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Module 8: Controlling Performance and Operations

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Module 8: Controlling Performance and Operations

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Process of Controlling

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Module 8: Controlling Performance and Operations

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Module 8: Controlling Performance and Operations

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While you don't want to micromanage your employees, you can't leave them unsupervised if you want to maximize organizational efficiency and productivity. Creating effective management controls - including strategic objectives, operational policies and employee guidelines - will help you direct, rather than just limit, the activities of your employees.

Organizational control includes developing rules, guidelines, procedures, limits or other protocols for directing the work and processes of employees and departments. These controls can include setting rules or procedures for financial transactions, employee behavior and specific practices for all or individual departments. A control can depend on an individual employee following the guideline, or require multiple parties to agree on an action.

A common internal business control target is regulating financial procedures. This helps improve communications, allows managers to determine whether their efforts are meeting annual goals, and prevents fraud and errors. These controls include requiring each department head to submit and monitor an annual budget, setting limits on who can write checks, requiring large purchases to be pre-approved by management, holding regular audits and conducting regular budget variance analyses to spot potential problems before they get out of hand.

Financial controls can also include the production of regular reports such as cash-flow and profit-and-loss statements, and labor, overhead and production expense reports.

To maximize sales to a target customer base, a business must send a consistent message about its products or services. This includes not only communicating the brand through marketing messages, but also by your price, where you sell your product, its features and packaging. Organizational controls often require all decisions regarding product, price, promotion and distribution to go to the marketing department first for approval. This helps prevent inconsistent brand messages, such as a promotions manager offering a two-for-one coupon at a high-end salon or restaurant.

One of the aims of organizational control is to help departments work better together. You can do this by instituting specific communications procedures, weekly interdepartmental meetings and regular management memos. To improve the performance of individual employees, your controls might include sharing a detailed organization chart so everyone knows who reports to whom.

Controls can include requiring managers to create written job descriptions for every subordinate. Companies might hold mandatory orientation sessions for new employees, require certification for some employees and create an employee handbook that sets workplace policies such as attendance rules, grievance policies and safety regulations.

The threat of lawsuits or workplace rule violations is a serious concern for employers, and organizational policies and procedures that address employee behavior can decrease missteps. Workplaces free from harassment, discrimination, bullying and gossip foster better morale and team spirit, and reduce problems that can lead to decreased productivity, efficiency and overall performance. The same holds true when companies institute safety and security controls, and provide employee training.

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How Organizational Control Is Important to Organizational Performance

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How Organizational Control Is Important to Organizational Performance. While you don't want to micromanage your employees, you can't leave them unsupervised if you want to maximize organizational efficiency and productivity. Creating effective management controls -- including strategic objectives, operational policies ...

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Leadership vs Management | Difference between Leadership and Management

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Three Differences Between Managers and Leaders

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Stop thinking about your tasks and start talking about your vision.

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Module 6: Managing Human Resources and Communications

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Module 6: Managing Human Resources and Communications

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Debates about the importance of Human Resources Management occur daily in workplaces. Some employees regard HR as the policing, traumatizing, systematizing arm of executive management. These employees see HR staff as gatekeepers, people who hold little interest in employee concerns.

They also see HR staff as supporting managers, not regular employees. They attribute nefarious goals and motives to HR staff and talk about why they hate HR.

Part of the problem is that HR has to balance the interests of five different stakeholders, so employees can feel their interests are ignored. And HR needs to do a better job of touting its own horn and educating staff about what they are contributing.

HR Is Important

A good HR department is critical to an employee-oriented, productive workplace in which employees are energized and engaged. Here are the reasons why.

HR monitors the culture. Some organizations say that HR owns the culture, but as in all other employee relations matters, I recommend that the ownership is spread across all employees.

HR owns the overall talent management processes. In conjunction with other managers, HR leads the way in management development, performance management, succession planning, career paths, and other aspects of talent management. HR can't do it alone and relies heavily on managers and executive staff to help plan and execute the strategies. However, HR has to bring new ideas and effective practices into the organization.

HR recommends market-based salaries and develops an overall strategic compensation plan. HR provides guidance to managers as they determine the salary ranges within their organizations.

HR researches, recommends and implements employee benefits programs that attract and retain your best employees. HR is also responsible for controlling costs and considering various options before recommending adoption.

