The Skills Gap

According to a recent article there exists a gap between the skills required by employers and what they are getting from recent graduates, but there is another gap.  There are differences between the perception of employers, students and educators.  This is a global issue and where the gap is the largest employers believe only 43% are qualified while educators think the number should be 83% (Mehta, 2012).  I agree with the educators.

Speaking from experience, many training pipelines only show that you are trainable.  The real knowledge and know how come on the job.  Doing the job itself is a learning experience.  Does not the resourced based view of the firm rely on organizational resources such as structure (Barney, 2001)?  How could a “graduate” obtain such expertise as part of the educational process?  The article mentions employers teaming with schools, but if these skills are unique then it would be a waste of time for at least some of the students.  While the employer would create a pool of talent from which to select, students not chosen are no more qualified.

Companies need to look at new “resources” (graduates) more like a raw material to be shaped and molded by the processes of the company instead of an “off the shelf” product.

 

Barney, J. (2001). Firm Resources and Sustained Competitive Advantage. Journal of Managment , 99-120.

Mehta, S. N. (2012, 12 05). The "skills gap": As bad as (almost) everyone thinks. Retrieved 12 05, 2012, from CNN Money: http://postcards.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2012/12/05/the-skills-gap-as-bad-as-almost-everyone-thinks/?iid=obnetwork

Dynamic Strategy - Current event - EcoATMs: A solution to recycle our electronics

EcoATMs: A solution to recycle our electronics

Mark Bowles, Robert Genthert, John Beane, and Eric Rosser saw that there was a big “gap” in recycling electronics, as only 3 percent of phones worldwide were recycled or reused, and decided to take advantage of that opportunity. Thus, they created EcoATM, a company that recycles electronics. In their EcoATMs anyone can recycle their electronics (cellphones, mp3 players, and tablets) and receive cash instantly. These EcoATMs can be found in malls or grocery stores and they are very easy to use.

The strategy of the company is to offer instant cash to people who want to sell or recycle their old electronic devices. That’s actually their competitive advantage against their competitors like GameStop. People can also sell their electronics in these stores, but unlike EcoATMs, customers in GameStop have to go to their local store to sell their device and get paid. Another competitor, buymytronics.com, which was acquired by GameStop, offers instant quotes but customers get their money in about a week. Thus, for instant money and environment friendly recycling, EcoATMs are a better choice for customers.

Building on their competitive advantage, EcoATM improves its ATMs by adding more features. Latest EcoATMs require each user to scan his/hers driver’s license to complete the transaction. Also, they are equipped with cameras that take the customer’s photo and compare it with his/her photo ID. By taking these measures EcoATM tries to protect its machines of becoming a “cash mecca for thieves” that can sell stolen phones to EcoATMs for quick cash. Another example of the dynamic strategy and dynamic development of the company is the fact that it enhances its ATMs by adding bigger database, highly efficient artificial intelligence system, and better algorithms to their latest ATMs, in order to provide better and quicker service to their customers.

In my opinion, this company is a good example for managers and entrepreneurs-to-be, of what they can succeed if they are smart enough to spot a “gap” in an industry and try to take advantage of it. However, what this story also tells to managers is that once they establish their company they should follow a dynamic strategy that would help them to evolve and provide better service/products to their customers.

Sources

·         Gail, Huff (2012), “EcoATM's give quick cash for old cell phones, MP3 players”, [available at http://www.wjla.com/articles/2012/11/ecoatm-s-give-quick-cash-for-old-cell-phones-mp3-players-82497.html ]

·         Caroline, Winter (2012), “EcoATM, the Automated iPhone Pawn Shop”, [available at http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-09-27/ecoatm-the-automated-iphone-pawn-shop  ]

·         Cliff, Edwards (2012), “GameStop, Without the Games”, [available at http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-08-09/gamestop-without-the-games ]

·         buymytronics.com (2012), “How it works”, [available at http://www.buymytronics.com/how-it-works.aspx ]

·         Kiosmarketplace.com (2012), “EcoATM could be cash mecca for thieves”, [available at http://www.kioskmarketplace.com/article/204057/EcoATM-could-be-cash-mecca-for-thieves ]

·         Denise, Goolsby (2012), “Cash offered for old phones at new ATM”, [available at http://www.mydesert.com/article/20121125/NEWS01/311250013/Cash-offered-old-phones-new-ATM ]

Peer reviewed article

The name of the Article was Winning Strategy by Jodi Spiro and it dealt with improvement in an employee training environment but I think taken generically the strategy can have other uses.

