Topic 4. ORGANIZATIONAL FORMS OF STRATEGIC PLANNING

4.1. The concept of a strategic economic zone (SZH).

4.2. SZH parameters and the order of their allocation.

4.3. Life cycles of demand and technologies.

This topic provides tasks for individual and independent work student.

The concept of a strategic business zone

Many organizations have worked for years on the problem of creating appropriate structures for strategic planning.

In 1968, the General Electric Company consisted of decentralized factories and a conventional headquarters. Responsibility for the ratio of profits and losses was concentrated at the level of branches, of which there were about 170. The branches were consolidated into 50 branches, which in turn constituted 10 groups in accordance with the usual hierarchical scheme.

The subsequent reorganization centered around the strategic planning implemented in the company. For the purposes of operational management and control, the existing structure of departments was retained.

To solve the problems of planning the future of the organization, 43 strategic economic zones (SZH) were created. They were defined as "... such directions or a group of related directions economic activity with a pronounced specialization, competitors, market, and so on, that responsibility for this area, both in the short and long term, can actually be assigned to one manager. This manager is responsible for the strategy of his SZH, but when allocating resources, his plan is refined in order to balance the interests of the company as a whole.

SZH can be a department, branch or group, that is, it can be located at any level of the hierarchy.

For example, at General Electric, SBAs are formed around products such as household items: televisions, audio equipment, vehicles: locomotives, transit cars, diesel engines; auxiliary vehicles; aerospace products.

Thus, SZH is organized for strategic planning, as a result of which there is an imposition of another organizational structure to an already existing one.

Although the existing hierarchical structure and maintained for the purpose of managerial control, a new framework for strategic innovation is being created, a new organizational approach that makes it possible to combine all the factors of a strategic order under the leadership of one line manager.

The apparent success of SZH at General Electric was surpassed by Westinghouse Electric. Based on the concept of SBAs developed at General Electric, 110 corporate branches were combined into 37 basic SBAs, each of which was headed by a general manager. Another 120 branches remained as profit centers, but strategic planning decisions regarding market growth and capital investment focused on the SBA level. The grouping of branches of Westinghouse Electric by market area has existed implicitly for several years. The final step in this direction was the creation of the SZH.

Analyze the activities of your organization and determine how one SBA differs from another. Enter the selected criteria.

SZH of the company " Buguruslansky Khlebokombinat" can be divided according to the following criteria:

1. by production technologies

2. on demand

3. various types of products

Provide examples of your organization's existing and proposed SBAs that meet these criteria.

4.2. SZH parameters and the order of their selection

Analysis, identification and comparison of different SBAs is carried out in terms of growth prospects, profitability prospects and the level of expected instability.

Let's agree that the time period we are trying to cover is 5 years.

Determine current growth and profitability trends for your SBAs.

Sales figures for the last 4 years

SZH No.
SZH 1
SZH 2
SZH 3
SZH 4
SZH 5
SZH 6
SZH 7

Growth \u003d (Vpr 1-Vpr0) / Vpr0 * 100%

	(V 2010-V 2009)/V 2009	(V 2011-V 2010)/V 2010	(V 2012-V 2011)/V 2011	Average growth rate %
SZH 1	10,06	2,75	9,48	7,43
SZH 2	5,72	6,69	3,72	5,38
SZH 3	13,67	7,41	9,11	10,06
SZH 4	6,01	5,31	6,16	5,82
SZH 5	6,06	6,7	9,99	7,59
SZH 6	9,25	9,62	6,4	8,42
SZH 7	6,99	16,66	12,27	11,97

Growth:

SZH 1 = Growth rate SZH 1= (40545000-36840000)/36840000*100%=10.06% (2009-2010)

SZH growth rate 1= (41661000-40545000)/40545000*100%=2.75% (2010-2011)

SZH growth rate 1=(45612000-41661000)/41661000*100%=9.48% (2011-2012)

Average growth \u003d 10.06 + 2.75 + 9.48 \u003d 7.43%

SZH 4 =

SZH 5 =

SZH 6 =

SZH 7 =

Profitability

	Cost (rub.)	Profit (rub.)	Profitability (rub.)	Cost (rub.)	Profit (rub.)	Profitability (rub.)	Average Profit
SZH 1			5,99			5,53	5,8
SZH 2			5,26			5,62	5,4
SZH 3			6,73			7,68	7,2
SZH 4			4,24			4,35	4,3
SZH 5			7,59			12,01	9,8
SZH 6			6.45			8,34	7,4
SZH 7			8,89			9,61	9,2