HR is responsible for recommending and instituting strategies for people and the organization that further the attainment of the organization's strategic goals. If your organization is changing direction, developing new products, changing mission, vision, or goals, HR must lead the way with employee programs and processes.

HR makes sure that workplace activities, events, celebrations, ceremonies, field trips, and team building opportunities are occurring. Other employees plan and implement the activities with or without HR's help, but the HR leader is generally responsible for monitoring the budget and providing committee oversight.

HR advocates for employees who have issues or conflict with management and coaches managers and executives who seek a more effective approach to working with particular employees. Not everyone loves each other but they need to develop effective working relationships for contributions and productivity. HR can help by knowing the players and taking on the necessary role of advocate, coach and/or mediator.

The importance of HR is easily overlooked in the busy day-to-day in the workplace, but without contributions in each of these areas, the organization would be less successful.

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Learn About the Importance of Human Resources Management for Retention

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Debates about the importance of Human Resources Management occur daily in workplaces. Some employees regard HR as the policing, traumatizing, systematizing arm of executive management. These employees see HR staff as gatekeepers, people who hold little interest in employee concerns. They also see HR staff as supporting managers, not regular employees.

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Module 6: Managing Human Resources and Communications

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Module 6: Managing Human Resources and Communications

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Managing human resources refers to the functions that a manager performs relative to the organization's employees. Managing Human Resources can also refer to the act of providing the management actions the employees of the Human Resource Department

Managing human resources includes, but is not limited to:

No business has unlimited resources. Managers must divide salary budgets among their employees. Workloads must be divided. Managers decide who gets what training and who gets the best projects.
Who gets the newest computer and who is stuck with the old one until the new budgeting cycle rolls around? In addition to physical resources, where does a manager spend her time? Who does she help? All of these things are part of the planning and allocating resources.

A manager should be the leader of the group. Managers not only divide the work but direct how employees should accomplish the work. They set the goals. Depending on the type and level of the group, managers may set overarching goals, allowing the employees the opportunity to set their own lower-level goals, or they may take control of the entire process. Both are appropriate, depending on the situation.
Vision is a key task in managing your human resources. If your employees cannot see the big picture, they are less likely to perform to their highest level. Managers need to have a vision and share it properly with the team.

Managers determine what type of environment is best for their department. Good managers ensure that gossips, bullies, and slackers are all either coached into proper performance or terminated. Bad managers allow these people to overrun the department, creating a tense and unhappy environment. A good environment will motivate employees, and they will choose to perform at a high level.

Managers must provide feedback. Without that framework, employees don't know where they need to improve and where they are doing well. This is most successful when metrics are built around clear, measurable goals.

A manager's job isn't just to get the work done but to help his or her reporting employees succeed. Managers should personally coach employees, and provide opportunities for formal developmental training, such as classes and stretch projects. You can provide coaching through formal mentoring relationships or by providing feedback on a regular basis.

A good manager shows her staff how to behave. She is ethical, treats people fairly, and gives people the independence they've earned. Managers who play favorites, steal credit or discriminate against their staff are damaging the business's most important resource - their people.

Managers often see the customers as more important than their own staff. This is not true - good staff management leads to good relationships with the customers. Customer relationships are critical and the business profits by managers who make customer service a priority.
Managers have a duty to both the customer and employees, and when she takes care of both, success is more likely.

Managers help their people when they clear the path for success. Should employees need approval from senior leadership for something, the manager helps facilitate the approval. Should an employee need a training course, or specialized instructions, or assistance with a project, the manager helps facilitate that.

A manager is interested in her employees' success and works hard to clear the pathway for that success. A manager who wishes to succeed focuses her efforts on ensuring the success of her employees.

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What Does Managing Human Resources Mean?

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Managing human resources refers to the functions that a manager performs relative to the organization's employees. Managing Human Resources can also refer to the act of providing the management actions the employees of the Human Resource Department Managing human resources includes, but is not limited to: No business has unlimited resources.

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Module 5: Organizational Structure and Processes

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Module 5: Organizational Structure and Processes

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What Organizational Structure Is Right for Your SMB? - businessnewsdaily.com

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This guide explains the various organizational structures and will help you decide which works best for your business.

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Module 5: Organizational Structure and Processes

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Module 5: Organizational Structure and Processes

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What is an organizational structure?

At some point, you have likely seen an organizational chart for your company. And we can probably guess what it looked like.

