The Operations Management Strategy Of Hard Rock Cafe Tourism Essay

The Operations Management Strategy Of Hard Rock Cafe Tourism Essay Hard Rock Cafà ©, the originator of theme-restaurant dining, provides a complete rock experience through cafes, hotels, casinos, memorabilia and music venues. .Since the first opening on 14 June, 1971 in London, England, Hard Rock Cafà © has rapidly expanded and succeeded and now Hard Rock has over 171 venues in more than 52 countries, including 134 cafes and 15 Hotels, Casinos across the globe. How has a small pub become such a success? Lets evaluate the operation management strategies of Hard Rock by using the theory of Operation Management. As an industry leader, Hard Rocks strategy has changed from times to times to meet customers demands, HARD ROCK CAFEs operation strategy now is designed to be a part of the globalise experience economy, and to achieve this aim, all ten operations management decisions like Goods and Service Design, Managing Quality, Process and Capacity Design ,location strategies, layout strategies, human resources, supply chain management, inventory management, scheduling, and maintenance-are all taken into good consideration by HARD ROCK CAFEs operation management team 1. Lets first starting with Products and Service Design With the slogan Love all-Serve all, HARD ROCK CAFE welcomes all type of customers with enthusiastic attitude regardless of sex, age of class. At HARD ROCK CAFE, customers can feel the atmosphere of their providing experience with Rock world which nowhere else they can feel it. The foods at HARD ROCK CAFE are analysed and tested by the Chiefs and Operations personnel constantly review menus, and food research is ongoing.to fit the local taste. For example, fish and lobster are focused more at HARD ROCK CAFE Britain, and Thai Snack Combo is added into the menu at HARD ROCK CAFE Bangkok. At HARD ROCK CAFE, customers are provided a dining event that includes a unique visual and sound experience not duplicated anywhere in the world. Because the brand is so strong, 48% of sales are from merchandise of memorabilia one of the largest HARD ROCK CAFE restaurants in the world is in Orlando, Florida where provides over 3500 custom products, in this case meals each day with more than 1,500 seats. 2. Managing Quality Quality is the heart of the enterprise and HARD ROCK CAFE is not an exception, every single water/meal is important to HARD ROCK CAFE. They conduct numerous surveys on Quality, Food research and Suppliers research to get an honest assessment from their stakeholders, especially their customers. Their surveys are on a scale from 1-7, and anything less than a 7 is considered a failure. Then, according to customers surveys and feedback they update their menu, music, memorabilia, service and strategy accordingly to meet the quality as customers expectation. 3.Process and Capacity Design HARD ROCK CAFE uses an existing domestic model globally but also in certain instances, when necessary, uses franchises in some locations to produce a more customised experience HARD ROCK CAFE is a very big chain with capacity of providing 100,000 meals per day (including starters, sandwiches, salads, burgers, sides, entrees, desserts ..) within the U.S. this fact prove how efficiently HARD ROCK CAFE organizes its employee schedules, material, inventory.. Task 2: In the light of the above, discuss the operations management challenges and opportunities for Hard Rock when considering an expansion of its business into Hanoi. 4.Location Strategies Location can make or break business strategy and it is a major long time decision. At HARD ROCK CAFE, When considering a new location, a careful decision making process is used, it systematically narrows the search from country to city and then precise street corner for the new restaurants. To go into the right location at the right time, HARD ROCK CAFE start with a global view and look at several factors such as: political risk, currency risk, social norms, brand fit, social cost, business practices through market research, then levelled with very further details and marked for each Hard Rock now aims to the area of Europe, Latin America and Asia. Not all Hard Rock businesses are operated by itself but franchised because of political risk, economic challenges such as inflation, exchange rate, culture may affect its development. Franchises are used when it is decided that local ownership will bring a unique capability, or local conditions suggest there will be an unusual or difficult implementation. For examples, HARD ROCK CAFE in Vietnam is franchised to local partner-Viet Thai International, the owner of Highland coffee shops. 5.Layout Strategies In each location, HARD ROCK CAFE is carefully considered whether they should purchase, lease in a long term, or a new construction should be set up or remodeling the existing site In preparation for each restaurant and bars lay out, HARD ROCK CAFE always consider food protection, the kitchen flows for food preparation for maximum revenue. All the lightings, sound, screens, contemporary music, and circulation paths are designed to show off memorabilia and expose customers to merchandise for sale. The retail shops generate close to half the companys profit and are carefully integrated into restaurant layout, flow, and work stations. 6.Human resource and Job Design HARD ROCK CAFEs employees have not only job skills but also a passion about music and love to serve, convey the experience to customers. According to Jim Knight, Manager of Corporate Training: When you start talking about a human resource department that really is a true support center for such a big, international company, you kind of have to realize that the cafes and the individuals that work within can probably stand on their own when we were much smaller, but I think theres a role that human resources now plays to sort of be the conscience of the company and make sure that were doing the right thing by the people, so I dont mind us being a voice for them, and doing what we can to help recruit, maintain, to truly train them, to develop them, to grow them. Anything that we can do to support the individuals-I think thats really what human resources is all about.    Hard Rock Cafe carefully develops of their fleet to excite customers and provide entertainment. The enthusiasm of all staff members when they engage in client is one of the reasons people continue to go back Before starting to work for Hard Rock Cafe, they are trained for 2 days and received a Hard Rock value card. It is not just a card but shows the experience of Hard Rock through years. All Hard Rock employees will be proud to work in a unique working environment with its own culture which appreciates the substantial diversity and individuality, personal and professional manner. Moreover, this training also allows Hard Rock staff to undertake different positions or duties, that means one can be a waiter, retailer, front-of-the-house server or even can cover kitchen.Some Mottos of HARD ROCK CAFE: spread the spirit of rockn rollà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦contributing member of our communityà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Hard Rock has the internal promotion policy as well to encourage their employees loyalty, 60% managers of Hard Rock Cafe are promoted from hourly workers Managers performance is evaluated by a target which is based on the 3-year-weighted moving average, and they will receive bonus when exceeding this target All of this human resource policy helps Hard Rock take a competitive advantage, earn more revenues and saving costs by deciding which items would be replaced. 7.Supply chain Management Outsourcing is a popular method that a big-scale organization, like Hard Rock, applying for its supply-chain management  . Qualified suppliers or vendors are chosen to ensure enough, fresh and quality meals.   Hard Rock in 2003 announced the successful participation of Avicon architect of the new supply chain and provided expertise in logistics for Hard Rock. This project led to practical results, warehouse space in North America was decreased 44%, reduced operational costs by 20%, service levels were improved by 22%, the site offered real time based on their sequence visibility, transportation cost optimization, distribution network optimization, optimized contract terms and the responsibility to protect, improve operational efficiency. Menu item selection depend on supplying right amounts of ingredients on qualified suppliers on time. Inventory Management   Innovative methods, such as Just-in-Time inventory control, can save costs and move products and services to customers more quickly. The good management of supply-chain helps Hard Rock to keep a safe and effective inventory. Foods need to be fresh and provided on time. There is not only food and merchandise, but Hard Rock also has over forty million dollars invested in one of the worlds largest collections of rock-and-roll memorabilia inventory which has over 60,000 pieces. Most of them are on the walls of his cafà © in the world. Inventory Management is responsible for cataloging the entire inventory of all the cafes. They developed inventory system through technology that tells them exactly what is in every cafe where it was in this cafe, and what is the story behind each item Every 5-6 years, Memorabilia of all cafes around the world are renewed by being brought back to Orlando to be refurbished, and then be replaced with new gear. 9.Scheduling   Scheduling for Bartenders, kitchen and wait staffs, hostesses, and retail employees is based off of sales tracking. Y When preparing and planning work schedules, they look at the sales last year and the trend for the last couple of weeks. Y They will also consider any event in the area and seasonality . We also take a look at sales trend for the past couple weeks, and then what we do from that is we come up with a sales forecast. The sales forecast is basically that nucleus that we write the schedule from. This allows Hard Rock Cafe managers can predict the volume of people may get in and enjoy in its restaurants and prepare a pretty right human, foods and services Just-In-Time to save the costs.   