Operational Barriers to Success
There are many different obstacles businesses can face that will affect their ability to be efficient, innovative, and confident while meeting the demands of their clients. For a company to be successful, it is paramount to identify these obstacles and create ways to overcome them. The purpose of this paper is to identify a few of these barriers and the affect they can have on an organization.
There are many tools organizations can use to create a successful move towards its financial and innovation goals. One tool an organization can use to identify these barriers is a SWOT analysis. A SWOT analysis allows an organization to look at their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. According to Mind
When looking back at what caused Kodak to fail instead of moving forward as technology advanced, it comes down to people and assets. When Kodak first started out, the employees were full of ideas. As Kotter (2012) explains, “Kodak was built on a culture of innovation and change. It’s the type of culture that’s full of passionate innovators, already naturally in tune to the urgency surrounding changes in the market and technology” (Para 5). As the company became more and more successful, leaders became complacent and listened less to their innovative
Filing for bankruptcy allowed Kodak a chance to start over; they had to rethink their corporate strategy. By rethinking their corporate strategy, Kodak was able to start fresh with a new mindset which led to the disappearance of their fear of failure. “With this new mindset, organizational fear evaporated and a new energetic focus on innovation emerged” (Baker, n.d., para 6).
If I was an executive for Kodak, to overcome the barriers that Kodak went through, I would have ensured there was dedicated time given for employees to focus on innovation. Given that Kodak was started as a company built on a culture of innovation and change, a culture where the employee voices could be heard would be a top priority for me. The minute complacency began to set in is when changes should have been made.
Operational barriers exists for all organizations regardless of how big or small they are. By being aware of the different barriers, organizations can put processes in place to work through
During his absence, with John Sculley in power, the focus shifted to maximization of profit, and product design suffered. Steve Jobs theorized that is was one of the reasons companies decline. “My passion has been to build an enduring company where people… make great products… the products, not the profits, were the motivation. It’s a subtle difference, but it ends up meaning everything”.
Kelley,T. (2005, Oct.). The 10 faces of innovation. Fast Company, 74-77. Retrieved 6th March’ 2014 from http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=9&sid=1d6a17b7-c5f7-4f00-bea4 db1d84cbef55%40sessionmgr10&hid=28&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=bth&AN=18386009
What is a SWOT analysis? This concept involves assisting businesses to identify their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. It is often used to analyze an organization and its environment. Businesses find the analysis useful in assisting them to improve their business, establish goals and objectives.
Eastman Kodak is one of the oldest companies in the world, being founded way back in 1888. It was founded in New York and is still headquarter there. Over the course of the last century and more, this company has been a leader in developing new technology in photographic film. It helped to lead the revolution toward new, innovative cameras and film technology during the 1960s and 1970s. The peak of the company’s success came in the 1970s, when it controlled more than ninety-percent of the market share for photographic film. Perhaps more indicative of its success as a company is the fact that instead of referring to things as “film,” many during that time referred to film by the company’s brand name of Kodak. Today, it has shifted its strategy away from film and more toward digital camera sales, which have surged as a result of the change in philosophy.
The type of culture that existed at Eastman Kodak was also transformed significantly. The major change was when part of its business processes was outsourced to other companies because employees had to adapt to whole new environment even though it was not a total change. Employees that had worked for Eastman Kodak for years are the ones that may have been affected most because they probably were used to the hierarchical type of leadership.
A SWOT analysis is simple exercise that could be implemented on multiple subjects including an individual or a whole corporation. The SWOT analysis is an operational tool for managing change, defining strategic direction and setting realistic goals and objectives according to Simoneaux and Stroud (2011). Discovering new opportunities and manage and eliminate threats that are present in the company and the surrounding market. SWOT is a valuable technique that leads to a better understanding of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and treats both internally and externally. The strengths and weakness are to be considered internal factors and opportunities and threats to be e...
Kodak is the world’s foremost imaging innovator. George Eastman put the first simple camera into the hands of a world of consumers in 1888. In so doing, he made a cumbersome and complicated process easy to use and accessible to nearly everyone. Since that time, the Eastman Kodak Company has led the way with an abundance of new products and processes to make photography simpler, more useful and more enjoyable. With sales of $13.3 billion in 2006, the company is committed to a digitally oriented growth strategy focused on helping people better use meaningful images and information in their life and work. (Kodak, 2007)
Conflict and a bureaucratic corporate culture are largely to blame for the lack of creativity and ...
A SWOT analysis is a measure tool to summarize a company’s internal and external aspects. By measuring the company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats and looking for improving solutions by using the strengths and opportunities to improve on the weaknesses and take the necessary actions concerning any threats a company can survive in today’s world market.
They’ve created a sustainable, profitable top-line growth for Kodak, expanding the use of pictures, expanding the market for pictures, and enabling convenience, easy access to pictures all around the globe. Kodak’s expectations for the year 2004, is the product to be the largest single product to be used by use the consumer. Also by the end of 2004 they expect to see and increases of $1 ½ to $4 billion of revenue . The recent growth strategies at Kodak have focused on digital imaging and strategic partnerships with AOL, eBay, and Hewlett Packard, giving the company a strong grip in the market.
Strengths. The Tam An project was a product of the innovative and culturally competent infrastructure at Asian American Recovery Services (Han, Cao, & Anton, 2015). It has some powerful potential impacts on enhancing community readiness in the desired direction. First of all, it is multidisciplinary strategies which could be implemented in various area targeting vulnerable population. And the fundamental knowledge were from grassroots, and the staff and organizing agencies had experience working with the directly targeting Vietnamese population. Also, after completing the Tam An project, aggressive evaluation were obtained for continual improvement and effectiveness (Han, Cao, & Anton, 2015).
Innovation, the ability to change and take risk; is a key attribute to success. No company has become successful by keeping their old ways, or staying to the “tried and true” (Foster, 1986). No successful business can stay successful regardless of how much money or technology they have, if they do not know how to keep evolving with time. Success isn’t built off one tool; it is built off a variety of tools. This book taught me that one must constantly adapt to the world around you, because it won’t slow down. We live in an ever-changing world. One must be willing and able to change. This book teaches how to be “unsafe” in the world of business, never stick with one way, never rely on one source of success; be ready to change it and find something better.
5) I believe that Chambers and Cisco could/should have done would have been to pull back on their large “all-out” pushing the production “buck”. If Chambers had not have pushed the 600 million dollar contracts for orders of unmade parts and materials I believe that the company would have held stronger.
A key part of an organizational strategy is to identify market opportunities by finding a niche or a gap in the marketplace that they can pursue to take their company ahead of all their competitors. An organiz...
Continual improvement drives an organization to be both analytical and creative in finding ways to become more competitive and more effective at meeting stakeholder expectations.