Yellow Path

Our professor had discussed strategic analysis to us, as said Strategic Planning has four elements:

• The What (what the organization does and what they want to achieve)
• The Present (current state of the organization)
• The Future (Is what you want to be)
• The How (how you would achieve it)

In addition, there is a so called "Earl's Three pronged Approach" which will help address the organization's problem.

1. Inside Out
2. Bottom-Up
3. Top-Down

As part of the discussion what I liked most is the topic about critical success factor (CSF), because like in the Wizard of Oz, this is the yellow path, which will be the organization's guide on which one should be the focus of the organization this will help on how the objectives of the organization must be done. CSF is different from our office in the KRA, KRA CSF and help the organization focus on the important areas that must be done well in order to achieve the objective of the organization. CSF helps the members of the organization perform their work in the right context and pull everyone towards the same overall goals.

Books of Learning

The class where given the task assigned to provide 5 books relating to strategy and based on the discussions given by the class most of my classmates had presented about teamwork and leadership. In line with this, I have concluded that a best strategy will not work unless :

·         The organization as a whole is committed

·         The organization is guided by the right leader

·         And of course, must be aligned with the team / organization's objective.

For me, teamwork is one of the most important parts of the company but each member must clearly know what you goal is. Like what Mike discussed about 5 dysfunction of a team:

To these different levels may bring chaos to the team and eventually may result to poor performance and will affect business.  Communication is the key to build relationships within team members and this will ensure success in any goal of the organization 

With this activity that we have done in class, really liked it, because it had added learning and inspires me to read books again. Also, the frameworks shared to us will also help in our decision making throughout our organization. I hope we have this kind of activity again to keep us updated.

Battlefield

Giving a scenario, you are about to be sent into a battlefield, what do you check first? Isn't it you first check your weapon? Check if your weapon has bullet / arrow / is sharp? Then you check the threats within the area and check where the best place you will probably survive? Just like in a business when you are entering a business / industry you need to first check your own business to know if you are really ready, then check the threats that may harm your business and for your business to move ahead than your competitors. I have learned through this topic weaknesses that must be addressed immediately especially if these weaknesses is a great factor for the threats that may harm your business.

The opportunities and threats are external factors of the business which includes analyzing your competitors and the environmental factors that may hinder your business to progress. Just like the scenario after you've analyzed your position is and where you are entering this battlefield will lead you to strategize and know your game plan.

But in business as I learned during the discussions your strength is not a strength if your competitor is also the same. SWOT analysis gives you a map or guide that prepares you on what may come and if you are prepared to face those trials.

In business what you have today may have been outdated or will have no effect on your future thus, swot analysis must be a continuous activity that should be done by the company. 

Life Cycle

Product Life Cycle

Similar to a human life cycle, humans started as infant wherein a person is still learning its way to the world. In this phase, a person is still collecting all its knowledge about life. Then here comes the teen stage, wherein some learning gained is put to use. Then adolescence stage, that mostly we have achieved maybe not all but most of the experiences and there are two options, either we stop on what we already have then eventually retire, or venture into new learning / experiences.

All things come to an end, but the ending will depend on the choices we want to be the ending. So we either stop or we continue to improve / move forward. Like what we had during our presentation Cebu Pacific vs. Philippine Airlines, when you're strategy is the niche market it does not need to directly compete with your competitors but you can instead focus on your strategy and improve it. Though sometimes when you're in a market focus it gives you smaller room to improve.

Green Apple

As discussed in class, competitive advantage is an advantage over competitors by offering either lower price point of by providing product / services with greater benefits that will justify the price of the product.

In addition, a competitive advantage must be something that is hard to be copied or will require money / high investment and also take time for it to be done - so it will be considered as a competitive advantage.

