Compensation Strategy for the New Economy Age, Essay Example

Section 1: External Environment

At Just Web Internet Company the objective of strategic management is to determine, create and maintain competitive advantage, globalization has promulgated new frameworks of responsive planning in order to meet the accelerated expansion of innovation, resource management, and performance, as well as market price and investment capitalization. In the global economy, and particularly where the IT market is concerned, change management must include the brilliance of talent, and its outcomes in product, portfolio and logistics. You will discover as you train with the Policy Manual as a guide, that your managerial expertise is what JWI Company (JWI) sought. As a manager, you are an important liaison between internal and external factors that contribute to the realization of core competencies as profit.

JWI Company is known for its aggressive product differentiation strategy; the basic model that has set companies such as ours apart from competitors largely still dependent upon cost leadership. A revolutionary amongst “old line companies” that have not effectively crafted innovative strategies (or products), you have been chosen as one of JWI’s team members because you reflect the kind of solid performance we seek in our concerted efforts to move beyond price war strategies into “supernormal returns.” JWI Company is clear on its global market strategy. Our Scoping Plan covers JWI’s recent entrance into a niche market almost based purely on individual consumer preference of features (e.g., laptop design aesthetics), as well as the industry standard of reliability as a basis value added on “premium price” products. Therefore, we understand that “doing something better” is often based on something as small as product identity.

We do much to protect our brand identity, and are constantly researching developments with our market competitors in order to buffer our product line, and our consumers from identity theft. Indeed, in the tech industry, inimitability is of particular import. You will find our Identity Management (IDM) strategy integrated into all levels of the value chain, and remains constant in terms of  research and development focus on creating barriers to imitation, as well as forge resource for “up to the minute” leverage against corporate espionage. At JWI Company, our goal is to offer customers comparable top end products without the time differential present in the product chain performance of our imitators. Technology is the primary mover in our product innovation, and a key component of competitive market analyses directed at positioning new products and their futures.

Section 2: Strategic Planning

A roadmap for JWI’s Vision, the Company’s Five Year Strategic Plan articulates all aspects of the internet company’s strategic intent and includes feasibility studies on our forthcoming expansion of services. Intended to provide a comprehensive overview of a company’s infrastructure (i.e., Departments), and visionary possibilities (i.e., new product innovation), the strategic plan is a three to five year statement directed at integrating fiscal, operational, marketing, production and human development objectives into precise goals toward sustained competitive entrepreneurship, consumer satisfaction and financial gain. The document also provides our new managers with an overview of organizational planning, and includes company mission statement, strategic goals and objectives. Without our actionable agenda, and researched directives at all functionary levels, aspects critical to asserting market and stakeholder interests will meet inevitable and potentially avoidable pitfalls to competitive positioning. Throughout your career at JWI, you will find the Strategic Plan essential to effective decision making and long term sustainability and growth.

While market research and product development are often hinged on change, and change management must respond to those shifts in order to be effective, organizational decision making based entirely upon flexible environmental factors is virtually impossible. Feasibility studies in the form of the various instruments of external and internal assessment enable JWI to determine the most advantageous options, or productive “value(s).”[i] We use equity value as a price impact statement. Equity value is also a method of translating identity within the market through illustrated performance of a product, and consumer satisfaction is an essential element of determining an organization’s orientation toward research and development of products.  At JWI Company, the two tiers of product analysis look at: 1) external or environmental analysis; and 2) internal or organizational analysis serve to ground hypotheses in customer insights (e.g., consumer segmentation), and selection of methodological tools for integrated analysis of those preferences into in-depth analysis of product life-cycle, and the viability of investment in those futures based on portfolio adaptation. In addition, SWOT analyses contribute to the market derived data drawn from organizational analyses, through further interpretation of the firm’s performance based upon the specificities revealed in the company’s strengths and weaknesses.

Many of your managerial decisions related to business development, finance, operations, and production planning will be grounded in the outcomes of the studies. The tension between existing organizational culture and resistance to environmental change can be measured in terms of productivity. While productivity is not demand, it is obviously a critical factor in financial outcomes for any organization. How people work has much to do with their attitude toward the company they work for. JWI employees are encouraged to optimize performance in a real sense: by contributing to their own success as owners. Evaluations enable employees to articulate challenges to their success within the organization, or orientation toward processes. Organizational assessment of the company is conducted by High Point Consultancy with recommended instruments drawn from best practices models of evaluation. At JWI we seek a well researched management strategy. By doing this, our management staff is able to make educated decisions about everything from accounting to training, and proscribe value to all future projects through evaluated performance.

