Strategic Report
In the recent past, there has been a sudden increase in population and economic growth within major cities across the globe, leading to an increase in vehicle ownership. This phenomenon has led to a transport crisis, a condition that needs to be addressed adequately. This has necessitated us to come up with a group that would offer innovation opportunities in a bid to avert the crisis. Thus, the innovation entails an introduction of a self-driving robot that will help to mitigate the severity experienced by drivers, such as weariness during driving, general lack of strength while driving, as well as the poor traffic flow. This self- robot driver can either work on its own or operate under diverse instructions.
Five members of the group, namely, Amos, Rogers, Fazur, Ching, and Kamresh, will invent the self-driving robot. This invention results from the fact that a robot can emulate human beings, and even more so, excel in areas that challenge human drivers, such as quick response and alertness with regard to traffic rules. Additionally, the robot driver will be of great help to women living in Saudi Arabia, as they will be relieved from excessive taxation aimed at paying their foreign drivers (as explained in appendix 1). Thus, the product will prove to be a valuable addition to Saudi Arabia’s technological strides.
However, despite the fact that the self-driving robot will relieve many groups in Saudi Arabia as well as across the globe, it elicits one big question: will this product pass the current political and social environment? Nevertheless, this will be determined by the external factors affecting innovation of the product; how the product will be positioned; the means of achieving competitive advantage for the product; how the organization will adopt a culture that will sustain the performance of the product; and the strategies of electronic commerce adopted to facilitate innovation and marketing of the product.
Decision-Making Process Analysis
Business Strategy and the External Factors Influencing the Strategy
As the first member of the group consisting of five members, it came to my attention that the group embraces innovativeness, and therefore, it can produce innovative products that would add valuable to Saudi Arabia’s transport system and, indeed, the entire world. The group is in a position of developing practical tools that are able to facilitate sustainability initiatives of the self-driving robot for a couple of years. Human judgment is an important aspect while coming up with an effective business strategy because it helps to determine the relevance of the strategy adopted, as well to interpret the factors that influence the strategy. However, this judgment can lead to misdirected strategic planning in cases where it is faulty.
Therefore, to avoid faulty human judgment while coming up with the business strategy, it was imperative to reflect on adopting a viable decision making model, which would establish substantial grounds for innovating the self-driving robot. In the process of the analysis, two questions surfaced. These include what will be the pros and cons of coming up with this innovation? And how will the society react to this innovation? These questions necessitated a viable decision making model that would facilitate an effective business strategy for the innovation of the self-driving robot. This, however, could not be achieved without carrying out the PESTLE and SWOT analysis, as they facilitate a cost-benefit analysis for the innovation with regard to political, economic, technological, legal, as well as environmental factors (Novicevic et al. 2004).
This analysis created an avenue for managing the business strategy concerning the innovation; assessing the cautions and risks involved; evaluating the known as well as information that should be known; generating ideas on how to improve the strategy; and analysing benefits and possibilities relative to innovation. More so, it will assess the opinion of the target market segment with regard to the innovation (Novicevic et al. 2004). In addition to this, the analysis played a critical role in analysing the downside of the innovation, which is a critical factor while coming up with a business strategy. Thus, the self-driving robot will operate under the following strategy:
- Developed ethical program that will guide the self -driving robot in areas relative to acceptable social behavior;
- Developed strategic program that will guide the self-driving robot in areas relative to road signs and traffic rules; and
- Developed legal program that will prevent the self-driving robot from discriminating against gender, as well as diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds across the globe
However, in the implementation process, it is apparent that the product will be faced with a number of external factors emanating from cultural and religious beliefs, as well as government policies within the country. This is based on the allegation that robots do not possess human understanding, and hence cannot be able to exercise critical judgment that distinguishes between diverse road sign. Therefore, it is anticipated that the self-driving robot will have the capacity of causing traffic flaws in cases where its programs are hacked. This demonstrates that the innovation will face diverse challenges within the country and beyond.
This has hence created an opportunity for considering two avenues of external barriers: consumer sensitivity and government policies. These setbacks, though, are not new when it comes to introducing new technology in nations that are entrenched in deep cultures. But should the innovation go beyond cultural differences and government polices? According to the legitimacy theory, an organization cannot excel if it does not fully cooperate with the government policies as well as societal expectations (Menguc, Auh, & Ozanne 2010). Meanwhile, the organization will be in a position of gaining legitimacy by engaging its operation through transparent communication with the external stakeholders with regard to this innovation and the business strategy that it intends to put in place to avert the real and perceived innovation threats amongst the community members (Menguc, Auh, & Ozanne 2010). This will be successfully achieved because the organization’s decision making process will be flexible and will operate on the light of evidenced produced.
