Saturday, 13 December 2008

Role of teamwork in schools????

This is not an academic refection. I just try to figure out the rationale behind team formation in our class.
I don't really get this team based work. As far as I observed, you have the really good teams that managed somehow or simply had the luck to get the best members, and then you have the teams that are made out of half good, half floaters. I define floaters as those persons that change teams due to their lack of contribution/low performance/lack of interest, etc.
The good teams are already locked and they don't let anybody in or out. They are happy of having the best students and they don't want to risk it by taking newcomers, and I do not blame them. I would do the same probably. These teams can easily manage the assignments even if only one person works on the task. My team takes the same approach. We take turns and each of us do a task during the period of a course. It is easier and saves time. It takes more to travel with the bus from Raslatt, find a empty room (which is very hard to find by the way), then start talking and arguing which solution is better and why. Usually these conversations take hours and nothing productive comes out. And even so, the one that is the most insistent gets his/her idea through. Better have one dictator per assignment.

But what about the other teams? The teams that have floaters in them? What about these free riders? These teams will always get such students and I tell you why: as we take new classes and have the opportunity to remake the teams, the poorly performing students are usually thrown out. The rest of the team is sick of covering for that person, for waiting for their mails and so on. But who will replace this student? Well... most probably another "lemon", because these are the students that cannot stick to a team, or better said the team does not let them stick. Good students do not move, and a wise team will do its best to keep it. If another team wants that student, they cannot get him/her because he/she comes in packages of 3-4 (depending of the size of that team).
Maybe I shout explain this in more detail.
First of all, you can really see differences between the students here. Some did other things rather than a BA in Business and have a hard time comprehending the material. Others have a hard time speaking English. And others just don't care and are here to have fun. I don't blame neither. All are great people! In my opinion, these students make around 25% of class.
Now, the usual team here is made out of 4 people. There is a high change that you will get 1 such student per team. The other 3 well performing students will stick together (part of the same team) for the next class. They cannot get 1 more good student, cause these "luxuries" come in package of 3. So they will get stuck with another lemon floater....
So what to do?
Well... nothing I guess.... You need to help these students catch up. Many want to learn, but you have to teach them everything, which takes a lot of time and stress...

But then I ask myself: is this fair? 50% of the grade is based on teamwork. Why should those teams that have all members above average get good grades even if their individual work was less? Why do good students in bad teams need to suffer?

In the long run, this problem will solve by itself. Good students will also move one by one (and be assimilated int he 3 person group) and poor performing students will eventually improve. But What to do till then?

The schools knows about this issue. Anybody can figure this one out just by comparing the quality of the team based articles submitted VS the independent finals.

The results of this will only decrease the reliability of the student's grades. It will make some poor performing students get overqualified jobs while others, who worked more than the average in order to make up for the teams' members, underestimated grades.

Who has to win? Well... the smart or lucky teams that managed to get all members above average from the start.

This writing was not meant to insult/praise anybody. I just wanted to point out the flaw in the system, which I just realized that it is pretty useless, cause the students know about it and the university also knows about it, as I previously mentioned. So, I guess that my work was futile, but I will post this anyways....

Good night and have a great weekend

Thursday, 4 December 2008

Reflections on the Middle Management Guest Lecture- for Leadership Module

The role of middle management has been debated for a long time. Some give them a crucial strategic importance within the company, while others see middle managers as additional costs which company needs to reduce. However, in nowadays fast changing business world, it became obvious that the success of important management processes such as implementing change initiatives and pursuing new directions depends heavily on the middle manager. Balogun and Johnson mention in their article “Organizational Restructuring and Middle Manager Sensemaking” that middle managers are “recipients of change as much as its implementers” and that their role will “increase in importance as organizations become increasingly complex” (Balogun & Johnson, 2004).
The role of middle managers and the dilemmas they face was the topic of the guest lecture presentation we had at JIBS. The guest lecture was Mica Wulff Kamm, the Head of Global Product Management at TeliaSonera. Mica has been working in the company for 11 years now and has passed through as many restructuring periods. In her opinion, “in knowledge intensive industries middle managers are definitely needed”. The role of middle managers is crucial in suggesting and implementing changes, not only executing somebody else’s plans (M.Kamm, guest lecture presentation, 2008-11-24).
In providing arguments, Mica used lots of examples from her personal experience and did it with a lot of enthusiasm and inspiration. At one point, TeliaSonera had to respond to a competitor’s action (we are talking about Skype). So Mica together with her team proposed to introduce a new service, and this suggestion was fully supported by the senior management. According to Balogun’s article “From Blaming the Middle to Harnessing its Potential: Creating Change Intermediaries” (2003), middle managers take advantage of the resources they possess to initiate innovative ideas and take advantage of the business opportunities. Moreover, they encourage projects within the department they manage and use their position to gather the necessary information (Balogun, 2003). What Mica did was developing a plan to react to the competitor’s move and showing all the information to senior management. This is one of the many examples she gave that supported the importance of middle management when it comes to innovation and needed change.
In the article “Middle Managers and Strategy: Micro-Dynamics of Inclusion”, Westley discusses the role of middle managers in strategic operations in bureaucratic organizations. The advice in this case is to keep middle managers “included” and “energized”. Middle managers are more enthusiastic and energetic if they are not excluded from “hierarchy of coalitions” and negotiation of rules with senior managers is possible. Also, middle managers should be allowed to dominate the “framing rules in a strategic conversation (Westley, 1990). Westley’s article can be categorized as pieces of advice for senior managers when it comes to supporting the middle management of their company. In TeliaSonera’s case, empowerment is used as a motivation and is one of the shared values of the company. According to Mica, empowerment is used to encourage innovative thinking and acting (M.Kamm, guest lecture presentation, 2008-11-24).
Moreover, middle managers play an important role in balancing emotions and facilitating organizational adaptability. This is how they succeed at “change, continuity in providing quality in customer service, and developing new knowledge and skills” (Huy, 2002). Especially when dealing with change, middle managers should pay special attention to the employees, as “tension between continuity and change also exists on the individual level” (Huy, 2002). If you want employees to join you in the implementation of change, you should foster an atmosphere of trust and support.
My personal opinion is that middle managers are indeed a strategic asset to the company and their value cannot be denied. They facilitate communication and guide employees when it comes to implementing changes. In her presentation, Mica gave us a couple of advices. One is to get involved in whatever is happening in the company, not just watch. Her leadership style is a participative one and she encourages us to be the same way. She has three golden rules for succes:
• be there when the ground shakes
• make your co-workers visible
• make your team self-running.


