Introduction
Today’s business environment is highly dynamic and volatile. How business used to go about business yesterday is not as the same as today and neither do we have the luxury to assume that the future will be as the same as today (Boone 2010). Everyday there are new trends emerging in the business world which either influence or act as a force of initiating change in the business community.
From that rationale, the creation of value and satisfaction, which consumers demand end up pushing companies to develop strategies that govern their marketing mix and overall business strategy and go a step further to create general corporate strategies that will preside over their whole business processes to make sure they succeed in today’s fickle business surroundings. Trends are not threats but rather frontiers of new business possibilities (Carsrud & Malin 2007).
It therefore becomes the duty of the all those involved in both the business, social, economic, legal and political environments to come up with structures that will smoothly manage and embrace change smoothly. Recently, we have seen trends in business technology which have redefined how business is done with the possibility of social sites acting as business grounds.
Furthermore, the green business trend can also be said to be a quite interesting and important trend in today’s business world (Katakota & Robinson 2001). The amount of turbulence and complexity that is present in today’s business environment can destabilize existing business models if not properly managed.
While some people resist change and think of it as a problem others may often see it as an opportunity of creating a better enterprise (Czinkota 1998). Therefore, emerging business trends which bring complexities and may lead to ambiguity, which may be fatal if not well managed. The concept of globalization has increased the frequency of trends that end up being a benefit to the business community.
A trend in today’s business world
Current business trends show that consumers’ need for highly efficient and convenient products is on the rise and therefore majority of existing companies have been forced to step with their boots on the ground and lend their ears to consumers (Kotler 2003). This trend has translated to different implication for all those businesses that exist in the consumer electronic industry and also other highly competitive industries such as the auto mobile industry.
A company which does not adapt to consumer trends will definitely sell less and even operate below break even. Therefore, research, planning and strategy has become a key pillar for such industries, and it is therefore no longer business as usual, because it is the company which has the most superior strategies and planning which will make it at the end of the day (Kourdi 2009).
Corporate strategies are the highest level of strategies that define the specific direction that a company is to follow in order to realize organizational goals and objectives. They are ranked above business level strategies also known as divisional level strategies and finally functional/operational level strategies.
Corporate strategies are aimed at ensuring stability, and achieving growth. It has therefore become a trend for those professionals who exist in today’s business world whether in the top-mid-small scale companies to incorporate the importance of research planning and strategy into their day to day (short run)-mid- term and long run operations (Carsrud & Malin 2007).
The population ecology theory suggests that organizations which don’t adapt to trends that come about as a result of the dynamic environment usually may find themselves in problems and therefore this is why strategy has become the backbone of success in today’s business environment.
A clear cut example of continuous and proactive research and design efforts can be seen in the case tablet computers. The tablet computer industry is an industry with very tight and intense competition that keeps all industry participants on their toes. It has therefore become a way of trend for participants of this industry to continuously work towards improving their products and services.
Participants such as iPAD, Amazon, Samsung, Advent Vega, Asus, quadpad, Fujitsu and Nokia N800 Stylistic Express Dual and now the latest entrant Motorola is enough evidence.
Every participant within this industry produces a tablet computer within a narrow time frame while responding to another competitor with an aim of either outdoing or outshining them. For example, Motorola’s tablet has been released to make sure that it outshines its rival IPAD, which is also from USA.
Motorola’s pad has more storage capacity, more speed and even furthermore two cameras while IPAD has no camera. However, Apple is retaliating and has already rolled out plans of launching iPAD2. From this it is clear and evident that R&D has become a key part of the business enterprise and a backbone of success (Boone 2010).
Therefore, as consumers continue to demand for improvement and better performing highly efficient products, it has become necessary that all companies which want to dominate the industry dedicate resources and formulate strategies that will end up satisfying consumer needs (Kotler 2003).
Thus, these companies need to come up with mechanisms to collect consumer information that will enable them understand consumer behavior and therefore at the end of the day understand the perceptions, needs, attitudes, tastes and preferences that will prove useful in the proceeds of formulating organizational strategy that will lead into success (Boone 2010).
It has therefore become necessary that these companies to form specialized departments of skilled manpower who will lead this process or even sometimes consult with other companies which are considered to have unquestionable expertise in these areas.