The typical org chart looks like a pyramid, your C-level executives at the top with lines stretching down to middle management and finally staff-level employees.

But not every company functions best with a hierarchical organizational structure. Many types of organizational charts exist because many types of organizational structures exist.

In this post, we go through the 10 common types of org structures and reasons why you might consider each of them.

1. Hierarchical org structure

The pyramid-shaped organizational chart we referred to earlier is known as a hierarchical org chart. It's the most common type of organizational structure-the chain of command goes from the top (e.g., the CEO or manager) down (e.g., entry-level and lower-level employees), and each employee has a supervisor.

Pros

Better defines levels of authority and responsibility

Shows who each person reports to or who to talk to about specific projects

Motivates employees with clear career paths and chances for promotion

Gives each employee a specialty

Creates camaraderie between employees within the same department

Cons

2. Functional org structure

Similar to a hierarchical organizational structure, a functional org structure starts with positions with the highest levels of responsibility at the top and goes down from there. Primarily, though, employees are organized according to their specific skills and their corresponding function in the company. Each separate department is managed independently.

Pros

Allows employees to focus on their role

Encourages specialization

Help teams and departments feel self-determined

Is easily scalable in any sized company

Cons

3. Horizontal or flat org structure

A horizontal or flat organizational structure fits companies with few levels between upper management and staff-level employees. Many startup businesses use a horizontal org structure before they grow large enough to build out different departments, but some organizations maintain this structure since it encourages less supervision and more involvement from all employees.

Pros
Cons
4. Divisional org structure

In divisional organizational structures, a company's divisions have control over their own resources, essentially operating like their own company within the larger organization. Each division can have its own marketing team, sales team, IT team, etc. This structure works well for large companies as it empowers the various divisions to make decisions without everyone having to report to just a few executives.

Depending on your organization's focus, there are a few variations to consider.

Market-based divisional org structure

Divisions are separated by market, industry, or customer type. A large consumer goods company, like Target or Walmart, might separate its durable goods (clothing, electronics, furniture, etc.) from its food or logistics divisions.

Product-based divisional org structure

Divisions are separated by product line. For example, a tech company might have a division dedicated to its cloud offerings, while the rest of the divisions focus on the different software offerings-e.g., Adobe and its creative suite of Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, etc.

Geographic divisional org structure

Divisions are separated by region, territories, or districts, offering more effective localization and logistics. Companies might establish satellite offices across the country or the globe in order to stay close to their customers.

5. Matrix org structure

A matrix organizational chart looks like a grid, and it shows cross-functional teams that form for special projects. For example, an engineer may regularly belong to the engineering department (led by an engineering director) but work on a temporary project (led by a project manager). The matrix org chart accounts for both of these roles and reporting relationships.
Pros Cons
6. Team-based org structure

It'll come as no surprise that a team-based organizational structure groups employees according to teams-think Scrum teams or tiger teams. A team organizational structure is meant to disrupt the traditional hierarchy, focusing more on problem-solving, cooperation, and giving employees more control.
Pros

Increases productivity, performance, and transparency by breaking down silo mentality

Promotes a growth mindset

Changes the traditional career models by getting people to move laterally

Values experience rather than seniority

Requires minimal management

Fits well with agile companies with Scrum or tiger teams

Cons

Goes against many companies' natural inclination of a purely hierarchical structure

Might make promotional paths less clear for employees

See why forming tiger teams is a smart move for your organization.

7. Network org structure

These days, few businesses have all their services under one roof, and juggling the multitudes of vendors, subcontractors, freelancers, offsite locations, and satellite offices can get confusing. A network organizational structure makes sense of the spread of resources. It can also describe an internal structure that focuses more on open communication and relationships rather than hierarchy.
Pros

Visualizes the complex web of onsite and offsite relationships in companies

Allows companies to be more flexible and agile

Give more power to all employees to collaborate, take initiative, and make decisions

Helps employees and stakeholders understand workflows and processes

Cons

Can quickly become overly complex when dealing with lots of offsite processes

Can make it more difficult for employees to know who has final say

Consider the needs of your organization, including the company culture that you want to develop, and choose one of these organizational structures.

8. Process-based structure

A process-based structure organizes employees into groups or departments based on steps of a process. The leader of the company is listed at the top, as they oversee all processes. Each step of the process has a supervisor and employees who do work in that process. The chart reads from left to right. One process can not begin until the process before it is completed.