With this in mind, the organization intends to take the initiative of engaging in dialogue with the external stakeholders to address the issue of feasibility of the self-driving robot. In doing so, it will be in a position of coming up with a viable business strategy since it will be able to address the needs of the organization’s stakeholders, the society, and the external stakeholders (Menguc, Auh, & Ozanne 2010). Involving these parties in working towards a better world demonstrates that the organization is not only concerned with profit maximisation, but the welfare of its customers is also a priority in the self-driving robot innovation process.
But even though the organization will cooperate with the external stakeholders, it will endeavour to preserve a core value that will play a critical role in attaining productivity. This will emanate from an assumption of what constitutes ‘good’ or ‘bad’ organization decisions. This ideology is vital since it will help to eliminate biased ideas and concepts that emanate from external environmental factors (Smith 2003). This collaboration will help the organization appreciate the external stakeholders’ benefits; however, it may become exposed to external cultures, which, in turn, may pose threats to the organization’s mission and vision statement. Thus, the organization will retain an ideology that will help the community distinguish it from the rest of the competitors. This ideology will be developed overtime.
Additionally, the organization will exude confidence on making a commitment that will ensure it provides ‘added value’ for customer in every market segment. The organization’s mission will facilitate this through the core ideology: to be closely associated with the activities of the community. The organization will hold a vision that is based on claims that good governance does not only serve to benefit a firm in the short term but also for its long-term benefits and survival. The organization will thus endeavor to achieve its long-term benefits through proper leadership development practice, as well as giving room for the stakeholders in providing views that help to create ‘added value’ for the customers.
Besides, the firm will exercise other values that will facilitate an increase in the market share through collaborations with various stakeholders. Thus, it will uphold that any business that neglects shareholders involvement is a poor business. The charity departments, for instance, will be provided with financial and emotional assistance through recreational opportunities. This will improve the organization’s image, as it will play the role of portraying that it is not only getting huge returns for the firm but also forming a good culture globally. The major goal of the organization will be to increase its productivity. Thus, the productivity of the organization will be enhanced through a leadership development program, which will not only provide the managers with innovation skills but will also help the them gain access to financial information that will facilitates selection of the company’s objectives. This is of paramount importance since it will help the management eliminate the concept of viewing the organization in a narrow way or in only one dimension: innovation.
Despite the external challenges facing the innovation, the organization does not aim at changing its mode of innovation, but rather making an effort of coming up with a viable business strategy. The main objective here is to enhance the use of product, and at the same time, reduce all sorts of threats and risk that may be encountered by the innovation. Indeed, the organization aims at ensuring that the self-driving robot is safe and of benefit for the transport sector, and at the same time, adds value to the society and the stakeholders. The organization believes that its mode of operation is good although some advancement may help in the production of better product; thus, it will be essential to expand the market scope in order to compete with the upcoming competitors in the market (Fang, Palmatier, & Grewal 2011).
To broaden the base for success, the organization will benchmark the self-driving robot with other robot companies in order to facilitate acquisition of new ideas that could improve the product. Thus, the business strategy will involve participating in discussions with stakeholders so that it can establish whether they are in agreement with the progress of the organization, as well as know where changes of the self-driving robot need to be implemented, while taking into account the external factors affecting the innovation.
Competition Assessment and Product Positioning
Competition assessment and product positioning have been going through significant developments. New approaches have been adopted to assess the competition of innovative products. Thus, assessing the competition of the self-driving robot and coming up with an effective positioning strategy will entail analysing the feasibility of the product and then making a rational decision for its market entry. Therefore, I will take the approach of identifying these two factors while assessing the competition of the self-driving robot in different markets. And in this regard, I will be required to carry out external benchmarking, such as sustainability index, to evaluate the feasibility of the product in places where demand is expected to be high. This will form a basis for decision-making process, as I will be in a position of identifying the market segments that the self-driving robot may face a stiff competition.
