Strategic International Business Management Report Analysis

This report analyzes the challenges faced by SweDigi, a manufacturing company experiencing low productivity potentially due to poor management. The report explores people management problems, including workers' understanding of the company vision, motivation, working environment, and addressing poor performance. It also provides recommendations for Jan, the new manager, to improve product launches, including defining target customers, understanding the purchasing process, and differentiating from competitors. The report discusses various leadership styles like democratic, coaching, and strategic, and suggests support needed to improve the situation. It covers strategies for marketing new products, improving management, and obtaining essential production tools. The report emphasizes the importance of teamwork, effective leadership, and strategic planning for successful product launches and overall organizational success. This report aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the problems faced by SweDigi and to provide solutions for improved management and successful product launches.

Running head: MANAGEMENT 1
Business Management and strategic management.
Student’s name:
Name of the institution:
Date:

MANAGEMENT 2
Table of content.
Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................5
People management problems that possibly underprop the difficulties Jan is facing...................................5
Workers' understanding of the most significant contribution to the company's vision.............................5
Giving workers a reason for caring about their contribution....................................................................6
Creating a pleasant working environment for employees........................................................................6
Workers need not feel that they are set up to fail.....................................................................................6
Challenging poor performance and immoral conduct..............................................................................7
The feeling of being ignored or less appreciated by employees...............................................................7
Giving a clear understanding of the stake and what is to be done............................................................7
Steps Jan should take in the short and medium term to get the launch of new products back on track........8
Defining his target customers..................................................................................................................8
Plan on ways to reach the target consumers.............................................................................................8
Clearly, understand the issue you want to solve......................................................................................8
Clearly, understand the purchasing process.............................................................................................9
Protect your online uniqueness................................................................................................................9
Validate your produce.............................................................................................................................9
Identify the competition you have and differentiate from them.............................................................10
Ensure your idea has not been implemented before...............................................................................10
Create a product demo or a free trial......................................................................................................10
Develop a cumulative strategic plan......................................................................................................10
Get everyone to work as a team.............................................................................................................11
Develop brand voice strategies..............................................................................................................11
Test the product continuously................................................................................................................11
Discover the unknown...........................................................................................................................11
Clearly, understand yourself..................................................................................................................12
Plan your next version immediately......................................................................................................12
Leadership styles Jan should adopt............................................................................................................12
Democratic leadership method..............................................................................................................13

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Coaching leadership method..................................................................................................................13
Strategic leadership method...................................................................................................................13
Transformational leadership style..........................................................................................................14
Charismatic leadership method..............................................................................................................14
Laissez-faire leadership method............................................................................................................14
The support that might be needed at a deep level to help improve the situation........................................15
Develop marketing strategies for new products.....................................................................................15
Improve the management......................................................................................................................15
Get the essential production tools..........................................................................................................15
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................16
References.............................................................................................................................................17

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Introduction.
For an organization to be successful in launching a new product, there has to be teamwork where
the management and employees work together towards accomplishing the organizations’ goals.
The leader has to use the best leadership style for employees to feel motivated and appreciated
for better performance. Before launching any product, the management should be careful to
follow the launching steps for the product to be successful and penetrated the market. The
SweDigi manufacturing company is experiencing some problems where they have low
productivity, probably due to poor management.
People management problems that possibly underprop the difficulties Jan is facing.
Being a new manager, Jan, might have made several common mistakes that potentially underpin
the difficulties he is facing. Some of these issues include workers understanding of the most
significant contribution they can make to the company's vision, giving workers a reason for
caring about their participation. Creating a pleasant working environment for employees,
workers need not feel that they are set up to fail, challenging poor performance, and bad
behavior. Other issues include employees feeling ignored or less appreciated, a clear
understanding of the stake and what is to be done among many other management issues. Some
of the problems are discussed below.
Workers' understanding of the most significant contribution to the company's vision.
All workers have to understand the company's vision clearly and agree with it, so are they can
work towards achieving the company's goals. Evaluations of performance should be done based
on the organization's goals. The manager is responsible for breaking down the vision to a lower
and possible level. By doing so, the employees will understand how their work contributes to the

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company's goals, and they work step by step toward fulfilling the bigger picture of the company,
its consumers, and other audience. The workers at Jan’s company may not have a clear
understanding of the kind of contribution they should make to make the company successful
(Webb, 2017).
Giving workers a reason for caring about their contribution.
As a manager, you have to make your employees feel appreciated by showing them that you care
about their contributions and that they matter. Remuneration does not necessarily give workers a
reason to care about their contributions. The manager must, therefore, find out the kind of reward
the worker needs and understand what motivates his employees to be more productive. The
manager should as well participate in doing the work to inspire the subordinates and possess
excellent communication skills to maintain a good relationship with the workers. Jan may not
have been successful in encouraging his employees or making them feel appreciated; hence, they
might not be motivated to work (Petronio, 2015).
Creating a pleasant working environment for employees.
A pleasant working environment nurtures the character you desire from your employees.
Different groups of workers have, unlike needs. For instance, a group that is mainly C's will
appreciate challenges more rather than individual recognition. On the other hand, an S team will
understand the structure that may support and balances work-life more. The manager is therefore
responsible for identifying what his group appreciates most and create the best working
environment for them to be more productive. Jan should understand his employees better and
create the best working environment for them if he wants the company to succeed (Taylor,
Doherty & McGraw, 2015).