Pros

Can lead to faster and more efficient processes

Promotes teamwork within departments and across departments

Cons

Can lead to barriers between departments

Can lead to miscommunication between departments, especially during handoffs

9. Circular structure

A circular organizational structure puts leaders of the organization at the center rather than the top so they can share information outward rather than pass it down a chain of command. Employees in different departments are also seen as part of a larger whole rather than siloed off by department.

Pros

Promotes the flow of information across the organization

Promotes communication and collaboration between employees and departments

Cons

Can cause confusion around who to report to, especially for new employees

Can take longer to make decisions

10. Line structure

A line structure is one of the simplest organizational structures as authority flows from top to bottom. Each department is ran by a manager and works toward a common organizational goal.

Pros

Reporting structure is clear

Stable environment

Cons

Can be inflexible

Can limit innovation and specialization

Can lead to managers having a lot of power

Once you've chosen the right org structure to pursue, learn the steps in the company reorganization process.

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The typical org chart looks like a pyramid, but not every company functions along a hierarchical organizational structure. Let's go through the seven common types of org structures and reasons why you might consider each of them.

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What Is SWOT Analysis?

SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis is a framework used to evaluate a company's competitive position and to develop strategic planning. SWOT analysis assesses internal and external factors, as well as current and future potential.

A SWOT analysis is designed to facilitate a realistic, fact-based, data-driven look at the strengths and weaknesses of an organization, initiatives, or within its industry. The organization needs to keep the analysis accurate by avoiding pre-conceived beliefs or gray areas and instead focusing on real-life contexts. Companies should use it as a guide and not necessarily as a prescription.

Understanding SWOT Analysis

SWOT analysis is a technique for assessing the performance, competition, risk, and potential of a business, as well as part of a business such as a product line or division, an industry, or other entity.

Using internal and external data, the technique can guide businesses toward strategies more likely to be successful, and away from those in which they have been, or are likely to be, less successful. Independent SWOT analysts, investors, or competitors can also guide them on whether a company, product line, or industry might be strong or weak and why.

Components of SWOT Analysis

Every SWOT analysis will include the following four categories. Though the elements and discoveries within these categories will vary from company to company, a SWOT analysis is not complete without each of these elements:

Strengths describe what an organization excels at and what separates it from the competition: a strong brand, loyal customer base, a strong balance sheet, unique technology, and so on. For example, a hedge fund may have developed a proprietary trading strategy that returns market-beating results. It must then decide how to use those results to attract new investors.

Weaknesses

Weaknesses stop an organization from performing at its optimum level. They are areas where the business needs to improve to remain competitive: a weak brand, higher-than-average turnover, high levels of debt, an inadequate supply chain, or lack of capital.

Opportunities

Opportunities refer to favorable external factors that could give an organization a competitive advantage. For example, if a country cuts tariffs, a car manufacturer can export its cars into a new market, increasing sales and market share.

Threatsrefer to factors that have the potential to harm an organization. For example, a drought is a threat to a wheat-producing company, as it may destroy or reduce the crop yield. Other common threats include things like rising costs for materials, increasing competition, tight labor supply. and so on.

Analysts present a SWOT analysis as a square segmented into four quadrants, each dedicated to an element of SWOT. This visual arrangement provides a quick overview of the company's position. Although all the points under a particular heading may not be of equal importance, they all should represent key insights into the balance of opportunities and threats, advantages and disadvantages, and so forth.

The SWOT table is often laid out with the internal factors on the top row and the external factors on the bottom row. In addition, the items on the left side of the table are more positive/favorable aspects, while the items on the right are more concerning/negative elements.

How to Do a SWOT Analysis

A SWOT analysis can be broken into several steps with actionable items before and after analyzing the four components. In general, a SWOT analysis will involve the following steps.

Step 1: Determine Your Objective

A SWOT analysis can be broad, though more value will likely be generated if the analysis is pointed directly at an objective. For example, the objective of a SWOT analysis may focused only on whether or not to perform a new product rollout. With an objective in mind, a company will have guidance on what they hope to achieve at the end of the process. In this example, the SWOT analysis should help determine whether or not the product should be introduced.

Step 2: Gather Resources

Every SWOT analysis will vary, and a company may need different data sets to support pulling together different SWOT analysis tables. A company should begin by understanding what information it has access to, what data limitations it faces, and how reliable its external data sources are.