The environmental factors that I will consider relevant in the competition analysis will include data on the following areas: economic status of diverse regions; patterns of road accidents in diverse regions; motivation towards hiring drivers; the predicament of disabled drivers in diverse regions; as well as cultural barriers that hinder driving practices in Saudi Arabia. With this information at hand, I will be in a position of discerning the competitors, as the information will facilitate in-depth information on the market analysis of the self-driving robot. And in an effort to come up with a viable positioning strategy for the self-driving robot, I will take a comparative assessment of two market segments: regions expected to have high demand for the self-driving robot, but with low-income earners; and regions expected to have less demand for the product, but with high-income earners.
In an effort to discover the competitors of the self-driving robot, it was paramount to establish the answer to two prime questions: which market segment will be more responsive to the innovation? And which market segment will fetch substantial profits for the organization? While taking into account that this technology is new to everyone across the globe, the organization will only face a competition from the hired drivers transporting the disabled population as well as foreign drivers in Saudi Arabia. Adopting the self-driving robot amongst the disabled population will be facilitated by the emergence of a culture that is trying to explore their rights and privileges within the community.
More so, the disabled people are extremely concerned about their potential, and because of this, they embrace products that would enable them have a normal life without necessarily having someone to perform a couple of tasks for them. The women in Saudi Arabia will be targeted primarily because the country has many women who have hired foreign workers to work as drivers, making them part with substantial amount of money, and as such, the product will save on cost since the robots will not need any form of remuneration. More so, a number of women in Saudi Arabia have acquired power and knowledge to differentiate the strengths of self-robot drivers from the limitations of drivers from foreign countries.
According to Kim and Mauborgne’s Blue Ocean Strategy, positioning a product in market segments that have high demand is paramount because it helps to address the community needs that are not catered for, with a view of meeting the identified needs, and thus creating a good self-image (Bowman 2008). As such, I will be able to ascertain that even though the product may do well in places with high-income earners who are ready to pay for premium pricing, the competition for the product can only be assessed when the organization targets the self-driving robot to areas with high demand despite their low economic status. Thus, the people expected to adopt the self-driving robots at the initial stages include the disabled people and the women living in diverse regions within Saudi Arabia.
The Porter’s ‘Five Forces’ is critical in making a rational decision for positioning the self-driving robot in the market since this theory facilitates understanding of competitive strengths as well as weaknesses of the self-driving robot in diverse market segments; it identifies various opportunities present to improve the self-driving robot in cases where the competitors try to emulate the product. More so, it identifies the priorities for improving the self-driving robot through customers’ viewpoints and establishes the prices of the product in relations to the competition and the value it adds to the community (Bowman 2008).
Thus, positioning the self-driving robot in areas with high demand will increase the profitability of the product, even when the prices are kept low. In this regard, the positioning strategy will entail analysing two factors: customers’ target, which stems from segmentation study; and competitors’ target, which stems from external environment analysis (Bowman 2008). Nevertheless, the organization will also position the product in different market segments across the globe, taking into account that regions characterised by different economic status tend to have different social economic behavior, according to Bowman (2008).
Differentiation of market segment, however, will facilitate a number of pricing strategies, including penetration pricing, promotional pricing, as well as premium pricing. More so, the emergence of stiff competition can be countered by adding value for the customer, rather than adopting promotional pricing in regions where premium pricing serves the customers seeking the latest innovation. The promotional pricing will serve customers seeking only a standard product; therefore, effective position will entail coming up with a pricing strategy that is close to the prices of the emerging competitors. Penetrating pricing, on the other hand, will serve customers seeking a tailored product that is able to meet the customers’ transport needs, thus creating a strategy known as customer intimacy (Bowman 2008).
Porter’s strategy declares that positioning a product to the customer entails the use of the value chain, as this will ascertain that the organization is in a position of defining the relationship between different positioning strategies used to a point where the dynamic process of positioning is recognised (Bowman, 2008). More so, this will help the organization establish how costs behave in diverse market segments, and therefore help to form a good background for product differentiation. Market differentiation, therefore, will stem from how the self-driving robot will affect each market segment. Thus, the marketing team might be forced to expand the distribution after this evaluation. The presence of future competition in the market, however, may lead to price fluctuations or greater promotional costs in a bid to influence the customers to believe that the firm’s product is better than what the competitors is able to produce.
