THE NEED FOR QUALITY The first thing that we need to consider, in any organization, is that quality is the most important thing. The quality of your work defines you.  Whoever you are,  Whatever you do,  I can find the same products and services cheaper somewhere else. But your quality is your signature. Developing and delivering high quality products and services means that you are doing things correctly from the beginning. As a consequence, you are reducing the need for additional services, from verification to warranty.

Total quality management.

Theory discussing how to define and frame the relationship between the strategy making process (SMP) and business model innovation (BMI) is still incipient in the academic literature. Thus, this study aims at investigating the relationship between SMP and BMI by addressing (1) when firms engage in BMI within the overall SMP, and (2) how firms design a new business model (BM) or improve their current BM within the overall SMP. The research questions are tackled by means of a mixed-method research, combining (1) a quantitative survey on 138 firms involved in SMP and BMI (to understand when BM design and improvement occur) and (2) a qualitative multiple-case study focused on four firms (to address how BM design and improvement evolve). The findings empirically validate the arguments that BM design and improvement are more likely to be positioned in the strategic alternatives implementation step of the SMP, and BM is related to strategy execution; on top of this, light is shed on the inherent dynamics of the BMI process for different types of BMI.

Business model innovation and strategy making nexus: evidence from a cross‐industry mixed‐methods study

Organizational mission statements of institutions in higher education have been called into question with respect to their relevance and purpose. This study investigated mission statements of the top 50 U.S. News & World Report (2012) ranked schools of social work for their clarity and brevity, content, and relationship to the Council on Social Work Education’s core competencies. A content analysis of these statements raises concerns about their quality and overall function and poses considerable doubts about their overall relevance and usefulness. Implications are directed to all stakeholders concerned about the content and accuracy of school of social work mission statements. The study addresses a distinct void in the literature in this important subject matter.

A Content Analysis of Mission Statements of Our Top 50 Schools of Social Work.

This paper describes Nepal’s national livestock policies and considers how they can be improved to help meet the pressing national challenges of economic development, equity, poverty alleviation, gender mainstreaming, inclusion of marginalized and underprivileged communities, and climate vulnerability. Nepal is in the process of transforming its government from a unitary system to a federal democratic structure through the new constitution expected by 2015, offering the opportunity to bring a new set of priorities and stakeholders to policymaking. Nepal’s livestock subsector comes most directly within the purview of the National Agricultural Policy 2004, Agro-Business Policy, 2006 and Agricultural Sectoral Operating Policies of the Approach Paper to 13th Plan, 2012/13–2015/16 policy instruments. We systematically review these and other livestock-related national policies through analysis of their Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT). We conclude with the need to formulate a separate, integrated national livestock policy so that Nepal can sustainably increase livestock productivity and achieve diversification, commercialization and competitiveness of the livestock subsector within the changing national and international contexts.

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National Livestock Policy of Nepal: Needs and Opportunities

The focus of this study was on competitive strategies that firms adopt in the Kenya beverage industry in order to create above average performance. The fundamental basis of above industry performance is sustainable competitive advantage which is either created by low cost or differentiation strategy. The study aimed at establishing the generic strategies food and beverage firms in Kenya employ for sustainable competitive advantage. This research entailed a descriptive study design. Descriptive design uses a set of scientific methods to collect raw data and create data structures that are used to describe the existing characteristics of a defined target population. This study sought to do that among the F & B firms in Kenya. The study population consisted of 138 food and beverage manufacturing firms in Kenya registered with the Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM) by 2011. The data was tested for central tendency and dispersion after confirmation of normal distribution by appropriate tests of normality. Since the sample size was 32 (over the minimum 30 required for statistical analysis), regression analysis was carried out and interpretation of results of tests of hypothesis done. The research showed that 56.2 percent of the firms embrace duo strategies of cost leadership and differentiation simultaneously while 25 percent were exclusively on cost leadership and 18.8 percent were exclusively using differentiation. The use of dual strategies is a company survival tactic in terms of diversification of risks especially in very competitive environments like that of the Kenyan F&B industry. Results from Pearson’s rank correlation coefficient between the dependent variable Y and the independent variables X1 and X2 gave coefficients of 0.653 and 0.279 respectively which was an indication of positive correlation.

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Generic strategies employed by food and beverage firms in Kenya and their effects on sustainable competitive advantage

This article reviews the book titled ‘Strategic Management – Formulation, Implementation and Control’ authored by John A. Pearce II, Richard B. Robinson Jr. and Amita Mital. As of 2017, John A. Pearce II is a Professor of Strategic Management and Entrepreneurship at the College of Commerce and Finance at Villanova University; Richard B. Robinson, Jr is a distinguished Professor Emeritus at the Moore School of Business at University of South Carolina and Amita Mital is Professor at Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow. Professor Pearce has co-authored more than 40 books and has authored several articles in referred journals. Professor Robinson also has authored several books on Strategic Management and has published his research work in the area of Strategic Management and Entrepreneurship in major journals. Professor Amita Mital is Professor in Strategic Management at Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow and his research areas include Strategic Management, Strategic Change, Strategies of Collaboration, etc.,

http://www.stic.ac.th/ojs/index.php/sjhs/article/download/116/65

Strategic Management – Formulation, Implementation and Control*

Today, the Business Environment is highly dynamic. Customers are demanding for competitive products/services. Firms are expected to be customer responsive and highly agile. To sustain their position in Industry, firms are performing external analysis to identify their opportunities/threats and are also performing Internal Analysis to identify their core competency. This is followed by developing and implementing strategies around their core competency which is considered as their source of Sustainable Competitive advantage. Some of the sources of Sustainable Competitive Advantage (SCA) include Low cost leadership, Quality, Speed, focusing on specific segment of the market, Innovation, developing human assets, Outsourcing, entering into Strategic Alliances, creating virtual organization, Knowledge Management, building a learning organization, etc. Today, the mantra to survive is ‘Bigger the Better’. Apart from exploiting the individual firm’s unique competency, firms are also entering into mergers and strategic alliances to improve their competitiveness in their industry. This study explores the various source of competitive advantage of selected companies that have employed them successfully. The strategies adopted by individual firms to sustain in market place will be explored and firms which are successful by merging or entering with strategic alliance with other companies will also be discussed. Keywords : Competitive Advantage; Strategy; Mergers; Strategic Alliances

http://www.stic.ac.th/ojs/index.php/sjhs/article/download/111/59

Saravanan Krishnaswamy

Papers

Strategic Management – Formulation, Implementation and Control*

Sources of Sustainable competitive Advantage: A Study & Industry Outlook