SWOT Analysis Of The Post Office Ltd

SWOT Analysis Of The Post Office Ltd The Post Office Ltd in United Kingdom, a subsidiary of Royal Mail Group Ltd, attained its separated identity in 1987 Post Office in UK is quite famous for two main services, first and the obvious one from its name is clear, that it provides the Postal services to its customers. Second reason for its popularity is the Post Office Card Account which is basic account allowing customers to collect benefit payments. There are other services also being provided by the Post Office, which are discussed in brief in the assignment. Today, Post Office has around 11,843 (according to an auditor working for the post office) branches spread around UK, and offer various range of services for its customers. The management of Post Office have been very resourceful in adopting technology as a part of its operational functions, with the new horizon system introduced in the year 2000 (ref), revolutionizing the basic system of serving Post Office customer. As, technology is advancing, traditional manner of Post ing letter is fading away, exposing the entire Post al industry with danger of extinction. Thus, it has now become imperative for the organization like Post Offices to conduct a through SWOT analysis in order to sustain and survive in immensely hi-tech global market. Strengths The Post Office of United Kingdom has to be appraised of its diversified operations. The process of division and diversification can be traced back to the year 1986, when the company got separated and became subsidiary of Royal Mail Group Ltd, to attain its separate identity from mere the once providing the Post al services. The process of diversification was persistent and continuous and today Post Office provides more than 8 different kinds of services to its customer veering from saving and investment, to telephone and from government licenses to bill payments. So, it would be justified to evaluate this diversification of Post Office in different services to be one of its major strength. This diversification helps Post Office to attract a large mass of customer, ranging from men, women and children, old and young as well as business and social. Extensive and Diversified Services The different kind of services that the Post Office provides starts from its Post al services, where the branches accept mail for two collection and delivery divisions i.e. Royal Mail and Parcel Force. In banking services, the Post Office has arrangements with various banking corporations and customer of these banks can use basic services of banks like cash withdrawals and cash deposit. In savings and investment services, the Post Office since long has been an agent of national saving and investment, providing customers with the basic services of depositing money and withdrawals from their saving accounts. For telephone services the Post Office provides home landline telephone services, and also provides top-up for various services networks. Insurance services is quite diversified in itself, as Post Office provides insurance in most of the areas, starting with Car and Van Insurance, Home Insurance, Business Insurance, Life (term) Insurance, Over 50à ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢s cover (for elderly citizens) pet insurance and its very famous travel insurance. Foreign Exchange services is a very essential service that the Post Office provides, as the customers just walk in to their Post Office and can convert currencies, but not all Post Office branches provide these services. Government Services include providing checking and sending services for passport Offices and the driving license authority (DVLA), and providing fishing and well as road tax. It was important to briefly describe the services the Post Office provides, as it is one of its major strength diversified services for diversified group of people. Post Office has done extremely well in identifying its opportunities in the past and kept on introducing new service lines in its portfolio, this has helped the Post Office to survive in its long journey, and grabbing these opportunities in the past has today become its strength, the Post Office no longer just survives on the Post al services that it provides to its customer, and has successfully made its other services like insurance and license services very profitable. Infrastructure The venture of General Post Office began in the 1660, by Charles II and has eventually evolved as the modern Post Office as we know of today. Today the Post Office has around has 12,000 branches spread widely and all around UK. This major establishment sure has taken time, but today when we evaluate this wide coverage by the Post Office it sure is its true strength. The only word to describe this coverage by the Post Office is National infrastructure. It truly has developed over a period of time a national infrastructure enabling it to reach to each and every customer all around UK. Possessing this national Infrastructure is quite advantageous for the Post Office as it becomes quite effortless to make its new product reachable. This large infrastructure also facilitates more customers spread all around UK. It has also helped the Post Office to reach its customer and for the customers to reach it easily, making them closer and intact with their customers. Weaknesses Improper distribution It is very important for every organization to be able to evaluate its weakness. Weakness is internal interference that becomes hurdle for the organization to achieve its objectives. In case of Post Office the operations have been suffering losses since the year 2006 and the management had to take drastic measures to convert these losses in profit in order to survive. There lies the weakness in its strength of national infrastructure, in the financial year 2008-09 the Post Office had to close down around 2500 Post Offices all around UK in order to reduce the operating expenses of the organization. The organization had around 14,376 branches spread around UK, which got reduced to around 12,000 branches in the year 2009, which shows how the distribution of the Post Offices was unproductive. Unproductive distribution of Post Office resulted in division of customer to a part that it became unprofitable. Questionable customer service quality Out of its extended number of branches which is around 12,000 only 373 are directly owned by the Post Office Ltd. The rest around 98% are either sub-Post Offices or franchise are privately owned. The Post Office has not got any consolidated training system, which would enable its braches to provide consolidate training to its customer advisors. The only training method adopted in Post Office all around UK is the old staff training the new staff, which is certainly not a professional manner of training a staff. Training becomes an important part of working with the Post Office as the system it uses to serve the customer is horizon. It is a very complex