خطة العمل

January 9, 2017 Leave a comment

تحتوي الخطة علي الاساسيات المهمة لفهم وتنفيذ الخطة. يجب المحافظة علي قصر الخطة بالتركيز علي ما يحتاجة القارئ لتنفيذها و ازالة اي
حشو من الكلمات التي لاتفيد الكاتب او القارئ وتجنب الاخطاء الإملائية التي قد تحير القارئ او تؤدي الي التطبيق الخاطأ للخطة. الكثير من الخطط ينتهي بها الأمر بالاختباء بين الرفوف بسبب صعوبة فهمها وتفسيرها علي ارض الواقع.

ينصح ببناء خطة العمل على الواقع حتي لا يصبح تأثيرها عكسي علي الشركة. الإفراط في التفاؤل وفي توقعات المبيعات قد يؤدي إلى زيادة النفقات العامة التي قد تسبب أزمة في التدفقات النقدية وخفض التكاليف. رجال الأعمال والممولين والشركاء التجاريين والموظفين يستطيعون ملاحضة الإفراط في التفاؤل الذي يتجاهل الضعف الموجود في الخطة أو التهديدات الخارجية التي قد توقف تنفيذ الخطة مستقبلا.paper_custom_magnify_19689

تحتوي الخطة معلومات كثيرة ولكن ليس كل المعلومات يجب تقديمها في مقدمة او وسط الخطة.  المعلومات التفصيلية مكانها ملحق الخطة. على سبيل المثال، تفصيل التوقعات المالية والسير الذاتية للموظفين والمعلومات الفنية للمنتجات يفضل وضعها في الملحق.

اجعل مظهر الخطة المطبوعة مهني بتغليفها بغلاف يمثل قيمة الخطة. يفضل ان تبدأ الخطة بصفحة المحتويات وصفحة الملخص التنفيذي الذي يلخص النقاط الرئيسية للخطة ابتدأ بالغرض من الخطة. الرسوم البيانية تضفي لمسة احترافية للخطة خاصةً اذا كانت تلك الرسوم تختصر الكثير من المعلومات والارقام.

كتابة خطة العمل يبدأ بالتعرف علي نقاط القوة الموجودة الان لدي الشركة او مؤسسي المشروع ثم الاستفادة من هذة النقاط لتحقيق المراد من الخطة. يمكن معرفة نقاط القوة من المعلومات الموجودة في الشركة او التغذية الراجعة من العملاء. ايضا اثناء كتابة الخطة يجب الاعتراف بنقاط الضعف الموجودة في الشركة او لدي مؤسسي المشروع وتجنب وضع انشطة رئيسية تتاثر بهذه النقاط حتي يتم التعامل مع الضعف الموجود او تلاشيه.

يجب التعرف والتعامل مع التهديدات التجارية الموجودة في السوق المستهدف. يمكن التعرف علي هذه التهديدات بواسطة دراسة او مسح شامل للسوق لمعرفة التهديدات الحالية والتغيرات المحتملة التي قد تمثل خطر علي الشركة او المشروع الذي تعد له خطة العمل. كما ان هناك تهديدات فان الفرص الثمينه تتواجد بجانب كل تهديد في السوق. دراسة السوق والمنتجات والخدمات المقدمة ستظهر الفرص التي يمكن استغلالها بتوظيف نقاط القوة التي تتميز بها الشركة او مؤسسي المشروع.

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Bargaining Power of Customers (Porter’s 5 Forces)

August 13, 2014 Leave a comment

Five Forces - CustomerAn evaluation of how it’s simple to drive costs down for the customers. The customer can influence the price and terms of purchase and may request better service and product quality. The customer power is magnified when the market has many sellers and fewer customers. The switching cost from one seller to another is another factor in the buyer’s bargaining power. The buyers switch to another seller if the products are similar and there is no significant cost to switch. The washing machine detergents are almost similar and do the same cleaning. Dental care products are almost the same with different flavors. Online search engines are another example of service similarities. Users may switch because of a delay of a fraction of a second during the search. The customer will buy another toothpaste because of the new flavor of the month. In undifferentiated market, the brand loyalty between the buyer and seller could be the only reason why a consumer sticks with one seller over the other.

