Review of E-learning Materials - Identify an Organisation Benefit from the Application Ideas - Report Writing Assessment Answers

• For your Assignment 1 (Individual) ??Review of e-Learning materials ?Word limit: 1,000 words (±10%)?Marks: 20 ?Due Date: 5 pm Friday, Week6 ?(Soft copy to be uploaded on Blackboard through 'Assignments and due dates' menu AND hard copy along with a FULL safeassign report need to be submitted)???For weeks 3, 4 and 5, e-Learning materials are uploaded on Blackboard (see 'E-learning Activities' menu for these weekly activities) for review and application. ?In Week 6, students should choose 2 out of these 3 weekly materials and submit their response in a single report format to their Instructor.?For each material, prepare two paragraphs:

  • Paragraph 1: the key ideas from the materials – not a summary – you must select the key ideas (most important) and talk about them.
  • Paragraph 2: identify an organisation which would benefit from the application of these ideas and explain how the ideas should be applied.

Task 1

Organizations should be in a position to differentiate between strategies and tactics. When organizations know what strategy is, will help it understand what strategy is not. Strategy originated from the art of war and the function of a general in a war. Strategy in the art of war is considered to be one of the greatest masterpieces on strategy. During the war, the main goal is to win. In the same way, the main goal of a business should be to become successful within the market and generate profit. Wining is considered to be and losing is considered to be very bad. The general in a war is responsible for coordinating the various elements that come together to help in winning the war. Organizational managers should be like generals. They should have a vision for the organization and develop a strategy that will help the organization achieve these goals (Video 1). Generals in the army, have a strong desire to win the wars. This causes them to be aggressive and more strategic in their activities. Engaging in tactics, will not be beneficial to the organization in the long run. Tactics only help the organization achieve goals in the short-term. When used in the right manner, the strategy can be beneficial to the organization in the long-run. Understanding the market will help the manager develop a strategy that will work for the benefit of the organization.

An organization that could employ this strategy in their operations, is Apple. The IT giant is facing tough competition from other IT giants such as Samsung and Nokia. Over the years, the company has been striving to increase sales to ensure it grows further in operation. The main goal of the company should be to increase their profit margin and remain relevant in the market (Verreynne & Meyer 2010, 201). This strategy can be implemented by analysing the market critically. The aim is to identify a gap that has not been satisfied by their competitors and exploit it fully. Wining should be considered to be a priority to the company. For this reason, it should work tirelessly to defeat its competitors. The same spirit should be taught to its employees. This will ensure that they all work towards achieving the same goals as the organization. The management of the company should listen to the customer, and develop products that are tailored towards addressing these needs (Ghemawat & Levinthal 2008, pp. 1640). This strategy will increase the chances of the consumers becoming satisfied with the products. Also, the technology company should examine the products developed by their competitors. This will help them identify a need in the market that is not satisfied by the competing companies. For this reason, the company will gain a competitive edge in the market.

Task 2

The business model innovation is moving at a rapid rate. For this reason, organizations need to keep monitoring the market and become more strategic when they need to. There have been reports of big companies collapsing. One would wonder why they were not in a position to monitor the progress of their companies and invest in research and development tactics. However, the reason is that they were busy serving the current customers that they did not bother to strategize for the future customer base. It is crucial for businesses to remain relevant in the industry. For example, Apple has always fascinated its customers because it has always focused on the production of products with new designs and features. This keeps the market interested in their products continuously (Video 2). Remaining relevant has been a big advantage for several major companies. This ensures that the consumers always find a use for their products and ensure that they keep buying them on a regular basis. More investments in research and development activities will be highly beneficial to the company in the long-run. These research and development activities will work to ensure that the company designs, products directly tailored to the needs of the company. The customers should come first, because they ensure the continued sustenance of an organization.

A business that could use this strategy is Best Buy. The company is facing stiff competition from online marketers such as Amazon. The company became comfortable with the current market for a long period (Tashman & Marano 2009, pp. 500). This caused the other companies to develop new strategies and overtake it. It enjoyed market dominance and remained in the traditional mode of business for a long time. Amazon came up and used an online platform to conduct its services. Best Buy joined the online platform very late in its operations. Therefore, the company should strive to implement new strategies by placing their focus on the future customer (Lahovnik 2011, pp. 360). Concentrating on the current customer will not be beneficial to the company. This strategy will help the company stay ahead of time and remain relevant. As other competing companies are advancing in the industry, Best Buy should also take the initiative to assess what they can do differently. The company should research on what the consumers in the market need. This will help them in developing good business practices that will work for their advantage (Slater, Olson & Finnegan 2011, pp. 230). Lack of strategy and innovation is causing Best Buy to fall behind in the race to success. Consumers in the market are advancing and are now using online platform systems, which the company was late in implementing.