With successful scheduling the good reputation of the Hard Rock Cafe is enhanced. Considerations Employee preferences Changing sales forecasts Scheduling Software Profitable for both employee and the cafà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¡ 10.Maintenance   Maintenance for Hard Rock is based mostly on food preparation and storage. They have to make sure food is stored and prepared correctly. Quality and Control are key to success. At HARD ROCK CAFE, they review menu and music time by time based on the surveys done. All kitchen, bar, retail shop, lay out and equipment are maintained regularly   regarding Memorabilia,   Maintenance of inventory is done every 5-6 years, when the memorabilia was removed from a coffee shop, and refurbished. The cafe, which is then filled with new items In order to strengthen the brand recognition, Hard Rock Cafe creates its own website: www.hardrock.com and maintain a cable television program weekly on VH-1. More than 100,000 hits received through Hard Rock website and 92% of recognition is a truly great result repaying for Hard Rock efforts Question 2: In the light of the above, discuss the operations management challenges and opportunities for Hard Rock when considering an expansion of its business into Hanoi. As mentioned in above Location Strategy, HARD ROCK CAFE in Vietnam is franchised to local partner. Viet Thai International Joint Stock Company,   owner of the famous coffee shop chain Highlands Coffee, last 2009 signed a franchising agreement with UK-based Hard Rock International to develop four Hard Rock Cafe, location in Vietnam. Besides, the first newly opened coffee shop on January 22, 2010 in commercial and residential Kumho Asiana Plaza in the heart of the city, District 1, they are planning to open three new stores in the capital of Hanoi, northern Hai Phong city and central Da Nang city in 2012. according to director David Thai: The expansion of the Hard Rock Cafe, franchising in Vietnam to tap the potential of a growing economy and expanding young population, the target customers of the chain. Lets look at the operations management challenges and opportunities in detail that HARD ROCK CAFE/Viet Thai may face with when considering an expansion of its business into Hanoi Demographics   Population of Area:   not like Starbucks cafà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¡ which using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to help location analysis of population, Hard Rock Cafà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¡s customers mostly tourists and business visitors who come from another locations, so Hard Rock Cafà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¡ doesnt concern much on Hanois population. However, the opportunities Hard Rock may have is that more and more people in Hanoi love Rock Roll music, and the labor cost is cheap . on the other hand , local people are not familiar with high-intensity work, style and culture of unique business like Hard Rock Cafà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¡ and they may not meet the service standard requirement, furthermore, the Vietnamese is very modest, so they may not feel confident to show their personality as expected by Hard Rock Cafe.   Economic Indicators  . Hanoi has the highest  Human Development Index among the cities in Vietnam According to a recent ranking of PricewaterhouseCoopers, Hanoi will be the fastest growing cities in the world in terms of GDP growth in 2008-2025. [17] The non-State economic sector is expanding rapidly, with more than 48,000 enterprises are operating under the Enterprise Law (up to 3 / 2007). [18] Trade is a powerful sector of the city. The economic structure has undergone significant changes, with tourism, finance, and banking now playing an increasingly important role. Along with economic growth, Hanoi appearance has changed dramatically, especially in recent years. Infrastructure is constantly upgraded, with new routes and an improved system of public transport According to General Statistics Office in 2010, the total domestic product (GDP) of Hanoi increased by 11% compared to 2009. . total revenue and social services at 30.5% compared with 2009, in which the total retail sales increased 31.2%. Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 9.56% in 2010 compared with 12 months of last year, the gold price index rose 37.02%, the U.S. dollar price index rose 7.44%. The average growth rate a month in 2010 is 0.95%. Visitor Market Tourists/business visitors:   In 2010, international visitors to Hanoi is 1227.5 thousand,up 20.5% over the same period, domestic tourists is 7392.4 thousand visitors, up 10%, revenue from hotels increased 26.9% Hotels   According to figures in 2007, Hanoi had 511 hotel accommodation establishments with more than 12,700 operating rooms. Of these, only 178 rated hotels with 8424 rooms. Luxury room shortage is one of the reasons that the amount of foreign visitors to Hanoi is not high. With rates are considered quite expensive in Vietnam, about $ 126.26 a night for 5 star hotel room. In addition to nine 5-star hotel is  Sofitel Plaza  , Daewoo, Hilton Hanoi Opera, Horison, , Melia, Nikko, Sheraton, Metropole, and Inter Continental, the city also has six 4-star hotel and nineteen 3-star hotel. According to the newly licensed projects and the recently approved investment, by 2011, Hanoi will have about 2,000 luxury hotel rooms. Entertainment Retail many options for entertainment in Hanoi can be found throughout the city. Modern and traditional theaters, cinemas, karaoke bars, dance clubs, bowling alleys, and a rich opportunity to shop provides recreational activities for both locals and tourists . Hanoi has been named one of top 10 cities for shopping in Asia by Smart Travel Asia. [12] The number of art galleries art galleries has soared in recent years. A popular form of entertainment is the traditional water puppetry, is shown at the Thang Long Water Puppet Theatre Sports There are several gyms and stadiums throughout the city of Hanoi. The largest is the National Stadium My Dinh , Hanoi Water Sport Athletic Complex and the Hanoi Stadium. In 2009, the 3rd Asian Indoor Games was held in Hanoi. Transportation Hanoi is served by Noi Bai International Airport, located in Soc Son district, about 40ykm north of Hanoi. Noi Bai International Airport is unique to the northern regions of Vietnam. Hanoi will have 1 more international airport, which will cost $8 billion, the highest foreign investment to date in the history of Vietnam [16] It will become the largest and most modern airport in Asia .. Construction will be done in three phases, the first phase will start in 2011 until 2015. Taxis are a lot in Hanoi and often trip meters, although it is usually to agree on price before taking a taxi trip from the airport to downtown. Cyclos tour in the Old Quarter is also attracted tourists. Hanoi is also the starting point for many of the original Vietnam railway train in the country. The Reunification Express runs from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City, with stops in other cities and provinces along the line. Trains also depart Hanoi frequently for Hai Phong and other northern cities. The main means of transportation in the city are motorcycles, buses, taxis, and bicycles. Motorcycle is the most common way to move around the city. [Citation needed] the public buses that run on many routes and fares can be purchased on the bus. For short trips, xe à ´m (literally: hug vehicle) motorcycle taxis are available Restaurants and Nightclubs ( a selection in key target market areas) Political Risk:   Vietnam is considered one of the most stably politic regimes. This allows Hard Rocks management board to feel secure to invest the business in Hanoi. Vietnam government is establishing a system of open policies, encouraging foreign investors to invest, develop Vietnam economy and create jobs for local people.   Social Risk Hanoian has the habits to drink coffee in a street-cafe with a very cheap price, processed by the traditional method, read newspapers or see people passing by. Not many people are willing to spend about VND 80,000 on drinking a small coffee that Hard Rock may apply that average price for its items. Furthermore, the local peoples taste of coffee is different. They normally drink stronger taste than the other countries. Robusta coffee here is more popular than Arabica, not as in Europe or America. However, the main targeted customers of Hard Rock Cafà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¡ are from tourist and business visitors not from local people. So these challenges are not really the one Hard Rock Cafà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¡ cares of. Real Estate Market:   location is a very important element for a cafe to be successful in Hanoi. The cost for a centre position (around Hoan Kiem Lake) is very high and most of them are dominated by both foreign and local cafe brands, such as Highland, Illy, Trung Nguyen (famous coffee exporter with the trademark G7). There are also potential competitors like Coffee Bean, Subway, Gloria Jeans Coffee, etc.   Hoan Kiem Lake. Similar to Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi is enjoying extremely fast development of real estate market [19]. Economic growth of urban areas does not seem to correspond to its infrastructure. Overpopulation requires a source of much larger accommodations [20] Not surprisingly,. As an effect of this problem, the apartment and real estate fever occurs during the time seriously. [21]. So, its really a big operation management challenge for Hard Rock Cafà © to consider whether renting or building the new one during the period of at least 10-15 years. Hard Rock Cafà © Comparable Market Analysis In summary, all of these elements create difficulties but also open promising opportunities for Hard Rock to decide the suitable plan when studying the business expansion into Hanoi. It always be the concern for all Operations Managers to make the right decisions, not only for Hard Rock Cafe.