hi-tech system, which enable the advisors to reach all its product with ease, but in order to be able to use the system efficiently, a systemized training methodology should be adopted, which is not practised in case of Post Offices. Hence leaving an efficiently trained customer advisor to serve the customer, which certainly reduces its quality of services, and the direct effect of these can be seen with the Post Offices losing its largest footfall customer to highly efficient and quality customer services competitors. Industrial dispute Post Office is a subsidiary of Royal Mail Ltd, which also own Royal Mail, and Parcel Force, which are its collection and delivering division. Royal Mail is been a centre of a number of recent industrial disputes with the Communication Workerà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢s Union. The extended dispute between the management and the staff lasted around 7 months and resulted into the staff going on a number of strikes, which disrupted the business severely. Post Office thrives certainly, but not majorly on its Post al foot fall customer for its other services. There was a enormous decrease in the number of Post al customer, because of the strike called on by CWU, in the year 2009, which makes its internal dispute with the staff a major weakness. The strike carried on by the staff resulted into inefficient delivery of the mails, which makes the customer hunt for another more efficient delivery or courier service provider, hence decreasing its own customer line. Opportunities Extensive range of services enabling cross-selling opportunities Extended customer line of the Post Office, from banking, Postal, investment, insurance, pension, licensing customer and others provides a huge potential to the Post Office to enable the cross selling to its customer. Every pension customer is a potential over 50 life cover customer, and bureau de change customer is a probable customer for selling travelling insurance. Every DVLA customer is a probable car insurance customer. With such a huge potential customer foot fall, the Post Office surely gets a competitive advantage over its rivals in the market. Further consolidation in the banking industry The Post Office offers a huge line of financial products, from foreign exchange, to insurance, from credit cards to investment opportunities to its customer. The Post Office offers basic banking services by the means of cash withdrawals, cash deposit, cheque deposit etc, looking at such a huge line of customers. The post office should capitalize on their banking customers by providing basic savings and current account services either through organic growth or with a joint venture with a trustable partner and take advantage of reforming financial services. A national infrastructure would surely provide them with the competitive advantage and make their operations economical and sustainable for longer period of time. Further consolidation of brand image The Post office in the year ending 2008-09 closed down 85 of its crown post offices, out of, which 70 were sold to W H Smith, which is expected to make 2.5 million in additional profit in that financial year. This strategy can be critically evaluated and taken at a next level, by creating a joint venture with Hallmark, Greetings cards or such established organization, to which posting services can be related. The customers will have the convenience of two related services at a single stop. This can work in advantage for both the organization as it adds value to the product and the services. Threats Revolutionary changes within the Industry The postal Industry, is going through a lot of changes, technology is taking over the traditional mailing system. People as well as corporate industry rely heavily on technology for communication. Using the technology has its own set of benefits, as it is safer, cost effective and faster than traditional mailing methods. Advancements in technology are inevitable and the near future can be visualized with reducing dependence on postal system. This is a sure threat for the postal industry as technological advancements is eating away its probable market. A research conducted at the royal mail showed a reduction of 10 million customer using postal services compared with the last year, this give a serious indication as to how the reliance on the postal system is reducing (http://search.bbc.co.uk/search?q=royal%20mail%20striketab=allscope=allstart=2). Increase in competition The mailing industry is becoming intensely competitive, unlike in the past, where the post office enjoyed the monopoly of having the maximum share of the industry. Companies like DHL, TNT, Fed-ex etc are providing intense competition to the UKà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢s oldest posting organization. The customer has evolved from merely being cost effective to cost against time evaluation, today the customer are ready to pay a suitable extra amount for ensuring the time and safety of the delivery, the private players have certainly gained their confidence in this sector by providing safe, secure and timely services. Thus, the Post Office faces sever competition from these private players in national and international market. Overall assessment of the organisationà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢s position 10% of the marks are allocated for overall conclusions on the balance of SWOT elements. SWOT analysis is a continuous process, and just as important as other management functions. The fact that the post office has been extending its line of product and service offerings to its customers proves that the post office has been conducting a continuous research on the product line. Recently, it has been offering its postal services on-line, which facilitates the customer to utilize their services at the comfort of their home. Industrial dispute, for which the Royal mail has faced much criticism, has proved very damaging for it overall brand image. National joint-venture or organic growth in banking industry is one of the biggest opportunities that lie in-front of the post office. Advancing the product line of the post office, a national level merger with W H Smith or any other stationary or greeting cards organizations will be an opportunity of adding brand value to its organization. Finally, talking about the threat that the post office faces is quite clear with the significant increase in the number of customer reeling on technology to communicate. Modern customer is ready to let go of cost if the services offered are time specific, private player are surely a notch ahead of post office in providing such time efficient services, which gives a set back to post office services. But, I see a promise in post office management, as it has been able to overturn its losses into profits and been able to maintain an extended and well diversified product and service portfolio, which I see being continued in the near future.

