Monday, December 23, 2019

The Four Phases Of Small Business Strategy Planning

The Four Phases of Small Business Strategy Planning There are a host of definitions for strategy. Rather than trying to be comprehensive or creating a definition that tries to be the authoritative source, I ll use a simple definition of strategy for my purposes. Strategy is a plan of action designed to achieve outcomes. That s it. This definition is loyal to best tenants of strategy as well; be flexible, nimble and leave options until you reach the appropriate time or level to add further definition. The process of defining the desired outcomes is usually incorporated into the concept of strategy planning. In an agile and well-led organization, execution is also wrapped into strategy so that the plans can stay flexible, updated, and resources can be used to increase success. The best, most refined, and most successful strategy model has evolved from ancient China, was updated in Prussia, and has slowly been creeping into the business world. There are four steps to the process and I prefer to keep them all under the strategy umbrella to help leaders reach the planned outcomes. The iterative sequence is: setting goals, planning, actions, and outcomes. In setting strategic goals, you must consider what outcomes you desire for your business. Assuming that you are in business to earn revenue, you must link your outcomes to needs that your customers have in order to capture that revenue. The best source for setting goals is your business mission, values, and visionShow MoreRelatedUnderstanding The Benefits Of Strategic Management1674 Words   |  7 Pageswith respect to an example using the struggling retailer, Sears. Sears succumbed to the lack of innovation, which shows that if a firm stands still, it will be run over by the competition. 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Sunday, December 15, 2019

Structural Functionalist Free Essays

A society is a complex unit, made up of interrelated parts. All these parts form the structure of the society and each sub unit has to perform its given task. Social structures are stressed and placed at the center of analysis and social functions are deduced from these structures. We will write a custom essay sample on Structural Functionalist or any similar topic only for you Order Now This perspective looks at how the various parts of the society come together and perform their individual tasks interdependently and interrelated to promote social stability and order and in turn the smooth functioning of the society. Structural functionalism is a framework for building theory that sees society as a complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability. This approach looks at society through a macro-level orientation, which is a broad focus on the social structures that shape society as a whole, and believes that society has evolved like organisms. This approach looks at both social structure and social functions. Functionalism addresses society as a whole in terms of the function of its constituent elements; namely norms, customs, traditions, and institutions. As a structural theory, Functionalism sees social structure or the organisation of society as more important than individual. Functionalism is a top down theory. Individuals are born into society and become products of all the social influences around them as they are socialised by various institutions such as the family, education, media and religion. Functionalism sees society as a system; a set of interconnected parts which together form a whole. There is a relationship between all these parts and agents of socialisation and together they all contribute to the maintenance of society as a whole. Structural functionalism concentrates on the positive and negative functions of social structures. Societal functionalism is a particular type of structural functionalism that aims to explain the role of social structures and institutions in society, the relationship between these structures, and the manner in which these structures constrain the actions of individuals. According to structural functionalists, individuals have little to no control over the ways in which particular structures operate. Indeed, structural functionalists understand individuals in terms of social positions. It is not individuals who are ranked, but positions that are ranked according to the degree to which they contribute to the survival of society. High-ranking positions offer high rewards that make them worth an individual’s time and effort to occupy. The structural functionalist perspective also takes into account the concept of value consensus. Functionalists believe that society is held together by this consensus, or cohesion, in which members of the society agree upon, and work together to achieve, what is best for society as a whole. They share the same ideas, beliefs and morals which bind them together. Functionalists believe that without such collective shared values and beliefs, achieving social order is impossible and social order is crucial for the well-being of society. They believe that value consensus forms the basic integrating principle in society. And if members of society have shared values they therefore also have similar identities, this helps cooperation and avoids conflict. Value consensus also ensures that people have shared: – Goals, Roles and Norms. Any social system has four basic functional prerequisites: * adaptation * goal attainment * integration and * Pattern maintenance. The function of any part of the social system is understood as its contribution to meeting the functional prerequisites. Adaptation refers to the relationship between the system and its environment. In order to survive, social systems must have some degree of control over their environment. Food and shelter must be provided to meet the physical needs of members. The economy is the institution primarily concerned with this function. Goal attainment refers to the need for all societies to set goals towards which social activity is directed. Procedures for establishing goals and deciding on priorities between goals are institutionalized in the form of political systems. Governments not only set goals but also allocate resources to achieve them. Even in a so-called free enterprise system, the economy is regulated and directed by laws passed by governments. Integration refers primarily to the ‘adjustment of conflict’. It is concerned with the coordination and mutual adjustment of the parts of the social ystem. Legal norms define and standardize relations between individuals and between institutions, and so reduce the potential for conflict. When conflict does arise, it is settled by the judicial system and does not therefore lead to the disintegration of the social system. Pattern maintenance refers to the ‘maintenance of the basic pattern of values, institutionalized in the society’. Insti tutions that perform this function include the family, the educational system and religion. No theory has been there without any criticism. The structural functionalist perspective also has been criticized on the grounds that it neglects the negative functions of an event such as divorce. The perspective justifies the status quo and complacency on the part of society’s members. Functionalism does not encourage people to take an active role in changing their social environment, even when such change may benefit them. Functionalism sees active social change as undesirable because the various parts of society will compensate naturally for any problems that may arise. How to cite Structural Functionalist, Papers

