CHAPTER THREE : STRATEGIC INITIATIVES FOR IMPLEMENTING COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES

STRATEGIES INITIATIVES

Organizations can undertake high-profile strategic initiatives including;

I)Supply chain management (SCM)

ii) Customers relationship management (CRM)

iii) Business process re engineering (BPR)

 iv) Enterprise resources planning (ERP)

SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT (SCM)

-          It 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;
o     Supply chain strategy – strategy for managing all resources to meet customers demand
o     Supply chain partner – partners throughout the supply chain that deliver finished products, raw materials and services
o     Supply chain operation – schedule for production activities
o     Supply chain logistics – product delivery process

-          Effective and efficient SCM systems can enable an organization to;
o     Decrease the power of its buyers
o     Increase its own supplier power
o     Increase switching costs to reduce the threat of substitute products or services
o     Create entry barriers thereby reducing the threat of new entrants
o     Increase efficiency while seeking a competitive advantages through cost leadership

CUSTOMERS RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT (CRM)

-          Its involves managing all aspects of a customer’s relationship with an organization to increase customer loyalty and retention and an organization’s profitability

-          CRM 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;
o      Identify types of customers
o      Design individual customer marketing campaign
o      Treat each customer as a individual
o      Understand customer buying behaviors
 

BUSINESS PROCESS RE ENGINEERING (BPR)

-          It is a standardized set of activities that accomplish a specific task, such as processing a customer’s order
-          The analysis and redesign of workflow within and between enterprises

ENTERPRISES RESOURCE PLANNING (ERP)

-          It  integrates all departments 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

-          Keyword in ERP is “enterprise”.

-          ERP systems collect data from across an organization and correlates the data generating an enterprise wide view