The executive summary
Marine corps is a component of the US department of the Navy which provides power projection from the sea and works closely with the Naval Forces in training, logistics and transportation, among others. They immediately respond to any Nation calls and team up with other service departments in responding to crisis.
The Marine Corps joined up with the Navy and the Coast guard in 2007 to learn and adopt a new maritime strategy. The strategy was referred to as Cooperative strategy for 21st Century Sea power, and it was meant to help during war conducts and war prevention. There are dramatic organizational technological changes and competition from other organizations.
In addition, the organization is faced with the challenge of resources and the need to increase its revenue. Therefore, the Marine Corps needs to adjust its core competencies and acquire new core competencies that will help it overcome those challenges. When there are misunderstandings or objections of relevant and unique core competencies represented by the corps, problems arise. Therefore, it is important for the core competencies to be given consideration when represented.
The structure of the force should be flexible as in strategically mobile to enhance prompt response to the crisis (Chambers & Rand, 2010). Flexibility in shipping will help the force to accomplish its missions because of quick engagement and response. The force structure needs to be designed in a lean and effective way to gain competitive advantage.
The carrying capacity of the maritime and the pace of the strategic airlift should also be looked at and exploited. It should also integrate the capabilities from the joint force in its operations. The force will be able to work with the joint force, Navy, Special Operations, and Inter-agency Partners because of the integrated operations.
The Marine Corps will easily reshape its capabilities and capacities by increasing its aggregate utility and make its operations more flexible. It will also make its deployment and employment easy. Technology integration in the organization will help the organization to earn its revenue and hence gain competitive advantage (Chambers & Rand, 2010).
The need or problem
Marine Corps force leads global operations and instrument inter-agency operations. The revenue of the organization has recently decreased in the recent quarters. The research seeks to find solutions for the other organizations so as to employ some of their core competencies in order to gain competitive advantage. The force needs to provide its capabilities within its core competencies at all times now and in the future due to security challenges.
It is wise that the Marine Corps keeps adjusting the core competencies where necessary by innovating or acquiring relevant core competencies that are employed by other organizations and integrate them in its operations, in order to make improvements in generating revenue (Bryson, 2011). The Marine Corps needs to cooperate with the other joints to ensure unity of efforts across all agencies.
In this case, it should not be left behind or on its own, but do whatever it takes to make sure that it gains a competitive advantage just like the others. As technology advances, competition becomes stiffer than before, forcing organizations to integrate the emerging technology in their operations to gain competitive advantage (Chambers & Rand, 2010). New competencies will help the organization to cope up with the new emerging challenges and help the Marine Corps to shape their future organizational strategies.
Alternative solutions
The US Marine Corps is qualified in terms of introduction of follow-on forces and facilitation of integrated inter-agency and military efforts. They employ several core competencies in their operations to gain competitive advantage. They employ innovative strategies to cut on costs.
The core competencies reflect the set of their skills and give descriptions of what they do. The organization has 3 core competencies. The first one is; providing world class customer service. They take care of their employees and in return get favor from their marines and families being taken care of by the employees. It facilitates training and operations to enable them overcome their opponents.
There is complexity in serving on global fleet stations because of not employing enough technology. The emerging generations are focused, and they want to progress to higher education, as well as further their experiences (Cameron & Green, 2012). In this case, this organization cannot handle or will be difficult for them to handle because of their impatience.
The organization is being challenged as these generations move with the pace of the changing technologies and the globalization of technologies. Today, the world is experiencing technological improvements, and thus the core competency should be adjusted so as to improve the accuracy of the systems of weapons, as well as the engagement with the other joints (McKeen & Smith, 2009).
The second core competency is providing products including goods and services, which ensure that the marines together with their families are ready and strong at all times. This helps the organization to mitigate stress and also helps in restoring, sustaining and preserving the force.
The labor markets more so in skilled fields require creativity in recruitment, sharing of profits among other benefits. Currently, there is a shortage or a reduction of ship companies and details of security due to shortages of manpower and the future needs highly trained specialists to support and make the operations of the navy effective. The new hyper-competitive environment needs new tactics as in speed, competency and innovativeness in the US Marine Corps force (Chambers & Rand, 2010).
The third core competency of the US Marine Corps is the provision of integrated quality life operations that will be of importance to both the marine and members of their families (Schlosser, 2012). The organization (Marine Corps) which is an empowered advocate addresses and resolves issues that are against the organization and its functions.
It needs a strategic planning, integrate training and enhance communication to exploit excellent practices. Insurgency, terrorism training, giving advice, tasks of stability among others. These issues have become more complex sue to the information environment dynamics and littorals urbanizations which have resulted in natural or artificial crisis (Pearlson & Saunders, 2010). This core competency helps the corps to engage be ready all time hence making quick responses in case of a Nation’s call.
Global instability is as a result of overpopulation in the underdeveloped world, urban migration, changing technology among others. The core competency needs to be adjusted to correlate with daily global changes. For example, the future world will need a cooperative security network in maintaining the maritime security which will demand a more advanced core competency.
Recommended solutions
The US Marine Corps needs to make adjustments to its core competencies and acquire new core competencies so as to gain competitive advantage over its competitors. This will help the organization to multiply its revenue generation that has been on the decrease for decades.