The customer may switch to another product if the customer is well-deducted about the product and have price sensitivity. The availability of the product substitute makes the seller weaker relative to the customer bargaining power. Supermarket shelves in most countries are stacked with different bands of a similar product that the consumer can conveniently choose from according to the brand name, price tag, or attractive packaging.

Regional small farmers, selling most of their farm products to a large supermarket chain have little influence on the terms of the sale. The farmer may opt not to sell to the supermarket at the price they set, but then the farmer has to endure the additional transportation cost to sell his products to another market.

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Threat of New Entrants (Porter’s 5 Forces)

August 11, 2014 Leave a comment

Five Forces - Entrants

Lucrative markets attract new entrants unless the existing organisations have a strong barrier to entry. If it is easy to make and sell what the organisation is selling then every other organisation would love to jump in and produce the same product and market it to the consumer. The organisation should have barriers to its share of the market to stop the new entrants from taking a slice out of it.

One of the best barriers is the economy of scale. Economy of scale is achieved when more products or services are obtained with the same fixed cost. A good example would be the neighbourhood bakery. The fixed cost for the bakery is the skilled bakers, the oven, and the store rent. The bakery would be losing money if they produce and sell a few items every day, but the bakery will have excellent economy of scale if the bakers work all of the time and the oven is always full of white dough turning to golden cakes and bread. The fixed cost will be distributed over multiple products and the production cost of each unit will be low. New entrant has to achieve this production and selling scale to be profitable otherwise they will not be able to enter and compete with the existing organisation.

Another example of the economy of scale is the Microsoft Excel. Competitors of Excel have to be widely distributed and adopted to be able to compete. The cost of switching to Excel to another spreadsheet software has to be very low, or maybe free to attract new users. Google offered Google Spreadsheets free online and offline for all users and it is making a good gain in the spreadsheet market share. Brand name can be a useful entry barrier when new organisation try to muscle in its way into the market. In the case of spreadsheet market, both Microsoft and Google are excellent brands and will have a fair chance to compete.

Product differentiation and location are strong entry barriers. Using the bakery example above would be a good illustration for these entry barriers. The bakery should have a good location and access to the costumers to make it more attractive for the customers. New competing bakery will have difficulty attacking the costumers if store is located in the back of a shopping mall or in a remote area. The customer will not go to the new bakery unless it has products the other bakery does not offer. The new bakery can specialize in birthday, wedding, and special occasion cakes which will make the costumer reach for it for that special social event.

The pharmaceutical industry illustrates three major entry barriers. Initial capital investment, government policy, and technology propriety (patent). The pharmaceutical industry invents heavily in research and development to generate a promising medicine that they can patent and sell in the market for many years in the future. The pharmaceutical life cycle from an idea to introduction to the market is averaging around 8 years. The FDA takes at least one year to approve the drug and only three out of twenty drugs turn out profitable. The patent may prevent other pharmaceutical organizations from copying the formula, but the customer will find generic products, which have the same effect, in the market within one year after launching the drug in the market.

Read also The Suppliers Bargaining Power, Bargaining Power of Customers

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The Suppliers Bargaining Power (Porter’s 5 Forces)

August 9, 2014 1 Comment

Supplier power is an evaluation of how easy it is for providers to drive costs up. The supplier power is driven by the singularity of the product or service; the number of suppliers; relative size and strength of the supplier; and price of changing from one supplier to another.

Located in London and South Africa, DeBeers controls 58 percent of all rough, uncut diamonds sold worldwide until 2004. DeBeers had to pay a $10 million to settle a 10-year-old indictment. The settlement was huge but gives DeBeers a bigger marketing presence and greater legitimacy with U.S. consumers. However, DeBeers market share eroded as new profitable mines were discovered in Russia, Australia, and Canada and those miners started selling to the market directly without the help of DeBeers.

