Two companies, Cisco Systems and IKEA, with very different business orientation and management styles, have both come through to be extremely successful in their chosen field of business. Their management styles, although divergent and contrasting in nature, have resulted in two very successful global organisations. This idea of ?strategic management? is not confined t

Multi-National organisations are a trend that has surfaced relatively recently when it is considered how long business and markets have been around. A global organisation has the ability to streamline and standardise its operations, as well as giving it greater buying power and a more improved capacity for strategy experimentation and implementation. Once an organisation expands to include a number of countries of operation, it must decide how it will manage; to focus on having one operations standard for an entire country, or to adapt to each country?s environment, at a risk of losing a regulated and possibly workable global management system. There are three main types of global organisation: Globalization ? with a need for standard products and service, Multidomestic ? which adapts to suit each country, or Transnational ? which aims to achieve both.

Strategic Management is the process used to formulate and implement strategies that will improve an organisation such that it fulfills its goals and objectives. There are many management styles to fulfil the vast range of objectives, desires and aims of today?s multi-national companies. As part of a grand strategy plan, a company will fall into one of three main categories: Growth, Stability and Retrenchment.

Retrenchment strategies are only implemented to halt or reverse an unstoppable decline or stall in a company?s position. This kind of strategy may involve layoffs across the board, or selling off of assets. Layoffs might include retrenching unnecessary staff, expenditure cuts, delaying production, and cost evaluation. Selling off assets, or liquidation, means that a business unit would be sold for the cash value. Divestiture is similar to liquidation, but involves business units that are not part of a company?s core area of business, or a business that is performing poorly. Facing spirally costs for services, British National Health Services introduced cost cutting measures in the form of restructuring the company so as to separate business units and force them to function more efficiently. This resulted in most inefficient areas surfacing and being removed, thus increasing NHS?s margins.

A clearly defined strategy should be central to the operation of every organisation hoping to make it in the global marketplace. The strategy needs to support a befitting corporate mission statement that outlines exactly what the company hopes to achieve. Only with a properly formulated, implemented and controlled business strategy will an organisations goals be fulfilled.

Having a standard product in each country (a Globalisation strategy) has one undeniably vital advantage: cost cutting. Savings can be made on product manufacturing, on ad

Some topics in this essay:
Ingvar Kamprad, Retrenchment Growth, Health Services, Coca-Cola Porsche, Strategic Management, Value Creation, River Corp, Systems IKEA, Microsoft Cisco, Mission Statement, core competence, management styles, strategic management, lower cost, business strategy, mission statement, business units, growth strategy, lower cost competitors, strategy ultimately, goals objectives,