The competition will also facilitate a different positioning strategy, as the choices of positioning will entirely be based on ‘variety-based’ position and ‘needs based’ positioning. The ‘variety-based’ positioning will involve coming up with self-driving robots that provide the customers with many variance to choose from. The ‘needs-based’ positioning, on the other hand, will aim at positioning the self-driving robots to the people with special needs within the community. For case in point, the disabled population will use a different kind of self-driving robot from the rest of the population. Barriers such as licenses, copyright, product components and low availability will be dealt with effectively since they can easily dash the dreams of positioning the product in diverse regions across the country (Menguc, Auh, & Ozanne 2010).
Using the configuration theory, the organization will curb over planning, because it can put the organization’s success in jeopardy (Fang, Palmatier, & Grewal 2011). This theory will help the organization define its target; thus, it will adopt a positioning strategy that is semi coherent in order to create room for flexibility. This will facilitate defining the growth of the self-driving robot within different market segments. And while using the Resource Based View framework (RBV), the organization found out that it would be fruitless if it does not come up with a brand name that would help to create a cognitive dissonance to consumers, which will make them buy the self-driving robot. One of the factors that will enhance the use of dissonance stems from the fact that the brand name will provide customers with benefits, which will enable them identify with our self-driving robot, with a percentage of reduced risk. More so, a brand name will help the community understand that the organization is keen on producing innovative products, and hence, it will provide a hook that will serve the role of drawing their consumers to their pledge (Simon 2004).
Competitive Advantage Assessment and Means to Achieve
The analysis of competitive advantage, which emanates from environmental analysis, is a contentious issue that can be characterised by the gradually evolving ideas. While some researchers may argue that an innovative product can maintain competitive advantage for a long period, others believe that that every product must face competition, especially when it depicts effectiveness and efficiency. Apparently, a number of traffic flaws are evident due to ineffective driving caused by tiredness and dizziness, among other factors. With this in mind, the need for adopting self-driving robot is paramount as the organization sees unprecedented problems for the transport industry in the near future. With the introduction of the self-driving robot, the organization will be in a position of achieving a competitive advantage, as it will ensure that it will handle the challenges in a dynamic fashion.
It is apparent that evaluating competitive advantage entails carrying out an assessment of a number of dynamic cultural practices within the community (Bakar & Ahmad 2010), as this will help to establish the current as well as the future demand of the self-driving robot. This calls for implementing a strategic plan in marketing, which will facilitate product differentiation in cases where the product is emulated. This strategic plan will involve defining where this organization wants to go and evaluating the methods of attaining this end. In this respect, it will be worthwhile to come up with a structure that underscores the mission, goals, and define the customer approach in order to attain a competitive advantage for the self-driving robot.
By using the VRIO framework, I will be in a position of generating customers’ responsiveness through social relations with companies that are concerned with hiring drivers from foreign countries, as well as institutions that promote road safety measure. However, it is paramount to note that innovations are highly characterised by barriers, including inertia, prior commitments, and Icarus Paradox barriers (Bakar & Ahmad 2010). The Inertia barrier encompasses inability to change, especially when the business is thriving; prior commitment barrier encompasses being in possession of a product that is inaccessible to the competitors, leaving the organization with mixed attitudes towards change; and the Icarus Paradox barrier encompasses specialising in one specific product.
Thus, creating a competitive advantage will be achieved by defining the factors that will affect the productivity of the organization in future (Bakar & Ahmad 2010). In this regard, the clients, society, government policies, competitors, as well as the environment will be assessed in a bid to establish diverse ways of creating a competitive advantage for the self-driving robot. Managers involved in further innovation process will increasingly be required to demonstrate their ability to contribute to the overall welfare of the organization by striving to participate in the accomplishments of the organization’s objectives and visions. Thus, they will not only focus on their departments but will engage in an increased cooperation with the middle level managers. To achieve further innovations, the organization will define the changes and the time the organization will take to effectively adopt the proposed changes (Smith 2003).
It is imperative to mention that change management process will be designed in such a way that it will able to assess whether the changes adopted are valid and congruent with the company’s culture. In this regard, the organization will establish strategies that may further lead to a subsequent development of mission and vision statements. This will be successfully achieved through talent development approach, as it seeks to encourage the workers who display good level of competence to develop their skills such that they will be of great use to the firm when the subsequent innovations occur (Smith 2003). In addition to this, the organization will put in place policies aimed at facilitating a competitive advantage through optimising the mental and physical conditions of the employees. Thus, the management will work closely with the employees to ensure that they receive updates on their welfare, as this will facilitate effective handling of their welfare.
