Description

Description: This course has been designed to introduce a variety of aspects of international business. Globalization and growing international trade amongst many different countries have brought new challenges and opportunities for many new economies and established economies.

This course features dynamic and engaging video with audio narration, infographics and short quizzes to test your knowledge. 

Background: Once a strategy has been formulated, processes and procedures need to be devised to ensure it is properly implemented. The strategy is about how an organisation will achieve its goals; the implementation process is about how the strategy will be enacted. Strategic implementation is the next step for successful executions. Sergio emphasised that even a ‘masterfully formulated strategy becomes useless if not well implemented’. The Implementation is the key determinant of success or failure that is deeply connected to the formulation process, and the functioning and structure of the organization. Hanson et al. outlined that successful implementation requires:
• A management team with a dedication to the company’s strategy, vision and mission.
• Building and maintaining stakeholder relationships.
• Sufficient resources, including human resources, directed to relevant tasks and projects.
• A formal reporting method to track the implementation steps of the strategy.
• Maintaining flexibility to allow for the strategic direction and activities to be modified where is demanded by the marketplace.

Business theories and frameworks help guide strategic formulation, implementation, and execution. Samimi highlighted that implementation typically deals with spot indicators. Spot indicators show how the business is doing now, as opposed to lead indicators that indicate where the business or market might be heading. Implementation associated with spot indicators such as units per day produced or labour used are rate indicators that transform a lead indicator into a lag indicator.

The implementation process also involves acquiring the requisite resources, developing the process, training, process testing, documentation, and integration with (and/or conversion from) legacy processes. The following sections will outline the information necessary to identify the firm’s external prospects and internal resources (Gap Comparison), the firm’s routine actions (processes, procedures & communication), and the firm’s general operations and planning.