Aryabhata I and How He Influenced Math Essay

Aryabhata I was born in Kerala, India, but moved to Kusumapura early in life. His contribution to mathematics and science is vast, from approximating Pi better than anyone in his time period to deducing the Earth is round. He had many scientific and mathematic discoveries, which he wrote about in his book, the Aryabhatiya. He declared that the Earth rotates on its own axis and used logic to determine that this is what created night and day. (Jain) Part of Aryabhata’s fame was brought by his debunking myths of both religious and general varieties. Instead of the previously believed â€Å"fact† distributed by the Hindu priests that it was a demon’s head named Rahu swallowing the sun and moon, Aryabhata proved them wrong by driving the theory that eclipses happen because of the shadow given off by the earth and moon in place of the Hindu myth. Another myth he disproved by declaration was the thought that the moon gave off its own light, giving it the glow that dominated the night sky. In 499 A.D., at age 23, he wrote Aryabhatiya, which would be known as his famous astronomical opus. As a result of his paper, the Gupta dynasty ruler, Buddhagupta, gave him the title of Head of the Nalanda University to recognize his intellect (Kumar). Later, it is believed that he wrote another book, called the Aryabhata-siddhanta, but it is now lost (Jain). The book is split into three parts: the Ganita, which translates to Ma thematics; the Kala-Kriya, which contains Time Calculations; and the Gola, which is mainly sphere mathematics. The Ganita is astonishing because of its lack of proof concerning the 66 rules it provides (â€Å"Aryabhata I†). Aryabhata’s mind is also the basis of algebra, geometry, and trigonometry. He created the equation for finding the circumference of a circle using the radius instead of the diameter, like the Greeks used. For  this equation, C = 2Ï€r2, he had to have a close value for Ï€, which he successfully approximated somehow, and shared his discovery in Aryabhatiya: â€Å"’Add four to one hundred, multiply by eight and then add sixty-two thousand. The result is approximately the circumference of a circle of diameter twenty thousand. By this rule the relation of the circumference to diameter is given.’ In other words, n = 62382/20000 = 3.1416, correct to four rounded-off decimal places† (Jacobs). The advancements on finding the numerical value of Ï€ have dramatically increased since then, having calculated numbers on the upside of 5 trillion. His contributions to the mathematical world are still vast, and his discoveries are the foundation for modern algebr a and through that, most of math overall. Aryabhata I calculated the length of a sidereal rotation and year in his book as well. As for the sidereal rotation, he used the stars to determine that the time per day was 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4.1 seconds. The present value is 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4.091 seconds. For the sidereal year, he found it to be 365 days, 6 hours, 12 minutes, and 30 seconds, when the modern calculation is a mere 3 minutes and 20 seconds less than Aryabhata’s value. Aryabhata also impacted Trigonometry by his definitions of sine (jya), cosine (kojya), versine (utkrama-jya), and inverse sine (otkram jya). â€Å"He was the first to specify sine and versine (1-cos x) tables, in 3.75 ° intervals from 0 ° to 90 °, to an accuracy of 4 decimal places† (Kumar). The modern names â€Å"sine† and â€Å"cosine† are also believed to be mistranslations of the words introduced by Aryabhata, Jya and Kojya. In the field of Algebra, he provided results for the summation of series of squares: He did not disappoint the series of cubes: As for remembering the great Aryabhata, he has many colleges named after him, such as the Aryabhata Knowledge University in Bihar and the Aryabhata Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIOS) near Nainital, India. India’s first satellite also shared his name. (Kumar) Works Cited â€Å"Aryabhata I.† Medieval History. About.com, 2014. Web. 27 Apr. 2014. . Jacobs, James Q. â€Å"The Àryabhatà ­ya of Àryabhata.† The Àryabhatà ­ya of Àryabhata by J. Q. Jacobs. J.Q. Jacobs, 1997. Web. 15 Mar. 2014. . Jain, Ankur. â€Å"Aryabhatta Biography.† Aryabhatta Scientists | Biography. Study Helpline, 2011. Web. 27 Apr. 2014. . Kumar, Amit. â€Å"Aryabhatta- The Great Indian Mathematician.† The Braves and Smarts. Web. 10 Mar. 2014. . O’Connor, J.J., and E.F. Robertson. â€Å"Aryabhata the Elder.† School of Mathematics and Statistics University of St. Andrews, Scotland. Nov. 2000. Web. 10 Mar. 2014. .

