Custom «Web Assignment: Strategy Development» Essay Paper Sample

A business-to-business marketing approach is heavily reliant on ensuring that there is a partnership between the parties involved. The seller has to develop a close-knit relationship with its client in order to understand its operations and the best way of using resources to add value. It becomes essential when the company has to develop a strategy to understand its clients’ needs and incorporate them into the process (Hutt & Speh, 2013). In line with this, the current paper aims to analyze an article on strategy development in business and discuss peculiarities of the implementation of strategies in B2B companies.

Article’s Key Insights

Lefort, McMurray, and Tesvic (2015) wrote an article titled “Secrets to Implementation Success”, which focuses on the approaches taken by successful implementers that set them apart from others. The authors conducted a study on more than 2,200 executives and found out that companies that were good implementers of strategies also performed exemplarily considering financial indices (Lefort et al., 2015). One of the factors helping to differentiate good implementers is the fact that they retain more value at every implementation stage than their peers. It is also necessary for them to be committed to the process in order to achieve the intended outcomes. Implementers should start with those initiatives that will have a huge impact on company’s performance and the rest can follow (Lefort et al., 2015). In conclusion, the authors state that the personal presence of leaders in change implementation is essential for successful strategies (Lefort et al., 2015).

The Impact of Business-to-Business Close-Knit Relationships on Strategy Development

In business-to-business companies, there is usually increased emphasis on the development of relationships with customers. It occurs through various approaches, including strategic partnerships and alliances. The development and retention of business relationships with customers requires innovativeness on the part of the marketing team, as well as an intimate understanding of client’s operations. It will enable the business to make a contribution of unique value (Hutt & Speh, 2013). Once a close-knit relationship is in place, it means that the business will understand and consider client’s preferences when developing strategic plans. For instance, it will allocate ample resources to meet the needs of the customer and ensure that the relationship remains as closely-knit as possible. In addition, strategy development in business-to-business operations entails ensuring that the current clientele is maintained while searching for new customers. As a result, having a close-knit relationship means that strategy developers understand what their client needs and can employ appropriate resources to serve the latter. Therefore, such a tendency in B2B ensures the sustenance of businesses.

Global Expansion and Strategic Planning

Global expansion entails the movement of business operations from the country of origin abroad. The success of such step undertaken by a business relies heavily on a strategic plan. When it is the first time for a company to expand from its home country, it has to assess the target market, and this is even more important if it intends to expand to more than one country at the same time. The business requires creating a strategic planning committee in order to develop an expansion plan. A more direct approach will involve the identification of international expansion as a business development strategy that will be based on sound business research. The development of a brand-marketing plan can be used as a way of meeting the needs of the company. However, the team should employ caution in distinguishing marketing tips, strategy, and company development (Freishman, 2012). The development plan will involve analyzing different international entry strategies, such as exporting, licensing, management contracts, joint ventures, and strategic global alliances (Hutt & Speh, 2013). Upon identifying an ideal approach for the company, it can be deployed.

Ethical Implications in the Development of Strategic Plans

Ethics in strategic planning entails considering the principles of goodness or the morality of any action before developing plans. Some of the considerations include confidentiality, secrecy, and assessment of relevant components, informed consent and ensuring that plans are not harmful (Sonenshein, 2009). The implications of incorporating ethics in strategic planning include:

• Ethics shapes actions and decisions of all participants in the implementation process to ensure that they meet the ideology of society.
• Ethical strategic planning ensures that ideas and decisions will consider employees and customer relations. Consequently, the company will benefit from customer loyalty and the retention of workers.
• Ethical decisions improve the image of the company in the industry and the community, and as a result, it will gain more clients and attract new talents.
• It will ensure that all policies of the company will meet the societal definition of what is wrong and right, which is a prerequisite for the success in a given locality.

Conclusion

The article by Lefort, McMurray, and Tesvic (2015) is important for understanding strategy implementation because it discusses approaches employed by successful implementers of corporate strategies. They state that commitment, ownership, and prioritization are the core factors of the successful implementation of strategies. When a company has close-knit relationships with its customers, it can plan and strategize around its client’s needs. Strategic planning is also essential in the global expansion of a business since it enables the strategizing team to understand the target market in a new country and create appropriate marketing approaches. In addition, ethics plays a significant role in strategic planning since ethical decisions improve the image of the company, which attracts new clients promoting customer and employee loyalty.