In addition to data, a company should understand the right combination of personnel to have involved in the analysis. Some staff may be more connected with external forces, while various staff within the manufacturing or sales departments may have a better grasp of what is going on internally. Having a broad set of perspectives is also more likely to yield diverse, value-adding contributions.

Step 3: Compile Ideas

For each of the four components of the SWOT analysis, the group of people assigned to performing the analysis should begin listing ideas within each category. Examples of questions to ask or consider for each group are in the table below.

Internal Factors

What occurs within the company serves as a great source of information for the strengths and weaknesses categories of the SWOT analysis. Examples of internal factors include financial and human resources, tangible and intangible (brand name) assets, and operational efficiencies.

Potential questions to list internal factors are:

(Strength) What are we doing well?

(Strength) What is our strongest asset?

(Weakness) What are our detractors?

(Weakness) What are our lowest-performing product lines?

External Factors

What happens outside of the company is equally as important to the success of a company as internal factors. External influences, such as monetary policies, market changes, and access to suppliers, are categories to pull from to create a list of opportunities and weaknesses.

Potential questions to list external factors are:

(Opportunity) What trends are evident in the marketplace?

(Opportunity) What demographics are we not targeting?

(Threat) How many competitors exist, and what is their market share?

(Threat) Are there new regulations that potentially could harm our operations or products?

Strengths
1. What is our competitive advantage?
2. What resources do we have?
3. What products are performing well?

Weaknesses
1. Where can we improve?
2. What products are underperforming?
3. Where are we lacking resources?

Opportunities
1. What new technology can we use?
2. Can we expand our operations?
3. What new segments can we test?

Threats
1. What regulations are changing?
2. What are competitors doing?
3. How are consumer trends changing?

Companies may consider performing this step as a "white-boarding" or "sticky note" session. The idea is there is no right or wrong answer; all participants should be encouraged to share whatever thoughts they have. These ideas can later be discarded; in the meantime, the goal should be to come up with as many items as possible to invoke creativity and inspiration in others.

Step 4: Refine Findings

With the list of ideas within each category, it is now time to clean-up the ideas. By refining the thoughts that everyone had, a company can focus on only the best ideas or largest risks to the company. This stage may require substantial debate among analysis participants, including bringing in upper management to help rank priorities.

Step 5: Develop the Strategy

Armed with the ranked list of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, it is time to convert the SWOT analysis into a strategic plan. Members of the analysis team take the bulleted list of items within each category and create a synthesized plan that provides guidance on the original objective.

For example, the company debating whether to release a new product may have identified that it is the market leader for its existing product and there is the opportunity to expand to new markets. However, increased material costs, strained distribution lines, the need for additional staff, and unpredictable product demand may outweigh the strengths and opportunities. The analysis team develops the strategy to revisit the decision in six months in hopes of costs declining and market demand becoming more transparent.

Use a SWOT analysis to identify challenges affecting your business and opportunities that can enhance it. However, note that it is one of many techniques, not a prescription.

Benefits of SWOT Analysis

A SWOT analysis won't solve every major question a company has. However, there's a number of benefits to a SWOT analysis that make strategic decision-making easier.

A SWOT analysis makes complex problems more manageable. There may be an overwhelming amount of data to analyze and relevant points to consider when making a complex decision. In general, a SWOT analysis that has been prepared by paring down all ideas and ranking bullets by importance will aggregate a large, potentially overwhelming problem into a more digestible report.

A SWOT analysis requires external consider. Too often, a company may be tempted to only consider internal factors when making decisions. However, there are often items out of the company's control that may influence the outcome of a business decision. A SWOT analysis covers both the internal factors a company can manage and the external factors that may be more difficult to control.

A SWOT analysis can be applied to almost every business question. The analysis can relate to an organization, team, or individual. It can also analyze a full product line, changes to brand, geographical expansion, or an acquisition. The SWOT analysis is a versatile tool that has many applications.

A SWOT analysis leverages different data sources. A company will likely use internal information for strengths and weaknesses. The company will also need to gather external information relating to broad markets, competitors, or macroeconomic forces for opportunities and threats. Instead of relying on a single, potentially biased source, a good SWOT analysis compiles various angles.

A SWOT analysis may not be overly costly to prepare. Some SWOT reports do not need to be overly technical; therefore, many different staff members can contribute to its preparation without training or external consulting.