Relevance of these trends
The leadership of today’s business world is no longer a light matter. Today’s top business executives are required to prove themselves and to input their leadership skills. Jack Welsh, a former CEO of General Motors, proved that superior planning and strategy come in handy even for the for the big conglomerates.
This is also the same kind of ideology that one Steve Job is operating with in Apple (Boone 2010). It is therefore necessary to acknowledge that trends may act as forces that initiate change and improvement in the commercial world which is in turn good for business. The international Airline industry is also another industry that has been pushed by greater heights because of trends.
Just by taking a look at the business class it is evident that the largest Airline companies of the world have been competing to make the consumer more comfortable. The likes of British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, and Emirates are good examples which have redefined luxury and comfort by coming up with business class products that have revolutionized the whole industry. These companies did this with an intention of attracting business and consumers but later it became a trend for other airline companies in the world to adopt.
Therefore, trends are very relevant and significant for those who are serious participants in the business/commercial world and therefore it is necessary that these individuals install systems that will track any trends as they emerge and tap revenue streams that may emanate from them before the trend wares off.
Therefore those who are responsible for planning and formulating strategies together with those who implement and correct strategy should recognize how important it is to come up with strategies that will identify trends or otherwise maker their companies become trend setters.
Companies like HP, Apple and LG are well known to be technological leaders and trend setters. Such a strategy is known as the Leapfrog strategy, which is meant to ensure the company is technologically ahead of others and a trend setter. The same also can be said for footwear manufacturers such as Nike and Adidas. Trends importance can therefore not be ignored because they take center stage in enabling companies change for the better.
Recommendations
Being a member of the business/commercial community it is very important to ensure that a top down communication system is established within all organizational hierarchies identifying the importance of pointing out and reacting to trends.
It is therefore very important that every businessman and entrepreneur dedicates a good amount of effort and resources into identifying past and present trends that are part of their industry (Carsrud & Malin 2007). This is because some trends are simply seasonal and therefore repeat themselves or may not be reflected in another industry.
Opportunity knocks once on a man’s door and therefore it is important that someone will be there positioned to let the opportunity in. It is therefore in the interest of the business community to lay down systems and mechanisms that will be solely responsible for identifying trends as they come and go. Because trends usually behave like tides that are manifested as forces, which determine which path business is to follow.
A relevant example is the recession of 2007-10, which influenced business by forcing every serious business participant to initiate different forms of strategy that would enable companies save a fortune in operations (Hynson 2010). While on the other hand, those who ignore such trends that call businesses to take part in planning and strategy in the business world usually end up destroying their reputations.
Most probably if Starbucks had not followed the trend of lowering prices and move away from its premium pricing model of its products as compared to its competitors, such as McDonalds which is known for charging less, it would have faced very serious outcomes during the 2007-10 recession (Starbucks 2010).
The likes of Starbucks, Coca-Cola, service providers, banks, automobile makers to manufacturing companies were victims economic meltdown and were forced to adopt other business trends. These companies either adopted a retrenchment strategy which got rid of extra personnel and unnecessary operations which were considered somewhat vestigial.
Many companies considered these strategies and in came a trend for the entire business community. It was therefore possible for companies to save funds and initiate a turn around that would save them from uglier business situation (Koontz & Weihrich 2009). Therefore, environmental scanning of both the external and internal environment is necessary; because business improvement opportunities may originate from inside and outside the environment.
And therefore an entrepreneur should have only one aim in his/her mind and that is to make a profit, increase efficiency, grow, and become a market leader just by simply tapping into trends. Therefore the company’s mission, vision and goals should be well defined so that they work together with strategy to benefit the business.
After setting up systems that will identify and point out specific business trends in the business world it is important that companies put up human resources that will tap into and maximize positive outcome out of these trends (Boone 2010). Business is all about generating revenues making profits and saving on costs.
Without dedicated departments that are on standby to tap into emerging trends a company may lag behind. This is now where strategy and planning take center stage. Former C.E.O’s like Jack Welch of General Electric and Carly Fiona of HP know a thing or two about tapping into trends.
When the consumers started understanding the importance of personal computers and it became a trend to own one Carly Fiona saw this as an opportunity for business and therefore facilitated the acquisition of Compaq by HP. The move later proved to be worth every penny because HP up to date generates a lot of revenue from this department (Koontz & Weihrich 2009).