Learning and Physical Activity Essay

Explain why physical activity is important to the short and long term health and well being of children. physical activity should be part of every childs life. it promotes living a healthy lifestyle and also the childs general well being. short term health- physical activity promotes a lot of different areas, some of these being; building muscle- helps children move more freely which makes them really enjoy physical play. developing heart and lung functions developing a skeletal frame- if a skeletal frame is not developed properly it cause be a risk of many health problems. Long term health- physical activity is very important and also plays a very big role in preventing obesity. aspects of development 1. 2 explain the development of movement skills in young children and how these skills affect other aspect of development movement skills hand eye coordination- is very important as we need eyes and hands to work together. for example to catch a ball requires the eyes to tell the brain that the hand need to move in order to catch the ball. foot eye coordination- to kick a ball the eyes need to tell the brain tht the foot needs to move in order to kick a ball. Travelling movement- where the child moves from one place to another for example running, skipping and jumping object control movement- objects being send, recieved and travelled with for example. throwing a ball. balance and coodination control gross motor control- this mean whole limb movements, such as moving arms, legs or the entire body(running, jumping) fine motor control- these are smaller actions such as picking up an object using finger or thumb or using your tounge and lips to taste. 2. 3 explain the importance of natural outdoor enviroments for young childrens physical activity and movement skills. As well as playing indoors children should be encouraged to join in in outdoor play. outdoor play is important for mental, emotional and emotional well being. playing outdoors will develop a childs imagination and self confidence. They will get to experience movement and freedom and develop their muscle strength, coordination and problem solving skills. there are alot of benefits of outdoor space, some of these being; playing outside also makes children gain more physical skills because they are learning to use their bodies in a different way to what they would do indoors. Social interaction also goes on whilst playing outside this is because they are not getting as much direction of the adults. children get to learn by using their outside voicesm yelling and running. children learn what is acceptable in one setting that may not be acceptable in another playing outdoors teaches children about different types of textures, smells and sounds outdoor play encourages children to take risks, have more imagination and to explore their own interests. Explain how the plan; meets the individul movement skills needs of children  includes activities that promote competence in movement skills encourages physical play in my plan i planned to do sticky kids with the children at the nursery. sticky kids is physical play so the activity encourages children to participate in physical play. As sticky kids is alot of dancing this helps children develop more of their movement skills. When I planned to do sticky kids, I tried to fit the plan around every childs individual movement skills. The children participated really well and the plan I did went well. There were a few children that wasn’t joining in but we got them all to join in and they participated really well. My plan encouraged physical play because we got the children to get up and join in the activity but they had the chance not too. 4. 1 explain the importance of building physical activity into everyday routines. physical activity is a very important part of every childs life and should be in all their everyday routines. physical activity and exercise will increase a childs strenght and stamina which will then improve their muscle tone and muscle usage. It helps with balance and flexibility in a child and also helps develop catching and throwing skills, movivation and social skills, boosts energy, helps stop anxiety and strees, improves coordination, improves bone strength and heart and lung capacity and has a positive affect on a childs self esteem. physical activity and movement also helps to stimulate the brain which is why it is important for children to have physical activitys in their everyday routines. It is also important for a child to have physcial activity in their everyday routines because it has a big impact on the childrens behaviour. For exmaple if children are running inside instead of telling them no you could say we have to use our walking feet inside but we can run when we go to play outside. Children wont learn as well if they don’t get time outside especially boys this is because boys have a bigger body mass and they need more oxygen than girls. Children need oxygen to learn effectively. Boys also need to get out more because they are more active than girls are.

