CHAPTER
2
Organizational Strategy,
Competitive Advantage,
& Information Systems
1. Business Pressures壓力,
Organizational Responses, and
Information Technology Support
2. Competitive Advantage and
Strategic Information Systems策略性
信息系統
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1. Identify effective IT responses有效的IT對應
to different kinds of business pressures.
2. Describe the strategies that organizations
typically adopt to counter應對Porter’s five
competitive forces波特的五種競爭力量.
2.1
Business Pressures,
Organizational Responses,
and IT Support
• Competitive Advantage
– any assets資產that provide an organization with an edge against
its competitors針對其競爭對手的優勢in some measure such as
cost, quality, or speed. It also helps an organization to control a
market and to accrue larger-than-average profits累計超越平均水
平的利潤.
• Business Environment
– the combination of social, legal法律, economic, physical自然, and
political factors in which businesses conduct their operations.
Significant changes in any of these factors are likely to create
Business Pressures on organizations.
• Business Pressures
• Organizational Responses
– Organizations respond to the various pressures by implementing
Information Technology (IT) such as strategic systems,
customer focus, make-to-order按訂單生產and mass
customization大規模定制, and e-business.
Business Pressures
• Economic/Market Pressures
– Generated by the global economy, intense
competition激烈的競爭, the changing nature of the
workforce, and powerful customers強大的客戶
• Technology Pressures
– Caused by technological innovation and information
overload信息過量
• Societal/Political/Legal Pressures
– Related to social responsibility社會責任, government
regulation/deregulation監管/放鬆管制, spending for開
支social programs, spending to protect against
terrorism恐怖, and ethics.
Source:
http://investtaiwan.org/eng/show.jsp?ID=8
Figure 2.1: Business Pressures,
Organizational Performance &
Responses, and IT Support
Market Pressures市場壓力
• Globalization全球化
– The integration and interdependence一體化和相互依賴of economic,
social, cultural, and ecological facets生態方面of life, made possible
by rapid advances in information technology
• Changing Nature of the Workforce員工團隊性質的改變
– The workforce, particularly in developed countries, is becoming
more diversified. Increasing numbers of women, single parents,
minorities少數民族, and persons with disabilities殘障are now
employed in all types of positions.
• Powerful強大Customers
– Consumer sophistication and expectations成熟和期望increase as
customers become more knowledgeable about the products and
services they acquire. Customers can use the Internet to find
detailed information about products and services, to compare
prices, and to purchase items at electronic auctions.
Source: Far Eastern Group
Source: Far Eastern Group
Globalization – Thomas
Freidman: Ten Flatteners – (1)
1. World as a single, global market
2. Netscape goes public on August 9, 1995
–
Popularized推廣the Internet and the World Wide
Web
3. Development of workflow software工作流程軟件
– Enabled computer applications to work with one
another without human intervention無需人工干預.
4. Uploading上傳
– Empowered all Internet users to create content and
put it on the Web.
5. Outsourcing外包
–
Contracting with an outside company to perform a
specific function that your company was doing itself
Globalization – Thomas
Freidman: Ten Flatteners – (2)
6. Offshoring
–
Relocating an entire operation搬遷整個操作, or certain tasks, to another
country; for example, moving an entire manufacturing operation to
China.
7. Supply chaining
– The creation of networks網絡composed of companies, their suppliers, and
their customers, all of which could collaborate and share information for
increased efficiency
8. Insourcing
–
Delegating operations委託業務or jobs within a business to another
company that specializes in those operations; for example, Dell hires
FedEx to “take over”接管Dell’s logistics process.
9. Informing
– Ability to search for information, best illustrated by search engines
10. The Steroids類固醇(e.g., file sharing, wireless technologies,,
videoconferencing, etc.)
– Technologies that amplify放大the other flatteners.
– Enable all forms of computing and collaboration to be digital, mobile, and
personal
Technology Pressures
• Technological Innovation and Obsolescence過
時
• Improved technologies rapidly create or
support substitutes for products, alternative
service options, and superb quality. As a
result, today’s state-of-the-art products may
be obsolete淘汰 tomorrow.
• Information Overload信息過量
– Internet and other telecommunications networks
are bringing a flood of information to managers.
Societal/Political/Legal
Pressures
• Social Responsibility
– Philanthropy慈善事業to education: Some corporations and
individuals are willing to spend time and/or money to address
various social problems
• Compliance with Government Regulations
– Government regulations regarding health, safety, environmental
protection, and equal opportunity. Businesses tend to view
government regulations as expensive constraints昂貴的制約on their
activities.
• Protection Against Terrorist Attacks
– Information technology can help protect businesses by providing
security systems and possibly identifying patterns of behavior
associated with terrorist activities, including cyberattacks網絡攻擊.