The True Story About Sat Essay Writing Test Samples Two Approaches That the Experts Dont Want You to Know

The True Story About Sat Essay Writing Test Samples Two Approaches That the Experts Don't Want You to Know Lies You've Been Told About Sat Essay Writing Test Samples Two Approaches The following two paragraphs must contain certain examples pulled from the text to support your principal argument. A couple of sentences to draw your reader in, followed by a couple of sentences with your principal argument and supporting examples are lots. Transition from the last paragraph within this example (1 sentence). Introduce your very first example with some sort of transition (1 sentence). New Questions About Sat Essay Writing Test Samples Two Approaches Students with special accommodations may be able to spend the test on a computer, but otherwise it is a written test. Keep it simple and simple, then move forward. It is often as large or as small as it is possible to consider! Holt Online Essay Scoring provides the next forms of feedback and. You will have to practice this. 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Women s Rights Of Women - 966 Words

In past years women have been inferior to men and have sat in the background and watched as men ruled. Woman we’re treated as property and were only used for things like having children, raising the children, keeping the house clean, to cook, and to obey all of the wishes of a man. The only women that men highly respected were the goddesses, like the goddess Artemis, Hera, and Eris. The men would pray to the goddess for the things they don’t have in there life. From the day a girl is born she is property, she is owned by her father at first and then her husband. Women weren’t expected and in most cases aloud to go out and make their own money, they are even aloud to own a house or sue someone. The roles of women back then were final and it was a struggle for them to even exist, sometimes even women being seen was unheard of. A mans opinion was the only opinion that matter at that time, men determined what was right and what was wrong, what was socially acceptable , and what women were and weren’t aloud to do. Men had separate rooms from the women and children that they would take company into and talk with them because they believed that women didn’t need to hear what they were talking about because they were uneducated and didn’t have the right to have an opinion. Men even decided what women did for an occupation. They chose this the women were going to be a house wife or a prostitute. Women were treated no better then a domestic slave and they struggled trying to becomeShow MoreRelatedWomen s Rights Of Women Essay1455 Words   |  6 Pagesa myriad of women have expressed through outlets such as public assemblies, literature, and speeches. There have been three waves of the women’s movement, each targeting a variety of issues within each era. 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Many men, and even some women, all over the world believe that women do not share the same value and importance to society as men do. On September 5, 1995, Hillary Clinton spoke at the 4th World Conference on Women, on behalf of women all over the world. Clinton raised awareness on how women s rights are being violated and why it is important to recognize women s rights as equal to everyone else’s rights. Even today, in 2016Read MoreWomen s Rights Of Women1052 Words   |  5 PagesThe family has traditionally been the basic unit of Chinese society where women have long been charged with upholding society s values in their roles as wives and mothers. Especially in the Qing Dynasty, women were required to balance society s i deals with the reality of raising a family and maintaining a household. Throughout the imperial period and into the beginning of the twentieth century, the relationship among family members was prescribed by Confucian teachings. The revered philosopher

Queer Evolution Word Goes Mainstream - 1087 Words

Kids Just Don’t Understand Parents are hard folks to please. Ask anyone and they will say just that. Whatever a child does, they receive some sort of comment or criticism from their folks. While some parents are mean and criticize their children with the intention of hurting them, most parents criticize their children because they care and love their child. It boils down to the language parents’ use with their kin, and the actions behind their language. In Martha Irvine’s essay Queer Evolution: Word Goes Mainstream, she explains the evolution of the word queer and how the word has changed over time from a negative to a word that is seen as more tolerated. Irvine’s ideas are echoed in Deborah Tannen’s You’re Wearing That, and Michael Kimmel’s Bros Before Hos in that words parents use with their children might be harmful without the children understanding the actions behind the words. Irvine explains in her essay that words and the ideas behind the words is suspect to change over time. Tannen and Kimmel point out in their essay’s that this is the case when children interpret their parent’s comments as negative instead of positive. Queer Evolution describes how queer transformed from a hateful word to a mainstream word. Although she specifically uses the history of the word queer, the same ideas can be said for many other words. Irvine explains â€Å"in the 1920s and ‘30s the word queer became synonymous with â€Å"pansy†, â€Å"sissy†, and even â€Å"pervert†. That is not the case anymore inShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of Deborah Tannen s Queer 1204 Words   |  5 Pagesof Michigan published an article titled Queer Evolution which talked about how the word â€Å"Queer† itself has evolved into the mainstream. Originally the word’s definition was to describe something as odd or weird. Society utilized the word â€Å"Queer† as an insult to the LGBTQ communit y. 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Can You Say What Your Strategy Is Free Essays

string(66) " that executives should be forced to be crystal clear about them\." www. hbr. org It’s a dirty little secret: Most executives cannot articulate the objective, scope, and advantage of their business in a simple statement. We will write a custom essay sample on Can You Say What Your Strategy Is or any similar topic only for you Order Now If they can’t, neither can anyone else. Can You Say What Your Strategy Is? by David J. Collis and Michael G. Rukstad Reprint R0804E It’s a dirty little secret: Most executives cannot articulate the objective, scope, and advantage of their business in a simple statement. If they can’t, neither can anyone else. Can You Say What Your Strategy Is? by David J. Collis and Michael G. Rukstad COPYRIGHT  © 2008 HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL PUBLISHING CORPORATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Can you summarize your company’s strategy in 35 words or less? If so, would your colleagues put it the same way? It is our experience that very few executives can honestly answer these simple questions in the af? rmative. And the companies that those executives work for are often the most successful in their industry. One is Edward Jones, a St. Louis–based brokerage ? rm with which one of us has been involved for more than 10 years. The fourth-largest brokerage in the United States, Jones has quadrupled its market share during the past two decades, has consistently outperformed its rivals in terms of ROI through bull and bear markets, and has been a ? xture on Fortune’s list of the top companies to work for. It’s a safe bet that just about every one of its 37,000 employees could express the company’s succinct strategy statement: Jones aims to â€Å"grow to 17,000 ? nancial advisers by 2012 [from about 10,000 today] by offering trusted and convenient face-to-face ? ancial advice to conservative individual investors who delegate their ? nanharvard business review †¢ april 2008 cial decisions, through a national network of one-? nancial-adviser of? ces. † Conversely, companies that don’t have a simple and clear statement of strategy are likely to fall into the sorry category of those that have failed to execute their strategy or, worse, those that never even had one. In an as tonishing number of organizations, executives, frontline employees, and all those in between are frustrated because no clear strategy exists for the company or its lines of business. The kinds of complaints that abound in such ? rms include: †¢ â€Å"I try for months to get an initiative off the ground, and then it is shut down because ‘it doesn’t ? t the strategy. ’ Why didn’t anyone tell me that at the beginning? † †¢ â€Å"I don’t know whether I should be pursuing this market opportunity. I get mixed signals from the powers that be. † †¢ â€Å"Why are we bidding on this customer’s business again? We lost it last year, and I thought we agreed then not to waste our time chasing the contract! † page 1 Can You Say What Your Strategy Is? David J. Collis (dcollis@hbs. du) is an adjunct professor in the strategy unit of Harvard Business School in Boston and the author of several books on corporate strategy. He has studied and consulted to Edward Jones, the brokerage that is the main example in this article, and has taught in the firm’s management-development program. Michael G. Ruksta d was a senior research fellow at Harvard Business School, where he taught for many years until his untimely death in 2006. †¢ â€Å"Should I cut the price for this customer? I don’t know if we would be better off winning the deal at a lower price or just losing the business. Leaders of ? rms are mysti? ed when what they thought was a beautifully crafted strategy is never implemented. They assume that the initiatives described in the voluminous