Emergent Corporate Strategy Essay

CORPORATE STRATEGY is the direction an organization takes with the objective of achieving business success in the long term. Recent approaches have focused on the need for companies to adapt to and anticipate changes in the business environment. The development of a corporate strategy involves establishing the purpose and scope of the organization’s activities and the nature of the business it is in, taking the environment in which it operates, its position in the marketplace, and the competition it faces into consideration. Strategic management is a relatively young subject. It has its roots in the economic and social theories of the 1930s and 1940s – perhaps even earlier. It only really began to emerge as a separate topic in the 1960s and 1970s. Even today, there is only partial agreement on the fundamental principles of strategic management with many views, ideas and concepts. Among the numerous early contributors, the most influential were Alfred Chandler, Philip Se lznick, Igor Ansoff and Peter Drucker. Alfred Chandler recognized the importance of coordinating management activity under an all-encompassing strategy. Interactions between functions were typically handled by managers who relayed information back and forth between departments. Chandler stressed the importance of taking a long term perspective when looking to the future. In his 1962 ground breaking work Strategy and Structure, Chandler showed that a long-term coordinated strategy was necessary to give a company structure, direction and focus. He says it concisely, â€Å"structure follows strategy.† Times change and concepts evolve so by the 1980s one can choose between two pathways when developing a strategy for a corporation, non-profit organization or an institution: the prescriptive and the emergent approach. Deliberate strategy is goal-orientated. It asks: what do we want to achieve? Emergent strategy is means-orientated. It asks: what is possible, with the means we have at our disposal? Already in 1985 Mintzberg and Waters were publishing: Ë ®Of strategies, Deliberate and EmergentË ® were they stated that deliberate str ategy is realized as intended whereas emergent strategy are patterns of consistence realized despite, or in the absence, of intention. There are 8 different types of strategy between the two poles of deliberate and emergent strategy: planned, entrepreneurial, ideological, umbrella, process, unconnected, consensus, imposed. Many authors have defined the two approachments in different ways. In Linch’s view a prescriptive thinking is one whose objectives are defined in advance and whose main elements have been developed before the strategy commences. Such an approach usually begins with an analysis of the outside environment and the resources of the company. The objectives of the organization are then developed from this. There then follows the generation of strategic options to achieve the objectives, from which one (or more) may be chosen. The chosen option is then implemented. This full range of activities is called the prescriptive strategy process. Henry Mintzberg, in his work, The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning, was a critic of the analytical approach arguing that label strategic planning should be dr opped because strategic planning has impeded strategic thinking and also because unpredictable events, such as the introduction of new regulations or technologies, will regularly act to force the original strategy off its course. From a contrary point of view Ansoff shows that firms in fast-paced, competitive environments who use a systematic process for strategic planning very often go on to dominate their marketplace. Their logical, analytical approach allows them to devise predictive and pre-emptive strategies from which they can meet new opportunities head on. For instance, in 1995 EasyJet used incredible foresight to introduce low cost flights allowing it to take advantage of a more cost-conscious European Market. The prescriptive approach regards strategy development as a systematized and deterministic process where analysis of the organisation, its performance and external environment leads to the formation of a rational, long-term plan. Senior management is in charge of defining the final objectives and the plan is then put into action through the successive layers of the organization. Managers who use the analytical method are usually those with a low appetite for risk and activate in a slow changing market. On the other hand, the emergent strategy is a pattern of action that develops over time in an organization in the absence of a specific mission and goals, or despite a mission and goals. Emergent strategy is sometimes called realized strategy. Mintzberg argues that strategy emerges over time as intentions collide with and accommodate a changing reality. Emergent strategy is a set of actions, or behavior, consistent over time, â€Å"a realized pattern [that] was not expressly intended† in the original planning of the strategy. When a deliberate strategy is realized, the result matches the intended course of action. An emergent strategy develops when an organization takes a series of actions that with time turn into a consistent pattern of behavior, regardless of specific intentions. â€Å"Deliberate strategies provide the organization with a sense of purposeful direction.