Introduction
Strategic management is a sort of management systems that depends on top managers of an organization and the methods and strategies they follow to implement the business goals and what initiatives they take in order to regard resources and assess different environments related to the organization in order to produce better business results. It provides the company with a direction that includes its objectives specified, resources allocated and plans which are set for them. There are different models for helping managers follow strategic management in decision making according to the company's competitive environment. There are also theories that explained strategic management context and how it can be implemented. The case is providing a description of how Mastercard's strategy in management changed when the company turned to be a public corporation in May 2008. Training plans changed and strategic planning replaced old planning methods by Rebecca Ray the new senior vice president of the company who followed three learning maps in the new training plan it set for the company. These three learning maps included one that was called "universal opportunity" that describes the competitive landscape of the company and its opportunities and challenges related to the industry, the second was called "How we make money" that related to the financial models of the company, the third was called "new climate, new culture, new company" about how to implement the company's strategy as a public company. The current assignment is aiming at discussing the strategic management operation through the case of Mastercard and evaluate its key process, it also analyzing the theories of corporate strategies used by Mastercard and it will show the strategic plan needed to hold the event.
Analysis and content
Key process of strategic management
The strategic management process is a complex business approach which refers to how managers can think strategically and then implement the thoughts into a process. All the employees should realize the strategic management process and recognize its stages that are goal setting, analysis, forming the strategy, implementing the strategy and monitoring it. Goal setting is tended to declare a certain vision for the business through defining objectives for the business which are short term and long term ones, it also provides an idea about the way objectives are accomplished and this stage also distributes roles and tasks on employees. The second stage is analysis which is a very important stage as this stage includes getting the information that will decide the next work as much information is collected in this stage in order to form the business vision and it focuses on the business requirements and identifying the main initiatives which can be used in order to let the business grow and develop. Analysis discusses the factors which could affect the business goals and the business's strengths and weaknesses. The third stage is formulating the business strategy in which information is used to decide the business's resources that can lead to goals achievement. The fourth stage is strategy implementation which is related to the business success as it is the stage where actions are taken to perform the process of strategic management and it needs a suitable business structure and in it responsibilities and tasks of each employee are well known and recognized and security is done on the business resources and funds and then execute the plan. The last stage is the evaluation stage where the implemented strategy is to be evaluated and then control actions are done such as reviewing the business issues, performance measurement and then to make any amendments required. (Sadler, 2003)
Key process of strategic management applied by MasterCard
MasterCard has turned to be a public company and this forced the company's management to change its management methodologies into strategic management that depended on a large single learning event that included a strategic management key process that involved many stages such as setting a goal for the new changes the company is going to face and preparing a plan for making employees ready to deal with the changes and to make them ready for the new tasks of the business and then there was the Road Map to the Future which included seminars in 110 workshops executed in 36 cities in a time period of three weeks. Employees were to be trained by the best human resources trainees and managers from many areas all over the world; they were assigned to teach the employees how to deal with the new changes the company is encountering and the meaning of a publicly traded company in addition to explaining to them the related issues to the matter. Then the company divided the strategic training plan into three phases as each has its goals and implementations. This strategy included many parts of the major stages and elements of strategic management process such as having a clear goal which is preparing employees for the new framework of the business, planning for this and training employees but this needed an evaluation stage to measure results and decide what was right and what was wrong and make the needed corrections. These corrections should be made according to the errors occurred and the difficulties that the business faced during the change achievement operations and its phases. (Case Study)
Theories and Perspectives of corporate strategies
Corporate strategy has been explained by the complexity theory which sees that corporate strategy is a comprehensive work that all the business employees and managers should share. It focuses on the central strategic choices companies should take and how the corporate strategy should create competitive advantage and raise the level of corporate performance. This theory suggests that the role of corporate executives in achieving the corporate strategy central choices and adopting its complete perspective.( Eisenhardt and Piezunkal, 2015) Another theory is the multi business corporate strategy theory which suggests that the company should have many corporate strategy and not only one in order to reach corporate advantage and increase profits. There are also many perspectives that explained how corporate strategy could be used by goals, resources, structure and managers to reach competitive advantage such as the industrial organization theory which refers to how industries can enhance the economies and raise profits. (Baso,1995). Another is the transaction cost theory, the agency theory, the resource-based view, growth strategy perspectives, market segmentation strategy, real option theory, the dominant logic and the institutional theory. They all set a framework for explaining a relationship between the goals, resources, structure and managers to improve the company's performance. These theories are prepared to raise the company's value in order to make more profits and have better human resources who are able to bring in more success for the business through understanding the work more. Planning and strategy are explained through these theories in order to provide the company with a new overall view of leadership which can bring about new results and preferred unexpected results. (Fujii, 2014)