SWOT Analysis Example

In 2015, a Value Line SWOT analysis of The Coca-Cola Company noted strengths such as its globally famous brand name, vast distribution network, and opportunities in emerging markets. However, it also noted weaknesses and threats such as foreign currency fluctuations, growing public interest in "healthy" beverages, and competition from healthy beverage providers.

Its SWOT analysis prompted Value Line to pose some tough questions about Coca-Cola's strategy, but also to note that the company "will probably remain a top-tier beverage provider" that offered conservative investors "a reliable source of income and a bit of capital gains exposure."

Five years later, the Value Line SWOT analysis proved effective as Coca-Cola remains the 6th strongest brand in the world (as it was then). Coca-Cola's shares (traded under ticker symbol KO) have increased in value by over 60% during the five years after the analysis was completed.

To get a better picture of a SWOT analysis, consider the example of a fictitious organic smoothie company. To better understand how it competes within the smoothie market and what it can do better, it conducted a SWOT analysis. Through this analysis, it identified that its strengths were good sourcing of ingredients, personalized customer service, and a strong relationship with suppliers. Peering within its operations, it identified a few areas of weakness: little product diversification, high turnover rates, and outdated equipment.

Examining how the external environment affects its business, it identified opportunities in emerging technology, untapped demographics, and a culture shift towards healthy living. It also found threats, such as a winter freeze damaging crops, a global pandemic, and kinks in the supply chain. In conjunction with other planning techniques, the company used the SWOT analysis to leverage its strengths and external opportunities to eliminate threats and strengthen areas where it is weak.

What Is SWOT Analysis?

SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis is a method for identifying and analyzing internal strengths and weaknesses and external opportunities and threats that shape current and future operations and help develop strategic goals. SWOT analyses are not limited to companies. Individuals can also use SWOT analysis to engage in constructive introspection and form personal improvement goals.

What Is an Example of SWOT Analysis?

Home Depot conducted a SWOT analysis, creating a balanced list of its internal advantages and disadvantages and external factors threatening its market position and growth strategy. High-quality customer service, strong brand recognition, and positive relationships with suppliers were some of its notable strengths; whereas, a constricted supply chain, interdependence on the U.S. market, and a replicable business model were listed as its weaknesses.

Closely related to its weaknesses, Home Depot's threats were the presence of close rivals, available substitutes, and the condition of the U.S. market. It found from this study and other analysis that expanding its supply chain and global footprint would be key to its growth.

What Are the 4 Steps of SWOT Analysis?

The four steps of SWOT analysis comprise the acronym SWOT: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. These four aspects can be broken into two analytical steps. First, a company assesses its internal capabilities and determines its strengths and weaknesses. Then, a company looks outward and evaluates external factors that impact its business. These external factors may create opportunities or threaten existing operations.

How Do You Write a Good SWOT Analysis?

Creating a SWOT analysis involves identifying and analyzing the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of a company. It is recommended to first create a list of questions to answer for each element. The questions serve as a guide for completing the SWOT analysis and creating a balanced list. The SWOT framework can be constructed in list format, as free text, or, most commonly, as a 4-cell table, with quadrants dedicated to each element. Strengths and weaknesses are listed first, followed by opportunities and threats.

Why Is SWOT Analysis Used?

A SWOT analysis is used to strategically identify areas of improvement or competitive advantages for a company. In addition to analyzing thing that a company does well, SWOT analysis takes a look at more detrimental, negative elements of a business. Using this information, a company can make smarter decisions to preserve what it does well, capitalize on its strengths, mitigate risk regarding weaknesses, and plan for events that may adversely affect the company in the future.

The Bottom Line

A SWOT analysis is a great way to guide business-strategy meetings. It's powerful to have everyone in the room discuss the company's core strengths and weaknesses, define the opportunities and threats, and brainstorm ideas. Oftentimes, the SWOT analysis you envision before the session changes throughout to reflect factors you were unaware of and would never have captured if not for the group's input.

A company can use a SWOT for overall business strategy sessions or for a specific segment such as marketing, production, or sales. This way, you can see how the overall strategy developed from the SWOT analysis will filter down to the segments below before committing to it. You can also work in reverse with a segment-specific SWOT analysis that feeds into an overall SWOT analysis.

