Term Paper on "Business Model Comparison"

Term Paper 10 pages (4003 words) Sources: 5

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Business Model Comparison

Diversity as a management style in Fortune 500 companies:

In case of Fortune 500 companies, diversity as a management style is not just a concept, but rather a reflection of their business. For GE, which hold 6th rank among the Fortune 500 companies, guarantees that every employee, regardless of their workplace, possess a chance to contribute and be successful. Included in that goal are historical concepts of diversity, inclusive of ethnicity, race and gender, and discovering increasingly modern ideas such as inclusiveness. The company tracks varied presence at all stages of the organization by business, by geography and also by function. The company has strong reviews with the leadership of the company to reveal where development is being made, where the best practices are being executed and where the endeavors are required to be enhanced. It is important to note that metrics are important in goals setting and getting the desired goals.

The diversity of business in which some Fortune 500 companies are in is immense. Ranging from biotechnology to energy services to aerospace, the presence of GE across businesses is wide. The managers of GE presently encounter the responsibility of integrating those gigantic achievements into the corporate fabric. However, at the Global Research Centre of the company, the impact might be even increasingly urgent: more acquisitions imply more technology to exploit, for utilization in other businesses. In the opinion of Sarah J. Nelson, a Professor of Bioengineering and chief of the group working with GE, the company brings a diverse range of knowledge in Information Technology, imaging equipment and injectable agents. In the opinion of analysts also, the diversity lends GE a superior lead in every new businesses the company enters. The company is set up to transfer technology from existing businesses to all their growth platforms.

GE, of late, in its foray into the long list of diversity programs believes that diversity is not just a moral urgency but rather a business necessity. The company has been placing considerable importance on globalization, growth in services, e-business and diversity. Having operations in excess of 100 nations across the globe and with a workforce of 340000 having a diverse employee structure lends the company a distinct strategic advantage. The mission of the company has always been to enjoy a leadership status in whatever business the company is in and also make the diversity program the best in the country where it operates its business. It has been observed that while a lot of companies are keen to execute a diversity plan, GE treads some extra steps to measure it so that it works. According to Ivan Fong, senior counsel, ecommerce and information technology at GE, the ability to track the manner in which the business is going makes a hue difference. It is for these reasons, that GE likes itself to be known as the boundary-less company.

The business people are very frank in their meetings which are evident in the manner in which they will announce that they have attempted five things, among which some worked and some did not citing reasons why those did not work. When this type of knowledge sharing goes on, it is certain that other business units do not have to repeat mistakes and one gets the best which is homogenous across the country. GE has Diversity Council that puts a regulating aspect into the program early on, thereby setting up a unique measuring program to track the success of the department. Presenting the measurement program before people helps them to focus on results. The department keeps track regarding the number of women and minorities among the prospective candidates, offers made, direct reports, managers and officers or senior executives. In its foray in legal services, the regulating aspects entrenched in GE's Diversity Program also sunk GE into its vendors and service providers. The company took a decision in asking its important billing companies to supply it with the number of billable hours ranked by ethnicity and gender of attorneys assigned to GE's legal matters. Thereafter the Diversity Council compared the data which was reported by the firm to the National Association of Law Placement -- NALP and took into account the incongruence between the person responsible for working out these matters and the total composition of the firm.

Like GE when a corporation is comprised with multiple businesses, special procedural aspects come to the forefront. Nevertheless these extra procedures never render invalid the planning procedures for single businesses. On the other hand regardless of the diversity of the corporation, or irrespective of the number of businesses the company is in, the performance capability of each business will be improved by a good plan and a well-thought over planning procedure. Besides, the viability of the corporate plan while several divisions exists and subsidiaries depends on the workability of these individual business plans as also the viability at the corporate level strategy. Nevertheless, the availability of a number of businesses lends the corporate management with some extra planning challenges that are not restricted in single business. The insinuations of low success rates in executing strategic plans are immense. First of all the low success rate appears to mean that it is far difficult to execute plans compared to conceive them in the first place. An additional implication remains that when plans and planning endeavors waver, the defects have increased likelihood to be found in the implementation of the plans compared to their content. Truly, in strategic planning consulting practice, it has been observed that that frequent success in formulating plans with superb quality and their similarly regular failures in executing them.

2. Customer Relationship Management as a management style in Fortune 500 companies:

What set apart Fortune 500 companies from the rest of the pack so far as Customer Relationship Management -- CRM is concerned is that it is thoroughly a customer-centric strategy. For example, the challenge with General Motors --GM which is ranked third in the Fortune 500 list was to align marketing, sales and service processes through a call centre infrastructure and current management of the CRM solution. GM took the help of IBM's CRM Management Services through leveraging IBM's automotive know-how in CRM. Being one of the biggest vehicle production companies in the world, GM maintains a worldwide infrastructure of extraordinary span. GM established a Customer and Relationship Services -- CARS Group vested with the responsibility of enhancing customer satisfaction, creating remote services centers with obsolete environments, and choosing service providers. GM in partnership with IBM and Sitel Corporation implemented the vision of an end-to-end CRM solution.

The CRM that was implemented was a package solution made functional across selected contact centers and business functions. Taking advantage of the experience in the automotive setting, IBM was capable of supplying industry-based intellectual capital and as of now GM has consolidated 15 contact centers. Every new hub includes multiple and unneeded functions and the locations are visible to the customer just as the CARS group had planned. Akin to any CRM exercise, the technologies are foundation for something larger: which is lifetime customer eagerness. Realizing this, GM worked closely with its partner IBM to formulate strategic mission and a roadmap. GM's unique 'Plan to Win' guarantees that the company talks regarding the progress and builds checks against the vision. It is this type of teamwork of Fortune 500 companies like GM that they are able to squeeze everything the company can out of technologies so as to react to individual consumers and able to generate a greater return on its CRM investment. GM has witnessed improved customer satisfaction throughout business functions and a lowering of the largely it expenses.

Several companies inclusive of Fortune 500 companies while considering a comprehensive CRM exercise, encounters genuine cultural and logistic tests. However, it goes without saying that it has become compulsory to espouse the notion of customer relationship management. Presently in the information age, competition is just a mouse click away- an expediency which attracts customer and can intimidate the rules and profits of organization throughout industries. It is a fact that retaining loyal customers is essentially vital and also cost effective compared to locating and securing new ones. It is therefore imperative that enhancing customer loyalty ranks one of the major concerns for CEOs of Fortune 500 companies like that of GM which is matched just by the requirement to build revenue and improve profitability. Over the years CRM has evolved more than a catchphrase in the current Internet age.

More and more across industries, profitability is dependent on personalized marketing, sales and service, dependable and real-time responsiveness, simplicity and convenience of use and reach through a variety of channels, inclusive of call centers and of course the Internet. Necessary customer-centric strategies give one view of the customer and place front-and-back office processes and systems. The various challenges encountered by the Fortune 500 companies or any company for that matter in attaining real CRM advantages comprise affordability, reach of technologies and expert resources; processes… READ MORE

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