† Emergent strategy implies that an organization is learning what works in practice. Mixing the deliberate and the emergent strategies in some way will help the organization to control its course while encouraging the learning process. â€Å"Organizations †¦[may] pursue †¦ umbrella strategies: the broad outlines are deliberate while the details are allowed to emerge within them† (from Mintzberg, H. 1994, The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning). Linch defines emergent strategy as one that does not have the same fixed objectives as the prescriptive approach. The whole process is more experimental with various possible outcomes depending on how matters develop. To quote, ‘An emergent strategy is one whose final objective is unclear and whose elements are developed during the course of its life, as the strategy proceeds.’ Thus the early stages of emergent strategy may be similar to prescriptive strategy – analysis of the environment and resources. But then the process becomes more circular, learning and experimental. Formulation of strategy runs parallel to implementation and managers at multiple organizational levels have a key input into the actual strategies pursued by the organization. This model’s emphasis on learning underlies more recent theories which focus on the value of knowledge as a core organizational competence for gaining competitive advantage. Despite heaving a good, solid, prescriptive strategy with their low cost flights, Easy Jet embraces with success also the emergent approach by launching allocated seats on all flights, in order to get competitive advantage. Budget airline says it will make more money from seat allocation than speedy boarding scheme preferred by rival Ryanair. EasyJet is ending the desperate rush for prime seats on low-cost flights by launching allocated seating across its network. Having been eschewed by budget carriers in the past for impeding fast turnaround times, the Luton-based airline said seat allocation did not appear to slow down journeys an d is more lucrative than speedy boarding schemes. It expects 1a and 6a to be the prime picks on flights following trials on 6,000 flights this season. Allocated seating was be rolled out across easyJet’s network from November, with all passengers allocated a seat. Those wishing to change their seat will be charged  £12 for front row and over-wing seats,  £8 for berths in the four rows behind the front row, and  £3 to reserve a seat anywhere else on the plane. Passengers who don’t pay for a particular spot will be randomly allocated a seat as well when they check in, free of charge, although the chances of getting a seat up front will be diminished. â€Å"The majority of people will not have to pay for their seat,† said an EasyJet spokesman, adding that the airline would attempt to seat families together even if they don’t pay for specific seats. EasyJet has mulled allocated seating trials in the past but Carolyn McCall, EasyJet chief executive, has decided to push ahead after a trial scheme showed encouraging results. The trials found that on short-haul flights such as London to Glasgow, the  £3 window seat 6a was the most popular, while on longer routes such as London to Sharm-el-Sheikh the  £12 1a berth is the most sought-after due to the more substantial legroom. Predictably, seats in the middle and near the back found the fewest takers, with 16b the least desired on short haul and passengers avoiding 19b on long haul. â€Å"This is an example of EasyJet trying to do all it can to make travel easy and affordable for our passengers,† said McCall. â€Å"Our customers asked us to trial allocated seating and we are really pleased with the positive passenger feedback during the trial. As importantly, we have shown that we can do so while delivering strong on-time performance – the most important driver of passenger satisfaction.† EasyJet said that more than seven out of 10 passengers on trial routes preferred the system to speedy boarding, where passengers pay around  £10. 50 to board a flight first – a service also offered by Ryanair. Low-cost airlines have been characterized by their strategy of charging for as many services as possible, from inflight food to checking bags into the hold. However, some notions such as allocated seating have been ruled out by the likes of Ryanair because of their potential to clutter up planes, which would prevent low-cost carriers from executing the 25-minute turnaround times – the gap between a plane arriving at its gate and pushing off again – that allow them to run the busiest possible timetable. Andrew Lobbenberg, an analyst at HSBC, said the move would benefit EasyJet because it gives the airline the opportunity to make money from all seats on a flight rather than the 30 berths set aside for speedy boarding. â€Å"We would expect sales of pre-allocated seat selection and premium seat allocation in the front of cabin and exit rows to certainly exceed speedy boarding revenues. Speedy boarding was limited to 30 passengers per flight, but we imagine a higher share of passengers will opt to secure their seats in advance of travel.† He added: â€Å"Moreover, we think the switch to allocated seating will make trave lling on EasyJet notably less stressful. It will be far better for families travelling together. It will also remove the hassle of boarding which we think has been a material deterrent for business travelers. It should also be helpful for relations with airports: as customers spend less time standing in queues for hours before the flight, they should be free to spend more time and money in airport stores.