1) Recommend strategic alternatives for the company you researched. Explain the rationale behind the recommendations you offered.
Strategic change refers to the transformations in a company’s strategy contents as described by its span, resource exploitation and competitive advantage. The Nokia Company is one of the most famous manufacturers of mobile phones. For a long time, this company has been a leader in the mobile industry. The company was however affected by the emerging technological innovations in the mobile industry, which resulted to a great financial loss for the Nokia Company. Consequently, the company requires strategic changes to enable it reclaim its place as a market leader in the mobile industry. Most importantly, the company requires adverse changes in its marketing strategy. Initially, the Nokia Company needs to invest more on market research. The company for example missed out on a very essential transformation that has recently occurred in the mobile industry because of lack of market research. This is with reference to the migration of mobile phone users to the Smartphone types of phones. Investing in market research will enable the company to get acquitted to the current market trend and make necessary adjustments to produce what customers demand.
Additionally, the Nokia Company needs to make essential changes to the entire production process. Most importantly, the company needs to be cautious of its product designs. Previously, the company has concentrated more on investing in product hardware rather than the software, hence missing out on the customer’s needs. As such, the company has turned out to be more product-led instead of being consumer driven. Furthermore, the products of the Nokia Company tend to have a shorter life cycle compared to those of its competitors like Google and Apple, who have shifted to the Smartphone podium. Because of this, serious changes are required in design of Nokia product. This will ensure that the company is able to meet up with the needs of the customers and maintain its competitive advantage at the same time.
2) Analysis of different types of strategies used by organizations and the most complicated to implement.
There are a number of strategies that an organization can use to implement changes. Initially, an organization can choose to use technological innovation. In such a case, the organization comes up with a new technology that is distinct in the market, which enables it maximize its potentials. Additionally, an organization can develop competitive advantage in a particular area. This ensures that the organization is able to compete effectively by being the best performers, compared to other competitors in the market. Furthermore, design competition can also be used as a strategy by organizations. New dominant technological designs can be created in the market to give the organization a competing advantage. Lastly, an organization can choose to develop a creative working arena that encourages new perceptions and ideas from the workers.
Conclusion
This further improves an organization’s innovation prospects. It is however very difficult to implement the technological innovation strategy among the aforementioned strategies. This is because competitors can easily duplicate the advantages obtained from such innovations. Additionally, this kind of strategy can cause an organization’s competitive advantage to be its major disadvantage. This was the case with the Kodak Company which was renown in the film industry. With the integration of the new digital technology for instance, many employees had to be retrenched from the company.