Profitability = (profit / cost) * 100%

Profitability:

SZH 1 \u003d 2357000 / 39304000 * 100 \u003d 5.99 (2012)

(5.99+5.53)/2=5.8 (average profitability)

SZH 2 \u003d 1734500 / 32983000 * 100 \u003d 5.26 (2012)

(5.26+5.62)/2=5.4 (average profitability)

SZH 3 \u003d 3357500 / 49876000 * 100 \u003d 6.73 (2012)

(6.73+7.68)/2=7.2 (average profitability)

SZH 4 \u003d 122350 / 2886500 * 100 \u003d 4.24 (2012)

(4.24+4.35)/2=4.3 (average profitability)

SZH 5 \u003d 2778500 / 36568000 * 100 \u003d 7.59 (2012)

(7.59+12.01)/2=9.8 (average profitability)

SZH 6 \u003d 1965000 / 30438000 * 100 \u003d 6.45 (2012)

(6.45+8.34)/2=7.4 (average profitability)

SZH 7 \u003d 2841500 / 31974600 * 100 \u003d 8.89 (2012)

(8.89+9.61)/2=9.2 (average profitability)

For each SBA and each parameter, determine the success factors (taking into account the results of the analysis and assessment of the external and internal environment obtained by you earlier). Enter the results in the table.

Table 4.2.1

SZH	Parameter	Success factors
SZH-1	Growth	Increasing demand for flour
Profitability	Low cost due to technological production
SZH-2	Growth	Growth in pasta consumption
Profitability	Low costs for bringing products to consumption
SZH-3	Growth	A wide range of
Profitability	High quality products, low cost
SZH-4	Growth	A wide range of
Profitability	Low cost
SZH-5	Growth	Consistently high demand
Profitability	High quality and a wide range of products
SZH- 6	Growth	Consistently high demand for products
Profitability	Low cost
SZH 7	Growth	Increase in consumption by the population confectionery
profitability	High quality products

Using the results of the previous analysis external environment, estimate future volatility for each SBA. Calculate the level of instability, which manifests itself through favorable trends and through unfavorable trends in the conditions of the organization's activities.

Increasing the instability of the firm's environment
Stages / Characteristics	1900 stability	1930 Reaction to problems	1950 Foresight	1970 Research	1990 Creativity
Habituality of events	Habitual	Within extrapolation of experience	Unexpected, but having analogies in the past	Unexpected and brand new
The pace of change	Slower than firm response	Comparable to firm response	Faster than the firm's response
Predictability of the future	By analogy with the past	By extrapolation	Foreseeable challenges and new opportunities	Partial predictability for weak signals Unpredictable changes
Instability Scale

Rice. 3.2. Environmental instability assessment scale

organizations according to I. Ansoff

Table 4.2.2

Company operating conditions Characteristics

No barriers to market share expansion

Possibility of realization of large investment and innovative projects

Stable development of the economy

SZH

SZH

SZH

Habituality of events

Rate of change

Predictability

Total score

Average score

2,55

2,67

2,44

2,22

2,89

2,55

2,67

Favorable trends

The unit of strategic analysis is strategic economic zone (SZH) a separate segment of the environment to which the firm has (or wants to get) access. In addition to this concept, the idea strategic economic center (SHC)- an intra-company organizational unit responsible for developing the company's strategic positions in one or more business areas (Fig. 2.6). Upper part of fig. 2.6 shows that SBA is characterized by both a certain type of demand and a certain technology. After selecting the SZH, the company must develop an appropriate product range. SCC is responsible for area selection, product development and marketing strategies. SZH and SHZ concepts – this is essential tool, which provides a clear picture of what its environment might look like in the future, which is important for making effective strategic decisions.

Rice. 2.6. Correlation between the concepts of SZH and SHC

SZH should be described using the following parameters:

Growth prospects, which are expressed in growth rates and demand life cycle characteristics;

Prospects for profitability;

A level of volatility in which prospects become uncertain and may change;

The main factors of successful competition in the future, which determine the success in SZH.