† An emergent approach leads to more creative and responsive strategy making which is well suited to the hyper-competitive and unpredictable environments of today. Interestingly, Hamel and Prahalad pointed out that the most successful firms in the world do not tie themselves down to mission, goals and objectives or the predetermined plan. One of these corporations is obviously Apple, which is in a never-ending development. Apple prides itself on its innovation. When reviewing the history of Apple, it is evident that this attitude permeated the company during its peaks of success. For instance, Apple pioneered the PDA market by introducing the Newton in 1993. Later, Apple introduced the easy-to-use iMac in 1998, and updates following 1998. It released a highly stable operating system in 1999, and updates following 1999. Apple had one of its critical points in history in 1999 when it introduced the iBook. This completed their â€Å"product matrix†, a simplified product mix strategy formulated by Jobs. This move allowed Apple to have a desktop and a portable computer in both the professional and the consumer segments. In 2001, Apple hit another important historical point by launching iTunes. This marked the beginning of Apple’s new strategy of making the Mac the hub for the â€Å"digital lifestyle†. Apple then opened its own stores, in spite of protests by independent Apple retailers voicing cannibalization concerns. Then Apple introduced the iPod, central to the â€Å"digital lifestyle† strategy. Philip W. Schiller, VP of Worldwide Product Marketing for Apple, stated, â€Å"iPod is going to change the way people listen to music.† He was right. Apple continued their innovative streak with advancements in flat-panel LCDs for desktops in 2002 and improved notebooks in 2003. In 2003, Apple released the iLife package, containing improved versions of iDVD, iMovie, iPhoto, and iTunes. In reference to Apple’s recent advancements, Jobs said, â€Å"We are going to do for digital creation what Microsoft did for the office suite productivity.† That is indeed a bold statement. Time will tell whether that happens. Apple continued its digital lifestyle strategy by launching iTunes Music Store online in 2003, obtaining cooperation from â€Å"The Big 5† Music companies—BMG, EMI, Sony Entertainment, Universal, Warner. This allowed iTunes Music Store online to offer over 200,000 songs at introduction. In 2003, Apple released the world’s fastest PC (Mac G5), which had dual 2.0GHz PowerPC G5 processors. Product differentiation is a viable strategy, especially if the company exploits the conceptual distinctions for product differentiation. Those that are relevant to Apple are product features, product mix, links with other firms, and reputation. Apple established a reputation as an innovator by offering an array of easy-to-use products that cover a broad range of segments. However, its links with other firms have been limited, as we will discuss in the next section on strategic alliances. There is economic value in product differentiation, especially in the case of monopolistic competition. The primary economic value of product differentiation comes from reducing environmental threats. The cost of product differentiation acts as a barrier to entry, thus reducing the threat of new entrants. Not only does a company have to bear the cost of standard business, it also must bear the costs associated with overcoming the differentiation inherent in the incumbent. Since companies pursue niche markets, there is a reduced threat of rivalry among industry competitors. A company’s differentiated product will appear more attractive relative to substitutes, thus reducing the threat of substitutes. If suppliers increase their prices, a company with a differentiated product can pass that cost to its customers, thus reducing the threat of suppliers. Since a company with a differentiated product competes as a quasi-monopoly in its market segment, there is a reduced threat of buyers. With all of Porter’s Five Forces lower, a company may see economic value from a product differentiation strategy. A company attempts to make its strategy a sustained competitive advantage. For this to occur, a product differentiation strategy that is economically valuable must also be rare, difficult to imitate, and the company must have the organization to exploit this. If there are fewer firms differentiating than the number required for perfect competition d ynamics, the strategy is rare. If there is no direct, easy duplication and there are no easy substitutes, the strategy is difficult to imitate. There are four primary organizing dilemmas when considering product differentiation as a strategy: inter-functional collaboration, connection to the past, commitment to market vision and institutional control. To resolve these dilemmas, there must be an appropriate organization structure. A U-Form organization resolves the inter-functional collaboration dilemma if there are product development and product management teams. Combining the old with the new resolves the connection to the past dilemma. Having a policy of experimentation and a tolerance for failure resolves the commitment to market vision dilemma. Managerial freedom within broad decision-making guidelines will resolve the institutional control dilemma. Five leadership roles will facilitate the innovation process: Institutional Leader, Critic, Entrepreneur, Sponsor, and Mentor. The institutional leader creates the organizational infrastructure necessary for innovation. This role also resolves disputes, particularly among the other leaders. The critic challenges investments, goals, and progress. The entrepreneur manages the innovative unit(s). The sponsor procures, advocates, and champions. The mentor coaches, counsels, and advises. Apple had issues within its organization. In 1997, when Apple was seeking a CEO acceptable to Jobs, Jean-Louis Gassà ©e (then-CEO of Be, ex-Products President at Apple) commented, â€Å"Right now the job is so difficult, it would require a bisexual, blond Japanese who is 25 years old and has 15 years’ experience!