• Ethical Issues
– Standards of right and wrong in information processing practices信
息處理行為. Ethical issues are very important because, if handled
poorly, they can damage an organization’s image and destroy its
employees’ morale員工士氣
Social Responsibility
• IT Assists “Go Green”走向綠色Efforts in
Three Areas:
1. Facilities design and management
2. Carbon management碳排放管理
3. International and U.S. environmental laws
• Digital Divide
– The wide gap巨大差距between those
individuals who have access有機會獲得to
information and communications technology
and those who do not.
Organizational Responses組
織反應
•
•
Strategic Systems
Customer Focus
•
Make-to-Order按訂單生產
•
Mass Customization
•
E-Business and E-Commerce
– Provide superb customer service can make the difference between attracting
and retaining customers留住客戶versus losing them to competitors.
Numerous IT tools and business processes have been designed to keep
customers happy.
– A strategy of producing customized (made to individual specifications)
products and services
– A large quantity of items, but it customizes them to match the needs and
preferences of individual customers. Mass customization is essentially an
attempt to perform make-to-order on a large scale (Example: Bodymetrics
<www.bodymetrics.com>).
– Electronic commerce (EC or e-commerce): describes the process of
buying, selling, transferring, or exchanging products, services, or
information via computer networks, including the Internet.
– E-business: a somewhat broader concept than EC that includes servicing
customers, collaborating with business partners, and performing electronic
transactions within an organization.
2.2
Competitive Advantage
and Strategic IS’s
• Porter’s Competitive Forces Model
• Porter’s Value Chain Model
• Strategies for Competitive
Advantage
• Business – Information
Technology Alignment
Porter’s Five Forces Model
1. The threat of new competitors
2. The bargaining power of suppliers
3. The bargaining power of customers
(buyers)
4. The threat of substitute products or
services
5. The rivalry among existing firms in
the industry在行業內現有企業之間的競爭
Figure 2.2: Porter’s
Competitive Forces Model
Porter’s Value Chain Model
• Value Chain
– A sequence of activities活動序列through which the
organization’s inputs, are transformed into more
valuable outputs
• Two Categories of Organization Activities in
the Value Chain
– Primary Activities主要活動
• Relate to the production and distribution生產和分銷of
the firm’s products and services. These activities
create value for which customers are willing to pay
– Support Activities支持性活動
• Supporting the primary activities, but do not add
value directly to the firm’s products or services
Primary Activities
•
•
•
•
•
Inbound logistics內部物流
Operations操作
Outbound logistics對外物流
Marketing and sales
Services
Support Activities
• The Firm’s Infrastructure
• Human Resources Management
• Product and Technology
Development
• Procurement
Figure 2.3: Porter’s Value
Chain Model
Strategies for Competitive
Advantage
1.
Cost leadership strategy
–
2.
Produce products and/or services at the lowest cost in the industry (e.g.,
Walmart’s automatic inventory replenishment system).
Differentiation strategy
–
3.
Offering different products, services, or product features than your
competitors (e.g., Southwest Airlines has differentiated itself as a low-cost,
short-haul短距離, express airline).
Innovation strategy
–
4.
Introduce new products and services, add new features to existing
products and services,
Organizational effectiveness strategy
–
5.
Executes its internal business processes so that it performs these activities
more effectively than its rivals. Such improvements increase quality,
productivity, and employee and customer satisfaction while decreasing
time to market
Customer orientation strategy
–
Concentrate on making customers happy. Web-based systems are
particularly effective in this area because they can create a personalized,
one-to-one relationship with each customer.
Figure 2.4: Strategies for
Competitive Advantage
Business-Information
Technology Alignment
• Business–Information Technology
Alignment企業信息技術走向一致的
– IT function directly supports the
business objectives of the organization
through the tight integration of the IT
function with the organization’s
strategy, mission, and goals
• Six Characteristics of Excellent
Business-IT Alignment:
Six Characteristics of
Excellent Business-IT
Alignment
1. Organizations view IT as an engine
引擎of innovation that continually
transforms the business, often
creating new revenue streams.
2. Organizations view their internal &
external customers & their
customer service function as
supremely important.
Six Characteristics of
Excellent Business-IT
Alignment (continued)
3. Organizations rotate調動business &
IT professionals across
departments and job functions.
4. Organizations provide overarching
goals that are completely clear to
each IT and business employee.
Six Characteristics of
Excellent Business-IT
Alignment (continued)
5. Organizations ensure that IT
employees understand how the
company makes (or loses) money.
6. Organizations create a vibrant and
inclusive company culture充滿活力
和包容性的企業文化.