Challenges Facing Firms, Essay Sample in Strategic Management

Technological developments have put pressure on organizations to innovate. CEOs point out that organizations need to come up with better products and services to meet the ever-changing customer expectations. Given this, firms are obligated to innovate to sustain their operations continuously. The problem is that keeping the organization in pace with the latest technology is always a difficult thing to do because it requires additional resources and the goodwill of all stakeholders. As long as technology continues to advance, appropriate utilization of new technological capabilities will always remain a big challenge for many CEOs.

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Resistance against change has also been cited as a challenge to many modern business organization firms. Organizational cultures take a long to entrench themselves into organizations. In a rapidly changing business environment, the CEOs opine that the imperative to align culture with new technology poses a huge challenge to management of modern firms. This is the case because it takes long to modify values, beliefs, practices that have informed employees' work ethic for years.

Innovation leads to redundancy of employees' skills. At the same time, companies incur substantial resources to hire the best talent and utilize the capabilities of innovation because such skilled talent is scarce. In particular, new CEOs may lack the appropriate talent to pull an organization out of a crisis.

Strategies proposed by CEOs as the best the Responses to Organizational Challenges

Engagement with employees can be helpful in overcoming management challenges. CEOs advise that it is important to involve employees in decision making to avoid scenarios of resistance to a new policy. This can be done through effective communication to all the organization's workforce on their new expectations regarding the overall long-term direction of the company. While engaging employees, CEOs suggest that it is important to appreciate conflicting viewpoints. Such approach implies that everyone needs to be involved by giving considerations to their perspectives on issues, but the final decision rests with the CEOs to avoid scenarios where decision-making is delayed because of the illusions of democracy. Once the decision is made, it is pivotal that the decision maker sticks with it until it is fully implemented or logical reasons necessitating its revision arise.

Proactive adaptation is critical in sustaining organizations in a rapidly changing environment. CEOs consider this proactive adaptation as an essential an attribute because it helps them to make the right decisions, especially regarding technological changes and future expectations in the context of technological changes. In an environment where factors such as technology change very fast, it would be delusionary to imagine that decisions can only be made based on the 'playbook'. Put simply, managers are not supposed to fear consequences of their actions especially relating to situations never experienced before. Learning from one's mistakes creates new opportunities. Further, proactive adaptation insulates organizations from the effects of technological changes in the future it equips puts the organization to continuously improve on their capabilities.

Competitive advantage can be realized based on the ability of an organization to use available technologies to innovate. It often requires considerable resources to actualize an innovation. However, CEOs urge that analysis and understanding of the expectations of shareholders can help in making the right decisions though they may appear costly in present circumstances. This strategy enables organizational leaders to acquire support from the owners of the company because they have a tendency endorsing decisions that seek to create more value for the organization both in short and long terms. Usually, the strategy is based on the notion that owners do not object to decisions that aim at creating more value for the organization. This way, organizational executives can gather adequate resources to upgrade the skills of employees as well as hire new experts as they may deem appropriate. Experts and skilled employees are more likely to come up with innovative products which will, in turn, enhance the organization's competitiveness.

Takeaways from the Views of the CEOs

A lesson that can be drawn from the CEOs is that there is not a single approach that has been identified as the best course of action in a dynamic business environment. Although decision making involves elaborate processes that rely heavily on historical information and personal experiences, some situations require the instinct of the leader to save an organization from trouble. In other words, there is no clear cure- it-all strategy in overcoming management challenges

Certain individual traits are essential for successful leadership. However, the CEOs hold the view that acquired experience about people and organization management gives executives a cutting edge in so far as top performance is concerned. For instance, honesty, integrity, good worth ethic are essential attributes for one to succeed as an executive. However, the enlisted qualities may not count as much in meeting the expectations of the stakeholders in a dynamic business environment. The complex nature of the modern business environment requires managers to continuously adapt to social, economic, technological and political changes to keep their organizations afloat. To accomplish this, decisions must be made even in circumstances where adequate information lacks .These decisions must be made with the conviction that they would yield the best results.