Strategic Management Analysis of IBM's Environmental Policies

This report provides a detailed analysis of IBM's strategic management, focusing on the company's approach to environmental sustainability. It begins with an introduction outlining the importance of strategic management for IBM's environmental conditions. The main body of the report examines various aspects of IBM's environmental strategy, including an analysis of external factors using PESTLE and Porter's Five Forces models, and an internal analysis using Porter's value chain and SWOT analysis. The report also assesses the application of the Ansoff Matrix for future growth and the advantages and disadvantages of global procurement. The report concludes by summarizing the key findings and implications of IBM's strategic management for maintaining environmental stability and corporate social responsibility. The analysis covers various factors that will help the firm to maintain its environmental policies and Corporate Social Responsibility in a better and sustainable manner.

Strategic Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Main body...................................................................................................................................1
1) Strategic management of IBM for maintaining the environmental conditions of the
company......................................................................................................................................1
2.) Evaluation of the factors that will lay and impact on the investigation of the various factors
of the future growth and development of environment management using Ansoff matrix........4
3.) Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of global procurement as a growth strategy,
what are the risks and challenges?..............................................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

1) Strategic management of IBM for maintaining the environmental conditions of the company.
To maintain the strategic management of the company, IBM will take in consideration a
wide variety of various operations that will help the firm to maintain its environmental policies
and Corporate Social Responsibility in a better and sustainable manner. The environmental
stability of the cited business organisation will be dependent on different internal and external
factors. Some measures elements that have been taken into effective consideration are described
as follows:
EXTERNAL FACTORS
PESTLE ANALYSIS:
 Political factors: IBM will look after the effective handling and management of various
political or governmental factors or policies that have been set up by them to maintain the
effective functioning of the organisation and effective management of the wide range of
functions. This will help the cited business organisation to maintain and look after the
various operational measures that will support the maintaining of environmental
conditions by IBM. The government will help in giving the betetr stability and
controlling the tariffs. But the trade control policies can lay a negative impact on the cited
firm (Barney, 2014).
 Economic factors: The cited business organisation will see through the better handling
of wide range of economic operations to maintain economic viability of the company.
The better handling of the environmental conditions will help in providing the stable
economic position in market and meeting the needs and demands of the company.
Moreover, the approaches like recycling or e waste and cost cutting the manufacturing
items will not only prove economically beneficial but also will help in maintaining the
environmental stability (Moutinho and Vargas-Sanchez, 2018.). The inflation rate in UK
or the post Brexit economic conditions will lay in decrease in the adaptability of the
effective measure to adopt environmental policies (Bettis And et.al., 2016.).
 Social factors: The social factors will also play a very deep and significant role in the
handling of wide variety of operations that will impact the social conditions. The firm has
to look after the effective and environment friendly measures to minimise the impact on
the society. They will see through the effective management of the different operations
1

which will help in meeting the needs and demands of the company as well as the society.
The rise in health concerns and environmental concerns with the emphasis on safety of
people will lay a major impact on the productivity and environmental strategy adoption
by IBM (Christensen and Clark, 2017).
 Technological factors: IBM will look matter the better adopting of various environment
friendly technical measures which will help in effective rise in the productivity and
maintain the operational efficiency of the business organisation. The adoption of better
and environment supporting or green technologies will help the firm to gain higher
productivity and maintain environmental effectiveness. Besides this, the technological
factors will help IBM to adopt a better environmental friendly infrastructure to protect
environment in a better way (Ethiraj, Gambardella and Helfat, 2016).
 Legal factor: The legal measures or the policies that have been decided by the
government or the environmental organisation to maintain the viability of nature will help
IBM to plan the suitable measures and strategies to meet the environmental needs and
demands (Ginter, 2018). The legal factors will help in improving the following of better
environmental laws and maintaining of pollution standards on emissions etc (Ginter,
2018).
 Environmental factor: Besides this, IBM will see through the effective handling of
different measures that will help in maintaining the ecological scale and wellness of the
environment. The cited business organisation will develop appropriate strategy for
meeting the environmental needs and demands. More green electricity or power saving
measures must be taken by IBM to maintain the environmental strategy (Hill, Jones and
Schilling, 2014).
The better handling of these operations will help in meeting the environmental needs and
demands of the company. It will, help the company to plan and develop better environment
strategy that will help IBM to handle the operations and meeting requirements in a better way.
This will help the firm to implement and utilise the better EMS system and fulfil its corporate
needs.
PORTER'S 5 FORCE MODEL
2