TheFive Forces - Suppliers suppliers power increase if there are fewer suppliers in the market who can form a monopoly or duopoly on the buyers. The same power will decrease if there are alternatives to what the suppliers are selling to the buyer. For example, if natural rubber farmers form coalitions and start raising their prices, then the buyers may switch to synthetic rubber as a suitable alternative. However, if both producers of natural and synthetic rubber form a consortium and start raising their prices then the buyers are forced to accept the higher prices (or pass the additional cost to their customers) until the buyers can find a good and reliable alternative for rubber.

Sometime the alternative is available, but the switching cost from one supplier to another is higher than accepting the original supplier’s prices. Professional video editors are on the look for the latest tools and gadgets to improve their skills and performance. However, the cost of abandoning Final Cut Pro and switching to Adobe Premier Pro maybe too much because of the price they paid to buy the editing software. Another cost to consider is the skill and experience they build up by using one system and they have to re-learn again for the new software. Similar situation is faced by international organisations when they consider switching from Oracle to SAP or for the airline companies to switch from Airbus to Boeing.

The supplier may not decide to raise the price but forward integrate its business. A fishing company that has boats to catch fish in the sea is a supplier to the fish market and the local distributors. The same fish supplier may decide to integrate its business to catch the fish then open stores in the same neighbourhood to sell the fish directly to the customers. The supplier will disrupt the market by taking the distributor’s business and competing with the local fish stores. The same example may apply to Airbus or Boeing if they chose to build the plane and then set up their own airline company.

Read also Threat of New Entrants (Porter’s 5 Forces), Bargaining Power of Customers

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How To Write A Strategy

July 31, 2014 1 Comment

Strategy Strategy according to Business Dictionary is a plan crafted to reach a goal or solution to a problem. Strategic planning takes the form of defining the organisation overall direction and allocating its resources and capabilities to achieve its mid to long-term gaols. A simple example would be the act of traveling by car from city A to city B. The resources required would be a car, map, money, food and drinks. The strategic objective would be reaching city B safely at set time with the lowest cost and effort. The strategic planning take place before the trip start detailing the main route to take and an alternative route. The plan should include when and where to stop for fuel, food and rest. The organisation should do similar planning for its mid and long-term strategic objective. Continue reading …

Stratgy Model

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What is Value Proposition

July 12, 2014 Leave a comment

Value Proposition

Value proposition is the main reason costumers seek a specific product or service over other competitors. It represents the value expected for the cost the costumer is prepared to pay. The expected value should equal or exceed the perceived cost. The company should offer a single or a mix of products or services that benefits the targeted customers who will be in a position to distinguish the product or service from the available products and services available in the market. The customer should find the value of what the company is offering and this value must equal or exceed the cost of what the customer is willing to pay for it. The company needs a proof that the product or service worth the cost to build the customer relationship that sustains customer satisfaction and sales repeatability.

 

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Another Good Initiative

February 28, 2012 2 Comments

ImageNew initiatives are important at work to improve the existing work processes or initiate new process. Initiatives can be new products or another sub-product. Organizations usually encourage employees to present new initiatives frequently. Some organizations evaluate their engineers or experts by the number of initiatives they produce every year. I was discussing this issue with a consultant once, and he complained that some organizations evaluate the engineers’ yearly bonus on number of new “money-saving” projects. These organization end up with multiple projects by the end of the year waiting for execution.

The problem with “opportunity” initiatives or “money-saving” initiatives is in their evaluation. Many initiatives promise to solve the organizational problems, save $$$, or introduce found breaking products that will make the organization the best in its market segment. Very few initiatives produce %90 of promised result. Most of the initiatives stray in a side track or end up as an embarrassing memory. Initiatives should be supported with a strong change management  plan and good management support or it will be one of the arrows in the attached figure!

