Introduction
Nowadays,
Brazilian people have increased direct involvement with mobile technology therefore
mobile applications for company’s has become increasingly important. Eyeing
this opportunity, the company Brazilian Mobile Services created something
really new in this market. They developed practical methods to turn products
into mobile services, through their applications. Focused on sports especially soccer
clubs the company develops mobile applications that strengthen the value of
sporting events and brands. The applications go beyond entertainment and create
a new form of relationship with target audiences. In this context a strategic
plan can determine the success or the failure of a company.
Several
works (Chance & Williams, 2009; Almani & Esfaghansary, 2011; Karnani,
2006) were used to delineate how a strategic plan is important for a business
success. However others emphasize strategic plan as process (Carter, 1999),
which if well done can give to the company competitive advantage through a good
management.
Having
accepted, at least notionally, the potential of strategic plan, the mission and
vision statements are created to build up the body of the plan. While mission
is discussed with their internal impact on the company (Campbell, 1989; Collins
& Porras, 1991) the vision covers the external dimension of how the company
will be inserted in the macroeconomic environment (Akpoyomare, at all, 2011).
The article tries to explain how the mission statement is important to the
company success and how vision statement supports the mission Finally 5 key objectives were created for the
company, encompassing operational, financial, target resources and other
aspects of the industry to allow the company to measure results against target
achievement. Based on the concept of critical
success by John Rockart (1979), the article justifies how the key
objectives support the mission and vision statement while focusing on limited
areas.
Strategic Plan Argument
Strategic
planning is an ongoing process that requires leaders to question the status of
stated initiatives, changes in the environment, and new requirements for
learning, and adjustments to the plan continually (Chance & Williams,
2009). Successful strategic planning efforts in Brazilian Mobile Services represent
the challenge of combining usability with profitability. While the mobile market
has 27 million users in Brazil, the penetration is only 14% of the population
which can represent a lot of opportunities for mobile services in a future
(MMA, 2012). The strategic plan is going to be an essential mechanism, procedure,
and methodology to monitor and react to this environment (Almani &
Esfaghansary, 2011).
By choosing
Brazilian Mobile Services’ strategy in Brazil it would be possible to focus on the
in the intended direction and strengthen its market position by taking the
right combination of competitive and operation approaches to move the company (Thompson
& Gamble, 2010). In fact, strategic planning is generally pursued as a
rational undertaking to reduce the firms’ performance uncertainty through
trade-off decisions from controversial choices (Karnani, 2006). It determines
end goals to be achieved and strategies for accessing, allocating, and managing
resources to achieve predetermined goals.
The
challenge is to understand that the strategic plan involves more than the production
of a printed plan. Strategic planning is a process, not a product. It is
ongoing and permanent (Carter, 1999). Especially in the mobile networks
environment where changes in circumstances occur all the time, the strategic
plan will help management efforts to improve performance over time. This
process is important because actions are taken to improve the company’s
performance, strengthen its long term competitive position and finally gain a competitive
advantage over competition (Thompson & Gamble, 2010). A good strategic plan
will provide not only a framework of the desired direction for the future (Barton,
1988) but also a self-identification (Stephan, 2010) that will determine good
management.
Mission Statement
The mission statement for the Mobile Service Company
in Brazil would be as follow: “Provide mobile applications to enhance
communication strategies for Brazilian Soccer clubs with credibility, creativity,
quality and speed. We will enhance the relationship between supporters and
clubs by giving greater access for the supporters while at the same time
providing increased market intelligence to the clubs and increasing their potential
revenue streams. Based on the principles of independence, critical thinking,
through the best of technologies which can contribute to increase people's
access to sporting events and help companies to manage contact with their
supporters”. Through this statement the Brazilian Mobile Services describe its
present business and purposes by answering the questions: Why do we exist? What
are we here for? What are we trying to accomplish? (Thompson & Gamble,
2010).
Common
sense dictates that obviously companies should know their own conditions and objectives
to continue in business. However the mission is essential to have a better
staff motivation/ management control toward achieving a common organizational
purpose (Campbell, 1989; Collins & Porras, 1991). In the Apple mission
statement for example they mentioned: “Apple designs Macs, the best personal
computers in the world…, leads the digital music …, and is defining the future
of mobile media and computing devices with iPad” (Apple, 2012). They certainly
motivate their staff by recognizing their position as “the best computers in
world” at the same time that they project their future giving a guide for their
manager about what they expect in the next years. Although mobile services
environment relies on constant innovation making difficult to define their
business, the use of mission statements can still impact behaviors in the
organization (Bart, 1996). Therefore Apple is a good example of mission
statement that even though short, it can still capture the essence of the company’s
business and been effective in their strategic plan.
