Business Alignment (20%)

Question 1

3 aspects business change must align to

Answer 1

External Environment

This is the business environment within which the organisation operates.

Enterprise Architecture

All business changes must align with the enterprise architecture of an organisation, including the business, applications, data and technology architectures.

Strategic Direction (VMOST)

Business change proposals should align with the vision, mission, objectives, strategy and tactics defined for an organisation.

Question 2

Describe the External Environment in the context of the alignment in the business change life cycle.

Answer 2

This is the business environment within which the organisation operates. This environment imposes trends, rules and constraints upon the organisation that it cannot change or influence. Understanding the external environment helps to ensure that change proposals are in alignment with the factors that exist within this environment. This analysis may also lead to the identification of opportunities available to the organisation and threats to it.

Techniques such as PESTLE and Porter’s Five-Forces analysis provide a basis for analysing the external environment for an organisation.

Question 3

Describe the Enterprise Architecture in the context of the alignment in the business change life cycle.

Answer 3

All business changes must align with the enterprise architecture of an organisation, including the business, applications, data and technology architectures. It also helps us question the what, how, where, who, when and why of business systems change.

Question 4

Describe Strategic Direction / VMOST in the context of the alignment in the business change life cycle.

Answer 4

Strategic Direction (VMOST)

Business change proposals should align with the vision, mission, objectives, strategy and tactics defined for an organisation. This ensures that changes are supportive of this overall direction.

A VMOST analysis may also identify strengths or weaknesses inherent within an organisation, for example, through considering the coherence and relevance of its strategic direction.

Question 5

Explain the process and techniques used to develop a SWOT analysis

Answer 5

xamination of the SWOT creates an understanding of the current position of the organisation and helps to identify issues to be addressed, for example, to identify where:

• The organisation needs to make changes in order to ward off threats
• There are opportunities for the organisation to grow or improve
• The organisation has strengths that may be utilised in order to overcome threats or grasp opportunities
• The organisation has weaknesses that need to be overcome if required changes are to be successful

Question 6

SWOT - Internal and External

Answer 6

Strengths & Weaknesses: Internal
Opportunities & Threats: External

Question 7

What other techniques can we used alongside SWOT for more rigorous analysis?

Answer 7

PESTLE and Porter’s Five-Forces analysis (External)
VMOST and Resource Audit - S&W (Internal)

Question 8

Name techniques used to analyse the external environment

Answer 8

PESTLE and Porter’s Five-Forces

Question 9

Explain the PESTLE analysis

Answer 9

Political

The political influences. For example, the prevailing political intent or focus, the level of political uncertainty or instability, or the international political situation.

Economic

The state of the economy, both nationally and globally. For example, the level of economic success or the amount of disposable income available to people.

Socio-Cultural

Movements and developments within society. For example, customer preferences or demographic trends.

Technological

The development of new and emerging technologies. For example, IT, engineering or manufacturing technologies.

Legal

Legislative changes at national and international levels. For example, data protection, health and safety or financial legislation.

Environmental

Concerns for the environment, or the ‘green’ factors. For example, those relating to transport or packaging.

Question 10

Porters Five-Forces analysis

Answer 10

Porter’s Five-Forces and aspects to consider for each of the forces are:

Industry competitors and rivals

What is the intensity of the rivalry or competition between existing firms in the industry?

Bargaining power of suppliers

What is their level of bargaining power relative to the organisation under consideration?

Bargaining power of buyers

What is their level of bargaining power relative to the organisation under consideration?

Threat from potential new entrants

Are there barriers that will prevent new organisations from entering the market

Threat from possible substitute products or services

Are there products or services that may be used as alternatives?

Question 11

Name techniques to analyse the internal environment

Answer 11

VMOST and Resource Audit

Question 12

Explain the VMOST analysis

Answer 12

VMOST provides a framework for the examination of the direction and focus of an organisation. The results of a VMOST analysis can be used to populate the strengths and weaknesses elements of the SWOT

Vision

Where does org see itself in the future? A sense of journey

Mission

The overall direction for the organisation. The purpose/ why does it exist

Objectives

HL goals to be achieved by the organisation in SMART. An example objective might be ‘to increase sales of our product by 30% and profitability by 50% by 20xx’.

Strategy

The long-term approach to achieving the organisation’s objectives. E.g. expand into new markets

Tactics

The short-term means used to deliver the strategy such as deploying new IT systems, improving products or enhancing customer experiences.

