Custom «The Strategic Management» Essay Paper Sample

The literature review on strategic management and supply chain revealed the following information. A company can improve its supply chain system by identifying and exploiting game-changing trends in order to sustain a long-term profitability in a competitive market. There are five competitive forces that can have a negative impact on potential profits of a business. Customers can reduce profits when they are searching for the best deals between a company and its rivals. A reduction in profits is expected once the suppliers raise prices. New players entering a given market, together with established rivals can also increase competition. Lastly, business substitutes can lure customers away, hence, reducing profits.

Core competence is another significant factor that needs to be considered by a company that seeks to streamline its strategic management and supply chain. Core competencies refer to the collective learning in the organization. The core competencies include articulation of strategic intents and identification of core competencies to support the intent. They are built when the needed technologies are applied. In this process, resources are infused in all the business units.

Adoption of superior supply chain management processes and technology enables the supply chain to operate efficiently, and generate the highest level of customer satisfaction at the lowest cost. Supply chain management has three levels. At the strategic stage, decisions like size and location of manufacturing site, partnership with suppliers, product to be manufactured, and sales markets are considered by a company’s management. The second level is characterized by tactical decision making, which focuses on adoption of measures that can produce benefits to the company. The operational stage is the third level, and it involves making daily decisions that influence how products move along the supply chain. Therefore, to achieve benefits from a supply chain management process, a company should invest in technologies such as SAP, Oracle, and internet communication.

Strategic management is the highest level in any management activity. It involves specifying the objectives of an organization, developing policies, and planning how to achieve the intended goals. In addition, it includes allocation of resources in order to facilitate implementation of plans. Any strategy in an organization must be appropriate for its core objectives, resources and business environment. An overall corporate strategy has one objective of putting the organization into a position of carrying out its missions efficiently. A good corporate strategy should integrate all the goals, policies and tactics of an organization into a cohesive whole. The strategy adopted must also be linked with a company’s vision and objectives.

Qualitative methodology facilitates evaluation of programs and development of theories and interventions in health science research. This approach can be used when answering the ‘how’ and ‘when’ questions, especially when the participant’s behavior cannot be manipulated. It is also applicable when there is a need to cover contextual conditions that are significant in the phenomena, and when phenomena and context boundaries are not clear.

A Delta model is a new strategy framework, whose main purpose is to place a customer at the centre of management. This is achieved by scrutinizing the available primary options that can establish customer bonding, and it also prescribes ways of linking strategies with execution, through the alignment of adaptive processes. Competitive positioning was proposed by Michael Porter on the basis that structural characteristic of a firm’s industry explains the variations that occur in a firm’s performance. This theory shows that low cost and product differentiation are the only ways of competing. To shape a delta model, a business should establish customer bonding by having three strategic options.

Preparation of payrolls is a significant activity performed by human resource officers. However, executing this task has remained a challenge for many managers, who lack proper tools to handle it effectively. Therefore, it is recommended for a given firm to employ better data processing to instruments such as MyPayfriend, which is exceptional software that facilitates effective processing of payrolls. This software has splendid features that are user-friendly. For instance, MyPayfriend is equipped with guidelines settings, which are defined by the user. It also has the ability to support multiple payment modes.

Summary of research findings

The literature review on strategic management and supply chain indicates that several variables determine the success of any business. In this case, a company should invest in superior technology in order to offer high end services to both its clients and employees. Supply chain is a prime component of any company that deals with goods. Therefore, proper strategies should be employed to ensure that the supply chain of a given firm remains relevant in a given business environment. This is because the success of a company can be greatly jeopardized if its supply chain does not conform to the prevailing supply trends. Strategic management is the core of any management activity, and it requires proper formulation and application of various strategies and policies. Despite the above findings from the literature review, most of the sources analyzed did not reveal specific models of supply chain that can be embraced by a given firm. Apart from this, more business management strategies still need to be examined in order to enable companies to have a range of management options that they can apply. For instance, Delta Model is one of the latest management instruments, but more strategies of this nature still need to be discovered. A part from this, many research approaches other than the qualitative methodology mentioned above needs to be identified. This is because availability of more research models will facilitate better research in the domain of supply chain.

Many scholars who have examined supply chain and strategic management largely agree on their importance to a business, but they seem to have divergent views on how these goals should be achieved. For instance, various scholars recommend different distribution mechanisms, for a particular business segment. Nonetheless, divergent views cause some contradictions. Hence, it is not easy to identify the best strategies for executing supply chain activities.

The reviewed articles are important to this study in the sense that they shade light on key areas of supply chain and strategic management. Hence, they provide basic information that can offer guidance during the implementation of a new and final settlement. In my view, the ability to succeed during the implementation of new approaches in supply chain largely depends on the competence of the personnel entrusted with this task. This is because new strategies can turn out to be an attainable if they are not properly put into practice.

Implementation challenges

The implementation stage of a new system is rather technical, and it may be marred with many obstacles, which include the following. First, applying a new system requires proper piloting, and if it is not done properly, many challenges may emerge during the final implementation. For example, before the new payroll software, MyPayfriend, is implemented, it should be piloted in order to determine the challenges associated with using it. Besides this, a new system might be effective at the initial stages of its implementation, but it can become unproductive at some level. For example, a company may acquire a more efficient technology, but it might fail to cope with its maintenance requirements.

The following question can be used for further research in supply chain.

I. How does terrorism affect security costs of supply chain management?

II. How can industries use the internet supply chains to diversify their supply systems?

III. Assess the extent to which online data exchange enhances the efficiency of supply chains?