..Special thank..

Thank Miss Ummi!!! Doakan saya dapat buat yang terbaik untuk subject ni mase final.. sorry for last minute work and also sorry for did not participate well in your class..(^^,)

And again thank you..

Scenario Planning Approach to Strategic Management of Small Travel Business in Malaysia

Abstract:

Scenario planning, an alternative strategic management tool, has given a new meaning and dimension to the way strategy should be thought, discussed and implemented in organizations. This paper introduces scenario planning in the way the turbulent world should be better managed by looking for possible futures and not predicting the only future. No matter how rational strategic planners are, the complexity of the business environment would still leave the planners guessing of their planned and predicted future. This study undertaken using scenario planning technique by looking at the future of the small travel business in Malaysia. The three plausible scenarios discovered were 'stormy weather', 'blizzards' and 'occasional shower'. The study recommended that strategic options available for the businesses were 'differentiation', 'new services', 'diversification and mergers/acquisition'. These options are applicable for all scenarios.

Keywords: Scenario planning, strategic management, entrepreneurship, small travel industry, management imperfection, evolutionist, revolutionist

INTRODUCTION

In recent times, change has become an ultimate issue for organizational survival. To keep abreast with the latest in products, designs and innovations of competitors and incorporating a copycat strategy is not the recipe for long-term success. Only organizations that have the ability to scan the environment effectively with a shared mental model, leading to innovation within can see success and profit potential in the long run. This is the field of strategic management and scenario planning, an alternative tool to strategic management, ensures long-term sustainable survival of an organization. Many strategic planners have found scenario planning as crucial part of strategic management for envisioning the future by producing plausible multiple futures (scenarios) (Van der Heijden, 1996).

A failure to envision seeing the micro and macro environment of an organization has by and large been the root cause for ineffective strategic planning. The three main reasons that have been identified to blind the organizations are:

Operational ineffectiveness: Operational ineffectiveness is one of the causes for low profitability in organizations. Companies that are able to get more out of their inputs, by way of eliminating waste, employing advanced technology, and motivating employees, stand to have higher profitability than competitors because they are able to reduce operating costs. However, not all efficiency models and theories need to be employed and organizations have a choice on their preference. For example, 'zero-defect' can be introduced as a Total Quality Management principle because it leads to efficiency and overall lower expenditure in costs, but then again it is one that a company can live without.

It must be emphasized that although operational ineffectiveness is one of the contributors for failures in organizational processes, it does not, however, drive a company out of competition, at least in the short term. There is a false assumption in organizations that operational activities are a part of strategy. It is certainly an essential element in organizations but however, its ineffectiveness is not the root cause for organizational failures.

Business Successes: Strategic management rethink is more in need for successful companies than those who are struggling. Successful companies are in danger of suffering from strategic failure in times of rapid change (Wack, 1985). Because of their success story they will be locked into strong assumptions and therefore their procedures and policies will be hard to change. In other words, change is not in the agenda. For an instance, IBM, the dominant in the mainframe computer market, failed to envision the growing market for personal computers (Kay, 2001). However, the fact remained that they were the best in mainframe computing. …

just copy and paste..more information ----> http://www.questia.com/library/journal/1P3-1940617901/scenario-planning-approach-to-strategic-management

..Last lecture class..

BUILDING AN ORGANIZATION CAPABLE OF GOOD STRATEGY EXECUTION: PEOPLE, CAPABILITIES, AND STRUCTURE

For chapter 10 these ten basic tasks of the strategy execution process are important because this can perform a good organization. In my opinion, for this strategy training program is important because with the training programs the managers can know about their employee’s capabilities and this can make the manager easy to manage their organization structures.

MANAGING INTERNAL OPERATIONS: ACTIONS THAT PROMOTE GOOD STRATEGY EXECUTION

Chapter 11, the last chapter for strategic management subject… related to learning objective, there are five things that I must understand after finish studying this chapter. Therefore there are five ways to managing for continuous improvement that are based on benchmarking, best practices, total quality management (TQM), six sigma quality programs, and process reengineering. Six sigma programs utilize statistical methods to improve quality by reducing defects and variability in business processes and six sigma principle is all work are process and all process have variability and create data that explain variability.

