Procter & Gamble (P&G) has been a member of the global market for an impressive amount of time, retaining its popularity rates consistently high. The company owes a significant part of its success to the choice of the operation strategy elements. A careful choice thereof predetermined the efficacy of P&G in the global economy realm. Detailing the items that made P&G especially successful, one must give credit to the product system design (the multiple PS design (Hutton, 2009)), the selection of the latest information technology (Soni, 2014), and the approach used to allocate the firm’s resources.
The principle of sustainability that P&G has incorporated into its Supply Chain Management (SCM) approach has opened a plethora of opportunities of the entrepreneurship to save money and allocate its financial assets to boost the development of the required departments. To be more accurate, the concept of mega-distribution needs to be brought up as the primary tool for the firm to retain its performance rates (What does it take to remain a supply chain leader?, 2015).
At present, the company faces three primary tasks of revamping its operational design and promoting a new, e-market driven, way of thinking. The task above needs to be completed so that the organization should become efficient in the target environment. However, it may narrow down the scope of the staff members and inhibit the innovative thinking process, thus, preventing the current TQM strategy from evolving.
Seeing that the latter is based on improving the quality of the existing brands (Quality management can deliver big rewards with little expense, 2012), the change in the current design may trigger the need to come up with a new brand product and an entirely new branding strategy, which will require excessive costs. Therefore, the mindset of the staff members will have to be altered slightly, which can be considered the second task related to the operational design.
The above step, however, has an obvious problem, which is the threat of ruining the existing organizational behavior standard that every staff member complies with. Finally, the firm will need to reconsider the current delegation approach and make the process more flexible so that the SCM-related steps could be accomplished faster. However, the current leadership strategy used in the company, i.e., the transformative leadership framework, is most suitable for managing the workflow process, and the shift to a new approach may disrupt the entire system.
When designing a new operational strategy for P&G, one must bear in mind that the entrepreneurship must not change its mission and vision significantly. Seeing that the latter two elements are what made the firm’s success in the global economy realm possible in the first place, it will be essential to keep the primary elements intact. The current mission and vision statements are woven into the texture of the following statement: “Making your day better – in small but meaningful ways” (Who we are, 2016). Adding the details that will show the firm’s willingness to meet the needs of all stakeholders involved, including the staff members, and embracing the changes in the technology, is a welcome addition.
The choice of investing in not only the improvement of the TQM framework but also in meeting the needs of the staff members is an essential step toward creating the approach that will allow for an impressive increase in quality and productivity rates (Tabish & Syed, 2015). Moreover, the time management issue can be improved successfully with the incorporation of the latest technology into the operational processes.
By applying the Just-in-Time concept to reconsider the current approach toward managing the operational process, including the use of space, the schedule of the staff members, their responsibilities and roles, one will able to alter the current operational strategy so that it could provide the organization with flexibility in the production process (Buckley, 2011). As a result, more time can be spent on managing the current quality issue and setting quality standards higher so that P&G could retain its competitiveness in the global market.
As it has been stressed above, these are the TQM principles that make the entrepreneurship especially successful in the realm of the global economy. Therefore, the current competitive priorities of the company can be defined as striving toward an improved product quality and a rapid increase in customer satisfaction rates.
The recent transfer from a private infrastructure model into the hybrid one has provided P&G with an opportunity to carry out the process of project management in a more efficient manner by including members from different departments in the process and allowing each of them to contribute to the overall success of the project.
It should be noted that both the current structure and the infrastructure of the operations in P&G are supported by three essential enablers, the recent technological upgrade being one of the most easily noticeable ones.
The incorporation of quality measurement tools and the means of enhancing the operations, P&G has created the environment for promotion success. Similarly, the location of the facilities serves as the means of increasing the speed of the production process by cutting the time taken to transport the raw materials and the end products. Finally, the information management approach used by the company, i.e., the concept of shared information, provides the foundation for the company’s triumph in the context of the global economy.
The approaches listed above have a range of positive characteristics that call for their implementation in the environment of a global company. For example, these strategies help increase customer satisfaction rates. In addition, they can be incorporated into the company’s system of values and corporate philosophy easily. Finally, the tools above serve as a solid basis for gaining competitiveness in the global market.
Unfortunately, the methods listed above also have their problems. First and most obvious, their implementation takes a lot of time. In addition, the transfer from one framework of operations to another may cause confusion and, therefore, drop in productivity among the employees. Finally, the tools above will require a substantial amount of financial resources.
Nevertheless, their application will play a tremendous role in the company’s success in the global market. As soon as the above tools are incorporated into P&G’s design, the foundation for a steady increase in competitiveness can be expected. By making small changes and convincing the people working for the company to accept them to become more proficient in the target area, the company leaders will be able to create premises for the future development. As soon as P&G deploys the elements listed above in its operational design, a gradual shift toward a more sustainable management can be expected.
Reference List
Buckley, P. J. (2011). International integration and coordination in the global factory. Management International Review, 51(2), 269-283.
Hutton, H. D. (2009). U.S. Patent No. WO2010141683 A2. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Soni, D. (2014). International competitiveness, globalization and technology for developing countries: Some reflections from previous research. Singaporean Journal of Business, Economics, and Management Studies, 2(9), 25-34.
Tabish, S. A., & Syed, N. (2015). Towards establishing world-class universities: A conceptual approach. International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR), 6(14), 614-633.
What does it take to remain a supply chain leader? (2015). Web.
Who we are. (2016). Web.