documentation that emerges from an annual budget or a strategic-planning process will ensure competitive success. They fail to appreciate the necessity of having a simple, clear, succinct strategy statement that everyone can internalize and use as a guiding light for making dif? cult choices. Think of a major business as a mound of 10,000 iron ? lings, each one representing an employee. If you scoop up that many ? ings and drop them onto a piece of paper, they’ll be pointing in every direction. It will be a big mess: 10,00 0 smart people working hard and making what they think are the right decisions for the company—but with the net result of confusion. Engineers in the RD department are creating a product with â€Å"must have† features for which (as the marketing group could have told them) customers will not pay; the sales force is selling customers on quick turnaround times and customized offerings even though the manufacturing group has just invested in equipment designed for long production runs; and so on. If you pass a magnet over those ? ings, what happens? They line up. Similarly, a well-understood statement of strategy aligns behavior within the business. It allows everyone in the organization to make individual choices that reinforce one another, rendering those 10,000 employees exponentially more effective. What goes into a good statement of strategy? Michael Porter’s seminal article â€Å"What Is Strategy? † (HBR November–December 1996) lays out the char acteristics of strategy in a conceptual fashion, conveying the essence of strategic choices and distinguishing them from the relentless but competitively fruitless search for operational ef? iency. However, we have found in our work both with executives and with students that Porter’s article does not answer the more basic question of how to describe a particular ? rm’s strategy. It is a dirty little secret that most executives don’t actually know what all the elements of a strategy statement are, which makes it impossible for them to develop one. With a clear de? nition, though, two things happen: First, formulation becomes in? nitely easier because executives know what they are trying to create. Second, implementation becomes much simpler because the strategy’s essence can be readily communicated and easily internalized by everyone in the organization. Elements of a Strategy Statement The late Mike Rukstad, who contributed enormously to this article, identi? ed three critical components of a good strategy statement— objective, scope, and advantage—and rightly believed that executives should be forced to be crystal clear about them. You read "Can You Say What Your Strategy Is" in category "Papers" These elements are a simple yet suf? cient list for any strategy (whether business or military) that addresses competitive interaction over unbounded terrain. Any strategy statement must begin with a de? nition of the ends that the strategy is designed to achieve. â€Å"If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there† is the appropriate maxim here. If a nation has an unclear sense of what it seeks to achieve from a military campaign, how can it have a hope of attaining its goal? The de? nition of the objective should include not only an end point but also a time frame for reaching it. A strategy to get U. S. troops out of Iraq at some distant point in the future would be very different from a strategy to bring them home within two years. Since most ? rms compete in a more or less unbounded landscape, it is also crucial to de? ne the scope, or domain, of the business: the part of the landscape in which the ? rm will operate. What are the boundaries beyond which it will not venture? If you are planning to enter the restaurant business, will you provide sit-down or quick service? A casual or an upscale atmosphere? What type of food will you offer—French or Mexican? What geographic area will you serve—the Midwest or the East Coast? Alone, these two aspects of strategy are insuf? ient. You could go into business tomorrow with the goal of becoming the world’s largest hamburger chain within 10 years. But will anyone invest in your company if you have not explained how you are going to reach your objective? Your competitive advantage is the essence of your strategy: What harvard business review †¢ april 2008 page 2 Can You Say What Your Strategy Is? your business will do differently from or better t han others de? nes the all-important means by which you will achieve your stated objective. That advantage has complementary external and internal components: a value proposition that explains why the targeted customer should buy your product above all the alternatives, and a description of how internal activities must be aligned so that only your ? rm can deliver that value proposition. De? ning the objective, scope, and advantage requires trade-offs, which Porter identi? ed as fundamental to strategy. If a ? rm chooses to pursue growth or size, it must accept that pro? tability will take a back seat. If it chooses to serve institutional clients, it may ignore retail customers. If the value proposition is lower prices, the company will not be able to compete on, for example, fashion or ? t. Finally, if the advantage comes from scale economies, the ? rm will not be able to accommodate idiosyncratic customer needs. Such trade-offs are what distinguish individual companies strategically. De? ning the Objective The ? rst element of a strategy statement is the one that most companies have in some A Hierarchy of Company Statements Organizational direction comes in several forms. The mission statement is your loftiest guiding light—and your least speci? c. As you work your way down the hierarchy, the statements become more concrete, practical, and ultimately unique. No other company will have the same strategy statement, which de? nes your competitive advantage, or balanced scorecard, which tracks how you implement your particular strategy. MISSION Why we exist VALUES What we believe in and how we will behave VISION What we want to be STRATEGY What our competitive game plan will be BALANCED SCORECARD How we will monitor and implement that plan The BASIC ELEMENTS of a Strategy Statement OBJECTIVE = Ends SCOPE = Domain ADVANTAGE = Means form or other. Unfortunately, the form is usually wrong. Companies tend to confuse their statement of values or their mission with their strategic objective. A strategic objective is not, for example, the platitude of â€Å"maximizing shareholder wealth by exceeding customer expectations for _______ [insert product or service here] and providing opportunities for our employees to lead ful? lling lives while respecting the environment and the communities in which we operate. † Rather, it is the single precise objective that will drive the business over the next ? ve years or so. (See the exhibit â€Å"A Hierarchy of Company Statements. ) Many companies do have—and all ? rms should have—statements of their ultimate purpose and the ethical values under which they will operate, but neither of these is the strategic objective. The mission statement spells out the underlying motivation for being in business in the ? rst place—the contribution to society that the ? rm aspires to make. (An insurance company, for example, might de? ne its mission as providing ? nancial security to consumers. ) Such statements, however, are not useful as strategic goals to drive today’s business decisions. Similarly, it is good and proper that ? ms be clear with employees about ethical values. But principles such as respecting individual differences and sustaining the environment are not strategic. They govern how employees should behave (â€Å"doing things right†); they do not guide what the ? rm should do (â€Å"the right thing to do†). Firms in the same business often have the same mission. (Don’t all insurance companies aspire to provide ? nancial security to their customers? ) They may also have the same values. They might even share a vision: an indeterminate future goal such as being the â€Å"recognized leader in the insurance ? eld. However, it is unlikely that even two companies in the same business will have the same strategic objecti ve. Indeed, if your ? rm’s strategy can be applied to any other ? rm, you don’t have a very good one. It is always easy to claim that maximizing shareholder value is the company’s objective. In some sense all strategies are designed to do this. However, the question to ask when creating an actionable strategic statement is, Which objective is most likely to maximize shareholder value over the next several years? harvard business review †¢ april 2008 page 3 Can You Say What Your Strategy Is? Growth? Achieving a certain market share? Becoming the market leader? ) The strategic objective should be speci? c, measurable, and time bound. It should also be a single goal. It is not suf? cient to say, â€Å"We seek to grow pro? tably. † Which matters more—growth or pro? tability? A salesperson needs to know the answer when she’s deciding how aggressive to be on price. There could well be a host of subordinate goals that follow from the strategic objective, and these might serve as metrics on a balanced scorecard that monitors progress for which individuals will be held accountable. Yet the ultimate objective that will drive the operation of the business over the next several years should always be clear. The choice of objective has a profound impact on a ? rm. When Boeing shifted its primary goal from being the largest player in the aircraft industry to being the most profitable, it had to restructure the entire organization, from sales to manufacturing. For example, the company dropped its policy of competing with Airbus to the last cent on every deal and abandoned its commitment to maintain a