The article starts with a few main points.  One is to benchmark early on in a process to set a clear defined path since change is unpleasant to some and having a map helps.  Bringing people with you or getting "buy in" is important to success.  Lastly don't set yourself up for failure.  Winning early is important setting of goals needs to be done carefully.  If improvement is really the most important thing then that should be the goal.  There doesn't need to be a number associated with it.  Number goals can be too arbitrary.

The next part describes methodology.  Problems are usually solved in a similar manner to the method described in the article.  A problem is identified, a strategy is formed, a plan is implemented, etc.  "Wins" are the important part of this strategy.  Besides needing to measurable, tangible, etc they need to be publicized.  Positive results are motivating and opportunities to share that should not be missed.

Journal of Staff Development; Apr2012, Vol. 33 Issue 2, p10-16

Dynamic Strategy - Academic article - Competitive Actions and Dynamics in the Digital Age: An Empirical Investigation of Social Networking Firms

The purpose of this article is to examine the competition between firms in the social networking services (SNS) industry and the way that competitive actions taken by firms enhance their performance. SNS industry is composed of companies like Facebook, LinkedIn, Hi5, and MySpace.  

According to the authors, SNS firms use two ways to compete with other firms in their industry. The first way they use is to undertake “value cocreation actions” (Devi et al, 2009), which include codevelopment of technology with third party developers and forming alliances with firms to develop relational capabilities. The second way is to take aggressive actions against their competitors by using a “repertoire of competitive actions”(Devi et al, 2009). 

The authors use hypothesis testing in order to conduct their research. Their main hypotheses are:

• codevelopment actions are positively related to firm performance 
• relational capability actions are positively related to firm performance
• complexity of action repertoire is positively related to firm performance 
• the volume of actions taken by firms is positively related to firm performance

In order to find the information for their research, the authors used data from 52 SNS firms in a period of 3 years. This resulted in the authors having a sample of 156 firm years, which is a very good sample for their research.

The results of the study showed that the first hypothesis is true for most of the firms. Codevelopment helps firms to achieve greater performance. Hypothesis 2 was also supported by the results, so this means that relational capabilities actions help firms to have greater performance. The third hypothesis was also supported by the final results. Complex actions taken by the firms when they try to compete with their competitors help their performance. The fourth hypothesis was not supported by the study. The volume of actions taken by firms when competing was not clearly shown to affect firm’s performance.

As for managers, this study can help them in many ways. By studying the results of this study they can learn the types of competitive actions that each firm took and thus they can understand industry dynamics and develop better strategies to compete in this industry. The fact that this research combines IT, IS, and strategic management can help managers understand the competitive advantages that their firms can have by combining the same three components.

References

Devi R. Gnyawali, Weiguo Fan, James Penner, (2009). Competitive Actions and Dynamics in the Digital Age: An Empirical Investigation of Social Networking Firms, Information Systems Research Vol. 21, No. 3, September 2010, pp. 594–613

The article can be found in the following address:

http://libproxy.uhcl.edu:2057/ehost/detail?sid=9665d816-2aab-43bb-8f9e-8ed21577d5fb%40sessionmgr111&vid=4&hid=112

  

Dynamic Strategy - Qualitative - AN INVESTIGATION ON THE STRATEGY FORMULATION PROCESS WITHIN THE ROMANIAN COMPANIES

The article tries to find out the effects of strategy formulation process in companies in Romania. The authors give some definitions of strategic management.  One of them, which I found really interesting, comes from Ohmae (1982) who argues that strategic management is the “pursuit of superior performance by using a strategy that ensures a better or stronger matching of corporate strengths to customer needs than is provided by competitors” (Ohmae, 1982: 91).

The authors then analyze the steps that constitute the strategic management process. These are:

       1.      analysis of the external and internal environment;

       2.      strategy formulation;

       3.      strategy implementation and

       4.      strategy evaluation

(Borza et al.,2008)

The authors provide some information about the factors that influence strategy formulation and talk about strategic objectives, decisions, and policies. They also refer the two models of strategic formulation. The objective and the cognitive model.

The authors conduct a research in 35 companies in order to find what managers think about strategic formulation process. In this research the questionnaire had two sections: one with factual questions and one about different elements of the formulation phase of the strategy.

One significant finding of the research was that 74% of the companies had a vision and 74% of those had revised their vision this year. That’s really interesting as it shows that most of the managers recognize the importance of having a current vision for their company. Another interesting finding was that 71% of the managers had developed a strategy for their firm and 72% of them revised their strategy this year. However, only 54% of the companies had conducted a SWOT analysis. This low percentage shows that some of the firms have either copied their strategy from another firm or have come up with a strategy “based on intuition”. Either way, they have formulated a strategy that is not suitable for their firm.