13. SELECTION AND EVALUATION OF THE STRATEGIC POSITION OF THE FIRM IN THE MARKET

Section Logical Structure

13.1. Strategic economic zones (SZH)

SZH (Strategic business unit - SBU) is a grouping of business zones based on the allocation of some strategically important elements common to all zones. Such elements may include an overlapping range of competitors, relatively similar strategic goals, the ability to share strategic planning, common key success factors, and technological capabilities. The pioneer in applying SBA concepts to business is General Electric, which grouped its 190 lines of business into 43 SBAs and then aggregated them into 6 sectors.

The managerial significance of the SBA concept is that it enables diversified companies to rationalize the organization of heterogeneous business areas. SBAs also help to reduce the complexity of preparing a corporation's strategy and the interaction of firm's activities in different industries.

SZH can also be considered as a separate segment of the market environment, to which the company has or wants to have access. The hierarchy of SZH allocation is shown in fig. 49.

In the early stages, strategy development began with determining “in which industry the company operates”, moreover, defining “industry in which we operate”, and finding out the strengths and weaknesses firm was tantamount to marking the boundaries of attention to traditional areas of business.

When strategic planning in the 60s it began to enter into practice, its main object was the diversification of the company's activities. By the beginning of the 1960s, most medium-sized firms and all large ones, without exception, had turned into complexes that combined the production of heterogeneous products and went out with it to numerous commodity markets. As technology instability, changes in competitive conditions, slowing growth rates, the emergence of socio-political restrictions, etc. the number of strategic tasks increased, it became more and more obvious that by simply adding new types of activity it was impossible to solve all the problems that had arisen. And if in the first half of the century most of these markets grew rapidly and retained their attractiveness, then by the beginning of the 60s, the prospects for their evolution turned out to be very different - from boom to decline. This discrepancy arose due to differences in the degree of saturation of demand, local economic, political and social conditions, competition, and the pace of technology upgrades.

Therefore, in the 1970s, the attention of strategists shifted from diversification to manipulation of a whole set of industries, activities, in which the firm specializes. This was hastened by the fact that the various activities that the firm had gradually mastered began to diverge more and more in terms of future growth prospects, profitability, and the firm's strategic vulnerability.

It became increasingly clear that moving into new industries would in no way help the firm solve all its strategic problems or seize all the opportunities, since new challenges arose precisely in the area of ​​its traditional activity. Therefore, when analyzing strategies, the focus was increasingly on the perspectives of the set of industries in which the firm was already involved. Consequently, the first step in the analysis was no longer “defining the industry in which the firm operates”, but developing ideas about the totality of the many activities in which it is engaged.

This required managers to radically change the angle of view: from seeing the prospects "from the inside" to the "outside view", to study the company's environment in terms of individual trends, dangers, opportunities that arise from the state of this environment.

The unit of such an analysis is a strategic business area (SZH) is a separate segment of the environment to which the company has (or wants to get) access.

The first step in strategy analysis is to identify the appropriate areas, to explore them outside of the firm's structure or its current products. The result of such an analysis is an assessment of the perspective that opens up in this area to anyone. A sufficiently experienced competitor in terms of growth, profit margins, stability and technology at the next stage needs this information in order to decide how exactly the firm is going to compete with other firms in the relevant field.

In the business world, the American firm General Electric pioneered the idea of strategic business center (SHC) - an intra-company organizational unit responsible for developing the company's strategic positions in one or more business areas.

The relationship between the concepts of a strategic economic zone and a strategic economic center is shown in Figure 5.

Figure 5. Relationship between SZH and SHC

The upper part of the figure shows that SBA is characterized by both a certain type of demand (needs) and a certain technology. For example, until 1950, the need to amplify weak electrical signals was met through vacuum tube technology. Invented in 1948, the transistor became the backbone of competition in semiconductor technology.

The need for reinforcement weak signals together with semiconductor technology, it constitutes one SZH, the prospects for which after 1950 began to fade. The same need plus transistor technology is another area, extremely promising at the time.

As this example shows, as soon as one technology is replaced by another, the problem of their relationship becomes a matter of the most important strategic choice for the company: to keep (and for how long) the traditional technology or to switch to a new one, due to which a certain part of the company's products is obsolete. . There are many examples of how firms that do not benefit from the development of SBAs retain their old products even after they have become obsolete.

As the lower part of the figure shows, after selecting the SZH, the firm must develop an appropriate product range. Responsibility for the choice of the field of activity, the development of competitive products and marketing strategies lies with SCC. Once the product range has been developed, the responsibility for realizing profits falls to the day-to-day business units.

The concept of SBA and SHC is an essential tool that provides a firm with a clear picture of what its environment might look like in the future, which is essential for making effective strategic decisions.

