Search results

Like investors in stocks and shares who have a portfolio of different kinds of investments, each with special characteristics regarding risk, rate of return, etc., organisations, too, have a portfolio of products or services with varying characteristics. Top management in such organisations has to find a desirable balance among alternative products. Several prescriptive models have been proposed to aid management in the task of product portfolio analysis and selection. The two most important of these are the Boston Consulting Group model and the GE‐McKinsey model, although there are others, amongst which the “Directional Policy Matrix” and “Sheth‐Frazier Margin‐Return Model” are notable examples. Both of the latter models, however, offer little in the way of improvement on the two former models. The GE‐McKinsey model and the Boston Consulting group model are referred to specifically, their limitations noted, and a model proposed which makes up for some limitations in these earlier models.

The Nature of Business Policy Business policy — or general management — is concerned with the following six major functions:

The case provides valuable insights on challenges faced by otherwise-protected organisations which are made to face the global onslaught. What happens to an organisation when its own collaborators become competitors overnight? What happens when market leaders refuse to share their technology or dictate their own terms? In addition, this case study looks at the strategy of diversification desired in the business portfolio and the cost of non-diversifications. The case evaluates the environment in which a capital-intensive industry has to operate. It evaluates the combination of all the variables required for undertaking a comprehensive analysis and aims at identifying the best possible level to which the business can be expanded to maximise profits under the known constraints in which the business has to operate.

Target audience is corporate executives, students of MBA/postgraduate programme in management in strategic management and/or workshops for understanding the concept of SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis, competitor analysis, Porter's Five Forces Model, Boston Consulting Group (BCG) Matrix, business environment analysis and growth strategies for future.

A combination of global competition and open access in the domestic market is putting pressure on the margins, as new players are likely to move towards gaining market share by bidding aggressively. This is threatening the competitive intensity for Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) in the long-term. Raw materials, such as steel products, that are critical to production process are subject to substantial pricing cyclicality and periodic shortages of supply in India. The margins are thus continuously being impacted by movement in raw material prices, especially steel and copper. How BHEL hopes to sustain its growth story? Whether Chinese competition will kill BHEL? These are some of the pertinent questions the authors will try to answer in this case study.

Use of SWOT analysis to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to a company and use it as a tool to strategic decision-making. Highlighting the importance of strategic tools such as Porter Model and BCG Matrix within an emerging economy backdrop; to illustrate the alternatives and difficulties/complexities involved in a strategic planning process of growth and cost cutting; and to analyse the financial statements of BHEL.

Analysing public sector undertakings (PSUs)/government companies involved in infrastructure build up/projects of strategic nature in the country, their performance, challenges and efficiency in pre-liberalisation era and post-liberalisation era, and identifying how many are visible today, including the reasons for their growth/decline in generating revenues and profits, has multiple social implications especially for an emerging economy like India. A look at the performance trends of such companies over the past years too would help them in their quest by assisting them to get an idea of business and the industry profile in which BHEL is operating.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email: support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

An overview of all the elements that go into formulating a business strategy – including received wisdom from the gurus, vision and values, ideas on growth, forecasting, information, objectives, audits, customers, markets, competition, finances, structure, training – with the focus on how to make it happen. Directed at practising managers whose task this is. Making strategic plans is the easy bit; enacting them requires changing things, getting things done through people. Discusses learning, training and development, culture, quality, with the emphasis on real people in real businesses. Underpinned by the philosophy of “action learning”.

The next set of decisions commits the organisation to some form of action, i.e. setting objectives. Within the context of strategic plans, objectives should have three characteristics. First, they should be quantified, i.e. to enable management to monitor programmes as the plan evolves. Secondly, they should relate to a specific time period, which will vary depending on the nature of the organisation and how it defines its mission. Thus, an oil company operating in the energy business may think strategically in terms of a quarter of a century or more because of the need to finance enormous amounts of capital investment. A school or university operating in the personal development business will set its time horizons much nearer to the present day. Thirdly, the objectives should be realistically attainable in order to provide the necessary motivation to those charged with the responsibility of so doing.

This purpose of this paper is to suggest and develop an alternative model, the Opportunity Assessment Matrix, to address some of the primary strategic issues in the business environment of today. Changes in the business environment are increasing the need for strategic planning, but it has also diminished the value of some of the classic tools used in strategy formation in the past, such as portfolio models.

