MBA 5101 Unit VI Essay

Unit VI Essay

Columbia Southern University

Corporation’s Life Cycle

The following are the stages of corporation’s life cycle Birth, Growth, Maturity and Decline (Wheelen et al., 2015). Every company cannot go through all of the life cycle stages, it depends on the business growth and success. It is also possible that they don’t go through these stages in a sequence/order. The company can advance their life cycle if they are able to recognize the current changes in their life cycle which can negatively affect them. Once the corporation successfully identifies the changes, they can take adequate action to adjust structural and strategical changes that may be needed to maintain or improve current performance. McDonald’s Corporation is currently in the Maturity stage where the company is continuously looking for new ways to make their products more appealing for the customers to either maintain or increase their current market share.

Strategy Implementation

Strategy implementation is the way how organization achieves its strategic goals and objectives. Strategy implementation helps the organization to provide different options which the organization can pursue for successful business growth. Strategy implementation directs organization towards growth, it also sets performance standards and values to be successful in the market. It is very important part of organization as it helps to maintain competitive edge in business environment. There are few questions that must be addressed before strategy implementation i.e., Who will provide the direction on the strategic plan? Who is responsible to implement strategic plan selecting the right person with the right skills and competencies to support this plan? What the organization should do to align the processes and procedures in the planned future direction? Mourdoukoutas (2013) explained in his research that McDonald’s focuses on its strategic plan and continuously make changes needed to meet the market requirements. McDonald’s cost-effective leadership strategy, marketing strategic plan and growth strategic plans are the reasons for its success.

Strategy and Culture compatibility

The culture of the company must align with and support the strategy of the company to be successful. The culture of company directly effects on the ability of the company to apply and implement a strategy. If the culture of the organization is impossible to change, the new strategies, mission, goals will not be successful if they are opposite to the culture of organization. I believe when there is a compatibility between culture and strategy the company can have fundamental success. Strategies applied can be successful if the culture of the company is in good management hands. Managers of the company are responsible for it, if they are professional, loyal and dedicated to their work and company, they will make ethical decisions which work out with the culture as well.

Wheelen et al., (2015) stated that managers have tough job to merge the culture with strategic decisions for changes if and whenever these changes are needed. The employees have the expectation that their organization is doing the right thing, even if it means that they are making profit for their shareholders, the way it should be done must be sound and professional to meet the expectations of the society as well. Professor Schein defined it as this is the set of shared implicit expectations of a group and how it perceives and react to different environments.

McDonald’s is the best example of Strategy which is following the culture. McDonald’s being the number one fast food market throughout the world show that it has a continuous commitment with its employees, its dedication with the community and how it meets the needs of its customers are the reasons for its ongoing success and growth.

Six Sigma

Six sigma is the method which helps business organizations to use information that helps to remove flaws and defects in business process. In a process to achieve six sigma, it must not make any type of defect. According to the article on internet, the fortune 500 companies have seen a significant growth when they implemented six sigma in their business processes, between 1987 and 2005, total revenues the businesses grew more than 450% which is from $1.9 trillion to $9.1 trillion. During this time, the business processes have improved due to the contribution of six sigma, which has ultimately improved the performance of these companies. Implementing six sigma methodology in the business processes results in many different advantages. The most common six advantages of using six sigma are: Six sigma helps to improve customer loyalty, helps in managing time in a better way, employees are motivation level are highly increased, strategic plan can be implemented successfully, there is a reduced cycle time & improvement in the supply chain management process.

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