August/Fall 2012 Master of Business Administration - MBA Semester IV MB0052 Strategic Management and Business Policy - 4 Credits (Book

ID: B1314) Assignment Set- 1 (60 Marks) Note: Each question carries 10 Marks. Answer all the questions.

Q. 1 What do you understand by the term Strategy in the context of Business Management and Policy? And what are the stages in the formulation of a Strategy? (10 marks) Answer : Strategy Strategy is the method by which an organisation systematically achieves its future objectives. A business cannot progress for a long term without a reliable strategy. In this unit, you will learn meaning of business strategies, its conceptual evolution, scope and its importance, distinction between goals and objectives, analysing strategic intent through vision and mission statements and finding out the significance of core competencies of business and critical success factors

Business Management is the science of management of a business by the collective effort of those who take part in the decision making process of the business. Business management is a crucial branch of study for all types of businesses from small businesses to large corporations. Business management is the optimum allocation of resources, both human and physical to achieve various organizational goals. In more specific terms, business management deals with crucial decisions and steps that a business has to undertake to accomplish its desired output and stability. It is the summary of the issues addressed by the entrepreneur or the business authorities to realize the longterm as well as the short-term objectives of the business and the required profit margins.

Business management essentially deals with the issues of planning, organizing, directing and controlling. While planning is undertaken by the manager or supervisor, directing is the supervision so that workers work towards accomplishment of the goals the business has set to achieve and controlling is the process of evaluation of output produced towards that objective. It should be noted in this context that planning consists of tactical planning (short term), strategic planning (long term) and contingency planning which allows for alternative courses of the organization when the primary plans that have been developed do not meet the desired objectives.

Business Management Strategy can be defined as the strategies undertaken to attain the most efficient business management for a corporation, medium-sized or small scale business. It was first developed as a discipline in the 1950s and 60s which gained much momentum in the 1970s through growth and portfolio theory. Business management strategies are the all inclusive steps that the businesses should follow to attain its long-term objectives so as to achieve the highest rates of growth and profits in the long run. Business management strategy can be illustrated as a process of specifying a companys objectives, developing policies and plans to achieve these objectives and the allocation of resources in the direction of implementing the policies and attaining these objectives. Most importantly, business management strategy is a dynamic process which encompasses all the industries and businesses in which the company is involved in a framework akin to that of game theory.

In terms of advanced economic analysis, an optimal game theory solution can be theorized in which all participants of the game reach their optimal solution which will be identical to the solution if everybody behaves independently of each other. Business management strategy or strategic management is a combination of strategy formulation and strategy implementation and the fundamental premise rests on assessing the competitors of a business and setting goals and strategies to counter any moves of the existing and potential competitors and reviewing their personal strategies annually or quarterly to determine how it has been implemented and whether it needs to be replaced in the event of new competitors and a changed social, financial, political and economic environment. Business strategy based on the industrial organization approach is based on economic theory and deals with issues such as competitive rivalry, resource allocation and the economies of scale. Strategy formulations mainly include self evaluation and competitor analysis which determines the objectives and the planning strategies are devised according to them. Strategic planning sometimes will depend on various external factors such as the policies of the government and other extraneous reasons such as a market crisis. Strategy implementations deal with the allocation of resources and assigning responsibilities or tasks to specific individuals or groups towards the attainment of the planned objectives. It is also concerned with evaluating the efficiency and efficacy of the process of business management strategy, i.e. moving towards the set goals, adjustments to the process if needed and documentation and integration of the process.

Business management strategies can be said to be fundamentally hinged on the basic market principles of getting people their most suitable jobs, effective Research and Development activities, establishing certain standards, delegation of duties and improving the cash flow to the company.

Business Management strategies can be viewed from various approaches such as the industrial organization approach and the sociological approach based on human interactions and strong human relations between the lowest and highest level of managerial authority. There is also a strategy hierarchy that can be divided into functional strategy and operational strategy where functional strategies include marketing strategies, product development strategies, human resource strategies, financial strategies and information technology strategies as opposed to operational

strategies which include the day-to-day functioning of the business or the corporate organization. In this context, we can mention the concept of the of Business Process Management (BPM) which is defined as the juncture between Business Management and Information Technology and deals with tools and techniques to design, control and analyze the operational business processes of a business. The main asset or quality of the business process management is the improvement in the business processes through new software tools called the BPM systems which have made such activities faster and cheaper.

Strategy formulation refers to the process of choosing the most appropriate course of action for the realization of organizational goals and objectives and thereby achieving the organizational vision. The process of strategy formulation basically involves six main steps. Though these steps do not follow a rigid chronological order, however they are very rational and can be easily followed in this order.