..Ethics, corporate social responsibility, environmental sustainability and strategy..

For this topic, there is no lecture but Miss Ummi asked us to participate in forum. The question given is “discuss how a corporate culture can assist in executing strategies in an organization. If you are one of the top managers, what kind of values that you would like to in calculate in your organization? Why it does so?”

Meaning corporate culture from Wikipedia is the behavior of humans who are part of an organization and the meanings that the people attach to their actions. Culture includes the organization values, visions, norms, working language, systems, symbols, beliefs and habits. It is also the pattern of such collective behaviors and assumptions that are taught to new organizational members as a way of perceiving, and even thinking and feeling. Organizational culture affects the way people and groups interact with each other, with clients, and with stakeholders.

So, how it’s can assist in executing the strategies in an organization by using their norms. As mention in meaning the worker may comfortable to do their work by doing something that relate with their cultures and this also can leads them to make the company success. If I as the top managers, of cost I want to in calculate some of the values that related with Islamic value. It is because can give the worker reminder to honest and trustworthy when doing their work. (^^,)

CORPORATE STRATEGY: DIVERSIFICATION AND THE MULTIBUSINESS COMPANY

Diversification is companies that have many businesses. During the lecture Miss Ummi have advice us if we want to open a business it’s better to start with small business and we also must have our target market. Therefore, with this we can get success and expand our business.

So, back to these topics. Before we attend to lecture class my class has attended tutorial class and we have discussed about UMW case study. Seriously I did not understand what the case study all about. It is long case study and I just know that this UMW Holding have four core business which are automotive assembly and distribution, automotive components OEM and REM, heavy component and last oil and gas drilling services. So, for the question that have given by Miss Ummi related with this case study only half I can answer. After having a discussion in the class I understand what the case study all about. Then, during lecture class I got prepared for this topic. There also synergy term in this topic that means 1+1=3. From core concept, creating added value for shareholders via diversification requires building a multibusiness company where the whole is greater than the sum of its part. This means that diversifying into a new business must offer potential for the company’s existing business and the new business to perform operating as independent and stand alone business. That’s all for this topic.. (^^,)

..Oshima restaurant..

This restaurant was owned by a strong lady Puan Hasnidar Hanim. Why I said she was a strong lady is because she never gives up. Before opening the restaurant Pn Hanim have been studied in engineering course that are not related with business. But life as an engineer is did not give enough time for her to spend more with family and her child. She wants her children get enough love from her and at last she and her husband have made decision to open a Japanese Food restaurant. With the lacking knowledge about business is not an easy thing for her when she open the restaurant. It is because, she spend more capital at beginning she open the restaurant. She also opened the restaurant with many branch without thinking the acceptance of our Malaysian people about Japanese food. Besides that, she also must to compete with others Japanese restaurant like Sushi King and she also have problem to get halal raw material for her restaurant. But, she did not take all the problems as a weaknesses and she takes it as a challenge to become a successful person in business. From that she learned one by one how to make a good strategy. Hopefully Puan Hasnidar can be successful business woman on 100% halal Japanese food. (^^,)

women with the black scarf is Puan Hasnidar...

STRATEGIES FOR COMPETING IN INTERNATIONAL MARKETS

In this chapter I have learn strategies if some company want to market their product or service into international market. The picture above is the reasons why the companies want to get compete into international markets. This chapter also I have learned about the Porter’s Diamond of national competitive advantage like in the picture below: 

