Strategic Operational Management: Competitive Analysis of ASB & Audi

This report provides a detailed analysis of strategic operational management principles using case studies of ASB Bank, Audi, P&G, and IKEA. It covers strategy formulation, implementation, and evaluation, examining internal and external factors impacting organizations. The report applies Porter's Five Forces model to P&G Ltd., assessing competitive intensity and strategic advantages. Additionally, it explores Porter's Value Chain management in the context of IKEA's operational environment, highlighting key activities and hierarchical structures. The analysis also emphasizes the importance of analysis and assessment, strategy formulation, and implementation in Google's operational management, particularly concerning Project Jacquard. This document is available on Desklib, a platform offering a wide range of study resources for students.

Strategic Operational Management

Answer 1
Strategy Formulation
a) i. the organization selected here is ASB bank and a brief about the internal resources and
the capabilities of the organization is presented here (Williams et al. 2017). Internal
resources mainly include the number of employees which is estimated to be 4907, the
services of the bank such as personal banking, business loans, educational loan facilitates
and services, internet banking, insurance services, atm services, bank branches,
computers and banking applications and software and some others (Williams et al. 2017).
ASB is one of the oldest banks in New Zealand and was founded in the year 1847 in the
name of Auckland Savings Bank. However on the other hand the capability of the bank is
also referred to. The capabilities of the bank are IT capabilities, financial capabilities,
problem solving capability and some others.
a) ii. External environment that can impact the organization includes political factor,
economic factor, social factor and technological factor (Williams et al. 2017). Political
factor like interest rates, rules and regulations and others can impact the working and
services of the organization (Williams et al. 2017). Economic factor like cash flow in
the market, economic scenario, stock market trend and others impacts the
organization. Social factor like choice and preference of people also affects the
popularity and position of the bank. Technological factor like updated applications
and software and system used by other banking organizations has an impact on the
organization as well (Williams et al. 2017). However on a general note some of the
external factors like economic recession, online scam, closing of small town banks

and some others can impact the organization (Namada, 2018). These are also the
external factors.
a) iii. Generating and selecting sustainable strategies at the corporate and business
levels of the organization is very important ( Strategies like monitoring of money
laundering can be done and this is all about illegal accumulation or sourcing of
money and this strategy will help in maintaining the business functionalities at the
organization (Williams et al. 2017). Other strategies include policy and programs
to supervise the banking work, setting up departmental function and some others.
Strategy Implementation
i. the organization’s formulated strategy can only be maintained and can be
supervised through appropriate leadership, management, staff, system and
structure (Hornstein 2015). ASB bank can follow staff management
approach, employee motivation, leadership style like team leadership,
following of labor law to manage the employee and treat them as resource
that can carry on with the strategy, contemporary management style and
others.
ii. monitoring and evaluation of the performance of the implemented strategy
can be done through checking the final outcome, yearly outcome in terms
of work, operation, services of the organization and also n terms of market
position and people feedback about the organization (Hornstein 2015).
Other than this legal transaction of money within the bank and outside the
bank also provides evidence of the performance of the implemented
strategy.

b) The global automotive organization selected here is Audi and the organizations’
operational business environment is vital in this case as this requires and issues in
decision making is a common aspect (Stead and Stead 2017). Audi is one of
most reputed and branded automobile company across the world and has its own
customer base (Namada, 2018). Key issues of decision making in areas like
location strategy and Human resource management and job design will be
briefed here that helps in presenting a clear view of how the issues can impact the
strategic management practices in the contemporary environment.
Location strategy- key issues in decision making in this areas includes, where
Audi can locate their factories, where the showrooms of Audi can be located so
that it can have maximum visibility and that can attract maximum number of
people or customers, what are the government laws and policies behind
establishing an automobile company, what are the terms for the local automobile
companies and what will be the term for Audi, what will be the reposition of
profits to the home country, copyright aspect is also an issue in decision making
and some others (Stead and Stead 2017). Audi while looking for their location
options and finalizing their location strategy it is important for them to analyze
the key issues that are associated with it so that the location strategy is made
perfectly and that it ultimately helps the organization in its positive strategic
management approach and also have a competitive advantage in the industry
environment (Stead and Stead 2017).
Human resource management and job design- key issues in human resource
management include employee motivation, social requirement of the employees,

personal requirement of the employees, employee guidance, employee
management, employee performance supervision and management and some
others. In case of job design, job roles, skill requirement, shift designing, job
pattern deciding, multi tasking of the employees, job rotation, job assigning as per
their particular skill and capability, employee qualification assessment, employee
experience assessment and others are some of the issues in decision making for
this particular area (Stead and Stead 2017).
Answer 2) a. Porter’s Competitive 5 Forces Model as an approach for management
practice in the contemporary business environment is very important. This model
includes 5 forces such as threat of new entry, buyer power, and threat of substitution,
supplier power and competitive rivalry (Namada, 2018). These give an estimation of how
the management practices of the organization should be and this is a summary of the
competitive environment (Stead and Stead 2017). Threat of new entry is all about new
companies coming in the market and creating a competition, threat of substation is all
about same goods and services being sold by the organization that can lead to reduced
customer base and also can lead to lack of popularity in the market place (Hornstein
2015). Threat of rivals or contemporary rivalry is all about rivalry and competition with
the existing power and threat of buyer and supplier is all about their bargaining power
and approach.
b. applying Porter’s Five Force Model to P&G Ltd. so that they can have an advantage in
the contemporary operational field (Stead and Stead 2017). This Porter’s 5 Forces
Model helps in providing a brief about the competition intensity for P&G Ltd. in the

