Management strategies
Functional strategies
Functional logistics strategies are determined specifically by the arrangement of the services that have been delivered. During this procedure, the technical, legal, as well as economic parameters, must be taken into account at all times. Functional strategies draw around the effect of over bending the business and corporate strategies on the functional concerns of our organization. Of most interest to us is the delivery of services to customers in the logistics functional quarters. If the delivery services of our company are not up to measure, this majorly impacts our turnover to a very high degree. If the instant availability, of the products that we deal in, cannot be counted on then it is not possible to satiate the needs that may arise as a result, of a commercial that we run and such is the case for products that are procured after an external impulse. Thus, the importance of the delivery service cannot easily be measured especially in instances when our goods are required and a comparison is made thereof. (Daugherty, Stank et al, 1998)
Competitive strategies
It is a rule of thumb in our organization to make use of the comparative advantages within our business concerns. This we achieve by mostly opting for market strategies for our product that are made possible by the labor-market organizations that are already established. This is of prime importance to us because this support by these organizations also means that we remain successful as well as sustainable for the long term. When opportunities for transformation of our own brainchild arise in terms of technological advancement into products that are easily marketable, this is seen as a major apprehension in the determination of our organization’s strategy. As Sinn (2005) observes, “the national corporate competitiveness has developed in several areas and now embraces concepts as varied as neo-liberal theories” (p. 2). We have as well specialized in the quest for low-cost strategies and this has been enabled by the allowance by the labor-market institutions for low levels of wages. This can be seen on a wider scope than if low wages are in tandem with unscrupulous financial market institutions, we might be compelled to involve ourselves in low-cost production since there will be no room for radical innovation and also the development of the innovation that is already in place. Hence we have chosen to explore the advantage of cost in our economy by use of strategies like low- costs. Thus we can base our strategy success on our strategy choice.
Corporate strategies
To define our corporate strategy we look at basically three rudimentary issues and these are the diversity of our organization, the expanse of our organization and the suitable managerial sense to be employed in our organization. We can safely state that our diversity has made us very successful in addition to increasing our rate of return on capital. Our size as compared to the market is relatively large and this has also positively impacted our performance, especially in recent times. We are also well aware that our performance is not pegged on our diversity alone and thus our size does not negatively impact our performance. In addition to the above, we have also positively benefited from the economies of scale as well as from merging forward with other successful companies as a diversity strategy. We are of the opinion that if we are to be very major players in the economy we have to make business combinations. This is what is thus known as strategic assembly and this is very advantageous as the organization does not feel the pinch of having to pay out premiums and more commonly, the obstacles that are encountered in the co-alignment of the organizations must be unraveled so as to eventually realize any synergies forthwith (Sinn, 2005).
Challenges faced in strategy implementation
Even though the strategies formulated sound appealing and promising, the effective execution of the same is still a daunting task not to mention that these strategies cost us a fortune in implementing them. This can be owed to the fact that tactical concerns cause a major loss in the efforts that are concerted towards the strategy implementation. In addition to that, we can also see a shift in the economy where the real values are vested upon services, and in the selling of ideas that lead to solutions as opposed to real object assets (Sinn, 2005). This impacts on the implementation of strategies in a major way since there has been an evolution in the rules that govern management. If the most valued assets are the intangible assets as opposed to the tangible assets then it becomes rather complex to manage and hence implement any strategies. Intangible assets are not easily managed since they are difficult to measure.
With regards to the above challenges, alternative measures have been employed so as to mitigate the effects of the abovementioned challenges in our organization. Focus has been shifted to the formulation and effective communication of vision and values as well as the mission of our company. We have also taken a further step to encourage passion at all levels as well as committing ourselves to the assignments and company outcomes that will be in line with the mission of our organization. We have also empowered our employees and improved communication in our organization. If we improve majorly on these intangibles we are bound to take the organization t o new heights since these are strategic investments which are as good to acquire as building and equipment among other valued assets (Daugherty, Stank et al, 1998).
References
Daugherty, L., Stank ,M. &Ellinger, A. (1998). Leveraging Logistics and Distribution Capabilities: The Effects of Logistics Service on market Share. Journal of Business Logistics (19), 2.
Sinn, H.W.(2005). Die Basar-Ökonomie; Deutschland: Exportweltmeister oder Schlusslicht? Berlin: Econ.