Other than that, in tutorial class Miss Ummi has giving us one case study about piping hot dog. It is an ongoing process for entrepreneurs as we are always seeking ways to improve in the industry. “I have the joy of watching others grow successfully through my franchise programme” [Tengku Rozidar Tengku Zainal Abidi]. The hot dog company named as Nineteen O One Sdn. Bhd. is a franchise company. ‘‘We want to penetrate the Middle Eastern market and other markets with Muslim population for our halal food. We aim to be a global halal brand,’’ this is one of what have the owner of the company said. For this case study the owner have mention that everyone likes hot dog and if they want to expend their business they must to enter international markets. Before that also Madam Rozidar which is the owner of the companies have studies about international market and makes the decision to enter the markets. All in all, we must to have knowledge and goods strategies to compete in international market. (^^,)

STRENGTHENING A COMPANY’S COMPETITIVE POSITION: STRATEGIC MOVES, TIMING, AND SCOPE OF OPERATIONS

“Trying to do what your competitors are doing but basically a little bit better is probably not going to be the winning strategy. The problem is finding what your competitors wouldn't even consider doing.”     [Jamais cascio]

Based on this quotes, in business or whatever we want to do if we do something same with others we cannot be the winner and maybe hard for us to survive. Therefore, we need to do something that people did not do like applying blue ocean strategy. Blue ocean strategy means offers growth in revenues and profits by discovering or inventing new industry segment that create altogether new demand. Besides that, some of examples of blue ocean strategy are im4u, eBay, FedEx, star bucks coffee and others. Other than blue ocean strategies, there are still having another strategy that can be applied in order to strengthening a company’s competitive position such as horizontal merger and acquisition, strategic alliance, joint venture and last vertical integration strategy. So, if the company’s apply those strategies they can be a successful and strength company and can maintain their business. I hope if I have a business in the future I can apply these strategies especially the blue ocean strategies. It’s better to have a unique business rather than same business that quite similar with others that can make us hard to maintain and got success in our business. (^^,)

THE FIVE GENERIC COMPETITIVE STRATEGIES: WHICH ONE TO EMPLOY?

Week5:

Assalamualaikum...

So, what have I learn this week?? My beloved lecturer Miss Ummi have started the class by asking all of us that do we have an experience ride a plane?? For me.. the answer is NO..huhu but I still know that Air Asia always do lower price promotion to attract their customers. In this chapter the important thing that we must know is the five generic competitive strategies. First, about low-cost provider that is striving to achieve lower overall costs than rivals on products that attract a broad spectrum of buyers. Secondly, broad differentiation that means differentiating the firm’s product offering from rivals’ with attributes that appeal to a broad spectrum of buyers. Next, is about focused low-cost strategy that concentrating on a narrow price-sensitive buyer segment and on costs to offer a lower-priced product. Other than that, related with focused differentiation that concentrating on narrow buyer segment by meeting specific tasted and requirements of niche members. Lastly, best-cost provider that is giving customers more value for the money by offering upscale product attributes at a lower cost than rivals.

Miss Ummi also asked the student to do homework that identifies some companies that apply this five generic competitive strategies. Here is my answer:

EVALUATING A COMPANY’S RESOURCES, CAPABILITIES, AND COMPETITIVENESS

Week 4:

Assalamualaikum…

For this week I have learn about internal analysis that we need to do SWOT analysis in order to know our company condition. This is important because we must to know our strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to improve our company to gain more profit or to improve our management. For my opinion, this is the main analysis that company must do for their strategic management. Other than that, not only for company or organization that we need to do this SWOT analysis but we also need to do this analysis for ourselves like Miss Ummi ask us to do during lecture class. Related to the analysis we can know better about ourselves and we also can identify and think some ways to improve ourselves to get success I hope.. (^^,) 

Here the steps to do SWOT analysis.

Evaluating a company’s external environment

Week 3:

In this topic first we need to know about macro-environment. This macro-environment encompasses the broad environmental context in which a company’s industry is situated that includes strategically relevant components over which the firm has no direct control. In addition, there are two things that important in this chapter. First is about PESTEL analysis (Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental, and Legal) that focus on principal components of strategic significance in the macro-environment. Second are five competitive forces that also known as Porter’s 5 Forces framework of competitive analysis. This Porter’s 5 Forces include competition from rival sellers, competition from potential new entrants, competition from producers of substitute products, supplier bargaining power and customer bargaining power. 