Saturday, December 7, 2019

This Paper Addresses the Guiding Principles and Elements That Feature

Question: Why This Paper Addresses the Guiding Principles and Elements ? Answer: Introduction An integrated report is a communication document that details how an organizations performance, governance and prospects results to values creation for the company in short, medium and long term basis. The main objective of this report is to share the company insights with various company stakeholders such as shareholders and other business partners. The report entails both financial and non-financial reporting of the company whose main advantage is wholesomely presenting the company image to the stakeholders in one document. Main Purpose To establish governing guiding principles and content elements The main purpose of the integrated report is to provide the guiding principles that and content elements that directs on what needs to be included in the report and why such items are important. The framework enables those preparing the integrated reports to have a uniform outlook that is easy to understand and captures important aspects that stakeholders need to know in the companies they have interests in. (BUSCO, 2016) The framework is basically developed in view of private sector and profit making companies of any size but the integrated report can be varied to accordingly to fit into a public sector organizations as well as non-profit organizations. It is therefore an empirical formula or guidance that can be replicated in different forms to suits different types of organizations, so long as the modification is not a great deal of departure from the basic guiding principles and elements. The integrated report framework type of information that needs to be included in the report that can be used to asses how and organization or company intents to create value based on the resources at its disposal. Once its clear how the organization intents to create value then the report can be summed up as an integrated. The framework does not provide benchmark or marking scheme to assess the quality of an organization strategies or its performance level. The integrated report captures the value created by the company is preserved or diminished in respect to resources available within the reach of the company. The value created is also captured in terms of short, medium or long term contexts. (Morros, 2016) Key benefits The integrated report key benefits to all stakeholders. The integrated report aims at creating transparency and accountability in the manner in which the company capitals are managed. The six main capitals are; financial, human, intellectual, social, natural and manufactured. Since the management is aware about how these capitals are managed the other stakeholders like strategic business partners, shareholders and government regulators need to understand or know how these capitals are managed. By producing integrated report the management or the board of the organization also fulfill their mandate of reporting on all activities concerning the organization to the other stakeholders. This is one way in which the integrated report benefits all the stakeholders. Apart from promoting accountability of the above capitals, integrated reports also promotes the interrelatedness of these capitals. To the shareholders perhaps they might not understand how the capitals interrelate with each other to result to value creation. The might know the total profits posted by the company but they dont understand the players that moved or determined the profits. The major factors that needs to be taken care of by the organization in order to keep on boosting the profits, the integrated report therefore simplifies these aspects to the shareholders in order for to have a real grip of what drives the organizations they have interests in. The international integrated reporting framework Guiding principles Strategic focus and future orientation One of the guiding principle of an integrated report is that it should provide insight knowledge in the organizations strategy and how these strategies corresponds to the organizations ability to create value. On the guidance of this principle the integrated report is able to provide insights risks and opportunities that are present in the organization. Connectivity of information With this principle the integrated report should be able to provide wholesome or holistic picture of how various factors in the organization can interrelate to create value for the capital invested over time. Stakeholder relationships The integrated report should point out the relationship of the organization with key stakeholders and to what extend does it exist. It highlights how the organization is able to benefit from such relations in terms of achieving the organizational objectives. Materiality A good integrated report should highlight information regarding matters that have fundamental bearing on the ability of the company to create value