawei has a great cost advantages in comparison with the competition. (Weakness) Inability to maintain high quality professional service and sales support in western markets (Opportunity) Huawei offers low priced phones, which can be very attractive for people affected by the financial crisis. (Threat) A lot of competition in the western markets. The internal analysis consist out of various models. The canvas model was created to analyse Huawei as a company. Within the BCG-matrix, Huawei’s smartphones are placed as a question mark. And the computed Abell matrix shows that Huawei targets students and the most important need is the price and the most important technologies are calling and texting, internet and connectivity. On external level a survey is conducted within this marketing plan. The most striking result is from the question; â€Å"Do you know Huawei?†. 53% of the surveyed audience was not aware of what Huawei is as a brand. Within the Meso level, Porter’s five forces is analysed. The most important findings are: The power of the customers is not particular strong. The threat of new entrants is not very impactful as Apple and Samsung are the undisputed leaders. If done right the power of substitutes can have an impact on the market. There is no threat in the power of the suppliers Huawei operates within a highly competitive market, the rivalry is massive. After doing research on 5 strategies, the best strategy proven is the low-cost strategy. The reason it is a perfect match for Huawei is because they are able, because of their cost-saving combined with their excellent financial situation, to sell their products for a lot less than the competition The BCG matrix is an analytical tool for companies to evaluate their business units and their business potential. With help from this matrix Huawei can create and adapt marketing strategies, product strategies and more, all to help the strategic management of a company. The BCG matrix connects a company’s market share with a company’s growth rate. The model is divided into four areas, the stars, dogs, cash cows and question marks. Huawei and its mobile phones are placed in the box of question marks. It’s put in this box because of the fact that the worldwide market share of Huawei’s mobile phone is relatively low, and the market growth rate, again worldwide, is relatively high, with expanding markets all over the world. Market leaders already have established and a lot of companies operate in this market, but because of the wide and depth of the mobile market there is still a lot of potential for Huawei. In the coming time they will find out if their question mark can become a star. Abell model The Abell model is a model for seeing in what kind of market a company operates. With segments, needs and technologies there is a quick overview of what a company or a product is about. The Abell matrix for smart phone Huawei Students, young starters and parents are the main segments that Huawei is targeting, excluding senior citizens and children. The most important needs are the price of the phone, together with its appearance and the quality. Convenience is important but not a main objective. The technologies specific to the phone are being able to call and text, having internet, and being able to connect all around the world. Interactive display and such, are also not the main objective. Strengths & Weaknesses Strengths 1. Huawei has very strong financial position. Being financial healthy means that they can investment and start new projects. 2. They have great cost advantages in comparison with the competition, this allows them to produce against low prices and have low production costs. 3. Because of these great cost advantages Huawei is able to sell products against relatively low prices. This gives them a huge competitive benefit 4. Huawei has high brand recognition and is rapidly increasing their brand awareness in their new markets, such as Europe, which gives them fast closure to the big brands. 5. Superior technologies enable Huawei to come with fast efficient solutions, and gives the whole company effective process. 6. Huawei has a very high customer loyalty. Customers are satisfied and keep their preference for the brand, which allows Huawei to focus more on finding new customers. 7. R&D is a very strong department within Huawei technologies, having R&D centres all over the world, to create products that are needed by every person all over the world. 8. Their market share in the African markets is very high and Huawei invests a lot here, which pays off with a high return rate. 9. Huawei has a broad range in products, which give them the beneficial ability to provide end-to-end solutions, keeping more customer processes inside Huawei. 10. They have a strong connection with the Chinese government, which helps them to maintain their number one position in China. Weaknesses 1. the supply chain of Huawei has a lot of flaws, with late and insufficient deliveries occurring. This is partly because of the high amount of products and the market penetration in the US and Europe. 2. the customer service is not what it should be, not dealing with customer complaints properly, mainly because there starting services in Europe and the lack of integration with supporting services. 3. Inability to maintain high quality professional services and sales support in Western markets. 4. Except for China, Huawei lacks the strong global physical presence that a company needs to establish itself as a true market leader. 5. contracts with the most important and biggest server providers are not optimal, which prevents an efficient integration between product and server. 6. Huawei excels at telecommunication, but does not have much experience in their new services, and does not have the same knowledge to overcome difficulties that some of their big competitors do. 7. The brand image of Huawei is mostly focused on their mobile process and selling, and customers are on a large scale unaware of the other practices of the company 8. employee satisfaction is high within Huawei, but a lot of complaints arise from workers that operate in Huawei’s supply chain, which has a negative effect on how ethical Huawei is. 9. Huawei still depends on their low-pricing strategy, and has no alternative selling strategy’s for their products. 