The research also showed that managers pay too much attention on setting long term goals for their companies, as 89% of managers have already established long term goals. This result along with the fact that only 71% of the managers have established a strategy shows that some managers have long term goals without first setting a strategy for their company.  

In my opinion, the latter is the most important finding of the research. Managers try to setup long term goals without having an established strategy for their company. This is definitely a sign that those managers lack strategic management skills. The correct managerial strategy is to establish a strategy first and then try to set long or short term goals.

References

Ohmae, K., (1982). The mind of the strategist, McGraw-Hill, London.

Borza, A., Bordean, O., Dobocan, C., Mitra, C., (2008). Strategic management. Concepts and cases, Risoprint Publishing House, Cluj-Napoca.

Bordean, O., Borza, A., Rus, C., Mitra C., An investigation on the strategy formulation process within the Romanian companies

Apple is losing what makes Apple, well Apple...

I have never been a Mac person.  I have always found them difficult to use the few times I have sat in front of them.  It just wasn't what I was use to.  I liked all of the buttons and tool bars that were on all of Microsoft products.  From spreadsheets to word processing they all sort of behaved alike which in turn is what we all expected.  There may have been better processors out there but I like many of us never bothered to look.  I had what I was use to and I liked and that was it.

My experience with cellphones has been different.  I got my first phone back in 1999.  It had a big battery and couldn't do much other than be expensive.  I "upgraded" to a smaller phone, to a flip-phone, camera phone, etc.  Problem was the phones never lasted long.  They were all different.  It would be weeks before I knew all the features.  That changed for me in 2009 when I bought an Apple iPhone 3G.  It took a little while to get a feel for touchscreen but after that I saw what all the rage was.  IT JUST WORKED.  It was easy to use.  You could transition from one task to another just like those Microsoft PC products I mentioned earlier.  Here was Apple's competitive advantage and it only got better.  I bought my iPhone 4 a year later which was even better!

Sadly the man who bought us all of this passed away in 2011.  Since then Apple has had some missteps.   Apple rolled out the iPhone 5 and a new OS earlier this month that has underwhelmed.  I has some new features that I am curious to try, but other programs that many of us use everyday don't give me the same feeling I had three years ago.  They don't JUST WORK anymore.  Did Apple's competitive advantage die with Steve Jobs?

http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/29/opinion/patel-apple-maps/index.html?hpt=hp_t3

Dynamic Strategy - Current event - How can small companies benefit from LinkedIn

For many people LinkedIn is just another social network. For businesspeople it is the only social network. Although it had only 4,500 users when it started on 2003, today LinkedIn has grown to more than 175 million members in over 200 countries and territories. LinkedIn has become an absolute necessity for every professional. Professionals from all over the world are using it to find new job opportunities, connect with friends and coworkers, follow companies, and discuss with other members.  

That does not mean that LinkedIn is good only for professionals. Companies, especially small ones, have great benefits from using this social network. They can connect with their customers, build their brand image, share some news about their products or services, grow their network, and find new highly-skilled employees (Brett 2012).  

But, in order to be successful on LinkedIn, companies have to do more than just create a LinkedIn page and connect with their customers. They have to make sure that they are ’always on’ which means that they have to find ways to make their customers/audience to participate more often in the company’s group page. The series of steps that companies have to follow in order to achieve more engagement from their customers are:

• Build a presence and populate it with information 
• Attract followers 
• Engage followers 
• Amplify via the network 
• Analyze and review

(Brett 2012) 

By following all the above steps, small businesses can have more “followers” (customers). This will give them the opportunity to advertise and promote their products and services to more customers, quicker, and with very low cost. Also, since LinkedIn can be accessed by cell phones, companies can reach more customers to promote their product.

Thus, it becomes clear that managers should focus on building and maintaining a LinkedIn profile for their companies and try to use it as much as they can, because this social network can provide too many benefits to their company.

Sources

·         LinkedIn.com (2012), “About us”, [available at http://press.linkedin.com/about]

·         Brett, Lorna (2012), “Why you should be ‘always on’ on LinkedIn”, [available at http://www.dynamicbusiness.com.au/small-business-resources/hot-tips/why-you-should-be-always-on-on-linkedin-210912.html]

·         Brett, Lorna (2012), “Seven easy ways to leverage LinkedIn”, http://www.dynamicbusiness.com.au/small-business-resources/hot-tips/seven-easy-ways-to-leverage-linkedin-16012012.html

·         Dr. Woody (2011), “Why You Should Have a LinkedIn Profile”, [available at http://www.foxbusiness.com/personal-finance/2011/10/31/why-should-have-linkedin-profile ]