with its resources in the context of short, medium and long terms. Conciseness An integrated report should always be concise with relevant information that provides clear understanding of the organizations performance, governance and prospects to all stakeholders. This raises the understanding of the company activities and boost clarity of issues among the stakeholders. Reliability and completeness Under this principle an integrated report needs to have all important or material maters both negative and positive in correct balance without leaving out important materials that should have been included. Consistency and comparability The integrated report should always have consistent information that will remain correct even in future. The information should also be comparable to other organizations so that stake holders are able to put the report into various contexts. 4.2 Content elements Organizational overview and external environment A good integrated report needs to highlight what objectives does organization have and within what context does the organization operate in. Governance The report should show how the organizational governance enables it to create value within the short, medium and long term context, thus promoting the same understanding across all the stakeholders. Business model An integrated report should paint the picture of what organization model looks like. It helps the other shareholders to understand how the business operation of the organization they have interest in is set up. Risk and opportunities The report should highlight specific risks and opportunities the organization face /have. This enables the other stakeholders appreciate the strategies the organization have. Strategy and resource allocation The report should indicate to all shareholders the direction the organization is taking and how is it going to achieve set objectives. Performance The report should always point out the performance of the company in terms of meeting its organizational objectives in a specific period of time and in respect to the capital of the company. This enables the stakeholders to gauge if the organization is meeting their expectations. Outlook An integrated report should inform the stakeholders the challenges and uncertainties it is facing and the implications it may have on the company objectives. This will help the stakeholders to appreciate mechanism put in place by the organization to mitigate these uncertainties. Basis of preparation and presentation The report should highlight to the stakeholders on what basis did it determine what to include in the report and what not to include. This helps everyone related to the organization to appreciate the content of the report. Comparative evaluation Evaluation of the principle The 2016 AMP limited financial captured guiding principles of the integrated report in a number of ways. The report captures the companys strategy in terms of how the company is planning to meet its objectives within the context of the surrounding environment. The report is also consistent from one point to another in simple manner that is understandable. From the report it is easy to draw consistency and comparability with other reports as it highlights items such as profit, capital invested and time taken to realize the objectives. The report is also concise and provides necessary information on all parts that it has captured. Although the report is reliable it has however not addressed stakeholder relationship and thus lacking in completeness. (Soyka, 2013) evaluation of content element The element content of the integrated report is also present in the AMP 2016 financial report. The report provides the organizational overview of the company as well the governance structure. It also reports on the risks and opportunities for the bank in the Australian market context. The report also highlights the performance of the bank during the financial year 2016 and paints an outlook of the company in terms of challenges it might faces as captured in the directors report. The document does not however capture the basis of the preparation of the report and how the contents in it were determined. (Soyka, 2013) References BUSCO, C. (2016). INTEGRATED REPORTING. [Place of publication not identified]: SPRINGER INTERNATIONAL PU. Mio, C. Integrated reporting. Morros, J. (2016). The integrated reporting: A presentation of the current state of art and aspects of integrated reporting that need further development. Intangible Capital, 12(1). https://dx.doi.org/10.3926/ic.700 Rezaee, Z. (2015). Business sustainability. Sheffield: Greenleaf Publishing. Schaltegger, S., Bennett, M., Burritt, R. (2006). Sustainability Accounting and Reporting. Dordrecht: Springer. Soyka, P. (2013). The International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) Integrated Reporting Framework: Toward Better Sustainability Reporting and (Way) Beyond. Environmental Quality Management, 23(2), 1-14. https://dx.doi.org/10.1002/tqem.21357