Business model comparison and analysis

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 and it integration at every level; a justifiable pace to implementation and an assurance of measurable outcomes and Return on Investment -- ROI. It is through best practices by offering CRM Industry-based templates that is a set of synergistic, preconfigured work products that assists in quicker implementation, lower installation risk and potential ROI.

Customer Relationship Management as a management style has been amply used by the Fortune 500 companies since the 1990s along with the concepts of organizational competence, knowledge and learning. In a lot of industries, featured by speedier technological development and cut-throat competition, enhanced knowledge, instead of maker strength and positioning, has been making the difference thereby contributing to long-term success of the company. Even though companies who seclude themselves from the pressures of competitors might enjoy returns that is above average and some sort of exclusive internal potentialities and resources are responsible for enhanced performance. Given a wider difference, knowledge and more particularly, core competencies such as Customer Relationship Management -- CRM remain some of the important internal resources. Viewed from this angle, strategic management needs the development, storage and actual application of selected competencies. New knowledge and expertise are built through powerful blend of available potential into new ideas, products and processes. This creative procedure is aided through sharing competencies among the various units of an organization.

3. Brand Image as a management style in Fortune 500 companies:

Brand Image could be one more management style for Fortune 500 companies helping it to build key value differentiator. In case of General Motors -- GM for instance, its brands have been persistently strengthened, propelled by ingenious, customer-focused marketing. Example can be given of the model Cadillac which enjoys a brand image among its customer fraternity because of its unique design, direction and marketing that genuinely links up with the prospective buyers. To be precise, GM looks for developing exclusively designed, vehicles that are of high quality which surprise its customers and builds an ownership experience which shows and strengthens the image of the brand. Besides, there is a strong and innovative advertisement which supports this approach. All the brands owned by GM are high on the brand image platform including Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Holden, Hummer, GMC, Opel, Pontiac, Saab, Saturn and Vauxhall.

GM and the likes of other Fortune 500 companies are excellent examples of the manner in which these companies strive and make a turnaround when faced with a turgid brand image and a declining market share. The brand image of Buick was suffering damage and GM woke up to the occasion and launched a much awaited crossover Sports Utility Vehicle -- SUV in the opinion of Steve Shannon, Buick cannot just afford to allow those endeavors sizzle as the business have been tough and the company has been gearing for better and it has been a defining moment for the revival of the brand building effort. Although the brand has been performing exceedingly well in the Chinese market, in which GM's sales volume were better, on the home front the company has been struggling. The Enclave crossover SUV which is Buick's most encouraging launch of vehicle in recent years will adore the showrooms with legendary Golf player Tiger Woods starring in the advertisements. Along with Buick, GM is constantly lowering down the brand's number that will very soon consist of just three vehicles such as the LaCrosse Lucerne and the Enclave.

It is interesting to note the extent to which Fortune 500 companies go to increase the breadth of their brand image with a view to differentiate themselves from the clutter. A case in point is the launch of 'Ecoimagination' of General Electric -- GE which has marked a big changeover in the interest of Fortune 500 companies to greener concerns. GE's embarking of the U.S.$150 billion environment friendly business 'ecoimagination' might prove to be the most remarkable endeavor by a MNC to genuinely espouse not just green technology, but also a wholly new, aggressive way of instantly and authentically build green into the brand. GE's small ecoimagination as a brand image enhancement has been very timely.

With the Kyoto becoming international law and the doubts regarding environment take a major part of discussions at G8 and the World Trade Organization summit meeting as well as popular culture in general, companies are being scrutinized for their approach to this matter. Brand Managers across the world could take a cue regarding the manner in which 'ecoimagination' works and the manner in which it varies from other similar exercises. According to Peter O'Toole who has the explanation of 'ecoimagination' as that the company has charted a growth path for the past 127 years due to robust focus on the good growth prospects of the company and 'ecoimagination' is just a continuance of that endeavor. Through focusing on the 'ecoimagination' as a brand image enhancement initiative, GE anticipated to have success in the following manner. (i) make the investment double in areas of green research and development through an investment of 1.5 billion USD every year in cleaner technologies and (ii) double the income garnered from products that give major and quantifiable environmental performance advantages to the customers to the extent of 20 million USD by the year 2010 with even more aggressive targets from then onwards.

In marketing, people are interested in the manner in which things are understood, as against things really are from objective plane of perception. The procedure of perception entails understanding sensations and making conclusions which, as a result, are impacted by past experiences and suppositions. While consumers do not have the product before them, they are supposed to depend on memory if they have the product before them, or more particularly, they should depend on the representations or brand image they have of the product in their minds. Consumers, such as people, approach the physical world through their representations of it, and a brand image is one such representation. Brand image is one type of representation. Brand image is an accumulation of impressions, an organized whole than is able to take the shape of gut emotional reaction or a mental flash of identification, which characteristically shows attitudes towards the brand and its perceived benefits.

4. Supply Chain Management as a management style in Fortune 500 companies:

It is for certain that the word management signifies for nearly any type of administration at several levels of business i.e. strategic as well as tactical and different ownership arrangements that are private as also public. It is due to this that there is a distinct meaning for which leadership and management stand out. For some leadership is a function of management which is defined as a process of motivating people such that they will make a meaningful contribution to the group goals of the organization.

It is for these reasons that Supply Chain Management has come to be acknowledged as a distinct management style for the overall development of the company. For generations together, the conventional business model in the automotive industry has been mass production that implied that auto companies would sell whatever they manufactured. However with the proliferation of competition along with growth of customer consciousness and higher demands, that approach was increasingly under pressure. This resulted in higher inventory levels, increased financial incentives, and customer compromise. All these as a result made a dent in the margins of the Original Equipment Manufacturers -- OEMs. Being a Fortune 500 company who has unique coping methods, General Motors -- GM started to deal with these problems straightaway while it started deciding to shift from the conventional model of "pushing" vehicles into the marketplace to a "pull" model in which the market demands would dictate what is going to be produced and sold.

To put it differently, GM was seen changing direction to shift from a 'make and sell' culture to an increasingly 'sense and respond'. However, changing direction has never been easy in case of any big organization. GM possesses U.S.$185 billion in revenues having an intricately woven operational network which encompasses a huge international network of suppliers, extensive production processes, and an expansive sales and distribution network. GM's tryst with SCM began with the pooling the representatives from all geographic areas in which it functions and the appropriate functional spheres and then combined the insight of the team and competitive perspectives. The outcome of this was a distinct vision and plan which were supported by the management at GM. The company has knowledge that a project team will be unable to complete such a demanding task, and therefore it formed an operating organization known as Order-to-Delivery -- OTD to implement the strategy. The OTD strategy unifies the company's customer and manufacturing supplier activities, allowing GM to anticipate the demand of the customer and react efficiently and rapidly in the absence of any pressures. Across the way, OTD has endeavored with the dealers and suppliers to guarantee that they have made changes and have participated as the transformations are executed. GM is even taking complete advantage of its robust functional areas of expertise through the application of OTD to integrate cross-functionally to make ideal its complete system.