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Workers need not feel that they are set up to fail.
Employees feel demotivated if they feel as if they are set up to fail; nobody wants to work hard
for failure. Therefore as a manager, you have the responsibility of finding out what your workers
view as a failure, provide the necessary resources for them. Avoid getting into their way while
working as well as changing rules more often to avoid confusion during work. Your employees
should also be aware of how you will handle failure in case it occurs. You should be lenient
enough when handling failure cases to avoid too much pressure but be strict enough to prevent
its occurrence. Since the company has already failed for the first time, the employees might have
a feeling of failure despite the new strategies which may discourage them from working harder
(Hayes, 2018).
Challenging poor performance and immoral conduct.
If poor performance and bad behavior from some workers are not challenged, the other workers
feel demotivated who are working hard towards achieving the organization's goals. They no
longer fear facing punishments because even the ones who have had misconducts are not
punished. As a manager in charge, you should ensure that employees clearly understand the
consequences of conduct and poor performance as well as the rewards of excellent performance
and ethical behavior. Jan, as a manager, have the responsibility to model both sides.
The feeling of being ignored or less appreciated by employees.
Workers work best when they feel that their manager appreciates them and pays attention to their
needs. It is, therefore, the responsibility of the manager to understand the kind of care that
motivates each employee or groups of workers, understand their needs at a personal level as well
as the causes of their behaviors and preferences. By doing so, your employees will feel
recognized and will be more motivated to work harder toward the success of the project. Jan

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should, therefore, purpose to appreciate all the employees to get better results (Child, & Lu,
2018).
Giving a clear understanding of the stake and what is to be done.
Everybody in the company should very well understand the company's goals, and its brand
promise, the marketplace, competitive advantage, and the environment in which it is operating.
A new manager, you should be in a position to tell about the background of the company, its core
values, and where it will be in the future. The manager should also help the workers understand
the reason for existence and future goals of the company. This role may be difficult to new
managers who do not have a better understanding of the company and thus causing people
management problems, just as in the case of Jan (Noe, Hollenbeck, Gerhart & Wright, 2017).
Steps Jan should take in the short and medium term to get the launch of new products back on
track.
To launch and make the new products a success, here are some of the short and medium term
steps that Jan should take.
Defining his target customers.
Jan should have a clear understanding of his target consumers. This is important because one
group of consumer differ with the other in terms of preferences, channels used for
communication and information. He should clearly define his consumers to get the right
direction of marketing and develop strategies for meeting the customer's expectations (Taran,
Boer & Lindgren, 2015).

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Plan on ways to reach the target consumers.
Having clearly understood your customers, plan on how to reach them effectively. Know how to
get to them, when the best time to reach them is and which the fittest place to reach them is.
Make a marketing plan that accommodates all those factors so that it will be easier to contact
them and turn them into loyal customers.
Clearly, understand the issue you want to solve.
Understand deeply the challenge being faced or that which you intend to solve, who it is
affecting. This is important to help you remain focused on the reason for doing what you are
doing. Discuss and test it with your employees. This will help you know what you want to
accomplish in meeting the unsatisfied need (Srai, Badman, Krumme, Futran, & Johnston, 2015).
Clearly, understand the purchasing process.
The customer's purchasing process makes the basis for sales and marketing activities. To launch
a new product successfully, you must clearly understand the consumer's pain points, their source
of information, what influences their purchasing behavior, and some of the events that may
trigger them to buy. Different customers have different expectations depending on the reason for
purchasing the product, and that determines the kind of relationship they will develop (Larsen,
2017).
Protect your online uniqueness.
Nowadays, many cyber squatters try to mislead customers who have not secured their field
name, trademark, and their accounts of social media, among other issues. It is essential to ensure
all of them before launching any product anywhere. Your field name, together with other
necessary marketing vehicles, could be alleged on high prices and hiring lawyers is equally
expensive.