Question 13

Explain the Resource Audit

Answer 13

A resource audit offers insights into the strengths and weaknesses within an organisation through the analysis of five aspects. The types of resources to investigate are:

• The physical resources that the organisation owns or has access to. This includes features such as buildings, land and equipment. The classification of the resources, such as age, condition and situation, should also be considered
• The financial resources that determine the organisation’s financial stability, capacity to invest in new resources and ability to weather fluctuations in the market. The management of debtors and creditors may also be considered
• The human resources and their expertise, adaptability and commitment to the organisation
• The know-how owned by the organisation. This may include patents or trademarks and may be derived from the use made of information and technology within the organisation. Intellectual properties and patents are also included in this category
• The reputation of the organisation, for example, the brand recognition and the belief that is held about the quality of the brand, and the goodwill that this produces

Question 14

Name the frameworks used when analysing organisational culture

Answer 14

Charles Handy’s organisational cultures and the Cultural Web by Johnson et al

Question 15

4 cultures within Handy’s Model

Answer 15

Power / Role / People / Task

Question 16

What is Power Culture

Answer 16

Power is centralised in the top executives of the organisation

Question 17

What is Role Culture

Answer 17

Bureaucracy with highly structured, well documented procedures

Question 18

What is Task Culture

Answer 18

Getting things done through empowerment/flexibility/teams

Question 19

What is Person Culture

Answer 19

Focused on the individuals who may be connected through a common set of strong values

Question 20

Hofstede 5 dimensions of national culture

Answer 20

Power distance
Individualism
Long term / short term orientation
Uncertainty avoidance
Masculine/feminine

Question 21

Power distance national culture

Answer 21

A high power distance - expectation that power is distributed unequally and less likely to question person at the top

Question 22

Individualism national culture

Answer 22

People expected to look after themselves and their family
Opposite = collectivism

Question 23

Masculine national culture

Answer 23

Values such as assertiveness/competitiveness prevail and women more likely to be equal

Opposite = feminine

Question 24

Uncertainty avoidance culture

Answer 24

Low tolerance for uncertainty and ambiguity

Question 25

Long term oriented culture

Answer 25

Long term - thrift and perseverance are valued more
Short-term- respect for tradition and reciprocation of gifts and favours are valued more

Question 26

6 Elements of The Cultural Web (Johnson)

Answer 26

Stories
Symbols
Power Structures
Organisational Structures
Control Systems
Rituals & Routines
The Paradigm

Question 27

Stories - The Cultural Web

Answer 27

Narratives/anecdotes that employees share about the organization

Question 28

Symbols - The Cultural Web

Answer 28

Visual representations of the organizations culture (logos/office layout/dress code)

Question 29

Power Structures - The Cultural Web

Answer 29

The distribution of power and influence within the organisation

Question 30

Organisational Structures - The Cultural Web

Answer 30

How is work organised - hierarchy / comms channels / decision making process

Question 31

Control Systems - The Cultural Web

Answer 31

Processes and procedures to monitor and manage employee performance

Question 32

Rituals & Routines - The Cultural Web

Answer 32

Repetitive actions and behaviours that define an organisation’s culture (daily routines/social events/repeated traditions)

Question 33

Balanced business scorecard

Answer 33

The BSC (Kaplan and Norton, 1996) provides a means by which to assess the breadth
and balance of ‘goals’ and ‘objectives’ that the organisation uses to measure strategic
performance.

Historically many organisations have focused on financial performance but need to balance other areas which can in turn improve the financial performance

4 elements: Financial / Customer / Internal Processes / Learning & Growth

Each perspective has goals and associated measurements

e.g. Goal - improve customer satisfaction. Measurement - KPI: NPS Target: 75+

All goals and performance measures should support the vision and biz strategy

Question 34

Critical Success Factors (CSF)

Answer 34

Areas of the organisation that must succeed to achieve position performance and meet objectives.

Broad statement such as customer service / low costs

Question 35

Types of CSF

Answer 35

Industry wide - necessary for any org operating within a particular business domain/market i.e. all airlines have ‘safety of operations’ as a CSF

Organisation specific - area of performance that enable an organisation to outperform its competition (key differentiators) e.g. ‘low cost’ for Ryanair

Question 36

KPI

Answer 36

KPIs are related to the CSFs, and define the specific areas to be monitored in order
to determine whether the required level of performance has been achieved.

E.g. the volume of complaints received over a defined time period, and the percentage of customers rating the organisation ‘very good’ or ‘excellent’ in a customer perception
survey.

Since KPIs are related to CSFs, they need to be defined for both the industry-wide and
the organisation-specific areas.