- 20 Marks
SCS – L3 – Q5- Functional strategies
Question
(a) Strategic management is a cross-functional activity. The production function for example, has relationship with other functions of a company. Explain how the production function can be integrated with other functions in company.
(b) Explain the FOUR (4) different orientations Organizations may adopt a number of different orientations towards their customers: they include a production or product approach, a sales approach, a marketing approach and a societal approach. Explain the meaning of each of these different approaches.
(c) What is meant by sustainability? Using relevant examples, explain the concept of the triple bottom line.
Answer
(a) Production function integration with other functions
Longer term decisions, particularly relating to design and the innovation of improved products, cannot be taken by the production department alone; activities must be integrated with other functions in the firm.
Product design is coordinated with R&D. Production should advise R&D as to the consequences of particular designs for the manufacturing process.
Job design will involve consultation with human resources specialists.
The quantities needed to be produced will be notified by the sales department.
The human resources department will be involved in managing the work force.
The finance department might indicate the resources available for new equipment.
(b) Four different orientations organizations have towards customers
| Orientation | Description |
|---|---|
| Production orientation | Customers will buy whatever we produce our job is to make as many as we can. (Demand exceeds available supply.) |
| Product orientation, a variant of production orientation | Add more features to the product – demand will pick up. Such firms do not research what customers actually want. |
| Sales orientation | Customers are naturally sales resistant so the product must be sold actively and aggressively, and customers must be persuaded to buy them. |
| Marketing orientation | the key task of the organization is to determine the needs, wants and values of a target market and to adapt the organization to delivering the desired satisfactions more effectively and efficiently than its competitors. |
| Societal orientation | This holds that a company should make marketing decisions by considering consumers’ wants, company’s requirements, and society’s long-term interest. An organization’s task is to determine the needs, wants and interest of a target market and to deliver the desired satisfactions more effectively and efficiently than competitors in the way that preserves or enhances the society’s well-being. |
(c) Definition of sustainability and the concept of the triple bottom line
Sustainability involves developing strategies so that the company only uses resources at a rate that allows them to be replenished such that the needs of the current generation can be met without compromising the needs of future generations. At the same time, emissions of waste are confined to levels that do not exceed the capacity of the environment to absorb them.
- Topic: Functional strategies
- Uploader: Salamat Hamid