Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3     STRATEGIC INITIATIVES FOR IMPLIMENTING COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES

 

Strategic Initiatives

Organizations can undertake high-profile strategic initiatives including :

o   Supply chain management (SCM)

o   Customers relationship management (CRM)

o   Business process reengineering (BPR)

o   Enterprise resource planning (ERP)

Supply chain management (SCM)

Involves the management of information flows between and among stages in a supply chain to maximize total supply chain effectiveness and profitability.

Four basic components of supply chain management include :

• vSupply chain strategy (strategy for managing all resources to meet customers demand)
• Supply chain partner (partners throughout the supply chain that deliver finished products, raw materials and services.
• Supply chain operation (schedule for production activities)
• v Supply chain logistics(product delivery process)

Customers relationship management (CRM)

Involves managing all aspects of a customer’s relationship with an organization to increase customer loyalty and retention and an organization’s profitability.

It is not just technology, but a strategy, process and business goal that an organization must embrace on an enterprise wide level.

CRM can enable an organization to :

• ·        Identify types of consumers

• ·        Design individual customer marketing campaigns

• ·        Treat each customer as an individual

• ·        Understand customer buying behaviours

Business process reengineering (BPR)

Business process is a standardized set of activities that accomplish a specific task, such as processing a customer’s order.

BPR is the analysis and redesign of workflow within and between enterprises.

A company can improve the way it travels the road by moving from foot to horse and then horse to car.

BPR look at taking a different path, such as an airplane which ignore the road completely.

Enterprise resource planning (ERP)

Integrates all department and functions throughout an organization into a single IT system so that employees can make decisions by viewing enterprise wide information on all business operations.

It collects data from across an organization and correlates the data generating an enterprise wide view.