University Strategy and Change Report: Key Strategic Issues for Oporto

This report delves into the critical aspects of strategy and change management, specifically addressing key strategic issues for the Oporto Company. The analysis highlights the importance of building brand reputation and optimizing organizational structure to foster a competitive advantage. It also emphasizes the need to proactively address customer needs through advanced strategies, as evidenced by the anticipated customer needs over the next three years, focusing on product quality, fast service delivery, and comprehensive customer care. Furthermore, the report examines the potential reactions of competitors to Oporto's strategic changes. The report underscores the interplay between strategy and change for successful organizational outcomes, with references to various academic journals.

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Running head: STRATEGY AND CHANGE
Dealing with Strategy and Change
Name
Institution
Author’s Note

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STRATEGY AND CHANGE
Identification of key strategic issues that must be addressed by the company for the coming
future
Strategy is an important issue within an organization and in most cases; it should always
be given a first priority in terms of addressing it within the minimum time possible. Strategic
change can be best described as a combination of plans that are capable of being implemented by
a given organization with an intention of coming up with one of the most valuable changes that
aims towards taking the organization to another level. In this current world, most of the top
management teams have concentrated much towards handling of various issues that are fully
attached to strategic change (Birdi et al., 2016).they have been able to believe that this parameter
is capable of scaling up their performance across different market platforms. Moreover, when
dealing with strategic change, there care quite a number of issues that needs to be looked into to
make sure that it doesn’t affect the organization’s performance but instead, it should be able to
offer a positive contribution towards its level of scaling up. There are quite a number of
strategies that organizations have been able to put into consideration and most of the strategies
have always required a full participation of various personalities within the organization with the
major ones being the employees, senior management team together with the stakeholders who
are likely to be found at the internal level. At some point, the implementation of strategic change
will also require the analysis of what is taking place in the outside environment thus making sure
that an organization is capable of developing the potentiality of conforming with all those
changes being experienced within its outside world thus being able to strategize efficiently in
terms of how it carries out the distribution of its goods and services across different targeted
locations (Birkinshaw, Bresman & Håkanson, 2016). Finally, strategic change is a set of
decisions that have been made to work hand in hand with the mission and vision of a given

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organization since the strategies are capable of providing guidelines regarding the exact way that
should be followed in order to attain a certain combination of objectives. The identification of
the key strategic issues within an organization will require the combination of various ideas
across different individuals who tend to be working in various sectors across the entire
organizational boundaries. This will make it much easier to identify some of the major issues that
require to be given the first priority as much as possible (Godey et al., 2016).
Major strategic issues that Oporto Company must address
Addressing a strategic issue is one of the most fundamental steps that require much attention of
an organization for it to create one of the most conducive environments that is more suitable for
future operations thus injecting quite a number of positive results within its boundaries. The
following are some of the major strategic issues that Oporto Company needs to address in the
coming future to ensure that it is capable of staying relevant as much as possible;
(1) Building of brad reputation and structure of the organization- This is an essential strategic
issue that needs to be giving the first priority by the management of the organization
(Brewster, Wood & Brookes, 2017). In order to ensure that smooth operations together
with the production of quality products and services are experienced in the coming future
in order to offer a competitive advantage to quite a number of competitors, there is the
need to try as much as possible to employ quite a number of advanced strategies that are
likely to focus in the building of the brand reputation attached to the whole organization.
Building a strong and reasonable brand across various customer segments is a strategic
issue that will totally increase the reputation of the entire organization and even go as far
as attracting the attention of quite a number of customers (Guest, 2011). In order to come

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up with a reliable and reasonable brand reputation that can be easily understood across all
customer segments, the top management officials within the organization must try as
much as they can to involve the employees in most of the decision making processes that
are more of building brand reputation together with the organization structure since they
are likely to have some reasonable and essential ideas pertaining the exact direction that
should be taken (Hecklau, Galeitzke, Flachs & Kohl, 2016). Moreover, identification and
evaluation of the organization structure as a key strategic issue for the future will ensure
that the organization is able to address quite a number of demands and changes that exists
both at its internal and external levels thus providing it with the perfect environment to
carry out most of the operations without coming across any barrier related conditions
(Ferris & Judge, 2016).
(2) Addressing of customer needs- The way Oporto is capable of approaching its customers
is capable of determining its level of survival in the coming future. Coming up with
different advanced strategies to address the needs of the customers in the coming future is
an essential issue. At some point, it is capable of pushing the entire organization to new
zones where it can be able to deliver its services appropriately. (Chuang & Liao, 2010).
To address customer needs for the coming future clearly indicates that they will be
supplied with quality products and services that will be able to address all their future
needs thus increasing the bonds that exist between them and the organization. At the
same time, this is a strategic issue that should be given the first priority as much as
possible by carrying it within the minimum time possible since customers are not
interested in the supply of quite a number of products are services that are capable of
delaying beyond their expectations.

