CHAPTER 3- STRATEGIC INITIATIVES FOR IMPLEMENTING COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES

Organizations can undertake high-profile strategic initiatives including:

Ø  Supply chain management (SCM)

Ø  Customer relationship management (CRM)

Ø  Business process reengineering (BPR)

Ø  Enterprise resource planning (ERP)

·         Effective and efficient SCM systems can enable an organization to:

·         Decrease the power of its buyers

·         Increase its own supplier power

·         Increase switching costs to reduce the threat of substitute products or services

·         Create entry barriers thereby reducing the threat of new entrants

·         Increase efficiencies while seeking a competitive advantage through cost leadership

·         Involves managing all aspects of a customer’s relationship with an organization to increase customer loyalty and retention and an organization’s profitability

·         Many organization, such as Charles Schwab and Kaiser Permanente, have obtained great success through the implementation of CRM systems.

·         Is not just technology , but a strategy, process, and business goal that an organization must embrace on an enterprise wide level.

CRM can enable an organization to:

Finding Opportunity Using BPR

-       Types of change an organization can achieve, along with the magnitudes of change and the potential business benefit.

Enterprise Resources Planning (ERP)

Integrates all departments and functions throughout an organization into a single IT system so that employees can make decisions by viewing enterprise wide information on all business operations.