 Competitive rivalry: The stiff competition that has been faced by the cited business
organisation will impact the development of better environmental policies. In addition,
the policies that have been developed by the rival companies will lay a deep impact on
the performance of the organisation. The rivals of IBM are adopting green measure to
make their product and services more environmental friendly. IBM has to see through the
better handling of the different operations which will help in meeting the needs and
demands of the customers (Milicevic, Backovic and Sofronijevic, 2015).
 Supplier’s power: The development of the environmental policy will also be effected by
the perceptions and needs of the supplier of raw material of the company. They help in
meeting the needs and demands of the organisation in a better way. Thus, IBM should
look after the better management of green products from its suppliers. The suppliers must
provide the company with green and environment friendly products to lead to the
adoption of better green strategy.
 Buyer’s power: With the rise in environmental concerns, the customers or the buyers
have also grown attentive towards the purchasing of high quality and environment
friendly products which will help in meeting the needs and demands of the company and
increasing the productivity by implementing the better environmental policies (Steinbach
and et.al. 2017). As the green products and quite costly in developing, company will be
affected by the bargaining power of the customers. Thus, IBM has to make it clear that
the cost of its products is reasonable (Moutinho and Vargas-Sanchez, 2018).
 Threat of Substitution: The organisation faces a threat of substitution from the
environmental friendly and green products and services of other companies. Thus, IBM
has to look after the better handling of the different measures to meet the needs and
demands of the customers in an effective and ecological way. The introduction or
launching of the new green and environment friendly products will lay a major impact on
the overall market share of IBM. Thus, the company has to look after the better handling
of market substitution.
 Threat of new entrants: The company has to look after the entry of new entrants in the
market. IBM has to come up with better options in their products and services to avoid
the competition with other products and companies. The new market entrant will be quite
3

cheap or better in quality which can replace the products or services from IBM easily.
Thus, company has to look after it effectively to meet the needs and demands of users
(Steinbach. And et.al. 2017).
This factors will help in better handling of the corporate environmental issues like that
faced in 2009. The company will look after the better help from the factors like CEA. This helps
in rectification of the different corporate environmental issues. The taking of these operations in
better thought process will help IBM to develop and draft better environmental policies to tackle
its environmental responsibilities.
INTERNAL ANALYSIS
Porter’s value chain
 Inbound Logistics: It involves the practice of receiving, storing and distributing inputs
internally. This helps in better environmental planning. IBM will see through the better
handling of the different operations that will help in better handling of various operations.
It helps in superior control over the different operations which will help in effective
getting of a wide variety of raw material to produce environment friendly goods and
services by IBM (Wheelen And et.al. 2017).
4
Illustration 1: Porter's Value chain
Source: Porter's Value chain Model,2017

 Operations: It involves the transformational activities that changes that increase the
input of the company to sell their products and services to their clients or customers. It
will involve the various activities that will help in better handling of the different
operations which will help IBM to develop better and environment friendly products and
services.
 Outbound logistics: This will involve the practices of delivering the better and
environmental friendly products and services to the customers. It involves the better
collection, storing and distribution of high class products and services meeting the
environmental needs and demands (Wheelen and et.al. 2017). This will involve the better
delivery of high quality product and services that will help in meeting the needs and
requirement of users and get the high quality product and services to the customers.
 Marketing and sales: This will involve the better practices of promoting the goods and
services to persuade the clients to select the environmental products and services as
compared to their competitors (Wheelen And et.al. 2017 ). It helps the cited organisation
to develop a better communication between clients and manufacturers. The adoption of
the green and environment friendly products under the green business approach. This will
help the company to attract maximum number of customers and sell out the products and
services.
 Services: It involves the after selling services which will help the company to meet the
requirements of the buyer. This will help in increasing its loyalty and satisfaction level.
Even the after services provided by IBM will be environment friendly. This will help the
firm to maintain the green quality of the products or services that is been provided by
them (Steinbach And et.al. 2017).
The better utilisation of Value chain utilisation model with EMS, will help in handling
the internal operations of the company, improving its efficiency and execution of environmental
plans and following of policies. The better utilisation of EMS module will help the management
to monitor its growth and progress towards the various environmental operations. Other than
this, it will help in meeting the goals and targets that are been set by the cited business
organisation.
Internal core competencies
5