Payment card industry embodied in MasterCard Worldwide can grow through following certain corporate strategy that is appropriate for the industry and helps it become more advanced. MasterCard is following perspectives of corporate strategy which are suitable and successful. Business growth requires a suitable corporate strategy so MasterCard uses a business growth strategy that begins with the market insights which can be brought by specialists and consultants of strategic marketing in order to achieve changes within the business structure and develop methods for ensuring a flow of the insights of the market for business. For MasterCard, growth is a must and not an option so sustainability should be assured to make the growth profitable. The theory of market segmentation is very important for MasterCard as segmenting the market is used by the company to target its opportunities in different areas where there are places that have specific purchasing and business modes that can suit MasterCard and its policy and clarity. A segmentation strategy can help the company identify its relevant segments relating to place and customers types around the world. New market entries are discovered everyday by MasterCard as this leads the company to new areas of services in the current and potential markets. (Hunt, 2014)An integrated strategy is followed by MasterCard to develop the company's growth as strategic managers are responsible for performing all suitable perspectives and theories of strategic management in order to reach competitive advantage and raise the company's growth rate. By following this, the company is using all its managers to reach a growth point for the business in order to reach all levels of strategic management such as the corporate level, the business level and the functional level through each level managers. (Hill et al, 2014)
Strategic planning is very important for the business as it tells what the organization scope will be according to long term plans and the plan can organize both scope and direction of the organization with the company's resources, customers, different environments, the changing market and suit them according to the expectations of stakeholders. A desired future is explored and set within a strategic plan as it draws a vision for the business and then translate it into a number of certain goals and procedures to implement them. Each stage of the plan should be prepared and discussed by the business's managers and employees who should realize how to implement the strategic plan. There are different types of plans such as the short term plan which has short term goals and vision for a short period of time such as five years as a maximum; these plans are suitable for businesses that are implementing new schemes and results are not very clear. There are also medium term plans that are longer than the short ones but not very long at the same time and they can be applied on a longer period of time, there are also long term plans that are prepared for long times and have deeper goals and visions which are always comprehensive. Some businesses can mix between two of these plan types or even the three types together in order to reach the desired business goals easily and clearly. Evaluation is a basic step that should be implemented for each plan type. (Burkardt, 2007).
As there are different strategic plans to be used by business owners and managers to achieve the organizational goals such as the short term, medium term and long term plans; MasterCard would need long term planning which should have main characteristics such as having a deep future vision that looks at the future insights and suggests better future solutions for the current problems and obstacles. A long term plan involves continuous improvements that add value to the business. Yet this long term plan should be divided into phases and each phase has a specific period time in order to enhance the evaluation process and the correction procedures. The company's environment and structure should be considered within such plans. The event of turning MasterCard to a publicly company requires a plan that has the three phases, the short, the medium and the long term plans. Time frames should also be regarded while setting the plan and the plan should have clear goals for all employees in order to be easily implemented. Expected outcomes should be discussed and should have a criterion to be achieved according to. Long term plans are more suitable for a big company such as MasterCard because permanent solutions are better to increase the company's competitive situation in all different environments. Long term plans examine all various expenditures such as procedures, facilities and equipments that the company uses to achieve its main goals. MasterCard can reach its competitiveness if the long term plans were well divided because this can help increasing the effectiveness of evaluating the company's situations. (Alder and Kay, 2005)
Conclusion
To conclude, it is important to state that strategic management is very important for any business corporation as this management can help the business increase its share in the market, achieve its organizational goals and implement any needed changes for a future phase that includes new innovative ideas. Successful managers can work all together in order to achieve the goals of the business. Strategic management key process depends on the business goals, vision, resources, structures and managers or executives who can be specialists, trainees or managers themselves. Strategic management process should be implemented according to the business needs, market environments, human resource capabilities and relevant issues that may affect the future of the business. Business strategic Management requires strategic planning which can combine all business relevant matters into a plan and a vision that can be implemented by all the business managers and employees in order to bring in more clients and profits for the business. The current paper is providing an analysis for strategic management and how MasterCard company implemented it in the event of turning the company into a publicly corporation as employees were trained in order to understand the new framework the company is going to work according to. The company depended on managers and executives for the strategic plans the company can following order to reach the goals of the business and implement new techniques properly and bring the best results for the company.
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