In
the Brazilian Mobile Services mission creativity is emphasized value to the
management team as well as critical thinking to achieve the purpose of increasing
people’s access to sporting events. Besides, the mission is essential to the
company’s success by guiding the resource allocation process more effectively (Ireland
& Hitt 1992). For instance if the purpose is to increase people's
access to sporting events, the marketing efforts will focus on this market
segment, therefore be more effective.
Vision
Statement
The
vision statement for the Brazil Mobile Services would be as follow: “We are
determined to be a company recognized for its excellence in the delivery of
rich interactive experiences, user interfaces with high levels usability
through mobile applications. Providing solutions for Soccer clubs to participate
in the mobile market and position itself ahead of the competition, winning
customers / consumers and ensuring space in the race for market share. We are committed
to improving the mobile access to sporting events, generating more market share
among supporters for Brazilian Soccer Clubs while staying at the forefront of
technology.”
While
the mission describes an organization's central "purpose" and
essential activities (Byars, 1984), vision is what it says about the company’s
future strategic course (Thompson & Gamble, 2010). The fact is that they
complement each other where the mission shows the present picture and vision
the future vision while the company’s values make the path with which they are
going to interconnect one to the other. For instance while the Brazil Mobile Services’
mission sees the company as a “Provider of mobile applications” for Soccer
Clubs the vision sees a “company recognized for its excellence”. In conducting
the company’s business the company expects creativity and use of technology to
influence behavioral norms that company personal are expect to display.
While
the mission statement is to inspire the company, its credibility lies in the
significance and scope of the problems and needs it has identified (Ragan,
2004). Vision on other hand can cover the external dimension. It is a shared
view within the organization and of what are the market, customers, competitors,
industry and likely macroeconomic impacts on the market (Akpoyomare, at all,
2011). Organizations without a clear mission statement don’t know who they are
and managers go elsewhere. However an organization without a clear vision
statement tends to have its short-term actions counter-productive to its
long-run purpose. Thus, the company’s vision statement supports the mission by
fueling the inspiration with visionary ideas that challenge the reason of the
company for being as it is.
Key Objectives
The
five key objectives essential to the success of the business are:
·
Expand our service for at least 20 Brazilian soccer clubs by 2013 developing
cross-platform applications.
·
Sales space in the mobile services for advertising to increase
profitability.
·
Make mobile applications and m-commerce available on the existed
platforms: iOS (iPhone, iPod and iPhone), Blackberry (smartphone and tablet),
Android (smartphone and tablet), Windows Phone, HTML5 (cell phone and
smartphone), Facebook, Chrome and interactive TV, among others.
·
Increase by 50% the number of employees in project development area by
2013, to provide creative solutions to the customer’s needs.
·
Increase by 30% the investments in marketing in 2012 to increase our
market share.
The
performance targets above are very specific to measure the company’s results. Expand our service for at least 20
Brazilian soccer clubs is essential for sustainability of the business,
otherwise with the increase of costs the company will not be able to maintain
their position in the market. With more customers we can then initiate to sales
space on the applications for additional advertisings adding more revenue to increase
our profit. Although achieving best value for mobile applications is the
ultimate objective of expanding service to more clubs and increase sales in
advertising, to develop an infrastructure for those projects it is absolutely
necessary to increase the number of technical developers by 50% to make sure
the terms are going to be met.
In
order to keep the customers satisfied and really add value to their companies
with mobile solutions it is going to be indispensable to develop mobile applications
available not only on platforms as iOS (iPhone, iPod and iPhone), but also in
every other platform. With the increase in use of Smartphones so has the
diversity systems increased and the company must adapt and cater to these
platforms in order to make the services more attractive for the Soccer clubs. Finally,
for those objectives to be successfully implemented it will be primordial to
invest in marketing to develop strategies to reach our target market and
therefore build up the business.
.
Key Objectives Justifications
From
a mission and vision statement perspective, it is not enough to track the
performance of the company in an isolated way. Managers need to have specific
objectives that allow the understanding of the meaning of an expected performance
linked to the strategic mission and vision. In summary the objectives reflect
the mission and vision, however, the objectives allowed companies to track mission
performance towards the strategic vision. In the Brazil Mobile Services for
instance, the objectives support the mission by measuring the performance targets
timely when target expand the services by 2013.
Objectives
are effective fashion, with the intention of perceiving trends and reacting as
quickly as possible to the opportunities. While the vision portrays a company’s
future as recognized for its excellence in the delivery of rich interactive
experiences, the objective makes it more specific to managers by saying that in
order to be recognized it is going to be indispensable to develop mobile applications
available in all the existed platforms. In fact, there is a clear link between
the strategic mission and vision statement and therefore the objectives are
adapted to achieve the expected results. For example if is important to be in a
forehead of the technologies more technical support are going to be necessary,
therefore the objective is to increase 50% the staff.