market (Hornstein 2015). Threat of new entry is always there for P&G Ltd. as this
organization produces consumer packaged goods and companies of the same kind can
come into the business in USA and that can lead to lack of popularity of this company.
Every now and then companies are being launched in USA be it retail company for
clothes and fashion or be it consumer food company (Stead and Stead 2017). Threat of
new entry is there in this case (Hornstein 2015). Threat of substation is also high as the
products that are produced and sold by the organization such as health care products,
beauty products, and personal care products, home products and others can be easily
substituted. Thereby the risk of substitution is there for P&G Ltd. Supplier power is also
vital and that is bargaining power mostly (Stead and Stead 2017). The supplier provides
the products to this organization and they can ask for more price and can set their supply
numbers and others. Supplier power is also there for P&G Ltd. Power of the buyer is not
that high since in P&G Ltd (Stead and Stead 2017). All the prices of the products that
they sell are fixed and there is no deviation in that (Hornstein 2015). Competitive rivalry
is there and this rivalry is mainly with the existing firms in the market such as Avon,
Estee Lauder, Jonshon and Jonshon, Billie, Harry’s, Palmolive and some others.
c. the relevance of this Porter’s Value Chain is immense since this helps in getting an
idea about the organization structure and also helps in providing an idea about the
intensity of the competition, about the likely profit that the organization can have and
also the attractiveness of the company in the marketplace (Cameron and Green 2015). A
quick and a brief assessment about the organization and the levels of its work can be
received and this is immensely helpful in the contemporary business environment.

d. Porter’s Value Chain management that can be used for strategic management practice
of IKEA in their contemporary operational environment is discussed here (Namada,
2018). It is mainly a set of activities that a firm performs to deliver goods and services
(Cameron and Green 2015). It has hierarchical organization structure and large scale
stores in size that comes under the firm infrastructure section. It has human resource
management section that is also one of the operations by IKEA to deliver their best of
services and products to the customers (Cameron and Green 2015). In this section they
have implemented effective staff training and developmental programs and high level of
commitment to HR practices (North and Kumta 2018). Technology development is also
there and this includes extensive use of information technology to give the best when it
comes to ready to assemble furniture by IKEA and research and development activity is
also initiated (Cameron and Green 2015). Procurement is also there in the value chain
and there is long strategic relationship with suppliers and raw materials need not be
procured as IKEA does not produce own brand products.
Answer 3
a. Analysis and assessment phase is very crucial and is one of the preliminary phases
which is all about knowing and understanding the internal and the external
environment of the organization (Cameron and Green 2015). This phase has its
relationship with operational management of a global technology organization such as
Google (North and Kumta 2018). Analysis and assessment in order to realize the
organization’s objective is important like in case of Google it is important in this
phase to know about the external market condition as well as strengths and powers of
the internal side of Google so that they can go ahead with the new objective of

materializing Project Jacquard which is all about the fact that the phone can be set
free while biking or exercising and other projects like Google mail update (North and
Kumta 2018). This phase gives a preliminary idea about the surrounding environment
so that planning, organization and coordinating of the resources can be done
effectively (North and Kumta 2018).
b. Strategy formulation in case of operational management of Google is important and
this is all about setting a strategy and that is all about creating a strategy that supports
the organizations objective and goal like Project Jacquard (North and Kumta 2018).
The strategic management practice includes bringing in one place the latest
technology, researching, developing new ideas and others and in that case the strategy
formulation is also based on the same line. Strategy formulation of Google in this
case keeps in the forefront the primary objective that is Project Jacquard (North and
Kumta 2018).
c. Strategy implementation is all about implementing the formed strategy and this is
vital since this is the step towards achieving the objective by the organization such as
Project Jacquard. Strategy implementation is putting the strategy in use and this is the
implementation aspect for the success of the set goal or for achieving the objective
that is already there (North and Kumta 2018). Strategy implementation is done with
the objective of translating the operational planning into actionable measure
(Hornstein 2015). This is the most important step for Google where the line of
strategies and measures to meet the goal is implemented and that thereafter leads to
the result.
d. The final and the last phase is evaluation of the strategy and this can be done by
Google by seeing how the objective is fulfilled, whether the set goal is ticked or not,

whether the outcome is as expected or not and other points (North and Kumta 2018).
Evaluation of the strategy is mainly done by viewing the outcome of the organization,
Google who successful the project has been how much effective the project has been
and what is the overall performance level of the organization.

Reference:
Cameron, E. and Green, M., 2015. Making sense of change management: A complete guide to the
models, tools and techniques of organizational change. Kogan Page Publishers.
Namada, J.M., 2018. Organizational learning and competitive advantage. In Handbook of Research on
Knowledge Management for Contemporary Business Environments (pp. 86-104). IGI Global.
Stead, J.G. and Stead, W.E., 2017. Management for a small planet. Routledge.
Noe, R.A., Hollenbeck, J.R., Gerhart, B. and Wright, P.M., 2017. Human resource management:
Gaining a competitive advantage. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.
North, K. and Kumta, G., 2018. Knowledge management: Value creation through organizational
learning. Springer.
Lewis, S., Cantore, S. and Passmore, J., 2016. Appreciative inquiry for change management: Using AI
to facilitate organizational development. Kogan Page Publishers.
Williams, T.A., Gruber, D.A., Sutcliffe, K.M., Shepherd, D.A. and Zhao, E.Y., 2017. Organizational
response to adversity: Fusing crisis management and resilience research streams. Academy of
Management Annals, 11(2), pp.733-769.
Hornstein, H.A., 2015. The integration of project management and organizational change management
is now a necessity. International Journal of Project Management, 33(2), pp.291-298.