References:
Balogun, J. & Johnson, G. (2004) “Organizational Restructuring and Middle Manager Sensemaking”. Academy of Management Journal. Vol 47, 523-549.

Balogun, J. (2003) From Blaming the Middle to Harnessing its Potential: Creating Change Intermediaries, British Journal of Management, vol. 14, 69-83.

Huy, N. Q. (2002) Emotional Balancing of Organizational Continuity and Radical Change, Administrative Science Quarterly, 47(1), 31-69.

Kamm, M.W. (2008). Guest Lecture 24th of November, Middle Management - Real Life, Retrieved 2008-11-26 from Jönköping International Business School’s website:
http://jibsnet.hj.se/documents/files/download/832478114/3385827292690149047/Microsoft%20PowerPoint%20-%20Middle%20Management%20JIBS%2020081124.

Westley, F. T. (1990) Middle Managers and Strategy: Micro-Dynamics of Inclusion, Strategic Management Journal, Vol. 11 (5), 337-351.

Tuesday, 25 November 2008

SME strategic planning

Today we talked about various strategic management tools that may help small and medium size companies with their strategic development.
I was thinking about the efficiency of applying such strategies. Most of these companies may be really small and not afford the time, energy and capital to invest in such techniques. As a matter of fact, as Mittelstand (Tabellenband, 2004) research shows, companies give up planning as years pass. His research showed that most planning is (if ever) done in the first years, after which a steady decline is noticed. Also, the smaller the company, the less planning is done.
Planning and applying strategic management tools may coagulate the various sectors of your company, binding them together (as McKinsey's 7S model does for example). The 7S model tries to analyze various parts of your company (Skills, Staff, Structure, Strategy, Structure, System) and bind them into one, Shared Value unit. My opinion is that by doing this the company's departments become more interrelated and dependable on one another. Also one change may have bigger repercussions in the other 6 sectors the company defines. There may also be the fear of implementing change due to the risk of uncertainty that will be created in other sectors of the SMEs.
Thus, I believe that for small and small to medium size enterprises, devising strategic management tools may have as a consequence the company's loss of flexibility and thus its main competitive advantage against big corporations.

Sunday, 23 November 2008

Cheap and effective marketing

It is becoming a real burden for companies to advertise through conventional advertising techniques. TV commercials, radio, street posters become in my opinion outdated and expensive. Of course they will work, bust most of us became so accustomed to street posters that we just think of them as part of the city background, TV commercials as forced interruptions from our favorite shows and so on.
I noticed nowadays more and more companies that advertise through more unconventional means. Placing a cell phone in one of the celebrity's hands as s/he makes a video clip may prove to be less expensive and more effective.
Let's say Nokia decides to advertise its new youth cell phone. Making a TV commercial will cost the company a lot: you need a team to come up with an idea after which you need to pay a lot for transforming the idea into a short video clip, then you need to finance for every second the commercial airs (fees which vary depending on the show you watch/time/audience).
But if Nokia would give a cell phone to a singer who makes a videoclip and agree to pay 30% of the videoclip's cost (which may in some cases cost the same as one single TV advertisement during a peak hour) if that persons flashes the device in front of the TV for several times (see: Puff Daddy Ft Keyshia Cole - Last night on you tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxIR5vvdw2U from minutes 0:30 onward) then it would end up spending a lot less: no team to come up with an idea, no advertising campaign and no payment every time the ad airs. Plus the intended audience can be very well selected this way. Putting a cellphone into a celebrity's videclip will be watched by a lot more teenagers than a regular TV ad. Plus you have broadcasters like youtube, MTV and many others that will broadcast the singer's song and implicitly the clip with the cell phone it it. It is a way of "market bundling" by attaching a product next to another product (this case a service)-e.g. mp3 player comes with headphones.

