Evaluating the Plan for a Global Lock Business
Fred Grunewald’s plan for creating a single global lock business is ambitious yet achievable. Grunewald’s experience working with different countries makes his plan feasible, especially with the acquisition of Emhart Corporation. The two factors form a solid foundation for the planned technostructural and strategic changes (Cummings & Worley, 2009). The acquisition of Emhart Corporation brought to Black & Decker eight separate company brands and their individual experiences, both domestically and internationally. Grunewald’s plan to consolidate the eight companies to form a global lock business to improve efficiencies by horizontally linking the eight companies and leveraging knowledge and expertise of the companies has significant market share benefits (Mesquita & Lazzarini, 2006). With the enablers come the impediments; the issues that stand in the way of Grunewald’s global plan are the eight separate brands, their long-standing traditions and their fragmented thinking about market opportunities. Other impediments exist; the lack of integrated and common processes for staffing, training, pricing, and forecasting market demand creates inconsistency for the global lock business. Additionally, there is a lack of marketing documents such as catalogs, price lists, technical data, advertising, and sales support literature necessary to function efficiently. A significant challenge is the competition’s ability to innovate and capitalize on the same business model. Grunewald is relying on his experience and vision to implement all the structural and strategic changes in one year; Grunewald could be so single minded about what it takes to make the changes he could be overlooking the...
... middle of paper ...
... Management, (75), 24.
Mesquita, L., & Lazzarini, S. (2006). Vertical and horizontal relationships in an industrial cluster: Implications for firms’ access to global markets. Academy Of Management Annual Meeting Proceedings, L1-L6. doi:10.5465/AMBPP.2006.22896792
Okhuysen, G., & Eisenhardt, K. (2002). Integrating knowledge in groups: How formal interventions enable flexibility. Organization Science, 13(4), 370-386.
Pedersen, T., & Petersen, B. (2004). Learning about foreign markets: Are entrant firms exposed to a "shock effect"? Journal Of International Marketing, 12(1), 103-123.
Raina, R. (2010). Timely, continuous & credible communication & perceived organizational effectiveness. Indian Journal of Industrial Relations, 46(2), 345-359.
Rantakari, H. (2008). Governing adaptation. Review of Economic Studies, 75(4), 1257-1285. doi:10.1111/j.1467-937X.2008.00518.x
Black & Decker (B&D) is a global manufacturer and the world’s largest producer of power tools, power tool accessories, electric lawn and garden tools, and residential security hardware. The company was a pioneer in innovation and development of power tools and has used that position to build strong brand names that enjoy worldwide recognition. Key Causes for Poor Performance in the Professional-Tradesmen Segment The reason B&D has performed poorly in the professional-tradesmen segment is due to the positioning of the B&D brand in this segment. Poor positioning of the brand has resulted in customer confusion and negatively impacted customer perception of the brand in terms of being a quality product. B&D Performance in the Power Tool Industry Overall Any adjustments to B&D’s strategy in the professional-tradesmen segment must not have an adverse impact on their success in the consumer or professional-industrial segments. Therefore, a thorough understanding of the needs of each segment will be important in building a viable strategy to challenge Makita in the professional-tradesmen segment, while continuing to maintain share in the other two segments. _Consumer _Segment Professional-Tradesmen Segment This category consists of professionals who are buying a product for their own use on a job site. Their livelihood depends on the quality and performance, as well as the reflection on their skills that using a particular tool brings from others on the job site. Since they are purchasing their own tools, this segment needs this high quality performance at a reasonable price. However, since Makita and Milwaukee are both priced higher than B&D and are seeing greater success in this category, tradesmen are clearly willing to pay more for a product they perceive will be more effective for their use. Key needs for this market segment include: Performance and quality - {text:change} does the job needed to be done, doesn’t break down, produces high-quality results and more efficiently gets the job done. Reliability and durability - does the job every time and can be used for an extended period of heavy continual use. Safety Support from the Manufacturer – if the product breaks or performs poorly, access to replacement parts and service will be key in maximizing performance up-time.
Being an effective communicator is the key to success for a leader. Communication is defined by the authors in the text Organizations: Behavior, Structure, and Processes as transmitting information and understanding, usi...
General Motors is knocking on the door to world class business performance. Ohmae’s five stages of global operation support General Motors aspirations. From stage one to stage five there are significant differences to becoming a global organization. For instance, stage one, states that a company supports arm’s length customer export activity by a domestic company that links up with local and distributors to function. This stage represents the entry level global corporation. General Motors is at stage 4 of Ohmae’s five stages of becoming a global corporation, because it has exemplified the following traits: Systems and tools used globally not just at headquarters, R&D, Engineering and other business operations have a global focus, and all support functions are applied globally. (MFGO 601, WK. #2 Lecture Notes) An example of Ohmae’s, stage ...
During the 1990s, each company experienced specific difficulties to their market share. Both companies struggled to reestablish themselves in the global consumer electronics world. As the year 2000 came around, new CEOs at both companies came up with even more complicated initiatives and reorganizations. Outsiders wondered how each company’s internal changes would affect their endless competitive battle in the industry.
