THE MANAGEMENT OF LEAN AND AGILE ORGANISATIONS

The Management of Lean and Agile Organisations



The Management of Lean and Agile Organisations

Describe, select and apply theory and techniques to analyse a business' external and internal environment to support the development of management alternatives.

Lean and Agile Organisations theories and techniques to analyse a business external and internal environment involves the study of strategic planning. Strategic planning is a periodic, typically annual process in which Organisation's top managers review the Organisation's strategy, which is its overall direction, competitive positioning, and the resources needed to achieve its short- and long-term goals and objectives. Strategic planning has several phases: formulation, analysis of the strategic environment internally and externally, development and selection of strategic alternatives, and implementation, with feedback from results incorporated as necessary changes in the plan. Strategic planning is part of the overall strategic management process and represents a formal opportunity for the management team to review, assess, and redirect, if necessary, the organisation's plan of action for a specified period of time into the future. One criticism of the strategic planning process is that it is based on a rational and logical view of the management process, which may not be realistic in today's competitive and highly dynamic environment, so many strategic planners recognize the need to constantly revise the strategic plan as new information is received or conditions facing the Organisation shift (Barney, 2002, pp: 25).

Strategic planning begins with specifying Lean and Agile Organisation's long-term vision or mission, that is, its purpose for existence; focusing on the development of goals and objectives that will enable the Organisation to achieve that vision; and identifying the means through which the vision will be achieved, typically through the major business units and functions of the enterprise, such as marketing, operations management, finance and accounting, technology and information systems, and human resources. The analytical phase of strategic planning focuses internally on the company's resources, capabilities, core competencies, and its strengths and weaknesses, in what is called the resource-based view of the firm. External strategic planning focuses on the Organisation's positioning within its industry using industry and competitor analysis. Most often, strategic planning is undertaken by the chief executive officer of an Organisation and the top management team, including the top managers of any business units. Sometimes many others are involved in the process as well so that the process is inclusive and the goals developed are well understood and agreed to by all the people who will have to implement the plan (Barney, 2002, pp: 44).

Various scholars have determined so many models for analysing competitors. For the sake of this, Mullin's (2007)has given a model named as Open System Model which is a useful tool for analysing diverse competitors. This model It emphasises that the objective of competitive analysis should always be on generating insights into the future. The major key points of this model are:

Determine each competitor's probable reaction to the range of industry shifts and environmental changes that may occur

Develop a profile of the probable ...