Strategy Development Process In Organization

Introduction

Strategy is the direction and scope of an organisation over a long term (1). Some strategies aim to establish long term direction, gain advantages over competitors, building capabilities whilst maintaining the interest, values and expectations of stakeholders (1).  It is necessary to have effective strategy development processes for cohesive organisational management. Strategies today have changed over time to suit the changing environments within which they may be implemented, and to the benefit of the organisations that use them. At the corporate level, strategy decisions include investments, diversification, integrations, mergers and acquisitions among others (2).  Hewlett Packard (HP) has been one of the power players in the technology industry for many years. However, the case as put forward shows that the company has had challenges with political figures and processes in the boardroom. These challenges have stymied the development of strategies for the organisation to progress and has seen the company struggle to keep Chief Executive Officers (C.E.O) who garnered the support of the board in spite of the issues.

These challenges have caused the company to lose shares in its markets, and has had a deleterious effect on employee morale and innovation. This paper identifies and critiques the most effective strategy development process for Hewlett Packard to adopt given the challenges in the boardroom. The strategy will allow the company to regain the sound leadership of a competent CEO who will have the support of board members and stakeholders to drive strategic direction within the organisation. The writer will draw upon relevant theory and resources to justify the approach outlining the advantages and the disadvantages of the approach in relation to the issues outlined. In the following section, the issues in the boardroom will be discussed and the approach to resolving these issues will be proposed.

Strategy Development Process - Hewlett Packard

Hewlett Packard had seen turnovers by the year 2012 of $120 Billion, however these were declining and shares were being lost. Contributing to these losses was the infighting among members of the board of management who with a lack of a coherent organisational strategy, failed to arrive at decisions that would have facilitated the organisation’s progress.  An effective strategy development process is strongly suggested by the writer to be used in rectifying the issues being experienced by the company. Due to the absence of a formal strategic plan for the organisation, the board members are without a formal direction and are unable to support initiatives that are suggested. To remedy these issues as indicated by the article, the writer suggests that the following strategy development processes be implemented at the company, and that they should be used in tandem with each other in tackling and bringing under control the spiralling decline of the company’s profits and shares.

Firstly, a formal intended strategic plan should be established to give management and stakeholders alike a specific directional plan for Hewlett Packard to use as the guiding compass on its journey to regain its lost shares and revenues. This formal intended strategy should also be accompanied by the flexibility to pursue an emergent strategy approach to change management in the event that the need arises for the company to restructure and redistribute resources to suit a specific goal or path of development.

There is general agreement that the two dominant theories are the Planned and Emergent approaches (Burns 2004b; Cummings and Worley 2001). The author contends that many decisions in the boardroom will be made, if the strategies being proposed by the change agent, are done so incrementally, or through an emergent change approach, thus reducing the severity of the impact the change that the CEO and board members want to implement will have on the structures and players in the organisation. Emergent strategies have proven to be more receptive in organisational change. Mintzberg, Ahlstrand and Lampel (1998) and de Wit and Meyer (1998) both offer structured ways of looking at strategy formulation and implementation. Additionally, the view that both strategic decision-taking and strategy process are emergent phenomena (MacIntosh and MacLean, 1999) holds firm in the remit of organisational development and strategic change management procedures.

Politics at the boardroom level is a serious phenomenon that can potentially cripple the progress of an organisation. Therefore, it is important to keep a check on the organizational activities that could possibly keep a check on the politics among the internal stakeholders of the organization (González-Bailon et al. 2013). It has been observed that the politics of the boardroom has extended to recruitment process as well. Even the eligible candidates are not given the actual position that is supposed to be given (Dhir 2015). This has automatically declined the leadership approach of the organization and that has direct influence on the overall success of the organizational activities. As it has been evident that the members of the boardroom are responsible for the major decisions, including evaluation of the financial accountability, robustness; politics can hamper the overall business activities.

The members of the boardrooms also ensure the rules and regulations related to the role of the stakeholders in the organization (González-Bailon et al. 2013). Thus any major decisions are bound to affect the internal and external business activities as well. The members should ensure politics free environment that the company shall be genuinely answerable to the internal and the external public of the organization.

Conclusion:

By the end of the discussion, it has been evident that Hewlett Packard has been facing certain strategic issues in its organization. In order to support the arguments, formal strategic planning has been proposed. It has been evident that the organization is facing major challenges in the overall business approach due to increase in the politics in the organization. Thus, the organization should focus on the overall business activities that might help to improve the current situation of the organization. It is expected that if proper strategic decisions are made, the organization will take a major turn in its business activities and shall be competitive enough to deal with other competitors in the market.

References:

Dhir, Aaron A. "Homogeneous Corporate Governance Cultures." (2015).

González-Bailon, Sandra, Will Jennings, and Martin Lodge. "Politics in the boardroom: Corporate pay, networks and recruitment of former parliamentarians, ministers and civil servants in Britain." Political Studies 61, no. 4 (2013): 850-873.