SZH should be described using the following parameters:

1. Growth prospects, which should be expressed not only by growth rates, but also by a characteristic of the life cycle of demand.

2. Prospects for profitability, which do not match the prospects for profit (the huge growth of the market for chips with a memory capacity of 64 kilobits provided an example of prosperity without profit).

3. Expected level of instability, in which perspectives lose certainty and may change.

4. The main factors of successful competition in the future that determine success in SZH.

To take enough rational decisions regarding the allocation of resources to ensure competitiveness and maintain a development strategy, managers must go through a large number of combinations of factors (1 - 4) that differ significantly from each other in the process of market segmentation. At the same time, it is necessary to select a fairly narrow circle of SZH, otherwise decisions on them will lose their completeness and feasibility.

In practice in large firms 30 to 50 SZHs can be found. Of course, the same number can be in small firms if their diversification is wide.

SZH allocation procedure:

Determining the needs to be met

Moving on to technology

Analysis of types of clients. Various categories customers (end consumers, industrialists, freelancers, government agencies) are usually considered as different SBAs.

Analysis of the geography of needs. Within the same country, regional differences are possible, which should be taken into account through further market segmentation. At the same time, if it turns out that the parameters and prospects are almost the same in two or more countries, they can be considered as a single SBA.

Previous

Management in the conditions of market segmentation is associated with a certain specificity of the enterprise. In other words, the company's specialization is determined by the number of sectors of the economy that it serves. At the same time, a situation is very often encountered when enterprises operate in the same segment. In this case, it is called a strategic economic zone. SZH is always a separate segment in which activities are carried out (or it is only planned to get access to this area).

general information

Well, let's get to the main subject of the article. So, what is a strategic economic zone? SZH organizations - what are these structures? How are they characterized? Strategic management zones have certain qualitative and quantitative parameters. The main ones can be mentioned:

1. Dynamic characteristics of demand (decreasing, stable, growing).
2. Competitive position companies in the market segment.
3. SZH capacity, which can be characterized by the volume of current demand.
4. The volume of sales expected in the current and prospective periods.
5. Actual (in the case of activities) and forecast values ​​of profit, profitability, as well as all other necessary indicators.

And what does it give?

Strategic segmentation and analysis of the attractiveness of a strategic business area allows you to create specific approaches based on their characteristics and the company's ability to act in a certain way in the market. But in any case, it is necessary to take into account the peculiarities of the modern environment. Although for enterprises that specialize in one product, this is the same thing. In such cases, a strategy of concentration (focusing, specialization) in a certain area of ​​activity is chosen. It should be taken into account that in this case there are both disadvantages and advantages. For example, diversified and diversified enterprises have common strategy, which is the union of a certain set of SZH. At the same time, the disadvantages and advantages inherent in the individual components are included in it. Additionally, this situation requires the use of more advanced management methods.

About the formation

The traditional approach provides for the identification of the strengths and weaknesses of the enterprise, after which the boundaries of its activities are determined. In this case, you can safely assess the limits of diversification and growth. But modern conditions require better approaches. Strategic business zones provide for the implementation of segmentation in order to highlight the part of the environment in which the enterprise can sell its products. This is a natural result of the formation of a whole group of markets, each of which has different perspectives.

Therefore, the very first stage, when assessing activities in strategic areas of management, is the allocation of various segments. They are then examined without taking into account the architecture of the enterprise and its current products. As a result, an assessment is formed of the attractiveness of a strategic economic zone for a specific economic object in terms of organizing activities, increasing output, as well as the proceeds and profits received. These data are needed in order to solve a number of applied issues of the functioning of the enterprise, for example, to assess competitiveness.

Small workshop

It is difficult to speak dryly and achieve understanding. Especially when it comes to strategic business zones. An example will help you understand practical implementation the subject of the article. Let's say that we have a company that operates in several markets. In this case, consumers decide on the purchase of certain products, regardless of the purchase of other products of this company. In this case, the cross elasticity of demand acts as a criterion for the relationship between markets. It shows how much the quantity of sales of product B will increase if the price of product A is raised by one percent. If the level of cross elasticity exceeds 0.2, then it is difficult to talk about the autonomy of markets. It is rather an activity on different segments of one whole. Therefore, initially it is necessary not to define the industry, but to develop an idea of ​​the totality various kinds activities carried out by the company.