Gibson, J.W., and R.M. Hodgetts. 1991. Organizational Communication – A Managerial Perspective. 2nd Edition. New York: HarperCollins Publishers.
The overall aim of this paper is to evaluate ways in which changes within the global economy might impact upon marketing strategies and activities of a business organization of my choice. The company I have chosen to write about is Hutchison Whampoa Limited (HWL), which is a global conglomerate.
General Electric (GE) is a public company that provides services in the following segments: Energy, Technology, Infrastructure, Capital Finance, as well as Consumer and Industrial. GE, along with 3M and Siemens, all compete in the Diversified Machinery Industry whose products range from large turbines and medical equipment to laundry machines and coffee pots. This is a unique industry that has pure competition where companies have products that are mechanically the same, but is completely open for differentiation of those products. Products will lack value if they are not differentiated from their competitors’ products in the eyes of the consumer. Additionally, innovation is extremely important in this industry causing those who do not innovate to lose profitability quickly.
The underlying argument or reasoning behind Ohmae's opinion that strategic alliances, or entente, are the only way forward for all companies competing globally. "Globalization mandates alliances, makes them absolutely necessary." (Ohmae, 1989). The author has supported this viewpoint, that globalization makes strategic alliances necessary as vehicles for customer-orientated value, with four issues facing today's companies: 1. The Californization of Need; 2. The Dispersion of Technology; 3. The Importance of Fixed Costs, 4. Dangers of Equity.
The goal of this paper is to provide key insights and concepts from three strategy books and then begin the strategy planning process for five different products. The three books shy away from advocating old school Porter’s concepts and instead recommend strategic innovation since modern market environments are dynamic. In Book 1, "Thinkers 50 Strategy," Crainer and Dearlove (2014) discuss the evolution of strategy concepts from early military strategists (Sun Tzu) to more recent influential works such as Michael Porter’s ‘Five Forces’, Gary Hamel and C.K. Prahalad’s resource-based ‘Harmonic Strategy’, Richard D’Aveni’s new 7-S framework for hypercompetition, W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne’s ‘Value Innovation’ and ‘Blue Ocean Strategy’, David P. Baron’s ‘Integrated Strategy’ that includes nonmarket strategy and Pankaj Ghemawat’s ‘World 3.0’ for global strategy. Rita McGrath underscores the need for newer strategy techniques: “Today we’re seeing industries competing with industries, different arenas where competition manifests itself. Strategy, entrepreneurship, and innovation are all bleeding into each other” (cited in Crainer and Dearlove, 2014, chapter 1, last para.).
Gibson, J.W. & Hodgetts, R. (1991). Organization communication: A Managerial Perspective. New York: Harper Collins Publishers.
All research fully carried out on Entry nodes on the long run remain limited to large manufacturing firms. The foreign market selection and the choice of its entry modes drastically ascertain the performance of a specific firm. Entry mode can be defined as an arrangement for an organization that is organizing and conducting business in foreign countries like contractual transfers, joint ventures, and wholly owned operations (Anderson, 1997). Internationalization is part of a strategy which is going on for businesses and organizations transfers their operations across the national borders (Melin, 1992). The firm that is planning to have the operations across the border will have to choose the country that they are planning to visit. Anderson (1997) argues that the strategic market entry decisions forms a very important part of an organizational strategy. The decision to go international is part of the internationalization strategy of the firm. Multinational Corporations that desire to have international operations will find the strategy to go international, the mode of entry is very important. Even though there are studies which have shown that the main effect of being pioneers in a market promises superior performance in terms of market share and profitability than the late movers, Luo (1997) and other researchers have found out that the effect of the first mover may be conditional and will depend on the mode of strategy that is used (Isobe, & Montgomery, 2000). There are different strategies that MNCs can use to enter new foreign markets; they include exporting, licensing/franchising, full ownership and joint ventures. The mode of exporting entails a company selling its physical products which are usually manufactured outside the...
Watson, Wyatt & Company. "Effective Communication: A Leading Indicator of Financial Performance." Communication ROI Study. 2006.
Communication is a very important aspect in leadership. It involves the ability of managers and other leaders in an organization to engage employees through effective listening and understanding of any issues that may be making it difficult for them to realize their full potential. The need for good communication capabilities in the workplace is to make sure that leaders give employees enough time to air their opinions before any binding directions are made. It is always necessary for leaders to remain mindful of the manner in wh...
As in all aspects of personal and professional life, having effective communication is a key element of success. Effective communication can benefit your relationships with people. By conveying your message and integrating them as a member of the team and not just a subordinate leads to better production. By effectively communicating you can clearly define job responsibilities and expectations. The better you are able to communicate the less likely organizational turnover of personnel will occur. Supervisors and leaders in the professional workplace find that the most important factor in advancement and retain ability is effective communication. Senior level executives and human resources managers are stressing the importance of communication and providing more training for mid-level management. Emphasis is placed on communication being clear by being transmitted strongly.
Communication helps the organizational members to make both personal and organizational goals. And also help them to co-ordinate on the internal activities of the organization. To the extent the less effective communication of any organization is the less e...