However, attaining a competitive advantage through further innovations raises one key question: should the organization adopt changes when the product is making substantial profits, or when it possesses a product that is inaccessible to the competitors? This question emanates from the fact that none of the organizations has invented the self-driving robot, and as such, our organization will be the key player in the market. The PESTLE analysis, however, facilitates an accurate analysis of the high rate of technological innovation apparent in this modern word, which, in turn, shall affect the self- driving robot if the organization fails to adopt changes that would add value for the customers. Thus, the ever-changing expectations in the business world call for keenness and responsiveness (Smith 2003). The organization, therefore, will stay in touch with the customers in order to meet the standards of a responsible business. And as such, the company will actively participate in discussions with stakeholders in an effort to establish whether they are in agreement with the progress of the organization, as well as know where changes need to be implemented. This will facilitate differentiation of the product in cases where a competitor emerges with similar self-driving robot.
According to Smith (2003), a number of approaches can facilitate the success of the self- driving robot. Some of these include coming up with distinct self-driving robot that can be easily identified regardless of the market segment; maintaining a continuity of production of the product; maintaining a competitive advantage through quality; and obtaining a good self-image through events with companies that evaluate bad driving habits. Moreover, the organization will aim at achieving a competitive advantage by offering education and training programs to its customers through the organization’s website. And even though the product is unpopular within the community, there are a number of prudent customers, who are sensible enough to consider the advantages of the product through education programs.
Thus, the demand of the self- driving robot is bound to increase due to a number of factors, including:
- The country will experience an economic growth due to sufficient money circulating within the country, emanating from reduced number of foreign drivers who earn money while in the country and take it to their country;
- The consumer income will be high as a result of reduced taxation aimed at paying the foreign drivers;
- Through training programs provided via the company’s website, changes in beliefs will also increase the demand of the self-driving robot since.
The competitive advantage for the self-driving robot will only be attained if the organization focuses on the above changes, taking into account that external forces influence every innovation in the market, and this calls for changing the internal processes in order to attain a competitive advantage (Menguc, Auh, & Ozanne 2010). In this regard, the self-driving robot will endeavor to achieve a competitive advantage in its four stages of its lifecycle: the growth stage, the maturity stage, and the decline stage. In the growth stage, the organization will be cognisant of the fact that introducing a new product into the market generates sales after the public becomes aware and secure while using the product. In the growth stage, the product may face competition, as the increasing market share will attract the competitors; thus, pricing at this stage will not be standard since the producers will focus on becoming the low-cost producers. The marketing mix at this stage will be modified, and new features will be introduced in an effort to keep up with the competition.
In the maturity stage, the sales of the self-driving robot are bound to decrease, since more effort will be directed towards product differentiation. More emphasis will be placed on the need to reduce costs. Distribution will be maximised, and promotion will be intensified as a way of encouraging preference over the competitor’s self-driving robots. The company will employ more effort in trying to influence the consumers of the competitors to switch. This will also aim at converting non-consumers into consumers of the self-driving robot. Retailers will be encouraged to increase the number of self-driving robots in their businesses through sales promotion. This will aim at encouraging them to create more shelf space over other competing self -driving robots. In the decline stage, the organization will try to maintain the profit of the firm by creating brand loyalty. The number of self-driving robot in the market may be reduced and the product will undergo modifications to make it look new once again.
Potential Organization Culture to Sustain Performance
Enhancing a good culture in a work place environment serves the role of improving an organization performance since the participation of all staff members take effect. Establishing a corporate culture within this organization is essential because the organization will be comprised of professionals who are from diverse cultural groups. In this respect, a corporate culture will help to recognise the priority that the organization will place on diversity (Smith 2003). However, a number of questions come into play while establishing this form of organizational culture: what kind of issues prevent workers from diverse cultures to work harmoniously? What approaches should the organization adopt to help handle multicultural workforce? And what leadership theory should the organization adopt to improve the innovation process?
Thus, the workers wellbeing will take the centre stage in human resource department as well as in the businesses processes. This aspect will ensure that the organization considers the wellbeing of the employees as a part of the critical issues that need to be looked at while sustaining performance of the self-driving robot. To start with, the wellbeing of the employees will be taken seriously by implementing new policies to govern the way they will be treated with regard to resources and information exchange. Using the Hackman’s model, the organization will be able to uphold that once the welfare of the employees is taken into account through an effective reward system, then the production process will be achieved effectively (Denison, Hart, & Kahn 1996).