The shortcomings in applying portfolio models from the past to today’s business environment are discussed, providing a basis for the developing the Opportunity Assessment Matrix.

The Opportunity Assessment Matrix is introduced as a means to evaluate the ability of an organization to successfully undertake and exploit new business opportunities. The proposed model is based on two dimensions – operational flexibility and market potential.

The Opportunity Assessment Matrix facilitates an assessment of new business and product opportunities. With today’s ever-changing customer needs, the identification and exploitation of new product and business opportunities have become critical for the ongoing success of many firms. Most attempts by business firms to exploit new opportunities, however, are not successful, often due to a lack of an understanding of the market potential realization or an inadequate consideration of possible internal constraints. The Opportunity Assessment Matrix addresses both of these issues by examining the match between potential market opportunities and a firm’s ability to exploit them.

The authors explore the outcomes of health-care professionals' participation in a vendor-hosted online community by combining qualitative and quantitative data collected in two separate studies. The authors aim to shed light on the potential value outcomes of community participation covering the reduction of service costs by professionals' community participation.

The authors explore the outcomes of health-care professionals' participation in a vendor-hosted online community by combining qualitative and quantitative data collected in two separate studies. The authors also introduce GABEK® as a unique method of qualitative empirical content analysis. In the quantitative study, the authors refer to customer survey data and transactional data.

The results show that participation in online communities by professionals emerges as a dual concept, consisting of both help-seeking and help-providing behaviors. These behaviors in turn facilitate the creation of economic and relational value, as well as influencing the perceived usefulness of the online community, resulting in higher satisfaction with the community among the participating professionals. Customer survey data and transactional data were gathered from a major medical equipment vendor hosting an online community, and those data confirm that participation also decreases service support costs to professionals by reducing the number of necessary service visits by the vendor's service technicians.

The resulting model of participation and corresponding benefits in an online community for health-care professionals reflects and informs current developments in the health care industry.

The combination of qualitative as well as quantitative studies relying on the data of a world leading medical equipment vendor hosting an online community provides unique and innovative insights into participation and value creation within B2B communities.

Though there is broad agreement on the beneficial impact of diversity in management and leadership roles, much of the innovative capacity of an organization is realized at the unit level in working teams. Recent research points to cultural diversity having an especially significant impact on innovation team performance. The reports also highlight the need for the optimal team operating principles to derive maximum benefit. To prepare such innovation teams for success, it is valuable to understand the dynamics of team diversity at the project level and the underlying barriers and opportunities presented.

This paper reviews the literature and case studies on cultural inputs to ideation and innovation, assessing team diversity through readily available instruments and the deployment of the science of team science (SciTS) principles in innovation teams.

The key learnings include the importance of establishing communication standards, SciTS principles, team assessment of thinking styles and the utility of cultural awareness instruments.

Diversity provides a creative advantage for innovation teams. However, team dynamics play an important role in maximizing these advantages, and cross-cultural competence of team members is required. Deployment of appropriate assessment tools and team methodologies enhances the likelihood of successful outcomes including in remote team settings.

Literature from diverse functional areas is summarized including the science of team science, organizational management, diversity and inclusion methodologies and ethnocultural dynamics. It provides pointers for the optimal formation and operating principles with highly culturally diverse teams.

Organisational planning identifies two areas — corporate culture and human resources — which have received much attention as key areas in formulating strategic plans in many organisations. Traditional planning fails to give flexibility in the face of foreign competition, technological advancement, etc., and therefore management must adjust their managerial style to accommodate new performance criteria, reward systems and other innovative ideas, to progress successfully.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of new product on growth of emerging businesses (EBs) through sales volume and market share.

The study surveyed 137 EBs in Kwara State. Two hypotheses were formulated and tested using correlation and regression analyses.

Results show that service industry is dominant among EBs while the manufacturing industry trails. Many EBs are aware of the complexities of new product, its development and contribution to increasing sales volume, market share and ensuring competitive advantage with apparent infrastructural deficiencies. Test results show that there is a significant positive relationship and effect on sales volume and market share.

Encouraging EBs to step up and focus on improving product/service portfolio to transform their fortune is explored giving focus to the benefits of increasing sales volume and market share.