10. Huawei’s ties to the Chinese government are a strength, but is at the same time a weakness, as it complicates creating relationships with other specific governments, such as the US. MESO analysis Meso SWOT Strength: R&D, patent ownership, growing their innovative and advanced technological products which have earned their global recognition Weaknesses: Lack in transparency and image of secrecy, worrying companies and governments who might otherwise trust the brand to protect valuable security information. Huawei has failed to understand the US legal system and market demands, as well as its image as a risk to national security which has resulted in its failed acquisitions. Opportunities: Continued innovations and technology advances. The continued growth and expansion of technology usage and literacy offer both brands unlimited growth opportunities, so long as they stay ahead of the competition though continued improvement. Threats: R&D takes time, if the competition provides solutions first, the brand will struggle to compete. Development in this industry is simply risky as the business relies upon continued growth of the internet and internet-based-systems. Merger and acquisitions ha ve no assurance and are inherently risky, particularly in this industry due to the advanced, high-technology companies with particularly high overhead and sunk costs. Global politics and exchange rates are also a threat to international trade as a whole. Porter’s five forces Now that Huawei is entering the European market there are certain things to take note of. Porter’s Five Forces helps us define which types of pressures could be present that have to be identified before entering a competitive market like the smartphone business Huawei is entering on a regional scale. Power of customers The power of customers in the particular market is not that strong. There isn’t a lot of influence into the product directly by the consumers. Whatever features are implemented into the product is similar to those of the competition, and is mostly influenced by the R&D departments. So the customers will mostly decide on preference of design or depending on the price that is being offered. Altogether there are not endless choices for the customers to choose between. This means that the customers simply don’t have the power to strongly influence the market by demanding critical changes from a product or brand. Power of new entrants The threat of new entrants is also not very impactful for the market Huawei is entering. This is especially due to the reason that it takes a certain brand awareness to convince a large number of the (potential) buyers into buying the new product they are bringing to the market. However, when this product is offering a whole range of new features or improvements that seem very attractive, this may threaten the existing products on the market, making them harder to promote against a superior product. But in almost any case it doesn’t seem feasible to go up against popular brands like Apple and Samsung. This means that, overall, new entrants aren’t expected to be a huge threat. Power of substitutes Huawei is financially very strong and strives for operational excellence in which they score relatively high already. This means that they are able to offer considerably low prices compared to competitive brands on the market. At the same time they are able to offer stylish designs and similar features to other brands. This means that Huawei is able to give consumers a choice that they will most likely not regret, but before they do so they are going to have to decide to trust Huawei into offering them a worthy product. The marketing campaign must show the difference Huawei is bringing to the market, and with that they have to convince the consumers of something worth buying. This will prove difficult however, due to the fact that a lot of people have already been convinced by the flashy designs of Apple for instance. The brand is already widely-known and both Apple and Samsung enjoy a great deal or the market share today. This means that eventually the power of substitutes is rather high at this point and probably the biggest problem on the board for Huawei. Power of suppliers The power of suppliers doesn’t have to be seen as a threat to Huawei. They are importing from their region of origin, namely South-East Asia. They enjoy low labor and production costs overall, which goes in combination with high efficiency meaning they are able to keep costs very low. There are many different suppliers for the raw materials that needed for the production process which also lowers the power of the suppliers. Rivalry Eventually the market proves to be a highly competitive one, especially if we start talking about Apple and Samsung who are highly involved in the mix. They are offering high quality products, one for relatively high and one for relatively low prices. They have similar features but some small differences, mostly in handling the device. It mostly comes down to the design of a smartphone, as almost all brands offer pretty much the same features. This means that the product with the strongest marketing campaign offering the flashiest design will most likely hit the jackpot and win the hearts of most customers which means that this is going to be very challenging for Huawei to compete against. So basically the market growth is rather high as technology development is an ongoing process and there are several key players in the market meaning that they are calling the shots. Huawei has to gain trust in potential customers and attract them by offering as flashy as the newest model Apple has brought to the market, and give it some extra features in order to make the difference.

Military Life vs Civilian Life - 787 Words

Military Life vs. Civilian Life When we think about the military these days, normally the first thing that comes to mind is war. However, when we think about the civilian world the one thing that stands out is freedom. As a result, in order to maintain that freedom we must have our military go out and fight wars. There are many differences between our military and the civilian life; nonetheless, similarities do exist. A few that will be discussed pertaining to military and civilian life are how soldiers and civilian personnel are accounted for, their different clothing and their rank structure. In the military, specifically the Navy, personnel are accounted by a process called mustering. At exactly seven o’clock in the morning; you†¦show more content†¦For the majority, vacation time is granted and will include long periods. For many in the civilian world vacation is paid and for many it’s not. However, for the military any leave period is always paid for. There are many differences and similarities the military and civilians have in life. In here we discussed a few of the many that are out there. We discussed the differences in accountability, uniforms in both the military and civilian sector, the rank structure and even vacation time or as the military call it, leave. We notice the civilian life is a lot more relaxed and we can tell freedom does exist and is very noticeable. Furthermore, we also notice that military life is a lot more demanding. All in all if we didn’t have a civilian world we would not require a military. And if we had no military we would not haveShow MoreRelatedCivilian Life vs. Military Life Essay1053 Words   |  5 Pageshuge differences compared to being in the civilian life. There are many differences and there are some things that are the same, being in the Army and being in civilian life. 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