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International strategies strategic management
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Corning Glass Works International has a nagging problem. Their subsidiaries act independently of one another and do not also act in a manner which is most beneficial for the firm. For one, they take significant time to resolve disputes. This time can cost money, especially if clients or potential clients become dissuaded from purchasing Corning resources. Also, they act independently to such an extent that sometimes 2 or more subsidiaries chase after the same potential client. Furthermore, Forrest Behm needs time for coordinating the international markets and the actions of the subsidiaries takes time from his ability to do this.
As a result, we need to make a change. Another leader needs to be selected to maintain a position parallel to Forrest Behm. At this point, this primary manager will need to select a change into his international pyramid. The changes also need to be done as diplomatically as possible and need to satisfy as many of the subsidiaries as possible in order to maintain a positive working environment. Therefore, it seems wise to take a member of each subsidiary to represent the opinions of each subsidiary. These "subsidiary managers" could meet monthly at a rotating location where they could express their views to "individual managers". These individual managers would be specialized in a given area. They would listen to the subsidiary managers and discuss their individual situations. The discussions would be limited to a one day (10 hours) discussion session in order to limit problems of continuous debate. Based on the discussions, each individual manager would recommend their analysis to the primary manager. The primary manager would have the ultimate say in all international matters, but his decision would be weighted on the advice of the individual managers.
The individual managers would include a manager for import and export efficiency in order to maximize firm import and export profits, foreign market disputes, firm structure (3 smaller managers would work under him, one for Europe, one for Asia, and one for Canada and Latin America), technology efficiency and transfer, and marketing. Simply put, the subsidiary managers would report to the individual managers who would report to the primary manager. Written job descriptions would also need to be handed out and written by Forrest Behm in order to specify his exact desires. This would be done only initially until the Behm was comfortable in how the managers were working.
This process would allow for all members to contribute their views and would also allow the firm to release firm policy changes.
Since the number of managers should be limited, it would be advisable to allow the leaders of groups (if the leaders rotate) to counsel in a positive or negative way the group members performance. This will better and more accurately document performance to be used for yearly reviews for pay increases or promotions. Also by allowing the leaders to counsel it will build on their management skill and confidence. But, all members of the teams should have this opportunity by rotating the leaders as done at Aberdeen.
Input is encouraged from everyone based on the idea that employees doing the work are directly responsible for the success of the company. Management has final decision-making authority on all matters.
Similarly, in a case like this, divisions amongst leadership are also necessary in order to run an effective team. It would be near to impossible to prepare such a big group together at once under the oversight of one sole figure of authority. When I asked Craft about his thoughts on the division of leadership he responded with ,
The protection enhances the ability of sustaining a business in a competitive marketplace for the long run. A firm should also undergo the DYB strategy to get rid of business units and other resources that do not add value to the company 's performance. It should adopt the GYB strategy, in which it would utilize the business opportunities lying at its disposal to its advantage. As a direct result of these two strategies, the company would gain a substantial competitive edge against rivals, as well as boost its profitability in the long run (Grimm, Lee & Smith, 2010). Knowing that today 's business environment is characterized by heightened competition that has led to extensive gaps between industry leaders and laggards, and that there are greater churns among the industry rivals, the GYB and DYB strategies are essential for any modern company. More importantly, the GYB strategy should be focused towards the increase of
Thompson, Arthur, John Gamble, John Gamble, A. III, and Alonzo Strickland. Strategy. McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 2005. 299. Print.
Each plant comprises a number of small; multi-skilled; flexible; collaborative and self-managed teams instead of functional departments with specialised functions (e.g. legal, finance or human resources etc as in a conventional system). These teams have the decision-making power over all plant-specific business functions including capital allocation, expenditures, strategic planning and plant design. This bottom-up decision making process emphasises the trust the company places in its employees and is very effective in decentralizing the power base, consequently, involving every employee in being responsible for the performance of the company not just the CEO.
There were separate management structures maintained in the group with the CEO of NOL in Singapore and CEO in the United States reporting to the group CEO. This separation between owners and manager creates an agency relationship. This exist when one or more persons (the principal or principals) hire another person or persons) as decision making specialist to perform a service. In the modern corporation, managers must understand the links between
The primary goal of this experiment was to determine which types of glassware are the most accurate and precise in measuring substances. Another goal of this experiment was to help familiarize ourselves with the different types of glassware, and how we should handle the laboratory equipment. The accuracy and precision of a particular type of glassware is important because it allows for accurate measurements when performing different experiments. It also allows us to differentiate between glassware that is better for containing substances versus glassware that can deliver substances more accurately. In order to measure the accuracy and precision of the different types of glassware, we first chose seven different types of glassware. The general
How does this case illustrate the threats and opportunities facing global companies in developing their strategies?
Organizational structure can be defined as the “formal arrangement of jobs within an organization” (Robbins & Coulter, 2009, p. 185). Having a defined and unified structure helps employees work more efficiently. Jacques Kemp, former CEO of ING Insurance Asia/Pacific, realized this need early on in his role. The company had been performing well and recently acquired another insurance company to become “one of the largest life insurance companies in Asia-Pacific” (Schotter, 2006, p. 4). However, Kemp’s proactive personality led him to seek out ways to achieve more efficient coordination between the regional office and business units (Robbins & Coulter, 2009). Kemp noticed that “most business unit managers did not even know the current corporate standards” and he began searching for a way to manage the managers (Schotter, 2006, p. 5). ING Insurance Asia/Pacific’s organizational structure was mechanistic and fairly well structured, but for a company that had recently been involved in a major acquisition and was divided across 12 geographically dispersed markets there was a great need to tweak this structure to unify the company (Schotter, 2006). If I had been in Kemp’s position as CEO, I would have made modifications to the organizational chain of command, formalized business processes, and used technology to stimulate collaboration amongst the region to help this company overcome organizational design challenges.
To conclude, these issues are holding back the firm from being able to sustain profitability to a great extent. If these are resolved, then it can help the firm to form an overall profitability as each of its subsidiaries will contribute to be profitable by functioning only in the packaging sector or exploring new markets.
Porter, M. E., 1999. The Five Forces that Shape Competitive Strategy. Harvard business review, p. 80.
middle of paper ... ... ms between different regions and departments. The objectives are easily achieved when good communications are applied. Good communications also help to solve complicated structures of the company. Most of the disadvantages are sorted out.
Ensign PC 2004, ‘A resource based view of interrelationships among organizational groups in the diversified firms’, Strategic Change, Vol. 13. pp. 125-137.
Peters, T. J. & Waterman, R. H. (1982). In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America’s Best-Run Companies. New York: Harper &