The organization, therefore, will work closely with the workers, making it possible to avert any discrepancy at its initial stages. The organization will develop a culture that ensures the welfare of the employees is put into account. This will encompass good treatment of all employees regardless of their status. As a result, the organization will welcome the idea that skills are not only for the physically fit; the disabled can also perform same tasks performed by the physically fit people. In this respect, the organization will uphold the famous slogan “Disability is not inability.” This is an important aspect since it will help the organization select the qualified workforce instead of sidelining a particular class of people, yet it can perform the various operations professionally.
Group conflict, however, is one of the key factors that prevent workers from different cultures to work harmoniously. This stems from the fact that extreme diversity in a particular group can destroy the values and the social standing of it, as some members perceive others as different or even inferior. It is also perceived that diversity can put a certain group at jeopardy, and thus damage the social cohesion within it. However, a successful innovation of the self- driving robot will be facilitated by coming up with a viable decision making strategy, which will be in a position of facilitating management of thoughts on diversity, gathering further information with respect to diversity, encouraging positive thoughts about diversity, coming up with a cost-benefit analysis of diversity. Additionally, it will encourage participation of every member of the organization, and evaluate emotions of the employees from diverse cultures (Denison, Hart, & Kahn 1996). This strategy will create an avenue for adopting a culture of diversity within the organization.
However, it is paramount to understand that group’s conflict and ineffectiveness can only be averted when diversity leads to innovation, as some organizations are not characterised by productivity even though they embrace diversity. Thus, finding answers to the question on approaches that should be adopted to handle multicultural workforce will require the organization to attend diversity events regularly because this will create an opportunity for enhancing leadership through external committees who take the responsibility of providing guidance on issues concerning diversity practices. Denison, Hart, and Kahn (1996) affirm that success of the innovation can only be achieved through collaboration efforts between all team members, as this will facilitate the achievement of the following objectives:
- Giving the organizational members insight on cultural context, and thus eliminating the concept of viewing responsibility in a narrow or in a narrow manner;
- Helping the organization assess the amount of support and advice that should be provided to the workers from each cultural group;
- Helping to assess the efforts that the organization will implement in an effort to build a relationship with their workers from diverse cultural groups;
- Helping to provide a clear way of doing the job due to proper understanding of people from diverse cultural groups; and
- Acting as a benchmark for evaluating the effectiveness of leadership competence of people from diverse cultural groups in relation to the workplace environment.
While evaluating leadership style that the organization will adopt, I was able to comprehend that as some leaders affirm that a good leadership entails autocratic leadership, in which employees are not given a chance to air their views, others believe that referent power is instrumental in achieving organizational goals since it encourages interpersonal skills with the leader through charisma. Charismatic leadership depicts that an ideal communication strategy in an organization should be based on a leadership style that uses requests to influence others members while faced with situation that necessitate immediate answers. Some people believe that, in doing so, the leader gets into a position of influencing employees by being positive as well as being charismatic, and this makes workers to be naturally drawn by the leader’s personality. Huang & Hsu (2011) rebuffs the idea that motivating employees depends entirely on the character of the workers and that some workers require carrot and stick motivation, while others require job enrichment, job recognition, and promotion as motivators. This analysis, though, provided the organization with knowledge of the leadership style to be adopted.
Nevertheless, good leadership will be adopted and will enhance the quality of the self-driving robot in the sense that the organization will be in a position of achieving the set target using the specified amount of capital, time, and human resource. Huang and Hsu (2011) point out that while considering time constraints and resources as viable in performance achievement, employees working in innovation industries would only be motivated if the leaders put much emphasis on organizational culture that seeks to achieve organizational goals through close human relations, given that motivation plays a critical role in the performance of a project. This stems from the fact that adopting close human relation as a motivation technique provides a link in the organizational structure as the go-between of management and employees. More so, it helps the employees increase a sense of accountability for their tasks as they develop a sense of confidence with their leader.
Thus, it is apparent that the success of the self-driving robot will result from adopting charismatic leadership since it will introduces the workers to a thorough analysis that will facilitate definition of how the organization will execute its innovation. This is crucial to the organization since it will be in a position of monitoring the already executed innovation, and defining how the innovation will be controlled through teamwork between the employees and the management team (Huang & Hsu 2011). More so, charismatic leadership will help to express confidence in the worker’s abilities to learn how to share great information with their leaders. And in this regard, the organization will be in a position of advising the workers to learn how to focus on results by providing them with tips on ways of acquiring the expected results based on teamwork.