Based with KISSmetrics, there are certain guidelines in differentiating your company from competitors, these are:

•      Partnerships - partnerships or alliances is one of a great competitive advantage because this will help a company a greater reach to their market / consumers and at the same time not only the products but also the partnership itself must be competitive.      
• .      Make sure the differentiating quality is something people want. - Make sure what you're investing on is what people need / wants. Hence, this will require the need of knowing your market / end-consumers.
•     Focus - Focus not only on the product but focus on one specific area in your product, collect inputs from team and little by little this will end up giving better results.

Knowing your competitive advantage must be done in the beginning before a company enters into a market. A company must know who their competitors are and why consumers should choose you over the other.

In knowing your edge over competitors is easier for a company to fight in a battle, so you'd know which factor / characteristic you must focus on.

Differentiation is linked with innovation.

Finale

It's been a great experience being at APC, best experience so far. The class is great! Each one has their unique talent and the professors were funny and were like our mentors. Bonding with everyone is a learning experience for me because of their thoughts and experiences in the IT world is a totally different thing from what I am doing right now, and it inspires me to be in the same field as they all are. 

But as said by one of our professor "Just enjoy and learn from the journey" I believe that the journey is as important as my destination. So often, I was focused on the finish line that I should be able to graduate no matter what and sometimes I already forgot that I should also be enjoying. Though, sometimes enjoying is hard when you know you really can’t cope up.

I guess the best learning that I have gained that no books can offer is to know the importance of experiences versus things written from the book. Book can offer all the terminologies the scenarios. But it is always different when someone you know told you their own experience.

Like Kuya Mike, talked to their boss about their proposal and forced everyone to listen because of the frameworks he had learned from the class and had proven that it was true. No books can tell that Kuya Riki is good at encoding and that we is the administrator of ‘”boycarr” app in the appstore. Little things I have learned but great things to be treasured. I guess for now it is not a goodbye for APC, but a see you soon.

I wanted to be of great help with the class same as Kuya Gem, Roger, Rolan, Mike1 and Mike2, giving also experiences they have gained. One thing I have learned is being ready first before entering a battle. J I guess, today is not yet the right time, I have to gain more experience so I will be able to grasp all the learning taught in class. Next time, I promise to be of great contribution to everyone and be able to understand all the sharing in class. J

Life is about building experiences, that’s why for now I will build first my experiences and also be of great help to everyone and be able to share also my experiences.

The new wealth of the organization, understanding the organization, customer satisfaction and all the best practices those things I will keep. Especially the social media tools which I can really use for now at my current job.

I THANK you for all the learning and the sharing of each and every ones experience.  

Technology is Changing - Reports

Part of the course is picking the best practices used by the organization, and I was assigned to Distribution Channel’s best practices. Honestly, I thought it is an easy topic but it isn’t, it is different from the distribution channel that I’ve learned way back in college. So I first thought distribution channel is more of the value chain or process in delivering the product or service to the consumer. But this time, the topic isn’t about the value chain but more on the IT value chain, which is different more technical for me.

In research of the report I’ve learned about EDI or the Electronic Data Interchange it is an automated data interchange with other companies, these help the departments within the organization and also the end consumer track down the status of its product/document. This also gives view to the consumer about their request.

Because of the vast improvement on the technology today, it gives consumers and organizations quicker response to the consumer needs, but because of this also, consumer is becoming more demanding and for some organization it a higher threat for the switching of the consumers to the competitors. Since, most of the systems nowadays are through online it lack the face-to-face and eye contact which is one of the huge nonverbal reminders that may be meaningful for the organization, which is why I believe it would be better to combined the traditional system to the high-tech solution used nowadays.

In addition to the report I did was that today systems are being executed to machines hence, producing robots to ease the process and efficiency of the worker. Like what is now being used by Amazon in storing their products they use KIVA Systems, a machine that is built to organize and deliver the products to the worker and be able to make workers be efficient/multi-task.

That is why, with all these reports given, if these system can track your products or services, the next will be tracking down the consumer: “What will now happen to the privacy of us consumers and to the security of our information”