Strategic Initiatives for Implementing Competitive Advantages

                          Strategic Initiatives

•Organizations can undertake high-profile strategic initiatives including:

–Supply chain management (SCM)

–Customer relationship management (CRM)

–Business process reengineering (BPR)

–Enterprise resource planning (ERP)

            Supply Chain Management

•Supply Chain Management (SCM) – involves the management of information flows between and among stages in a supply chain to maximize total supply chain effectiveness and profitability

•Four basic components of supply chain management include:

1.Supply chain strategy – strategy for managing all resources to meet customer demand

2.Supply chain partner – partners throughout the supply chain that deliver finished products, raw materials, and services.

3.Supply chain operation – schedule for production activities

4.Supply chain logistics – product delivery process

Supply Chain Management

•Effective and efficient SCM systems can enable an organization to:

–Decrease the power of its buyers

–Increase its own supplier power

–Increase switching costs to reduce the threat of substitute products or services

–Create entry barriers thereby reducing the threat of new entrants

Increase efficiencies while seeking a competitive advantage through cost leadership

•Customer relationship management (CRM) – involves managing all aspects of a customer’s relationship with an organization to increase customer loyalty and retention and an organization's profitability

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•Many organizations, such as Charles Schwab and Kaiser Permanente, have obtained great success through the implementation of CRM systems