250372 Business Report
(250372 Business Report)
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Business Report
Executive Summary
Operating the business is more challenging in the current business environment because trends and changes are rapid and unpredictable. The scope of operating a business is expanding, bringing along more challenges that organizations have to address and adapt accordingly. Some business problems include globalization, which has unprecedented effects on countries and the global economy, politics, and society, which impacts business operations. Globalization is a leadership problem calling for strict and prudent leadership decisions and strategies to help businesses adapt to the new market scenario. Technology is central to current business operations, but technological advancements and rampant, and organizations might fail to adapt quickly to these changes. Adopting new technology disrupts business operations and challenges, making integration difficult. Technology integration is an information systems challenge that requires a comprehensive strategy to ensure the business adapts adequately to new technologies and realizes a positive outcome. The value of social media to business is growing, and it can be considered a disruptive trend, but when approached appropriately can be an opportunity for any organization. Social media management is a marketing business problem resulting from the digital transformation of the market scenario. Social media is a vital marketing channel because it is easy to adopt, but managing it can be a problem with the lack of a goal-oriented and robust strategy to ensure social media marketing aligns with the organization’s vision, mission, and strategies and meets customers’ needs adequately. The problems identified in this report are disruptive and can either be a business opportunity or challenge based on how the organization respond and adapt to the changes. These issues warrant investigation to help with appropriate adaptation and taking advantage of the opportunities they present. (250372 Business Report)
Leadership Business Problem and Fishbone Diagram
The specific business problem is globalization. Globalization has made the world more connected and interdependent regarding trade and technology. Globalization adopts the concepts of economic and social changes, which significantly impact businesses worldwide, and leaders need to respond accordingly to this changing trend. Globalization is affecting leadership in the manner it impacts society. It results in transformations that are difficult to identify precisely and promptly, and even when the changes are detected, businesses may struggle to cope with these changes (Perez, 2017). Globalization has transformed political, social, and economic aspects that influence business processes; hence the scope widens when addressing challenges brought about by globalization. Leaders should evaluate approaches accordingly before responding, including globalization’s effects on the organization’s culture, people, work structure, and selling points to ensure they achieve the desired outcome. Even businesses not going global have to realign their decision-making because globalization impacts local businesses and the local market (Perez, 2017). Additionally, this trend has influenced organizations to consider high technology adoption and changes in leadership structures, such as decentralization, to adapt and remain competitive.
Globalization also affects marketing and consumer behavior and perception because more external forces beyond a business’s control are impacting customers’ and clients’ decision-making. Therefore, business leaders have to consider the whole scope of globalization and adopt strategies that will help maintain or gain competitiveness, self-sufficiency, sustainability, and product quality to meet global standards even when operating in a local market (Anderson, 2021). Effective, firm, prudent, and prompt leadership interventions are needed to respond to the market scenario created and influenced by globalization. Some factors making globalization a challenge to businesses, especially local ones, include containerization, technological changes, economies of scale, differences in tax systems, less protectionism, and transnational and multinational companies’ growth strategies. (250372 Business Report)
Figure 1: Fishbone Diagram on Causes and Effects of Globalization
Information Systems Business Problem
The specific information systems business problem is integration. Organizations should adapt quickly to the changing technological needs to remain competitive in the current highly competitive business environment and meet customer demands. Adopting new technology or upgrading the existing one is an approach to evolving a business and staying relevant (Horváth & Szabó, 2019). However, as businesses adapt to technological changes, they must continuously address the challenges that go along to achieve positive outcomes. Technology integration is a challenge for a frim adopting new or updated information system technologies because of the need to realign business infrastructure, processes, policies, and other factors to adapt to new technology (Horváth & Szabó, 2019). Despite the ability to customize information systems to fit the business capability, the business has to realign some aspects to adapt to the technology, which can be challenging. Some factors making integrating new technology or updates challenging for a business include lack of proper management and strategy, lack of sufficient training for employees, lack of communication, instability, and lack of contingency plans. Rapid technological advances also make integrating technology a challenge (Horváth & Szabó, 2019). Businesses need a project that provides strategies to help integrate technology properly and yield positive outcomes. (250372 Business Report)
Marketing Business Problem
The specific marketing business problem is social media management. Social media is increasingly becoming integral to the operations of a business, from recruiting and hiring to product promotion and marketing to conducting sustainability campaigns and engaging society. Businesses cannot ignore or overlook the influence social media has on business and market scenarios (Dwivedi et al., 2021). Social media management is a contemporary business segment as companies strive to respond to the advancing role of social media in society. The greatest challenge with social media is that it can break or make a business overnight, and the business needs a proper, comprehensive, and well-thought social media strategy to yield positive results. Social media management is challenging because of the effort required to ensure the business is up-to-date with daily business trends on different platforms and maintain and 24/7 online presence. Social media is a two-way street, and the audience expects continuous engagement around the clock. In some cases, social media management might look into enhancing the organization’s culture so that everyone can contribute to engaging the audience and increasing engagement with products or services (Appel et al., 2020). Additionally, factors, including lack of communication across departments, identification of the right platforms to engage the audience, understanding the target audience, falling organic engagement, and meeting consumer engagement needs, make social media management a challenge for businesses. (250372 Business Report)
Summary
Businesses encounter multiple business challenges that impact business operations and processes. Globalization is a leadership problem as it calls for strict and prudent leadership decisions and strategies to respond to the effects of globalization on countries and global politics, economy, and society. New technology adoption and upgrades of current one allows business to remain competitive and relevant and meet customer demands accordingly. However, integrating new technology requires a business to align its structure, processes, and infrastructure to adapt to the technology, which might be challenging and impact business operations. The influence of social media marketing cannot be overlooked, and organizations should adequately develop effective social media management strategies to realize the benefits of social media. The scope of business and marketing scenarios is expanding, which means more challenges for companies to address and more robust strategies and interventions needed to adapt to the ever-changing business environment. (250372 Business Report)
References
Anderson, J. A. (2021). Driving change through diversity and globalization: Transformative leadership in the academy. Stylus Publishing, LLC.
Appel, G., Grewal, L., Hadi, R., & Stephen, A. T. (2020). The future of social media in marketing. Journal of the Academy of Marketing science, 48(1), 79-95. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11747-019-00695-1
Dwivedi, Y. K., Ismagilova, E., Hughes, D. L., Carlson, J., Filieri, R., Jacobson, J., … & Wang, Y. (2021). Setting the future of digital and social media marketing research: Perspectives and research propositions. International Journal of Information Management, 59, 102168. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0268401220308082
Horváth, D., & Szabó, R. Z. (2019). Driving forces and barriers of Industry 4.0: Do multinational and small and medium-sized companies have equal opportunities?. Technological forecasting and social change, 146, 119-132. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0040162518315737
Perez, J. R. (2017). Global leadership and the impact of globalization. Journal of Leadership, Accountability and Ethics, 14(3), 48-52. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/369921456_The_Impact_of_Globalization_on_Leadership_and_Governance_in_Mali