Although a useful planning tool, SWOT has limitations. It is one of several business planning techniques to consider and should not be used alone. Also, each point listed within the categories is not prioritized the same. SWOT does not account for the differences in weight. Therefore, a deeper analysis is needed, using another planning technique.

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SWOT Analysis: How To With Table and Example

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SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis is a framework used to evaluate a company's competitive position and to develop strategic planning.

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Module 3: Management within a Global Organization

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Module 3: Management within a Global Organization

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Module 3: Management within a Global Organization

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Module 3: Management within a Global Organization

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A story in the Washington Post said "20 years ago globalization was pitched as a strategy that would raise all boats in poor and rich countries alike. In the U.S. and Europe consumers would have their pick of inexpensive items made by people thousands of miles away whose pay was much lower than theirs. And in time trade barriers would drop to support even more multinationals expansion and economic gains while geo political cooperation would flourish."

There is no question that globalization has been a good thing for many developing countries who now have access to our markets and can export cheap goods. Globalization has also been good for Multi-national corporations and Wall Street. But globalization has not been good for working people (blue or white collar) and has led to the continuing deindustrialization of America.

Globalization is a complicated issue. It is necessary to evaluate the pros and cons before drawing any conclusions.

Pros

Supporters of globalization argue that it has the potential to make this world a better place to live in and solve some of the deep-seated problems like unemployment and poverty.

1. Free trade is supposed to reduce barriers such as tariffs, value added taxes, subsidies, and other barriers between nations. This is not true. There are still many barriers to free trade. The Washington Post story says "the problem is that the big G20 countries added more than 1,200 restrictive export and import measures since 2008

2. The proponents say globalization represents free trade which promotes global economic growth; creates jobs, makes companies more competitive, and lowers prices for consumers.

3. Competition between countries is supposed to drive prices down. In many cases this is not working because countries manipulate their currency to get a price advantage.

4. It also provides poor countries, through infusions of foreign capital and technology, with the chance to develop economically and by spreading prosperity, creates the conditions in which democracy and respect for human rights may flourish. This is an ethereal goal which hasn't been achieved in most countries

5. According to supporters globalization and democracy should go hand in hand. It should be pure business with no colonialist designs.

6. There is now a worldwide market for companies and consumers who have access to products of different countries. True

7. Gradually there is a world power that is being created instead of compartmentalized power sectors. Politics is merging and decisions that are being taken are actually beneficial for people all over the world. This is simply a romanticized view of what is actually happening. True

8. There is more influx of information between two countries, which do not have anything in common between them. True

9. There is cultural intermingling and each country is learning more about other cultures. True

10. Since we share financial interests, corporations and governments are trying to sort out ecological problems for each other. - True, they are talking more than trying.

11. Socially we have become more open and tolerant towards each other and people who live in the other part of the world are not considered aliens. True in many cases.

12. Most people see speedy travel, mass communications and quick dissemination of information through the Internet as benefits of globalization. True

13. Labor can move from country to country to market their skills. True, but this can cause problems with the existing labor and downward pressure on wages.

14. Sharing technology with developing nations will help them progress. True for small countries but stealing our technologies and IP have become a big problem with our larger competitors like China.

15. Transnational companies investing in installing plants in other countries provide employment for the people in those countries often getting them out of poverty. True

16. Globalization has given countries the ability to agree to free trade agreements like NAFTA, South Korea Korus, and The TPP. True but these agreements have cost the U.S. many jobs and always increase our trade deficit

Cons

* The general complaint about globalization is that it has made the rich richer while making the non-rich poorer. "It is wonderful for managers, owners and investors, but hell on workers and nature."

* Globalization is supposed to be about free trade where all barriers are eliminated but there are still many barriers. For instance161 countries have value added taxes (VATs) on imports which are as high as 21.6% in Europe. The U.S. does not have VAT.

* The biggest problem for developed countries is that jobs are lost and transferred to lower cost countries." According to conservative estimates by Robert Scott of the Economic Policy Institute, granting China most favored nation status drained away 3.2 million jobs, including 2.4 million manufacturing jobs. He pegs the net losses due to our trade deficit with Japan ($78.3 billion in 2013) at 896,000 jobs, as well as an additional 682,900 jobs from the Mexico -U.S. trade-deficit run-up from 1994 through 2010."