manufacturing capacity that could deliver more than half a peak year’s demand for planes. Another company, after years of seeking to maximize pro? ts at the expense of growth, issued a corporate mandate to generate at least 10% organic growth per year. The change in strategy forced the ? rm to switch its focus from shrinking to serve only its pro? table core customers and competing on the basis of cost or ef? ciency to differentiating its products, which led to a host of new product features and services that appealed to a wider set of customers. At Edward Jones, discussion among the partners about the ? rm’s objective ignited a passionate exchange. One said, â€Å"Our ultimate objective has to be maximizing pro? t per partner. † Another responded, â€Å"Not all ? nancial advisers are partners—so if we maximize revenue per partner, we are ignoring the other 30,000-plus people who make the business work! † Another added, â€Å"Our ultimate customer is the client. We cannot just worry about partner pro? ts. In fact, we should start by maximizing value for the customer and let the pro? ts ? ow to us from there! † And so on. This intense debate not only drove alignment with the objective of healthy growth in the number of ? ancial advisers but also ensured that every implication of that choice was fully explored. Setting an ambitious growth target at each point in its 85-year history, Edward Jones has continually increased its scale and market presence. Striving to achieve such growth has increased long-term pro? t per adviser and led the ? rm to its unique con? guration: Its only pro? t center is the ind ividual ? nancial adviser. Other activities, even investment banking, serve as support functions and are not held accountable for generating pro? t. De? ning the Scope A ? m’s scope encompasses three dimensions: customer or offering, geographic location, and vertical integration. Clearly de? ned boundaries in those areas should make it obvious to managers which activities they should concentrate on and, more important, which they should not do. The three dimensions may vary in relevance. For Edward Jones, the most important is the customer. The ? rm is con? gured to meet the needs of one very speci? c type of client. Unlike just about every other brokerage in the business, Jones does not de? ne its archetypal customer by net worth or income. Nor does it use demographics, profession, or spending habits. Rather, the de? nition is psychographic: The company’s customers are long-term investors who have a conservative investment philosophy and are uncomfortable making serious ? nancial decisions without the support of a trusted adviser. In the terminology of the business, Jones targets the â€Å"delegator,† not the â€Å"validator† or the â€Å"do-it-yourselfer. † The scope of an enterprise does not prescribe exactly what should be done within the speci? ed bounds. In fact, it encourages experimentation and initiative. But to ensure that the borders are clear to all employees, the scope should specify where the ? rm or business will not go. That will prevent managers from spending long hours on projects that get turned down by higher-ups because they do not ? t the strategy. For example, clarity about who the customer is and who it is not has kept Edward Jones from pursuing day traders. Even at the height of the internet bubble, the company chose not to introduce online trading (it is harvard business review †¢ april 2008 page 4 Can You Say What Your Strategy Is? till not available to Jones customers). Unlike the many brokerages that committed hundreds of millions of dollars and endless executive hours to debates over whether to introduce online trading (and if so, how to price and position it in a way that did not cannibalize or con? ict with traditional offerings), Jones wasted no money or time on that decision because it had set clear boundaries. Similarly, Jones is not vertically integrate d into proprietary mutual funds, so as not to violate the independence of its ? nancial advisers and undermine clients’ trust. Nor will he company offer penny stocks, shares from IPOs, commodities, or options—investment products that it believes are too risky for the conservative clients it chooses to serve. And it does not have metropolitan of? ces in business districts, because they would not allow for the convenient, face-to-face interactions in casual settings that the ? rm seeks to provide. Knowing not to extend its scope in these directions has allowed the ? rm to focus on doing what it does well and reap the bene? ts of simplicity, standardization, and deep experience. De? ning the Advantage Wal-Mart’s Value Proposition Wal-Mart’s value proposition can be summed up as â€Å"everyday low prices for a broad range of goods that are always in stock in convenient geographic locations. † It is those aspects of the customer experience that the company overdelivers relative to competitors. Underperformance on other dimensions, such as ambience and sales help, is a strategic choice that generates cost savings, which fuel the company’s price advantage. If the local mom-and-pop hardware store has survived, it also has a value proposition: convenience, proprietors who have known you for years, free coffee and doughnuts on Saturday mornings, and so on. Sears falls in the middle on many criteria. As a result, customers lack a lot of compelling reasons to shop there, which goes a long way toward explaining why the company is struggling to remain pro? table. Customer purchase criteria* Low prices Selection across categories Rural convenience Reliable prices In-stock merchandise Merchandise quality Suburban convenience Selection within categories Sales help Ambience poor Delivery on criteria * in approximate order of importance to Wal-Mart’s target customer group Source: Jan Rivkin, Harvard Business School Mom pop stores Sears Wal-Mart excellent Given that a sustainable competitive advantage is the essence of strategy, it should be no surprise that advantage is the most critical aspect of a strategy statement. Clarity about what makes the ? rm distinctive is what most helps employees understand how they can contribute to successful execution of its strategy. As mentioned above, the complete de? nition of a ? rm’s competitive advantage consists of two parts. The ? rst is a statement of the customer value proposition. Any strategy statement that cannot explain why customers should buy your product or service is doomed to failure. A simple graphic that maps your value proposition against those of rivals can be an extremely easy and useful way of identifying what makes yours distinctive. (See the exhibit â€Å"Wal-Mart’s Value Proposition. †) The second part of the statement of advantage captures the unique activities or the complex combination of activities allowing that ? rm alone to deliver the customer value proposition. This is where the strategy statement draws from Porter’s de? nition of strategy as making consistent choices about the con? guration of the ? rm’s activities. It is also where the activity-system map that Porter describes in â€Å"What Is Strategy? comes into play. As the exhibit â€Å"Edward Jones’s ActivitySystem Map† shows, the brokerage’s value proposition is to provide convenient, trusted, personal service and advice. What is most distinctive about Jones is that it has only one ? nancial adviser in an of? ce, which allows it to have mor e of? ces (10,000 nationally) than competitors do. Merrill Lynch has about 15,000 brokers but only 1,000 of? ces. To make it easy for its targeted customers to visit at their convenience—and to provide a relaxed, harvard business review †¢ april 2008 page 5 Can You Say What Your Strategy Is? ersonable, nonthreatening environment— Jones puts its of? ces in strip malls and the retail districts of rural areas and suburbs rather than high-rise buildings in the central business districts of big cities. These choices alone require Jones to differ radically from other brokerages in the con? guration of its activities. With no branch-of? ce management providing direction or support, each ? nancial adviser must be an entrepreneur who delights in running his or her own operation. Since such people are an exception in the industry, Jones has to bring all its own ? ancial advisers in from other industries or backgrounds and train them, at great expense. Until 2007, when it sw itched to an internet-based service, the ? rm had to have its own satellite network to provide its widely dispersed of? ces with real-time quotes and allow them to execute trades. Because the company has 10,000 separate of? ces, its real estate and communication costs are about 50% higher than the industry average. However, all those of? ces allow the ? nancial advisers who run them to deliver convenient, trusted, personal service and advice. Other successful players in this industry also have distinctive value propositions Edward Jones’s Activity-System Map This map illustrates how activities at the brokerage Edward Jones connect to deliver competitive advantage. The ? rm’s customer value proposition appears near the center of the map—in the â€Å"customer relationship† bubble—and the supporting activities hang off it. Only the major connections are shown. TARGET CUSTOMER individual conservative delegates decisions PRODUCT blue chips PRICE one-time commission mutual funds HEADQUARTERS St. Louis home of? e for all activities TECHNOLOGY satellite (historically) LOCATION rural suburban strip mall REGIONAL STRUCTURE no regional management COMPENSATION each ? nancial adviser is a pro? t center ONE FINANCIAL ADVISER PER OFFICE advisers run their own of? ces MARKETING local mailings knocking on doors INVESTMENT PHILOSOPHY long-term buy and hold CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP face-to-face