Strategic Management and Leadership

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP

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Table of Contents

Introduction        

The Sony Corporation        

Achievements and Milestones        

Sony’s Success        

Sony’s Strength: Innovation and Marketing        

Challenges        

Future Expectations        

Conclusion        

Reference List        

Strategic Management and Leadership

Introduction

Strategic management is the ability of the leadership, commonly referred to as the management, of a business firm to organize and oversee implementation of ideas successfully, in a manner that is profitable to the business and results into the overall growth of the firm. Strategic management is dependent on the capacity of the companies’ leadership to adopt and support visionary ideas, whose implementation is within the ability of the firm. Successful ideas take into account the financial extent to which the firm can support the idea, the likely response of the market and the competitors to the idea, as well as the overall effect of the idea to the firm. The ability of the leaders of any business organization to convert simple and unknown ideas to profitable gains, and dominate the target market with products that result from such ideas is one of the measures that determine whether their leadership is successful or not (Hunger & Wheelen, 1996). Good leadership in business should also be visionary. Visionary leadership is one which comes up with ideas, communicates them to their staff and goes on to empower the staff to execute the idea. Francis Westley and Henry Mintzberg (1989) likened visionary leadership to a doctor’s hypodermic needle. The vision or idea, which is likened to the active ingredient that the doctor loads into the syringe, is injected into the subordinate, who are likened to the patient. Once the syringe content has been injected into the patient, change is effected, of course with guidance from the leadership (Hamermesh, 2003).

The ultimate measure of successful strategic management and leadership in a business firm is the profitability of the firm, as a factor of the total capital invested. Profitability, in essence, is a result of effective and efficient use of available capital in creating products that satisfies the needs of the target customers (Hill and Jones, 2007). The profitability must however grow with time, as a result of increased net profits, increased market share from competing firms, increased sales and creation of new business lines. Profitability and profit growth, when combined create the basis unto which the shareholders derive their value for a business enterprise. In order to grow the level of profits that an organization makes, and at the same time boost the overall productivity of the organization, managers must strive to acquire and sustain a competitive advantage over their competitors. An organization is said to have a competitive advantage over the competitors if it maintains profitability on a level that is above average and the level of profits grows at a rate higher that those of other organizations which compete for the same market with the organization. These attributes depend on the strategies that the management of the organization lay down, in comparison with those of the rival firms. Among the global firms whose leadership is considered successful, through employment of strategy and visionary goals, is the Sony Corporation in Tokyo, Japan (Brouwer & Johnson, 1997).