Additionally, the charismatic leadership style will allow the employees air their views on issue that affect the company. This is an important aspect since it will make the employees feel valued and their efforts appreciated, and it will create a strong relationship with the subordinates through interpersonal skills that influence the workers while faced with difficult situations. Thus, the issue of developing effective communication within the organization will facilitate further innovation that will sustain the business in future. Surveys will be carried out from time to time and will play the role of ensuring that the viewpoints of the employees are taken into account, as assuming that the employees are comfortable at work place just because they are not complaining does not depict professionalism. Therefore, it is important to give them a chance to air their views about how the innovation of the self-driving robot is being carried out in the company and to develop amicable solution using charismatic leadership style.
Electronic Commerce strategy
In the recent past, electronic commerce has been used as a vehicle of gaining a considerable market share of innovative products across the globe. This approach necessitates highlighting a number of electronic commerce strategies relative to consumer behavior within the online environment in an effort to gather information on the product life cycle. The Resource Based View (RBV) is critical in the management and evaluation of the self- driving robot with regard to sustainability of technological aspect in the electronic market. The configuration theory, on the hand, is crucial in establishing ways in which the self-driving robot is able to withstand the environmental factors affecting the product within the electronic market.
Thus, achieving sustainability in the electronic market calls for understanding the key facilitators of online business. This also entails coming up with a viable direction that will facilitate an effective future research on the online business with respect to the self-driving robot. All these will be achieved through a feedback mechanism, which will be incorporated into the internal communication programs of the organization. Communication, therefore, will play a crucial role in the success of electronic commerce strategy, as it will facilitates customers’ opinion on the value of the self-driving robot. In this respect, the organization will introduce a number of survey programs aimed at obtaining authentic information on the demand of the product in different market segments across the globe.
However, for one reason or the other, it is paramount to understand that creating customer value for an innovative product calls for maintaining some qualities: scarcity and uniqueness (Fang, Palmatier, & Grewal 2011). This will be achieved through a meticulous assessment of demand and supply of the self-driving robot, which can only be achieved through a clear evaluation of the product from different regions across the globe. However, adopting electronic commerce in a bid to increase the market share of the self-driving robot brings rise to a controversy, with some customers suggesting that the product will compromise on quality. This allegation raises one prime question: How will the organization increase it market share for the self- driving robot without affecting the quality of the product?
It is apparent that there are a number of customers who would pay more for exclusivity and scarcity of the robot driver because they have a sense of security and assurance that it will not only be of high quality product but also durable as compared to highly accessible products. This stems from the fact that organizations that deal with innovative products seek to produce products that are customer oriented, as the products are designed according to the specifications of the customers. Thus, the organization will need to come up with effective ways that identify global business opportunities that will not compromise on the quality of the self-driving robot, set priorities of improving the self driving robot by basing the innovation on customers’ needs across the globe, and test new product concept regularly (Fang, Palmatier, & Grewal 2011). More so, it is paramount to note that the organization can adopt premium pricing if it adopts a business strategy that focuses on exclusive products as opposed general products that are available across the globe because this makes the customers believe that the organization offers the best product, making them pay more for the product.
However, the configuration theory helps us understand that the self-driving robot can loose sustainability if it focuses on diversification and concentration without taking due consideration of the market segments across the globe (Fang, Palmatier, & Grewal 2011). Thus, the organization will seek to establish a position where it will be able to create closer relationships with the customers and obtain knowledge of their desires as well as their behaviors. More over, the organization will assess the market of the robot across the globe through virtual community, which is vital since it facilitates social interactions, hence breaking the geographical boundaries that thwart mutual interests. The virtual community will play the role of increasing the customers’ perspective regarding the self-driving robot, and therefore contribute to building a healthy relation through relevant feedback, which will facilitates viable decision making.
