BUS4101 WEEK 1

A Global Marketplace Competing With The World Advantages and Disadvantages of the Global Competitive Market It is important for an organization to understand the advantages and disadvantages of the global competitive market. This understanding helps in devising quality strategies to ensure a competitive advantage. Advantages

• Entrepreneurship: The global competitive market encourages entrepreneurship, or the ability to achieve a market presence by visualizing new areas of economic improvement and strengthening the marketplace. For example, an entrepreneur may realize the growing demand for an international cuisine and decide to import and market particular spices at a competitive price.

• Stock Market: In the global competitive market, businesses have the advantage of using the stock market that provides a balance between competitors for trade. The stock market can be good for an organization because a governing group reviews and keeps all parties in check.

• Technological Change: The global competitive market encourages technological change that promotes new products and helps improve productivity. Technology helps improve business and economies by giving people the ability to do more in less time and for less money.

• Taxation: In the global competitive market, taxation can be monitored and compared with other nations. This comparison helps provide a balance to the organizations.

• Unionization: The global competitive market promotes unionization, or the relationships between the labor force and management. Strong unions can promote good business and good working conditions for all involved.

• Higher Education: Higher education helps employees in understanding quality requirements and enhancing their skills in implementing quality strategies.

Disadvantages

• Government Regulation: In the global competitive market, government controls for regulating businesses are increased. If a government knows that several groups are competing for similar products and services, the government can try to control the process and payment involved with the products or services.

• Inequity: The global competitive market leads to inequity between classes of people. Because certain goods can only be obtained and marketed by certain people, countries take advantage of this inequitable situation and often some people get richer than the others.

• Basic Education: The global competitive market does not encourage public school systems. It does not encourage education for all people served by or involved in international trade. At some places, education is still a privilege and higher education is obtained only by those who are wealthy enough to afford it.

• Poorly Skilled Labor Force: The global competitive market does not encourage proper training for blue-collar workers to remain competitive. The labor force is affected by the amount of education received; therefore, unskilled laborers have to work for lower wages.

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• Restrictions of Imports: In the global competitive market, companies retain restrictions from other markets, which decrease their competitive buying power. To avoid embargos and boycotts, some companies withhold imports because they cannot compete in the open market.

• Alienation: The global competitive market might lead to decreased competitiveness because of some legal restrictions against trade. The countries having such legal restrictions are at a disadvantage because these restrictions limit their competitiveness.

Factors Affecting Quality Management Strategies You are working as a quality management professional with a company that produces spices and sauces. There was a time when your company had the widest variety of products and acclaimed quality. It was also the market leader in its field. However, with globalization, many international brands of spices and sauces entered the market, widened the variety of available products, offered products with reduced prices, and claimed to offer better quality. Gradually, your company started losing its market presence and profit margin. It is now your responsibility to formulate some quality strategies to help your company gain a competitive advantage. Some of the things that you will suggest include the following:

• Implement quality strategies to reduce costs and also improve processes and performance. While deciding on any quality strategy, it is often thought that cost cutting is the most effective factor. However, it is important to remember that although cost is an important factor in determining quality, it is not the only factor. In this situation, it would be a good idea to implement quality strategies to reduce costs and also improve processes and performance. Examples of such strategies may include monitoring the time and effort required to produce the products, controlling errors, evaluating prices, taking measures to reduce customer complaints, and monitoring extra inventories. Taking such measures would also help you handle the organizational changes that may follow the implementation of the quality strategies.

• Evaluate the competitive market.

Evaluating the competitive market is one of the initial steps in identifying the key areas of quality improvement. Management plays a key role in this process of evaluating the competitive market. The market can be evaluated by interviewing customers and asking them for feedback on specific products and services. In addition, surveys are often used to gather customer feedback and to evaluate the market. The outcome of a quality strategy based on a proper evaluation of the competitive market would be improved performance and better customer satisfaction.

• Focus on addressing all the financial and business factors.

While implementing quality strategies for gaining a competitive advantage, it is critical to consider all the financial and business factors. However, it is also important to remember there are other factors, such as government entities and educational institutes, which affect the global competitive markets. For example, in a competitive market, businesses will strive to reach the customers by lowering prices. Government entities would encourage this business policy because they are generally under budget constraints. Educational institutes would also encourage such policies so they are able to acquire their required products and services at a lower price.

• Consider the standard of living of the customers, manufacture different products to meet

customer demands, make sound investments, and utilize trade with other companies.

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The standard of living, manufacturing, investing, and trading are all factors companies evaluate when they are looking at the competition. For example, the standard of living varies with demography, and competitors manufacture different products and services based on the demography of a specific region. Manufacturing different products will vary, depending on the cost, and this cost affects overhead and product distribution. If companies make sound investments and utilize trade between organizations, then their competitiveness increases and may expand their market potential. Therefore, in this situation, it would be a good idea to consider these factors and make quality strategies accordingly.

Key Areas of Quality Improvement Quality management strategies focus on some key areas that help a business or an organization improve its competitiveness. Some of these key areas are:

• Quality Training There should be training on quality, including quality standards and methods, such as Six Sigma or the standards from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). For example, if an organization plans to start an online training program, its management might get trainings on Six Sigma or ISO standards, which will help align the organization’s quality goals and objectives with the industry-approved standards and expectations. They might know the kind of training materials to be offered, the ideal process for conducting online trainings, the importance of gathering students’ feedback, and so on.

• Employee Empowerment Employees and staff should be encouraged to participate in quality improvement programs and compensated for providing new ideas and resources. For example, an organization realizes that its marketing department is having low self-esteem. Instead of providing ready-made solutions to the employees, the management can encourage them to have brainstorming sessions, identify the root causes of low self-esteem, and devise appropriate solutions to improve their self-esteem. The management may need to provide adequate trainings to the employees to think creatively and decide responsibly; however, in the end, the organization will not only find solutions to its problem but also have a group of motivated employees with a better understanding of the company’s quality goals.

• Leadership Leaders play a crucial role in devising and implementing quality management processes. For example, most employees are averse to any change in the existing processes with which they are familiar. Therefore, quality management changes often meet with intense employee resistance. In such situations, leaders play an important role in upholding the goals and objectives of the organization, explaining the need for quality management changes and the probable outcomes of the changes, and encouraging employees to participate in implementing the changes. Organizations should, therefore, cultivate leadership skills and conduct adequate trainings, such as leadership circles.

• Teamwork and Cooperation Without the cooperation of all its employees, it is not possible for an organization to implement quality strategies. For example, the management of a company may devise an excellent solution to improve the productivity of its marketing department. However, if the marketing personnel do not understand, accept, or welcome the solution, the management will be unable to implement it, and, therefore, the solution will fail to yield the expected results. Therefore, organizations should

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encourage teamwork and collaboration, which can be achieved through various team-building activities, such as games, competitions, and cultural programs.

© 2017 South University

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Quality Management

©2017 South University