* Workers in developed countries like the US face pay-cut demands from employers who threaten to export jobs. This has created a culture of fear for many middle class workers who have little leverage in this global game

* Large multi-national corporations have the ability to exploit tax havens in other countries to avoid paying taxes.

* Multinational corporations are accused of social injustice, unfair working conditions (including slave labor wages, living and working conditions), as well as lack of concern for environment, mismanagement of natural resources, and ecological damage.

* Multinational corporations, which were previously restricted to commercial activities, are increasingly influencing political decisions. Many think there is a threat of corporations ruling the world because they are gaining power, due to globalization.

* Building products overseas in countries like China puts our technologies at risk of being copied or stolen, which is in fact happening rapidly

* The anti-globalists also claim that globalization is not working for the majority of the world. "During the most recent period of rapid growth in global trade and investment, 1960 to 1998, inequality worsened both internationally and within countries. The UN Development Program reports that the richest 20 percent of the world's population consume 86 percent of the world's resources while the poorest 80 percent consume just 14 percent. "

* Some experts think that globalization is also leading to the incursion of communicable diseases. Deadly diseases like HIV/AIDS are being spread by travelers to the remotest corners of the globe.

* Globalization has led to exploitation of labor. Prisoners and child workers are used to work in inhumane conditions. Safety standards are ignored to produce cheap goods. There is also an increase in human trafficking.

* Social welfare schemes or "safety nets" are under great pressure in developed countries because of deficits, job losses, and other economic ramifications of globalization.

Globalization is an economic tsunami that is sweeping the planet. We can't stop it but there are many things we can do to slow it down and make it more equitable.

What is missing?

Leadership - We need politicians who are willing to confront the cheaters. One of our biggest problems is that 7 of our trading partners manipulate their currencies to gain unfair price advantage which increases their exports and decreases their imports. This is illegal under WTO rules so there is a sound legal basis to put some kind of tax on their exports until they quit cheating.

Balanced Trade - Most of our trading partners can balance their trade budgets and even run a surplus. We have not made any effort to balance our trade budget and have run a deficit for more than 30 years resulting in an $11 trillion deficit. The trade deficit is the single biggest job killer in our economy, particularly manufacturing jobs. We need the government to develop a plan to begin to balance our trade deficit even though this is not a political priority in either party.

Trade Agreements - Both the NAFTA and the South Korean Korus trade agreements might have been good for Wall Street and the multi-national corporations but they eliminated jobs in America and expanded our trade deficit. The upcoming Trans Pacific Trade Agreement will do the same thing and Congress should not fast track this bad agreement for a dozen reasons.

Enforcing the rules - China ignores trade rules and WTO laws with reckless abandon. Besides currency manipulation they subsidize their state owned companies to target our markets, and provide funding to their state owned companies that dump their products in America. They also steal our technologies, sell counterfeit versions of our products, and impose tariffs and other barriers anytime they want - as we do nothing to stop them. China does not deserve to be on our most favored nation list and we need to tax their exports to us until they stop these illegal activities.

What is good for third world countries, like Kenya, or countries with tremendous growth, like China, has not been good for American workers. Globalization is deindustrializing America as we continue to outsource both manufacturing blue collar and white collar jobs. Supporters of globalization have made the case that it is good because it has brought low priced imported goods, but they have not matched the decline of wages in the middle class and will not offset the loss of many family wage jobs

Globalization is like being overwhelmed by a snow avalanche. You can't stop it - you can only swim in the snow and hope to stay on top. I would like to make the argument that the US should try a lot harder to swim in the snow and stay on top. We can't stop globalization but there are many policies and strategies we can use to make it more equitable. We can enforce the trade laws, force the competition to play by the same rules, and stop giving our competitors the tools (technology and R& D) to ultimately win the global war.

Mike Collins is the author of Saving American Manufacturing. His website is www.mpcmgt.com.

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Module 2: Ethics and Corposrate Social Responsibility

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Module 2: Ethics and Corposrate Social Responsibility

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I thought this was funny...

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CartoonStock - Cartoon Humor, Political Cartoons, Comics, Illustrations

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Cartoon library, fully catalogued and searchable, instant downloads.

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Modeule 2: Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility

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Modeule 2: Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility

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I've chosen this article to add to my Padlet because I'm pro-diversity. It talks about how we're made smarter simply by incorporating diversity into our lives

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Being around people who are different from us makes us more creative, diligent, and hard-working.