Setting Organizations objectives - The key component of any strategy statement is to set the longterm objectives of the organization. It is known that strategy is generally a medium for realization of organizational objectives. Objectives stress the state of being there whereas Strategy stresses upon the process of reaching there. Strategy includes both the fixation of objectives as well the medium to be used to realize those objectives. Thus, strategy is a wider term which believes in the manner of deployment of resources so as to achieve the objectives. While fixing the organizational objectives, it is essential that the factors which influence the selection of objectives must be analyzed before the selection of objectives. Once the objectives and the factors influencing strategic decisions have been determined, it is easy to take strategic decisions.

Evaluating the Organizational Environment - The next step is to evaluate the general economic and industrial environment in which the organization operates. This includes a review of the organizations competitive position. It is essential to conduct a qualitative and quantitative review of an organizations existing product line. The purpose of such a review is to make sure that the factors important for competitive success in the market can be discovered so that the management can identify their own strengths and weaknesses as well as their competitors strengths and weaknesses. After identifying its strengths and weaknesses, an organization must keep a track of competitors moves and actions so as to discover probable opportunities of threats to its market or supply sources.

Setting Quantitative Targets - In this step, an organization must practically fix the quantitative target values for some of the organizational objectives. The idea behind this is to compare with long term customers, so as to evaluate the contribution that might be made by various product zones or operating departments. Aiming in context with the divisional plans - In this step, the contributions made by each department or division or product category within the organization is identified and accordingly strategic planning is done for each sub-unit. This requires a careful analysis of macroeconomic trends. Performance Analysis - Performance analysis includes discovering and analyzing the gap between the planned or desired performance. A critical evaluation of the organizations past performance, present condition and the desired future conditions must be done by the organization. This critical evaluation identifies the degree of gap that persists between the actual reality and the long-term aspirations of the organization. An attempt is made by the organization to estimate its probable future condition if the current trends persist. Choice of Strategy - This is the ultimate step in Strategy Formulation. The best course of action is actually chosen after considering organizational goals, organizational strengths, potential and limitations as well as the external opportunities.

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Q. 2 What, in brief, are the types of Strategic Alliances and the purpose of each? Supplement your answer with one real life example of each (10 marks)

Q. 3 What is a Business Plan? What purpose does it serve? (10 marks)

Q. 4 What is the chief purpose of a Business Continuity Plan and what are its components for effective implementation. Explain in a sentence or two as to how it is different from a Business Plan (10 marks)

Q. 5 Take any three examples of the components of a Decision Support System and explain how they help decision making (10 marks)

Q. 6 Name and explain any three ways in which a Companys CSR can be expressed.(10 marks)

August/Fall 2012 Master of Business Administration - MBA Semester IV MB0052 Strategic Management and Business Policy - 4 Credits (Book ID: B1314) Assignment Set- 1 (60 Marks) Note: Each question carries 10 Marks. Answer all the questions.

Q. 1 Having formulated a Business Strategy, what are the steps in its implementation? Explain each in a sentence or two (10 marks).

Answer : Strategy implementation is the translation of chosen strategy into organizational action so as to achieve strategic goals and objectives. Strategy implementation is also defined as the manner in which an organization should develop, utilize, and amalgamate organizational structure, control systems, and culture to follow strategies that lead to competitive advantage and a better performance. Organizational structure allocates special value developing tasks and roles to the employees and states how these tasks and roles can be correlated so as maximize efficiency, quality, and customer satisfaction-the pillars of competitive advantage. But, organizational structure is not sufficient in itself to motivate the employees.

An organizational control system is also required. This control system equips managers with motivational incentives for employees as well as feedback on employees and organizational performance. Organizational culture refers to the specialized collection of values, attitudes, norms and beliefs shared by organizational members and groups.

Key Strategy Steps & Activities for a successful implementation of Social Business platform. These are based on my implementation experience (including lessons learned), reading best practices & articles and listening to other implementers/peers/experts in this space

KEY STRATEGY STEPS & ACTIVITIES

STEP 1: Assessment Understand the Current Environment/Readiness

Assess the leadership support and paradigm. What type of support exists from the leadership team to have an open and transparent collaboration platform in the organization? Conduct surveys, interviews and focus group sessions with stakeholders to understand the challenges and issues they are currently facing, communication and collaboration issues, work flow issues, project delays etc. Assess awareness of social media environment Face book, Twitter, LinkedIn etc. Assess readiness of enterprise collaboration in the organization. How is the job getting done? Projects, day-to-day tasks, communication etc. How is the content created, updated, managed and shared? How is the content consumed? What type of relationships exists? Is there an overload or lack of communication? How is communication consumed and shared?

What are the current tools and modes of communication & collaboration? How is it used? Is it productive? Does it overlap? What are other peer industries doing in this space? Whats the collaboration benchmark? This assessment will be helpful to know your current state and measure the progress over time.