This marketing technique may even extend to books (for example authors may encompass in their writing -if it fits the scenario- about coming into a specific bar and drinking only a special brand of beer). Think that the audience may be a lot larger (if the books turns out to be a bestseller), cheaper to reach and the individuals may be a lot more attached to the general subject and subconsciously to the subliminal product advertised rather than identifying with it in a random TV add.

Saturday, 22 November 2008

Company visit - ITAB

The company visit was very educational in my opinion. Well… at least I learned more from it than by reading somebody’s article and then discussing it in class… But I guess we need both theory and practice in life.
I was amazed how well the company was doing in its domain(s). It focused on store layouts and equipment. These services will always be in demand simply because there will always be businesses that need to find efficient solutions for their store arrangement and outfitting. It’s like dentistry: you will always find clientele that needs teeth improvement.
In my opinion, one of the elements that made this company what it is today was the early age in which it entered the market. I believe that it started 40 years ago. It was there when these services were starting to be in demand. Plus, the company managed to adapt and expand, providing in time both the service and some of the equipment, diversifying its portfolio, reducing risk and dependability from the suppliers that produced the same equipment. It provides a great example of vertical integration, since it provides both the solution and the means to a problem. As we walked through the company, I could see that most of the store layout equipment provided for their clientele was organically produced. ITAB had machines that cut the steel, molded it; it had a painting division, binding division, electronics, delivery, etc.
What I found interesting was that they did not rely on advertising. After some clarifications, it became pretty clear why: ITAB relied on B2B relationships and most of the local clientele was already theirs. Due to the age of the company, it managed to recruit these businesses from the beginning. The company focused on a big portfolio of retail stores (not all of which Swedish) that gave the company enough work with their every newly opened store.
R&D was also strong. We saw a prototype for self checking products. Most of the stores today have a supervisor that randomly checks the clientele that uses this kind of service. This is done because it gives the customer the possibility to cheat (clientele may scan less products and thus pay less). But the problem arises as soon as the random check is done because the clientele may associate this action as an insult.
The new ITAB self scanning machine requires the clientele to put the merchandise on a belt after scanning. This belt weights the purchased article and correlates it to the scanned product. If the weight differs (within +/-1 gram), or an additional, not scanned object is placed there, then it detects this as an abnormality.
I believe that ITAB will have a good performance even during these times of recession because it mainly collaborates with retail stores that rely on low cost products like Metro, Kaufland, Ika, and so on.
I would like to see more of such visits in my future schedule.

Saturday, 15 November 2008

Fusion marketing. How to set up a fusion marketing alliance?

I will talk some more about this topic, since I found it very interesting. '
I will explain how to set up such an alliance.
First of all, you need to define who could be your partner(s). Be sure to look for companies that do not engage in the same business as you, since this would make the alliance cannibalistic. Entrepreneur.com offers examples of competitors that are not direct competitors, but nevertheless aim for the same market: landscaper/builder, realtor/mortgage broker, network marketer/entrepreneur, massage therapist/chiropractor
Next you need to agree with your partners how much is each willing to sacrifice in order to convince the customer to go with this alliance, but without making one company suffer more than the other. The sacrifices made by the companies should be more of less of equal value or proportional with the amount of revenue each store would receive from the redirected customer, depending on the type of business and profit margin of each.
Binding the agreement is also important, since it should be clearly defined the tasks of each partner, in order to avoid future possible issues.
Next you must transform the idea into reality. You need to exchange information and create a common advertising material that will be distributed by all the companies involved. Try to make this offer as easy as possible. Don’t make it hard for the customer to benefit from the alliance: for example (related to the pizza store example in the previous blog) don’t make the customer buy a certain number of pizzas in order for the coupon to be valid.
Try to make this network work as fluent as possible. Also be sure to constantly search for new partners that want to join in. The more you find, the more advantages your clientele will have and thus more likely to choose you than a direct competitor that does not posses such bundle of offers.

Source: www.entrepreneur.com

Fusion marketing. What is it?

I found this interesting concept called “fusion marketing” that seemed pretty important, but rarely used by companies.
On entrepreneur.com there is such an example of a pizza place and a dry cleaners store that implemented fusion marketing. The customer that would go into the pizza place would see discount coupons for the dry cleaning place and vice-versa. This alliance would help both companies survive by sending traffic to each other.
In my country for example, there are only few businesses that actually do that, and many of them are owned by the same person. Most people are scared to engage in such activities for the fear of making the “opponent” stronger. But what they fail to realize is that fusion marketing is not meant to be done between direct competitors, but more between companies that aim towards the same target market.
A concrete example would be a strategic alliance between a wedding planner, a catering service and a bride dress store. Neither stores are in direct competition, since a wedding will require all of these services, but they nevertheless aim for the same target market: the future married couples.
Fusion marketing can occur in many forms, not only by discount coupons as I mentioned above. For example a joint mailing list that is incorporated in the store’s business card or printed on each of the store’s packaging material.

Source: www.entrepreneur.com