About meaning

The formation of strategic business zones of an organization is important from the position that this is an economic space in which the identification, growth and implementation of competitive advantages are carried out, on which the viability of the company depends. The most important property in this case is the homogeneity of the object, which can be characterized using parameters. Their totality should allow SZH to be singled out from one or several market segments. This concept when forming a strategy allows you to:

1. Purposefully analyze the various levels of the enterprise.
2. Provides opportunities to rationalize the organization while diversifying its activities.
3. Helps to identify the interaction of the enterprise in different industries.
4. Reduces the complexity of preparing the developed and adopted strategy.

Achieving well-being

To run a successful enterprise, you need to take care of the availability of benefits. With their help, you can acquire the necessary resources in the market for factors of production and successfully compete with other companies. Here the question of quality comes to the fore. If good factors of production were obtained on the market, then this allows you to get significant competitive advantages in its strategic business area. At the same time, attention should be paid to the following questions:

1. Finance.
2. Labor.
3. Materials (components).

For example, if the conversation is about the financial market, then attention should be paid to the reliability of the enterprise, high (sufficient) return on invested funds, punctuality in servicing loans. In the case of labor resources, the advantages are social guarantees, higher wages, limits and length of the working day, period of validity labor contract. That is, with a careful and thorough approach, all components can be subjected to a detailed classification. And this plays an important role in achieving the well-being of the company.

What do they pay the most attention to?

At present, this is a product of the enterprise. Strategic segmentation and the allocation of strategic business zones usually involve the formation of a list of parameters that allow you to characterize the state of affairs and take into account aspects of the organization of the sale of goods. They should give a constructive and technological concept of:

1. Distinctive features of products that are created within the strategic economic zone.
2. Competitive advantages available to partners or customers of the enterprise.

The analysis also allows you to:

1. Determine the rational scale of output for the organization.
2. Evaluate the profitability of production and costs individually and as a whole at the enterprise.

But this is far from all that one should know about activities in strategic economic zones.

The role of analysis

Research and analysis of the situation allows you to evaluate the effectiveness of the pricing strategy, brand, advertising, distribution channels used. In addition, the analysis is needed to justify investment and innovative decisions that are closely related to the renewal of the company's products and its production base. This is difficult to successfully implement without a well-developed financial strategy, as well as without competent personnel policy. Ultimately, the combination of these points allows you to identify and maintain competitive advantages. In this case, the criteria used during the analysis should be mentioned:

• Technological possibilities;
• Competition factors;
• Unified strategic planning;
• Purpose of manufactured products;
• Relatively close strategic goals;
• Common Key Success Factors.

Specific moments

It should be noted that when strategic economic zones are evaluated, the geographic reference to a specific region of production and sales is essential in terms of importance. Sometimes the enterprise is located near the point of sale, while it is removed from it for a while. This factor is of decisive importance both for the industry as a whole and for firms that operate in one area. The same considerations are relevant for the markets for factors of production, which are capital, labor and materials. As a result of the interaction of an array of different moments, there is often a mismatch between the physical location of the enterprise and the area where its products are sold.

Development and evaluation

The definition of a strategic area of ​​management should always provide for the characteristics of a certain type of demand. In addition, it is necessary to include the creation, production and sale of competitive products. All these important points should develop a strategic economic center. It is an intra-company organizational unit that is responsible for developing the strategic positions of the enterprise in one (several) business areas. This allows you to solve issues with a promising nomenclature and the formation of your own architecture, optimal for performing the tasks. This concept allows distribution structural units and business units of the enterprise (workshops, technological and design services, production, sales departments).

Identification of the target audience

Victory loves preparation. A high-quality approach to solving the tasks set helps to ensure future success. In this case, it is very important to adequately define target segment market. This is the name of a set of consumers who differ in the same type of reaction to the product they offer. This approach allows you to clearly delineate the boundaries of activity. When studying a strategic business area, it is always necessary to evaluate growth prospects, which are associated not only with the pace of change, but also with the characteristics of the life cycle of products, product groups, the market itself or its segment. It should be noted that there is a clear downward trend. So, life cycle technology and goods is decreasing. This is due to the acceleration scientific and technological progress, improve the efficiency of enterprises, more better promotion.

Conclusion

Here we have considered what strategic economic zones are. Let's go over them briefly again. SZH - are certain market segments that are of great importance for the enterprise in terms of achieving satisfactory performance. Careful selection of the field of activity and the allocation of the necessary resources - this is what the top managers of the company have to decide.