BUS515 Assingment 2

BUS 515

22 July 2017

Introduction

Samsung Electronics is a South Korean based company that deals in the production of home multimedia components, mobile multimedia devices, personal multimedia device, and other core components such as computing processors. The organization has been achieving various scores in some of its divisions as well as at the same time facing numerous challenges. The achievements and failures are due to as result of the organization’s current vision, mission, business strategy, operation strategy, supply chain, total quality management, just-in-time philosophy, forecasting method, statistical technique, facility location, work design, project life cycle, and project management (Chopra & Meindl, 2016). 

In this paper, the discussion will be mostly concentrate on the company’s mobile phone division. Samsung Electronics' mobile phone department has been the driving force and of which has helped the company to maintain a steady growth despite the adverse business environment.

Key Elements

Competition at the low end- Some of the aspects that are behind Samsung's early success in the smartphone sector was the early entry into the sector and the broad portfolio of products as well as formidable supply chain, business strategy, and project management. Work design, forecasting capabilities, and statistical techniques helped Samsung to produce high performing devices at a lower price. However, competition from Chinese made device has changed the scope of business. Chinese made devices are applying different work design, forecasting capabilities, and statistical techniques, and of which have led to new developments.

Manufacturers such as China’s Techno, Xiaomi and Lenovo have introduced devices with high-end specifications at a low price hence, receiving massive customer base from budget-conscious people. Samsung operational strategy is to provide fast moving products as well as to create a loyal customer base among its low-end products. However, its current work design philosophy and revenue or profitability approach are being overtaken by other competitors. For instance, Xiaomi supplements earnings through application stores in order to sell devices at a break-even price, which is a different approach than Samsung's hardware-driven model.

Compliance management- another task of Samsung Electronics is the prevention of exposure to compliance-related risks through close monitoring of changes in the regulatory environment. However, the current compliance monitoring and support systems tasks are not aligned to the anticipated changes in the environment and most cases; the risk management systems are always exposing the company to many threats. For instance, the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 explosion of batteries incident indicates that the current compliance system is not augured to meet risk management and brand damage control (Glowik, 2016).

Business strategy- in a consumer driven world, product development, innovation, and work design are currently changing at a high rate, and manufacturers are supposed to keep track of every change. The current business strategy at Samsung need does not explore various factors that lead to business growth such facility location, supply chain strategies, new market targeting, and project life cycle management.

Apple, Samsung’s high-end smartphone sector principal competitor has been a scheme for new markets such as the latest deal to sell China Mobile, the world’s major mobile phone carriers customers, its iPhone. In addition, they are expected to launch a large-screen iPhone. Thus, the lack of response in terms of advancements or new products by Samsung is clear indication of lagging business strategies.

New Operation Strategy

A new operation strategy that could impact positively to the four competitive priorities involves the creation of new process vision. It should include assessing the current business strategy, benchmarking, identifying and linking customer preferences with the new business strategy, linking external information with business strategy, formulating business strategies, developing strategy attributes, and visioning the process. Understanding the current strategy and means of improving it as well as assessing and solving risks is the best method for developing and implementing a balanced and improved operational strategy. The strategy will obviously enhance the factors of the four competitive priorities which include cost, quality, time, and flexibility.

The Structure of the Competitive Priorities

The three enablers that should be aligned with the organization’s long-term prospects include information technology enabler, organizational structure enabler, and human resource enabler. Information technology enablers have a major enabling role in process innovation as using technology help in providing accurate data for analysis and forecasting. On the other hand, organizational enablers can be categorized as cultural and structural. Structural support aspects such as team work in the organization while cultural ones enable factors such as ethical and values among employees. Finally, human resource enablers impact on training, motivation, compensation, and evaluation (Glowik, 2016).

The three pros of enablers include professionalism which leads to quality management, appropriate use of data for analysis and modeling, and innovation. On the other hand, cons of the three enablers include consumption of time, costs, and complexity. For instance, training requires the use of resources and money as well as time.

Conclusion

In conclusion, an organization’s current vision, mission, business strategy, operation strategy, supply chain, total quality management, just-in-time philosophy, forecasting method, statistical technique, facility location, work design, project life cycle, and project management impact on the achievements and failures of a company. Therefore, to improve the current operational strategy, new operations approach need to be developed by assessing the existing approach as well as improving it through thorough re-development strategies.

References

Glowik, M. (2016). Market Entry Strategies: Internationalization Theories, Concepts, and Cases of Asian High-Technology Firms: Haier, Hon Hai Precision, Lenovo, LG Electronics, Panasonic, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, TCL, Xiaomi. Berlin: De Gruyter Oldenbourg.

Daft, R. L. (2016). Organization theory & design.

Chopra, S., & Meindl, P. (2016). Supply chain management: Strategy, planning, and operation. Boston, Mass. [u.a.: Pearson.

In Raghunath, S., & In Rose, E. L. (2017). International Business Strategy: Perspectives on Implementation in Emerging Markets.

Viardot, E. (2014). Successful marketing strategy for high-tech firms. Boston: Artech House.