The organization is mostly affected by lack of employing the emerging technologies in its operations. Comparing it with the core competencies of the US Naval Audit Services, and the military Health care, the Marine Corps is left behind in terms of employing advanced technology as they source their revenue (Leed & Sokolow, 2010).
The US Naval Audit Services uses in-progress audits that help the organization to verify that the planned activities have been performed, development of designated work products and that the standards and policies that have been approved are being followed. This helps the company to produce results in an effective manner. If the Marine Corps also employs the in-progress audits, it is probably that it will affect its activities positively.
The Naval Audit services also employ Rite solutions provide advanced systems and software engineering services, 3D situational Awareness, and visualization capabilities and many other aspects (Rumsfeld, 2012). These aspects help the naval audit services with the critical software architecture of mission.
They also provide a development application for the combat system, re-hosting legacy systems, and intensive system among others. It has employed emerging technology in almost all of its activities making it perform efficiently.
There is a need to integrate emerging technology in its operations. This saves on cost, makes work effective and efficient and thus the Marine Corps should employ technology. The generations Y and X will be motivated more if they work with organizations that use advanced technology in their operations (McKeen & Smith, 2009).
The military health care employs programming systems that help to train its staff and schedule tasks that are performed in a timely manner. It provides its employees with the emerging fitness trends in specified training areas.
Monetary incentives have been motivated by the realization or awareness of exercise to costs in health care. Many people are turning to fitness making the fitness market mature. The Marine Corps should develop programs that promote the wellness of its employees (Lamborn, 2012). With the programming systems, the organization is likely to improve its performance and gain competitive advantage hence sources more revenue.
The company also employs algorithmic decision making techniques together with sophisticated software in its management. This technology helps the organization to do away with the traditional way of management to a modern management style that employs technology. The Marine Corps should adopt this management style to ease decision making and make its management more effective and efficient (American Psychological Association, 2010).
In both companies, technology is the instrumental tool to their success. The US Marine Corps should employ the emerging technology at all costs to facilitate its operations and earn itself multiples of revenue. The force has to engage with the other forces in order to gain and copy relevant core competencies from them which are applicable to its organization (Fredriksen, 2011).
Risks and solutions
By adopting the new technology and actively copying the core competencies of the other organization, the company will be able to generate revenue. However, there are risks associated with the emerging technology and copying from the other organizations. Installing the new technology may be expensive and if there are cases of theft or physical or mechanical damages, it may cost the organization a lot, hence a loss to the company.
The Marine Corps should make sure there is security for the hardware and software technology (Fredriksen, 2011). The organization may lack the expertise to run the technical devices forcing the company to hire workforce from outside which may be very expensive. The Marine Corps should train its workforce so as to be competent while handling the technological devices.
Consequences of the recommended solution
The company will save on cost, make its operations effective, and efficient, as well as multiple its revenue by employing emerging technologies in its operations. The Marine Corps will be in a position to acquire other core competencies the other organizations employ by engaging in inter-agency.
The Marine Corps should also employ the core competencies and make its operations and strategic planning effective and efficient. This is because it will add them to the existing core competencies, innovate new competencies and in the long run, the summation of all these will make to gain a competitive edge (Jones, Candreva & DeVore, 2012).
The investment required
The proposed budget of 2013 for the Marine Corps advocates for tough cuts, which are deemed necessary. It also requests for smaller, more modern and agile force. They are planning to minimize fuel transport to save on cost. The fiscal budget of 2013 is 2% less than that of 2012.
The cut in expenses can be as a result of employing emerging technology and active engagement with the other inter-agency. The most important thing is to save on cost and strategically plan for the organization’s performance, today and in the future ensuring that it gains a competitive edge.
References
American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association. Washington, DC: Author.
Bryson, J. M. (2011). Strategic planning for public and nonprofit organizations: A guide to strengthening and sustaining organizational achievement. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Cameron, E., & Green, M. (2012). Making sense of change management: A complete guide to the models, tools and techniques of organizational change. London: Kogan Page.
Chambers, A. D., & Rand, G. K. (2010). The operational auditing handbook: Auditing businesses and IT processes. Hoboken, N.J: Wiley.
Fredriksen, J. C. (2011). The United States Marine Corps: A chronology, 1775 to the present. Santa Barbara, Calif: ABC-CLIO.
Jones, L. R., Candreva, P. J., & DeVore, M. R. (2012). Financing national defense: Policy and process. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Pub.
Lamborn, G. L. (2012). Arms of little value: The challenge of insurgency and global instability in the 21st century. Havertown, PA: Casemate Publishers.
Leed, M., & Sokolow, D. (2010). The ingenuity gap: Officer management for the 21st century. Washington, D.C: Center for Strategic and International Studies.
McKeen, J., & Smith, H. (2009). IT strategy in action. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.
Pearlson, K., & Saunders, C. (2010). Managing and using information systems. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
Rumsfeld, D. (2012). Known and unknown: A memoir. New York, N.Y: Sentinel.
Schlosser, E. (2012). Fast food nation: The dark side of the all-American meal. Boston: Mariner Books/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.