Strategic Management- A New Perspective!!!

Strategic assets are “the set of difficult to trade and imitate, scarce, appropriable, and specialized resources and capabilities that bestow the firm’s competitive advantage”. It is easy to understand why organizations talk about people as an asset, but tend to manage them largely as a cost to be minimized. Aside from accounting principles that encourage this perspective, HR costs are easy to observe, while HR value creation is not. Largely because of the traditional perspective on HR, organizations have no way to measure HR’s strategic performance. Nevertheless, we know that intangibles in the aggregate are an increasingly important source of firm value, and that human capital ought to be a part of that asset value. HR is a strategic asset as it can play a critical role in both strategy implementation and management systems. Namely, the ability to execute strategy well is a source of competitive advantage, and “people” are the lynchpin of effective strategy execution. We think i...

Hr people are not sharpest stacks in the box. To be blunt about it, if you are an ambitious newly graduated from a top college or university with your eye on rewarding career; your first instinct is never to join HR dance. The best and the brightest never tend to take Human Resource. Then who does? Intelligent people sometimes. Others enter the field by choice and with the best of intentions, but for the wrong reasons. They like working with people,like to be helpful, “noble motives” that thoroughly tick some HR thinkers. It is harsh to say but it is the need of the era that if some person comes and say I want to work with people hence I want to opt for HR please suggests him to be a ‘Social Worker ”. HR isn’t about being a good doer. It is about how do you get the best and brightest people and raise the value of the firm as well as yourself.The really scary picture is the gulf between capabilities and opportunities appears to be widening. There are bright thinkers and doers left with ...

As Management Students , we believe in the sanctity of learning and know in our hearts that education is a basic tenet for both personal and professional growth. That said, learning programs must be rooted in sound business decisions and financially viable returns on investment. Many times we argue that providing educational opportunities strengthens employee commitment , which decreases turnover. Are we right? Commitment and understanding go hand-in-hand. Only by understanding (and feeling aligned with) the organization's larger Focus and Context, will people thrive and grow. Powerful leaders constantly clarify team or organization Focus and Context and keep people excited about working within it. Management students ( Future Managers ) routinely underestimate the amount and quality of education and communication required to make changes and improvements. They fall victim to our human tendency to judge others by their actions, but to judge ourselves by our intentions. Since most ...

Because of the uncertainty surrounding the nature of CSR activity, it is difficult to define CSR and to be certain about any such activity. There are three basic principles which together comprise all CSR activity. 1.Sustainability: If the resources are utilized in the present, then they are no longer available for use in the future. This is particularly pertaining to those resources which are finite in nature. Measures of sustainability would consider the rate at which resources are consumed by the organization in relation to the rate at which the resources could be generated. 2.Accountability: Accountability is concerned with the organizations realization that its action affects the external environment therefore assuming responsibility for the effects of its actions. It implies that the organization is a part of wider societal network and has responsibilities to the entire network rather than just to the owners of the organization. 3. Transparency It means that the external impact o...

In a global perspective Corporate Social Responsibility is a relationship between Global corporations, government of countries and individual citizens. More locally Corporate Social responsibility is concerned with the relationship between a corporation, the local society in which it resides or operates and its other stakeholders. An exact definition of CSR is difficult since beliefs and attitude regarding the nature of this association fluctuate with the relevant issues of the day. This raises the question as to what exactly can be considered as Corporate Social Responsibility. Niall Fitzerland Former CEO, Unilever says, "Corporate social responsibility is a hard-edged business decision. Not because it is a nice thing to do or because people are forcing us to do it... because it is good for our business" According to Sunil Misser, Head of Global Sustainability Practice, PwC, "Corporate social responsibility is not just about managing, reducing and avoiding risk, it is ...

There is no one right integrity strategy. Factors such as management personality, company history, culture, lines of business, and industry regulations must be taken into account when shaping an appropriate set of values and designing an implementation program. Still, several features are common to efforts that have achieved some success: 1. The guiding values and commitments make sense and are clearly communicated. They reflect important organizational obligations and widely shared aspirations that appeal to the organization’s members. 2. Company leaders are personally committed, credible, and willing to take action on the values they espouse. They are not mere mouthpieces. They are willing to scrutinize their own decisions. Consistency on the part of leadership is key. 3. The espoused values are integrated into the normal channels of management decision making and are reflected in the organization’s critical activities: . The development of plans, the setting of goals, the searc...

Many managers think of ethics as a question of personal scruples, a confidential matter between individuals and their consciences these executives are quick to describe any wrongdoing as an isolated incident, the work of a rogue employee. The thought that the company could bear any responsibility for an individual’s misdeeds never enters their minds. Ethics, after all, has nothing to do with management. In fact, ethics has everything to do with management. Rarely do the character flaws of a lone actor fully explain corporate misconduct. More typically, unethical business practice involves the tacit, if not explicit, cooperation of others and reflects the values, attitudes, beliefs, language, and behavioral patterns that define an organization’s operating culture. Ethics, then, is as much an organizational as a personal issue. Managers who fail to provide proper leadership and to institute systems that facilitate ethical conduct share responsibility with those who conce...