It is therefore important to know that every department has its role to play when tapping into trends occurs be it finance, manufacturing, marketing, R&D, human resource management, information systems, operations and logistics and all other departments (Koontz & Weihrich 2009).
This is the reason why many leading business organizations have come up with trends which allows these departments operate in the presence of superior planning and strategy. Infact some of these departments are semi-autonomous and often have their own mission, vision and goals which are in line with the overall corporate strategies and goals. For example, marketing has shifted from the traditional face to face selling which can be said to be slow and less efficient and more-over labour intensive.
More and more companies are reformulating and executing more competent and more efficient selling techniques which are based over the internet (Katakota & Robinson 2001). A company like Nike has embraced the concept of social marketing that has come in line with the likes of Facebook, Twitter and MySpace to form its own social site Joga.com.
The reason of forming such a site is simply because Nike wants to maximize opportunities that may arise out of the recent trend of billions of people using social cites to communicate with one another. Therefore this is a good example of a situation whereby a company puts in place a system which taps into a trend that has been identified with an aim of maximizing profitability from such an event.
Reasons as to why you should accept my recommendations
Strategy and planning has not only become a trend but now a part of business culture that every entrepreneur is adapting to. It is therefore wise and diligent that any business that wants to survive in today’s volatile and dynamic environment to adapt to this trend (Koontz & Weihrich 2009).
Ignorance or arrogance is no defense and therefore it is the duty of those who intent not to close doors soon, a lot of small scale businesses fail just within their first five years just simply because there was a weak strategy and planning formulation and execution process.
The likes of Layman Brothers simply ended up closing doors because they did not accept to join the rest and accept that strategy and planning was now a trend that each and every business was subject to and they therefore faced the heat. On the other hand businesses such as Barclays that had accepted that and put in place systems that were to help them in such a scenario ended up not facing too much turbulence and even continued recording profits.
This is therefore reason enough for the business community to acknowledge the importance of comprehensive planning and strategy formulation together with timely execution and continuous evaluation and correctional any strategic programs (Koontz & Weihrich 2009). And in order to finish this point of it is important to know that good strategy is like radar and therefore it will always guide businesses out of the bad weather and help them land in a safer zone.
The second reason as to why you should embrace my recommendations is simply because by putting in place the needed resources to tackle any trends a company is likely to reap more out of this process both in the short run and long run. It is important that managers and entrepreneurs know that being stingy and being in half heartedly serves no good to their organizations (Carsrud & Malin 2007).
Companies like Nike spend billions annually in R&D because they understand and believe that they will reap what they sow and therefore they should accept no freebees. Just like a single seed of corn gives rise to an entire corn corb then businesses should look at the process of planning and setting together with execution of strategy as an investment which is bound to increase the expected yield that they expect to gain from the process of strategy formulation, Implementation, evaluation and control.
Conclusion
It is therefore in the interest of the business community which often has the objectives of maximizing revenues, profits and minimizing costs to pay attention to the tides of trends as they occur simply because these trends can open a door to other opportunities.
Furthermore, trends that arise out of the volatile business environment cannot be ignored simply because an entrepreneur or a business executive does not want to do so simply but because strategy defines the thin line that may exist between failure and success. Trends should be seen as not threats but rather frontiers of new business possibilities.
References
Boone, L. (2010). Contemporary Business. NJ New Jersey: Wiley & Sons.
Carsrud, A. & Malin E. (2007). Entrepreneurship, (Illustrated edition), Melbourne: Greenwood Publishing Group.
Czinkota, R. M. (1998). Trends in international business. Malden MA: Blackwell Publishing.
Hynson, C. (2010). The credit crunch. North Mankato: Sea to Sea Publications.
Katakota, R. & Robinson, M. (2001). E-Business 2.0 Roadmap for success. NJ New Jersey: Pearson Education.
Koontz, H. & Weihrich, H. (2009). Essence of Management an International Perspective, New Delhi: Tata McGraw Hill.
Kotler, P. (2003). Marketing Insights from A to Z: 80 concepts every manager needs to know. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons Inc.
Kourdi, J. (2009). Business Strategy: A Guide to Effective Decision Making, (2 edn), New York: Economist books.
Starbucks (2010). Company History. Starbucks. Web.