Introduction
Strategy is an action plan meant to accomplish organization goals. It helps the management to set targets and work towards achieving them within a given time frame. Business strategy is a collection of several strategies within a business unit formulated to attain short or long term goals and achieve competitive advantage over other business units. Business operation on the other hand is defined as the ongoing activities within a business unit aimed at high quality production to the satisfaction of the customers. It entails business processes as well as responsibilities aimed at meeting the set goals. For an organization to achieve these goals, business objectives and strategies must be translated into use according to the organizations future developments, Harvey (2005).
Translating strategy into operation
In order to improve the quality of an organization’s products, strategic objectives must be applied. This may call for various strategies such as provision of high quality products and selling of them at lower prices among others, Kaplan &Norton (2008). The process of transforming these strategies into operation requires that the management considers the general environment in which the business unit operates as well as the changes in technology.They should be defined according to the mission and vision as well as the direction in which the organization expects to move in terms of profit making capacity. Changing strategies into application enables stake holders to work towards achieving the necessary results and requires proper coordination of duties and resources within the organization under the guidelines of the management. Production model most convenient method of achieving this as it follows logical steps. To start with,
Designing and analysis of strategies
The management has to design and analyze strategies considering the current business environment in order to establish the organization’s mission, vision and objectives so as to guarantee maximum output. This will enable the business to meet its customers’ needs as well as competing effectively in the market, Harvey (2005). The management analyzes each strategy to ascertain that all the workers are conversant with the vision and mission of the organization and are capable of working within the laid down strategies. In the process, strengths and weaknesses of every strategy are noted for rectification before adoption. After this, they carry out internal situation analysis to ensure availability of machines that will be used by workers. This helps them in determining the amount of work accomplished within a given time and the objectives to be achieved when these strategies are put into action. It is done by analyzing operation systems, available technology as well as the structure of the machinery and interrelationships between workers and the management.
Installation of the new strategies
This step involves the experimentation of the new strategies into the daily business operations. After identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the new strategies and making improvements, the management appoints certain workers to work within the new strategies to achieve similar business objectives. They then evaluate the outcome and eliminate activities that are not applicable to the organization within the set strategies, Kaplan &Norton (2008). This improves communication between the workers and the management thus ensuring new strategies are compatible with the organization goals. It also ensures that various organizational duties are performed according to the objectives. The management then formulates alternatives to non- accomplishable strategies and includes the approved strategies into the daily operations of the organization. This process is aimed at determining the future expectations of the organization by ensuring high quality production due to application of new strategies. Application of new strategies ensures that customer loyalties are maintained under the guidance of management.
Operations stage and absorption
This stage entails the inclusion of newly established strategies into operation. The management balances the benefits of every strategy to reach a consensus between the product of older strategic techniques and the new ones. This is done by considering the organizational activities and their importance such that the activities producing much benefit are considered viable, Harvey (2005).Consequently, new strategies are included in the general plans of the organization and become applicable in daily running of the business. The management then assigns responsibilities to the workers to be accomplished according the goals of the organization to work within the new strategies. The management then recommends the best strategies that are applicable to the organization within the short or long term basis plans. This emphasizes on the main activities, time frame, reporting requirement and training of workers among others.
Example from Kuwait business environment
Kuwait has an open economy consisting of government owned companies and the oil industry. As a result, majority of the citizens’ work within government sectors while the non-citizens dominate the private sector. The model was used by Kuwait Petroleum Corporation in reestablishing the fragmented oil sector. The company, majorly dealing with distribution and refining of petroleum products was determined to reducing loses on materials used in the rigs and wells, Kaplan &Norton (2008). They noted that regardless of many internal accountants, cases of misuse of and loses of funds were rampant.
The management then identified circumstances that would ensure accountability in handling of funds. They noted that most of the accountants spend their time in error reconciliation at the expense of actual work thus causing the losses. The causes identified varied from the system itself to management as workers were required to meet the closing date and not accuracy. Later, the management formulated new strategies such as assigning workers different accounts to reduce the amount of work handled by each hence lowering the magnitude of losses incurred, Harvey (2005). Similarly, workers were trained on the required skills that would ensure reduction in the accounting mistakes. This resulted into diligence and accuracy among the company accountants thus reduction in losses and the required labor to undertake the various accounting responsibilities.
Example from United Arab Emirates business environment
In the United Arab Emirates, the United Foods Company dealing in the manufacturing of food products used the model to design new equipments to expand production. This happened after they noted major drop in company’s production capacity. They realized that the changes were caused by, extended time during cleaning of the manufacturing plant, rapid changeovers among others, Harvey (2005). The management then formulated strategy meant to improve interrelationship between the resources and the production units to attain the expected output. The strategy was meant to reduce the cleaning time by ensuring that it is done during the downtime when production is low contrary to the routine of closing down the plant after every two weeks. These changes caused rapid increase in production and improvement in quality of food products produced hence improved customer satisfaction translating to loyalty on the food products.
Conclusion
In conclusion, for effective management leading to satisfaction of both the management and the customers, business activities should be implemented in accordance to the mission and vision of the organization, Harvey (2005). This entails proper implementation of strategic objectives that in turn outline the various responsibilities within the organization and the relevant workers assigned.
Reference list
Harvey, Jean. (2005) Managing service delivery processes: linking strategy to operations. New Jersey, American Society for quality
Kaplan, Robert &Norton, David (2008) The execution premium: linking strategy to operations for competitive advantage. New York, Harvard Business Press