STEP 2: Develop a compelling Strategy

Whats the vision? Where do we want to go? Why do we want to go there? How does it align with the organizations strategy, goals, objectives & values?

STEP 3: Develop a strong Business Case

What do you want to accomplish? Key Objectives? In terms of Innovation, Idea generation, Collaboration, Communication, Excellence, Learning & Support, Competitive advantage etc How does it align to the strategy? What are the key drivers? Why now? How does having an enterprise collaboration platform help being a True & Efficient Social Enterprise and compliment traditional/offline collaboration methods? How is this different from Knowledge management tools? Who will benefit? Key stakeholders? Internal (employees), External (customers, partners, vendors)? What are the benefits & VALUE in business terms? Productivity, Satisfaction, Process Improvement etc How will engagement and morale improve? What challenges, issues or pain points does this address? If not addressed, whats the impact? How does it impact other business processes? Key sponsors (Management buy-in is very important on a continuous basis) Investment required? Cost, time and effort? ROI? How about ROE (Return on Engagement)? In this case, ROE should emphasize more on business outcomes, engagement rather than $$$$, Measure the progress. Identify the key metrics adoption, use, impact, value etc Last but not the least What are the risks?

STEP 4: Develop a Road map/Implementation Plan

Develop a project plan (Agile project methodology is highly recommended) Form a steering committee (advisory council or governance committee) Define requirements & design Evaluate vendors & select the right platform/solution Develop an adoption strategy & plan Develop communication, marketing, change management & training plans Implement solution & adoption strategies Do communication & marketing Conduct training Listen, monitor and analyze usage Do continuous improvements and changes Partner & collaborate with the vendor STEP 5: Form a Steering Committee (Advisory council or Governance Committee) Define the goals and objectives of the steering committee/council. One of the main goals of this team should be to listen/communicate with the senior leadership and management team and also communicate to the organization as a whole for buy-in and adoption. What are the roles and responsibilities? What will be What decisions will they take? What type of information will they publish and communicate? One of the main deliverables should be Leadership Playbook which details out the game plan, communication guidelines. This will help the leadership & senior management team to have an Unified message. Identify members It is recommended to have different members for different stages of the project. This will provide good support & buy-in throughout the project including after golive. Initial stage senior management, Design & implementation stage mid-level management, Roll-out/Post go-live mix of senior management, mid level management & employees. Meet and communicate regularly with the committee.

STEP 6: Define Requirements & Design Identify & document functional requirements. Map each requirement to the business value, benefits and collaboration patterns. Categorize it by importance and weight. Identify & document technology requirements. Map each requirement to the functional requirements. Categorize it by importance and weight. Draft a high-level business design & architecture diagram in terms of people, process and technology.

STEP 7: Evaluate Vendors & Select the right Platform/Solution

Document technology vendor selection requirements & criteria (Seas, Hybrid Seas etc) linked to the above requirements. Following are some of the requirements to look for in the platform. for sample Enterprise Collaboration platform vendor selection criteria & framework (Seas) under the Vendor Evaluation & Selection section. Evaluate the vendor solution across 4 main categories Information sharing, communications, social networking and an integrated user experience. Does it meet the SLATES requirement? Search, Links, Authoring, Tags, Extension & Links What collaboration features & tools are available? Whats the vendor product strategy, road map? Who is the management? Does the vendor keep in the pace with the market especially the growing collaboration market? What type of solution does the vendor provide? Seas, Hybrid Seas? How is the products architecture and other features tie to the current infrastructure and architecture? What type of APIs or web services are there? What type of security and SSO is provided? What are the licensing terms? What type of support and maintenance provided? Whats the effort for internal IT team? What is the total cost of ownership (TCO)? What type of support will they provide for other integration vendors/partners? Can the information be aggregated from multiple sources & formats? What type of user dashboards/reports and management dashboards/analytical reports are available? Assess how the vendor solution align with these categories and the requirements identified in Step 6? Rank and select the vendor that meet your requirements & objectives.

STEP 8: Develop an Adoption Strategy & Plan What is the adoption goal, objectives, timeline, metrics? What adoption strategies can be done to achieve maximum business benefit, value & immediate impact? Identify the champions and ambassadors who will market and use the platform initially? What are some of the current communication modes & channels that can be replaced to get maximum adoption? Who will benefit the most? Does it align with the requirement that are ranked high on importance, business benefit & value? What policies & procedures need to be set to get maximum adoption? Identify & document functional adoption use cases Intranet, RSS, external social media integration, organization wide calendar, resource library, corporate services (legal, IT, finance, HR, audit, administration, travel etc) Identify & document technology adoption use cases Single Sign-on to other apps, outlook integration, IM integration, document and video integration, audio/video conferencing integration, active directory integration (helps sync the profile data automatically)