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The Purpose of the Business

September 6, 2011 Leave a comment

The purpose of the business is to maximize shareholder value, but the stakeholder may be enriched in the same process. The media is evaluating the organization according to its hiring and firing policy and practices. The organization may be firing employees because of a strategic and profitable decision but the media will report this decision negatively. The organization may be hiring without good business sense but the media will positively talk about the organization even if the hiring is adding unnecessary cost to the bottom line. Drucker (2004) state that the purpose of business is to create and keep a customer. The customer will create the jobs and will demand products from the organizations. The customer demand will increase the organizational productivity which will enrich the shareholder then the stakeholder.
Rasmussen and Den Uyl (2009) state, the purpose of the business is to maximize the owners value by selling goods or services. Business leaders focus on their strategy’s direction, momentum, and balance to achieve the business goals. Setting and implementing good strategy will maximize the shareholder value and enrich the stakeholder. Walker and Shenkir (2008) state, the leader should examine the effect of the strategy on the organization’s objectives after he or she develop the strategy.

References:
Drucker, P. (2004). The daily drucker: 366 days of insight and motivation for getting the right things done. New York: Harper Business.
Rasmussen, D. B., & Den Uyl, D. J. (2009). Making room for business ethics: Rights as metanorms for market and moral values. Journal of Private Enterprise, 24(2), 1-19. doi: http://www.apee.org/journal-private-enterprise.html
Walker, P. L., & Shenkir, W. G. (2008). Implementing Enterprise Risk Management. Journal of Accountancy, 205(3), 31-31.

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كيفة وضع الاهداف الشخصية والمهنية

August 6, 2011 Leave a comment

I would like to apologize to the blog visitors and readers for presenting this post (video) in Arabic language. Many visitors and friends asked me to blog in Arabic and this is my first start in the blog.

Part 1

Part 2

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PESTEL Analysis

July 30, 2011 1 Comment

PESTEL model is useful for leaders and managers to analyze the microeconomics of business environment they are working in or attempting to enter in the future. Strategist use PESTEL model to find the macro-environmental factors that can or will affect their strategy implementations and the organizational performance. PESTEL model include six environmental influencers, which are Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental, and Legal. These influencers may look independent but they are related to each other in different ways. Change in the political situation may change the economical and the environmental regulations. The environmental standards may be relaxed which make the organizational investments unjustified, on the contrast, the environmental regulations may become more stringent which may need more investment in an approved project.

Political factors: governmental instability make the intended market undesirable because new government may revoke contracts or change social policies (Evans & Richardson, 2007). The unexpected changes may consume the intended profit margin. Tax policies and trade regulations, like NAFTA, are equally important political factors.

Economic factors include unemployment rate, buyers disposable income, and credit accessibility (Carpenter & Sanders, 2009). These three factors affect the individuals buying power. Strategist need to look at these factors along with interest rate and inflation before offering their products and services in the intended market.

Social Factors are lifestyles, educational levels, wealth distribution, and population demographics (Evans & Richardson, 2007). A product or service may be successful in a country or part of the country because of the lifestyle of that area but could be unsuccessful in another. Trendy cafes may be successful with the young population but gourmet coffee shops are more desirable for the older population.

Technological factors like innovations and discoveries can affect the pace of technological obsolescence (Carpenter & Sanders, 2009). The introduction of iPod in the market signaled the obsolescence of the Sony Walkman. The same situation can be noticed with the DVD use over VHS tapes and now the online rent services made the DVD lose market share fast. Digital and audio books affected the printed books heavily. Boarders, the bookshop chain, just announce its troubled operations and its intention to close more stores.

Environmental factors are increasing and becoming more stringent every year. Waste disposal, energy conservation, and protections laws are the most important factors but not all. Environmental laws keep on increasing the limits after the noticed global environmental changes. Managers and business leaders need to plan for more changes in the protection laws because of the constant demand from the environmental groups and the international environmental organizations.

Legal factors are changing constantly depending on the market needs, or government political views (Carpenter & Sanders, 2009; Evans & Richardson, 2007). Change in the employment regulations like minimum wage, discrimination laws, and health and safety regulations can affect the operational cost.

Managers and business leaders should expect the risk of the changes in the above factors. Well planned and risk managed strategy can decrease the cost and maybe signal good opportunities in the future.

References:

Carpenter, M. A., & Sanders, W. G. (2009). Strategic management. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Evans, C., & Richardson, M. (2007). Assessing the environment. Manager: British Journal of Administrative Management(60), i-iii.

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