L18: Marketing strategy Implementation and Control Flashcards

1
Q

Challenges when managing global firms:

A
  • Integrating global production activities
  • Making efficiency gains from global scale
  • Learning across boundaries
  • Developing national responsiveness
  • Locating the central hub
  • Devising global structure
  • Coping with cultural diversity
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2
Q

Culture definition (OED)

A

the ideas, customs, and social behavior of a particular people or society; the attitudes and behavior characteristic of a particular social group.

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3
Q

Culture’s influences on the strategy

A

Step 1: Improve implementation
Step 2: Reconstruct or develop a new strategy
Step 3: Change of culture

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4
Q

Improve implementation by

A

Lowering cost, improving accepted ways of doing things, and tightening control

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5
Q

Reconstruct or develop a new strategy

A

Extending the market for businesses but operating in the same way they have been used to.
=> Challenge: managers find themselves constraint by path-dependent organizational routines and assumptions or political processes.

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6
Q

Change of culture

A

Usually rare and triggered by dramatic evidence of the redundancy of that culture such as a financial crisis or market share loss.

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7
Q

The purpose of culture web

A

a tool to understand the paradigm of culture and its effects on organization

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8
Q

Culture web includes

A

Paradigm, symbols, power structure, organizational structures, stories, rituals and routine, control systems.

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9
Q

Paradigm

A
  • Taken for granted assumptions held in common.
  • Difficult to observe internally so the other 6 visible manifestations help.
  • Ex: a problem in an engineering firm is a tendency of people to focus on technical excellence of the product.
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10
Q

Symbols

A
  • Objects, events, acts or people that convey, maintain or create meaning over and above their functional purpose.
  • Ex: car and job titles are also the signals for status and hierarchy.
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11
Q

Power structure

A

Ability of individuals or groups to persuade, induce or coerce others into following certain courses of action

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12
Q

Organizational structure

A

Roles, responsibilities and reporting relationships in organisations

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13
Q

Stories

A
  • Being told by members to others.

- Ex: Successes, disasters, heroes, villains and mavericks.

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14
Q

Rituals and routines

A
  • Rituals are particular activities or special events in organisational life that emphasise, highlight or reinforce what is important in culture.
    Ex: traning programs, interview panels, etc.
  • Routines are ‘the way we do things around here’ on a day-to-day basis.
    Ex: engineers often tell customers what they need rather than listening to their needs.
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15
Q

Control systems

A
  • Formal and informal ways of monitoring and supporting people within and around an organisation.
  • Includes measurements and reward systems.
  • Ex: public-service organization’s control system is more about accounting for spending rather than service quality.
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16
Q

Five basic structural types

A

Functional, Multidivisional, Matrix, Transnational, Project

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17
Q

Functional structure

A

It divides responsibility according to the organization’s primary specialist roles.

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18
Q

Functional structure’s pros and cons

A
  • Pros: Greater control since all information channel upwards, Clear definition of role and task, Provide concentration of expertise.
  • Cons: Cannot cope with product/geographical diversity, Danger of information overloaded at the top; Failure to adapt; Senior managers neglect strategic issues; Coordination between functions is difficult.
19
Q

Multidivisional structure

A
  • It includes divisions on the basis of products, services or geographical areas.
  • Example: Alphabet => Google, Google X, Venture, Nest, Calico
20
Q

Multidivisional structure’s pros and cons

A
  • Pros: Flexible (add or divest divisions); Specialisation of competences; Training to take a strategic view; Control division by performance; Great ownership of divisional strategy
  • Cons: Fragmentation and non-cooperation; Lack of knowledge sharing; Danger of loss of central control when divisions become too autonomous; Duplication of central and divisions functions.
21
Q

Worldwide area division >< Worldwide product division

A
  • High need for local responsiveness.
  • Little pressure to coordinate activities to exploit experience and location economies, and to transfer distinctive competencies abroad.
  • Decentralised structure required.
22
Q

Global matrix structure

A

Combines different structural dimensions simultaneously
Ex: Product + Geography.
- Strong pressures, Global learning and High pressure to be locally responsive

23
Q

Global matrix structure’s pros and cons

A
  • Pros: Promote knowledge-sharing; Flexible for allowing different dimensions to be mixed together.
  • Cons: Hard to control; Longer time to reach decisions; High degree of conflict; Unclear jobs and tasks, cost and profit responsibilities.
    => Managers must be good at sustaining collaborative relationship and coping with ambiguity/messiness it can bring.
24
Q

Transnational structure

A

It combines local responsiveness and global coordination. Simultaneous ability to achieve global competences, local responsiveness, and organization-wide innovation and learning.

25
Q

Transnational structure’s pros and cons

A
  • Pros: Knowledge-sharing; more Specialisation and Network management than the matrix
  • Cons: Same with matrix
26
Q

The success of transnational structure depends on:

A

Managers’ willingness to work at both national BU and transnational as a whole.

27
Q

Specialisation in transnational structure

A

Region or nation with expertise can achieve greater economies of scale by producing a particular product on behalf of other units.

28
Q

Network management in transnational structure

A

It sets specialist role of each BU, then sustains the relationship and systems to make network operate in an integrated and effective manner.

29
Q

Project-based structure

A
  • Teams are created to undertake a project and then dissolved.
  • For organizations that deliver large and expensive goods/services and those delivering time-limited events.
30
Q

Project-based structure’s pros and cons

A
  • Pros: Highly flexible, Clear tasks, Good control, Effective knowledge-sharing.
  • Cons: Ill-coordinated due to short-term; Hinder accumulation of knowledge overtime or within specialism.
31
Q

Strategy and structure fit

A
  • Diversification (ability to control over various business): multi-divisional business
  • Internationlization (global scale, horizontal coordination and local adpotion): matrix and transnational
  • Innovation (knowledge creation and sharing): project-based and functional
32
Q

Configurations

A

are the set of organizational design elements that fit together in order to support the intended strategy.

33
Q

Structures

A

give people formally defined roles, responsibilities and lines of reporting with regard to strategy.

34
Q

Systems

A

support and control people as they carry out structurally defined roles and responsibilities.

35
Q

McKinsey 7S framework

A
  • Act as a checklist of any organizational design exercise.
  • Highlight the importance of fit among 7 elements: Strategy, Structure, System, Staff, Style, Skills, Superordinate goals.
36
Q

Staff

A

the kind of people and they are developed via systems of selection, socialization, and reward.

37
Q

Style

A

the leadership styles (collaborative, participative, directive or coercive)

38
Q

Skills

A

Capabilities such as an organization’s training schemes, IT and reward system transform the organizational purpose.

39
Q

Superordinate goals

A

the overarching goals or purpose as a whole - mission, vision, and objectives. All other elements support it.

40
Q

Configuration dilemmas

A

Control vs Innovation ; Self vs Team/peer ; Formal power vs Informal power ; Efficiency vs Responsiveness; Silo vs Holistic behaviour.

41
Q

Configuration problems

A
  • It’s hard to adapt to specific needs.
  • It’s costly to change all elements. If change one element will break the virtuous circle and make performance worse until overall fit is restored.
  • Agility (detect and respond to opportunities and threat) and Resilience (capacity to recover from environemnt shocks fast and easily).
42
Q

Configuration solutions

A
  • Subdividing into different strategic SBU.

- Combining and re-organizing

43
Q

Culture influence on

A
  • Our world view, Our priorities, Our understanding of how others view us
  • How we view SWOT, deal with other people, make decisions, respond to challenges, and perceive risk and reward