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Validate your produce.
Purpose to make sales and earn your first income employing validation of building the product
even before building it. If customers seem not to be pleased and are not purchasing it, there are
high chances that they will also not buy it when it comes to existence. The simplest way to do
this is to create a page where you run ads and see if there any customers interested in purchasing
it if there are, you can go ahead and build your product (Comuzzi & Patel, 2016).
Identify the competition you have and differentiate from them.
Identify all your competitors and other upcoming potential competitors, their method of
production, marketing plans, and other issues that makes them have a better competitive
advantage over you. After identifying all these issues, make ways that make your product unique
from theirs, which your customers will identify with. Purpose to meet the unsatisfied needs of
the customers, give quality to your customers and develop a good relationship with them, and
this gives you a higher competitive edge.
Ensure your idea has not been implemented before.
Many people seek to copy what has been done by others and proven to be successful failing to
understand that it might not be as successful as it was to the original person. It is therefore
essential to research your market keenly and identify other products that may be similar to yours.
Even when your idea is good but has been done before, it could be not given high returns (Karhu,
Ritala & Viola, 2016).
Create a product demo or a free trial.
A product demo is crucial for your product because it gives you feedback and correct possible
mistakes before the product is launched officially. Potential customers are also well introduced to

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the product, and you can know if your product meets their expectations, and thus you can
determine if it will be successful or it will fail (Tan & Zhan, 2017).
Develop a cumulative strategic plan.
All new products involve a thorough and deliberate strategic-planning before it is introduced to
the market. This consists in evaluating its target market, competition, the predicted return on
investment, SWOT analysis, measuring its success and developing an appropriate
communication plan (Luo, Liu, Yang, Maksimov & Hou, 2015).
Get everyone to work as a team.
To ensure that your product is a success, you have to ensure that all departments and workers
work together to ensure that their customers get the best and quality products. As a manager, you
should ensure that everybody clearly understands the goals and objectives of the organization
and that they all work together towards achieving long-term success (Lopez-Vega &
Vanhaverbeke, 2016).
Develop brand voice strategies.
After coming up with a perfect brand, you have to come up with strategies to develop a loud
brand voice. Before entering the market, you should have a clear understanding of what you
intend to do, your target customers, and the way you intend to get them. Consistency is essential
for the success of a brand. Therefore, teamwork is required when broadcasting your brand
(Candi, van den Ende & Gemser, 2016).
Test the product continuously.
To launch a new product and it being successful is not simple, it should be tested continuously
till it breaks and test it more after that. Getting the feedback will help in delivering what the

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customers expect and achieve your intended goals. You also need to assemble all your marketing
tools, such as landing pages, social media, among others.
Discover the unknown.
Launching a new product means you are good at something, but that doesn't mean that you know
it all. Before starting your product, understand the challenges you might face. You should be
careful as even where there is a rapid success. You may also fail drastically if you are solving
issues that you do not clearly understand. You need to outsource skills you need immediately
you take off and in the process when you discover something new that can help your product be
more successful (Wowak, Craighead, Ketchen & Hult, 2016).
Clearly, understand yourself.
Understand yourself such that you can get tell your story to anybody such as the media, potential
customers, brands you can partner with among others. You must be in a position to explain who
you are, what you are doing, and the reason for doing it, what motivated you to do it. Help your
employees understand the story as well so as they can also narrate the same across digital
channels (Csaszar & Levinthal, 2016).
Plan your next version immediately.
Taking too much time trying to perfect the products may lead to failure, after launching it, start
planning on the next version. Put into consideration the customers' feedback, accept mistakes,
and correct them. By doing so, you gain customer's loyalty as well as improving your
innovativeness through listening and responding to customers' feedback (Barringer, 2015).

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Leadership styles Jan should adopt.
Jan is expected to show his leadership abilities at one point or another at the organization. Being
the new CEO he is powerful and rather influential because the people have to obey what he
orders, he should be capable of leading the whole team towards the right direction, acting as a
role model. There are some leadership styles that Jan can adopt to improve the situation in the
organization at this hard moment. Some of the leadership methods that he could use are
discussed below.
Democratic leadership method.
This is the kind of leadership where the manager involves workers in decision making that
includes the activities of the organization. This kind of leadership has an active two-way
communication. It’s also referred to as participative leadership. It is the best type of leadership
where the leader is required to be competent, considerate, creative, and intelligent. Jan should
adopt this kind of leadership where he will involve his employees in making decisions, this way
they will feel appreciated and they will support each other’s which will make the company more
successful
(Brisson-Banks, 2009).
Coaching leadership method.
Coaching leadership is a style that is neither direct nor indirect method of administration where
managers teach and supervise their employees. It's a modern method of leadership which is being
adopted by many organizations. By taking this kind of leadership, Jan will motivate his
employees to work harder as well as boost their competences and performance (Kotter, 1995).