Section 3: Organization

All management is responsible for learning our core competencies. At JWI Company core competencies are used in comparative analysis with product life-cycle, and redefined through new insights into actual portfolio performance. Our seven (7) core competencies are: Adaptability, Customer Focused, Ethics, Innovation, Professionalism, Technical Skill and Teamwork.

Resource analysis, crucial in the representation of production, provides additional insights into value chain activities related to quality control, and the facilitation of current operations in outbound logistics, marketing, sales and services. Inclusive in those strategies of product innovation, are portfolio analyses that synthesize the range of products as assets both 1) strategic business units (SBU) that can be mobilized for profit and loss accountability in a range of markets (i.e., low to high futures), and 2) as targets for investment of a firm’s capital. Comparative internal and external analysis of the organization and its competitiveness in the market assists in the definition of strategic scope internationally, and specifically the correlation between brand identity and the extension of the life of its products.

During the course of your management training, you will be instructed on the administration of our various divisions. Some of the topics within the training include: 1) mission; 2) benchmark goals; 3) actionable objectives of the different service divisions; 3) infrastructural information; 4) partnerships or supplier relationships; 5) financial projections; and 6) compliance. In every case, financial accountability must be articulated as a core competency within the management process. Without financial accountability, little to nothing can be accomplished within the planning process, and by proxy, competitive advantage in the marketplace.

Section 4: Company Leadership

At JWI Company our employees are owners. We believe in a financial outcomes based model of leadership.[ii] Incentive is the key to our success. Enhancement of shareholder value by way of executive and management practice provides the foundation to our company.

Fundamentally, the role of management is a set of connected processes that involve a series of goal oriented, planning activities and resultant actionable operations, reliant upon the mobilization and administration of resources (i.e., financial, human, material and informational). Fiscal outcomes to those processes that include employee shareholder EVA benefits enable our staff to enjoy the fruits of their labor.

Achievement of our projected goals both in terms of productivity and fiscal scope mean that we are meeting our expectations of company performance as a team. Participatory teamwork is critical in the value chain management of our internet solutions products. Troubleshooting is a team effort and intended to target issues holistically. All management staff is responsible for quarterly survey of their division. Outcomes go toward enhancement of production to market data, and contribute to organizational assessment. The team dynamic is also the site where managerial financial impact translates into valuation. The direct result of those traits of valuation is stockholder valuation. Our team works, and with the proper managerial talent, so does our model of finance based leadership.

Section 5: Controller & Legal Departments

Financial and Legal activities at JWI are part of every step of our business strategy. Contractual stipulations mandating the existence of a strategic planning document for consideration by the funder or vendee are baseline criteria for consideration. The Department of Accounting is your resource for copies of the annual company audited financials, and information on employee EVA and shareholder benefits.[iii] Our counsel primarily provides assistance to our Department of Accounting and Controller, and advises on regulatory adherence on contracts.

As a corporation managing operations in several free-trade zones that are also under legal and policy obligation toward production of products, at JWI Company we make public our position on corporate liability to employee and partner relationships within the chain of value (i.e., resource management, and sometimes labor laws). Review of the labor codes according to region is mandatory for all management staff. Additional information regarding the financial and legal rules may be obtained from the respective departments.

For manufacturers and distributors, those decisions are sustained largely by commercial trade laws pertaining to merchantability and warranty. In addition, regulatory legislation related to the manufacturing and sale of those products must adhere to standards of quality and safety. Three areas of law that inhibit or promote competitive interest at JWI are: 1) product regulation; 2) UCC (Uniform Commercial Code) related to product sales; 3) and international trade laws. Management Staff whom are involved in product strategy/logistics/quality control are engaged with two legal concepts of import: 1) durability; and 2) non-substitutability. In the case of actual product durability and non-substitutability, both factors appear as core elements within commercial code, and are the main focus for testing the viability of claims within product liability lawsuits. The sheer magnitude of product liability litigation in countries such as the United States has created a horizon of competitive interests that set the tone for capital investment in certain product formations and not others.

[i] Hitt, Black & Porter (1995) Management. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education, Prentice Hall.

[ii] Towards a Financial Based Leadership Model. The Perth Leadership Institute, 2006. Retrieved from: http://www.perthleadership.org/Documents/perthleadershipoutcomemodel.pdf

[iii] Pettit, J. & Ahmar (2000).  “Compensation Strategy for the New Economy Age”. EVAulation. New York: Stern Steward & Co Research. May, 2000.