Auditing
shown in Figure 1 and a questionnaire points count of between 39 and approximately 51 was considered to suggest fi rms adopting a predominantly market-based view of competitive strategy. A questionnaire points count of between 51 and approximately 57, with a profi le similar to that shown in Figure 2, was considered to be a company predominately adopting a resource-based view. If the points count is greater than 58, this suggests that a business may be suffering from strategic drift. The production of such a profi le should therefore trigger a need for a more detailed examination of its intended view of competition for competitive strategy formulation.
In a similar manner, the points reported on each x-axis questionnaire were totalised and a profi le of the strategic role of the organisation’s operations was plotted, as shown in Figure 4. Theoretically, the progressive increase in the point score refl ects the fulfi lment of a strategic operations role from a basic one of pure good or
75 70
Strategic Drift ?
60 57
Resource-based view
Views of Competition
Market-based view
51 48
45
35 39
Infeasible Operational Effectiveness? 25 15 Journeyman 30 45 Internally Supportive The Strategic Role of Operations 60
World Class Service Delivery
75
About the author Mike Sweeney is Emeritus Professor of Operations Management at Cranfi eld School of Management, Cranfi eld University. Dr Bob Lillis is Senior Lecturer in Service Operations within the School of Management. If you would like to obtain a copy of the x and y-axes audit questionnaires or merely wish to fi nd out more about achieving strategic alignment, please contact Bob at
bob.lillis@ cranfi
eld.ac.uk.
best practice implementation, to one supportive of a market- based strategy or to one that is more proactive in the creation and delivery of capabilities that enable the delivery of a customer service competitive edge.
Plotting these questionnaire point counts on a strategic fi t management framework, as shown in Figure 5 for the 21 services that comprised our sample of companies, enables a business to assess the current level of the alignment of its competitive and operations strategy. In addition, the profi les plotted of its competitive and operations strategies, as illustrated in Figures 3 and 4, provide a model of what has already been achieved by current strategic management actions and what actions are required to further the competitiveness of the business.
Conclusion
The strategic management of both the competitiveness of a business and the alignment of its operations activities with
the competitive positioning of the fi rm can be performed intuitively. However, as with all management challenges, visual representations of abstract concepts such as competition and operational capabilities can be better analysed and discussed through conceptual
management tools, albeit with a recognition that these also have their limitations. Our purpose was to devise a procedure and the management tools required to facilitate the constantly changing relationship between competitive and operations strategies. The use of our x and y-axes questionnaires by senior management can offer helpful insights into what strategic moves are realistically available to their business given its current competitive strategy- role of operations relationship.
References
• Chase R and Hayes R (1991). Beefi ng up operations in service fi rms. Sloan
Management Services Winter 2012
47
Management Review. Fall, 15-26
• Hayes R, Wheelwright S and Clark K (1988). Dynamic manufacturing: creating the learning organization, Free Press, New York, USA. • Porter M (1991). Towards a dynamic theory of strategy. Strategic Management Journal. 12 (2), 95-117. • Porter M (1996). What is strategy? Harvard Business Review. 76 (6), 61-78. • Prahalad, C., and Hamel, G. (1990). The core competence of the corporation. Harvard Business Review. 68 (3), 79-93. • Swink M, Narasimhan R and Kim S-H (2005). Manufacturing practices and strategy integration: effects on cost effi ciency, fl exibility and market-based performance. Decision Sciences. 36 (3), 427- 457. • Teece D, Pisano G and Shuen A (1997). Dynamic capabilities and strategic management. Strategic Management Journal. 18 (7), 509-533.
Figure 5. The relationship between the view of competitive strategy taken and the strategic role of the operation in our sample of 21 services
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