Core competence is the unique ability that is been posses by the company and help the
firm or business organisation to produce or deliver the high quality product or services. Besides
this, it helps in improving the overall functionality of business organisation. It helps the firm in
getting competitive advantage.
The adaptability of innovation and handling of the R & D in the organisation. This will
be the major strength and strong points of IBM. The effective research team will help the firm to
develop an effective environmental strategy (Moutinho and Vargas-Sanchez, 2018.). This will
help the firm to churn out the better quality of environment friendly products and strategies for
their customers.
As the R & D department of IBM is very well adorned with superior quality of high level
of researching and developing of high quality product and services. The major core competency
of IBM is that its products have the uniqueness, which is quite difficult for its competitors to
imitate and substitute easily.
Other than this, the R & D department of IBM will seer through the various operations
and environmental measures that will help in meeting the needs and demands of other
corporations, keeping in mind the environmental operations and needs. Besides this, it will help
in preventing of any sort of environmental operations that can be caused due to acquisition or
other operational factors. The EMS will compliment with the ISO 14001, to maintain the
environmental standards and handle the Environmental Performance Database (EPD).
Swot analysis: Thus from the above analysis, it can be concluded that IBM has a wide variety of
issues and problems as well as the competitive advantages over its rivals. This will help the firm
in following ways.
Strength: the unique ability to produce high quality products or services for its customers is the
major tool for the company to adopt and meet the consumer's requirement and establish better
environmental policies. The high level of customer trust level and strong brand value is also the
biggest core and strong part of the cited business firm (Milicevic, Backovic and Sofronijevic
2015).
Weaknesses: The stiff growth in market competition and entry of new organisations which will
impact the overall operational capacity of cited business entity. The inability to meet the
6

customers needs and demands is the biggest part for the company that is required to be taken in
effective thought process.
Opportunities: The rising environmental concerns and increase in the environment friendly
practices has opened the new scope for IBM to develop green, power saving and nature
benefiting products and services for its customers (Hill, Jones and Schilling, 2014.).
Threats: The entry of new entrants in market with high quality environment supporting products
is the major threat or shortcoming for the company. That is required to be taken in effective
consideration by IBM to meet the needs and demands of the consumers.
2.) Evaluation of the factors that will lay and impact on the investigation of the various factors of
the future growth and development of environment management using Ansoff matrix.
The Ansoff matrix will help in the better handling of the various operations by IBM to
develop a better environmental policy. The IBM will look after the better handling of different
factors which will help in effective growth of the company (Milicevic, Backovic and
Sofronijevic, 2015). The organisation will take in consideration a wide variety of operations to
make and effective environmental plan. The Ansoff matrix of IBM is as follows: Market Penetration: It will help the firm to handle the better meeting of the various
operations that will help in effective rise in the operational quality of different operations
which will help in suitable rise in the operational quality of IBM. At present, the cited
firm is interacting and dealing with its customers in IT and business management
software's and tools. His has allowed the company to sell out more and more goods to its
existing customers (Ginter, 2018). The company sources better IT tools and services, on
reasonable and controlled price range, controlling its cost. In this strategy, IBM
companies the cost of the product and services for attract new customers toward the
brand. In this strategy company will sell its existing product into the existing market. Market development- In this strategy IBM will sell its existing product and services in
the new market. In this strategy, company will repackage its products and services for
attract the customers toward the brand. By use of this strategy company can expand its
business and develop impressive brand image in the market because it enters in the new
market (Ethiraj, Gambardella, and Helfat, 2016).
7