More so, the virtual community will be enhanced by encouraging both positive as well as the negative feedback from all markets across the globe. This is critical in the management of the product and customers since it will offer the organization with an opportunity of receiving free information from customers’ feedback. This, in turn, will help to create an opening for serving dissatisfied customers from the initial stages of their problem (Menguc, Auh, & Ozanne 2010), and thus create an avenue for improving the self-driving robot. Through proper management of information, the virtual community will help to carry out a market segmentation of the people in need of the self-driving robot, taking into account their specific requirements with respect to the product. Fang, Palmatier, and Grewal (2011) assert that an effective electronic commerce strategy serves a critical role of increasing the customer-to-firm affiliation, thus increasing the levels of transactions. Therefore, social media marketing will offer diverse benefits to the organization since it will serve the role of improving relationship between the customers and the business, and therefore facilitate an understanding of demand of the products within different segments across the globe.
Additionally, the organization will adopt the electronic procurement in purchases since the process is associated with effective procurement procedures, leading to substantial benefits such as reduction in improved product prices, improved contract agreement, effective management of raw materials, reduced procurement cycle, improved supply chains, and improved production accuracy due to controlled production. This is critical in the management of the self-driving robot, since an organization that is entrenched in the operations of the initial product with the view that there are no competitors is bound to exercise overproduction of product, which may become obsolete in due course (Fang, Palmatier, & Grewal 2011). Through this strategy, the organization will be in a position of assessing whether the customers’ requirements are in line with the innovation, and, if so, it will reduce the procurement cycle. More so, it will track the levels of the inventory and send purchasing orders to the relevant suppliers in relation to the demand of the self-driving robot.
Therefore, coming up with an appropriate electronic commerce strategy involves evaluating the demand and supply curve of the robot drivers. This helps to come up with an appropriate buying strategy of raw materials in order to reduce the chances of incurring losses through overproduction. Due to the current high rate of technology innovation that has the capacity of interfering with the demand and supply of the self-driving robot, the organization will take the initiative of limiting the chances of incurring the losses by eliminating fixed quantity purchasing strategies, as this will create room for future technological advancements (Fang, Palmatier, & Grewal 2011). Thus, the organization’s website will have a central storage area for data that facilitates effective procurement. The performance of the procurement will then be evaluated using tailored software, which will facilitates effectiveness in the organization. This software is crucial since it will helps to reduce discrepancy in the organization, while ensuring adequate supply of the product across the globe at all times (Fang, Palmatier, & Grewal 2011).
In spite the fact that the organization will endeavor to make a successful electronic commerce strategy through sharing and lowering the risks with the supplier, the process might be faced with a risks emanating from technological terminologies. Thus, the organization will have the overall responsibility of overcoming a number of technology terminologies and giving way to the marketing terminologies as opposed to information system terminologies. This stems from the fact that adopting marketing terminologies is paramount since the first step of the electronic commerce strategy entails communicating with the customers using clear terms that would help to acquire the demand of the robot driver using the marketing terminologies. This strategy will be achieved by adopting universal language standard, which will help to evaluate the social environment, legal environment, the competitive forces, and the customers’ demand of the robot driver across the globe.
Due to the high rate of technology innovation that has the capacity of affecting the market of the robot drivers, the organization will take into account that the product is always in line with the ever changing technology trend in order to meet the demand of the global market. And in order for the organization to establish a market dynamics from a wider perspective, increasing the level of accuracy for global operation through internet is essential, as it will help the organization to be cognisant of high value metrics for the aspects of marketing. These may include advertisements, distributions, and assessments of the customers’ perspective across the globe (Fang, Palmatier, & Grewal 2011).
List Of References
Business Strategy and the External Factors Influencing the Strategy
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Menguc, B, Auh, S, & Ozanne, L 2010, ‘The Interactive Effect of Internal and External Factors on a Proactive Environmental Strategy and its Influence on a Firm’s Performance’, Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 94, pp. 279-298.
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Competition Assessment and Product Positioning
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Competitive Advantage Assessment and Means to Achieve
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Menguc, B, Auh, S, & Ozanne, L 2010, ‘The Interactive Effect of Internal and External Factors on a Proactive Environmental Strategy and its Influence on a Firm’s Performance’, Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 94, pp. 279-298.
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Potential Organization Culture to Sustain Performance
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Electronic Commerce strategy
Fang, E, Palmatier, R, & Grewal, R 2011, ‘Effects of customer and innovation asset configuration Strategies on Firm Performance’, Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 48, pp. 587-602.
Menguc, B, Auh, S, & Ozanne, L 2010, ‘The Interactive Effect of Internal and External Factors on a Proactive Environmental Strategy and its Influence on a Firm’s Performance’, Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 94, pp. 279-298.