Organisation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Organisation - Essay Example Introduction Securing the effectiveness of organizational strategies is one of the most critical challenges for managers in modern businesses. On the other hand, the elimination of threats in a firm’s environment is not feasible. This means that failures cannot be avoided but they should be rather used as indicators of organizational weaknesses that need to be addressed without delay. In practice, it has been proved that the effective management of knowledge within organizations can result to the limitation of failures, either in the short or the long term. The literature published in regard to this subject shows that the establishment of appropriately customized knowledge management systems can help organizations to control all aspects of their activities so that organizational goals are achieved. The practical implications of such project are explained in this paper by referring to Speedo Ltd, a firm operating in the British automotive industry. Since its establishment, in 1 997, the organization had to face a series of critical operational problems. Through the years it was made clear that these problems were related to the firm’s inability to manage knowledge. ... the firm’s existing knowledge management strategy could secure organizational growth, even if the benefits of the relevant project could appear with delay. It should be noted that the knowledge management strategy proposed for Speedo Ltd could be also used, with minor changes, in firms in other industries that face similar problems. 2. Speedo Ltd – Company Overview 2.1 Structure The head office of the organization is in South London. The firm’s branches across UK are estimated to 12, covering all regions of the country. All key decisions are developed in the head office where the strategic planning unit of the organization is located. Managers in branches have the power to make suggestions in regard to a series of operational issues but their potential to influence the firm’s critical projects is rather limited. The central database of the business has been implemented in the head office, where all critical organizational departments, such as the HR depart ment, the PR department and the financial department of the business are based. Employees working in branches do not have full access to the database’s data; the firm’s IT network has been arranged in such way so that the information provided to the user/ employee is filtered as of its necessity for the task assigned to the particular user. This means that each employee/ user is authorized to access specific parts of the firm’s central database. This practice has helped to reduce failures in regard to the safety of the firm’s data. 2.2 Purpose and culture The firm focuses on the sale of news and used cars of different characteristics. The firm’s founder, John Peterson, has tried to promote communication and cooperation across the organization. The phrase ‘Trust and speed in communication’

Porters Five Forces to Analyze the Competitive Environment in which Essay

Porters Five Forces to Analyze the Competitive Environment in which Ryanair operates Bargaining Power of Suppliers - Essay Example The customers of Ryanair are putting on them a lot of collective pressure so that they can lower the travel expenses and improve the quality of their airline services. The customers associated with Ryanair are enjoying a higher bargaining power since switching to other airlines with better services is very easy with little or no costs. In the case of Ryanair, the substitutes for their transport systems include railways, sea transport, and road transport and any strategy by them poses a threat to Ryanair profitability. However, Ryanair is still able to operate at a lower cost, leading to lower cost of services that attract more customers. The threat of new entrants in this industry is relatively low due to high costs involved in the initial stages of the business set up that many cannot afford. Economics of scale can only be enjoyed by big players like Ryanair and this makes other possible investors be scared away (O’Cuilleannain, Falle, Sobokta, Kleinert, Chassart, Farrell, 2004). There is also difficulty in gaining access to distribution channels that poses a barrier to new entrants. Since the airline industry is highly fragmented, competition is very high leading to low returns. In order to survive, Ryanair is constantly coming up with unique business models in order to outweigh their competitors and make reasonable profits. Ryanair is luck since it is based in Europe whereby European Union is a complete stable political region that provides a good environment for business to thrive. The integration of the European Union has provided an opportunity for this airline industry to expand its operations very swiftly without hurdles (Muller, 2011). The operations of Ryanair are also affected by the OPEC since its an organization that determines the fuel prices that Ryanair operates on.