Strategic Business Alliance

In any organization the strategic management is the most crucial factor in its sustainable survival in the marketplace. It only by having and upholding it a strong organizational vision and mission that an effective decision making process can be realized in an organization. Such sharing and reflection of common values across all members in an organization in their every day to day activity is what makes a strong culture. It is clear from this that having a strong culture is reflective of sustainable success of an organization (Klein, 2008).

This paper is an argumentative essay in support of the proposition that a strong culture is a source of the competitive advantage for an organization. The author gives a critical discussion on the importance of vision, mission and core values in an organization as they are the key players in building a strong culture in any organization.

The sole aim of having in place a strategic management plan in any organization is to ensure a sustainable competitive advantage. It is by ensuring that the plan is adhered to that an organization can be assured of maintaining and improving it competitive position in the marketplace. Therefore, it is rather vital in realizing survival against competition over a long-time existence to uphold and review constantly an organizations strategic plan (Boeker, 1997). It is only by ensuring that each and every member of an organization, employers and employees alike live up to the expectations set in the strategic plan that an organization can claim of having a strong culture.

It is by the defining and upholding the organizations core values that quality, innovation and efficiency can be guaranteed. The fact is to be stated that any company success is highly dependent on not only its consumer base but on the reliability of its employees in meeting the economic development projections of a company (Klein, 2008). Therefore, having well engaged employees who are to uphold and protect the reputation of an organization will ultimately give it a competitive advantage in the market. It is also by having strong culture of quality and innovative products assurance as well as efficiency of production that a company can claim to sustain its consumer base in the market.

Having a strong culture in an organization means to have and uphold a strong and unreal vision in an organization. The vision statement is the most crucial element in ensuring for the sustainability of an organization. It is such a statement which if upheld by all in the organization leads to the ultimate satisfaction of customers (French, 1998). This means that the organization will be certainly assured of its long term survival against the market competition.

Another element in a strong organizational culture is a mission statement. It is by defining away and following this that success and prosperity is assured. The distinctive capabilities of an organization are the ultimate determinant of the organizations competitive position in the market. In our modern economy, corporate capabilities are the key factor in realizing the competitive advantage in the market (Dent, Goldberg, 1999). It is based on this reasoning that having and upholding a constantly reinvented mission, as a sign of a strong culture in the organization, will ensure a competitive advantage.

There is no doubt that the modern market is highly competitive. Due to this companies are nowadays seeking to establish alliances with others as a way of gaining a competitive advantage in the marketplace. With similar or related products in the market, forming a business alliance does not only reduce the cost of production and marketing but also increases the competitive advantage in the market by giving unfair competition to otherwise weak companies in the market (European Alliance, 2008). It is in line with the advantages associated with strategic alliances in the business sector that this paper is written. The author particularly talks of the major areas of an alliance in today’s business.

A strategic business alliance can be simply defined as any act of a company cooperating with another for the purposes of ensuring a sustainable competitive advantage in the marketplace. It is to be noted here that the sole purpose of any company is to gain value for its goods and/or services. It is still clear from statistical evidence that the market is highly competitive due to the concept of the free market trade. It is thus also by strategic planning that an organization could be assured of a sustainable long-time existence in the marketplace. It has also been established that goods and services are closely associated to each other. Some goods or services act as prerequisite for others in the market thus forming a god avenue for a strategic alliance formation as a competitive marketing tool for both companies (Leana, 2000). This ensures that each company acts as a marketer for the goods or services of the other. This does not only increase the market consumer base for the involved companies but also greatly reduces the marketing expenditure costs required for its products.

In a competitive market, only the strong and well established companies survive. This is basically due to the fact that such companies are evidently capable of practicing discriminative marketplace practices for the purposes of eliminating the otherwise poorly established companies. This ensures a reduced competition in the market and thus increasing a strong consumer base for its products. It is due to this reason that many companies are currently opting for strategic alliance formation as a way of establishing a strong and highly influential market wave for their good and/or services (Grant, 2008). Such alliances are not only good for sustaining the company market share but much for eliminating competition through realization of an anti-competitive advantage over other competitors.

Still found in strategic alliances is the advantage of marketing of goods and/or services. Many alliances between companies are mainly meant to access cross the border markets. This means that such companies involved are at a higher position of realizing a bigger market share in the global market. Just to be stated here is the fact that such companies have the overall advantage of increasing the profitability of the organization (HRM, 1987). It is also to be realized here that companies can form strategic alliances in their production process of goods and services. Here professional companies engage others to increase their efficiency of production by outsourcing some services. This also has the advantage of reducing the production cost thus increasing the company profits.

Employees are the most important resource in any organization. It is the organization’s workforce which highly determines the effectiveness and efficient use of resources in the organization. It is due to this reason that the employee engagement in an organization is quite crucial in ensuring a sustainable company profitability plan. It has been clearly established that employees do not only determine the profitability but also ensure the public reputation of an organization in the marketplace. Such are the sole factors, which influence positively the sustainable growth of an organization (Jackson et al, 1999). Many organizations have evidently claimed that production is the only concern for the survival in ensuring a competitive advantage in the marketplace. It is however to be noted that it is the workforce which is highly responsible not only for a high production, but much important for the effective use of available resources in the organization.

Therefore, improving employees’ morale should be considered as the best way of realizing a sustainable economically competitive advantage in the marketplace. This has the advantage not only of increasing the productivity of the workforce but also improving the teamwork advantage as well as the workplace environment in the organization. All these have the end result of ensuring the sustainability of the organization’s economic growth and/or profitability. Due to the importance of improving employees’ morale, many methods have been adopted by many organizations (Pucik, 1996). They include the use of employee incentives, working bonuses, improving salaries, recognition of employees’ efforts mainly through promotions and salaries increments and the use of employees’ awarding schemes.

The ability by an organization to identify and strategically nature and to develop a talent in employees for future higher positions or responsibilities is crucial in ensuring the sustainable flow of a qualified and highly reliable human resource in the organization. This is what is referred to as the succession management (Sakalas et al, 2008). The practice is aimed at ensuring the availability of an in-house pool of members with the prerequisite qualifications for filling position whenever need arises.

An effective succession management involves three major steps.A company should first identify the roles for the succession. This is crucial as it defines the skills and qualification required for the specific position or role. This is followed by identifying a suitable employee(s) with potential to fit the role. The identified employee(s) must then be prepared for a role through training and exposure. The success management has a number of advantages in an organization (The Scout Association, 2000). The practice ensures smooth transitions in an organization. A reliable succession management practice reduces chances of succession failure by ensuring availability of a capable personnel in the organization. This also reduces chances of loosing expertise in an organization, thus realizing sustainable competitive advantage.

The succession management leads to reliable business continuity. This is because it guarantees a succession by persons with knowledge on the business culture of the company. Still, it leads to the sustained clients and investor relationships. The reputation of any organization in the public is partly dependent on how the successful management succession processes are conducted. The effective succession management will therefore protects the reputation of an organization; a key marketing advantage in business.