convenient tru sted ? nancial adviser VALUES CULTURE volunteerism mentoring BRANCH SUPPORT branch-of? ce assistant OWNERSHIP partnership, not public BROKER TYPE entrepreneur member of community HIRE TRAIN hire from outside industry internally train all ? ancial advisers harvard business review †¢ april 2008 page 6 Can You Say What Your Strategy Is? and unique con? gurations of activities to support them. Merrill Lynch. During the ? ve-year tenure of former CEO Stan O’Neal, who retired in October 2007, Merrill Lynch developed an effective strategy that it called â€Å"Total Merrill. † The company’s value proposition: to provide for all the ? nancial needs of its high-net-worth customers—those with liquid ? nancial assets of more than $250,000—through retirement. While a lot of brokerages cater to people with a high net worth, they focus on asset accumulation before retirement. Merrill’s view is that as baby boomers age and move from the relatively simple phase of accumulating assets to the much more complex, higher-risk phase of drawing cash from their retirement accounts, their needs change. During this stage, they will want to consolidate their ? nancial assets with a single trusted partner that can help them ? gure out how to optimize income over their remaining years by making the best decisions on everything from annuities to payout ratios to long-term-care insurance. Merrill offers coherent ? nancial plans for The Strategic Sweet Spot The strategic sweet spot of a company is where it meets customers’ needs in a way that rivals can’t, given the context in which it competes. CONTEXT (technology, industry demographics, regulation, and so on) COMPETITORS’ offerings CUSTOMERS’ needs SWEET SPOT COMPANY’S capabilities such customers and provides access to a very wide range of sophisticated products based on a Monte Carlo simulation of the probabilities of running out of money according to different annual rates of return on different categories of assets. How does Merrill intend to deliver this value to its chosen customers in a way that’s unique among large ? ms? First, it is pushing brokers—especially new ones—to become certi? ed ? nancial planners and has raised internal training requirements to put them on that road. The certi? ed ? nancial planner license is more dif? cult for brokers to obtain than the standard Series 7 license, because it requires candidates to have a college degree and to master nearly 100 integrated ? nancialplanning topics. Second, Merrill offers all forms of insurance, annuities, covered calls, hedge funds, banking services, and so on (unlike Edward Jones, which offers a much more limited menu of investment products). Since several of these products are technically complex, Merrill needs product specialists to support the client-facing broker. This â€Å"Team Merrill† organization poses very different HR and compensation issues from those posed by Edward Jones’s single-adviser of? ces. Merrill’s compensation system has to share income among the team members and reward referrals. Wells Fargo. This San Francisco bank competes in the brokerage business as part of its tactic to cross-sell services to its retail banking customers in order to boost pro? t per customer. It aims to sell each customer at least eight different products. ) Wells Fargo’s objective for its brokerage arm, clearly stated in a recent annual report, is to triple its share of customers’ ? nancial assets. The brokerage’s means for achieving this goal is the parent company’s database of 23 million customers, many of them brought into the ? rm through one particular aspect of the bankin g relationship: the mortgage. Wells Fargo differs from Edward Jones and Merrill Lynch in its aim to offer personalized, rather than personal, service. For example, the ? m’s IT system allows a bank clerk to know a limited amount of information about a customer (name, birthday, and so on) and appear to be familiar with him or her, which is quite different from the ongoing individual relationships that Jones and Merrill brokers have with their clients. harvard business review †¢ april 2008 page 7 Can You Say What Your Strategy Is? LPL Financial. Different again is LPL Financial, with of? ces in Boston, San Diego, and Charlotte, North Carolina. LPL sees its brokers (all of whom are independent ? nancial advisers af? liated with the ? rm) rather than consumers as its clients and has con? ured all of its activities to provide individualized solutions and the highest payouts to its brokers. This means that the vast majority of the activities performed by the corporate headquar ters staff are services, such as training, that brokers choose and pay for on an a la carte basis. As a result, LPL’s headquarters staff is very small (0. 20 people per broker) compared with that of Edward Jones (1. 45 people per broker). Low overhead allows LPL to offer a higher payout to brokers than Jones and Merrill do, which is its distinctive value proposition to its chosen customer: the broker. By now it should be apparent how a careful description of the unique activities a ? rm performs to generate a distinctive customer value proposition effectively captures its strategy. A relatively simple description in a strategy statement provides an incisive characterization that could not belong to any other ? rm. This is the goal. When that statement has been internalized by all employees, they can easily understand how their daily activities contribute to the overall success of the ? rm and how to correctly make the dif? cult choices they confront in their jobs. Developing a Strategy Statement How, then, should a ? rm go about crafting its strategy statement? Obviously, the ? rst step is to create a great strategy, which requires careful evaluation of the industry landscape. Leaving No Room for Misinterpretation Executives at Edward Jones have developed a detailed understanding of every element of the ? rm’s strategy. Here is an example. †conservativeâ€Å" Our investment philosophy is long-term buy and hold. We do not sell penny stocks, commodities, or other high-risk instruments. As a result we do not serve day traders and see no need to offer online trading. We charge commissions on trades because this is the cheapest way to buy stocks (compared with a wrap fee, which charges annually as a percentage of assets) when the average length of time the investor holds the stock or mutual fund is over 10 years. †individualâ€Å" We do not advise institutions or companies. We do not segment according to wealth, age, or other demographics. The company will serve all customers that ? t its conservative investment philosophy. Brokers will call on any and every potential customer. Stories abound within Jones of millionaires who live in trailers—people all the other brokerages would never think of approaching. investorsâ€Å" Our basic service is investment. We do not seek to offer services such as checking accounts for their own sake, but only as part of the management of a client’s assets. †who delegate their ? nancial decisionsâ€Å" We do not target self-directed do-it-yourselfers, who are comfortable making their own investment decisions. We are also unlikely to serve validators, who are merely looking for reassurance that their decisions are correct. Edward Jones’s Strategy Statement To grow to 17,000 ? nancial advisers by 2012 by offering trusted and convenient face-to-face ? ancial advice to conservative individual investors who delegate their ? nancial decisions, through a national network of one-? nancialadviser of? ces. harvard business review †¢ april 2008 page 8 Can You Say What Your Strategy Is? This includes developing a detailed understanding of customer needs, segmenting customers, and then identifying unique ways of creating value for the ones the ? rm chooses to serve. It also calls for an analysis of competitors’ current strategies and a prediction of how they might change in the future. The process must involve a rigorous, objective assessment of the ? m’s capabilities and resources and those of competitors, as described in â€Å"Competing on Resources: Strategy in the 1990s,† by David J. Collis and Cynthia A. Montgomery (HBR July–August 1995)—not just a feel-good exercise of identifying core competencies. The creative part of developing strategy is ? nding the sweet spot that aligns the ? rm’s capabilities with customer needs in a way that competitors cannot match given the changing external context—factors such as technology, industry demographics, and regulation. (See the exhibit â€Å"The Strategic Sweet Spot. ) We have found that one of the best ways to do this is to develop two or three plausible but very different strategic options. For example, ? eshing out two dramatically different alternatives—becoming a cheap Red Lobster or a ? sh McDonald’s—helped executives at the Long John Silver’s chain of restaurants understand the strategic choices that they had to make. They had been trying to do a bit of everything, and this exercise showed them that their initiativ es—such as offering early-evening table service and expanding drive-through service—were strategically inconsistent. Competing on the basis of table service requires bigger restaurants and more employees, while drive-through service requires high-traf? c locations and smaller footprints. ) As a result, they chose to be a ? sh McDonald’s, building smaller restaurants with drive-through service in hightraf? c locations. The process of developing the strategy and then crafting the statement that captures its essence in a readily communicable manner should involve employees in all parts of the company and at all levels of the hierarchy. The wording of the strategy statement should be worked through in painstaking detail. In fact, that can be the most powerful part of the