Discussion Question Week 5
Discussion Question Week 5
Chapter 7. Mass customization of products has become a common approach in manufacturing organizations. Explain the ways in which mass customization can be applied to service firms as well.
Mass customization is the technology of using mass production to assemble goods efficiently and cost-effectively, and at the same time designing the products to fit into individual customer’s demands and specifications. Mass customization is a very common practice in the manufacturing industry although it can also be applied to the service firms (Gardner, 2009). The primary objective of using mass customization is to provide goods customers want and availing to them when the need arises.
The service firms provide services that are much needed by their customers and applying mass customization will be of great help to them. Service companies can make good use of mass customization by using technology to produce quicker and best services to the customers. Mass customization allows for the provision of more services besides the current services to the potential clients. There would be no physical product seen by the customer that is exhibited in the mass production.
Mass customization can be as well applied to service firms by providing products that suit the dynamic nature of the customer's tastes and preferences. Since the customers select the products according to their various preferences, mass customization can be applied to determine the trends of preference exhibited by the potential clients.
Chapter 7. A top executive claimed that superior management is a craft technology because the work contains intangibles (such as handling personnel, interpreting the environment, and coping with unusual situations that have to be learned through experience). If this is true, is it appropriate to teach management in a business school? Does teaching management from a textbook assume that the manager's job is analyzable and, therefore, that formal training rather than experience is most important?
It is entirely appropriate to teach management in business schools so that learners can get to know how management position is and the responsibilities related to the position. On the other hand, teaching management from textbooks does not indicate that formal training is less important than experience. Textbooks are regarded as tools of learning that do not reflect on how a manager's job is analyzable. It is recommended that each detail of business is first learnt and later practiced to improve on the skills. Users gain experience from the formal training, take the concepts taught in classrooms, and apply to the real life situations.
Technology has highly advanced to a point whereby, managers and clients can have their business meetings across the globe without having to travel around. The introduction of internet in today’s technology has altered almost all concepts of conducting businesses. Business counterparts can access data, generate reports, as well as answer questions by the aid of data warehousing not taking into consideration on the location of other partisans.
The advent of technology has enabled the removal of intermediaries, as the users will not necessarily require them in a retrieval of the necessary data. The managers, therefore, gain the advantage of making the best choices for the use of business intelligence in analyzing patterns and data without disruptions. Therefore, technology will get to the point where high-rank managers can efficiently conduct their duties without face-to-face communication although face-to-face communication cannot be substituted with anything.
Chapter 9. Look through several recent issues of a business magazine (Fortune, BusinessWeek, Fast Company, etc.) and find examples of 2 companies that are using approaches to busting bureaucracy. Explain the techniques that these companies are applying.
Bureaucracies have become a big problem facing the large companies. They have dominated most of the businesses for a long time, but it has been as outdated and stifling in the recent days. The majority of the business organizations today is getting free of bureaucracies and tries to change the structure of their business management. The examples of companies that have made many efforts to remove the bureaucracies in their workplaces are Apple and Amazon. They managed to achieve their efforts by changing their mindsets and strategies of the top management, which enabled their success.
The leaders of the organizations have been made to lead almost autonomous groups instead of managing people themselves. The groups led by the top management are responsible for working with particular responsibilities, while the manager works on the results. The whole procedure starts with identifying the factors that motivate the customers and then the manager gives the team a clear idea of what the customer wants.
In regards to the duties placed, the organizing group then takes part in coordinating activities to making sure that completion of tasks is met through communication and dynamic coordination. It is considered that orders are not drawn from the top management but rather communicated in such a conversational way.
Chapter 9. Do you believe that a no-growth philosophy of the directorate should be taught in business schools?
Most of the organizations are always yearning to achieve growth in its operations. I firmly believe that the philosophy of no growth should be taught in business schools because there are some of the organizations that have stagnated in its growth while other organizations were declining in growth. Thus, it makes sense that studies should be done in business schools.
The size of growth determines a company's success in most cases. The top management team of each company should have the knowledge and understanding on how to manage the company that exhibits success but with no growth. The reason as to why the managers should be keen about the performance of businesses is that there are some instances where a company may make use of the no growth policy so remain in business.
Teaching the no growth philosophy will allow students to understand the concepts and perspectives of decline and growth and get to know on how to deal with both of them in an organizational structure. Schools should train their students concerning the decline of businesses among other policies, which are critical in molding them to become successful managers in the future.
How can/should a biblical worldview be applied?
Both pieces of training, as well as taking lessons from the classroom are important. From the biblical perspective, we can see that there was no book review and Jesus taught using sermons and parables. Jesus did the demonstration to show his followers apparently, what he meant to them. In today's world, we have both books and teachers. We have a word of God as well as pastors ordained by God to teach us on his word. We, therefore, have no option but to read the word and meditate it in our daily lives.
References
Gardner, D. J. (2009). Mass customization: An enterprise-wide business strategy : how build to
order, assemble to order, configure to order, make to order, and engineer to order
manufacturers increase profits and better satisfy customers. Cupertino, CA: HappyAbout.info.