To know more what is PESTEL I read this website http://pestleanalysis.com/.. Actually there are many website that explain about PESTEL analysis. Besides that also, porter 5 forces is to know better about the company or organization rival. What is their stronger?? And what is their weaker?? Therefore with this we can conclude whether the industries attractive or not.

..The business vision and mission..

Assalamualaikum…

For this topic what have I understand was vision statement is for short term effect and mission is long term effect. Other than that, basically vision is about a short sentence that consist word that can be our purpose of doing something and mission could be the reason and the way to achieve the vision. As example, for tutorial activities Miss Ummi had ask her student to mention what our mission coming to USIM and again I repeated my answer for that question.

“When knowing that I got to continuing my degree at USIM this is a big challenge for me. Why?? It is because the subject that I must learn in Arabic language. Therefore, in order to complete my degree I must to set up my mind to learn how to understand this language. Regarding to your question what is my mission coming to USIM is first to get better in Arabic language, to make my parents proud of me and also to be an independent, successful and useful person in the future. Based on this, what have I do to achieve my mission is asking for my friend that have better in Arabic to explain to me about the subject and to be successful person of course I must to study smart and manage my time properly. Then, hopefully I can complete my degree with the better result and make my parents proud of me InsyaAllah..” (^^,)

Based on this topic, Miss Ummi also did explain in her lecture about procedure, importants, benefits and characteristics of vision and mission..

..Nature of strategic management..

Week2_topic 1:

In this week, the lesson is about the nature of strategic management that we must to understand first what it is strategic management definition. Based on what Miss Ummi explain in the lecture, Strategic management is defined as the art and science of formulating, implementing, and evaluating cross-functional decisions that enable an organization to achieve its objectives. There are many others thing that I learn in this chapters such as the key term in strategic management (must be remember right??), the strategic management model, about the benefits, pitfalls in strategic management, and last comparing business and military strategy.

Opss!! Do you know in strategic management also have it stage?? There are three stages in this strategic management that are strategy formulation, strategy implementation and strategy evaluation. This three stage maybe can be explain in this blog..

http://management4best.blogspot.com/2010/03/strategic-management-three-phases.html

To be continue with topic 2.. (^^,)

Tallest one..

During first class in STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT course..

We had experience to make the tallest tower by using newspaper that provided by Miss Ummi and other recourses such as scissors, glue, loytape or other.  From this activity we have learn how to manage a group. In order to do something with a group of people, we must have a talented leader that can give an instruction properly and also the group members can understand. Furthermore, there also must have a good strategy that can make a better result. Related to our activities that make the tallest building, the strategy that we can apply was we must have a strong basement. So, based on that our building can also be strong and cannot be broken easily even there is a storm. =)

That’s a fun activities right?? ^^,

A short introduction...

First of all, I would like to introduce myself..hehehe

My name is NOR ASMAR SURIANTI BINTI MOHD ADAM and feel free or friendly just call me EMMA. I’m MALAYSIAN people don’t misunderstand “SURIANTI” in my name.. =) I came from Kuala Terengganu,Terengganu. Loved to eat, reading novel, cook and any other’s activities that I enjoy to do it. Currently, I’m doing my study in BACHELOR OF MUAMALAT ADMINISTRATION WITH HONOURS in Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM) and now guess what I’m third year student.. This blog are especially dedicated for DR. UMMI SALWA AHMAD BUSTAMAM in order to complete my individual assignment on STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT subject. Glad to have you MISS UMMI as my lecturer and also my tutor. Very challenging this semester that I have to create blog on my own and this I haven’t thinking to do on myself. Hopefully I will do my best on this subject and get better result in final exam. Last but not least, I hope MISS UMMI or any others friend can advice and correct me if I do mistake when trying to explain what I understand in lecture. So, let’s take this opportunity and do all the best.. =)