strategy development process. It is usually in heated discussions over the choice of a single word that a strategy is crystallized and executives truly understand what it will involve. The end result should be a brief statement that re? ects the three elements of an effective strategy. It should be accompanied by detailed annotations that elucidate the strategy’s nuances (to preempt any possible misreading) and spell out its implications. See the exhibit â€Å"Leaving No Room for Misinterpretation. †) When the strategy statement is circulated throughout the company, the value proposition chart and activity-system map should be attached. They serve as simple reminders of the twin aspects of competitive advantage that underpin the strategy. Cascading the statement throughout the organization, so that each level of management will be the teacher for the level below, becomes the starting point for incorporating strategy into everyone’s behavior. The strategy will really have traction only when executives can be con? ent that the actions of empowered frontline employees will be guided by the same principles that they themselves follow. †¢Ã¢â‚¬ ¢Ã¢â‚¬ ¢ The value of rhetoric should not be underestimated. A 35-word statement can have a substantial impact on a company’s success. Words do lead to action. Spending the time to develop the few words that truly capture your strategy and that will energize and empower your people will raise the long-term ? nancial performance of your organization. Reprint R0804E To order, see the next page or call 800-988-0886 or 617-783-7500 or go to www. br. org harvard business review †¢ april 2008 page 9 Further Reading The Harvard Business Review Paperback Series Here are the landmark ideas—both contemporary and classic—that have established Harvard B usiness Review as required reading for businesspeople around the globe. Each paperback includes eight of the leading articles on a particular business topic. The series includes over thirty titles, including the following best-sellers: Harvard Business Review on Brand Management Product no. 1445 Harvard Business Review on Change Product no. 842 Harvard Business Review on Leadership Product no. 8834 Harvard Business Review on Managing People Product no. 9075 Harvard Business Review on Measuring Corporate Performance Product no. 8826 For a complete list of the Harvard Business Review paperback series, go to www. hbr. org. To Order For Harvard Business Review reprints and subscriptions, call 800-988-0886 or 617-783-7500. Go to www. hbr. org For customized and quantity orders of Harvard Business Review article reprints, call 617-783-7626, or e-mail customizations@hbsp. harvard. edu page 10 How to cite Can You Say What Your Strategy Is, Papers

Crisis and Trauma Counselling for Psychotherapy - myassignmenthelp

Question: Discuss about theCrisis and Trauma Counselling for Psychotherapy. Answer: Introduction: The concept of crisis and trauma counselling has been developed to help people resolve crisis inducing events. These situations occur in any circumstances and have to be dealt with as soon as possible. In many occasions the individuals facing problems lose all capabilities of responding to situations, so they require the proper amount of help and support in order to come out of their depressing state of mind. In order to help a client to combat his or her depression and stress levels it is necessary to understand the given situation well and help the person accordingly. Proper identification of the problem is hence an extremely important step in crisis and trauma counselling. Situations experienced by the client: The provided case study is about a 34 year old psychologist named Patricia. She has faced the pressure of being a single parent. The responsibility of single-handedly raising a child is quite challenging. Apart from this the client also has responsibilities pertaining to the society. In this connection it can be clearly stated that the client faced significant personal issues. These consisted of being a single parent and tackling responsibilities of raising her son and even the work pressure. Being a single parent, the client is incapable of sharing her problems and getting the required mental and emotional support which can usually be provided by a spouse. The situational issue related to this case is that of balancing all aspects of the clients life. The responsibilities of work cannot be ignored by her and at the same time she does not get adequate rest after fulfilment of all her responsibilities. The client also has an office at her home from where she works late into the night and hence the situation in which she is working are taxing and extremely strenuous (Capuzzi Stauffer, 2016). The environment at work which the client faces during the day is also very strenuous as the organisation which she works in has very less chances of employing additional staff. This also contributes towards her increased stress levels (Gladding Newsome, 2017). Besides this, there is a significant amount of speculation and judgemental attitudes towards single parents which needs to be dealt with in a proper way for which the client might feel stressed or pressurised. Signs and symptoms experienced by the client: Due to the stressful work conditions of the client as well as situational factors, she has upheld certain symptoms related to changed psychological, emotional as well as behavioural patterns. Regarding the physical traits it can be said that the client faced considerable amount of exhaustion at work. The client also indulged in comfort eating at the time of stress which accounted for even more amount of stress related to her body weight. She also suffered from severe headaches due to tension and also had difficulty in falling asleep. Her racing thoughts and random patterns of thinking did not let her fall asleep (Headington Institute, 2017). Emotionally the client started feeling down, low, de-motivated at work and dreaded work. There was a certain amount of distance which she felt from her everyday activities. She also felt extremely frustrated regarding her job and felt that she was deprived. She felt let down and sad at not being given the level of promotion which she felt she desired. The behavioural changes were experienced in her daily response to the other staff members and her colleagues. There was an increased irritation in her demeanour and she felt that her colleagues were irritating. The mails which she sent seemed to communicate the levels of her anger and frustration. The client also felt as if her tasks and responsibilities at work were weighing down on her and her productivity started declining despite the additional efforts which she put in (Levers, 2012). The ways in which the client can improve the situation: The best way in which stress can be managed is by channelizing ones thoughts in a particular direction. A person needs to try to choose one thought over another or tackle one thought at a time which is necessary in case of this particular client as well. In case one thought is focussed at a time there will not be a chance of experiencing chaotic thoughts in ones mind. There also are spiritual solutions to such problems, like meditation and the art of staying calm. The thoughts in the head can be calmed down to a significant extent by regularly practicing the art of meditation. The client can start by devoting a certain amount of time in the morning for meditation and can keep on increasing the time bit by bit in order to calm the thoughts which crowd the mind (Headington Institute, 2017). There also needs to be a support system where the client should be able to reach out to others and share the trauma or sad experiences. In case the client can share the problems with her colleagues she can receive a sense of reassurance which might help her concentrate on her work and reduce the levels of frustration experienced by her. It is advisable that the client works towards building a friendly relation with her son so that they can interact casually and can solve each others problems (Hillman, 2013). The psychological inception of the thought processes of the client needs to be understood by her in order to control the thoughts before they start to occupy the brain. The client can also attend inspirational talks in order to attain peace of mind (Levers, 2012). Conclusion: There are several ways in which victims of trauma or crisis situations can be tackled. It needs to be understood that they should not lose hope and should keep on focussing on the positive aspects of life. It needs to be remembered that these situations are very normal and can be tackled with proper care. It is due to the regular interaction with the victims of violence that a negative impact falls on the people who work in such centres. Proper counselling and monitored medication in special cases can solve the issue easily. References: Capuzzi, D., Stauffer, M. D. (2016).Counseling and psychotherapy: Theories and interventions. John Wiley Sons. Gladding, S. T., Newsome, D. W. (2017).Clinical mental health counseling in community and agency settings. Pearson. Headington Institute. (2017).Headington Institute | Blog | Managing Stress: How you think about stress matters. [online] Available at: https://www.headington-institute.org/blog-home/609/managing-stress-how-you-think-about-stress-matters [Accessed 21 Oct. 2017]. Headington Institute. (2017).Headington Institute | Blog. [online] Available at: https://www.headington-institute.org/blog-home/search/resilience [Accessed 21 Oct. 2017]. Hillman, J. L. (2013).Crisis intervention and trauma: New approaches to evidence-based practice. Springer Science Business Media. Levers, L. L. (Ed.). (2012).Trauma counseling: Theories and interventions. Springer Publishing Company.