Strategic management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 13

Strategic management - Essay Example For conducting external audit of the company, its opportunities and threats are discussed below. Consumers are becoming more health conscious and consequently the demand for healthy and organic food products is also increasing significantly. Kellogg’s’ is capitalising on this trend to develop its brand image (Seaberg et al, n.d.). The company has expanded its business in global market and is equipped with necessary human and other resources to gain upper hand position in the international market (Wayne State University School of Business Administration, n.d.). The rate of competition is increasing drastically which poses a vital threat to the company. The company is facing intense competition from General Mills and PepsiCo. The products offered by its competitors act as substitute for its ready-to-eat cereal products. The main buyers of its products are Wal-Mart and Target Group. Their bargaining power is very high and it affects the pricing strategy of the company. Porter’s Five Forces analysis indentifies the five factors that affect the competition level of an industry. These five forces are bargaining power of suppliers and customers, threat of substitute products and new entrants, and rivalry from existing competitors (Henry, 2008, p.69). The company relies on its suppliers for manufacturing high quality food products. It needs suppliers for a wide range of products from raw materials and ingredients, packaging equipment and skilled labours. However, a large number of such suppliers are easily available in the global market and it can negotiate with them. Therefore, the bargaining power of the suppliers is quite low in this industry. In convenient food market, a large variety of ready-to-eat products are available. Fast-foods are the greatest threats to Kellogg’s products. The barrier to enter this industry is comparatively low due to low

ORGANISATIONAL CHANGE AND ANALYSIS Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

ORGANISATIONAL CHANGE AND ANALYSIS - Essay Example The 21st century has seen the emergence of adaptive organization styles to cope with these increasingly evolving changes in the economic, technological and social-cultural environment. This has had an impact on the traditional organization structure from the previous bureaucratic to today’s emerging post-bureaucratic or otherwise known as network model of organization. A closer look at today’s organizations will show that both the human and structural components have been on a constant change path (Casey 2002). Casey (2002) further observes that today’s organization has faced some form of revolution that has been created by the ever increasing quest for modernity. The issue that arises in this observation is, therefore, what are the causes of such changes and to what extent the present corporate organizations have embraced the change or shown the signs for those changes. This paper therefore examines the various factors that have led to the shift from the bureauc ratic style to that of post-modernism or network model of organization by looking at structures and the human factors. It also tries to ascertain the extent to which today’s organizations have embraced these changes. ... To begin, the revolution of the information and communication technology has been a major influencing factor in the way organizations have been operational. Processes, functions and the general environment of operations in organizations have changed and corporations have felt this change in a massive way. Organizations have encountered and experienced surprising changes in the twenty first century more than that of the industrial revolution (Castells 2011). Decisions are today made more promptly because top management have shed off some of their decision making responsibilities with the emergence of new technology or computer information systems such as decision support systems. They have improved accuracy and the time taken to make decisions and they have facilitated involvement of many people as opposed to the previous bureaucratic style where lower cadre employees had to wait several days for final decisions to be made (Heyderbrand 1989). Information technology has also effectivel y improved the way feedback is sought from the top management. For instance, today you do not have to book an appointment to meet the manager; instead you could just send him or her an email and you will be sure that there will be response soonest they access their mails. Another influence that technology has brought into organizations is the rise of professional workers who are more independent in thinking and decision making and the reduction of manual workers who depend on supervision and orders for them to perform their tasks appropriately (Frenkel 1999). This has in turn reduced bureaucratic tendencies of relying on orders and waiting for instructions from the top organs as will be further seen in this discussion. To plainly relay the