 Product development- In this strategy, IBM can enter in the new market along with new
product and services. This is the best strategy by which company can establish its new
brand in the new market that helps to firm in attracting large numbers of customers. In
this strategy it is very important for IBM company to understand the actual taste and
preferences of customer so as it can meet their requirement. Furthermore, in order to
enter in the new market company have to analyse the situation of new market like
customer demand, available competition, scope etc (Barney, 2014).
 DIVERSIFICATION: IBM can look after the better handling if the diversification
approach which will help the firm to meet the environmental as well as the the customers
requirements. One of the major step that can be taken for this is the approach of joint
venturing. This will involve the proactive of IBM collaborating with other firm of either
similar or working in production of environmental friendly products or services
(Christensen and Clark, 2017). The approach of Joint venture will help in diversifying
there company's operation in market, by increasing its productivity and handling of
different operations. But the major risk associated with the venturing is the differences
between the work strategies and functionalities which may lead to adverse effect on
overall functionality of company and may have a negative impact on its profitability and
customer satisfaction level. Also, it may lay an impact on the environmental strategy of
IBM. To meet out this issue, IBM will look after the approach or strategic method of
partnership under a contract. This strategy will help the cited business entity to achieve
better growth and stability and meet customers requirements.
This model will help in better auditing ans assessing of the various environmental factors
that will help in meeting the needs and demands of environmental concerns. It will help IBM to
develop a better plan to manage the operations that will help in meeting the needs and demands
of the user in a better way. Besides this, it will improve the production process and cost
efficiency of cited business firm (Bettis And et.al., 2016).
3.) Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of global procurement as a growth strategy, what
are the risks and challenges?
The global procurement or purchasing will help the firm to gain a better productivity and
meeting the needs and demands of the customers on a larger level. The major advantage of
global procurement is:
8

 It will help the cited business firm to get the proper and high class products and services
as well as the raw materials that will help in better handling of the different operations
which will help the company to develop a better and environment friendly products and
services.
 It will allow the company to a suitable measure to develop a good product and service for
the customers all over the globe and cater numerous customers and their needs and
demands. This will improve the productivity of company (Ethiraj, Gambardella and
Helfat, 2016.).
But this approach has a disadvantage of its own. The development of the uniform product
that will be able to meet the needs and demands of the customers all around the globe is very
crucial and tedious task. It needs to be taken into the consideration that will help in the better
development of the effective products or services for the customer. This is needed to be taken
into consideration and effective handling that will help in meeting the needs and demands of the
customers. The R & D Department of company will help in handling of the different operations
which will help in meeting the requirements of the customers.
The measures that are been set up by Centre of excellence for Environmental Compliance
(CoE) will help in taking the better regulations that will help in significant improvement of the
different operations to meet the environmental requirements of the company. This will also help
the firm to manage the hazardous waste products.
CONCLUSION
Thus, it will help the firm to develop a better environmental strategy that will help the
firm to meet the needs and demands of the customers as well as fulfil the CSR by IBM. This
report laid emphasis better handling of different management models involving Pestle analysis,
Porter 5 force model for the external analysis and Assessment of Porter value chain and internal
core competencies along with Asnoff matrix and advantages and disadvantages of global
procurement for growth strategy of the company to identify the risks and challenges.
9

REFERENCES
Books and Journal
Barney, J.B., 2014. Gaining and sustaining competitive advantage. Pearson higher ed.
Bettis, R.A. And et.al., 2016. Creating repeatable cumulative knowledge in strategic
management. Strategic Management Journal. 37(2). pp.257-261.
Christensen, C.M. and Clark, K.B., 2017. The Strategic Management of Technological
Innovation.
Ethiraj, S.K., Gambardella, A. and Helfat, C.E., 2016. Replication in strategic
management. Strategic Management Journal. 37(11). pp.2191-2192.
Ginter, P.M., 2018. The strategic management of health care organizations. John Wiley & Sons.
Hill, C.W., Jones, G.R. and Schilling, M.A., 2014. Strategic management: theory: an integrated
approach. Cengage Learning.
Milicevic, V., Backovic, N. and Sofronijevic, A., 2015. Strategic Orientation of European
Management in the Conditions of Globalisation. STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT, 20(2),
pp.49-57.
Moutinho, L. and Vargas-Sanchez, A. eds., 2018. Strategic Management in Tourism, CABI
Tourism Texts. Cabi.
Steinbach, A.L. And et.al. 2017. Top management team incentive heterogeneity, strategic
investment behavior, and performance: A contingency theory of incentive
alignment. Strategic Management Journal, 38(8), pp.1701-1720.
Wheelen, T.L. And et.al. 2017. Strategic management and business policy. Pearson.
Online
Porter's Value Chain Model, 2018. [Online]. Available through:
<https://sites.google.com/site/cis4397introtocloudcomputing/home/module-3/porter-s-
value-chain>
10