Identify & document Application adoption use cases Integration to CRM, HR/Payroll, help desk, BI applications to manage work tasks seamlessly via activity streams within the platform. Identify & document Process adoption use cases In terms of In the flow process, does it improve the process? Project management & collaboration, communication, strategy alignment to projects, project status reports etc

STEP 9: Develop Communication, Marketing, Change management & Training plans

Clearly define and document the communication, marketing, change management & training plan. This is the most important step in the entire project. Communication plan What needs to be communicated? Leadership Playbook, Guidelines, Policies etc. More emphasis should be on business benefits & value, Whats in it for me? rather than features and tools. How is this valuable than the email? Who needs to be communicated? Whats the frequency of the communication? How will it be communicated? Where will it be communicated places, signage etc? How will the new features be introduced without overwhelming the users? Communication needs to occur throughout the project. Marketing plan How will this be marketed? Newsletters, video, management meetings, social meetings/games, incentives for users who have contributed to the most, social currency, buzz, trivia, innovative ways etc. This will help boost users morale and motivation to collaborate and share more info. This will also help them to raise their profile in the organization. Come up with a logo, tag line and maybe an avatar for the platform. Change management plan- This is the most important of all Clearly identify and define what existing processes, activities & tasks will be changed/impacted by this platform. Communicate these two key stakeholders and users earlier on and get buy-in. This plan will help the overall adoption. Training plan Identify the training requirements in detail user awareness of social media and tools , what training materials needs to be developed, what type of demos and training sessions need to be conducted, what will be the training format classroom, hands-on, webinars, video tutorials? who will do the training (champions), how often will the training be conducted?

STEP 10: Implement Solution & Adoption Strategies

Review and refine the tasks based on requirements & adoption strategies by phase and priority to meet the overall. It is recommended to launch the platform in phases and introduce features gradually. Start with introducing basic features. This will help with adoption, training and usage of the platform and not overwhelm the users. Get approval from management and steering committee. Design, develop, test and implement the solution in a test mode.

Communicate on the release & training. Release the solution in a beta/pilot mode, to a few business units. Release the solution to the entire organization. Implement & manage the adoption strategies (community managers, champions, evangelists) to help users to adopt to the new platform, create profiles, create communities, create & share content, use collaboration tools in conjunction with traditional methods, social games/prizes, implement & show the value of the collaboration platform related to the adoption use cases identified in Step 8.

STEP 11: D0 Communication & Marketing

Communicate, communicate, communicate This says it all. Communicate on the training. Communicate and market on the business outcomes, benefits, value, use cases, customer testimonials (video recommended), process excellence.

STEP 12: Conduct Training

Conduct training sessions demos, road shows, hands-on, classroom, webinars and video tutorials, Social media 101 sessions. For the hands-on and classroom, conduct it more like a 2 part workshop rather than a presentation/demo. Pair the users (social + non-social media experts champions), have the users create a page, join a group, send a message, create a project etc, give a group assignment that has many collaboration tasks using the platform, have them present their assignment in the next workshop I guess you got the idea here.

Step 13: Listen, Monitor and Analyze Usage

Continuously listen and monitor the platform usage (metrics). How are we measuring against the metrics? Have a good support/help desk process & system for users to report issues, requests, suggestions & feedback. Do data mining and analysis of the usage and change the implementation and adoption strategies.

Step 14: Do Continuous Improvements and Changes

Release changes, new features and improvements in a periodic basis and not all at the same time. Communicate on the new features, success stories, testimonials regularly. Conduct training sessions in many formats continuously. Meet with users on a continuous basis to get their feedback and suggestions, show the new features and tools. Meet with the steering committee/advisory council on a continuous basis (and change the membership regularly).

Step 15: Partner & Collaborate with the Vendor

Have a strong partnership with the vendor rather than a just a vendor-client relationship. You will need their support on a continuous basis. This will need to be Win-Win relationship. Be part of the customer council/committee to hear about the new features, product road map and strategy, suggest features & enhancements. Do presentations and webinars at the industry conference & vendors events. This is the best opportunity to showcase your solution, network with other customers/peers and provide a good opportunity to share & learn.

Q. 2How do we cope with crises and how do we use the Business Continuity Plan to manage and recover from crisis? (10 marks)

Q. 3 What are the main components of Business Plan, explaining the role of each in the Plan? (10 marks)

Q. 4 Explain the concept, need for and importance of a Decision Support System.(10 marks)

Q. 5 Explain the importance of any five aspects of a Licensing Agreement that you will look for when negotiating the right to use an Intellectual Property (10 marks)

Q. 6 What is Corporate Social Responsibility? Why is it becoming increasingly relevant in todays Business? (10 marks).

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