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STRATEGY AND CHANGE
Technical Part
Anticipation of customer needs in the coming three years
High standards of
quality products Fast services customer care services
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Fig 1: Anticipation of customer needs in three years’ time
The above information is an anticipated data for the needs of all the customers in the coming
three years where the organization will be strictly focusing on three different parameters to make
sure that all the requirements of the customers are appropriately addressed within the correct
time frame. Firstly, the anticipation indicates that 90% service response is to be directed towards
focusing on high standards of quality products supplied to the customers. All the products must
be genuine and long lasting. On the other hand, On the other hand, a full concentration of about
86% should be directed towards delivering of fast products and services to the customers without
making any delays. This anticipation indicates that there will be the need to be time conscious in

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the next three years when it comes to the delivery of the services to the customers irrespective of
the areas where they are located. Additionally, an anticipated 92% of customer care services
should be addressed across all the customers in the next three years regardless of their color,
background or even age. This is a need that will be fully concentrated upon to make sure that
appropriate results are obtained within that three year time frame.
Anticipation of how the competitors will react
Competition as a common factor normally emerges as a result of quite a number of factors.
Firstly, as a result of the strategic changes that have been set aside by Oporto Company, Quite a
number of competitors are likely to respond towards this condition since when they make an
assumption, they are likely to face a stiff competition that will finally eject them out of the
market. Upon realization of the strategic changes that have been put into consideration by the
organization, nearly all the competitors are also likely to come up with their own strategic
changes that will enable them to survive within the market in order to reach out to their targeted
customer segments. On the other hand, there is a probability that the competitors are likely to
change the quality and nature of their product and services in the coming years in order for them
to be able to appear unique and be able to work towards quite a number of their objectives.
Despite all the above anticipated reactions in relation to what is likely to be received from quite a
number of competitors, there is also a probability that quite a number of competitors will be able
to shift their operations towards several other market where competition appears to be very
minimal than expected since that is the only place that they will be able to feel more secure in
terms of selling out their products and services to quite a number of customers. It is now clear
beyond any reasonable doubt that strategy and change are two different things that fully depend
on one another for the emergence of successful results within organizations.

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References
Birdi, K., Clegg, C., Patterson, M., Robinson, A., Stride, C. B., Wall, T. D., & Wood, S. J.
(2016). The impact of human resource and operational management practices on
company productivity: A longitudinal study. Personnel Psychology, 61(3), 467-501.

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Birkinshaw, J., Bresman, H., & Håkanson, L. (2016). Managing the post‐acquisition integration
process: How the human iintegration and task integration processes interact to foster
value creation. Journal of management studies, 37(3), 395-425.
Brewster, C., Wood, G., & Brookes, M. (2017). Similarity, isomorphism or duality? Recent
survey evidence on the human resource management policies of multinational
corporations. British Journal of Management, 19(4), 320-342.
Chuang, C. H., & Liao, H. U. I. (2010). Strategic human resource management in service
context: Taking care of business by taking care of employees and customers. Personnel
psychology, 63(1), 153-196.
Ferris, G. R., & Judge, T. A. (2016). Personnel/human resources management: A political
influence perspective. Journal of management, 17(2), 447-488.
Godey, B., Manthiou, A., Pederzoli, D., Rokka, J., Aiello, G., Donvito, R., & Singh, R. (2016).
Guest, D. E. (2011). Human resource management and performance: still searching for some
answers. Human resource management journal, 21(1), 3-13.
Hecklau, F., Galeitzke, M., Flachs, S., & Kohl, H. (2016). Holistic approach for human resource
management in Industry 4.0. Procedia Cirp, 54, 1-6.