Abstract
This chapter examines two approaches to the concept of management and the planning process: firstly the approach proposed by Bailey and Peak and secondly by Sorensen. Bailey and Peak present a review of all business functions to determine the competency of each function and then suggest a number of research and analysis techniques for reviewing the finances and the various external interactions with the organisation from competitors. Sorensen proposes using the resource-based view to analyse the competitive situation, followed by creating the business model and then developing the planning documents for business development. Sorensen asserts that ‘what the customer values' is a focal point of the approach to business development. The internal strength and weakness analysis investigates the value chain, processes, resources, and capabilities, and the external opportunities and threat analysis review customers, market, and competitors.
TopIntroduction To ‘Management By Degrees’
The Bailey & Peak book ‘Management by Degrees’ is an “Incredibly thorough and complete reasoning compared with any other ‘popular’ management handbook I have seen recently” (Tom Richardson, 2003). Bailey and Peak developed the book from the business improvement programmes of the late 1990s that were run by the De Montfort Quality Centre and facilitated by Bailey and Peak. Workshops run as part of the development process were attended by a number of senior managers and company directors, some of who participated in reading the book drafts.
Bailey and Peak (2003) have a very detailed process for analysing the internal strengths and weaknesses of an organisation by promoting a continuous improvement approach to management and planning. The method divides the organisation into 12 sectors and a total of 90 sub-sectors, suggesting the company performs a searching analysis to evaluate the stage of progress in relation to the continuous improvement for each subsector. The stage of progress can be interpreted as the degree of competency, and the procedure then indicates the next stage for improvement.
The book goes through all aspects of a business enterprise, divides the business organisation into 12 nominated management sectors, and gives each sector a set of sub-sectors that describe how that sector should perform. Each sub-sector has a series of stages of competence to provide a progression of rating from incompetence to very competent. This book feature offers a handy mechanism that can enable quite effective benchmarking within the organisation by comparing the level of competence between sectors and choosing a comparable partner that uses the same competence rating procedure to enable effective benchmarking between organisations.
Key Terms in this Chapter
SWOT: An analysis of the business to determine the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
Resource-Based View (RBV): This approach analyzes and interprets resources of the organization to understand how organizations achieve sustainable competitive advantage.
Value Chain Analysis: A process where a firm identifies its primary and support activities that add value to its final product and then analyze these activities to reduce costs or increase differentiation.
Business Development: A standalone construct and a critical business function to enable the market-oriented business developer to conceive, craft and implement superior business plans ( Sorensen, 2012 ).
Management by Degrees: The method divides the organisation into 12 sectors and a total of 90 sub-sectors, suggesting the company performs a searching analysis to evaluate the stage of progress from 0 to 4 in relation to the continuous improvement for each subsector ( Bailey & Peak, 2003 ).
Business model: It answers the questions; who is the customer? And what does the customer value? ( Magretta, 2002 ).
VRIO Framework: Analyses the resources and capabilities, using four indicators of valuability, rarity, imitability, and organization.
Stage of Competence: Can be related to above analysis and used to describe the level of skill and procedures in place to affect the company business.