† Charles Haggerty, then-CEO of Western Digital, said, â€Å"Apple is a company that still has opportunity written all over it. But you’d need to recruit God to get it done.† Michael Murphy, then-editor of California Technology Stock Letter, stated, â€Å"Apple desperately needs a great day-to-day manager, visionary, leader and politician. The only person who’s qualified to ru n this company was crucified 2,000 years ago.† Since Jobs took over as CEO in 1997, Apple seems to have resolved the innovation dilemmas, evidenced by their numerous innovations. To continue a product differentiation strategy, Apple must continue its appropriate management of innovation dilemmas and maintain the five leadership roles that facilitate the innovation process. In a few words emergent strategy does not mean chaos, but unintended order instead; does not mean that management is out of control, only that it is open, flexible and responsive as well as willing to learn; ultimately it implies learning what works. The purely prescriptive approach, where realized strategy is formed exactly as intended, and purely emergent strategy- order (consistency in actions over time) in absence of intention about it do both not exist in real life. The purely prescriptive and purely emergent strategy are two poles of a continuum of observable strategies in practice. Within the framework of an environment which is by and large unpredictable, many organizations are forced to become more flexible and adaptive to change. This supports the adoption of an emergent approach to strategy development which invokes a more intelligent capacity to respond to new opportunities. Nonetheless, such a strategy can preclude control over actions and may risk a lack of direction. A greater use of strategic planning tools for internal and external analysis would certainly facilitate improved organizational learning and enhance strategic thinking even while following an emergent approach. This recognition that the prescriptive and emergent processes, rather than being mutually exclusive, can be complementary approaches that reinforce each other is being highlighted in more recent theories such as the Logical Incrementalism approach proposed by Quinn. Although many management writers seem to seek one ‘best way’ to conduct strategy, these approaches are not necessarily incompatible. Different approaches may be suitable at different times, depending on the context or situation, and an organization may pursue a combination of approaches. For example, an organization can have a clear direction and an overall plan – which it expects to have a amend or adapt as events unfold. It may also encourage small-scale strategic initiatives or projects throughout the organization. They help the organization to develop new skills and retain flexibility; they also have the potential of spreading if conditions are appropriate. All in all, most viable strategies in today’s business world should have customized elements of prescriptive and emergent characteristics in order to manage the complexities of their business and still triumph over changing circumstances. The final conclusion is that â€Å"Strategy formation walks on two feet, one deliberate and one emergent.† (Mintzberg & Waters)

The Factors Affecting The Profiles Of Students Pursuit...

This literature review explores the factors affecting the profiles of students in pursuit of higher education specifically partaking in e-learning opportunities. This is done in two parts outlined below. A. Analysis of studies on importance of perceived characteristics of e-learning ; B. Exploring the strength of obstacles to e-earning on the student market. This research was driven by the following research questions: A. What are the determining factors in decision making for students to participate in e-learning? B. How large are the influencing strengths of these factors? This chapter attempts to reintroduce the conceptual framework of the research, summarize selected literature vital in understanding the concerned variables and position this research within the existing body of literature. 1.1 What is E-learning? With the rapid growth of the Internet, numerous education/training institutes and companies have devoted great efforts and large sum of money to develop e-learning programs for users (Chiu, Sun, et al., 2007). The result of this investment is clearly showing. Online learning became the fastest-growing trend in higher education, quickly surpassing the overall growth of the population enrolled in higher education (Allen Seaman, 2014) Centrality of the learner is one of the prominent features of distance education, which makes it essential to discern why e-learning should be viewed differently from other forms of education (Saba, 2003). 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