Quality Control
Microsoft Word - BZ440V Assignment 4 ASSIGNMENT 04 BZ440 Quality Control Directions: Answer in complete sentences Be sure to use correct 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 better. Competitive Strategy To survive and thrive in a globally competitive marketplace, organizations must adopt a broad 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 narrowly defined segment of the market (market niche) and attempt to make the organization in question the market leader in that niche. Leadership can be 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 be 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 been 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 back in football. Both of these gifted athletes left their core competencies relating to basketball 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 baseball, 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 interrelated 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; broad strategic objectives; and specific tactics, projects, and activities for achieving the broad objectives. Specific tactics, projects, and activities are often referred 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 corrections 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 barriers 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, broad objectives, and specific strategies for achieving the broad 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 broad objectives grow out of the mission and translate it into measurable terms. Specific strategies tie directly to the broad 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 ferret 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