Developing Strategic Management and Leadership Skills (PDF)

Running head: DEVELOPING STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT & LEADERSHIP SKILLS
ASSIGNMENT COVER PAGE
Assignment: Developing Strategic Management & Leadership Skills at Xiaomi
Subject: Developing Strategic Management & Leadership Skills
Programme: Pearson BTEC Level 7
Extended Diploma in Strategic Management & Leadership
Student Name: Lam Cheuk Wai
Student No.: 179148101
Assessor Name: Alfred Yu
Due Date: 13 August 2018

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DEVELOPING STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT & LEADERSHIP SKILLS
Executive Summary
The purpose of the assignment is to determine the dynamics in between organizational leadership
and strategic management. The leaders of an organization have significant role in the success of
the company’s achievements. The case study that has been chosen to analyze in the assignment is
Xiaomi which is a technology company popular for its high quality low price Smartphone
portfolio. The company is relatively new and in a span of less than 10 years has gathered
significant prominence and goodwill in the industry as well as among the stakeholders. The
organization has focused on the customers as their priority for their product development. The
assignment covers various aspect of leadership in the company.

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Contents
1. Introduction..................................................................................................................................3
1.1 Company Overview...............................................................................................................3
Task 1 (LO1)....................................................................................................................................5
1a. Leadership aligned with strategic management of Xiaomi (AC 1.1 and 1.2)........................5
Impact of management and leadership styles on strategic decisions...........................................7
1b. Leadership styles required to adapt the situations of economic recession and management
succession of new leader (AC 1.3)..............................................................................................8
Task 2 (LO2)....................................................................................................................................9
2a. Impact of leadership on strategies of Xiaomi (AC 2.1).........................................................9
2b. Recommendation of leadership strategy that should be adopted by the company (AC 2.2)
...................................................................................................................................................11
Task 3 (LO3)..................................................................................................................................12
3a. The requirements of current leadership with external environmental influences (AC 3.1).12
3b. Leadership required to deal with different emerging situations (AC 3.2)...........................14
Task 4 (LO4)..................................................................................................................................15
4a. Development plan of leadership skills (AC 4.1)..................................................................15
4b. Justification of the development plan (AC 4.2)...................................................................16
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................18
Reference List:...............................................................................................................................19

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Bibliography..................................................................................................................................22
1. Introduction
Strategic management is the process by which organization take and implement decisions
in order to be a successful venture. Strategic management includes rationalizing and planning
process of the business which will be based on logical data and reasoning. There are a number of
theories and concepts that have been developed by scholars regarding strategic management.
Marketing, Administration, finance, Human resource, operations, organization structure, and
organization culture are some of the subdivisions of strategic management (Wheelen et al. 2017).
Leadership in an organization plays an equal important role in the success and achievement of
the objectives that have been implemented by the strategic management decisions of the
organization. The decisions that are taken in the company are based on the type of leader that
runs the organization as the values and principles of the leader reflects in the culture of the
company as well (Adair2009). For example: if the style of leadership in the organization is
transformational then the culture among the work place will be encouraging creativity and
innovation as transformational leadership drives changes and accepts alterations in the
organization as a positive aspect (Sallehand Grunewald2013). This aspect therefore assures that
there is a direct impact of leadership in the strategic management of the company. The
organization that has been chosen to study the strategic management and leadership is Xiaomi
Corporation. It is one of the leading start-up in the international market and in a very short period
of time the company has gained a lot of prominence in the technology industry on a global
platform.

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1.1 Company Overview
Established in 2010, Xiaomi is a privately owned Chinese organization that is reported as
one of the most valuable technology start up in the global platform(Mi.com, 2018). The Logo of
the company is MI stands for mobile internet and also Mission Impossible, as the management
has faced a number of challenges in the early days of establishment(Mi.com, 2018). The
company stands for innovation and is motivated to reach out to the customers with making high
quality technology and making it available for the customers in minimum price. Lei Jun is the
man behind the endeavor and in 2014 Forbes magazine recognized him as the businessman of
the year owing to the rapid growth and expansion of the company. The product portfolio of the
company ranges from Mi phones, Redmi Phones, Mi TV, Smart Devices, audio accessories, Mi
Power bank (Mi.com, 2018). The company is a multinational organization having its operations
and distribution in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, India, Indonesia and
Brazil(Mi.com, 2018). The innovation and the mission and objectives of the company will be
explored and aligned with the leadership styles that have been included in the organization to
bring it to success. One of the qualities that have been observed across the leaders in various
segments of Xiaomi is that the people are experienced in their field and have knowledge and
practical experience. This cumulative experience of the people has enabled the company to take
decisions which have helped in achieving the recognition and success in the industry(Mi.com
2018).
The objective of the company is to be one of the most user-centric mobile internet
company, this decision is taken based on the style of leadership as one of the feature of
transformational leadership is to inspire and reach out in order to provide the best possible
solution in order to build a valuable relationship with the stakeholders(Mi.com, 2018).

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Task 1 (LO1)
1a.Leadership aligned with strategic management of Xiaomi
(AC 1.1 and 1.2)
The company believes in innovation in the product development and makes products
keeping in mind the needs and requirements of the customers. The company is strives to provide
the customers with best quality product at the minimum price possible. The price of the products
are kept low hence this does not mean that the quality of the product is low or is compromised
with. The culture of the company is driven by the loyal customers who are recognized as “fans”
of the company (Adair 2009). The company will develop products and continue to achieve the
milestones in order to reach out to these “fans”. The company works with the employees as a
team in order to provide the customers with the best user experience possible by pursuing
perfection in the endeavor, constantly refining and enhancing the products. The company
continues to launch one product after another with higher specification keeping a check on the
price. Therefore, it can be said that innovation is a large part of the business model. The
company operates in the technology industry specifically Smartphone industry making the
competition very tough and in order to maintain the edge over the other organization the
company has strategic management decisions regarding the price and products development. The
strategic management decisions taken by the company revolves around innovation and thus the
kind of leadership that is prevalent in the organization is appropriate (Gold et al. 2010). Lei Jun
is the founder and CEO of the organization and before MI he was associated with a number of
successful startup ventures, he is a person who is known for having visionary approach in the