Harvard Business Review Article Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Harvard Business Review Article - Essay Example Following seven key lessons will emphasize on the significant aspects of effective strategic leadership as learnt and comprehended by a student. Key Lesson 1: Maintaining Effective Communication Communication of the organization's purpose is one of the most vital aspects to be considered. A corporate organization's purpose of being is what it stands for and gives an overview of the main aims it wants to achieve. So, it is essential for effective strategic leadership of a corporate organization to state clearly its mission and vision. This can be explained lucidly by the mission statement of Google, which is to organize all the information in the world in a systematic manner so that it can be accessed and utilized universally. Moreover, the brand name of a company should be a direct reflection of its core values, so that the customers would be aware of the services being provided and being attracted to avail them at the same time. Richard Reed, Co-founder of Innocent, did an exceptional job at coming up with the brand name. Innocent; which is one of the most recognized and acclaimed brand in the UK, produces healthy fruit juices and food items only. The company's name, Innoce nt goes hand in hand with the word natural, which depicts the very nature of innocent products. Key Lesson 2: Sustaining Competitive Market Advantage Another important lesson is to sustain competitive advantage in the market over the passage of time. Skimming, price war, and predatory pricing etc. are some of the marketing techniques which could be utilized by the company to sustain the advantage or to drive their competitors out of the market completely. If this upper-hand advantage is not achieved and sustained, a company could face serious consequences, which reflect adversely on its strategic leadership policies. The downfall of PepsiCo is one of the examples of this scenario as Indra Nooyi, the current chairman and CEO of PepsiCo, is facing a loss of market shares and decreasing stock values due to failure at sustaining competitive advantage with rival beverage company Coca Cola. In an announcement made in February, 2012, it was revealed that due to its financial concerns, PepsiCo is cutting down 8,700 employees. The company is starting new lines of diet soda and sugar free products to increase the customer interest but this strategy has not been very successful due to the launch of similar product lines from rival companies. PepsiCo is trying to devise new product lines in order to obtain competitive market advantage so that it can be successful in the market again. Indra Noooyi is also feared to be terminated from her current position of the CEO of the company if the financial position of the company does not stabilize. Key Lesson 3: Effective Change Management Faslane Naval Base was run entirely by the Ministry of Defence of UK and the Royal Navy up until 2002. Afterwards, a contract was signed with Babcock Marine to reduce the cost and to improve operational efficiency. The staff had to work under a different managing authority with new aims and futuristic goals. John Howie, director of Babcock Marine, set forth the emphasis on delivering services to the Navy, eradicating the previous goals of focusing on building infrastructures. Effective strategic leadership could never be achieved without effic ient and timely change management in the organization. Faslane is an organization where the only assets are the people, so to implement change, the shackles which bound the workers, had to be eliminated. Starting with low level managerial changes, the company moved towards gaining efficiency by re-engineering fundamental processes to

Technical report Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Technical report - Research Paper Example The human dependence on electricity has been increasing dramatically at a huge rate. The amount of electricity, which we depend on every day, is unlikely to go down in the coming years rather its demand is expected to increase. The period of the industrial revolution provided several technologies that required burning fossil fuels for them to work properly. In modern world, most of the energy used in powering all the equipment emanate from fossil fuel combustion. Fossil fuel energy is derived from oil, natural gas, and coal. These fuels are combusted to produce energy in the form of electricity for use. The burning of fossil fuels does have detrimental effects on the environment. Once burned, they release greenhouse gasses and other air pollutants into the atmosphere. Eventually, the continuous use of fossil fuels will eventually deplete its supply throughout the world. On the other hand, the use of renewable sources is a good alternative but its energy supply cannot meet the demand of the growing population and usage. In the interest of preserving the natural environment and consequently maintaining the fossil fuel supply globally, alternative methods of energy must be looked at. These alternatives must provide adequate electricity to meet the demand and minimize the damage to the natural environment. Despite the negative image of the nuclear energy as a source of electricity, the use of nuclear energy may be the most efficient and realistic source of meeting the ever-increasing demand for power globally. In today’s world, global warming is a major issue that affects several people, economies, animals and the entire society. Over the past years, Global warming has been rising because of the increase in its major contribution such as industrialization, fossil fuel burning, increase in greenhouse gasses and increasing population (Nuclear Energy Institute, 2009, September). For several years, arguments and debates have been raging on how to