Mission
and vision statement are the guides for company’s critical success, as John
Rockart (1979) introduced critical success are “the limited number of areas in
which results, if they are satisfactory, will ensure successful competitive
performance for the organization”. Those limited areas are the key objectives, the
factors that should receive careful attention as marketing investments and
increase of revenue.
Conclusion
This article presents an approach for developing the
process of crafting and executing a strategy plan for Brazil Mobile Services Company,
taking into account a strategic perspective. In order to develop the strategic
plan the vision and mission statements were created to provide a sense of
direction for the organization and channel employee’s behavior towards this
direction (Akpoyomare at all, 2011). The
mission gives the actual picture of the company while the vision projects the
company in the future, in this context the objectives were develop to help
managers to conduct the company towards the strategic objectives with more
specific targets.
However,
it is important to understand that the statements are not a mere “slogans” these
statements must support each other to guide managerial decisions and actions.
The key objectives introduce the strategy in the employee’s daily activities to
contribute to the attainment of the vision and mission for the organization.
The company wants to position themselves in the soccer industry due to the fact
that soccer has a popularity bordering on phenomenon in Brazil and there is an
opportunity to take advantage of this endemic social phenomenon. Giving the
vision and mission statements it is expected a better management to improve organization
performance to accomplish the key objectives and therefore success.
Further development needs to be oriented toward its external
environment validation and the competitive issues. For instance questions
should be answered as: what are the key
factors for competitive success? What strategic moves are rivals likely to
make? Also it would be recommended to study the industry environment and
the profitability.
REFERENCES
Akpoyomare Oghojafor, Ben E.;
Olayemi, Olufemi O.; Okonji, Patrick S.; Okolie, James U (2011). Enhancing
Organization's Performance Through Effective Vision and
Mission. Chinese Business Review.Nov2011, Vol. 10 Issue
11, p1071-1075. 5p.
Almani, Amin Mohammadi; Esfaghansary, Majid Ghanbarinejad (2011). Strategic Planning: A Tool for
Managing Organizations in Competitive Environments. Australian Journal of Basic & Applied Sciences. 2011, Vol. 5
Issue 9, p139-149. 11p. 6 Diagrams.
Apple, (2012). Apple Corporate Information. Retrieved at
july/2012 from: http://investor.apple.com/faq.cfm?FaqSetID=6
Barton, A., 1988. Financial
Aspects of Strategic Planning For Universities, Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 10(1):
51-62.
Bart, Christopher K. (1996). High
tech firms: Does mission matter? Journal of High Technology
Management Research, 10478310, Fall96, Vol. 7, Issue 2
Byars,
L. L. (1984). Strategic
management: Planning and implementation. New York: Harper & Row
Chance, S., & Williams, B. T. (2009). Assessing university strategic plans: A tool
for consideration. Educational
Planning, 18(1), 38–54.
(MMA)
Mobile Marketing Association. Research: “Our Mobile Planet”.Smartphone Details &
Usage Smartphone Penetration. Google Inc. Retrieved at july/2012 from: http://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/mobileplanet/en/graph/?country=br&category=DET AILS&topic=DETAILS_PENET&stat=PENET01&stat=MOBLOCS1&stat=MOBLO CS2&stat=MOBLOCS3&stat=MOBLOCS98&wave=wave2&age=all&gender=all&a ctive=stat
Campbell,
A. (1989). Does your organization
need a mission? Leadership
and Organization Development, 3.
Carter, H., 1999. Strategic
planning reborn, Work Study, 48(2): 46-48.
Collins,
J. C., & Porras, J. I. (1991,Fall). Organizational vision and
visionary organizations. California
Management Review.
Karnani, A., (2006). Essence
of strategy: Controversial choices, Working Paper No. 1032, Ross School
of Business Working Paper Series, University of Michigan
Ireland,
R. D., & Hitt, M. A. (1992,May-June). Mission statements: Importance,
challenge and recommendations for
development. Business Horizons.
Rangan, V. K. (2004, March). Lofty mission, down-to-earth plans. Harvard Business Review, 112-119
Stephan, E., (2010). Strategic
Planning on the Fast Track”, Library Leadership & Management, 24(4): 189-198.
Thompson, A. A., Strickland, A. J., & Gamble, J.E.
(2010). Crafting and Execuing Strategy:
The quest for competitive advantage:
Concepts and cases: 2009 (17th edition). New York:
McGraw-Hill-Irwin.
.
No comments:
Post a Comment