Essay About Strategic Alliancesorganizational Designtraditional Structure And Competitive Advantage

Competitive Advantage & Strategy
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Test 2 Review Competitive Advantage & StrategyAdvantages of CI (continuous improvement)How to compete – Service, information technology, innovation/product design, agility, time.TQ is a part of a long chain of customers & suppliers.Strategy- the pattern of decisions that determines and reveals a company’s goals, policies, and plans to meet the needs of its stakeholdersWhat is strategic planning-– the process by which members of an organization envision its future and develop the necessary procedures and operations to carry out that visionHow to gain a competitive advantage – market superiority, added value (quality relative to price), Outsource versus vertical integrationCore competencies.Balanced scorecard – need, effectiveness, lagging- what has transpired, leading- what going to happen in the futurePerformance measures – service standards (customer contact)Agility versus flexibility- allows you to adapt.  How its applied, advantages, etc.Consumer- Supplier relationshipsSupplier relations – practices.Customer engagement – characteristics.Customer satisfaction – product attributes.What are/is moments of truth – customer relationships? – if the Customer Relationships.  What they are, how to improve, how to manage.Practices for Dealing with SuppliersBase purchasing decisions on quality as well as costReduce the number of suppliersEstablish long-term contractsMeasure and certify supplier performanceDevelop cooperative relationships and strategic alliancesOrganizational designTraditional structure (mechanistic) highly structured, bureaucratic, division or labor, slow, lots of layers.Characteristics of flatter organization – less reporting structure and tasks for managers  and supervisors but not for senior management.Functional structure most often used.Types of leadership creativity/perspectiveUnderstand the difference between core and support processes/functions.Internal versus external customers.Define a supply chain.  What encompasses a value chain?Work design approaches